Arrival: Wonderful Counselor | Part 1

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Well, good morning, Church.

It's so good to be with you this morning.

My name is Christina.

I'm one of our pastors here.

Hey, if it's your first week with us, I just want to say hey.

And I'm so glad you're with us this morning.

And welcome.

We're so glad you're here.

Church, it is our first week in our Advent series.

And I'm so excited I get to bring the message to you today.

Advent is this season leading up to Christmas.

Traditionally in the church, it's a time of waiting.

It's a time of anticipating Christmas and anticipating the birth of Jesus.

It's a time of sitting in the in-between, a time of remembering the longing and the yearning and the suffering of the people of Israel as they waited for their Messiah 2,000 years ago.

They waited hundreds of years, hundreds of years of hearing nothing from God, not having a king or a judge or a prophet bringing them the word of God.

And they yearned for the promised Messiah.

They read and recited prophecies that God had given to them, knowing that their king was going to come from the line of David.

And as they waited, they suffered.

Under oppression from a ruthless Roman occupation, being taxed and controlled, victims of a violent government.

They yearned for a redeemer as they lived under the weight and the burden of the Jewish law, the legalism of the religious leaders that was oppressive for them.

They waited and they suffered and they tried to hold on to hope.

They tried to have faith that God was still their God and that they were still his people and that he would fulfill his promises and send them a savior.

They waited.

Sounds a lot like 2020, doesn't it?

Likewise for us, this has been a year of waiting.

A year that feels like we're in a holding pattern, wondering what's going to happen.

A year filled with so much worry and fear of this pandemic, how it will affect our bodies, our homes, our loved ones, our schools and our jobs and our bank accounts.

It feels sometimes like everything is paused.

We feel stuck, we feel trapped.

And some of us were suffering deeply, suffering from grief, maybe from the loss of jobs, the loss of the possibility of future hopes and plans, the loss of homes and loved ones.

And some of us are worrying.

We're suffering under the weight of the anxiety and the worry.

How will this end?

When will this end?

And some of us are suffering under the weight of depression and discouragement and loneliness and addiction.

And some of us are just plain disappointed that Thanksgiving didn't look right, that it wasn't where the way we wanted it to be with the people we wanted.

And as we look to Christmas and all the emotions that are wrapped up in the holiday season, things just don't feel right.

We're waiting for vaccining.

We're waiting for racial equality and justice, waiting to see how our government will transition, waiting to see how our economy is gonna withstand the shutdowns.

We're waiting to get back to social lives and personal, in-person friendships and community.

Girls, we are waiting to put our kids back in school.

Parents, can I get an amen?

And we're waiting for our jobs to go back to some semblance of what they were.

We wait, we make plans, and then we change our plans.

And we're trying to hold on to hope and expectation.

But honestly, many of us, we just feel like we're enduring.

We're just hanging in there.

2020 has beat us down and we're weary.

As we were as a staff talking through what does our church need in this Advent season?

What should our series be entitled and what should we include?

We just we kept coming back to the lines from Oh Holy Night that talks about the night was born.

And the line is a thrill of hope.

The weary world rejoices.

Because we feel weary and we can identify for that.

We're desperately longing for hope.

We desire to rejoice.

We need Christmas.

How many times have I heard that?

We need Christmas.

I've loved watching people decorate their homes early this year, people getting ready for the holiday season way sooner than we have in the past.

Because there's something about the warmth and the light and the joy that we long for.

I think back to March when we first went into shelter and place and people were throwing up their Christmas lights on their houses.

And I know there was even some streets in Willow Glen that were putting up their matching decor, because there's something about the light and the joy and the hope and the cheer of the holiday that we long for.

But in reality, not to be a scrooge here, but Christmas season will be gone in a month.

The lights will lose their bulbs, and our homes will feel cluttered with all the toys and all the gifts and all the cards and all the food and all the food.

And my beautiful Christmas tree will be crispy and dead out on the curb.

And then we'll decide that we need something else.

We'll need newness and we'll need freshness.

Ah, we're gonna need a new start.

We're gonna need to spring clean our homes and spring clean our bodies, and we're gonna need new to-do lists, we'll need resolutions, and we're gonna need goals and dreams and action plans and vision boards for 2021.

Church, we need Christmas because we're needy.

Hear me out.

I love the holiday, and I'm all about it.

I've been listening to Christmas music since November 1st.

My husband does not love it, and I can attest to that.

I love Christmas, but our need is not going to be fulfilled in a warm and beautiful holiday.

We're needy and lacking people.

We're weary, needy, tired, worn out.

We're searching for something that will bring rest, rest to our bodies and our souls, something that will bring joy and something that will delight our hearts.

We want to escape our current reality, and really who could blame us?

But what we really need, it's not Christmas, and it's not even the hope of what 2021 will bring.

We don't need a band-aid to help us escape from the reality of this weariness.

Now, church, we need a divine intervention from one who intimately knows us, who cares for us, who promises he will always be with us, one who walks us through the pain and the struggle, giving us hope, guiding and directing and leading us, giving us purpose, healing our deep wounds and listening to our pain and our struggle, kindly correcting, comforting, never leaving us.

We need the same thing that the people of Israel needed 2,000 years ago.

The prophet Isaiah, in the book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, was given beautiful words of hope and prophecy from God of the coming Messiah and Savior.

I want to read them together.

If you have a Bible or if you have a phone with a Bible app, grab it now.

We're gonna go to Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 9, and I'm gonna start in verse 2.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy.

They rejoice before you, as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, and it will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born.

To us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace.

Church in 2020, that's what we need.

We need a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, an everlasting father, and a prince of peace.

We need the same thing that the people of Israel needed over 2,000 years ago.

The only difference we're no longer waiting for God's presence to appear to us.

We are waiting for the effects of his presence to us.

Our Savior has come.

We don't have to cross our fingers and we don't have to hold our breath.

He has come.

He is with us, he is here.

And although there are many things we're waiting on, many things that we're sitting in on the unknown, that's where we find ourselves in this Advent season.

In celebration of Emmanuel God with us, and also in living in a world where we still wait and we're still weary and we're still not at home forever.

Looking at these words of God, given through Isaiah, and then looking through the fulfillment of this prophecy through Jesus Christ and the story of his life in the gospels, we see the prophecy come to life through the loving power of God, through Jesus, his son, through the Holy Spirit.

The gospel paints a beautiful picture for us of Jesus as our wonderful counselor, our mighty God, our everlasting Father, and our Prince of Peace.

So during our Advent season, during the next four weeks, today plus three more weeks, we're gonna spend one week on each of these descriptions of God.

Unpacking it and looking at it, learning more about our Savior who is already with us, Emmanuel.

The people of Israel were waiting for a king, a ruler to overthrow the Roman government, to take power and conquer over their enemies.

But instead, Jesus came as a tiny baby, born to a humble and poor couple.

And he grew to be a man, a carpenter, a rabbi, and a wonderful counselor.

Now, I don't know what images come to your mind or feelings come to your heart when you think of a wonderful counselor or a good counselor or of any counselor, honestly.

Some of us maybe don't have personal experience seeing a counselor, and maybe we don't even want to.

Some of us we might think back to, I don't know, our childhood, maybe a hard time, maybe our folks got divorced and they put us in counseling.

Or some of us, and we think of counseling, we think of a time in our lives when we drove ourselves because we needed help.

And then others of us thinking counseling, it's just a part of our life, it's a part of our health.

It's what we always do.

Maybe you call your counselor by a different name.

Maybe it's a life coach or a spiritual director or a therapist, maybe it's a social worker or just even a wise, godly friend, or a member, close friend.

Regardless of your experience with counselors, I want to paint a new picture.

When I think of Jesus as a wonderful counselor, here are some of the things that I think of.

I think of some of my friends who talk about their counselors like it's their lifeline with so much reverence and so much respect and so much honor.

Friends who have have hit their breaking points or their rock bottom, and the only way they found their way back was because of a wise and caring expert who spent time with them.

They say things like, I might not be here today if it wasn't for my counselor, or without my time in counseling, I would still be defeated by fill in the blank.

My relationship struggles, my anger, my mental illness, my addiction, my eating disorder.

Or couples who say, our marriage wouldn't still be standing if it wasn't for our marriage counselor.

Or I think of a dear friend of mine who endured horrendous and unspeakable abuse in her home as a child, and really it's only because of God's power and his ability to heal and redeem and restore what was broken and shattered, and the help of an amazing expert counselor who walked with her to wholeness.

And because of that, she has a beautiful life and she has a beautiful marriage.

A counselor helps us walk the sometimes painful process of becoming who we are becoming.

The path from brokenness to healing, it can be lonely, confusing, it can be defeating.

A counselor walks beside us, helping shed light on the path, giving encouragement and skills and perspective, always present, always with us.

I want to share a picture with us today of Jesus as a wonderful counselor in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

You can grab your Bible, you can open up your phone app, whatever you want.

But Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, is where we're gonna be.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

And by the time we get to chapter 11, let me paint the picture for you.

Here's where where we are.

We've seen the birth of Jesus, we've seen the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

Um, we've seen the temptation of Jesus in the desert, and we've read about his ministry.

He's called his disciples to him.

We've heard him speak the Sermon on the Mount.

We've read Jesus' white teaching on salt and light, on anger and loving our enemies, on giving to the poor, on prayer and money and worry, and we watched him heal.

We've seen him restore sight to the blind and heal the paralyzed and immune.

We've seen him driving out demons and ticking off the religious leaders.

And by this time, we've seen so much of his ministry.

And in Matthew 11, 28, these are the words of Jesus, the words to me that sound like a wonderful counselor.

He says this Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Come to me, he calls.

Don't run from me, don't hide from me, don't ignore me, but come to me.

No matter how long it's been, don't let the shame and the guilt and the pride keep you from me.

He doesn't say how we have to come, which I kind of love.

It doesn't have to be with gladness or joy or praise or even repentance.

Just simply an invitation to come.

It's such a simple invitation, and yet oftentimes it's the very hardest for us.

I don't know why it's so hard for us to respond to Jesus sometimes, but sometimes it just feels like such a battle to stop, to pause, to listen, even just long enough to hear him call to us and invite us in.

In the Psalms, it tells us that in the presence of God is fullness of joy.

It's the very fullness of what joy can be.

And yet we we just shy away.

And I think it's because also in his presence there's truth.

And we can't hide.

We are faced with our brokenness and our sin and our presence.

The presence of God and in his holiness.

There's nowhere to hide from him.

Come to me, he calls.

And yet we don't want to come to Christ.

We don't want him to see our sin and our pain.

Our pride keeps us from wanting to acknowledge it.

It reminds me of a toddler.

Any of you parents out there today, we have had nine babies born during COVID season in our church, and we cannot wait to see y'all.

But about a year from now, when your babies are toddling around, something that's so common that these little ones do, when they get a dirty diaper, they run and hide.

It's so, so silly because everyone knows what's going on.

Everyone can smell it.

I feel like that's how we are with God.

Just want to run and pretend like it's not there instead of acknowledging, like, no, there's something here going on.

We'd rather try to fix things ourselves.

We don't want to just say, God, I'm not okay.

I'm not okay and I need you.

I find myself doing this often.

And it reminds me of when my kids were little and when they were toddlers, so independent, so wanting to do everything themselves.

They'd say, My, me do it, myself.

And I remember watching them, like trying to put a shirt on by themselves and forcing their head through the armhole, crying and angry.

And I think it's exactly how I am with God.

Like, God, I don't need you.

I can do this, I can figure it out.

I'm capable, I'm independent.

All the while I'm crying and screaming, I'm a disaster.

And he's like, just let me help.

Come to me, he calls.

Come to me.

Don't turn to other places, to other gods, to other sources of distraction or comfort.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.

All you.

It's not exclusive.

It's it's an open invitation to who?

The weary and the burdened.

The weary, the worn out, exhausted, depleted, having exerted to the end of their strength, having no more stamina, endurance, tenacity, flexibility, or resilience left.

None.

They are weary.

It sounds kind of like 2020.

And to the burdened, those who are carrying a load, feeling the weight on their shoulders like a burden, the fear and the anxiety and the stress, maybe it's oppression.

Maybe for some of us, we're honestly we're just burdened by our uninterest and our apathy.

That's the weight that we carry.

And what King calls to himself, these worn-out, disastrous, depleted people.

Jesus does.

See, Jesus doesn't invite just the perfect and the holy and the noble and the beautiful and the smart and the accomplished into his presence.

Unlike any other nobility who wants to be around the influential and the beautiful and the wise and the accomplished, Jesus calls the opposite.

He doesn't say, get your act together, get insta-perfect, put on your best and throw on a good filter on your Zoom and show up in your best light.

No.

See, we're welcome to the presence of Jesus with joy and gladness and celebration.

But also when we're just a wreck, we're welcome then too.

And he says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I will give it to you.

He's giving to me.

In a season where so many of us are wearing so many different hats, and we have so few boundaries between work and family and play and school, a season where many of us feel like there's just so many people that need so much from us all the time.

Jesus is saying, just come and receive.

Just come and sit and receive.

And here's the thing: Jesus doesn't promise to take it away.

The weary, the burden, the pain, he doesn't promise that life is going to be easy or pleasurable without pain or work.

It makes me think back to Chip's message last week.

If you were with us last week, you heard just a powerful message from Chipping Grimm.

And if you weren't with us, go back and listen, friends.

He talked through five pillars that we can go back to that know that are true.

The first one was, God is good.

And the second one, life is hard.

And it was so refreshing to just hear, like, that's actually the truth.

Life is hard.

And Jesus says, I'll be with you in the pain and the hardship.

And he offers to walk with us in the struggle and to give us rest.

The rest that Jesus is offering is healing, it's love and peace.

It's forgiveness from the sin that keeps us from him.

It's supernatural restoration to the weariness of our hearts and our bodies and our souls.

He goes on to say, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

We can understand his yoke to be two different things here.

Both of them work, neither of which involve an egg.

Just have to say that for the little ones in the room.

But Jesus, as a rabbi, as a Jewish leader, with a following of disciples, his yoke was his teaching, it was his instruction, the way that he would live out his life according to the Jewish law, the prayers that he would speak, the rituals that he would observe.

A disciple would follow their rabbi.

It is said they would follow him so closely that they would get dirty from the dust flicked off his sandals.

His yoke was his teaching to his disciples.

He's saying, Take my yoke upon you.

Likewise, a yoke would have been a wooden harness, still used, of course, for farm animals and such.

It fits over the shoulders of animals, and it's usually attached to some kind of piece of equipment or machinery or something that they're gonna pull behind them.

That's also a yoke.

But here's the thing that's interesting is a yoke doesn't just usually go over one animal, it usually goes over two.

So what Jesus is saying here is, come yoke next to me.

Step with me.

He's not saying take this on you and pull this and be responsible for that.

He's saying, come next to me.

Let's do this together, let's share the load together.

Like a counselor walking right with us through things.

Jesus is saying, take on my yoke.

Take on my yoke.

Do life my way.

Only put on your shoulders what I am asking you to put on your shoulders.

This is a picture of surrender, surrendering to what he tells us in verse 30 is that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

Learn from me.

I have something for you.

Let me teach you, follow me.

And he goes on to say, For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Something that is so interesting about this statement that I absolutely love is that this is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus tells us specifically about his heart.

There's other places we can read stories.

And we can infer what he was like, how he responded to things, the words he said.

People will even say, you know, he had compassion on them.

We read things like that.

But this is the only place that from the mouth of Jesus does he say, Let me tell you what my heart is like.

And he says, I am gentle and humble in heart.

This is the counseling heart of God seen through Jesus.

He gently and humbly approaches everyone in specifically the way that they need.

A couple stories I want to share with you about how we see Jesus do this in the Gospels.

In John 3, we see Jesus have this conversation with Nicodemus.

If you know Nicodemus, you know this.

And if you don't, let me tell you, Nicodemus was part of the Sanhedrin, part of the religious elite.

He wanted to meet with Jesus, but only in private.

So Jesus agreed to meet with him at night when no one would see.

And Jesus met him right where he was at.

He spoke with him in exactly the level that he would have spoken at, theologically and heady, understanding the laws and all the religious Jewish tradition.

Jesus met him right where he was.

And then just in the very next chapter, we see Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, and he treats her totally different than he treats Nicodemus.

He comes to her with this great relationalness, this kindness and tenderness.

He teats her with dignity and honor, even though for him being a Jewish man and her being a Samaritan female, they would have never spoken.

That would not have been appropriate.

And yet he talks to her gently.

He talks about her painful past.

He offers her living water.

He brings her hope.

And then in Mark 10, another story of just a beautiful interaction between Jesus and a blind man.

Jesus is passing by on a road with his disciples, and there's people everywhere following him.

So much excitement going on.

And there's a blind man on the road calling to him.

And the blind man is being rebuked by the people.

Like, shh, just be quiet.

Like you're kind of messing this up.

This is a beautiful parade, and you're just over here messing it up.

And he's he's calling and he's calling.

And Jesus says, Come, come to me.

And he looks at him and he says directly, What is it you want from me?

What do you want from me?

And this blind man throws off his cloak and he runs to Jesus and he says, I want to see.

I just want my sight back.

And Jesus heals him right on the spot.

Such a tender counselor.

All throughout the Gospels, we see pictures of this.

We see Jesus calling the little children unto him when other people are shooing them away.

We read of Jesus weeping with Mary and Martha as they're grieving the death of their brother Lazarus.

And even though Jesus knows that he's going to call him back from the dead and that he has the power and authority to do that, seeing their grief, he sits and weeps and mourns, showing us his heart.

The heart of a wonderful counselor, gentle and humble and present and available.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For I am gentle and humble in heart.

You will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Through these words of Jesus, through the life of Jesus, we see this prophecy of Isaiah coming to life.

What he had said, those walking in darkness, seeing a great light, our joy increasing, shattering the yoke that burdens, removing the bar across the shoulders, shattering that rod at the oppressor, giving unto us a child, a son, who would become our wonderful counselor.

And in the same way that our Heavenly Father gave us a wonderful counselor in Jesus, he also gave us a wonderful counselor in the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he had lots of conversations with his disciples trying to explain to him what was going to happen and that he was going to leave.

And in John 14 and 15 and 16, he talks specifically about what his plan is when he leaves.

Jesus says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

And then he picks up in 26 and says, But this counselor, this advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I have said.

And then he leaves them with this.

He says, Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.

An advocate, a counselor, a helper, a constant presence with us forever, teaching and reminding us of the words and the teaching of Jesus.

That's what this verse promises us.

That as Jesus left, the Father was going to send the Holy Spirit to be with us.

And that with this counselor comes his peace.

My peace I leave with you.

My peace I give with you.

Church, we have been given an invitation to the most wonderful counselor.

Humble and gentle, loving and full of grace and forgiveness, and yet with the power to create the whole universe with a spoken word and with the strength to conquer death.

Church, we've been given this counselor, and I think some of us we're not really showing up for our counseling sessions.

We're not coming to the Father.

When Jesus says to us, come, I think some of us we're not hearing him.

Or we're distracted, or we're running in the other direction.

Or maybe we didn't even realize he was calling.

And in this Advent season, it's my invitation to you.

An invitation, not homework, not something else to put on your list of things to do or be or accomplish in this season, but an invitation to listen to the voice of our wonderful counselor, saying, Come, come to me, come be with me, abide with me.

I think this looks really different for us.

For some of us, um, and some of us watching, like we've loved Jesus a long time.

We've lived a long life of faith, and so we know exactly what to do to come to the presence of Jesus.

We know exactly how to hear the power of the Spirit in our lives.

And some of us are newer at this.

But here's some of the things that I do.

And if it's helpful for you, I'd love for you to do it too.

For me, there's something about stillness and silence that helps me be aware of the presence of Jesus.

When things are loud and busy, I have a really hard time hearing.

So sometimes that's a walk alone.

Sometimes that's getting up a little bit earlier.

I'm not much of a morning person.

Sometimes that's just pulling myself away to have time with Jesus.

It's getting in our scriptures, it's getting in this word that describes our Heavenly Father, that describes Jesus, our Emmanuel God with us.

It's learning about him and letting our hearts be transformed by the word.

It's sitting in his presence with no agenda, coming before him with great honesty, saying, Lord, I'm just here.

I'm a hot mess and I'm just here.

And just allowing him to be with us.

For me, it's also listening to worship music.

Sometimes it's just putting on worship songs and singing and proclaiming to the Lord.

Sometimes that's in private, sometimes that's with the family.

But here's what I know.

When I'm coming to the presence of Jesus, when I'm allowing the wonderful counselor into my life, when I'm open to listening to the Holy Spirit, I'm a different person.

The weight that I carry is different.

Not that it's all better, not that it's easy, but by the strength of God, with him with me, I can do it.

I have peace in my life when I'm walking in step with the Spirit.

A peace that, although things may go wrong, the Lord is going to be with me.

There is peace and rest in his presence because he's a wonderful counselor.

Church, we can have joy.

We can have joy in this season.

Even when things don't feel joyful, even when things are kind of crummy, even when we don't know what the future holds, but we can have joy because we have a savior and a wonderful counselor that loves us, that wants to be in our lives and invest in us.

Church, thank you for being with us this morning.

And I'm so excited.

We're gonna sing Joy to the World now, which is one of my favorite songs.

And friends, I invite you to sing loudly if you feel joyful, to soak in it if you don't, and to find time this week to meet with your wonderful counselor.