Waiting for Love - Christmas Eve Pastor Kile Baker - December 23rd & 24th, 2023 Hope Peace Joy Love A Surprise is an unexpected astonishing act, event, or thing. Anticipation is when you’re waiting eagerly for something good you know is going to happen. What kind of gift giver are you? Surprise: “I don’t know what I’m getting, I hope it’s good!” Anticipation: “I know what the gift is and I can’t wait to receive it!” Would you rather be surprised by a gift that you hope is good, or anticipate something you know is good? The Christmas story is more about anticipation than a surprise. Genesis 22:18 - All nations blessed through Abraham Numbers 24:17 - From Jacob’s line. Jeremiah 23:5-6 - A king from David’s line. 2 Samuel 7:12-13 - His kingdom will be forever. Isaiah 7:14 - A virgin will have a child. Isaiah 9:6 - He will be called Mighty God. Hosea 11:1 - The messiah will come out of Egypt Micah 5:1-3 - The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Malachi 3:1 - A messenger will prepare the way. Luke 1-2 To Zechariah & Elizabeth: Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John...He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” To Mary & Joseph: “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David To the shepherds: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. To you: What have you waited for that was worth it? What have you prepared for that you can’t wait to receive? Christmas celebrates receiving the gift that God had planned to give us all along: Jesus.