For Unto Us

It's really rather rather inconvenience.

Churches across the country struggle with what to do uh when Sunday conflicts with our business busy Christmas activities.

It's actually a pretty big problem for a number of churches, and no small amount of discussion goes on by church staff and elders and deacons and all of that in terms of gee, what should we do?

My goodness, Christmas and church are conflicting with each other.

It's really kind of funny when you stop and think about it, but it's a conundrum, a puzzle that many churches really have to struggle with.

Everywhere this morning, uh the crowds will be somewhat sparser than uh they are normally, including here.

We have one service, recognizing the realities.

People travel, people have other things going on.

But for many people, there's more to it than that.

Uh the last time that uh Christmas collided with worship, if I can say it that way, uh there was much ado made of that in the blogs and uh the media as churches, especially megachurches for some reason, really had a problem because they had put all of their energies into preparation for Christmas, that when Christmas came, they gave the pastors and the staff the day off because they had been so busy and had worked so hard.

Makes me wonder.

Makes me wonder if that's what it takes to have a megachurch, no thanks.

Uh and get my heart on this, please.

I'm honestly not trying to criticize, I'm wrestling in my own mind with a conundrum of what we do when Christmas uh and worship collide.

A couple of years ago there was uh uh a national poll taken uh among evangelical Christians in particular, asking agree or disagree to a number of questions.

And uh here's a couple of them and the percentage of people that agreed.

Christmas is primarily a religious celebration and observance.

Primarily, primarily a religious celebration and observance.

75% agreed?

Goodness.

Uh the inter the other thing that was interesting is that many of the things I enjoy during the Christmas season has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.

70% agree.

And you know, when you look at the way we as Americans celebrate Christmas, you'd have to say a lot of the things that we enjoy about Christmas uh really has little to do with the reality of Christ's birth.

Uh Ed Stetzer, who uh held that poll, took that poll, kind of a commentator on the evangelical Christian scene, made the comment that if we're too busy for worship during Christmas, we're too busy.

And I think I would put it somewhat of a different way if our enjoyable Christmas activities keep us from worshiping Christ, uh then we have to ask ourselves, what in the world are we thinking?

Just have to ask ourselves.

Now, I'm not suggesting that those from our congregation who are not here this morning should feel guilty.

There'd be little point in talking to you about that, even if that was my intention.

Nor is my intention to suggest that those of us who are here this morning should feel pretty good about ourselves, pretty self-righteous.

All I'm really saying is we need to think.

Romans 14, 5.

Um, let me just uh uh quickly uh cite that.

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

The interesting thing about that uh statement is it was preceded that uh actually the statement was who are you to pass judgment on another servant, servant of another?

Verse 5 One person esteems one day as better than the other, while another esteems all days alike, each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

And the one who observes the day as a special day is exhorted not to judge his brother and vice versa.

Um the whole point, really, verses 10 and 11, why do you pass judgment on your brother, or why do you despise your brother?

For we'll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

So, really, I'm not down on those who decided to take a pass on Christmas, nor am I necessarily excited for those who chose to, chose to come.

It's really between us and the Lord.

What I do hope, and I probably go against the grain of our culture, is that we'd be very intentional about what we do and not just follow the culture, not just kind of go along with the holly and the mistletoe and the jingle bells and the spirit and the atmosphere.

Um Christ did not come in a pleasant, warm, fuzzy context.

He came to a world that was in desperate straits.

And he came as a savior and he's Christ the Lord.

So I just need to get all of that off my chest.

I'll get on now with things.

I I don't know about you, but I feel a whole lot better now.

Um but let's just be intentional about our Christianity and and let's not let it be just cultural.

Cultural Christianity.

All right, let's uh turn to our text this morning, and that text is Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7.

Isaiah 9:6

I'd like to read it.

Isaiah 9, 6 and 7.

It's a familiar text if you were here last night.

Uh Scott uh touched on this uh passage as well.

I'm gonna be looking at it from a bit of a different perspective.

Um it's very familiar.

Isaiah 9, um 6 and 7.

For to us a child is born.

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

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

As Scott said last night, we live kind of uh between the the the already, that that's come, and the not yet, that's not yet fulfilled.

Not completely.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called wonderful, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.

These words were given in the day of Isaiah to be words of comfort, encouragement, and hope for all of God's people.

These were given in the context as truths that would tie and tether us at that image, being tied and tethered to something, in this case to someone, that we would be tied and tethered to the character and purposes of God.

That's what these verses are all about.

Who is our God and what does that mean for us?

And we have encouragement, we have hope, we have comfort when we are tethered to the character and purposes of God.

And that is what is revealed when he says, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The people to whom this was given, they needed encouragement for judgment was coming.

This is not a warm, fuzzy context.

This is what Isaiah is saying is God is coming in judgment over sin.

Christmas has everything to do with sin.

We must not just have a babe in a manger and lights and poinsetas and Christmas carols without dealing with the reality that the only reason it's good news is because man is sinful and separated from God, and God offers us a solution to that.

It's a message of salvation, it's not a message of just warm fuzzies.

And it's a message which, if we get it, will tie and tether us, bind us to the character and the goodness of God.

And in times that are tough, whether it be times of judgment or times of personal trial and difficulties, what we need is to be tied and tethered to the character and purposes of God.

And I hope to explain that a little bit in terms of uh what he's saying in Isaiah 6 and 7.

These words are phenomenal words from the King James, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

As a young child growing up in a church-going but not actually believing home, uh the Christmas carols brought the message of the gospel to me before I even understood really what it was all about.

And the the way that these words were put to music by one of the greatest composers of all time, Georg Friedrich Hendel, George Frederick Handel, is absolutely astounding.

Let's listen.

If you enjoyed that, then please do not ever complain about contemporary choruses that sing the same words over and over and over again.

Okay.

These words were given in an historical context.

This was given as a revelation from God through the prophet Isaiah in the second half of the eighth century before Christ.

These are old words.

Given during the reigns of four of the kings of the southern kingdom.

And in that day, Israel was was living in prosperity.

Kind of like us.

These were, for them at least, these were wonderful days politically and economically.

They had uh recaptured some of the glory uh that was true in Solomon's day.

This was an up period, uh, a lot of wealth, um, a lot of sense of everything is together.

And yet the message of Isaiah is a devastating message of judgment, because although it was well with them in many ways, it was not well with their souls.

The trajectory of the heart of Israel was not Godward.

It just wasn't Godward.

And so most of the book of Isaiah is uh a message of just condemnation.

For when our hearts are not moving Godward, when our souls are not drawing deeply and fully upon the riches of Christ and finding in him the satisfaction of our souls, then we're in trouble no matter what our circumstances are.

If we are not cherishing Christ above all things, we are not understanding reality, because he has given us a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, an everlasting Father, a Prince of Peace.

That is who God is.

And the difficulty for us so often is when our circumstances are really pretty good, then our heart begins to wander.

We we get focused on other things and we find our satisfaction in all of the things around us.

The Jews of that day were affluent, optimistic, and self-confident, but they were far from God.

Um wonder when Isaiah got a vision of who God is, it affected him deeply.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up.

Our God is high and lifted up, the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim.

Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is filled with his glory, and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I, sang, Isaiah speaking, I said, Wow, isn't this cool?

No, that is not the way Isaiah responded to a true vision of God.

Wow, that's cool.

He said, Woe! Not wow, but woe.

Woe is me, for I am lost.

I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

The context of this is our sin and who God is and what he does for us.

So we have in verse six uh some truths that firmly tether us to God.

And I'll I want to play a little bit with that picture of being tethered to the character and purposes of God.

As Isaiah presents them, there are four.

The King James puts a comma in between the two halves of the first one.

Um, but almost every other translation says wonderful counselor, not wonderful, counselor, but wonderful counselor.

And I want to unpack that just a little bit.

Mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Um The idea of being tethered is the picture of being bound.

It's not a picture we really like, especially to be tethered.

We want to be free, don't we?

It would be the picture of a of a young um tree or plant that is not strong but is finds itself in strong, powerful, almost overwhelming winds.

When the blizzard hits, this tree, unless it is tethered, is likely to fall over.

And so a tether in a case like that would be a stake that is driven in the ground next to that tree, and then the trunk of that tree, that young, weak thing, is firmly tied to something strong.

In the midst of the realities of our lives, which are not mostly tinsel and mistletoe, there are moments of that, thankfully, but life is tough, life hurts.

In the midst of our sin, in the midst of the Realization that we're impotent, not powerful.

In the midst of a realization that we don't know as much as we think we know and we need a wonderful counselor, in the midst of an assumption that if we're not careful, we begin to think that God is not good.

What's God doing to me?

In the midst of a world in chaos, we need to be tethered to a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, an everlasting father, and a prince of peace.

Otherwise, we're going to get blown away.

That's what this passage is really all about.

So let me just try to unpack this briefly and then get you on your way before the storm hits.

You're welcome.

Wonderful counselor.

When we think of counselor, we tend to think of a therapist.

That is not at all.

Not by a long shot, what the counselor, the wonderful counselor is that is portrayed here.

That's projecting our world into it.

The counselor was not a therapist.

The counselor in Isaiah's day was someone who had and shared wise insight about God and his ways.

The counselors, uh, the advisors, the one who would help the king understand what's going on through wisdom, and would be able to provide wise counsel related to God's purposes and God's ways.

You see, that's we don't need God as a therapist.

We really don't.

We need God as someone who understands how life works, was designed to work, and can help us live accordingly.

In the counsel that the counselors gave to the kings of Israel, there was to be a godly perspective in terms of who God is.

You cannot read the prophets aright unless you see them and hear them telling us who God is and what God is up to, what God's ways are.

The idea of a wonderful counselor doesn't just mean, wow, that's cool.

That's wonderful.

No, it's a wonder.

It it's it's a mira, it's amazing.

We would translate that probably into awesome.

An awesome, uh something that leads us to just kind of shake our heads in amazement.

That's who our God is.

And God, as we come to not just know about him, but to know him, and then not just to know him, but to begin to understand his ways.

Uh, incredibly important.

Um Exodus 33, 12 and 13, for example.

Um Moses says, God, uh, I know you.

May I know your ways?

If I'm gonna lead your people, Lord, you've got to go with me.

And let me know your ways, the ways of God.

We don't talk that in those terms.

But God does some things.

There's some typical things that we can understand about God and God's workings.

And the more we understand God's ways, the easier it is to stay tethered to the goodness and the character and the purposes of God and to stand when the blizzard hits us.

Um we begin to understand God's ways, um, we are led into things that are a bit mysterious and wondrous to us.

Wondrous in the sense of, I don't completely get it, but boy, amazing, awesome.

Um not just knowing about God, not just knowing God, but beginning to see what God is doing in our lives and in our environment and in our world around us.

When you encounter some experience and you begin to say, that's just like God, isn't it?

Boy, that just smells and tastes and feels like God.

God seems to be at work here.

I'm beginning to recognize God when he's at work around me and in me.

That goes far beyond just knowing God or about God or God, but understanding his ways, how God functions and what he does in our lives.

Things that we would not see and recognize otherwise.

Um what happens when we when the wonderful, marvelous, awesome counselor gets through to us is it's amazing.

We we actually begin to get some of the things that God is doing.

Now, what in the world does that mean?

Well, some of the things, at least that are incredibly significant to me, um, you've heard a few times.

Today is Sunday, the 25th of December 2016, and God is still on the throne.

I can never get away from that reality.

And when I begin to get it, it transforms my life.

Why do you think I keep saying it?

Because I can't think of anything else to say?

Goodness, you've been around me long enough if I can't I'm I'm probably ill if I can't think of something to say.

No, why do I why there's some things that we need to just grab a hold of and hang on to, and that's one of them.

Uh how about the phrase, it's not about us.

It's not about me.

You're going through things in your life, and sometimes it has very little to do with you.

Just like it had little to do with Job himself.

It's not about Job, it was about what God was doing.

Not everything that happens in my life has to be about me.

Not when I begin to understand the way God works.

Um, we live not for the here and now, but for the there and then.

You're probably getting tired of me saying that.

Oh well, get tired of it.

It's true.

That's just the reality.

That's the picture of reality that is given.

This and this life is not what it's all about.

So why do we live for the here and now?

And ignore the there and then.

We begin to view painful bad circumstances in a different way when we begin to get a handle on God and his ways.

Um God means it for good.

Genesis 50-20.

Old Testament version of uh Romans 8-28.

People do mean it for evil, and we have an enemy who definitely means it for evil.

A real active enemy of our souls, who will do most anything that he can to destroy us and to separate us from God.

He means it for evil, and God permits it and uses it for good, even as he did with Job.

See, these are the ways of God.

That's that's counterintuitive.

That's not the way we normally think.

In the midst of chemotherapy?

What's our anchor?

Uh Jane, forgive me, but uh Jane is now almost four years uh cleared from uh from the cancer that she had.

In the midst of chemotherapy, um there is an anchor for our souls.

And that anchor is Christ and God and his goodness.

Without that, and some of you are going through that now, some of those that you love are going through it.

Or something else, a shattered marriage.

What do you hold on to when your dreams have been destroyed?

A mighty counselor, an everlasting father, a prince of peace.

What do we hold on to?

See, these are to tether us to God and his ways of working with us.

His goodness and grace are revealed in their greatest when we are our weakest and when our circumstances are the worst.

They really are.

That's that's the way God works.

That's part of his ways with us.

We always pray for good circumstances, and so often God loves us too much to give us the very things that we're praying for.

Because the good circumstances, if we're not careful, uh, will get focused on them instead of on him.

That's just the way God works.

I don't like it.

That's not the way I would rule the world.

Thank God I don't rule the world.

Thank God I don't get my way.

Because God's ways are right and good, even when they seem wrong and incredibly painful.

Uh we begin to see that there are many things that are far worse than death.

When we begin to understand God and His ways, that is not the ultimate worst that can happen.

It is for the believer in Jesus Christ the absolute best.

Better by far.

Better by far death.

Not the process of dying, but that which death brings.

I don't look forward to the process of dying, even though it's getting closer to me every day.

I don't look forward to the process of dying.

But every day I begin to cherish more and more that which death brings to the believer.

Better by far.

See, these are the kinds of truths that tether us to the goodness and the character of God.

To be able to find utter joy and deep fulfillment in giving rather than grasping.

Wow.

Incredible joy of giving generously, graciously, ridiculously, beyond what we can even afford.

That's the example of givers in the New Testament that gave out of their absolute poverty.

You folks can just be glad I haven't given a series of messages on stewardship.

The joy of giving instead of grasping.

See, that's God working within us.

There are things that we learn through suffering and affliction, and we hate the process, but we love the result.

That's the way God works.

And by virtue of having a wonderful counselor.

And having the tent of pegs firmly planted in in deep soil, having ourselves tethered to the truth of who God is, we find that we actually begin to get those things.

Begin to understand them, begin to taste them.

Not fully, not consistently, but but we begin to get that's what tastes good.

That's what we're made for, to see and experience God in that way.

We're not going to touch on all of these very briefly, everlasting Father.

Uh this is not talking about the first person of the Trinity.

This is talking about the Godhead.

This is not Father as compared to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is just God.

And God, throughout the scriptures, is compared to a father who can be trusted and who is good.

He is ever and always good, and he does what a good father does.

What man among you, said Jesus, who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will he not give him a snake?

If you then, being evil, know how to get good gifts to your children, how much more will your father give what is good to those who ask him?

And the good things he give us gives us are often not things that feel good.

That's just the way it works.

And in the we small hours of the morning, we learn to trust in him who is able.

We grasp on to that tether.

We're bound to the goodness and the character of God, the mighty one, who's able, he's omnipotent, he's not powerful, there's nothing our God cannot do.

As I've said before, uh we can sleep at night, we can go to bed and leave our problems with God.

He'll be up all night anyway.

I don't succeed in doing that every night.

Do you?

But when I do, I'm I'm touching something that is deep and solid in terms of the character and the being of God.

Everlasting Father, good father.

He who was, is, and evermore shall be is my good father.

He rules, he reigns, he's good.

Ever and always and only good.

Prince of peace.

Shalom.

Well-being.

Not circumstantial.

The peace of God is not circumstantial.

The peace of God is who God is, and because of who he is, we can be at peace with that which God gives us.

Though it be a bed of pain, though it be a path of sorrow and suffering, we can be like his son was at peace, not my will, but thy will be done.

That is God working within us, the Prince of Peace who gives shalom a state of well-being.

It is well.

Not because it's well, circumstantially, but it is well because he knows what he's doing, he does what he pleases, and what he pleases is always and only good.

Wow.

God does what he this is.

I wish I had the time to give a hundred Bible verses to support this.

God knows what he's doing.

He does as he pleases.

And what he pleases is always and only good.

God does as he pleases.

He knows what he's doing, and what he does and pleases is always and only goodness.