His Name Never Fails

Morning. Everyone really quick turn to

the person next to you and just say your name.

If you have a middle name, say that middle name too.

So names are funny things, right?

They look simple on paper, just a couple of letters bunched

together that create a sound. But for anybody that's lived

long enough, you know that names are more than just a sound.

A name carries a story. We all know this as kids, maybe

even still now, as grown-ups, but especially as kids.

If somebody used your full government name, your first,

middle, last name, no matter where you were or what you did,

judgement, they had arrived. If that happens with me, I start

confessing things that I didn't. I'm not even sure that I did

right. One name spoken in the wrong

tone can bring a whole storm into a room, but that same name

in the right voice can do the opposite.

Like when your name uses that nickname for you, the one that

other people aren't allowed to use, It's almost like the whole

world just exhales. And for a moment you feel seen

and known and cared for and slightly suspicious because you

don't know if you're in trouble yet.

And then there's the workplace version of a name where your

boss leans over the your desk and he just says, Dennis, can I

see you in my office really quick?

And immediately, your name feels like a liability, right?

Your heart starts to race and you start rethinking every

e-mail you've sent since 2014. And as you walk to the office,

your brain is like automatically updating your CV.

And it's amazing how a name the same collection of letters can

shift the atmosphere. It can raise expectations and

stir emotions or even bring comfort.

And that's because names carry weight and they tell a story.

They shape how we see other people and how we see ourselves.

Yet we live in a world that has forgotten that.

And we talk about people like they are categories instead of

sons and daughters. And we speak about ourselves

like we are mistakes instead of masterpieces.

And when it comes to God, often we drift into these casual

nicknames that shrink His glory into something vague and

distant. You know, sometimes we say

things like we refer to him as the man upstairs or the big guy,

or some people talk about the universe as if God is a regional

manager at head office. That'll get back to my request

after lunchtime. But Scripture never treats His

name casually. When Isaiah speaks in Chapter 9,

he doesn't say He has some nice titles.

This is what he says, if you turn to Isaiah 9 verse 6.

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the

government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be

called, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father,

and Prince of peace. This is not branding or poetry

or a Christmas card slogan. This is God revealing His

character, unchanging and eternal.

And each name of God shows or tells something about who God

is. When our lives feel like they're

falling apart, when we feel broken, when we feel confused,

when we feel tired, when you're praying for the strength that

you just don't have, God reveals himself to us.

And some of you walked through a year that it felt like you

experienced more battles than blessings.

A year where you didn't need another motivational quote, you

really needed a miracle. A year that forced you to

question everything except the fact that you were completely

exhausted. But before the year ends, before

we walk into the next one carrying the weight of this past

one, Isaiah invites you to remember something.

That is that God's name still holds power.

God's name still carries authority, and God's character

has not changed. Wonderful Counsellor still

speaks when you are confused. Mighty God still strengthens

when you are weak. Everlasting Father still holds

you when others leave, and Prince of Peace still calms the

storm when chaos hits. And throughout your year your

situation might have shifted, but His name didn't, and neither

did he. So the question isn't, do you

know His name? The question is, do you still

believe what His name reveals about him?

Let's read that again. 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,

mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Now before we talk about these four names, we have to

understand when Isaiah spoke them.

Isaiah didn't preach this verse on a beautiful day where birds

were chirping and kids were playing in the background and

everything was going well. He spoke this into a nation

drowning in fear and political chaos, corruption, confusion.

Israel was surrounded by enemies.

People had walked away from God. The Kingdom was divided,

families were falling apart and leaders were failing and

darkness was everywhere. And this might sound like 2025

for some of you. The people were tired.

They were tired of waiting for deliverance, tired of injustice,

and tired of bad leadership. And into this darkness God sends

a prophet, Isaiah. Not with strategies, not with a

five step survival plan, not with a new king or a army.

But he sends a name. A baby whose names don't fit in

a crib. A promise wrapped in

vulnerability. For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given. And it's almost offensive how

God answers our problems. We want power.

He sends a baby. We want escape.

He sends endurance. We want solutions, and he sends

a savior. So the people are listening to

this and they say, God, what are you doing?

Where are you? Why are you sending us a baby

when we need a champion? And it's because God wasn't just

fixing their situation. He was revealing his character.

He wasn't sending an idea. He was revealing his identity to

them. And so Isaiah speaks the words

that would echo for 700 years. His name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of

Peace. Not a nickname, not a resume,

not a seasonal job title, but his name, his essence, his

nature, his eternal character. See the power wasn't what in

what the people could see, which was a baby.

It was in what God called him to be because what God calls

something determines what it becomes.

If we look throughout the Bible, we see that God calls things

what they will be before they even look like it.

So if we look at Genesis one verse 3, it said God called

light day before the sun ever appeared.

In Genesis 7/14. He called Abraham a father

before he even held a child, and in Judges 611 he called Gideon a

mighty man of valor while he was still hiding out in The Cave.

So when Isaiah says he shall be called, he's not describing,

he's declaring. He's declaring wonderful

counselor. In Hebrew, wonderful means

beyond understanding, too extraordinary for word words.

And counsellor means the one whose wisdom you can trust even

when you cannot trust yourself. So as I was saying, when you

don't know what to do, he does. When you are confused, he isn't.

When your thoughts betray you, his thoughts are higher.

He's declaring mighty God, not motivational God, not support of

God, but mighty God, champion God, warrior God.

Isaiah's reminding a scared people that God is not

intimidated. What by what intimidates you or

me? He's declaring everlasting

Father, Everlasting meaning he doesn't leave, he doesn't fade,

and he does not change his mind about you, Father, meaning he

doesn't just rule, but he loves you.

Some of you grew up without fathers, fathers who left

disappointed, all wounded you. And Isaiah is saying that God is

not that father. He is the one who stays.

And he's declaring Prince of peace in Hebrew, Tsar Shalom,

the captain of peace, the ruler of wholeness, and the commander

of calm. When I read these names, it's

funny because it's names about peace, but it makes me want to

run through a wall. So Isaiah is saying peace isn't

a feeling, it's a person beautiful.

And where God rules, peace reigns.

So all this was spoken 700 years before Jesus was born.

And Isaiah wasn't just giving us a prophecy, he was giving a

profile, a character description, a revelation of

what God is like when everything around us is spinning.

So before we talk about what these names mean for your

situation today, remember this. Isaiah spoke this into a world

in chaos just like ours, and God answered their chaos the same

way He answers ours, by revealing who He is.

Each name reveals a layer of hope we need, especially after a

long, hard season like some of you had this year.

Wonderful counselor. Meaning God knows what you

cannot see. Some of you walked through

situations this year where you said, Lord, I have no idea what

to do next. Your plans didn't work out, your

expectations didn't happen, and your prayers didn't get answered

the way you expected them to. But the confusion on your end

doesn't mean confusion on his. God isn't pacing heaven all

stressed and trying to figure out your future, and he's not

trying to look through revising blueprints for you or scrambling

to find illusions. He's already seen those

trapdoors that would have caught you and you avoided.

He already see all the doors that would have destroyed you if

you would walk through them, and he already saw all those

relationships that would have drained you if you pushed into

them. And I want to tell you, it feels

like you lost your way, but actually it was just God guiding

you a different way. Wonderful counselor means God's

wisdom is not always loud, but it's always accurate.

So when life feels confusing and your prayers feel more like

question marks than exclamation points, he's not silent and he's

not guessing. He's a wonderful counselor, full

of wisdom beyond logic. And sometimes God's counsel

doesn't make sense until we look back.

Beautiful. We think in certain situations

that he's delaying, but actually he's just developing us.

We look back and we thought he was ignoring us, but he was

instructing and guiding us. We look back and we think that

he was silent, but he was actually being strategic.

CS Lewis said God's wisdom often offends human logic before it

produces divine results. Mighty God means that God is

strong where we are weak, and he was strong this year where we

were weak. And this is where some of us, we

feel it on our chest because this year we were in places

where we realized I'm not as strong as I thought I was.

Our faith wavered, our discipline slipped, our hearts

got tired, and our strength ran out before the battles were

over. The thing is that God never

asked us to fight battles in our own strength.

God just says to us we have to show up.

He'll fight this battle for us. Every time you cried this year,

Mighty God fought. Every time you prayed through

shaking hands, Mighty God stood firm.

And every time you were so close to quitting, Mighty God held you

up. Our weakness doesn't scare him,

it invites Him. Some of you thought you failed,

but what if in your weakest moment, that's when God was

working the hardest? We sang that song I read the

other day that God works behind the scenes in the darkness.

Like we said, there was darkness before there was light.

And I read that God is working on 10,000 things in your life,

but you only see two of them. And don't get discouraged

because you only see those two. God is working.

The Hebrew word for mighty is Gabor, meaning warrior and

champion, the one who steps onto a battlefield when we cannot.

And we often only think of God as gentle, which he is.

But we shouldn't forget that the Lamb is also the lion.

And like Stephen preached last week, Psalm 23, he makes us lie

down in green pastures so that he can tend to our soul.

And when I'm lying down in green pastures and I'm not able or I'm

not currently fighting those battles, I imagine this fierce

lion fighting my battles for me. And I want to show you the type

of lion that I imagine that right there, that lion's name is

Scarface, not the one from Lion King, the real live one.

This lion took down over 130 opponent males.

He's killed over 400 hyenas. He's taken out hippos and

crocodiles while protecting his pride.

And in 2021, he passed away peacefully because he never lost

the battle. That's the type of lion I

imagine that's fighting my battles for me when I can't.

God's not intimidated by your storm, your sin, or your

situation because He does not lose battles.

Everlasting Father. God didn't leave when others

did, and this one lands deep for some of us, because everyone in

this room knows what it feels like to lose someone through

distance, conflict, betrayal, A misunderstanding, or simply just

the painful drift of life. The people you depended on

weren't they when you needed them.

But God is not a seasonal father.

He's not present when you are strong and distant when you are

broken, and he doesn't show up when you perform.

And He's silent when he struggles or when we struggle.

He doesn't love us in moments. He loves us for eternity, for a

lifetime. And some of you didn't realize

this, but the reason you survived this year is because

the everlasting Father put his hand on his back and he refused

to let you collapse even when you felt alone.

You never walk alone. You can outgrow your car, your

job, your house, but you can never outgrow his love.

And when you messed up again and you convinced that God's patient

must have run out, this time, God whispers in our ears, and he

says, I'm still your father. When everyone else saw the

strong version of you this year, God saw the tired version, the

discouraged version, and the broken version, and he stayed

Prince of Peace. God brings peace in the storm,

not just when it ends. Some of you prayed for peace

this year, but the storm didn't stop, the diagnosis didn't

shift, the job didn't change, the family situation didn't get

better, and the pressure didn't live lift.

And we start wondering, God, where is this peace that you

promised? But peace was never the promise

of a storm free life. Peace is the promise of His

presence in the storm. I read this the other day.

It just says when he walks into a room, anxiety loses oxygen,

when he whispers, fear loses its volume.

And when he stands with you, chaos loses its authority.

And I just, I really like that he didn't promise a storm free

life. He promised a peaceful heart.

There's an interesting difference in behavior between

cows and bison or Buffalo when storms come up.

Don't know if you know this, but when those dark clouds roll in,

cows instinctively turn and they run away.

They try to avoid the storm, but because the storm is faster than

them, it catches up and it stays over them for much longer before

it passes. So by trying to avoid a storm

they're actually endear suffering more.

But with bison, when a storm approaches, they turn towards it

head on, and they run into the storm because they know if they

face that storm, they're going to get through it quicker and

they're going to reach calmer skies on the other side.

God didn't call us to turn away from difficulties.

He calls us to run into the storm, through the storm with

Him. If we look at James one, verse

2, it says trials produce endurance.

Isaiah 43 verse 2, it says when you pass through the waters, I

Isaiah 43:2

will be with you, not over the waters, not along the waters,

but through the waters. Psalm 23, verse 4, though I walk

Psalms 23:4

through the valley of the shadow of death, again through the

storm. And Romans 5 verse 3 teaches us

Romans 5:3

that suffering produces strength.

And I want to tell you that if your storm is still raging,

that's because God is not done teaching you how to walk on

water. Every name Isaiah gives is not

just who God is. That's who God wants to be for

you if you are. He's not a wonderful counselor

in theory. He's wonderful counselor in your

confusion. He's not mighty God in your

stories. He's mighty God in your

weakness. He's not everlasting father for

the people around you. He's everlasting Father for you.

And he's not Prince of Peace on paper.

He's Prince of Peace in the storm.

Your season this year did not redefine God.

Your season revealed what name you needed.

If you were confused, you needed wonderful counselor.

If you felt exhausted, you needed mighty God.

If you felt abandoned, Everlasting Father, and if you

were anxious, you need Prince of Peace.

God wasn't distant this year. He was revealing himself to you,

name by name, moment by moment, and he was carrying you in ways

that you didn't even see. So we've talked about what these

names mean, and that's, that's amazing, right?

But it's one thing to see it on paper and another thing to apply

it when your world is shaking. So what do we do with this name

when life really hits you in the face?

Like Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get

punched in the mouth. Everyone in this room is

carrying something. A pressure, a decision, a

battle, a wound, a fear that you won't say out loud, and a

disappointment from this year that you buried under the words.

I'm fine. But Isaiah isn't giving you

information. He's offering transformation, so

let wonderful counsellors speak before your anxiety does.

Some of us are in a season where our thoughts are loud and big

and our peace is extremely small and your mind keeps rehearsing

the worst case scenarios and you fighting battles and carrying a

load that God didn't ask you to carry.

Stop letting your thoughts be louder than His voice and invite

the counsellor into your conversations, not just after

your decisions. Before you panic, pray.

Before you spiral, seek Him. And before you assume the worst,

ask the One who sees all. Let mighty God fight battles

you've been trying to win on your own.

Some of you won't stop fighting battles that that aren't yours,

and it's draining you emotionally and physically.

And I'm specifically thinking about men in this room and men

in general. You think standing down is

quitting, but sometimes that's obedience.

God does not need your panic, your plan, or your pressure.

He needs your trust. And sometimes the strongest

thing you can do is to bestow. Stay calm and let him fight.

Exodus 1414 says the Lord will fight for you, and you shall

hold your peace. Hand him the battle.

Rest in his strength instead of yours.

And I know this because I've spoken with so many of you that

some of you are one. Surrender away from

breakthrough. Place it in God's hands.

Let everlasting Father rewrite the lies that your wounds taught

you. Our past shaped the way that we

see God. So if your earthly father was

absent, you assume that God leaves, and if he was angry, you

assume that God is hard to please, and if he was

unpredictable, you assume that God is unstable.

Let God redefine that word. Father.

Stop looking at him through the lens of your wounds.

We've preached this a lot through the year.

You are loved, you are held. You are not forsaken, You are

not condemned. You do not have to earn the

affection that He already gave you.

Your earthly story does not cancel your heavenly identity.

Let Prince of Peace rule the places where chaos has been

ruling you. Some of you have been living in

emotional survival mode, heart racing, mind crowded, spirit

unsettled. As we said, peace is not

something you chase. Peace is someone you surrender

to, so let him into the storm, let him into your anxiety and

led him into the places that you've been trying to control in

your own strength. Let the Prince of Peace do what

only He can do, and that is to calm this internal world that

nobody else sees. God didn't give you and me His

name so that we could admire them.

He gave us His name so that we could call in them, on them.

Wonderful counselor. It's not a theory, it's an

invitation. Mighty God is not a title, it's

a promise. Everlasting Father.

It's not poetic, it's personal. And Prince of Peace isn't

seasonal, it's survival. Across Scripture, the commands,

invitations, and examples of calling on God appear well over

100 times, and references to crying out to God appear over

150 times. That's one of the most repeated

themes in the Bible. God's name never changes, but

maybe what you call him has to. If you call him distant, you'll

feel alone. If you call him silent, you're

going to miss his voice. If you call him absent, you'll

overlook his presence. And if you call him weak, you'll

never experience his strength. But if you choose to call him by

the name that Isaiah revealed, you'll find wisdom and

confusion, strength and weakness belonging in your loneliness,

and peace in your storms. Now I want to close with the

Scripture, Psalm 9, verse 10. Those who know your name will

Psalms 9:10

trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who

seek you. So I want to say again, before

we rush into the next year carrying the weight of this past

one, just let God be who He's always been and let God do what

only He can do, because His name never fails.