This sermon explores Isaiah 35 as a powerful promise of hope for people living in loss and uncertainty, reminding us that God has not abandoned His people and will bring restoration, even when the timing is unknown. Through images of blooming deserts, healed bodies, and a clear road leading home, we are invited to trust that sorrow is not the final word and to hold onto hope together.

1. Can you think of a place in nature that makes you feel close to God or reminds you of his power and majesty?

2. What images from Isaiah 35 stood out for you the most (the desert blooming, healed bodies, the road home, singing with joy)? Why?

3. Isaiah spoke to people who felt lost, displaced, and discouraged. In what ways do those feelings show up in the world today?

4. Where in your life do things feel dry and weary today?

5. What does the image of clear, safe “road home” tell you about God’s character?

This Advent sermon reflects on Isaiah’s vision of God’s coming kingdom—a world marked by peace, justice, wholeness, and the end of violence—and reminds us that this hope cannot be fulfilled by governments, institutions, or human effort alone, but only through Jesus. Listeners are invited to choose God’s side, embrace their calling in God’s redemptive work, and respond to Christ’s open invitation to hope, transformation, and communion.

1. When you hear the description of a world with no violence, wickedness, or fear, what stirs in you most deeply? Why that particular longing?

2. Who are you most frustrated or angry with for not fixing what is broken in the world (government, church, yourself, something else)?

3. Why is it significant that God’s answer to the world’s brokenness is not a system, but a person?

4. How does waiting for Jesus differ from waiting for political change, cultural progress, or personal improvement?

5. As you wait for Jesus, what is one way God may be calling you to live now as a sign of the coming kingdom?

Last week this story from Luke 11 invited us to choose whether we will serve on God's side or Satan's side in the cosmic battle that plagues all creation. This week we are reminded that choosing a side isn't enough; once we've chosen a side, we are expected to do something.