The Wonderful Counsellor: “Trust Me”

Good morning, Watermark.

And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Alfie, and I help out.

I serve with the outreach that Watermark does on HKU's campus.

And in case you haven't noticed, it's Advent time.

It's Christmas season.

We all have different traditions for remembering Christmas.

In my family, Christmas always started on December 1st,

which was my little sister's birthday.

It would always start with her birthday party,

and us bringing out the Christmas tree and putting on these decorations

to remember and begin our preparation for the Christmas season,

for the Christmas time.

Now that I don't live with my parents and my sister anymore,

about three years ago, I put a Christmas ornament on the door of my house,

and it stayed there for the past three years.

I haven't moved it and touched it.

I guess I've been doing a lot of preparing for Christmas.

But this Christmas, this Advent season, as a family,

we're going to be preparing for Christmas by looking at this passage in Isaiah.

And each week we'll be looking at a different part of Jesus' character.

We'll be looking at who he is and why he calls out to us to trust him.

The book of Isaiah was written about 800 years ago.

Goodness, that's a lot of reverb.

Can we do this?

Am I standing wrongly?

Isaiah was written about 800 years ago by this prophet.

He lived in the southern kingdom of Judah,

and he was calling out to these people to repent and turn back to God.

If you want a summary of the book of Isaiah,

you can read chapters 1 and 2,

because it starts telling this story about how God has raised Israel

like his own children,

and he's given them so many good gifts.

He's rescued them from slavery, but they still rebel.

And because of that, God is bringing judgment.

He's bringing judgment, but with that, he says he's going to fulfill a promise.

He's going to bring hope.

He's going to bring the light of a new kingdom

that will come and will bring light and joy and hope to so many people.

He says,

to these people in darkness,

to these people who are suffering under Assyria,

who are away in Babylonian exile,

he says,

a child is coming,

and his name will be Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

and Prince of Peace.

It's these four names that we'll be looking at

over the next couple of weeks

as we unpack what Christmas means

and who Jesus is for us.

That he isn't the kind of God that we take out at Christmastime,

we put on our shelf,

or we polish him off when we're in trouble.

But every day, he's our savior.

Every day, we need him.

And today, we'll start by looking at Wonderful Counselor.

Now, the difficulty with this kind of passage

is that the word counselor has changed

in the way that people use it

over the past couple of years.

If I was to say to you right now

that you need to find a counselor,

some of you will be outraged

at the suggestion that something might be wrong with you.

And others of you will say,

actually, you know, I probably could use a counselor.

But that's because we mostly think of a counselor

as someone who's there to help us

with our personal problems,

with our psychological problems,

who's there to therapize us.

But the counselor described in this passage

that's described in Isaiah is quite different.

The word here, it kind of relates to advising and planning.

Think of a royal advisor or, you know, a wise man.

If it really helps you, you can think about Yoda

or the Jedi Council in Star Wars

who were there to advise the Galactic Empire

on how to run their wisdom,

to give younger Jedi wisdom that they didn't have

because they lacked experience.

A counselor in this passage,

this wonderful counselor that Isaiah is talking about,

is someone who comes and he gives wisdom.

He teaches from his experience

and he teaches from a place of knowing and seeing

and understanding what is going on all around us.

So as we're unpacking this wonderful counselor,

I'm going to try to answer three questions.

The first is, why do we need a counselor at all?

The second, why do we need a wonderful counselor?

And lastly, how is Jesus this great, wise,

and wonderful counselor that we need?

So why do we need a counselor?

Think about your morning.

What happened between you waking up

and getting here today, this Sunday?

For me, my alarm went off early

because I wanted to go for a run.

And I stayed in bed and I thought,

oh, I really don't want to run.

I should probably sleep.

Then I remember that actually I'd said that

the past couple of days

and haven't been running for a while.

So I got up and went on that run.

I went on that run.

I got home.

I showered.

I had a Snickers bar.

I went to the community center.

I printed off my notes.

And I came here.

It's fairly simple.

If you're a young, single, childless guy like me,

you don't really need a counselor

to get from bed to church in the morning.

But some of you guys here have young children.

Some of you here have very sleepy teenagers.

And getting into church on a Sunday,

maybe you feel like you need a counselor.

You need wisdom to figure out the mess

of diapers and, you know, angsty teenagers

before you get here on Sunday.

Now, if you're here and you're young

and, you know, your Sunday is very simple,

get to know your family here.

Get to know some of the young people,

the young babies,

and the parents that take care of them

because they're your family as well.

Now, I'm not going to get sidetracked

talking about that.

We're going to look at this counselor.

We may not face it every day.

I really didn't face it this morning.

But at some point, we get to this place

where we realize that we don't know

which way we should take,

what our next step forward should be.

A singer, Bob Dylan, wrote a song about that.

He says that he's got mixed-up confusion

and it's killing him.

There's way too many people

and they're all too hard to please.

He says that his head is full of questions

and his temperature is rising fast.

Well, I'm looking for some answers

and I don't know who to ask.

Bob Dylan was confused.

Bob Dylan had questions.

Bob Dylan needed to ask somebody for some help.

You know, like Bob Dylan and like me,

it's usually only when we don't know what to do

that we realize we need help.

When the things that we try don't work anymore.

That we come to the realization

that maybe we're not as wise as we think we are.

Because most of the lives,

we live under this delusion

that we know what to do.

We know how to make right decisions.

We know how to go about our job

and our family life

and to deal with our relationships.

And some of us even think

that we've got it all together.

We start giving out advice to different people.

Thinking that because we've got

this little part of our life in order

that we can start telling everybody

and adding confusion to their lives

about how they should be doing it.

We need counselors because we don't know.

We need counselors because we don't have all the knowledge.

We need counselors because we don't have the skill

to deal with that knowledge

to help us understand and interpret

the world around us

and our different situations

that we're facing day by day, week by week.

And it's not just us.

King Ahaz, which you heard the scripture readings

and the video that we had earlier in the service,

he was the kind of person

who needed a counselor as well.

In the two chapters before this prophecy

for a wonderful counselor,

we see a king.

Ahaz is a ruler.

And he's a guy that people are looking to

because he's in a position of authority.

They look to him because he should be the one

that has everything under control.

But today, he doesn't.

Today, he hears that the kings of Syria

and the kings of Israel are coming

and they intend to wage war against him,

to kill him, and replace him with a puppet king.

The Bible says that all of Judah,

the king included,

were shaking like trees in the wind.

Now, I don't think anybody here today is a king.

But we all face situations like this

where we feel trapped,

where we feel lost and confused.

Earlier this year, I got my tax bill

and I looked at it and the number was huge.

They asked for money that was multiple times my salary

and even if I did manage to pay it,

I would have no more savings left

and I'd be down to a couple of pieces of rice every day.

I felt trapped.

It was, I walked around in a daze for a few days

just looking at this piece of paper wondering,

okay, if I look hard enough,

maybe the decimal point will move over

and this won't be so bad.

I felt trapped and I needed a counselor.

I needed someone who could see more than what I was seeing,

which was just lots and lots of zeros.

I needed someone who would look at this

and tell me, actually,

this is the way you should be reading it.

This is the way that you should be approaching this tax bill.

The king Ahaz needed someone who was going to come

and tell him that this is the way that you should look

at this enemy that's coming on your doorstep.

And each of us face situations

where we need someone to show us

and to tell us how it is

that we can look at and interpret

and understand what's going on in our day-to-day lives.

When we feel trapped with a doctor's diagnosis,

when we feel trapped with that phone call

from your child's principal,

when you feel trapped

because your employer tells you

that they simply can't afford to employ you anymore,

we look at these situations

where we're trapped and confused

and we don't understand what's going on

and we think that the situation

is our biggest problem.

We think that the situation that we're in

is the thing that we need to fix,

that we're going to devote our energy

and our heart and our mind

and everything that we can gather

and our resources to fixing.

But in Isaiah chapter 7,

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

God says something quite different.

God says that what we need is we need faith.

God tells King Ahaz

that if your faith is not firm,

you will not stand firm.

If your trust isn't in me,

then you can't deal with this enemy.

In our trouble,

God doesn't say

that we need to fix our environment.

He's a counselor that says,

here's the big picture.

Your feet are standing on jelly

and you need a counselor

who's going to look at this

with your best interests at heart,

who knows what is going on,

who understands what is going on

because he is a God

who knows all and sees all

that he has the wisdom

and the experience

and the knowledge

to walk with us through it.

To Ahaz, God says,

let me be your counselor.

God says,

don't be afraid of these people

because they're a dying fire.

They don't know it,

but their end is coming.

And I'll give you a guarantee.

I'll give you a promise.

He said there would be a virgin

who would give birth to a son,

God with us.

He says,

when you're feeling like God is far away,

when you're feeling trapped,

God will be with you.

We need counselors

because we don't see

that the situations that we enter

are like a dying fire.

They're temporary.

They're not forever.

We need a wonderful counselor

because our arrogance says

that we're going to figure out

a way to do it ourselves,

that we don't need to trust God.

We don't need to put our faith in God.

We're like a toddler

who's trying to put on his shoes

and is crying

because he's trying to put his left shoe

on his right foot

and it's not fitting.

And he's refusing to let

mommy and daddy give him a hand.

We need a counselor

because sometimes we think

that God is too close and interfering

or he's too far off

and he's untrustworthy.

The reality is that

God is not untrustworthy.

It's that we are not trusting.

God comes and he gives us a promise

in Isaiah

that God will be with us.

that in those desperate moments

that we are not alone,

that he's bringing

a counselor for us

who will give wisdom

and will shed light

on what it is

that we need to do.

Why does the counselor

we need

have to be wonderful?

Why does he have to be marvelous

and without understanding?

That's what the Hebrew word here means,

that it's something

that cannot be understood

in human terms.

Why do we need a counselor

that is wonderful?

We don't have the answers

and for most of the time

I feel like I don't even know

the questions

that I'm supposed to be asking.

And when we go around

and we gather counselors around us

to help us deal with different aspects

of day-to-day life,

we go to a friend for advice,

we read the Financial Times

so we can know

what's going on

with the financial markets,

we have our different gurus

that we go to.

Some of you find them

in the pages of

the Cosmo magazine

or Elle

for your fashion tips.

If I have anything

to do with money,

I go and ask my dad

and he helps me understand

what this tax bill means.

And if he has questions

about exercise,

he asks me

and I still don't know

why he asks me.

But here in Asia,

we have other things

that we go to.

We go and we

go to gravestones

and we burn justics

and we worship our ancestors

in hoping that they'll give us

good fortune,

that they'll be with us

as we're working

through our lives.

Or we go to palm readers

to read our future,

then afterwards

to the Feng Shui Master

so he can help us

adjust our future.

But even when these things

go against what God asks for us,

even when they go against

what society asks for us,

we continue to seek

these other counselors.

You know,

just earlier this year

in Tianjin,

there was a communist party leader

who was removed

from his position

because they found out

that against his cultural environment,

against the party

which says that you shouldn't

be looking to those things,

he still went to his Feng Shui Master

to figure out how it was

that he was going to get

his promotions,

how it was he was going

to advance through the ranks

in the party.

And that's not the first time

this has happened

because God's people

also turned away

from what God

had asked of them

to find a different counselor,

to find a counselor

who would give them

the answers they wanted

when they wanted them.

We go,

and we turn away

from the counselor

that God has given

because we actually,

we're pretty impatient.

And I think this is the effect

that Google has had on us

because it teaches us

that we get our answers

right now,

that we get them

when we want it.

And if it's not Google,

then we go on Facebook.

And if not Facebook,

then we look on Wikipedia

to find answers

to our questions.

But instead of answers,

we get information.

And information

isn't really wisdom.

Google isn't really

a wonderful counselor.

You know,

we turn to all these things

because at the bottom of it,

even as Christians,

we don't trust

an all-knowing,

our all-wise,

our loving Heavenly Father

who sees us

and wants to answer

not just the question of

what do I do today?

What do I do with my toddler

who won't eat?

What do I do

with this really,

really infuriating boss?

But he goes

and he sees

the bottom of it.

He sees our hearts

and he gives us wisdom

to deal not just

with the surface

of things in our life,

but with our hearts.

Because we have

deep heart questions

that we need to answer.

We have deep heart questions

that go beyond

the crises that we face

day by day.

questions like,

how am I going to deal

with this guilt?

How am I going to deal

with this sin

that seems to have

a stranglehold on me

and I can't shake?

God, how am I going to know

what it is that you have

planned for me in my life?

Should I take this job?

Should I quit

the job that I'm in

right now?

How do I deal

with injustice

and poverty

and discrimination

that I see

all around me?

How can I have

this conversation

with my father

who's dying

and I haven't talked

to in years?

We have all these questions

and very often

the answer we get

from God

either isn't one

that we like

or it doesn't come

right away

and it doesn't come

in our schedule

and we don't trust God

and we run to Google

and we run to our gurus

to try and find our answer.

Because King Ahaz

didn't trust God,

because we

didn't trust God,

God says,

you need a counselor.

You need

a wonderful counselor.

God sent an empire

to destroy Judah

because Ahaz

wouldn't trust him.

And even as this

was happening,

God called out

to his people in Judah

and he said,

don't be distracted

by what's happening

around you.

Keep trusting me.

Keep running to me.

Keep fearing me.

Keep holding

on to my word.

He says,

run to me

because there

you'll find wisdom.

There you'll find hope.

There you'll find

peace.

In chapter 8,

Isaiah says

that even though

God isn't happy

with his children,

even though God

seems silent

and far away,

even when the enemy

is knocking on the door

that he's going

to come through

for them.

He says,

patiently trust the Lord.

Wait for God.

Has anyone ever

told you that

when you're

struggling?

When you can't figure out

and make sense

of your crisis?

It says,

patiently wait for God.

That doesn't sound

like the right response,

but that's what God says.

He says,

patiently wait for me.

God says that God knows

that we're impatient

and when those two years

or three months

or 30 seconds are up

and we're tired

of waiting for God,

we'll run to something else.

We'll run to our Google

and to our gurus

to find our answers.

He says that the people

around you will say,

forget God.

He's not going to help you.

Go to the fortune tellers

who make those chirping noises.

They will help you out.

They will give you wisdom.

He says,

they will say,

go and ask the spirits

of the dead

and maybe you're looking

at me right now

and you're thinking,

I've never done that before.

I've never seen a fortune teller

or ask spirits of the dead,

but just because

you don't do this

doesn't mean that

you're turning away from God.

It doesn't mean that

you are not running to God

for your hope

because we go to things

that we think

will give us salvation.

We go to our friends

who we think

will give us the answers

to deal with our struggle.

When God doesn't seem to work,

when God doesn't seem

to be answering your questions,

who are you going to?

Who are you asking?

Who are you hoping

will give you wisdom?

Who are you hoping

will answer your questions?

The Bible tells us

that God will answer.

The Bible also tells us

that the gods

that we're looking for

will leave us dead.

Verses 21 and 22

of chapter 8 say that.

They say that for these people,

they are going to be

greatly troubled

and distressed

because their counselors

will give them food

for a little bit

but it won't reach

their hunger.

It will give them

a little bit of light

but it won't show them

the way.

Because Google

will give us three ways

to fix our life

now

on our schedule

and not God's.

The palm readers

will tell us that

this is your future

and now you can be

the driver

of your destiny.

Our counselors

and gurus

will speak to us

on our terms

and tell us that

even as we're struggling,

we can still

be the rulers

and the king

of our little kingdoms.

And that's what Ahaz did.

Ahaz said,

actually,

I don't want to wait

on God.

I don't want to wait

for this promised child.

I'm going to go to Assyria

and I'm going to ask them

to help me

deal with Israel

and Syria

who are trying

to kill us.

In the end,

God used the same Assyria

that Ahaz went to

for help

to conquer

and to destroy

the kingdom

that he was trying

to save.

The Bible teaches us

that our earthly counselors

may do a good job

at helping us

right now

but ultimately

they will lead

to our death.

that they're like

they're like

a little match

that we're trying

to light

in a huge

corn maze

when God

instead is offering

us GPS

and sunlight.

The problem

with our counselors,

the problem

with the Financial Times

and Google

and Wikipedia

and social media

and our fortune tellers

is that

they don't get

to the heart

of our matter.

They don't get

to the bottom

of our souls

and our desires

and the things

that are taking

our crises

and making them

seem eternal

and all encompassing

because

your analyst

will help you

figure out

how to make

the most

of the market

but

it may not

tell you

how to deal

with greed.

Oprah will teach

you how to make

friends

but she won't

help you deal

with the loneliness

in your soul.

You can do

all the community

service

that you want

but it won't

deal

with your guilt.

You can rearrange

your office

but it won't

help you deal

with the unease

that you feel

because you're

out of control.

You can go

and get the best

advisors

who will help you

get into the best

companies in your field

but they will

let you down

because you will

get there

and you're

at the bottom

and if you're

a fresh guy

you're going

to be looking

up and wondering

how is it

that I'm going

to get to the top

and you'll find

mentors will help

you get there

but even though

you get to the top

it still won't

deal with your

longing

for meaning

and significance

and belonging

and love.

Our counselors

don't reach

the bottom

of our troubled

hearts.

They just deal

with things

on the surface

they make us

feel satisfied

and appeased

now

but not

in the long

term.

In C.S. Lewis's

The Lion, Witch

and the Wardrobe

Edmund was

tempted

by the

witch's

Turkish delight

it was tasty

and delicious

and made him

want more

but in the end

he realized

that the witch

was just going

to leave him

with stale bread

not more candy

and that the

promises

that the witch

gave him

of being

in control

of his brothers

and sisters

actually

were never

going to come

true.

We need a

wonderful counselor

a counselor

who's going

to understand

our world

and our lives

beyond the

surface

because

our

earthly

counselors

will only

touch the

top

of our

problems

that they'll

never give us

wisdom

to deal

with what's

going on

underneath.

They'll make us

feel like the

rulers of our

lives

but never

really give us

control

like that

toddler

you know

they're like

a toddler

going to another

two year old

to get them

to explain

shoelaces

because we need

a wonderful

counselor

because our

earthly counselors

can't explain

what is going

on beneath.

They can't give us

peace

and hope

to work through

the trouble

that we're in.

They can't give us

wisdom

that goes

beyond the

surface.

So where does

Jesus come to

this picture?

How does

Jesus come

and how is

he our

wonderful

counselor?

How is he

the answer

to Ahaz's

trouble?

How is he

our wise

counselor

who's going

to come

into our

lives

and give us

wisdom and

understanding

and help us

to walk

through

trouble?

You don't

have to read

much of the

Bible or even

be really

familiar with

it to know

that Jesus

was a wise

counselor.

If you're

non-Christian

you may even

think that he

is a wise

teacher,

a moral

prophet.

But just

another

counselor,

not really

God.

I think that

for many of

us we look

at the things

that Jesus

said,

we look at

the things

that he

did and we

think that

they're foolish.

We might say

that those are

very holy

things.

Those are

very good

things.

But in the

bottom of

our heart

we think

that the

things that

Jesus said

are foolish.

And if you

look at

Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5

and Matthew

through Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7,

the Sermon on

the Mount,

Jesus says

all kinds

of things

which our

earthly counselors,

even our

own selves

would say are

ridiculous,

that there

are no ways

to deal.

There are not

the ways to

deal with the

world.

He says that

it's not the

proud and the

strong that will

inherit an earth,

but the weak

and the

humble.

He says that

anger isn't

just about

you being

right and

you being

justified,

but that our

anger should lead

us to

reconciliation and

humility.

Jesus said that

actually marriage is

something that he

wants us to work

through when the

going gets tough,

not to cut and

run at the

earliest opportunity.

he told his

followers that

actually they

shouldn't seek

retaliation for

those who are

hurting them and

those who are

trying to kill

them, but

instead they

should love

their enemies,

they should

serve their

enemies.

He told these

people that

they shouldn't

worry about

treasures here on

earth, but they

should store up

seemingly intangible

heavenly treasures.

Now, if you

took these things

and you wrote

them in the

Financial Times,

well, they

wouldn't get

published.

They don't make

sense.

Our earthly

counselors don't

see this as a

way to dealing

with the world, a

way for working

through our

trouble, a way

for living wisely.

But these

seemingly foolish

things, they

teach us to

trust God.

The very

problem that

Ahaz in the

beginning had

when God

said if you're

faith is not

firm, then you

won't be firm

at all.

They teach us to

trust God and

have faith and

trust that he is

going to be the

one that is going

to come through

for us.

The things that

Jesus says are

wise seem

foolish because

we aren't

thinking of a

God who is

telling us these

things, who

says I'm going

to be with you

and I'm going to

carry you

through this

seemingly foolish

and ridiculous

list of wise

sayings.

And it's not

just the things

that Jesus says

that are foolish.

The way in which

Jesus saves us

is foolish.

Couldn't he have

saved us by

raising up a

giant army or

through a

political revolution?

Could he have

saved us by any

other way rather

than being hung

up on a cross?

You know, the

Greeks and the

wise Jews of

that day said

that's ridiculous.

There's no way

that he's our

God and our

Savior because

a God shouldn't

die.

God shouldn't

let himself be

disgraced like

that.

And even the

way in which

Jesus comes

into our life,

the advent that

we're remembering

is foolish in

our eyes because

our wise

counselor,

shouldn't be

born in a

haystack.

Our wise

counselor should

be given all

the privilege,

should be the

child of nobles,

should be sent

to the Oxfords

and the Cambridges

and getting his

PhDs to

understand the

world so he

can advise the

wisest people

on how to

live their life.

Instead,

God asks

Mary and

Joseph to

trust him.

He asks the

people of

Judah to

trust him

because he's

going to send

them a wise

counselor and

he's going to

be born to a

young carpenter

and his

disgraced wife

in a barn.

And this

foolish

birth is

actually the

greatest wisdom.

wisdom.

The

apostle Paul,

a church

planter,

wrote about

20 years

after Jesus'

death,

he says

that God

chose things

that are

foolish

to shame

the wise.

He chose

things that

are weak

to shame

the strong,

that the

foolishness

of God

is wiser

than the

wisest wisdom

of man.

Paul wrote

that God

is a

great God

who knows

and sees

and loves

and cares

and is

looking out

for your

best.

That when

he gives you

wisdom,

that tiny

little bit of

wisdom,

wisdom,

that is

greater than

anything any

of your

counselors or

fortune tellers

or Google

or Wikipedia

will ever

tell you.

He says

that Jesus,

the baby,

Jesus who

taught,

Jesus who

eventually would

die on a

cross,

became

wisdom

for us.

Now here's

the thing about

a wonderful

counselor.

Jesus reaches

the bottom

of our

hearts.

He deals

with our

sin and

our rebellion,

the things

that we

do that

go against

God.

He deals

with our

arrogance

that makes

us say,

no,

we're going

to put

on the

shoe

ourself.

He deals

with that

and he

says,

the way

that you

find wisdom

isn't by

being on

the throne

of your

life,

isn't by

being in

control,

but by

stepping off

your throne.

letting Jesus

sit in your

place and

saying that

Jesus,

you're going

to be my

king,

my savior,

my advisor,

my counselor.

You're doing this

picture of a

toddler struggling

to put a left

shoe on his

right.

We need a

loving heavenly

father who's

going to say,

no, that's not

the way you put

on your shoes.

Jesus says,

and to take

us and gently

put the shoe

on our right

foot and tie

the knot in

our laces for

us.

Jesus says

that if you

trust me,

if you have

faith in me,

I'm going to

send my Holy

Spirit to be

with you,

to be your

counselor,

to walk you

through your

life.

I think it

can be really

easy, and I

think especially

talking about

Jesus as a

wonderful counselor

to think of

Christianity as

good advice.

You know, that

if we do all

the things that

Jesus says,

if we stop

looking for

the advice,

that we'll be

happy.

That if we only

go to our

pastors to help

us deal with

our problems,

that we'll have

peace.

That if we're at

church every

Sunday, that we're

going to have

meaning.

a purpose in

our life.

That if I use

the Bible as

my manual,

then everything

will be alright.

But Christianity

isn't just an

encouragement for

nice people who

want religion.

Our wonderful

counselor isn't

there to help

you have a little

Jesus wisdom in

your life.

Because if we're

doing that, if

we're just using

Christianity as

another

head on to

the list of

counselors that

we have, then

really we're

missing a point.

We've just

Christianized our

counsel.

Because Christianity

is not good

advice.

It's good news.

It's good news

that says that

God sees us in

our struggle and

he hasn't left us

alone.

He hasn't abandoned

us.

He's not far away.

But he sent

Jesus to walk

through and

struggle with us.

To experience

the troubles that

we have.

To be rejected

by his family

and friends.

To be betrayed

by those who are

close to him.

To be persecuted

by those who

didn't like him.

So that he would

be our savior.

And when Jesus

asked to be our

counselor, he

asks for us to

trust him.

He says that

your greatest

intentions aren't

going to get you

where you need to

be.

But I can.

And I'm going to

accomplish all the

wisdom that you

cannot do.

And I'm going to

accomplish all the

counsel that you

need that you

can't do by

yourself.

That he's going

to make us right

with God.

He's going to

help us to

trust God.

He's going to

give us the

Holy Spirit.

He's going to

help us look at

the financial

times and

understand it.

Not in terms

of us getting

through our

problems.

But us following

God.

Who's going to

look at the

Google page that

we found about

how to feed our

toddler.

And help us

look at that.

And help us

understand actually

what's going on in

our own hearts and

our desire for

control.

And trust God to

be the one to

walk us through

this.

Christmas.

At Christmas we

can remember that

God came to be our

wonderful counselor.

And we can choose

to say, Jesus, I'm

going to step off my

throne of being in

control of seeking my

own counselors and

not you.

And I'm going to

follow you.

This morning Jesus

is calling to us

and he says, I want

to be your wise

counselor.

I want to be your

wonderful counselor.

Will you trust me?

will we trust God?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I

need you.

I need your wise

counsel because I

don't know what I'm

doing.

I don't know how to

work out my life.

I don't even know

what to ask.

But God, I thank you

that you have not

left us alone.

You have given us a

savior who is wise,

who became wisdom for

us, who did foolish

things in our eyes,

so that we can trust

you, so we can walk

through our day-to-day

life and say that you,

Jesus, are our king.

Well, this Christmas,

Lord, help us to trust

you.

Help us to follow you,

our wonderful counselor.

Amen.