O Come, Emmanuel

Key Takeaways

• Pride keeps us focused on our smaller story instead of God's bigger story.

• God offers rescue even when we refuse it.

• The virgin birth is the ultimate sign that God is with us and will do anything to rescue us.

• Jesus walked the path of humility perfectly, opening it up for us to walk with him.

• Advent calls us to lift our gaze from horizontal concerns to the vertical reality of God's presence.

Study Questions

• Question 1

  How did Ahaz use God's word to justify his disobedience? Have you ever seen this happen in your own life or in others?

• Question 2

  The sermon mentioned that when stressed, Ahaz focused on "waterways" instead of God—the manageable instead of the overwhelming. What are your "waterways"? 

• Question 3

  “Pride forces our gaze down and not up" (C.S. Lewis). What keeps your gaze focused horizontally rather than vertically toward God?

• Question 4

  God offered Ahaz a "blank check"—any sign from heaven to earth. What might God be inviting you to ask him for right now that you're hesitating to bring before him?

• Question 5

  The sermon described humility as "marked by surrender, trust, dependence, vulnerability, and intimacy with an underlying energy of courage, joy, and hope." Which of these aspects of humility is most challenging for you? 

• Question 6

  "The virgin birth is an affront to our pride because it says you need rescue—you are helpless." How does our culture resist this message? 

5-Day Devotional

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5

Day 1 : The Two Paths

READING :

Isaiah 7:10-17

DEVOTIONAL :

Like Ahaz standing at the washer's field, we often busy ourselves with manageable tasks when facing overwhelming circumstances. God presents us with two paths: pride, marked by self-sufficiency and fear, or humility, characterized by surrender and trust. Ahaz chose to hide behind religious language rather than honestly confront his need for God. This Advent season, examine where you're organizing closets instead of opening your heart. Are you managing stress with your own tools or admitting your helplessness? God offers you a blank check—ask him for what you truly need. The virgin birth itself declares that rescue is available, but only when we acknowledge we cannot save ourselves.

Day 2 : When God Writes Himself In

READING :

Matthew 1:18-25

DEVOTIONAL :

Christmas marks the moment God transitions from observer to participant in our story. Unlike authors who remain outside their narratives, God entered the mess of human existence through Mary's womb. He didn't sympathize from a distance—he became one of us. The virgin birth isn't just miraculous; it's scandalous in its humility. The Creator of the universe subjected himself to an amniotic sac, to helplessness, to dependency. This means there's nowhere he won't go to reach you. No situation is too messy, no struggle too shameful. Emmanuel—God with us—isn't a theological concept but a living reality. He has primary, not secondary, knowledge of your pain. Let that truth anchor you today.

Day 3 : The Courage to Surrender

READING :

Philippians 2:5-11

DEVOTIONAL :

Jesus walked the path of humility perfectly, showing us the way. While Ahaz grasped for control and hedged his bets, Christ "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant." Surrender isn't weakness—it requires profound courage. Pride whispers that you must handle everything alone, that asking for help means failure. But the way of humility invites you into community, first with the Trinity, then with God's people. What are you white-knuckling today? What small kingdom are you trying to secure through your own power? Jesus renovated the road of pride back into the road of humility through his perfect obedience. You don't walk it alone. Lay down your burden in community and watch God work miracles.

Day 4 : Lifting Your Gaze

READING :

Hebrews 12:1-3

DEVOTIONAL :

Ahaz focused horizontally—on water supplies, political alliances, and immediate threats—when he needed to look vertically to God. Advent calls us to lift our gaze to Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith." When anxiety overwhelms, we fixate on the smaller story, losing sight of God's larger narrative. Christmas movies remind us there's a better way to live than pursuing selfish endeavors. The characters discover life is found in love, family, and surrender. Yet our story is infinitely better—God himself entered history to rewrite our narrative of failure with his perfect success. This season, resist the temptation to stay stuck in horizontal concerns. Look up. Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. That joy includes you.

Day 5 : The Sign You Need

READING :

Luke 2:8-20

DEVOTIONAL :

The shepherds received the sign: a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. It seemed too simple, too humble for the Messiah. Yet this is exactly the sign we need—proof that God doesn't stand on ceremony or require sophistication. He meets us in our helplessness with his own chosen vulnerability. You may struggle to believe the virgin birth, finding it too miraculous. But consider: you're already believing in miracles to explain your existence. Which story truly comforts—a godless universe or a God who loved you enough to become human? The virgin birth is essential because only through it is God truly with us. This Christmas, receive the gift. Jesus is the greatest treasure the world has ever known, and he offers himself freely to all who surrender in humility.

This Week’s Liturgy & Playlist

O Emmanuel
by Malcolm Guite

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

Call to worship

Leader: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

All: my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 130:5-6

Advent reading

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Matthew 1:20-23

Confession of sin

Father of mercy, we confess that when the enemy lies in wait to besiege us, we trust more in our own schemes for deliverance than in your proven promises. We admit that we have made dangerous allies with destructive enemies. We’ve not been wise or honest about our false allegiances. Give us courage to forsake the enemy and trust in the promised Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, through whom we offer our confession. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:8-12

Looking Ahead

Join us next week as we continue our Advent sermon series with Isaiah 60:1-7.