Wonderful Counselor

There we go. One, two. Hello. Good morning, guys. Good morning.

Before we get into the message this morning, I'd like to thank Brother Greg for stepping in and leading music for us this morning.

I could have tried to do that, but that is a hard task to do.

So, Greg, thank you so much for stepping in and doing that for us this morning.

And to everybody who sang for us, especially Aubrey and Kennedy, you guys, thank you guys so much.

That was beautiful. Can we give a round of applause for them? That was beautiful, guys.

Thank you so much.

Well, this morning, church, as we prepare ourselves to get into God's Word, I want to take time to pray.

So let us go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer before we begin.

Father, I thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you for all of the bodies that are here in service and are in service online with us.

God, thank you for them and for their ears to hear.

I pray that you would just, as we go through the Word this morning through Isaiah 9,

God, I just pray that you would just please open our hearts, open our minds, open our ears to hear your truth,

whether it be in a way that needs to be heard again and again,

or in a new way that needs to be heard for our hearts.

God, I just pray that you would be glorified and magnified this morning as we dive in to Scripture.

It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, as I said, if you would not mind turning in your Bibles, hopefully you have your Bibles with you.

If not, you have a phone, and there's plenty of apps you can get the Bible on.

So, go to Isaiah 9, verse 6 for me, if you would.

Isaiah 9:6

Well, now guys, for me, this is quite an honor to be able to preach like this.

I have led camps. I've done this, that, and the other, but I've never had the chance to lead a Sunday morning.

And so I'm grateful to be able to do this.

I'm thankful to Pastor Sam for allowing me the privilege and honor to preach this morning.

So, if you would not mind standing with me as you're able to,

we will read Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9:6

Let me turn this little guy on. That way we can get this.

There we go.

And let's read this together. It says,

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Amen. Amen to that.

That's a beautiful thing. You may be seated.

You may be seated.

That's a beautiful thing to hear this morning in a world of uncertainty and darkness,

knowing that there's a very certain truth that we can hold on to.

And not to beat around the bush, because I totally could just spend all day

trying to tease people on,

Who is this Messiah? Who is this person?

It's Jesus, obviously.

So, I'll get right down to it.

This is kind of some of our main points here.

Jesus is the child born to be obedient to God,

for us, when we couldn't be.

Jesus is the preexistent son given to us,

as a ransom for us.

Jesus is the king of all kings,

as his kingdom is a never-ending rule,

which will bring peace and joy and order to an unruly and wicked reality.

Do you see that in this life?

Do you see the world's really wicked, unruly, just chaotic all the times?

Do you see that in your own personal life?

Sometimes life is chaotic.

There's just turmoil and tumult in your life.

He's not just king of all governments.

He's king of your attempt at an empire, too.

Don't try to build your own empire.

That's free.

That wasn't a sermon.

That's free.

So you guys get that one for free.

But then also, we see Jesus as this wonderful counselor,

whose wisdom and divinity is beyond measure,

and Jesus is the living hope of our souls,

in a hopeless and sinful world.

So the main, the takeaway, the main point is,

Jesus is our trustworthy and wonderful counselor,

and he is the living hope we turn to.

That went weird when it came up there,

but that is what we're focusing on this morning.

Jesus is our trustworthy and wonderful counselor,

and he is the living hope we turn to.

So there's some main points I put up there.

If you're a note taker, you can definitely take those notes there.

If you're not, please feel free just to kind of pour over that.

This morning, we're looking at a child is born.

That means the son of man.

Child is given to us, son of God.

Government shall be upon his shoulders, king of kings.

He is called a wonderful counselor and living hope.

So let's go ahead and dive into that first point, the son of man.

I'll leave this up here for you so you can kind of piecemeal through that as you will.

So the son of man.

Now, I've been known in my preaching to kind of focus heavily on individual words.

I had this really weird belief that words matter a lot.

Nobody laughed.

Gentastic.

But I had this feeling that words matter a lot, and we use words to communicate.

And when you use a wrong word in a sentence, it means completely different things.

I watched this video the other day.

This one lady, she was really angry at this guy, and she said,

Listen, I don't know what you're trying to excavate here.

Honey, excavate's not the right word to use there.

I think you're trying to say, I don't know what you're trying to say.

She used a really weird, I don't know what she was trying to even say, honestly.

She just was really mad.

And sometimes anger gets the better of you, and you use a word that's completely out of left field.

So for me, words are really important.

And you can even ask Wade Pierce.

I went to one Bible study with him, and we chose, there was one word in this Hebrews we were going through,

and I just stuck.

I just get stuck on words.

Words are big and important for us.

So when Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 9, 6, his very first thing he says is,

For us, for to us a child is born, and to us a son is given.

Born and given are two totally different things.

You can give birth, some of us in the room can, but you can give birth,

but you can't just out of nowhere just give a son.

No, a son is born, a son is given.

Those are two different things.

So the statement for to us a child is born is a statement of humanity.

It's a statement of humanity.

This means that the child that is born, that Isaiah is prophesying about,

will be fully man, will be just like a man.

We also know that this, from Isaiah, just a few little bit later, I think, in Isaiah,

you'll see that he says,

A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.

Which means, most of us know, means God with us.

It means God with us.

But in my study for this, I was kind of, you know, thinking about this.

They didn't call Jesus Immanuel.

Like when Jesus was born, he wasn't called Immanuel.

So why?

That was, that's something that kind of confused me for a little bit.

But in Jewish culture, names meant things.

And sometimes they were just, they were titles given to people.

And so an interesting point to make is that this name does not mean the coming Messiah's name

is actually going to be Immanuel.

It's rather pointing to a title or a characteristic of Jesus.

So this title points us to Jesus, who truly is God with us.

What better picture of God with us do we have than Jesus?

None.

Jesus is the incarnate Word.

John 1.14 would tell us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Right?

Literally God with us.

Jesus lowered himself to be with us.

And so there's many other titles that we see that are given to Jesus.

But I'm just going to kind of focus on a few parts of Jesus here.

So one thing about his humanity, being the Son of Man.

That's the point that I wanted to get to there.

The Son of Man, it's really kind of a weird statement, right?

When you hear Son of Man, you probably just, you might, your first inclination is just think,

yeah, he's the Son of Mankind, right?

Like he's born to Mankind.

Well, Son of Man means many things regarding Jesus.

It means, one, he did have human nature, hardships in the world.

He experienced physical limitations.

This is part of that humanity point right there.

He experienced physical limitations, emotions, temptations.

Jesus became hungry.

Jesus was betrayed.

He has felt these pains.

And his humanity, also, he is a perfect representation of what it means to be human.

But then we also see another part about Jesus as a Son of Man.

Mankind is subject to humility.

Anybody ever been humbled up in here?

That's what I'm talking about, okay?

See, they're willing to admit it.

I've been humbled many a times.

Sometimes by my wife.

But I've been humbled, okay?

The Son of Man, and if you would, really quick with me, in Isaiah, turn to Isaiah 53.

You can see this Son of Man that would become this Messiah, that would be this Messiah.

He was subjugated to such great humility.

It says this in Isaiah 53, verse 3.

Isaiah 53:3

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Verse 7 says,

He was oppressed.

He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of living,

stricken for the transgression of my people,

and they made his grave with the wicked, with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence.

This Jesus was the Son of Man,

was brought so low, so low.

Humbled to such great depths,

so as to be one who bore the griefs and the sicknesses and the trespasses of fellow man.

Can you imagine the quote-unquote shame that would have been on Jesus?

Like, think of what you're shameful of in your life.

What sins have beset you, have sat on you for so long.

They're still in you right now.

Think about the fact that Jesus wore those sins for you.

What things you are ashamed to talk about.

What things you won't ever say to anybody.

The Son of Man bore those sins.

How low was our Redeemer brought?

As low as we go.

As low as we go.

But then there's also this other part about the Son of Man.

There are many sons of man.

I'm a son of a man.

But only one son of man.

One singular son of man is Jesus.

He is the supreme and ultimate example of what mankind was intended to be.

He is the true and better Adam.

He is holy as his Father is holy.

He has kept all the commandments of God.

He is totally obedient and loves the Father fully.

We can't love God fully like that.

We can't.

Because if we did, we'd always be obedient all the time.

I'm not obedient all the time.

I know that.

He is what man—Jesus is what man should have been.

He is not the fulfillment only of the law, but also of mankind.

He is where God's Word finds its fullest fulfillment.

Only a perfect man could do such a thing as that.

This true and better Adam.

Now, as he is the Son of Man, he is fully flesh here, or in this moment right there.

There's also another aspect of Jesus that we know of, right?

So he is—he has his full humanity.

He has his humility that he has gone through.

But he has his deity.

He is also Son of God.

And it seems crazy.

How do you pull us from this little text right here?

This is just supposed to be about becoming Messiah, right?

That's exactly where you pull us from.

So the Son was born to us, fully man.

The next part is a Son of God.

A man given, a child given to us.

See, the context or the kind of context of the word born is that he had to come into the world naturally.

But John MacArthur would tell us this.

If you know John MacArthur, what a wonderful person to study from.

Wonderful person.

I fully suggest you look into some of his stuff because he helped me a lot in this.

But when we look at the word given, it points us not to the incarnation or the physical coming of Christ in flesh.

It points us actually to the eternal and infinite nature of Christ's godhood.

For one to be given, one must first already be.

Right?

Because before you're born, you're not pre-born.

You're born.

But to be given, you have to already exist.

So Christ is the pre-existent Son given for mankind.

Now this title, Son of God, does not necessarily mean God's Son as in his child.

Like you have your children or they have their children.

But rather, it actually kind of means something a little bit different.

And I got this from a website called gotquestions.org.

That sounds really, really sketchy.

I know.

But Got Questions is actually the guys who run it.

They're awesome.

They're theologically very, very rich.

They have a strong orthodoxy.

I'd suggest you look into them too if you're interested in this stuff.

But they said this about Jesus' godhood.

Jesus is God's Son in that he was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1.35 declares,

The angel answered,

The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.

So to be the Son of God is to be of the same nature as God.

The Son of God is of God.

Now, the importance of this knowledge reminds us that while Jesus was made like us in flesh,

he came and he was physically flesh like us,

he was also without sin.

Right?

He is totally God.

Jesus is the exact imprint of God.

It is imperative that the Son born to us was also the Son given for us.

Because a Savior, the only Savior we can have is a Savior that is a human and is God.

One who has walked through the life and kept the commands of God,

but was able to also satisfy God's wrath on our behalf.

I know the thing that's kind of crazy about this as I was preparing this sermon,

this doesn't feel like a Christmas sermon really, does it?

It doesn't feel like the, oh, we're going to talk about it.

For me, this seems like a Christmas sermon.

But the truth is, I think a lot of times we get caught up in the tradition of things.

We follow along with what Christmas is supposed to feel like.

But listen, Joy's heard me talk about this a lot of times in the office.

There she is. Joy knows about this.

I've said this a lot of times in the office.

Silent night wasn't very silent.

Can you imagine a bunch of animals around you?

Animals aren't quiet, are they?

Are animals really quiet?

No, see, I got, Chris is back there saying, no, they're not.

Animals are not quiet.

It's a stinky place in a barn.

Let's get our minds away from what Christmas sermons are supposed to be.

But let's look and see what Christmas entails.

The Son of God must be also a Son of Man.

And the Son of Man is more than able to bear the weight of our sins.

That's the beauty of Christmas.

Is that Christ came humbly into the world, lived humbly throughout the world,

went to the cross humbly, died humbly,

but he was full of God.

He was fully God.

Man, I, I, listen, I'm not a very humble guy.

Humble brag, right? There you go.

I'm not a very humble guy.

But no, I'm not super humble.

I could not handle what Jesus went through.

All I know is that when my, when my, when my child,

my little sweet two-year-old boy, John Luke,

when he accidentally smacks me in the face with his hands

because he's playing with his toys too much

and he smacks me in the face, I get mad.

But this Jesus was silent before his shearer.

It was like a sheep silent before his shearers.

Did not say anything.

This Jesus was so focused on his father's purpose.

And that's what Christmas reminds, reminds us of.

So we were here for to look to Jesus and remember who he is,

what he's done.

Why is it important?

Son of Man can bear our weight of our sins.

It means that he can bear the weight of the government upon his shoulders.

And so to kind of be a little more lighthearted,

whether you are a seasoned saint,

whether you are a brand new believer,

whether you are a questioning skeptic

who has no affiliation with the church

or doesn't, is just here because someone said,

come along with me, you'll get free food after this.

Whatever camp you're in, let me tell you,

I know one thing we can all agree on is that

you can't trust a politician further than you could throw their Porsche or Lamborghini.

You can't, right?

You also can't last long in politics if you tell the truth.

It's the truth, right?

That's the truth, right?

And between the lobbyists,

between the partisan or bipartisan or tripartisan or quadripartisan,

whatever partisan we're at now,

there's just so much confusion and unrest in the government.

There's so much confusion and unrest,

not just in our nation, but in the world.

There's confusion and unrest, not in the national,

but in the state and the local governments.

There's so much just confusion.

And then what happens when the government tries to get into moral issues?

That's even more dangerous because now we're being told,

I mean, here's the reality of this.

Every election we are faced with choosing between a rock and a hard place.

We are.

That's just the reality of things.

Don't care which way you swing with that one.

It's always a rock and a hard place for everybody.

As Christians, it seems like we can't win these days.

Right?

I mean, you might be voting for the Republican who's championing pro-life,

the pro-life movement,

but will not strike into law a statement saying that there will be no,

that you will go to jail for premarital and extramarital sex.

Or you're going to have a Democrat who's over here voting for

or championing any number of things.

It could be saying we're championing better health insurance and more medical,

but they're also championing us damaging our children.

You're never going to get a perfect candidate.

We're always in a rock and a hard place with that.

But thankfully, someday,

there will come a day when the government will not rest in the hands of men.

Amen?

Amen.

The government will solely and squarely land on the shoulders of the King of Kings.

There will be no power greater than the rule of Jesus in the land.

And John MacArthur says this about the son born and given to us.

He says,

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And that looks beyond the first Christmas

to a time still in the prophetic future

when Christ shall reign over a literal, earthly, geopolitical kingdom.

All the governments of the world will be under him.

In that day,

the government of the whole world will rest on his shoulders.

And he will reign as sovereign over a worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace.

But in the meantime,

his government operates in secret.

His kingdom and sovereign rule are manifest within those

who trust in him and are called his people.

So right now,

we are God's kingdom on the earth.

We are seeking to push the kingdom out to all corners of the world

because we want to bring that same rule and reign of Christ

in the hearts of many.

We want all to know Jesus

and to come and know his peace,

his rest,

have true living hope in Christ.

On that day when Christ is ruler over the earth physically here,

there will be no hunger,

no famine,

no thirst,

no physical need not met.

There will be no hardship or unrest due to not agreeing with the king.

For our king will rule justly and mercifully.

And then,

all who are in that kingdom

will be of one mind.

That is the mind of Christ.

There will finally be unity,

not only in the world,

but in the church.

There's a lot of times that

I have,

my wife can attest to this.

She was a pastor's kid.

She's seen a lot of hardships in churches.

I've seen a lot of hardships in some churches.

And there are times when

from the most pettiest of fights,

talking about,

oh, well,

that square carpet over there

is not the same as that one

because you used it from a different place

from 1972.

And there's also,

there's also the disagreements of

whatever else it may be.

I don't like that Sunday school curriculum.

I don't like this.

I don't like that.

Imagine a day

when Christ the King comes

and rules and reigns

not only in our hearts,

but physically before us.

And we have no more issues like that.

We can look to Christ and just say,

look,

the music has all faded.

All has been stripped away.

And now we do simply come.

Greg and I talked the other day

about the song Heart of Worship

and how beautiful that is.

But imagine a day when truly

all the hardships of the world

are stripped away

and we simply come

to the feet of Jesus

to worship and glorify Him.

What a day of rejoicing that will be.

What a day of rejoicing that will be.

I look forward to that.

But until then,

we as the church

are the kingdom here on earth

seeking to grow the kingdom.

But the beautiful thing is

we don't do it alone.

We're not just here

as foot soldiers

and our commander's not just

somewhere back in the tent

not doing nothing.

Our commander is here with us.

He is our wonderful counselor

guiding us.

So that takes me

to this next point.

Hopefully I got that there.

There's the king of kings

and we got wonderful counselor.

I'm going to butcher this word

really bad

because I don't speak Hebrew yet.

But the Hebrew word is,

I believe,

Pele,

I believe.

Correct me if anybody

who speaks

biblical Hebrew.

But the word Pele

is used in describing

something

that is beyond

the capabilities of man.

And that word Pele

is only ever used

in describing

the things God has done.

It's never used

for human accomplishments

or deeds.

So in Isaiah,

Isaiah calls him

the wonderful counselor.

And the word Pele

means wonderful.

So those words together

that's used

in this text here

in Isaiah 9-6,

it's used towards Christ.

This Pele counselor,

this one who is above

and beyond

anything man could do.

In other words,

Jesus is wonderful

in a way

that we cannot comprehend

and it completely

will blow our minds.

Here's some of the many things

that the wonderful counselor

would do

nearly 800 years

after Isaiah

prophesied

the coming Messiah,

after Isaiah's prophecies.

So,

Jesus fulfilled

the wonderfulness

in many ways.

He was on the,

when he was on the earth,

began with his conception,

the womb of the virgin.

Jesus showed

how wonderful he was

and his powers to heal.

His amazing teachings,

his perfect life he lived,

his resurrection

from the dead,

taught many wonderful things.

that are totally

counterintuitive

to the human mind.

Like he said,

blessed are those

who mourn.

Doesn't feel very blessed

to mourn things.

Rejoice and be glad

in persecution.

I don't know about you,

but I've never been,

not always been super happy

about being persecuted

and talked bad about.

Love your enemies

and do good to those

who hate you.

Now, that's the hardest one.

That's the hardest one.

I don't know about you,

but man,

sometimes I swear,

my son starts

saying mean things to me,

he called me big guy

one time.

Boy, I tell you,

that hurt my heart

because I'm a big guy,

you know,

and so my son,

I know where he comes up

and he says,

hey, big guy.

Oh boy,

I felt persecuted

right there.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, but Jesus is,

Jesus kind of wonderful

is awe-inspiring

and superior

to any other kind

of wonderful things.

You may say that,

like the movie,

It's a Wonderful Life,

that's wonderful.

Look at the wonderful,

look at this wonderful,

all these wonderful

decorations we have.

That's beautiful in here.

I love it.

Look at your wonderful faces.

Jesus is superior

to all of your faces,

100% superior

to all of your faces.

The awe-inspiring nature

of Jesus ought to

at least provoke you

to question,

who is this King of Glory

that these scriptures

talk about?

Who is this King of Glory?

That's the least

it should do.

What it should be doing

for you, though,

is opening your eyes

to the amazing

and unfathomable nature

of our King Jesus

and of our God

and of our God,

our Father.

And we should be filled

with greater and greater

adoration of God,

our Savior.

There's a line

in one of our songs

that says,

Come and behold him,

born the King of Angels.

O come,

let us adore him,

Christ the Lord.

And that's what we want to do.

My hope this morning

is that you walk away

with a greater,

deeper adoration

for Christ the Savior.

You've seen him

as the Son of Man.

You've seen him

as the Son of God,

his humanity,

his humility,

his deity.

You've seen him

as this perfect representation

of God on earth for us

that we may see how to walk.

You've seen that he someday

will have his kingdom

here on earth

and we look forward to that

when there's no more unrest

and we look forward to it

not just in a way like,

Oh, I can't wait

until it comes here.

We look forward to it

in a way in which

we want to live like it now.

Don't live

as if the kingdom's coming.

Live as if it were here now

because it's in you

if you're a believer.

If you were a believer

this morning,

you had the kingdom of God

in you.

Live as though

this is the kingdom now.

So when we sing these songs

at this time of the year,

we have a lot of carols

and things we sing.

Don't let those things

be empty words,

empty and vain

melodies from memory.

Don't let them be that.

Let them be genuine.

We sang Joy to the World

this morning

and you could sing that song

in any time of the year.

Any time of the year.

You could sing it at Easter.

You could sing it on Black Friday.

You could sing it

any time of the year.

Joy to the world

the Lord has come.

Let earth receive her king

and let every heart

prepare for him room.

Man, that's what we desire.

We desire that every heart

will prepare for him room

for him to come in

and make them whole

as he's done for us

who are in the Lord.

So he's wonderful,

superior above all things,

but he's also a counselor.

Anybody in high school

ever go to their counselor

because they were good kids

to bad kids?

Y'all scared to admit that?

Yeah?

No.

I never,

I went to the counselor one time

because I told my counselor

I needed to know about scholarships

and it was too hard for me

so I didn't do anything

about scholarships.

But in the Bible

we see the word counselor.

A counselor is portrayed

as a wise king.

So it's not just a common term

just given to anybody.

It's a term given to people

who were like wise kings

or very, very wise consultants

and advisors.

In the Old Testament,

a good example would have been

Solomon.

He was a wise counselor

giving guidance

and wise judgment

for his people.

And as it pertains

to the Lord,

Isaiah writes

in Isaiah 28, 29,

this also comes

from the Lord of hosts.

He is wonderful in counsel

and excellent in wisdom.

Jesus, our Lord,

gives very, very wise counsel.

In fact,

it's so wise

that we base

our entire living

off of it.

In 1 Peter 2, 21,

it says this,

it says,

For to this you have been called

because Christ also

suffered for you,

leaving you an example

so that you might follow

in his steps.

And we need guidance

in our lives.

We need guidance

and we need leading

or else we don't know

what to do with our lives

and how to do things in life.

Those of you

who are believers,

before you came to Christ,

life was,

life may have been

really easy for you,

I don't know.

But you're always wondering,

what's next?

How do I do this?

Where do I get my ethics?

I remember when I was younger,

my dad,

I was a very sensitive kid.

Very sensitive kid.

That was a nice way to say

I cried a lot.

But no,

I was a very sensitive kid

and my dad,

I remember one day

I was just broken over something.

I must have failed a class

or something like that

in high school.

And I was hiding in my room

and closed the door

and I was just weeping,

just crying so hard.

And so my dad came in

and because of my failing

of a class,

I said,

I'm never going to be a man.

I'll never be a fully-fledged,

strong man like my dad is.

Because I'm not,

I'm never going to be a man.

My dad came in

and told me

what it meant to be a man.

You know,

strong,

loving,

kind person.

And he said all great things.

But it was devoid

of Christ.

It was devoid

of Christ.

And so

the,

the reason why

I bring that up

is my father

is a great counselor.

My father gives me

a lot of great counsel.

My father would not give me

necessarily the counsel

I needed to hear.

What does it mean

to be a man of the scriptures?

A man of God?

But when we turn our lives

to Christ

and we do what

1 Peter 2,

1 Peter 2.21 tells us,

he's left us an example.

He shows us how to live.

We walk in that living.

And

he can advise his people

very thoroughly

because he knows our hearts

and he knows

everything we need to know.

And he's very qualified

for this too

because he's walked

the same life we have.

Remember,

he's been betrayed,

hungry,

thirsty.

Maybe he's had

some sort of

questions about

people

because Jesus

would sometimes

limit his

divinity

so we could see

that full humanity.

In Christ

is hidden

all the treasures

of wisdom and knowledge.

That's from Colossians 2,

3.

And that includes

all the knowledge

of human nature.

Jesus always knows

what we're going through.

He always knows

the right course of action.

He's our wonderful counselor.

Beyond what we could

ever imagine,

wiser than we could

ever be,

we can trust him

to hear us

and lead us

in the right way.

We can turn to Jesus

and hear him say

to us in the scriptures

so many times,

do not be afraid.

He always has

our best interests

at heart.

Always has them.

And even though

we are told

not to be afraid,

when we are afraid,

when we do

struggle in our hearts

to be confident

in Christ,

we can surely

come to him

with our prayers,

our petitions,

and he will meet us

where we are.

Because he's been there.

He knows all things

we've faced.

And lastly,

the most important part,

I think,

for the believer

is he is our living hope.

Now,

I asked Greg

if he would sing

that song

at the very end

because it's very,

very poignant

for this moment.

He is our living hope.

hope.

And when the world

looks at hope,

they say,

you know,

I hope the next iPhone

doesn't have,

or I hope the next iPhone

has buttons on it

because I sure wish

the next iPhone

would have buttons on it.

I'm tired of just

the full-on screen

with no buttons.

I miss the days

of flip phones.

The world may also say,

I hope someday

I find a wife.

I hope someday

I find a husband.

I hope someday

my husband actually

takes the trash out

without me saying anything.

You know,

the world says hope

in such a meaningless way

and their hope

is so empty.

There's no depth

to the hope

of the world.

And so,

when as Christians

we look at this,

we look at it

in a much different way.

But I'm getting ahead

of myself.

I want to kind of

read a little thing

I wrote for you.

Christmas time

is a time of joy,

a time of peace.

And there may be

very nostalgic feelings

for some of us.

Though it's usually

really cold

this time of the year,

I, personally,

am always filled

with warm feelings.

For most people,

Christmas time

is a feel-good season.

But all too often

we forget

those who have

suffered great pains

and heartaches

at this time of the year.

It's easy

to forget that.

And these times

of the year,

it's either bittersweet

or entirely bitter

for many people

across the nation,

even in our congregation today.

To know a few hardships,

you may have faced

loss of a loved one,

destruction of a family

entirely,

the ruining of friendships

and relationships,

financial struggles.

The list goes on.

We all are familiar

with the pains

in some way.

But for some reason,

it strikes us harder

at this time of the year.

Because we're supposed

to be joyful.

Right?

Always rejoicing.

Jesus is our wonderful counselor.

You can trust him

to hear us,

lead us in the right way.

But,

the hardship

that we oftentimes face

in this,

we feel alone sometimes.

Christmas time

can feel really,

really tight

for your family

or can feel really,

really separating

from your family.

But here's the thing.

The son of man

has been humiliated

in front of his

dearest friends,

his mother,

his enemies,

his own people.

The son of God

has shown us

the greatest act

of grace

towards mankind

in his death

and resurrection.

And it is only he

who could do

such a thing.

This king of kings,

he came to us

in a lowly fashion

to make much

of God the Father.

He came as a child,

an infant.

But one day,

his kingdom shall reign

on the earth

and not just in the hearts

and souls of his people.

This kingdom will be,

this kingdom will be full

of peace

and joy unimaginable.

The wonderful counselor

is able to save

to the utmost

and fully

those who are

brokenhearted,

crushed in spirit,

physically hurting.

He's able to lead

his people on

in perfect

and wise counsel.

And here's the thing,

his works and deeds

cannot be done

by man.

His counsel

is nothing like

the fleeting

and faulty counsel

of the world.

No matter how

flowery and helpful

it may sound,

there's no counsel

like the Lord's.

So here's the beauty

of all this.

This is kind of

the landing point.

If you,

if any of my youth

are here,

you guys know

I'm going to say,

I'm going to land

the plane.

I always say that.

I'm going to land

the plane here though.

Jesus was born

to suffer on our behalf.

He was given

as a ransom

for those who would believe.

He will one day

reign here

and we shall live

with Him.

We do not suffer

in this life

in vain

because Jesus was born,

lived,

died,

and rose again

from the grave.

And Christmas,

though it may have

many meanings

to many of us

here on earth,

it only has one meaning

in heaven

and that is one

of redemption

and of true

living hope.

The last parting word

is this.

I hope that Jesus brings

it's not fleeting.

It's not just this

fly by night,

fill your heart

happiness feeling.

If you are a believer

in this room,

you will see Jesus.

That's for certain.

You may not see

physical healing.

You may not see

your billfold

fill up

really full.

And you may never

experience the joy

you had when you

were a kid again.

But I can promise you

that you will see

joy everlasting

in God's kingdom

with Him.

But,

there's the

converse side of it.

There's the opposite side.

There's a side that

hurts us to talk about.

If you are not

a believer

in this room,

if you are a skeptic,

if you are

a casual Christian,

which I might

title you

Christian Atheist then,

there's a true danger

that lies before you.

There's a danger

of hell

and damnation

and separation

from an eternal God.

Eternal damnation,

I might add too.

It's not one of those

things where you can just,

oh, I did my time,

Lord, I got out.

There's no getting out of it.

There ain't no purgatory.

Go try to read those books

from other things,

there ain't no purgatory.

Promise you that.

If you do not trust

in the hope

of eternity

that's Christ,

you have no hope.

That means Christmas

is merely a circumstantial,

happy,

or sad time of your life.

And that means

you will die

without hope.

Die in your sins

without hope.

So as Jesus says

to his people

in front of him,

he says,

while you still

have the light,

while you're under

the grace of God

right now,

turn to him.

Today is a day

of salvation.

Listen,

I've told my students

this a couple times,

I'm 27,

28,

wow, gosh,

I'm getting old.

I know,

28's not old,

I know.

But I'm 28,

I did not come to Christ

until I was 21 years old.

That means for

seven years

I've been a believer,

but 21

long years,

God patiently

suffered through my sin.

God waited

for me in my sin.

God,

blessed me in my sin.

Not blessing my sin,

but he still gave me life.

He did not immediately

let me die in my sin.

God was kind

and gracious to me

for 21 long years.

Imagine if somebody

was constantly

in your ear,

in your face,

transgressing against you

for 21 long years.

Yo,

I'd be like,

I'm tapping out,

I'm done.

I'm walking away.

But God,

because he is great,

gracious,

right?

Romans 5,

8's my favorite verses.

It's,

it's that,

and yet while we were

still sinners,

Christ died for us.

So if we did not have

this incarnation of Christ,

the birth of Christ

on Christmas,

we would not have

the death of Christ.

That brings us hope.

He's our wonderful counselor.

Father,

in your living,

you have Christ

to turn to.

Turn to him.

He's not,

he's not like a,

like your,

your father or your friends

who would say,

you know,

oh,

you,

you,

you messed up.

I'm not talking to you anymore.

When you mess up,

God says,

come.

I want to fix it.

Come to him with that.

If you're not a believer

this morning,

I,

I ask you,

you know,

I'll,

I'll be around here.

I'll be back there too

after,

after the service.

Please,

feel free to come

talk with me

about

knowing Christ

as your Savior

this Christmas season.

What a sweet time

it would be

to come and know Christ

in Christmas.

Church,

thank you so much

for this morning.

Thank you so much

for listening

through God's word.

I'll take some time

to pray for us

and then I'll ask,

Greg,

if you'll come back.

Do you have,

do you have music for us?

Okay.

I'll ask Greg

to come back up

and lead us in song again.

Let me go and take some time

to pray for us this morning.

Let us pray.

Father,

thank you so much

for this morning.

I just pray

that you would,

allow your word

to do as,

as it always does.

It never returns void.

It always accomplishes

what it sets out to do.

So Lord,

this morning,

whatever the hearts

of these people

need to hear,

whatever the hands

and the feet

of these people

need to do,

God,

guide us.

You are a wonderful counselor.

You are the one

who is above all else.

You're the one

who leads us

in ways of righteousness.

So God,

I pray,

turn our hearts

and our eyes to you now.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.