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Well, we are in the Christmas series and we're in the third week of this series. But before we get into it, I do want to give one other Kingdom Builders announcement. You should have had one at your campus, just celebrating that we went over $11 million. Maybe your campus told you where you were as a campus, but I just want to say, as a church, we just want to celebrate this. Since we started Kingdom Builders until now, we have just crossed $100 million given to King Bows. 100 million. $100 million. 100 million. I mean, unbelievable. I mean, and when you think that over 60 million of that went to the world because we always want to give at least 50% or more to the world, we just believe that we've been blessed to be a blessing. 42% of the world has never heard about the name of Jesus in an adequate way. And so we're like, let's build your Kingdom, God. We wanna live blessed to be a Blessing. So over 60 million went to the world. And I'm just in awe of this. Like, from 2010 to 2019, our church did 38 million. 38 million for Kingdom Builders. And then from 2020, now through 2025, we've done over $62 million. You can see the accelerated pace that the church is on, and I'm grateful. This is world changing. This doesn't get old. It doesn't get. It's not lost on me. This is just incredible to see your leadership, your generosity, and I agree with David. I wanna read a scripture that King David said. He and his leaders had just raised money to build the temple. And he's looking at this and he's kind of amazed, like, God, we're raising this money to build the temple. I don't get to build it, but I get to raise the money for my son Solomon to build the temple. And this is what he said. And I've just thought this so many times as we give to Kingdom Builders and do this. In 1 Chronicles 29, verse 14, it says, but who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. And we've given you only what comes from your hand. It's like you gave it to us, and we were good stewards of it. And God, we gave it to you. And who are we that we get to do like we? Who are we that we get to live this way instead of wondering where our next meal will come from? We get to give hundreds of thousands for kids to have their next meal. Who are we that we get to do this, that we get to dig wells and build churches and Bible colleges and do all the good that we get to do around the world. And so just at 100 million mark, I just wanna say a prayer of thanks as a church and I want us all to just to do this. And just as a form of saying thank you to God, could you just put your hands out in front of you like we've just been giving to you, God, what you gave to us already. So Lord, we just say thank you. Thank you for putting resources in our hands but then asking us to take it from our hands and use it for your kingdom. Lord, again, who are we that we get to do this, that you put so much into our hands that we get to turn around and over a hundred million dollars be given in this way. So God, we celebrate this as a church. We say thank you for so far, like up to 100 million. God, we just are so grateful that we were able to do this. And so God, we pray, may your kingdom be built, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, help us to advance your kingdom. It's not just that we're saved, we are saved to advance your kingdom. So, so help us to open our mouths, help us to open our wallets, help us to open our savings and to say, God, we desire to build your kingdom. Thank you God for using us from the smallest gift to the largest. And now, God, we celebrate once again. $100 million given for Kingdom builders. To you be all the glory, the praise and the honor. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen. Come on. That deserves one more hand clap. 100 million dol. Amazing. When I started the church, I remember I had the vision. I said, I dream of the day we will give $1 million in a year. And to think now where we are. Wow, wow, wow, wow. All right, couple things about our Christmas series and we're jumping in Christmas Eve service and Christmas Eve Eve services. We have 45 of them for the church to be a part of. It's candlelight, it's Christmas carols, it's. It's the family all there together. For some reason, we started dressing up years ago. Like, you know, you just come as you are on any weekend. But I just want to give you a heads up, advance warning that a lot of people are gonna be dressed up on Christmas Eve. I don't know where the tradition started, but it was probably for Christmas pictures. How many? Know what I'm talking About mom said you're gonna wear that. We're doing a picture by the tree at church, you know, so I don't know, but I just wanted to let you know. So if you see us dressed up. And then a tradition is the kids get a candy bar at the end of service, so parents. You can bribe your kids with behavior you don't get the candy bar. That's where it started from. All right? So I just wanna let you know, and then your campus pastor will be preaching at all the Christmas Eve services. Now, today we're gonna be looking at the glory revealed. We've been looking at the glory, and week one was the glory foretold. Pastor Kirk started us out with that with a great sermon on the glory foretold last week. I talked about the glory proclaim, that we're supposed to be out there proclaiming it. And I talked about the invite cards. And some of you even saw me in the lobby. You're like, you got me on this one. You took the invite card. You were there. Whether you have an invite card or not, it's still appropriate for you to invite people to this, the Christmas Eve, and Christmas Eve Eve services. It's about proclaiming the glory of God to the world. And someone sent me this. A friend of mine sent me this this week in First Peter 2. 9. He was reading the Bible and he saw this. And I wanna read it. It says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim. Proclaim. We talked about that. We're proclaiming the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are called to be proclaimers. And so, church, I pray that we continue to proclaim his glory. And what a great time at Christmas to be able to do that. Now we're gonna look at the glory revealed and look at the story of the birth of Jesus. We're gonna go back to Isaiah again. All right? But I want you to know that we're celebrating this Christmas the greatest wonder the world has ever known and ever been a part of. We're celebrating the glory of God revealed in the humility of a baby Jesus Christ. We're celebrating that. That the glory of God was revealed to this world like God of infinite power and might. God, that really is. You can't contain him. He said, I'm gonna come to this earth. I'm gonna send my son. He's gonna take on the form of. Of humanity. He's gonna be born as a baby in A stable. And if you don't know, like, the stable was really like the lower part of a home. The animals were down in the basement. And so all the family was up above. But Jesus was born in the basement, in the manger, down in the stable. And he's placed in a trough, a feeding trough. And it's just amazing to think that God revealed his glory in that way. And so we're gonna look at this. John captures it beautifully. In John 1:14, it says, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. We're seeing the glory of God, and so we're seeing the glory of God revealed. So don't just see a picture of Jesus in a manger right now. Understand that what God was saying is, I'm gonna reveal my glory. I'm gonna show you who I am. I'm gonna send my glory. And we celebrate that this Christmas. So going to Isaiah, we're gonna go to Isaiah chapter 40. And if you were paying attention last week we were in Isaiah 62. You might be thinking, are we going back? Like we're going back? Like we're going behind? No, we're actually going deeper. Isaiah 40 is gonna be a deeper look into this. And we're gonna see that what we are proclaiming and the source of what we're proclaiming, where does our proclaiming come from? Where does it get its source? Okay, so that's what we're gonna look at in Isaiah 40. And I'll start reading in verse one. Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is talking about Jesus. This is talking about what we're celebrating. And so let's look at what was Isaiah giving us a glimpse of? What was he giving us a glimpse of? Of what we're celebrating in the birth of Jesus Christ. Now, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are really talking about a sin problem that God's people have they're rebellious. They're rebellious. They're full of sin. They have plenty of information. They have plenty of commands to follow. They have a religion to be a part of. But they're rebellious and sinful. And the first 39 chapters of Isaiah is judgment. Judgment. It's really dire. If you read judgment. If you read Isaiah, you're like, man, it's bad. It's getting worse. These people are bad. And God's got judgment. He says, I have judgment on you. You're gonna be in exile. And he says, nothing shall be left. I mean, the context of moving into chapter 40, it's total failure. In chapter 39, it's like, you are bad, you are sinful. I'm angry with you. I'm sending you in exile. Nothing will be left. It's bad, it's dire, It's a terrible place to be. And then we get chapter 40. Chapter 40 functions as, like, a theological hinge. And it's judgment has done its work. Guilt is done, and it's been addressed. And God moves towards his people in mercy. And the verses that I just read, and he's talking about the mercy that he's bringing through Jesus. But it's amazing, the prophetic insight that Isaiah, chapter 40 has. And the first thing I want you to understand as we read Isaiah 40, is God turns towards his people. In verses 1 through 39, there's a judgment. And he's like, I'm angry. I'm opposed to you. I'm sending you into exile. But in chapter 40, he's like, I am turning towards you. I'm turning towards you. And he says, comfort. And he's saying to them, this is something that I'm giving to you before you've repented, before you've returned to me, before you've rebuilt anything, before you've done anything right. I want you to know my position towards you has changed. And my position towards you is I'm coming towards you. I want to redeem you. That's the God we serve before we do anything right. How many know that God is moving towards us? I'm amazed at that. Romans 5, 8 says this. This is a New Testament reference to what really what Isaiah was saying. He was saying, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And Isaiah's saying, like, God has judged you. He's got all these things going on. But guess what he's saying now? He's turning towards you. He wants you. He's made a way for Your salvation. And he's gonna send his son. There's a beautiful thing there. And when he says comfort, it's not saying, like, to soothe you. I feel bad for you. Comfort means when he's saying, comfort, comfort my people, he's saying, I've made a decision. I've made a decision. I have this resolution now. I'm moving towards you. And I have made a decision to forgive you. I've made a decision to move towards. Toward you. Like, I'm bringing you comfort. You understand? The comfort should be that I was facing this way, but now I'm facing this way toward you. And the comfort is I am moving toward you. He's not announcing a feeling here. He's actually announcing a decision that I am no longer against you. Now, he says it two times for emphasis. And he says before anything, like, comfort, comfort. And it's interesting. He says, here, comfort my people. My people. And then a little later, he says, you're God. It's interesting. If you go back into Isaiah, chapter six, God is saying, he goes, say to your people, say to those people, how many have ever had one of your kids act up? And you look at your spouse, you say, your son isn't being very good right now. That's. That's early in Isaiah. Early in Isaiah. God's kind of like your people. These guys, those people, they're not doing pretty well. But how many know when they're doing really well? You're like, yeah, that's my boy. I taught him everything he knows, right? And in this moment, God's changing it. He's saying, like, all right, I've been mad at your sin, but I want you to know I'm stepping towards you. Before you do anything, right? I want you to understand I have comfort. I. I'm calling you my people, you gotta understand this is covenant language. And God is stepping towards them. It's absolutely beautiful. And then it says in there. There's a confusing line in there. It says, he's given them double for her sins. And you know, when you read that, I mean, a lot of times when you read things, you gotta understand the Bible wasn't written to us, but it was written for us. And you gotta say, who was it written to? And how would they understand what was being said right there? And when it says that he's giving her double for her sins, it's not more punishment than they deserve. God's not unjust. And he's not, like, saying, I'm so mad at them. I spent 39 chapters telling them how mad I am at them and how sinful they are. Now I'm gonna give them double. No, that's not what it is. You know what it says? That he's paid her double for her sins. He's saying, like, it means it's paid for. He's like, do you understand? I'm bringing you the comfort to know that your sins are paid for. Like, it's double for your sins. Like, it's finished, it's taken care of. That's how much God loves his people. And he's like, even before you've done anything right, I'm letting you know that I'm paying the bill. When I send my son, he's gonna pay the bill. They didn't fully understand this, but they're looking at this like God is paying double. He's taking care of the finality. The matter's closed. It's as if he's pointing towards the New Testament on the cross. When Jesus says, it is finished, paid in full. Isaiah's giving us a glimpse, like the birth of Jesus Christ. There's so much richness in the birth of Jesus Christ. And he's saying, this is what Jesus will do on the cross. It is finished, double for the sin. He's paying the price of this. It's beautiful. So the second thing, though, that we see From Isaiah chapter 40 is God comes near. So first of all, Isaiah, he's saying, I've changed my position towards you. I'm coming towards you. I want to redeem you. I wanna be in relationship with you before you've done anything right. And I wanna comfort you, and the price has been paid in full. And then he says, I'm coming near to you. And in the birth of Jesus Christ, we see that God is coming near to us. In Isaiah 40, this is what it says. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level. The rugged places a plain comfort is coming from God, coming near to them. And he's saying, I'm gonna come near. He's like, I'm not sending help. I'm not sending a delegate. I'm sending me. I'm sending my son. I love it that God's saying, I'm not just sending, like a messenger, I'm sending my son, Jesus to come near to you. That's why we say at Christmas, God with us, Emmanuel. His name is called Emmanuel. God with us. And Isaiah was letting us know. It's a whole picture. Some of you are wondering again, why were we reading Isaiah during soap in December? Like why were we reading. This is why. We're letting you know that there's all this richness in Isaiah that's leading up and he's saying God is with us now in this imagery that Isaiah is prophesying here and speaking to the people, he says, prepare the way for the Lord. All right? And it's talking about getting the path ready and the road to be cleared. And I wanna let you know that there's this of the roadway being made perfect for the king to arrive. And so he's letting em know, hey, the king is coming and the road's gonna be perfect. There's gonna be nothing that stands in his way. And if you've been with us on a global team to Israel or even to Greece or Turkey, any places where we go into the ancient ruins, you would understand this. There were rocks on the road. They would lay rocks down on the road and then they would lay fill on it like dirt, clay, different things. And they would get it to kind of pack down on the rock. And when it was in pristine shape, you could go through with your cart or your animal and it wouldn't be bouncy. But if it was in bad shape due to weather, heaving or rain or different things like that, or just wear and tear or neglect, the roads were rather bumpy. Matter of fact, in the places in the cities that we go to, if you try to walk down them fast, you'll trip and fall because they're heaved all up. But you see the rocks all laid out. And in Israel you see him in Rome you see them laid out. And Isaiah is saying, like, all that's going to be taken care of. There's going to be a smooth pathway. God is coming to his people. Now. The interesting thing is we're not getting ready. We're not getting the roads ready. God's saying, I'm doing the roads. I'm making the roads ready. Like I'm making it ready so that when I get there, I'm, I'm. I'm getting rid of every obstacle that's in the way and I'm making the road perfect for my son to come to this earth. And it's interesting, Isaiah uses imagery of valleys being raised up and mountains being brought low. And he has this imagery here. It's beautiful imagery that he say in verse 4, Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. He's saying like all these things that are standing in the way, I'm gonna get rid of em all the things that are there. It's gonna be a clear road, a clear highway. I'm clear cutting out anything in the way. Now how does that apply to us? You're like, that's great. Isaiah said there's gonna be a highway. You know what that means for you? That means that when God was sending his son Jesus, he said, nothing is gonna stand in the way. I'm gonna send my son to you and nothing can stand in the way of fulfilling my plan of salvation. I will knock a mountain down to get to you with salvation. I will lift a valley up to get you with salvation. I'll clear cut the road and make it smooth as can be so you can get to me and I can get to you. Now I just wanna pause for just a moment. Sometimes people think I've sinned so much, God could never forgive me because I've done this. Or you say that's like a valley, I was so low, how could God get to me? Or you say, you know what, I'm so full of pride. Or my family has this, or, or we did this. Or the devil tells you he can't forgive you, he could never make a way for you. This is saying I can make a way for you. I can make a way for you and I can get to you no matter where you are. I don't know who I'm talking to right now, but you might be thinking, I don't know if God can save me. God can save you, God can save you. There's nobody that's too far. He'll lower the mountain, he'll raise the valley, he'll clear the road, he'll. He's saying it here prophetically and that's what he did in sending Jesus. And at the end of our service, we're gonna give an opportunity for people to say yes to Jesus. And you might be thinking, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Some people are wired that way. I was wired like God loves me. I was just overwhelmed like he does and he wants to forgive me. I am so in. I mean I was only seven but I had a younger brother. How many know that I had sinned? You know, I had said I had younger brother. You know, I had thoughts, you know, I just like this is amazing. But some, some just think, I know I've been so bad you'd never forgive me. God's like, no, I'll forgive you. I prophetically spoke to Isaiah that I'm coming in and I'm going to clear every mountain down. I'm going to take the rough places. I'm going to do this and I'm going to make. These are extreme images because God is letting us know. Nothing obstructs me, my plan. Nothing keeps me from you. It's amazing. Ties to our salvation. It's beautiful. He also said, prepare the way of the Lord. It's in Isaiah. Isn't that interesting? Isaiah saying, he's like, prepare the way of the Lord. Who said, prepare the way of the Lord? In the New Testament with Jesus, John the Baptist. I mean, it's all. I mean, you're looking at like, it's Isaiah, like there. It's amazing when you see this and he's saying, I'm preparing the way. Now another thing that God does is he makes himself known. So first of all, he turns towards us. Isaiah 39, all of a sudden, 40, he turns towards us and then he comes near and then he makes himself known. Verse 5. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now the glory of the Lord revealed. To reveal means to uncover, to lay bare, to remove what conceals. God allows his glory to be seen. And in the Old Testament, all the time, his glory is not allowed to be seen. Matter of fact, it's covered, it's kept from us. And just the rare instances where people see his glory, it's overwhelming. You think about this. In the Old Testament, his glory was a blinding, terrifying radiance in. In the temple, in the holy of holies, in the holy of holies, the Shekinah glory. The light of God was in that place. And only the high priest was allowed to see the glory of God one time a year. That was it. And anybody else that saw the glory of God would. Would have something that almost would physically happen to them. If you think about Moses, when he saw the glory of God, he had to cover himself with a veil. Because the people are like, you're shiny. Just being around the glory of God like you are, you're shining. And he'd have to veil himself. Isaiah, when he sees the glory of God, he falls as a dead man on the ground. And all this of God revealing, he's allowing his glory to be seen. How in sending Jesus, he's like, I'm letting you see my glory, but I'm Letting you see it in a way that you can handle, in a way that you might not even fully understand. You're like, wow, this is right there again, John 1:14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace in truth. Interesting thing, in the Old Testament, the glory of God was law. And in the New Testament, the glory of God is what Grace and truth. It's incredible, incredible what Isaiah is letting us see here. And in the Old Testament, this terrifying radiance was something that, again, people were afraid to even see. And in the New Testament, here comes Jesus, born in a manger, and God makes himself known. Now, it's an interesting thing. In studying for the sermon, I found this out. Like many artists, when they depict the picture of Jesus being born, they actually have a radiance coming out of him. Like, artists. If you ever know, like, the artists, they're like, not doing anything by mistake. There's a reason or a purpose. You're like, why is that there? Go ahead and put the picture up here. I think I have a picture. You'll notice in this picture, see, the light is coming out of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? I looked at that picture a bunch of times. I thought God was shining a spotlight from the star. That's what I was thinking. Uh, that is the radiance of the glory of God. The artist is trying to tell us, do you understand the radiance and the glory of God that used to cause people to have to veil their face and run away? The radiance and the beauty of God and the glory of God revealed used to cause people to cower. Now, the glory and the radiance of Jesus Christ coming to this earth, he's lighting the world up. And you're not afraid to look at him. You want to look at him. You're drawn to him. And in this light, there's truth and there's grace. What a beautiful thing. And so this Christmas, I'm praying that as we see the glory revealed, we don't just see a baby in a manger. This year, as we celebrate Christmas and we see the glory of God revealed, I'm praying that we see more than that. I'm praying that we see that God has turned towards us and it's so foreign to our minds again, because we've grown up in a culture that has preached Christianity and we understand that God is for us. But can you imagine what it would be like to live In a culture where you think that God is angry, God is mad. God, all the gods of the world that are being worshiped are angry and mad and full of judgment. And here comes. God is coming towards us. God turns towards us. God's near. He makes himself known. And once we understand all this, that we see the glory of God revealed. You know what it's up to us to do again? Go back to last week. It's up to us to proclaim. It's up to us to proclaim. The light has come. God has sent his son. He's beautiful. His glory is revealed. You wanna know what God is like? Look at Jesus. You wanna know what can happen with your life? Look at Jesus. God has leveled every mountain. God has filled every valley. And he's made a way for you to be forgiven. And that's what it's about with Christmas. Beautiful prophetic insight. And I wanna read it one last time. Cause. Cause I've said it. The first verse. And I want to read again as we close. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It was foretold. It was revealed. And now we need to proclaim it. We have the greatest message on planet Earth. And I pray that now that we see that God has revealed himself in this way, that we proclaim it over and over and over again. Lord, I pray right now that you would help us right now to proclaim the glory. The glory. But I pray, God, that we'd realize you have revealed your glory. In the Old Testament, they cowered, they ran away. But now we can run to the manger. We can run to you, Lord Jesus. We. We can run to you because there's a grace. There's a truth that's there. Without it, we couldn't even come near. But God, thank you for grace. And so we thank you for this. We thank you for this, Lord. For those of us that already know you as Lord and Savior. I just thank you that every valley was filled in, every mountain was brought down. Every rough place was smoothed out. Every obstacle in the way was mowed down. And you got to us. But God, we pray even today that more people would know you as Lord and Savior. God, we pray that on Christmas Eve and the Eve, Eve of Christmas, we'd see even more people say yes to you, Lord. I even pray right now for somebody who thought, well, there's obstacles in the way of my love. No, this year will be different. This year will be different. We agree with that that the mountains will be brought down, the valleys will be filled in the the rough places will be smoothed out. I pray that many will say yes to an invitation. This would be the year of their salvation. We come into faith and believe for that. Come on, church all across the place, let's pray for that. Let's just agree for people to be saved in Jesus name at all these services today and at the services for Christmas Eve. Your glory has been revealed once again. Lord Jesus, reveal yourself to those that need to know you as Lord and Savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen.