Welcome to Church of the Highlands online today.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We're so honored that you be with us in this Christmas season.

And with that being said, Merry Christmas to you and your families.

At all of our in-person locations today, we are having our Christmas services happening.

And so if you're anywhere near a location and could get to a Christmas service, it'd be a special one to be at.

But I thank you for joining us here online. What you're getting ready to see is a powerful message from a previous year, just kind of really in the heart of the Christmas spirit. And I think it's really going to inspire you and challenge you as we wrap up this year and we celebrate the season that we're in. What I want to do is I'd love to take just a moment

and pray for you as you get ready to hear

from God's word, We're believing that God's going to move in your life in a great way. Would you join me as we pray together? Lord Jesus, thank you for this day and this season. We're so grateful for you. You truly are the reason for everything that we celebrate and everything that we're doing as we celebrate Christmas, a beautiful season of the year. And so Lord, I pray for every person who right now is getting ready to watch this message and participate in this message online. God, I pray that you would touch their life at a special way. I pray you bless their families. I pray you bless their friendships as they're gathering in this season and that this

would be a special day for them. Speak to our hearts. As we open up your word, we believe that we can

always leave different because we have met with you. So have your way in all of our lives today.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Enjoy the message. Today I really just felt led to lead us a very simple message,

but just in a moment where we're able to, just together as a church family, to pause for a

moment, and here's the word, to prepare. Everybody say prepare. To prepare truly for what

God wants to do in all of our lives today. If you have your Bible,

open up to Isaiah chapter 40. We're going to have this as our key text today. And you'll be

familiar probably with this passage. It's also found in the book of Luke and John the Baptist

referencing how he came to prepare the way for Jesus. But the original text is in Isaiah

chapter 40, and I love the way this reads. 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, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together,

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