Why Joy?

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Amen.

If you've got a Bible, you can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

We're the third Sunday of Advent, and this is the Sunday of joy.

And I want to talk to you this morning about why joy.

I'm not on a one-man crusade for joy, but I've noticed that this past week I probably got stopped no less than three, maybe four times.

Why are you in such a good mood?

What are you singing?

What are you so happy about?

And I tell them all the same thing.

I'm not happy.

I'm not necessarily in a good mood.

I work at the religion factory.

And one guy's like, What's the religion factory?

I said, I'm just kidding.

I said, I pastor a church.

He goes, and you're joyful?

Like, oh wow.

Okay.

You see, here's the thing.

Our understanding of joy, let me just give you a definition.

It's not on your PowerPoint or anything, but this is my own definition of joy.

Joy is the expression of an understanding that comes from a realization that is grounded in a reality.

I'm not repeating that.

You should have got it the first time.

No.

Joy is the expression of an understanding.

Joy is not happy.

It's not a feeling.

It's the expression of an understanding that comes from a realization.

The realization is gonna, you're gonna see this morning in Isaiah 9.

It comes from a realization that is grounded in a reality.

And for Isaiah, the reality that all this is grounded in, that he says to these people who've lived in deep darkness for years.

They've just been kind of the highway that people would come to invade Israel.

They would come right through Galilee of the nations and they would trample right through the fertile crescent.

And so they were used to being occupied, used to being beat down.

And all of a sudden, the thing kind of changes.

We, on our reading earlier that David and Linda Mertons read, we saw, and I just put these three things up here, just to give you kind of the context.

We saw three things so far from the latter part of chapter 8 that sets us up and propels us into chapter 9.

We saw that the people of God have this deep and abiding faith in God.

And secondly, that the people of God, they fear God, and the people of God, they're set apart by the truth of God.

And I just want you to look up, if you would, in chapter 8, verse 21.

He says, They will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry.

And when they are hungry, they will be enraged like occupy Wall Street protesters.

And they will speak contemptuously against their king.

There's nothing new under the sun.

People are enraged because they're at the end of themselves and they scream at whoever's in charge.

And they not only do they speak contemptuously against their king, but also against their God, and they turn their faces upward, and they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness because they'll realize being mad at politicians and being mad at God is not going to get you anywhere.

In chapter 9, verse 1, why joy?

Here's why.

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.

This passageway that people would invade because it was like a highway to the sea.

That's where they would dock their ships and come marching in to pummel and pillage God's people.

He's 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 has light shined.

And you have multiplied the nation, and you have increased its joy.

And they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

Mark those six words right there, as with joy at the harvest.

And 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.

Verse 5 says, For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

Did you watch the debate last night?

Wouldn't you love to have a candidate that just kind of says, I got this?

Instead of making propositions and proposals and saying, I'm going to guarantee 11.5 million jobs.

Are you in charge of all the mechanisms that produce jobs?

Are you kidding me?

There are statements that only God can make.

Why?

Because the government will be upon his shoulders.

Mitt Romney, bad place to put your hope.

Newt Gingrich, bad place to put your hope.

Get your favorite candidate in mind, and the government is too big to go upon his shoulders.

And I'm not talking this little penny-anny, paltry government we got here, because kingdoms rise and fall.

I don't know if you've heard about Greece lately.

They're having a hard time.

Syria is having a hard time.

He goes on and says, and his name shall be called Wonderful.

Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Now, the increase of his government of peace, there will be no end.

See, his government is not a government of war, it's a government of peace.

There will be no end that on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from time, from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Just mark that last sentence in your mind, in your attention.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And let me just kind of the question before us today is why joy?

And he he starts off in verse 1 and he kind of says there will be no more gloom for her who is in anguish.

Because he says, in the former time, this is the way it used to be.

In the former time, he brought into contempt this land because this is where people would come right down the center aisle and just ravage God's people.

But he says, hey, this is where he's coming again.

And when he comes, Naphtali and Zebulun are a reference to Capernaum and Galilee, where Jesus was born and from.

That's why they said when they heard the Messiah was from Nazareth, they said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Are you kidding me?

That's like nothing but a white trash trailer park.

They got a bowling alley and a pick and pay that sells beer and lottery tickets.

And did you see those weasels on your TV last night when they asked them, somebody wrote in a question and said, When's the last time you struggled financially and you had to give up something because you couldn't afford it?

It's like an episode of hee-haw.

We'll be right back, we'll be right back.

They didn't know what to say.

I mean, there's 65-year-old men up there going, well, when I was six, so it's it's been a while.

Not for God's people, it hasn't.

They've been oppressed, they've been beat down, they've been under the boot heel of their oppressor, and why joy?

Why on the third Sunday of Advent?

But before it gets to us, as most things in the Bible, let's stay with them.

Why for such a beat down people would God say, Hey, joy, joy, joy?

And you say, What do you mean?

Well, he says right there, he says in verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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

Verse 3, you have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, so much so that they rejoice before you with joy as at the harvest.

Why joy?

Three reasons.

In verse 4, 5, and 6.

Each of them notice start with four.

Four.

God sounds this resounding drumbeat cadence.

Let me give you one reason.

He says, number one in verse four, because God will fight for us.

Look at it there in your Bible.

It says, for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, whoever's burdening you, whatever's weighing on you today, whoever's oppressing you, he says, Of God you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Now, when the Bible says things like on the day of Midian, you need to think, what's he talking about?

Don't turn there.

But in Judges verse chapters 6, 7, and 8, back in the Old Testament, a little earlier, he tells a story about a guy named Gideon.

You ever heard of Gideon?

Yes, he went around putting Bibles in hotel rooms everywhere.

Maybe you've heard of him.

Let me ask a question.

Is it cold in here to anybody?

Okay, Lance, would you bump the air?

All the men are going, no, no.

The women are like, I wish I had brought my Snuggy today.

I think some well-intentioned person went around earlier, thought the heat was on and turned it down, but really the air is on, so I just turned the air down.

That's why it's cold.

If you're a visitor, see, we're not perfect.

We don't have this figured out yet.

It'll get warmer in here in just a minute.

Some of you women are like, no, I like it cold.

I was talking to you, y'all are like, I can't really listen.

I can't unclench my teeth.

It's like the David Letterman Theater in here.

Why do they hate us?

Babies.

Anyway, we're gonna turn the heat on so you'll be comfortable.

In just a moment, the snack cart will come around.

We have Slim Jims and beer nuts and pudding pops for the kids.

Anyway, why?

Why joy?

Why joy?

Because God will fight for us.

He tells a story.

Midian is a reference to Gideon.

Gideon, for those of you who hadn't read it in a while, Gideon was a commander of an army.

He had 32,000 people in his army, and he was feeling good about himself.

He's like, We are gonna kick some tail today.

Ooh! And God said, You got too many.

If you go into battle and you win, you'll think you're gonna want you won because of the size of your army.

Take them down to the water, and God says, I will sift them for you there.

And God took 32,000 and through a couple different circumstances, sifted them down to 300.

And not only that, not only did God say you got too many because you're gonna take the credit for it, because we love to take the credit for it.

We love to say, look at me.

God said, Here's how, here's not only this is how many you're gonna fight with, this is how you're gonna fight.

And he tells them, you can read about it in Judges chapter 7, he tells them to surround the enemy.

Judges 7 · chapter mention

So 300 men surround an army of thousands, and all they have, they have jars.

Can you imagine that?

Here's your mason jar, and here's your mason jar.

They surround them, and all they have is jars and trumpets.

That's in the Bible.

That is wacko.

Imagine going to Iraq right now.

Here, we got not the little mason jars, we got the big ones that your grandma canned with.

And here's a trumpet.

And the Bible says so specifically, in their left hand they had a jar, and in their right hand they had a trumpet.

Can you imagine walking to surround people who are sworn to kill you?

Kind of going, one of these things is not like the other.

You know, they were making eye contact, kind of like, what, what, what are you?

And torches.

They had torches.

So the enemy could see them to shoot them.

Paul picks up on this in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, about verse 3, 4, and 5.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

He says, We don't do war as the world does.

No, the weapons we fight with are mighty through God.

They have divine power to pull down strongholds.

Some of you struggle with the same sin you've always struggled with because you don't have a jar and a trumpet.

You got common sense, you got determination and devotion and duty, and you have no delight.

For you, reading the Bible is trying to create love and a desire factory.

And God told these people, hey, here's what you're gonna do.

You get a jar and you get a trumpet and you get some torches, and they smash the jars and sounded the trumpets and held up the torches, and they're like, and now they're gonna shoot us.

And the enemy, because God has always fought for his people, and God's kind of saying, Hey, I'm gonna fight for you, okay?

People that are oppressing you, putting religious rules and the law on you, and people that have you in slavery, and people that just come through you like a superhighway of destruction.

I'm gonna lay the wood to them.

And he says, just like I did at Minigan, and everyone smiled like, oh yeah, a jar and a trumpet.

Yeah.

And the army, when they smashed the jars and they sounded the trumpets, the army, their enemies were confused and they turned on themselves and slaughtered themselves.

Can you imagine walking back after that and kind of going, How am I gonna explain this to my kids?

What did you do today, Dad?

Well, I broke a mason jar and I sounded a trumpet.

You know these people that you've been hearing boogeyman stories about since you were three?

They all killed themselves.

Just like, and we didn't know the outcome, but we knew that we were commanded to obey.

And Gideon, when we had 32,000, I felt good about myself, but then we had 300 trumpet players.

I was looking at a mason jar, like, isn't there some shine or something in there so we can just take the paint off?

No.

Here's what God is saying: your greatest weapon, oh people of God, is your obedience.

And sometimes it's gonna sound wacky when God says, just get you a jar and a trumpet.

And you surround these people, and when Gideon gives the command, see, it is a pregnant phrase.

When in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 4, he says, You have broken as on the day of Midian.

Isaiah 9:4

He's saying, God's gonna do what God's always done.

Why joy?

Reason number two today is God will not only win the battle, but he'll end all war.

I had to stop watching the debate last night.

I'm not a real political person.

I vote in everything.

I don't tell you how to vote.

I think Republicans love Jesus, I think Democrats love Jesus.

You do as well, don't you?

I couldn't hear you.

Now, hey, listen, if all you do is love people who agree with you, you're no worse than the Pharisees.

You're no better than the Pharisees.

So let's try this again.

I believe, I'm not saying the party, I'm just saying there are people that subscribe to the Democratic platform that they love Jesus a whole bunch.

Wouldn't you agree?

I see that that wasn't so hard, was it?

After church today, we're gonna play pin the tail on the liberal.

Like pulling teeth.

What do you mean?

God will not only win the battle, but he'll end the war.

Look at verse 5 of Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

He says, For every boot, not one or two, but every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

It is gonna fuel God's cause of justice because you're not gonna need them anymore.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Have you ever noticed something?

I saw it again yesterday.

Y'all are probably like, you watch too much TV.

No, actually, I don't.

But I was walking through, there was a basketball game on, and I thought, oh yeah, I like playing basketball.

Indiana, who's not even ranked, who hasn't been good since Bobby Knight coached there, to be frank, was playing Kentucky, the number one team in the country.

And everyone's like, this is gonna be a slaughter.

Oh no, it wasn't.

Indiana was playing at home, and there's a guy in the stands who had it on red and white striped bib overalls, and I was like, that's awkward.

You should never do that, my man.

But it's a close game, and they're ahead, and Kentucky comes back, and then Kentucky makes two free throws, and there's like 4.3 seconds in the game.

And some guy, Indiana, dribbles down, they're down by two, so what does he do?

He jacks up a three-pointer as I mean, they throw it to him, he dribbles around, squares up, and by the way, put your elbow in line with your hand and just flick it and let it go.

He just let it go.

Timer goes up, the buzzer, eh, nothing but net.

And then here was my deep pastoral observation.

Have you ever noticed that in a game like that, the people who did the least celebrate the most?

I mean, there were fat guys crawling out of the stand.

Here, hold my corn dog, and they're getting down there.

And the guy in those striped overalls, he comes over the railing and gets down there, and I just like, what have y'all done to celebrate?

Get back in the stands.

The people that actually did something are like running to the locker room because they don't want to be crushed by that guy with a corn dog in his hand.

Now you're probably wondering, why are you telling us that?

Because that's all you and I, you're you're the guy in the stand eating corn dogs.

And God's not going to share his glory with you, he's gonna accomplish all this himself.

Well, you say, What what do you mean?

The subject knows first of all that you and I are not the subject of any of the verbs in verses four through seven.

When he says, for for he says, You have broken as on the day of Midian, and he says that every boot of the tramping warrior and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire, for to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government 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 righteousness from this time and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Not your zeal, not my zeal.

See, here's the application part of the sermon today.

Start getting your mind and your life calibrated to live a life that God gets all the credit for.

I don't know.

I'd like to take credit.

That's just your religious pride.

Want to tell people how moral you are?

How much you read the Bible?

I've read this book, I read that book, I've gone to church for 17 years, blah, blah, blah.

Just stay in the stands and eat corn dogs.

Wouldn't you rather do that anyway?

I love corn dogs.

How long has it been since you had a good corn dog?

That's too long, probably.

I don't mean those frozen ones.

I mean those good state fair ones they sell out here.

They kind of at the fair, at the county fair, they kind of have that sweet batter on them.

And you're kind of like, I shouldn't probably eat this.

It's probably got 900 calories and it's made from the hump of a Bramer bull or something.

But man, that's good.

I can feel some of you kind of like, don't say corn dog again.

Look at verse 3.

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy.

And they, this is the only part that you and I get to do.

See, there's you, there's a lot of you in this passage in these seven verses, and there's a lot of him and a lot of his.

Here's the only you, here's the only responsibility you have, you porn dog eaters.

They, that's us.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, and they are glad when they divide the spoil.

All you've got to do, here's those three days in there.

He says, they rejoice as they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

We're not an agrarian society.

We don't understand this.

When we think harvest, we think going to Sam's and getting five gallons of mayonnaise and two gallons of olives.

The harvest was when all the crops had come in.

The thing you'd work the hardest for.

That which you wanted and need the most is that it's most abundant supply.

And one of the Jewish feasts is centered around the harvest.

And God told those people, I want you to eat good food and drink good wine and make out with your wives for seven days, and I want you to sleep in, and I want you to be reminded how great I am.

That's all you and I get to do.

Because the zeal of the Lord is going to accomplish all this.

He doesn't need a GOPAC, He doesn't need a Republican National Convention, He doesn't need the Fort Bend Republican Women's Society or the Men's Society.

I got an email this week from a well-intentioned person in Athens, Texas.

There's some atheist saying, hey, take that nativity scene down off the court.

I got an email.

We Christians have to unite and fight.

No, I wanted right back, but I don't know this person, and it would sound smarty elicky.

I wanted to write back.

No, we need to stay in the stands and eat corn dogs.

Sounds awkward even saying it, doesn't it?

You're like, see, you said it again.

Stop saying that.

Well, the Bible says that they is you and me.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

There's a reason I'm saying corn dog a lot, okay?

Get ready because it's coming.

I told you, tried to warn you in an email yesterday.

I didn't get to preach last week, and you're gonna get it today.

And they are glad.

He says, first of all, yeah, they rejoice before you, and this is how they do it as with joy at the harvest.

And they are glad.

See, you don't just get to rejoice, you get to be glad.

Say that word this week.

That's a word we don't say anymore.

When's the last time someone said, How you doing?

I'm glad.

It feels weird, doesn't it?

You're like, don't say that word, go back to corn dog.

Say tomorrow, how was your weekend?

It was glad.

And they'll be like, What have you been eating?

Corn dogs?

Wipe that goofy smile off your face.

Oh, here's what else you get to do for all you determined doers.

When they divide the spoil.

You know what spoil is?

It's not what's taking place in the CRISPR of your refrigerator right now.

Spoil is the gold and silver, the loot.

As Captain Morgan says, life, love, and loot.

It's what you get when you conquer a city or a people.

You take all their stuff.

And here's the thing.

You say, why are you making such a big deal out of this?

We get it.

Coring dog, corn dog, corn dog.

Here's the point that you don't get.

It's because we're out here protesting this, and oh my gosh, there's one person in Athens, Texas.

Have you ever been to Athens, Texas?

It's a rat hole.

I've been there.

True about Palestine.

It's not Palestine, by the women.

It's Palestine.

Palestine's over on the other side of the world.

But everybody's we're gonna protest this and we're gonna march this and we're gonna do this, and Christians have to unite and fight this because the progressive secularist are taking over.

Here's the problem.

Oh, you political-minded activists, you're wasting all your time trying to stoke up your zeal, and you're not spending your time rejoicing as at the harvest, and you're not glad.

Nobody that knows you of us said, Hey, tell me about Mary.

She's a Christian.

One word to describe her.

Oh, she's glad.

No, she's politically involved.

That's just a culturally acceptable expression of your zeal.

Now, am I saying don't be involved in politics?

Not at all.

Just don't act like it all depends on you.

That's why I don't do well when I get asked to come to fundraisers because there's people in this city think I have money just because I give away the little bit I do have.

And so I sit there and I listen for where's the zeal?

And I'm telling you, if we don't reach our goal tonight, if we don't reach, I was at one last year, if we don't reach our goal tonight of$10,000, we need pledges of$10,000, we don't know what's gonna happen.

I called my waiter over and said, You got any corn dogs?

I ain't writing a check for none of this.

And the Bible says they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

I'm sure people clog at that when the harvest is brought in, don't you?

They should.

They should drink and clog.

Yeah.

And they're glad when they divide the spoil.

Here's the problem.

I'm trying to say it.

This is my last attempt to say it, because some of you are kind of like, why are you mad at us?

They're not mad at you.

It's just you you're you're you're spending a whole lot of good energy trying to accomplish something that the zeal of the Lord is going to accomplish.

And again, I'm not saying abandon the public square.

I'm not saying don't be involved in public politics.

I'm not saying don't speak up and let your voice be heard.

I'm just saying make sure that all your energy is not spent in doing that at the expense of rejoicing and being glad and dividing and experiencing and enjoying the spoil that God provides for you.

Because I don't know if you've read the end of the book, but this all ends with a big feast.

Not a fight, not a debate.

Why?

Joy.

Thirdly and finally this morning, because God keeps his word.

Look at verse 6.

Gotta catch my breath.

We got any oxygen here.

Look at verse 6.

Can we turn the hair back down?

It's now hot in here.

Aren't y'all hot?

Look at verse 6.

Why?

Because God keeps his word.

He keeps his word.

Every, all of his promises are yes and amen.

Verse 6, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his good and his name shall be called wonderful.

Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, and 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.

Hello.

This time, this time, by the way, of darkness and gloom and anguish, and they've been thrust into thick darkness.

Everything in your life doesn't have to be good for God to be true.

From this time, this time, when it's stinking to high heaven.

You got these people, these people back there in chapter 8 that said crazy, crazy things.

Like they said, inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter.

Aren't you glad chirp and mutters in the Bible?

You go, go consult the dead and your mediums and read your horoscopes.

It's a colossal waste of time and ink and the newspaper.

He says, to the teaching and to the testimony.

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

They have no revelation.

God's not revealed himself to these people.

So they're desperately just reaching around in the dark.

But God's people say, hey, God keeps his word.

Say, how do you know?

The book of Isaiah was written, best we can tell, close to around 700 years before this baby was born.

And look at the way he talks about this baby being born in verse 6.

He says, For to us a child is born.

That's present tense.

You should walk out of the delivery room, men, when your next child's born.

For to us a child is born.

You're not going to say that today, and people go, where's a kid?

Well, it's 700 years from now, but we're believing God.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders in his name.

Before we get to the name, then we just kind of stop right there, and you say, There's a reason.

I'm telling you this.

He's 700 years.

Why does Isaiah talk like he talks?

Because for Isaiah, there's only one thing that's impossible, and that is that God would lie.

God is spoken and God keeps his word.

The way God keeps his word is by coming to us, by becoming one of us.

He was born.

And while we don't have an official picture of Jesus as a baby, wouldn't it be great if you did?

See, they got these oppressors that are just tramping right down the middle, right through the fertile crescent where most people believe the Garden of Eden is located between the Tigris and the Euphrates River, right there in this very fertile, alluvial soil.

They go through there, they load up on dates and food and water and everything, and they go and pillage God's people.

And what does God do?

God sends a baby.

He might as well get a bunch of guys with mason jars and trumpets.

You know he was a baby, right?

You ever wonder what he looked like?

You ever tried a picture?

I want to help you this morning.

I brought you some pictures just to remind you what babies look like.

Have you held a baby lately?

I held a baby this week.

It wasn't mine.

It was great.

Held him like you used to hold mine, patted their little bottom.

Right to sleep.

I went home and told my wife, hold me and pat me, and I'll go right to sleep.

She's like, you have lost your mind.

I'll show you a little picture.

This is what a baby looks like.

I knew you'd do that.

Can't help yourself, can you?

Kind of look, it got a little naked bottom up there.

That's a baby too.

Leave it up here just for a second.

Now look at me.

This is what God's solution to your biggest problem was.

Doesn't it make you wonder what he knows that you don't?

I mean, they've got armies and boots and clothes stained with blood, and he says, hey, 700 years from now.

Thank you, Lance.

700 years from now, I've got an idea, and it's a long time coming.

And that came out.

You know, there was a time when baby Jesus couldn't open his eyes.

I mean, he would just kind of, you know, baby, they blink and they're real sensitive to the light.

Just didn't want you to forget that that's take that down now.

Y'all are getting all sentimental on me.

We don't have an actual picture, but we have description.

They say picture's worth a thousand words.

Isaiah, as I closed today, gives us 64 words.

They kind of describe, you know, he says his name should be called.

Name is a Hebrew word sham.

It means reputation, memorial, monument.

If you're here today and you just stumbled into this church, your wife or your grandmother or your sister, somebody, your neighbor brought you like, I don't get all this.

The dude said corn dog 14 times.

Let's go.

And have corn dogs for lunch.

64 words.

Wonderful.

That was the first one.

A lot of debate.

Religious people, preachers like to argue over things in the Bible.

There's a lot of debate on if you know this or not, over if it's wonderful or if it's wonderful counselor.

Because some Bibles they have wonderful counselor, comma, some have wonderful, comma, counselor, comma.

I think it's both.

So let's just take the first one.

He's wonderful.

What does that mean?

Wonders is where they describe the things God did in the Old Testament.

That's why when they parted, he parted the Red Sea and got this whole thing going and led his people out and they thought they weren't going to make it.

Miriam, Moses' sister, burst into song in Exodus 15 and says, Who among the gods is like you, awesome in glory, majestic in holiness, working wonders.

Working wonders.

Have you forgotten all the wonders that God has done in your life this past year?

Don't get to this time of year and get your hand out.

God, I want, I need, God, da, da, da.

Look back and remind yourself who you're talking to.

He's wonderful.

He's full of wonders.

Secondly, counselor.

Counselor.

Counselor.

Have you?

I'm not against counselors.

I recommend I have a small network of counselors.

Listen closely, okay?

If you need a good Christian counselor, I got one for you.

I'll meet with you, Lance will meet with you, Wade will meet with you, our elders meet with you.

But if you're like, hey, listen, I might need a professional counselor, I highly recommend a good Christian counselor.

But I also highly know that about 70% of them out there are Yahoos.

And some of you have gone to those people and you sat there for an hour and then they were done.

You're like, I gotta write you.

You're gonna bill my insurance for this.

I did all the talking.

You didn't say nothing.

You say, How do you know?

Because I meet with people.

I'm not real smart, I just tell the truth.

One guy pulled out his checkbook.

Can I pay you for this?

We've been paying some quack over off the beltway,$115 for 55 minutes of him going, uh-huh, uh-huh.

And how'd that make you feel?

Jesus never said that to anybody.

If you notice that, he didn't say, hey, lay on the couch.

Would you like a latte?

Tell me about your childhood.

Did you receive proper potty training?

He said things like this to people.

Hey, go get your husband.

You know some of this water I gave, go get your husband.

No, have a husband.

That's right.

You've had five husbands and you shacked up right now, the man ain't your husband.

Ruhro.

The Bible says it much more eloquently.

Psalm 32, 8, God says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

It's that last part.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

He never takes his eye off you.

Remember both of our kids, both of them didn't, they got to an age where it was like, daddy, daddy, daddy, watch, daddy, daddy, look, daddy, daddy, daddy.

And my wife would be in the kitchen and I'd be in the living room, and my wife would be like, She wants you to look at her.

I'm looking at her.

I've been taking my eyes off of her.

Watch, she goes, Daddy, daddy, daddy, watch, why?

Because she thinks, don't miss this, when she takes her eyes off me, I take my eyes off her.

I don't.

Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, watch, daddy, watch, dad, watch.

Like, can we get these kids some therapy or something?

Send them to a wonderful counselor so they can realize I ain't taking my eye off of you.

But when they look away to walk, see where they're going, remind you of anybody.

When you take your eyes off of him to see where you want to go, to do like Isaiah 53 says, we all like sheep have turned aside, gone to our own way.

And then when you make a holy hash out of it, you're like, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.

I ain't taking my eyes off you this whole time.

I'm acting like daddy.

You act like my son or daughter.

I don't need to turn up the volume on my daddiness.

You need to remember your identity as a son or a child of God.

Isaiah 30, verse 21 says, Whether you stray to the left or to the right, you'll hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.

Isaiah 30:21

Walk in it.

He's counselor.

He's wonderful.

He's counselor.

Thirdly, he tells us, he paints this picture, he says, He's mighty God.

Mighty God.

Isaiah is getting us ready that not just a baby is being born who's going to become a boy, who's going to become a man, but mighty God, Jesus has never merely been a teacher or a prophet at inception and conception and gestation and birth.

He's mighty God.

Next time the Jehovah's Witness rings your doorbell or the Mormon knocks on your door, it says you have a conversation, just turn to Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Turn, look down there in about verses 6 and say, Hey, by the way, it says right here this prophecy that was prophesied 700 years before the Christ child was born, that he was mighty God.

Do you believe Jesus, baby Jesus, is mighty God?

And they'll tell you, no.

Of course, they'll try to talk around it 14 different ways, but if you pin them down and say, is he mighty God?

Did he come into this world fully God and fully man?

Well, well, we believe that uh uh well uh we we well uh oh because what they believe is not the truth.

He's mighty God.

By the way, I don't want to go into this, but when you try to make him less than mighty and less than God, you make him nothing.

And if you get it wrong about Jesus, you can't get it right about anything else.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

That's what Paul says in Colossians.

Fourthly, he says he's everlasting Father.

He's everlasting Father.

He said, now some of you know, I know, some of you like, uh, you just lost me there because that whole father word isn't a good word for me.

I had some bad experiences with my father.

Let me just remind you what the Bible's telling us today.

The first word gives definition to the second word.

Everlasting.

When Isaiah says, oh, when God says, hey, this is what's gonna happen, Isaiah prophesies it.

He says, hey, this when he says he's everlasting, he takes this, the fatherhood of God, outside of the realm of all created things.

Because he's everlasting, he can't be compared to anything that is not everlasting.

He's everlasting father.

Some of you need to make peace with your dad, some of you men, because your dad's not everlasting.

He's everlasting father.

That's why Jesus says in the New Testament, if you're dad, he appeals to everyone's common experience.

He says, if your earthly dad knows how to give good gifts, how much more?

Your heavenly father.

He says, You ask me for bread, am I gonna give you a stone?

If you ask me for a fish, am I gonna give you a serpent or a snake?

Are you kidding me?

He's inviting you and I to taste and see how good he is.

Finally, he says, He's the Prince of Peace.

We don't really understand what it means, but it sure feels good to say it.

Somebody can say to you this week, Merry Christmas! And you can say back, Prince of Peace, and they go, Okay, whatever.

Philippians 4 7.

Paul understood it.

He wrote these words.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

You ever feel good about things that are really bad and not be able to explain it to people?

The peace of God that passes all understanding.

Will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

I don't want to talk about peace.

I mean, it's like I tell you, it's I in the Greek, it's Iranian and Psalm 29, God says, I bless my people with peace.

You're like, Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Go back to the corn dogs.

I just want to just put it in your head as I'm close this morning.

That word guard.

He says the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

That word guard is the Hebrew word throughel.

Through rail.

And the word picture behind it, it refers to standing guard over a city to keep it from being invaded.

And can you believe in a God who is Prince of Peace, who stands guard not over a city, but over your heart and over your mind.

Over your heart and over your mind.

That this Prince of Peace stands guard over your heart and your mind this holiday season as those foreign hordes come through the fertile crescent or the front door and stay at your house for four days.

Called your family.

Can you imagine being around your mother and being at peace?

Oh, y'all are funny.

Some lady just went.

Yeah, you can.

Yeah, you can.

Why?

Because it's not your determination.

What's going to accomplish this?

The zeal of the Lord.

The zeal of the Lord.

That word zeal means to get red in the face.

God says in Isaiah 42, I stir myself up as a warrior.

Ever watch the New Orleans Saints before they go out for a game?

Drew Brees get in front of them.

They try to figure out what they were saying.

No one knew.

It's like, ooh, ooh, ha, ooh, ha, hoo, ha, hoo, ha.

God says, I'm that way.

I stir myself up.

I get red in the face over my people.

Stay in the stands, fat so, and eat corn dogs.

Somebody asked me this week, what's the Lord told you?

He giving you a word for this week?

Yeah, he told me to stay in the stands, fat so, and eat corn dogs.

To which this person who's in ministry said, You are the most bizarre person I know.

Well, you go down the court and jump around like you made a shot the whole game.

I'm gonna sit here and wait to divide the spoil.

Why?

Because the Prince of Peace is standing guard over my heart and my mind.

They're not gonna be invaded by untruth.

Now, here's why I tell you all that, and we're done.

These names paint a picture.

They remind us that the Messiah will be future tense.

700 years from now.

Why joy?

Why joy, you people that are in deep darkness and gloom and have had the snot kicked out of you your whole life.

Because this Messiah will be who God has always been.

That's why.

Because all of these names, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Wonderful, Counselor, all those names, those people have a frame of reference.

Because it's who God has been, and it's who he's going to be when the child is born, when the virgin conceives and gives birth.

And so why joy?

Why?

It says right here, for the yoke of the burden, the staff has been broken off of you.

She's like, I don't know why joy, because God will not only fight for you, but God not only win the battle, but he'll end all war.

And why is that?

Because God keeps his word.

And the highest expression of God's faithfulness that we sang about earlier is a little baby who's gonna do everything.

God said he would.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

I want to speak a blessing over you.

The time has now come for you to leave this place and go eat corn dogs for the glory of God.

Your red faced, zealous God is gonna do everything he said he was gonna do.

And he's not gonna do anything that he said he wasn't going to do.

He's that honest.

Depart now and be such people.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.