Advent 2021: Why Joy?

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Pray together.

God, thank you that you got born.

You didn't have to, but you chose to.

You left the sanctity of heaven and came to the insufficiency of earth.

You got born so we could be born again.

That's why you said to a very religious man named Nicodemus in John's gospel, marvel not.

Don't freak out.

Don't be offended by the fact that who you are in your natural state can never get you to heaven.

You've got to be born again.

You've got to experience God in such a way that it changes who you are.

And so, Lord, you were born so we could be born again.

You incarnated, you took on flesh to say, I get it, I understand.

I can associate, I can uh I know what you're going through.

And so, Lord, we are humbled by your incarnation that you came, walked on this earth, lived a sinless life.

So you know what it's like to be here when it's dark and inflation's at the highest rate in 40 years, and there's a lot of fear-mongering every time we turn on the TV and watch the news.

And yet, in the midst of that culture, you say we can be a people of joy.

And so we need you, Holy Spirit, to show us in your word and by your spirit, so we're not phony people with a big fake grin on our face, but we're the joyful people of God.

Now, Holy Spirit, illuminate and speak, we ask in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

You can have a scene if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to Isaiah chapter 8.

Isaiah 8 · chapter mention

Isaiah is a book of the Old Testament.

If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

Everything I say will come up on the screen.

Uh and we are in the season of Advent, and each Sunday has a theme.

Advent, in case you're wondering, is the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas.

Our Advent services culminate on Christmas Eve.

And so today our theme is joy.

And I want to talk to you about this simple two-word question: why joy?

Why joy of all the things that the Bible could command and call us to?

Why joy?

It's like I said in the prayer.

I was watching the news this week and I was, I was like, man, if I watch this every day, I think I'd get a little sad, almost depressed, because inflation's up.

The guy said the price of bacon is up 21%.

And I looked at the TV and said, now those are fighting words right there.

Uh and so everything costs more, and everybody's mad, and approval ratings are down.

And it's just it's easy to look around and just kind of go, man, it did this is pretty jacked up.

But in the midst of this, and by the way, what we're gonna read today, I want you to see, is that this is not the first time that the people of God lived in a culture that was pretty messed up and things look pretty dark and pretty contemptuous, okay?

And so it's easy to feel sorry for ourselves, but I'm gonna tell you that the Bible says in this context in which we live, we can we can be joyful.

Uh, we've been delivered from fear and we've been delivered to joy.

Joy is not faking it until you're making it, joy is understanding the capacity of God for your life.

Okay?

And so I'm just putting all my cards out on the table.

Now, before we read the passage, let me give you the context.

Everything in the Bible happens in a context.

Context simply means that things happen that we need to understand in order to understand what we're going to read.

Because I'm gonna start in chapter 8, verse 11, and you're not gonna, it's not gonna sound familiar until we get into chapter nine, and you'll be like, oh, there's a little part there, okay, and then the rest of you are gonna be like, ah, I got nothing, man.

Listen, it doesn't mean you're dumb, it doesn't mean you can't understand the Bible.

What it really means is a preacher's never taken the time to explain to you what's happening.

So let me just give you the context, okay?

Uh God's people, Israel, uh they they they were divided, and so there's 12 tribes.

10 went into the north, two went to the south.

The northern tribe kept the name Israel, the southern tribe called themselves Judah.

And so Israel aligned with a company with a country called Syria against Judah.

And so Judah looked around and God said, You don't need another country with a big army, you just need me.

And they said, Thank you, God.

Uh, but we're not gonna go to war with the truth fairy on our side, okay?

We need an army.

And so what Judah, God's people did was they said, Hey, we're gonna align ourselves with Assyria.

They they Israel aligned with Syria, they they aligned themselves with Assyria.

Now look at me.

When you turn uh to something, you are turning away from something.

And so what you turn to, when you turn away from something, what you turn to will eventually turn on you.

Okay?

And so this is exactly what happens.

God's people turned from God to a nation called Assyria because they had military might and they had money, and and and so this happens, and guess what?

They turned on them just like God said they would.

Assyria turns on Judah and they invaded them, and they started these two little communities, Zebulun and Naphtali.

Now you may be wondering why here, because here's why.

The Jordan River runs through this valley, and it goes on to empty into the Sea of Galilee.

And uh, this was known as the way of the sea, very popular, lush agricultural area, very strategic.

It was a main trade route from Mesopotamia to Egypt.

And so it was very desirable.

And so they invaded, Assyria did, and they focused on two little towns, Zebulun and Naphtali.

And now Judah, uh the southern kingdom, they're living in shame and contempt because they believe they just have to make the most of the situation because it's their fault.

They realize there's no one to blame.

God told us not to do this, we did it anyway, and now we are living with the consequences.

And here's what they think we're gonna eat consequences for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the rest of our lives.

Hard to be joyful in that environment, okay?

So this sermon is for anybody that's ever put it in the ditch.

You knew better and you did it anyway.

Your mom and dad taught you right, but you chose wrong, and you have this gnawing sense that, man, I just gotta make the most of my life.

It's never gonna be great, but I'll settle for good.

I want to say to you, that's not the message of the Bible, and that is not the nature of God, okay?

This is what I say, why joy?

I'm gonna read Isaiah chapter 8, starting in verse 11.

Isaiah 8 · chapter mention

This is the context, this is what's going on.

For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and he warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

But the Lord of hosts, him you you shall honor as holy.

Let him be your fear, let him be your dread, and he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense, a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many shall stumble on it, they shall fall and be broken, they shall be snared and taken.

Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.

I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

And when they say to you, inquire of the mediums and the negromanters who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?

Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

To the teaching and to the testimony.

If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

They will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry.

And when they are hungry, they'll be enraged and they'll speak contemptuously against their king and their God.

They'll turn their faces upward, and they will look to the earth.

But behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, they will be thrust into thick darkness.

But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish.

In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea.

The land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shone.

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, and they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

Why?

For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Why?

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Why?

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, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

And on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

Unless you feel pressure, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Why joy?

There's five reasons from the text I just want to point to this morning.

The first one is simply this that God is a God of restoration.

God is a God of restoration, which means where He has humbled us, He will restore us.

Zebulun and Naphtali, these two places of great defeat where God's people turned from God and trusted in somebody else.

And then who they trusted in turned on them.

And now they're just living every day with a steady diet of consequences, thinking, man, let's just make the most of this.

None of us wants to focus on our failures.

But let me ask you a simple question.

What if what you want to get away from, God wants to start with?

Let me ask that again.

What if the thing in your life that you're just like, mm, like when you're driving to a Christmas party next weekend, you and your wife, and you're like, hey, if this subject comes up, if they kind of ask, hey, you guys kind of fell off the map last year.

Did something happen in your family or in your marriage?

We're gonna redirect the conversation and get around here.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

The thing that you want to get away from, God wants to start with.

Why?

Because God's a God of restoration.

God is not afraid of anybody's past.

There's nothing you've done that's gonna make God change his mind about you.

And so these little communities of Zebulun and Naphtali, they're living in disgrace and contempt.

They're so full of self-hatred, they're like, we hate ourselves.

There's no way God could love us.

The Bible comes along and says there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

God humbles people so that they learn not to trust in anything but God.

And he humbles them because he wants to restore them, because God is a God of restoration.

But some people never experience restoration because they cannot embrace humility.

And furthermore, they can't even acknowledge what they did to make God humble them in the first place.

And so they tell their story as one of pain instead of failure.

And when they do this, initially people pity them, but over time, people move away from you because they don't trust you.

And they don't trust you for a very simple reason.

Your life is always somebody else's fault.

And they they figured out it's just a matter of time before you blame them for your life.

And I want to say to you, the thing that you want to get away from, God wants to start with, because God is a God of restoration.

That's the first reason you and I can be people of joy in this Advent season, in the culture in which we live in.

Secondly, uh, it God will do it again.

Look at verse 3.

God will do it again.

He says, You've multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

That's the part I want you to hear, as on the day of Midian.

When I say God will do it again, what the Bible's telling us is that there was a historical fact.

There was a moment in time where God demonstrated his strength, and God is going to do that again in the birth of this child.

This is why these people are experiencing this multiplied joy, because God is a God who loves to demonstrate his strength as he did on the day of Midian.

So it's easy to read the Bible and think, okay, as on the day of Midian, I got no idea what that's talking about.

Well, thank I'm glad you don't, because I do, okay?

And here's what they're talking about.

The Midianites were a people that they vexed the people of God all the time.

The Midianites were pretty smart.

What they would do, they would let Judah, God's people, plant their crops.

And then when it was harvest season, the Midianites would come.

One historian said it was like a river of the Midianites and their camels pouring up over the horizon.

And they would come and they would set up camp right next to the fields of Judah and basically eat all their food.

Now I have a friend named Stephen.

We would go out to eat, me and a bunch of my buddies, and Stephen would never order anything.

Stephen would say to the waiter, just bring me a plate.

The first time he said that, I was just kind of like, What?

Are you fasting?

Why are you getting a plate?

No.

Stephen got a plate because we were in San Antonio at a at a gathering I used to host.

And Stephen would never order food.

There's a Mexican restaurant down the market, uh, I think it's called Min Tierra.

And we would go there because it's real Mexican food, okay?

It's not Texacan.

And Stephen would never order anything.

He would get a plate, and then he would just go to everybody and say, hey, break me off a little enchilada.

And I was like, break yourself off, order yourself something.

I would like to put my arms around, like, no, we ain't getting nothing.

I ordered this because I want to eat all of it.

And there would be like 12 of us there.

And Stephen would go get a little bit.

I looked over, I remember the first year I looked over, his plate was just mounted up.

Like he'd gone to a Mexican buffet, and I was like, hmm, Stephen may have a good idea here.

Stephen was like the Midians, they wouldn't plant crops, they would just they knew when the crops were coming into harvest, they were ripe, they would just show up and devour everything like a herd of grasshoppers and go back.

And here's why they had more people than Judah did.

Judah was outnumbered.

Now ask yourself this question.

I mean, there were so many of them.

Judah couldn't do anything because they were outnumbered.

Now, if you were always outnumbered, you would come to love numbers, would you not?

Yes, if you're always outnumbered, then you're kind of like, you know what?

We need more people.

They've got more than we do.

We need more.

As in the day of Midian refers to this, happens.

Don't turn there, it happens.

I want you to know things in the Bible really real.

It's not a fairy tale.

The Old Testament book of Judges, chapter six and chapter seven.

There's a story about a man named Gideon.

Gideon now, well, he has a business now where he goes around and puts Bibles in hotels.

Uh, but before he did that, it's just a joke, by the way.

Uh Gideon was a real person.

And Gideon was so he is so accommodated to living in fear.

Ask yourself this question: what have I accommodated to that I shouldn't be tolerating right now?

He lived in so much fear of the Midianites that he was down in a wine press, which is a big hole in the ground where they stomp out grapes.

He's down there threshing out wheat so that the Midianites won't go, oh, he's got food.

Let's go get some more food.

Like Stephen with his plate.

Hey man, give me a little bit of fajitas.

You ain't touching none of my fajitas, okay?

And so he's down there and God speaks to him and says, mighty warrior.

And Gideon's like, he is so beat down, he looks around like, um, uh, who are you talking to?

And God's like, I'm talking to you.

Listen, I'm gonna raise you up and I want you to stand against the Midianites.

They're not gonna treat my people like this anymore.

He's like, yes.

And God says, I'm gonna give you 32,000 people.

And he's like, now we're talking.

Bring it on.

And then God says, you know what?

You've got too many people.

If you guys win and you're going to win, you're gonna think it's because of the size of your army, not the strength of your God.

So I'm gonna pare your numbers down.

They go from 32,000 down to 24,000.

Gideon's like, all right, 8,000 down due to budget cuts and the defense budget.

All right, here we go.

And God says, you know what?

You still got too many.

Because if you knuckleheads win, you're gonna think it's because of the size of your army, not because of the strength of your God.

Take them down to the water and I'll sift them for you there.

Now, if you won't obey, God will sift the circumstances until he gets you to where he wants you to be.

And so they go down to the water and he says, Some of them are gonna lap like dogs, some of them gonna drink out of their hands.

Long story short, they ended up with 300 people from 32,000 to 24,000 to 300.

Why?

Because God says, I don't need help, I need obedience.

And then he says this.

You're giddy and you're like, hey, wait, wait a second.

Have I told you we've been outnumbered every year and these people come eat our food?

Come on, man.

I had 32,000.

Now I got 300.

And God says, Yeah, and I want you to break into groups of 100, and I want you to go with a torch and a jar and a trumpet.

It's like you're all on a football team and your quarterback gets injured, and the coach says, That's all I got, guys, it's cool.

And he goes to the band hall and says, I need the third chair, trumpet player.

Come on, brother.

You're like, No, man.

And the big tuba guy, that cat ain't seen a biscuit he doesn't like.

And you're like, what are we gonna do now?

Yeah, and God says, Hey, I want you to put these torches in the jars, and when I tell you, they surrounded the enemy, the Midianites, smash these jars and sound the trumpets.

And guess what?

They did exactly that.

And the Midianites freaked out and turned on themselves and slaughtered themselves.

So when the Bible says here in Isaiah chapter 9, the rod of the oppressor, you've broken as on the day of Midian, he's saying, God, see, see, if you were always outnumbered, you would love numbers.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

But because God's never outnumbered, God loves glory, not numbers.

And so God's gonna alter the circumstance to get it down, to sift it to where now there's gonna be no mistaking who demonstrated their strength on this day.

And he says, as on the day of Midian translation, God is saying, I'm not done showing my strength, okay?

And so unless we believe that God still acts, still loves to demonstrate his strength, you slowly become this ruthless, faithless, hopeless person who trusts in yourself, who trusts in yourself and your resources because you don't have to trust in God.

And I just want to invite you to pray this prayer.

I want our church to pray this prayer coming into this advent season, into the new year.

It's from the Old Testament, the minor prophet Habakkuk in chapter three, verse two, he says this to God, Lord, I have heard of your fame.

I stand in awe of your deeds.

Lord, repeat them in our day.

In our time, make them known.

In wrath, remember mercy.

He's saying, In wrath, remember, he says, Hey God, we deserve your wrath.

But I want you to remember mercy and hear, I don't want to just hear about these great things that God did, like on the day of Midian.

I want you to do them in my day.

So ask yourself this question: what's something that God did in the Bible you'd like to see Him do today?

When you get home tonight, when no one's looking in your bedroom, I don't care if you're 13.

No one's looking.

It stirs the heart of God, it engages the heart of God for you to have the courage to say, you know what, God, I read this in the Bible, I've heard of your fame, and I stand in all in your deeds, but I'm not content to be a spectator.

I want to be a participant.

I want you to do that in my life.

See, some of y'all have been so well-mannered in the church, you think, well, that's being disrespectful.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That that engages the heart of God.

So why joy?

Because God will do it again.

Thirdly, why joy?

Because we won't always have to trust ourselves.

We won't always have to trust ourselves.

If you look at verse five, here's what the Bible says Isaiah chapter 9, verse 5.

Isaiah 9:5

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

What is he talking about?

We don't have to trust ourselves.

What he's saying is war will no longer be necessary.

Now, this is a little Bible fun fact.

All the verbs in this part of Isaiah 9 are in the perfect tense, which means the perfect tense of a Hebrew-Greek verb means that it refers to a completed action.

So in the mind of Isaiah, the prophet, he's speaking in the prophetic, perfect, this has already happened because God is that sure and can be counted on to that degree.

He has this deep and abiding assurance that this has already happened.

And so he's just like, hey, every boot of the tramping warrior and every garment rolled in blood, everything necessary for the war machine will be cast into the fire because you won't need them anymore.

Now, this is why you should pray for your preacher, okay?

Because my crazy mind, I spent all week obsessing on this.

My wife is like, Can you can you think about something else?

This year, 2021, the defense budget for the United States of America was$778 billion.

And so I just thought, man, when war ceases, we're gonna have$778 billion to spend every year.

Yes, sir.

So I'm driving down 59.

I drive, I see the smart financial center over there, and I just thought, I can buy that.

By the way, I I I don't have the calculator on my iPhone doesn't go high enough so I can figure this out.

But I do know this every year you got to give away over$2 billion a day to give away$778 billion in one year.

Not million, billion.

Every day.

Can you imagine tomorrow?

God saying, here's$2.1865 billion.

Give it all away today.

I was at a red light, and there's a guy in front of me, one of them Ford uh quad cab F 250 King Ranch.

I just thought, yeah, if I had 778 billion, I'd just knock on his window, hey man, how much take for your truck right now?

I'm like Randy Moss, cash money, homie.

I'll make it rain right here at this red light.

That's why I don't have more money because I'd be that guy.

Also, I just obsessed on it.

I would go to the med center.

I would start with Texas Children's Hospital, I'd walk in the accounting county.

Receivable office and go add it all up, Susie.

Excuse me.

Add it all up.

I don't care who owes you, add up the total outstanding medical debt because we're about to back this truck up.

And boom, we're gonna pay everybody off.

And then I'd go to St.

Luke's, and then I'd go Memorial Herman.

You see me almost trip over that.

So I just obsessed on it.

I mean, in one day, two two point something billion dollars.

That ain't that much debt down there.

And I would tip her.

Hey, how about I just pay your house off while I'm here?

Could you imagine how obnoxious you would become if you had that much money?

You go to a restaurant, hey, there's no table.

Let's talk about that again.

And the Bible says, I didn't say it, the Bible says that every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire because people will not have, they won't look to other people to meet their needs, so there will not be violent violence on the personal level.

People won't go into stores and 25 people pour through the door and smash the cases and take everything, and then the DA, who's a coward, says, Well, we're gonna let you out on bail.

No, people won't do that because they don't look to other people to meet their needs.

We won't need war because why?

Because we'll have peace.

And$778 billion a year to spend on something else.

So here I want this one.

I want you to talk about at lunch.

If you had$778 billion a year to spend, what's the first problem you would solve?

This is this is the way baby Jesus invites us to think forward about the ramifications of who God is and what God is going to do.

And all this becomes unnecessary, not because of world peace or because of NATO and a peace treaty, but because a child is going to be born.

Why joy.

The fourth reason is because God's solution to the problem is God.

God's solution to the problem is God.

Verse 6 for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, not shoulders, plural, just one.

He just needs one.

And the government, now, when the Bible says government, do not think Washington, D.C., a bunch of bloated bureaucracy and lobbyists.

This word, government, means dominion.

Dominion.

It means this sphere of influence.

The realm of things that King Jesus controls is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

And oh, because of that, the his peace is also going to get this ever-increasing realm of peace.

And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

Why joy?

Because God's solution to the problem is God.

You shouldn't come to church and walk out and go, okay, I got another do list, three religious duties for me to do to help God out.

No, no, no, no.

God bestows on humanity the dignity of participation, but he never puts on you dependence.

God's being nature and what God's going to do in our world doesn't depend on us.

Because God's solution to the problem is God.

And let me ask this question: what if at its core this statement is how God feels about all the things we call problems?

So when people come for counseling, one of the first questions I ask is, hey, in your understanding, how does the gospel speak to this?

Because I don't want them to think, oh, I went and saw this God.

He helped me.

Sure.

All of us, pastors, and we love to help people.

But we believe at our core that God's solution to the problem is God.

And we want to get to God as quickly as possible.

This is demonstrated all through the book of Isaiah.

But let me just show you by example.

Isaiah chapter 7, verse 1.

Isaiah 7:1

The kings of Syria and Israel have aligned against King Ahaz, who's the king of Judah.

Hear what the Bible says.

Hear how frightened these people were.

Isaiah 7:1, in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekka, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not yet mount an attack against it.

Isaiah 7:1

So they just surround it.

Look at verse 2.

When the house of David, that's Judah, was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, with Israel.

The heart of Ahaz, the king, and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

It's not good.

It's not good.

God's people are shaken to their core.

And they look to their leader and they're like, oh, he's freaking out too.

What am I gonna do?

What's that got to do with God being the solution to the problem?

Look at how God responds.

If you skip down chapter 7, verse 10, this is God's response to his people freaking out.

Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, the guy that's shaken like a leaf in the wind.

He says, Ask a sign of the Lord your God.

Let it be deep as sheol or as high as heaven.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask.

I will not put the Lord to the test.

Hey, look at me.

Don't be so well-mannered that you can't be real with God.

God says, Hey, you want you want me to give you a sign?

Make it as deep as hell or as high as heaven.

I don't care.

Verse 13, and he said, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

What's the sign gonna be?

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

God's solution to the problem is God, in the form of a baby born of a virgin.

And these people took such great confidence and uh confidence in that, and the proof that they grasp the significance of this event is found in the next chapter, chapter 8, verse 9, where you lead, read these.

Now, now Assyria has turned on them.

Assyria's coming.

I mean, just hordes of masses of humanity coming to overthrow them.

In Isaiah 8, 9, they say this be broken, you peoples, and be shattered.

Give ear all you far countries, you people that don't belong here, but are coming here from a far country.

You better listen up.

Strap on your armor and be shattered.

Strap on your armor and be shattered.

Translation, you go to war with us, you're gonna get your head handed to you.

Verse 10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing.

Speak a word, but it will not stand.

Why?

For God is with us.

God is with us.

They've come to think and believe that God's solution to the problem is God, and so they say, God is with us.

That's why in chapter 7, they end by saying, You shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And so it behooves us to ask, who is this God that is with us and what is he like?

This is why he rattles off, Isaiah rattles off this list of titles.

He says, This is what he's going to be responsible for.

It sounds like this the government shall be upon his shoulder.

Again, government, not bureaucracy, not a bunch of uh people in committees or on C-SPAN or Fox News or CNN, not answering questions.

I can't stand that.

People ask a question, they don't answer the question, and I'm like, answer the question.

Because they're liars.

That's why they don't answer the question.

They've been taught how to lie their whole life.

And you sent them there, you voted for them.

I wish I could see your faces, y'all are like, dude, it's Christmas.

Don't be mad at us.

I'm not mad at you.

I just think the preposterous nature that we got, and not all of them are bad.

There's some good ones there, but a lot of them are just knuckleheads, they've never had a real job in their life.

They've been politicians their whole life.

And God comes along and says, Hey, the government's gonna be on his shoulder.

This dominion.

Baby Jesus is born with a chip on his shoulder called dominion, and he's gonna exercise it.

This is what he's like.

He says, Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father.

That means there's never gonna be a time where he is not your father.

He doesn't want to be your father, he identifies with you as his child.

He's never gonna be ashamed of you.

You put it in the ditch, screwed it up, knew better, and did it anyway.

He says, I'm still your dad.

I have a friend that pastors a First Baptist church in a small town, which is a treacherous thing because small town churches can be mean.

His son, 19-year-old son, got a DUI for all you people that don't know what that means.

That means driving under the influence of alcohol.

They put him in jail.

He got one phone call, called his dad.

He said, Dad, I'm so so sorry.

Daddy said, Son, are you okay?

Are you okay?

Just tell me you're okay.

Are you okay?

Where are you?

Dad, I'm in jail.

I'll be right there.

This no, this guy gets down there and he says to the bailiff, I want to see my son.

He said, Well, you can see him, but they let him, he said, Pastor, we know you let him in there.

And he's talking to his son.

His son's apologizing.

I'm sorry, Dad.

My new numbers you told me not to take out those people and blah, blah, blah.

And the dad said to the bailiff, I want to be in there with him.

Because the dad didn't have enough money to bail him out.

And he said, I can't have my son sitting in there thinking that I'm embarrassed to be his father, okay?

Because the son is like, Dad, I don't want you to lose your job.

I mean, I know that sometimes.

And he said, Look, and he talks the bailiff into letting him go.

Now, if you've never been to jail and they put you in the drunk tank, you're not in there by yourself.

I don't know personally, but I've heard Wade call your testimony.

They put you in a big room and there's other drunk fools in there with you, okay?

And you're kind of looking around thinking, who am I gonna have to fight first?

And just get this.

You're 19, you are drowning in shame.

You're like Zebulin and Naphtali, you're overwhelmed, and your preacher dad talks the bailiff into letting you in, and he walks over.

He said, I asked my friend, I said, What happened?

Because all the prisoners moved over to the other side.

And I just held my son and I said, I don't want you in here thinking I'm mad at you.

You go, Dad, you can lose your job.

He goes, Who cares?

The bailiff is like, I can lose my job.

I don't care if I lose my job at some church.

I'm not losing my son because you think some things about you that aren't true.

That's your everlasting father.

Stop trying to outsend the love of God and prove your unworthiness.

He's your everlasting father.

You are never gonna do that.

Your earthly dad may have been sorry, may have left you.

He missed out on knowing a good man.

He missed out on knowing a good woman.

That's his fault, not yours.

God says, I'm your everlasting father.

Drunk tank, president of the United States, I don't care.

I'm never gonna change my mind about you.

Now, by the way, think of it like this Emmanuel means God with us.

So you got to ask yourself, what is the nature of a being that you would always want him with you?

Or maybe this will help.

Can you imagine always being with someone but never getting tired of them?

I asked my wife that question this weekend.

She goes, What should you preach it on Sunday?

I said, It's a it's a tough passage, it's Isaiah 9.

Everybody avoids it, but it's so good.

So we're just gonna peel it like an orange and then we're gonna section it off, and I'm gonna go, here you go, people.

And she's like, Can you tell me anything about it?

Oh, yeah.

One of my questions is, hey, can you imagine always being with someone never getting tired of them?

She's like, No.

And I'm like, you can go back to Florida and watch the sunset.

Because right after that, the moon comes up.

It's a new thing, only happens in Florida.

No, I mean, okay.

Now, if you're single right now, you're thinking, oh, when I get married, we're gonna fall asleep on each other's chest.

No, you're not.

You're gonna be like, oh God, you're sticking to me.

Get off of me.

The greatest day in your marriage is when you can afford a king-sized bed.

And if it's adjustable, you're just like, oh my gosh, I have won the lottery.

Yeah.

So here's the thing.

Look at me, okay?

Stop thinking about your wife, okay?

Putting her cold feet on you.

Look at me.

What does it tell you about God that He's always gonna be with you, and you're always gonna want him to be with you, and He's never gonna get tired of you?

That's the God of the Bible.

This is how consequential this will be.

The Bible says, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

Ask yourself, is there any area of my life that's not been brought under the dominion of King Jesus?

Is there any area of my life that's just running free out here?

But see, uh of the increase of his government, there will be no his dominion, not bureaucracy, not committees.

He makes all the decisions himself.

He takes counsel within himself because he doesn't need anybody else's opinion.

He's not having a focus group or an election.

No, no, no.

He's in charge, and his dominion is gonna keep getting bigger and wider and deeper and more expansive and more consequential.

And as a result of that, your peace is gonna do the same thing.

It's gonna get bigger and deeper and wider and fuller.

Why joy?

Well, the last reason is probably the best because all of this depends on God.

Verse 7.

Verse 7, we get to that and he's like, oh, okay, figure them down.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

You should never come to church and just get loaded up with a to-do list.

Okay, okay, honey.

You've been bad this week.

You better do a lot of good to make up for it.

No, God says the zeal of the Lord will accomplish all of this.

And since the Bible says this is what's going to accomplish this, not your campaigns, not your slogans, not your themes, not your church growth ideas, none of that.

On all of that.

God says you're just trusting in yourself and your creativity.

That's what God thinks.

God says, I got enough inside of me.

I've got enough internal compression in this piston.

I will make this happen.

You say, well, if the zeal of the Lord is going to accomplish this, we should understand what zeal is.

Let me close by giving you four things briefly about the zeal of the Lord.

Number one, let me define it.

Zeal is a fierce allegiance that expresses itself in a jealous affection.

It is a fierce allegiance that expresses itself in a jealous affection.

Secondly, unless you get it twisted, sister, God is not jealous of you, but for you.

Oprah Winfrey.

And I don't dislike Oprah, by the way.

It's not digging up.

I'm sad.

Because when she was a little kid, she said, I heard a preacher say God was jealous of me.

And I thought, I can't worship somebody that's jealous of me.

I'm just a person.

He's not jealous of you, he's jealous for you.

In other words, when the Bible says God's jealous for you, it means that God believes that no one's gonna treat you as good as he's gonna treat you.

If you're single, you should pick up women in the bar with that line, hey, I'm gonna be jealous for you.

Ain't nobody gonna be as good as you as I'm gonna be to you.

Or you can roll out your tired thing you've been saying since seventh grade.

Are your legs tired?

You've been walking through my mind all night, baby.

Shut it.

Just shut it.

Heard it, don't believe it.

Here's the third thing about zeal godly jealousy is not insecurity or idolity, idolatry, but it's a priority.

It's a priority.

It's the first commandment.

You should have no other gods before me.

Why?

Because they'll all cheat on you.

That's why.

They'll all be faithless and found to be insufficient, but not me.

Last thing about zeal, zeal is a kind of concern for a person that desires an exclusive place in that person's affections.

Now look at me, I'm done.

You're like, huh, you say that all the time.

You just keep going.

Look at me.

What if God is really about that?

He has this zeal, and it's this kind of concern for you that desires an exclusive place in your affections.

In other words, God's saying, I want you to love me in a way that you don't love cheeseburgers or barbecue or money or sex or shiner or good bourbon or popularity or having a boyfriend or a fiance or a bigger house or a nicer truck.

None of that.

I want to have an exclusive place in your affections.

What if God's that simple?

And hey, once I get there, the rest of this will sort itself out.

Because I'm saying to you that the message of the entire Bible is that simple.

That's why He says in the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me.

And then the second commandment, you shouldn't make for yourself a graven image, because God's saying, I know you knuckleheads.

You like something to focus on, something you can see and touch and smell and count.

And God says, No, no, no, no, no.

Me.

Just me.

Yeah, but but me.

Just me.

Just put me to the test about me.

And so if you've known you should have trusted God and you didn't, you're like Zebulun and Naphtali.

You just contempt.

It's like, you know, God got me.

I'm just eating consequences every day.

Look at me.

God is a God of restoration.

And you can be joyful.

You ain't got to hang your head all the time.

You ain't got to be afraid.

Somebody's going to ask you some question at a dinner party.

You can look at your wife and kind of go, You want to go first?

You want me to go first?

Oh yeah, this is what happened, and blah, blah, blah.

And this is how God's restored that because God's a God of restoration.

I've been to Zebulun and Nathalie, but I don't live there anymore.

So you can't roll up on me and ask me some question and embarrass me because all that's going to happen is God's going to get glory.

See, that's how you talk when God has an exclusive place in your affections.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, we'd like to teach the Bible and then just kind of give you some space to think about it.

Lot on the plate today.

We don't apologize for that, but we we don't want to overwhelm you.

We just want to say, hey, let's just think a little bit.

Let me voice a prayer.

Holy Spirit, thank you that we're not stuck in Zebulun and Naftally.

We're not hanging our head, apologizing the rest of our life.

We are the set-free, forgiven people of God.

And though we've been to Zebulun and we've been naftally before, we're not there anymore.

And it's okay to accept being forgiven and set free from our past.

Because you are a God of restoration.

We do not want our life to offend your nature.

We don't want to make it look like you're a one and done God.

You're not.

You're the God that says, Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll wash you as white as snow.

You're the God that says, When you burn your life to the ground, I give beauty for those ashes.

And I give strength for your fear.

So, God, if any of us today are shaking like a leaf in the wind, like King Ahaz was, remind us that you got born.

So we wouldn't have to live that way.

The Holy Spirit brood over us while we think about that.

Father, thank you for your word.

So textured and consequential and beautiful and smells good, it sounds good, and it makes us what we could never be.

And that's good with you, right with you.

So, Holy Spirit, as we prepare to leave now, we know you're gonna continue to lead us into the truth.

You're gonna cause us to have conversations with our wife and our kids and our husband and our friends and our boyfriend and our girlfriend.

Because you're jealous for us, and you are waging war against anything that takes that place of prominence in our affections.

You're saying, No, that's not that's an idol.

That's an idol, that's not God, that's not sufficient for you.

You're not mad at us, you're jealous for us.

Let us understand that and be excited about it, God.

This is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Listen to me.

If you're our guest, you're always welcome here.

Thanks for coming today.

Hopefully, you've had a chance to pull a little guest car, your seat back pocket in your row.

If you have it, would you do that now and then drop it on those, fill that out?

Drop it on those wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.

We're not hitting you up for money, we're not about that.

The people of this church are so faithful that what they do, they come prepared to worship God on different Sundays.

We call it obedience or generosity when it comes to giving.

And so they'll take care of that in those wooden boxes, okay?

But if you're a guest, if you're something we can be praying for you, we just want to know you were here.

We're not gonna show up at your house.

We're not gonna embarrass you.

We're just gonna be praying for you, okay?

So that's why we ask you to do that.

If you're comfortable, great.

If you're not, don't mess with it.

Maybe down the road, okay?

We'd like to conclude our services with a spoken blessing.

So stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hand out.

All this started because of joy.

God created you for joy.

Depart now and be people of joy in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.