Questions from the Congregation - Part 14

Note: The time signatures [00:00] below indicate the start of a question if you'd like to skip to a particular one of interest in the audio file.

1. [00:09] - Q: Are the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost the same thing?
   A: TBD
   
   

2. [00:54] - Q: What is a spirit/soul and how do they interact with our mind and body?

   A: TBD

3. [03:08] - Q: Since Genesis mentions God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply prior to the fall, and part of the curse was to increase pain of childbirth... will babies be born in heaven?
   A: See Matthew 22:30 - For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
   
   

4. [04:32] - Q: Did God make hell? If you go to the first book of the Bible it says God made heaven and earth so where does hell come into play?
   A: See Matthew 25:41 - Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’
   
   

5. [05:57] - Q: In the old testament God refers to Lucifer as "the morning star" (Isaiah 14:12?), in Revelation Jesus says "He is the bright morning star." (Rev 22:16) How would you explain the differences in these 2 passages to someone who believes they are the same and therefore; Jesus = Lucifer?
   A: See 2 Corinthians 4:4 - In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
   
   

6. [10:03] - Q: Are prophesies still a way that God communicates? How does God communicate to masses of people in today's world?
   A: See Romans 10:14-17
   
   

7. [13:48] - Q: We know that God is outside of time. We believe that old testament saints did not have to wait for Jesus's sacrifice to enter into Heaven (bc it was as if it already happened). We believe that absent from the body = present with God. And yet, Jesus's return will signal a new heaven and new earth, and the reception of our glorified bodies. That indicates that there is some element of time in Heaven. How is it both? How is God outside of time, but also waiting on the right time?
   A: See Galatians 4:4-5 - … fullness of time had come

   Revelation 6:10 (5th Seal) - …how long before you will judge

   Revelation 22:2 - …yielding its fruit each month.
   
   

8. [19:22] - Q: I really miss a lot of my friends that I have been very close to since childhood, but they live very sinful lifestyles and I have tried talking to them about how they act and talk, but they always say they like the way they live, so I have stopped talking to and spending time with them. I have spent a long time trying to fall out of the sinful habits they encourage and I don't want to fall back into those habits, but I have known those friends for so long and I have created such a connection to them that can't just be recreated. I know I shouldn't do anything that would encourage a Godless lifestyle but I also don't want to just abandon them. Do you have any tips or encouragement at all that could help me through this?
   A: TBD
   
   

9. [23:07] - Q: If there is evidence or individual belief that the government was elected or established through fraud or corruption, are we still called to submit to their "power"?
   A: See Mark 12:17 - Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
   
   

10. [27:43] - Q: If Christians are the majority who don't believe in wearing masks, are we chasing non-Christians away from the church by not wearing masks? Shouldn't we be the first to want to protect others and make them feel comfortable? Thank you in advance!
    A: TBD
    
    

11. [38:27] - Q: Flat earth vs Round earth? Thoughts?
    A: See Isaiah 40:22 - It is he who sits above the circle of the earth…
    Revelation 7:1 - After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
    
    Any question that was missed due to time constraints during the service Pastor Jeff will address the answer on the blog.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:00-00:02

  All right, timer's going.

  Mark Ort:

  00:02-00:06

  What we'll do is we're gonna go through the ones that were submitted, and if we have time, we'll pass the mic.

  Mark Ort:

  00:07-00:07

  Yeah. - Fair enough?

  Mark Ort:

  00:08-00:08

  Fair enough, go ahead.

  Mark Ort:

  00:08-00:09

  All right, you ready? - Yep.

  Mark Ort:

  00:09-00:14

  First one, Jeff, are the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost the same thing?

  Mark Ort:

  00:14-00:14

  Yes.

  Mark Ort:

  00:15-00:16

  All right, question two.

  Mark Ort:

  00:17-00:19

  Actually, I looked this up a little bit, Jeff.

  Mark Ort:

  00:19-00:24

  And the Holy Ghost, the word ghost is actually the proper word.

  Mark Ort:

  00:25-00:30

  But over the years, as language evolves, What do we think of when we think of a ghost?

  Mark Ort:

  00:30-00:34

  Like Casper, Halloween, things like that.

  Mark Ort:

  00:34-00:45

  And so translators in modern versions have changed it to spirit because that's what ghost really meant back in the day.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:45-00:47

  Right, yeah, I totally agree.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:47-00:52

  I think ghost is just associated with Halloween-y type things and we just sort of

  Mark Ort:

  00:52-00:53

  avoid that.

  Mark Ort:

  00:54-00:55

  Okay, next one.

  Mark Ort:

  00:55-01:01

  What is a spirit soul and how do they interact with our mind and body?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:02-01:05

  We are body, mind and spirit.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:05-01:10

  So when you look in a mirror, there's more to you than what is being reflected back, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:10-01:21

  I mean, if that weren't the case, when somebody died and we see their body in the casket, we're like, well, that's it, it's over, because there they are, there's their body.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:21-01:26

  Obviously, there's more to you than the physical body I believe that you're body, mind, and spirit.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:26-01:32

  I believe that, you know, when the Bible says that God created man in his image, I believe that's part of it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:33-01:44

  God is three in one somehow in an inexplicable way, and I believe that's true for us, that we are body, mind, and spirit in one here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:45-01:46

  How do they interact?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:48-01:50

  Each one of those affects the other.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:52-01:54

  Sin affects the body and mind.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:55-01:55

  And you know that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:55-02:00

  When you're living in unrepentant sin, you know how that wears on your body and mind.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:01-02:05

  Physically, you'll have problems, and mentally, you'll deal with depression.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:06-02:09

  Physical sickness affects your mind and your spirit.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:10-02:11

  And you know what that's like.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:11-02:18

  If you've been sick, especially if you've had a debilitating sickness for a long time, how that wears on your mind and spirit.

  Pastor Jeff:

  02:18-02:37

  And then, you know, your mind, depression, for example, can affect your spirit and your body. So, you know, we're all interconnected body, mind, and spirit. And it's not something that we can easily explain, but something that we readily experience.

  Mark Ort:

  02:38-02:54

  Yeah, and when I saw this question, I thought about Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. And that verse is actually repeated in the New Testament in Matthew. It says, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

  Mark Ort:

  02:54-02:58

  And you see some things with the mind and the body interacting there, right?

  Mark Ort:

  02:59-03:02

  With how we love God and how we worship God.

  Mark Ort:

  03:02-03:06

  And so those things work together, I see, in the Scriptures in our worship.

  Mark Ort:

  03:07-03:07

  Right on.

  Mark Ort:

  03:08-03:10

  Okay, let's go to question number three.

  Mark Ort:

  03:10-03:21

  Since Genesis mentions God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply prior to the fall, And part of the curse was to increase pain of childbirth.

  Mark Ort:

  03:22-03:23

  Will babies be born in heaven?

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:24-03:26

  Well, we know for sure that there's no marriage in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:27-03:33

  And when you look at the Bible, procreation was given sort of in the context of the marriage relationship.

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:34-03:38

  I don't see any biblical support that children are born in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:39-03:57

  Jesus said, Matthew 22, 30, "For in the resurrection, they will neither marry nor are given a marriage, but are like angels in heaven." So I don't see in heaven some of the things that we deal with on earth like marriage and procreation and childbirth.

  Pastor Jeff:

  03:57-04:04

  But regarding the pain of childbirth, look, my understanding regarding childbirth is purely second-handed, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:06-04:09

  So I'm just speaking from a biblical perspective.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:10-04:13

  Part of the curse was an increase in pain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:14-04:21

  My understanding is childbirth always hurt, but part of the curse was increasing of that pain.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:21-04:28

  So I don't think it was necessarily meant to be comfortable and easy in the first place.

  Mark Ort:

  04:30-04:31

  Excellent, thank you, Jeff.

  Mark Ort:

  04:32-04:34

  Number four, did God make hell?

  Mark Ort:

  04:35-04:39

  If you go to the first book of the Bible, it says God made heaven and earth.

  Mark Ort:

  04:40-04:41

  So where does hell come into play?

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:42-04:43

  Where does hell come into play?

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:44-04:48

  My understanding with this question as it's in regards to when hell was created.

  Pastor Jeff:

  04:50-05:02

  Matthew 25, 41, this is Jesus teaching on end time things, that the day's gonna come that Jesus is going to separate those who have received him and those who have rejected him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:02-05:16

  But Jesus, in the context of his teaching, said, "Then he will say to those on his left, "Apart from me you cursed, and the eternal fire," look at how Jesus worded this, Eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:16-05:18

  So did God make hell?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:18-05:20

  That's the first part of the question, and the answer is yes.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:22-05:24

  So my understanding with the rest of the question is when?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:25-05:27

  The Bible just doesn't say when.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:28-05:44

  It just says that God prepared this lake of fire specifically for the devil, his angels, and we know the people who reject Christ also have their portion in the lake of fire, but the Bible does not explicitly, excuse me, say this is when that was created.

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:44-05:52

  So my best guess would be, it'd have to be obviously sometime after the angelic rebellion, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  05:54-05:55

  The Bible just doesn't say.

  Mark Ort:

  05:55-05:56

  All right, thank you, Jeff.

  Mark Ort:

  05:57-05:58

  Question number five.

  Mark Ort:

  05:58-06:04

  In the Old Testament, God refers to Lucifer as the morning star, Isaiah 14, 12.

  Mark Ort:

  06:05-06:09

  In Revelation, Jesus says he is the bright and morning star.

  Mark Ort:

  06:09-06:11

  Revelation 22, 16.

  Mark Ort:

  06:12-06:21

  How would you explain the differences in these two passages to someone who believes they are the same and therefore Jesus equals Lucifer?

  Mark Ort:

  06:21-06:27

  And that's a really good question and I'm gonna let Jeff answer this one all by himself.

  Mark Ort:

  06:27-06:28

  I was hoping you were

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:28-06:29

  gonna chime in here, Mark.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:30-06:36

  Well, in Isaiah 14, Lucifer Literally, that means shining light.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:37-06:46

  And in this prophecy, it's connecting Satan's fall to the King of Babylon in a way that often happens in prophecy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:46-06:51

  It's like multi-layered, but it's talking about Satan's beauty before his fall.

  Pastor Jeff:

  06:51-07:01

  But when Jesus uses the term in Revelation 22, he's talking about the fact that he himself, Jesus himself, is this eternal light of day.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:01-07:10

  There's no night or darkness or anything like that in heaven because the light of Jesus Christ, the morning star, is always shining.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:10-07:21

  So the question is, "Well, wait a minute. How can the same word be used for both?" And truthfully, that's not really that strange when it comes to the Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:21-07:26

  Because do you know, regarding Jesus and Satan, the Bible calls both of them God?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:26-07:27

  Do you know that?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:27-07:36

  Like, we've been going through the Gospel of John, and we've seen explicitly over and over and over that Jesus Christ is Almighty God in the flesh, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:37-07:39

  But did you know the Bible calls Satan God?

  Pastor Jeff:

  07:40-08:01

  In what is it, 2 Corinthians 4.4, it says, "In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." You see, in this talk about Jesus as God, Jesus is God by nature.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:01-08:08

  Satan is called a God because of his realm of authority on the earth, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:08-08:15

  I mean, can't you see that Satan obviously is, for now, having his way on the earth, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:15-08:20

  And I believe that that's the same kind of issue that we have with the Morning Star.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:20-08:24

  where the context of both passages sort of determine that same thing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:24-08:37

  In Isaiah 14 it's describing an aspect of Satan, but in Revelation 22 it's describing the very nature of who Jesus Christ is.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:37-08:47

  So, yeah, the Bible sometimes uses words like that to describe both Jesus and Satan, but context is important.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:47-08:51

  Nature versus descriptive aspect. Does that make sense?

  Mark Ort:

  08:52-08:52

  Makes sense to me.

  Mark Ort:

  08:52-08:53

  Okay. Does that make

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:53-08:54

  sense to everybody else?

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:54-08:55

  I can start over.

  Pastor Jeff:

  08:56-08:57

  Please no.

  Mark Ort:

  08:58-09:00

  You mentioned context. Context is king.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:00-09:01

  Yeah. You've got to go with the context.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:02-09:02

  Yeah.

  Mark Ort:

  09:02-09:05

  I was watching a video this morning and the guy was harping on context.

  Mark Ort:

  09:05-09:06

  We've got to look at context.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:06-09:11

  Right. And that's, you know, like the 2 Corinthians 4 passage, you know, context.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:11-09:15

  Somebody could read just that and be like, oh, see the Bible calls Satan God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:15-09:37

  And you could run with that and try to explain things about Satan's powers and abilities and all of that when really the only thing he was getting across here is Satan has authority over the earth for now in the context of blinding the minds of unbelievers.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:37-09:43

  There are some people that you're like, "I've shared the gospel with him 30 times and he doesn't get it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:44-09:47

  Why can't he get it? Because Satan put the veil over their face.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:47-09:50

  They can't see what you're saying.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:50-09:54

  And that's the context of Satan being called God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:54-09:55

  That's an aspect of his authority.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:56-09:57

  He's not God the way Jesus is God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  09:58-10:01

  Jesus is God by nature. That's who He is.

  Mark Ort:

  10:02-10:02

  Amen.

  Mark Ort:

  10:03-10:07

  Number six, are prophecies still a way that God communicates?

  Mark Ort:

  10:08-10:12

  How does God communicate to the masses of people in today's world?

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:13-10:17

  When we talk about prophecy, immediately our minds think of telling the future, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:18-10:23

  Like, "I prophesy that you're going to have spaghetti on Wednesday," or something like that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:23-10:28

  We think it's all about the future, but really, prophecy is not just about the future.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:29-10:36

  Prophecy, in its very base explanation, definition, is proclaiming the Word of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:36-10:37

  That's prophecy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:38-10:50

  So when I get up here, or Rich, or Mark, or whoever gets up here on a Sunday and says, "Open your Bibles, this is what the Bible says," that's prophesying, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:51-10:58

  Now, there are some prophecies in the Bible that have to do with the future, absolutely.

  Pastor Jeff:

  10:59-11:02

  But we prophesy when we proclaim the Word of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:02-11:11

  And I have a whole lot more I'm going to say about this, But I'm not going to because that's the whole sermon subject next week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:11-11:14

  So we're going to be talking all about this next week.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:15-11:20

  But the question here is, how does God communicate to the masses of people in today's world?

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:20-11:21

  The Bible tells us.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:22-11:31

  Romans 10 says, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?" How is somebody going to believe in Jesus if they...

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:31-11:34

  How are they going to call on Him if they haven't...

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:34-11:40

  He says, "How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?" Like, believe in Jesus, but they've never heard the story.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:40-11:41

  Like, how does that happen?

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:42-11:45

  "How are they to hear without someone preaching?" Ah, here we go.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:46-11:50

  "How are they to preach unless they are sent?" So you see, he's building this whole thing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  11:50-12:02

  He's like, "People need to hear about Jesus because they don't know about Jesus." So the way people hear about Jesus is God sends somebody to preach, to proclaim the Word of God.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:02-12:05

  That's why this church is big on preaching, because God is.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:06-12:11

  God says, "This is how I choose to communicate my message "to a lost and dying world.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:11-12:28

  "It's through the proclamation of my word "through a preacher." And he goes on, "As it is written, "how beautiful are the feet of those "who preach the good news, "but they have not all obeyed the gospel." For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed "what he has heard from us." Look at this last statement.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:28-12:30

  We're gonna talk about this next week, I think.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:30-12:32

  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:33-12:39

  That's why we preach the Word of God, because we want people to have faith, and there's only one way people have faith, it's through the Word of Christ.

  Pastor Jeff:

  12:41-12:43

  So that's how God communicates today.

  Mark Ort:

  12:43-12:48

  Yeah, Jeff, when I saw this question, the first thing that popped into my mind was Hebrews chapter one.

  Mark Ort:

  12:50-13:01

  Verse one, it says, "God, after he spoke long ago, "in many portions and in many ways in these last days, "has spoken to us in his Son," which is what you're saying.

  Mark Ort:

  13:01-13:05

  Through whom he appointed air of all things, through whom also he made the world.

  Mark Ort:

  13:06-13:21

  And in many portions, in many ways, you think about the burning bush, you think about the still small voice, dreams, all these different things, different ways he spoke to his people.

  Mark Ort:

  13:21-13:25

  And now to us, he speaks to us through his son.

  Mark Ort:

  13:26-13:27

  Right. - And his son is the word.

  Mark Ort:

  13:27-13:30

  This son is like the last final word.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:30-13:41

  God's not going to say, "Okay, here's something new and next." What's next is the return of his son, which the Bible talks about.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:42-13:44

  But yeah, that's a great verse to highlight here, Mark.

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:45-13:46

  Okay, you ready for the next one?

  Pastor Jeff:

  13:46-13:47

  I'm ready for the next one.

  Mark Ort:

  13:47-13:47

  Okay.

  Mark Ort:

  13:48-13:50

  We know that God is outside of time.

  Mark Ort:

  13:50-13:56

  We believe that Old Testament saints did not have to wait for Jesus' sacrifice to enter into heaven.

  Mark Ort:

  13:56-13:59

  It was as if it had already happened.

  Mark Ort:

  14:00-14:10

  We believe that absence from the body is present with God, and yet Jesus' return will signal a new heaven and a new earth, and the reception of our glorified bodies.

  Mark Ort:

  14:11-14:14

  That indicates that there is some element of time in heaven.

  Mark Ort:

  14:14-14:15

  How is it both?

  Mark Ort:

  14:16-14:21

  How is God outside of time, but also waiting on the right time?

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:21-14:28

  >> Whoever submitted this question, I bet they are a treat to watch "Back to the Future" I love that movie.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:31-14:34

  Well, first of all, the person brought up a good point here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:35-14:43

  When we talk about time and salvation, every single person that's in heaven or ever will be in heaven is going to have the same testimony.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:43-14:47

  They're going to say, "I'm here because of Jesus." Like, well, how is that true with the Old Testament people?

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:48-14:51

  Their faith was based on the promise of what God would do.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:51-14:52

  They were looking forward.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:53-14:55

  God has promised someday, too.

  Pastor Jeff:

  14:55-15:01

  Their faith is based on what's going to happen, just as our faith is based on what did happen.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:01-15:02

  We're looking back.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:02-15:07

  We are saved because Jesus came and died and rose, as promised in the Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:09-15:35

  But when we talk about God being outside of time, I think to maybe make that more specific, God is not bound by time, but God in His sovereignty uses time for his purposes for man." So when we talk about God being outside of time, it's not like God is completely oblivious to or He has nothing to do with time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:36-15:39

  Like He in His sovereignty, He uses it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:40-15:53

  Like Galatians 4 says, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth a son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:53-15:54

  It's staggering.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:54-15:57

  And this could be-- oh gosh, we could spend weeks talking about this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  15:58-16:01

  But do you realize when Jesus came was no accident?

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:01-16:06

  That God was looking at the entire timeline of human history, and God was like, right here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:06-16:07

  Right here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:07-16:11

  Here is when Jesus Christ is going to walk on the earth.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:11-16:12

  Why then?

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:12-16:16

  You can talk about the Roman roads, and the Pax Romana, and the currency system, and the language.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:16-16:19

  There are all these things that God's like, no.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:19-16:26

  "This is exactly when I'm going to send my Son." Not a second sooner, not a second later.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:27-16:28

  Perfect timing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:28-16:31

  So God in His sovereignty uses time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:32-16:35

  Now regarding time in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:36-16:40

  Now there is some concept of time in heaven.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:41-16:45

  You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Well, there's a couple of verses in Revelation that point to that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:46-16:49

  One is Revelation 6, talking about this is the fifth...

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:49-16:52

  we went through Revelation, the fifth seal.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:52-16:54

  These are people that were murdered for their faith.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:55-16:56

  And they're in heaven, they're under the altar.

  Pastor Jeff:

  16:57-17:00

  And the Bible says they cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:01-17:01

  Look at what they're asking.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:02-17:03

  These are people in heaven asking this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:03-17:09

  Like how long, how much longer before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell in the earth?

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:09-17:11

  Like God, you see what's happening.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:12-17:13

  How long are you gonna let this happen?

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:14-17:17

  So obviously there's some concept of the passing of time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:17-17:22

  And even in the eternal state, Revelation 22, 2, look at this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:23-17:38

  "In the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month." Apparently there is some marking of passing of time in heaven because there are trees yielding fruit according to the Bible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:39-17:42

  And again, this is eternal state type stuff, monthly.

  Pastor Jeff:

  17:43-17:45

  So there is some concept of time in heaven.

  Mark Ort:

  17:46-17:54

  And I think, Jeff, sometimes we get our theology or biblical thinking from songs or hymns.

  Mark Ort:

  17:54-18:06

  And I think sometimes this idea of no time in heaven comes from that song that says, when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more.

  Mark Ort:

  18:06-18:08

  I mean, we grew up singing that, right?

  Mark Ort:

  18:08-18:19

  And it's a great song and everything, but we just need to be careful that we're not learning theology from a man written song.

  Mark Ort:

  18:19-18:35

  And that's why on a different, I guess, similar note, but don't wanna get on a rabbit trail, but this church takes great care with that and pains with making sure that our songs are biblically accurate.

  Mark Ort:

  18:37-18:42

  We've actually cut songs out of our playlist and things like that because of - We can change

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:42-18:43

  lines in songs.

  Pastor Jeff:

  18:43-18:46

  Like it's a good song except that lines, we're just gonna change that line.

  Mark Ort:

  18:46-18:49

  Yeah, and so we do take pains with that.

  Mark Ort:

  18:49-18:58

  And if you ever sing a song and the lyrics aren't correct, maybe you could graciously approach one of us and we'll take a look at it.

  Mark Ort:

  18:58-18:59

  And on that note,

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:00-19:01

  I love our worship team.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:02-19:02

  All right,

  Mark Ort:

  19:03-19:04

  we good on that one?

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:04-19:05

  Yeah, we're good.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:05-19:07

  All right, now those were like the theology questions.

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:07-19:11

  The rest of them here, we have four that are like Christian living

  19:11-19:13

  question.

  19:14-19:14

  These

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:14-19:16

  aren't like hard categories like Jeopardy, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  19:17-19:20

  So I just tried to separate them that way.

  Mark Ort:

  19:22-19:24

  Okay, this is a long one, so bear with me.

  Mark Ort:

  19:25-19:39

  I really miss a lot of my friends that I have been very close to since childhood, but they live very sinful lifestyles and I have tried talking to them about how they act and talk, but they always say they like the way they live.

  Mark Ort:

  19:39-19:42

  And so I have stopped talking to and spending time with them.

  Mark Ort:

  19:43-19:48

  I have spent a long time trying to fall out of sinful habits they encourage and I don't want to fall back into these habits.

  Mark Ort:

  19:49-19:57

  But I have known these friends for a long time, for so long, and I have created such a connection to them that just can't be recreated.

  Mark Ort:

  19:57-20:05

  I know I shouldn't do anything that would encourage a godless lifestyle, but I also don't want to just abandon them.

  Mark Ort:

  20:05-20:09

  Do you have any tips or encouragement at all me through this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:11-20:48

  >>I don't know who wrote this question. But I so much appreciated the heart and maturity behind that question. And what I would say to that person is you need to see your friends, your unsafe friends, you need to see them as a mission field. Like you're saying, like I'm kind of reading into the question here, My understanding is if this person was sitting in my office, like you've received Christ and Christ has changed you and you realize you can't live in the sinful ways of your friends and still live for Christ at the same time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:48-20:51

  And your friends need what you have.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:52-20:54

  So my encouragement would be like practical tips.

  Pastor Jeff:

  20:55-20:59

  Instead of going and partying with your friends, invite your friends to party with you, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:00-21:01

  Things like Arrow.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:02-21:06

  How many youth group events do we have that encourage, right Dan?

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:07-21:09

  Encourage people, invite your unsafe friends.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:10-21:15

  We will love them and we're gonna have fun, play some games, we're gonna share the gospel with them and we're gonna include them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:16-21:22

  And I would say, don't write your friends off because they don't know the Lord.

  Pastor Jeff:

  21:22-21:31

  See them as a mission field and invite them to be a part of the way God's working in your life through ministries like Arrow, our student ministry.

  Mark Ort:

  21:32-21:49

  Yeah, I would, just speaking from a position of a father who has kids who are launching into their 20s very soon, and just a word of maybe some advice, I don't know.

  Mark Ort:

  21:49-21:54

  I'm not usually willing to give out advice because a lot of people don't care what Mark Hort has to say.

  Mark Ort:

  21:55-22:13

  But one thing that I would encourage parents, I guess, And even the younger guys and girls, develop a set of convictions about certain issues now before you face the temptation.

  Mark Ort:

  22:13-22:25

  For instance, you're going to encounter situations, obviously, that are sinful and are gonna harm you and potentially destroy your life.

  Mark Ort:

  22:25-22:31

  Drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity.

  Mark Ort:

  22:31-22:34

  any of those things, you need to decide now.

  Mark Ort:

  22:34-22:42

  Parents, teach your kids to decide now how you're gonna respond in those situations and go with that conviction.

  Mark Ort:

  22:43-22:47

  Like, I am not going to take drugs under any circumstance.

  Mark Ort:

  22:48-22:54

  And then when you get in a situation where somebody has something for you, you're like, no, I have a conviction against that.

  Mark Ort:

  22:55-22:56

  Yeah, you have to make those choices ahead

  Pastor Jeff:

  22:56-22:57

  of time.

  Mark Ort:

  22:57-23:05

  Make the choices ahead of time, or else when you get with your friends, the thing that is happening in this question is bound to happen.

  Mark Ort:

  23:05-23:06

  Right on.

  Mark Ort:

  23:07-23:15

  Is there evidence or individual belief that the government was elected or established through fraud or corruption?

  Mark Ort:

  23:16-23:20

  If there's evidence, are we still called to submit to their power?

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:21-23:24

  I'm thinking, oh yeah, look at the time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:25-23:26

  Well, it was great to see everyone.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:26-23:27

  You're loved.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:28-23:29

  Drive safe, happy New Year.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:30-23:32

  Look, I would just say this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:34-23:35

  There is nothing new under the sun.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:36-23:43

  And you look at Old Testament Israel like Jesus' day, you realize they had two layers of bad government, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:44-23:51

  Because during Jesus' day, Israel was under Roman occupation, which meant Israel was in their land and they could kind of do their thing.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:52-23:53

  But Rome was in charge.

  Pastor Jeff:

  23:53-23:59

  And if you do any kind of study on that, The corruption in Israel's government was horrific.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:00-24:01

  We talked about that recently.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:01-24:05

  Like the high priest, that job went to whoever had the most money.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:06-24:08

  Okay, they bid out, the Romans bid out that job.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:09-24:15

  So you had Israel being sort of sub-ruled by people that bought their position.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:16-24:20

  And you look at the debacle that was the trial of Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:21-24:22

  Would you think there was corruption there?

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:23-24:26

  We did a sermon on that one time, all the corruption that went in the trial of Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:26-24:32

  It was like they broke every law possible in the way that they tried Jesus to crucify Him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:33-24:39

  And then the Romans, I mean, you talk about the next level of corruption.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:39-24:50

  I mean, that was nothing but a sin fest, the way people went into power and the adultery, the murder.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:52-24:54

  There's nothing new under the sun.

  Pastor Jeff:

  24:55-25:10

  But I want to remind you of something that Jesus said, even underneath such corrupt governments, Jesus said, Mark 12, 17, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they marveled at him.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:11-25:19

  And we went through Mark a few years ago and spent a lot of time talking about this particular verse.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:20-25:22

  But that was Jesus' response.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:22-25:24

  In the context here, they're trying to trick Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:25-25:26

  Should you pay your taxes?

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:26-25:32

  Because they're like, "We got 'em now." If Jesus says, "Pay your taxes," everybody's gonna be like, "Boo!

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:32-25:47

  "You're with the Romans!" And if Jesus goes, "No, no, no, "you shouldn't pay your taxes," they're gonna go and tell Rome, "Hey, Jesus said we shouldn't pay taxes." So they're like, "We got 'em." So they're like, "We got 'em." And this was Jesus' response.

  Pastor Jeff:

  25:47-25:52

  Like, yeah, give Caesar the things that are Caesar's to God the things that are God's?

  Mark Ort:

  25:53-26:05

  You know, when we go through the time that we just went through in November with our election, one of the verses that always comes back to my mind is from the book of Daniel 2.21.

  Mark Ort:

  26:06-26:12

  And that says that God sets up leaders and he brings leaders down.

  Mark Ort:

  26:12-26:15

  He establishes them and he removes them.

  Mark Ort:

  26:15-26:19

  And so that's encouraging to me.

  Mark Ort:

  26:20-26:27

  I mean, we see what happened throughout history, God taking out rulers and taking them out of spider holes.

  Mark Ort:

  26:27-26:28

  Saddam Hussein, remember that?

  Mark Ort:

  26:30-26:38

  You know, he lived in a palace with gold-plated furniture and things like that, and he ended up his life in a spider hole.

  Mark Ort:

  26:40-26:42

  So we take encouragement in that.

  Mark Ort:

  26:43-26:48

  And in our election, are there people in government?

  Mark Ort:

  26:49-26:51

  Then there's going to be corruption.

  Mark Ort:

  26:52-26:56

  Not just at the federal level, 'cause it's clear down to your local school board.

  Mark Ort:

  26:57-26:59

  But do we submit?

  Mark Ort:

  27:00-27:06

  We submit to our authorities as long as they don't go against God's commands.

  Mark Ort:

  27:07-27:18

  In Acts, it talks about we would rather obey God than man. When the government goes against what God says, that's when...

  Mark Ort:

  27:18-27:18

  You

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:18-27:37

  appeal to the higher authority, right? Sort of like if a husband would command his wife to do something sinful, she would appeal to the higher authority, which is God. That's what we should do as citizens. Obey the government until the government calls you to do something contrary to what God would call you to do.

  Mark Ort:

  27:40-27:41

  You want another hot button?

  Mark Ort:

  27:41-27:42

  Why not?

  Mark Ort:

  27:43-27:52

  "If Christians are the majority who don't believe in wearing masks, are we chasing non-Christians away from the church by not wearing masks?

  Mark Ort:

  27:53-27:58

  Shouldn't we be the first ones to want to protect others and make them feel comfortable?

  Mark Ort:

  27:58-27:59

  Thank you in advance." That

  Pastor Jeff:

  27:59-28:00

  is a really good question.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:02-28:03

  Here's the bottom line.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:03-28:05

  I don't care if you wear a mask.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:05-28:06

  I really don't.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:06-28:08

  We have masks available by the door.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:08-28:12

  We have a couple boxes for somebody that comes in and wants to wear one.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:12-28:15

  You can absolutely wear a mask.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:15-28:19

  And some people choose to wear them and some people choose not to.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:21-28:22

  I don't care if you wear a mask or not.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:23-28:29

  We do, for people that are ultra-cautious, concerned, whatever, we live stream our services.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:30-28:38

  We have an amazing group of people that live stream and then go after the fact and edit and make sure the messages and everything's online.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:39-28:46

  We also have a virtual small group for people that want to be part of a small group but are cautious about being around other people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  28:47-29:08

  I feel like as a church we've made every provision that we can to try to protect people that might be cautious, whether they're susceptible, whether they're living with somebody who might be susceptible to the virus, or whether they're just really, really concerned.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:09-29:15

  I feel like we've made every provision that we need to regarding protecting people.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:15-29:29

  But as far as, what was interesting to me about this question was the part that says, are we chasing non-Christians away from the church by not wearing masks?

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:30-29:33

  Mark, we had a really interesting discussion about this.

  Pastor Jeff:

  29:33-29:39

  And why don't you share sort of the primary philosophy regarding church anyways.

  Mark Ort:

  29:40-29:49

  Well, in our conversation, we just briefly spoke about who the church is for and who is the church.

  Mark Ort:

  29:50-29:54

  The church is a body of believers, right?

  Mark Ort:

  29:55-29:57

  This gathering is for believers.

  Mark Ort:

  29:58-30:01

  And are we gonna turn unbelievers away?

  Mark Ort:

  30:02-30:02

  Hopefully not.

  Mark Ort:

  30:03-30:05

  We don't want unbelievers to be turned away.

  Mark Ort:

  30:05-30:06

  We want them to come in here.

  Mark Ort:

  30:07-30:11

  We want them to sit under the teaching of God's word.

  Mark Ort:

  30:12-30:16

  But the church, by definition, is the called out ones.

  Mark Ort:

  30:16-30:18

  We are God's people.

  Mark Ort:

  30:19-30:27

  And so we're really, and I don't mean to be offensive or anything, but we're not, this isn't something for unbelievers.

  Mark Ort:

  30:27-30:29

  Although we have a message for unbelievers.

  Mark Ort:

  30:29-30:29

  Right.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:30-30:32

  If you're an unbeliever, we're glad you're here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:33-30:36

  And we want you to come back, and we love that you're here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:36-30:43

  But what we're talking about is when we are putting the service together, we are here for believers.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:44-30:48

  That's why we worship, that's why we pray, that's why we come around the Lord's Supper.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:48-30:54

  And I know different churches have different philosophies, and hey, that's okay, I'm not concerned about other churches, I'm concerned about this church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:55-30:56

  But the church is for believers.

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:57-31:03

  So when we're putting a service together, Yes, it's in my mind that we're going to have unbelievers here, and I'm glad that you're here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:04-31:07

  But, our church doesn't cater to unbelievers.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:08-31:32

  We're not here to be like, "Let's make sure unbelievers are comfortable." We're here to say, "Let's make sure that Jesus Christ is exalted above all things, and the believers here are being fed, and challenged, and encouraged, and comforted." We're here for the believers, because it's when you go back out to your workplaces, and your neighborhoods and your unsafe family, you're going to be taking the message to them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:33-31:33

  Okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:33-31:38

  So that's the fundamental philosophy of why we do church the way that we do.

  Mark Ort:

  31:39-31:46

  And I would add that our job is to make you uncomfortable, not comfortable.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:46-31:46

  Right.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:46-31:47

  Yeah, I don't care if you're comfortable.

  Mark Ort:

  31:48-31:50

  Yeah, now padded seats, we're not talking about that kind of stuff.

  Mark Ort:

  31:51-31:53

  Temperature, hot, cold, we're not talking about that.

  Mark Ort:

  31:53-31:54

  Yeah, we

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:54-31:54

  don't mean that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  31:56-31:56

  here,

  Mark Ort:

  31:57-32:17

  when I'm sitting in the seat, I want the Scriptures to cut my heart open. I need that. I need the Scriptures to show me where I'm wrong, where I'm sinful, what do I need to work on so that God gets more glory in my life. And that's uncomfortable.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:18-32:54

  Yeah, and if we're going to be worried about comfort for unbelievers here, we probably won't preach the Bible at all. We're definitely not going to talk about sin. And we are never going to say the word repent. And you know, it boils down to your fundamental, like your purpose, your mission. Yeah, we want to make disciples, but to me, this assembly here is about believers. But when I saw this question, you know what I was thinking about? You know about when I read Zacchaeus. You remember Zacchaeus?

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:55-32:56

  Up in the tree, man.

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:56-32:59

  Up in the tree. Remember that song we sang when we were kids?

  Pastor Jeff:

  32:59-33:01

  Remember that Zacchaeus song we sang when we were little?

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:02-33:05

  Should we sing that? We should add that to the worship set.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:06-33:07

  Zacchaeus was a wee little man, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:08-33:11

  You're like, "Well, why was I thinking about Zacchaeus?" Good theology, that's all.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:12-33:13

  Yeah, there's some great theology.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:13-33:14

  Here's the thing with Zacchaeus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:15-33:17

  God was obviously at work in his heart.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:17-33:23

  And he wanted to know Jesus so much that he did the most undignified thing possible.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:24-33:31

  Imagine a grown adult man climbing a tree to try to get a glimpse of Jesus who was passing by.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:32-33:33

  He was willing to do whatever it took.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:34-33:54

  And I'm saying, if there's somebody out there, a non-Christian, that's like, "I want to know Jesus. I feel like God's calling me into a relationship with Him, or to understand Him, or whatever, whatever." There are thousands of churches in the area that if they want to be a part of this church, but they're not comfortable being here because of the mask thing, watch online.

  Pastor Jeff:

  33:55-34:14

  But if you're like, "I want a church that maybe does the mask thing and bathes you and hand sanitizes you when you come in or whatever," you could probably find hundreds of churches like that in this area where you could go and seek the Lord in those churches.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:14-34:17

  You know, we're not the only church in the greater Pittsburgh area.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:18-34:31

  So the thing that concerns me regarding COVID, and I thought Ben Murphy made a great point in this in one of our ministry team meetings, but there are so many churches that have made COVID the focus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:31-34:37

  That COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, wear your mask, sanitize, social distance, spread the chairs, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:38-34:39

  You know, let's keep safe, let's protect.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:40-34:47

  And COVID has become the God of the church because that's our focus, that's our attention, that's our thoughts, that's our...

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:47-34:51

  Jesus Christ is the focus of this church, not COVID, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:52-34:55

  We don't want you thinking about that stuff when you come in here.

  Pastor Jeff:

  34:55-34:59

  We want you thinking about Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  35:00-35:04

  So I just, you know, I think that it's become a huge distraction.

  Mark Ort:

  35:05-35:08

  Well, it's become more than a distraction.

  Mark Ort:

  35:08-35:09

  It's become an idol.

  Mark Ort:

  35:10-35:11

  And what's an idol?

  Mark Ort:

  35:12-35:14

  It's something we're consumed with, right?

  Mark Ort:

  35:14-35:16

  And Jeff already illustrated that.

  Mark Ort:

  35:16-35:17

  We're consumed with it.

  Mark Ort:

  35:18-35:18

  That's all we hear.

  Mark Ort:

  35:19-35:24

  And you can go through all the buzzwords, and I'm sorry to harp on this, but this is the mask question.

  Mark Ort:

  35:26-35:28

  What do we hear all the time?

  Mark Ort:

  35:28-35:28

  We got Zoom meetings.

  Mark Ort:

  35:29-35:38

  We got social distance, mask wearing, all the stuff that, all the new terms that we're passing around this year.

  Mark Ort:

  35:38-35:45

  And we're not asking anybody to be stupid about mass or we're asking about wisdom with this stuff.

  Mark Ort:

  35:45-36:00

  And my concern this whole year, and I'm learning it myself, is that this is the year that God is tearing down idols in a Christian's life, in his life, and idols in the church.

  Mark Ort:

  36:00-36:03

  I mean, what have we torn down this year?

  Mark Ort:

  36:03-36:05

  We started out, we didn't have sports, right?

  Mark Ort:

  36:06-36:10

  That's a big idol in our, I love sports, but it's become an idol.

  Mark Ort:

  36:11-36:12

  What else?

  Mark Ort:

  36:12-36:15

  Freedoms, like we lost a lot of freedoms this year to do what we wanna do.

  Mark Ort:

  36:17-36:19

  There's so many things that we're losing.

  Mark Ort:

  36:20-36:21

  Like Hollywood,

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:21-36:24

  with movies and all of that stuff shutting down for a while, there's another idol.

  Pastor Jeff:

  36:24-36:25

  Yeah, theaters,

  Mark Ort:

  36:25-36:28

  I was past a theater in Butler yesterday, temporarily closed.

  Mark Ort:

  36:28-36:32

  You know, those kinds of things we're losing.

  Mark Ort:

  36:33-36:38

  And so these idols in our lives are being torn down.

  Mark Ort:

  36:38-36:39

  And what's another idol that we have?

  Mark Ort:

  36:40-36:41

  Health and safety, right?

  Mark Ort:

  36:42-36:44

  Has God ever guaranteed health and safety to us?

  Mark Ort:

  36:45-36:47

  He has not when I read the scriptures.

  Mark Ort:

  36:47-36:51

  In fact, it's oftentimes the opposite, right?

  Mark Ort:

  36:51-36:58

  There's suffering, there's sickness because of sin, but God uses these things in our lives.

  Mark Ort:

  36:58-37:08

  And so my concern this whole year has been, let's not make an idol out of these things.

  Mark Ort:

  37:09-37:10

  I don't wanna get sick.

  Mark Ort:

  37:11-37:13

  I don't wanna be in an accident.

  Mark Ort:

  37:13-37:15

  I don't wanna get stuff for my family.

  Mark Ort:

  37:15-37:16

  I don't want any of it for you.

  Mark Ort:

  37:18-37:24

  But this year has shown me anyway, that we've made these things idols in our lives and God is tearing them down.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:25-37:30

  Right, and you feel comfortable wearing a mask, wear a mask, that's fine.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:31-37:35

  But we're not going to make that the subject of the sermon, the focus of the church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:35-37:36

  That's Jesus.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:36-37:39

  I don't care if you wear a batting helmet and a tuxedo to church.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:40-37:49

  If you think that that's what's going to be safe, the only requirements that we have for dress code at Harvest, dress modestly and don't be distracting, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:49-37:51

  Other than that, whatever.

  Pastor Jeff:

  37:52-38:07

  whatever you want, and you are loved and you are welcomed, but with the limited amount of time we have, I'd rather focus on Jesus Christ and the Word of God versus, we want the church to be different than the world.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:08-38:10

  You know, like we should stand out.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:10-38:11

  We should be different.

  Mark Ort:

  38:12-38:13

  And we shouldn't be fearful.

  Mark Ort:

  38:14-38:16

  God said that a couple of times in his Word, right?

  Mark Ort:

  38:16-38:16

  Yeah,

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:17-38:19

  yeah, he said it like hundreds of times in his Word.

  Mark Ort:

  38:19-38:20

  Be wise, but don't fear.

  Mark Ort:

  38:22-38:25

  Is this gonna be the first time ever that we've gotten through all the questions?

  Mark Ort:

  38:25-38:26

  'Cause I have one more.

  Mark Ort:

  38:27-38:27

  Yeah, go ahead.

  Mark Ort:

  38:28-38:28

  All right.

  Mark Ort:

  38:28-38:29

  Yeah, we're gonna do it.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:30-38:32

  Flat Earth versus round Earth, thoughts?

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:33-38:36

  I might start a riot here, but I believe the Earth is round.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:37-38:40

  If you believe otherwise, you are still my brother or sister or whatever.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:41-38:43

  I'm just gonna tell you why I think the Earth is round.

  Pastor Jeff:

  38:44-38:59

  Isaiah 40, 22 says, "It is he who sits above the circle of the Earth." The other reason I believe the earth is round is I look at every other heavenly body, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, everything else I see in the sky, what shape is it?

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:00-39:00

  It's round.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:00-39:06

  So I'm kind of like, well, it makes sense if God's Word says the earth is round and everything I see is round.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:08-39:13

  Also I can't remember who, but there was, at my old church, there was an astronaut that came and visited.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:13-39:16

  He was a believer and he came and was part of that.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:17-39:20

  I can't remember which one, but he was friends with Pastor Bob.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:21-39:22

  Did you say John Glenn?

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:22-39:25

  I think it might have been John Glenn, but I don't want to say that for sure.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:28-39:30

  Anyways, that's why I don't believe there's some conspiracy.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:31-39:35

  I think the earth is round for those reasons.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:36-39:39

  And I know some people say, "Well, the Bible talks about the four corners.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:39-39:45

  What is it, Revelation 7?" And I think that's just a figure of speech, north, south, east, west, the four winds.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:46-39:48

  Yeah, I think it's Revelation 7.

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:48-39:49

  Didn't we go through Revelation in our church?

  Pastor Jeff:

  39:49-39:51

  We talk about Revelation a lot here.

  Mark Ort:

  39:52-39:53

  So...

  Mark Ort:

  39:53-39:57

  But even scientifically, that's another one of those terms, right?

  Mark Ort:

  39:57-39:57

  Follow the science.

  Mark Ort:

  39:59-40:09

  But scientifically, if the earth was flat, I should be able to go out at night and see Pittsburgh, at least the lights of it.

  Mark Ort:

  40:09-40:13

  Maybe it's far enough away, I might not be able to make out the buildings, but shouldn't I be able to see the lights?

  Mark Ort:

  40:14-40:15

  Or Orlando?

  Mark Ort:

  40:15-40:18

  If I look south, shouldn't I see something like that?

  Mark Ort:

  40:19-40:20

  But what do we have to do?

  Mark Ort:

  40:20-40:26

  If I wanna see Pittsburgh, I either have to go up really high so that I can, 'cause there's stuff in the way, right?

  Mark Ort:

  40:27-40:29

  And part of that is the curvature of the earth.

  Mark Ort:

  40:29-40:39

  And so I don't know, it's stuff like, I was on kids' websites and I was reading about flat earth versus round earth.

  Mark Ort:

  40:39-40:46

  And they had some really cool ways to prove to kids that the earth is round and spherical.

  Mark Ort:

  40:47-40:51

  But when we look at scriptures like this, Isaiah told us, didn't he?

  Mark Ort:

  40:52-40:52

  Isaiah said it.

  Mark Ort:

  40:52-40:53

  Yeah,

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:53-40:54

  Isaiah did.

  Pastor Jeff:

  40:55-40:59

  Well, 40, 22, about the circle of the earth.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:00-41:02

  And honestly, this is one of those things that it just doesn't matter.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:03-41:08

  They could prove emphatically today that the earth is flat.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:08-41:12

  And that isn't gonna change anything about my life, honestly.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:12-41:16

  I'd be like, "Oh, that's interesting." - And it's not gonna change anything.

  Mark Ort:

  41:16-41:27

  Yeah, and it falls in the category of a non-essential, I guess, you know, here at Harvest Bible Chapel, we have to agree on the essentials, right?

  Mark Ort:

  41:28-41:29

  Right, yeah, we agree

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:29-41:36

  on the essentials, but stuff like that, I just gave you the reasons I believe the earth is round, and if you're like, well, I don't, you're still my brother.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:37-41:38

  How much time

  Mark Ort:

  41:38-41:38

  do we have left?

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:38-41:41

  I think we, I don't know, six seconds.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:42-41:43

  I'm not even kidding.

  Pastor Jeff:

  41:43-41:44

  I guess we're done.

  Mark Ort:

  41:44-41:48

  Well, Jeff, it's always a pleasure to be up here with you.

  Mark Ort:

  41:49-41:52

  I don't feel adequate in answering questions, obviously.

  Mark Ort:

  41:55-42:00

  There's just a lot about the Bible that I don't know, and that's why I like to study it.

  Mark Ort:

  42:00-42:04

  And so, but I just love sitting under Jeff's teaching.

  Mark Ort:

  42:05-42:08

  I've learned so much out here in the second row.

  Mark Ort:

  42:09-42:11

  I love you, Jeff, and thanks for all you do.

  Mark Ort:

  42:11-42:13

  It's always great to do Q&A day.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:13-42:14

  Hey, love you bro.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:14-42:15

  It is a pleasure.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:16-42:21

  And I think a lot of the ways the Lord prepared us was through prison ministry, right?

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:21-42:22

  'Cause we go into prison.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:23-42:24

  I met Mark in prison, by the way.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:24-42:27

  I don't know if you knew that, but Mark and I were cellies in prison.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:28-42:31

  He shanked a guy for a pack of smokes for me and we were besties ever since.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:32-42:33

  That was a long time ago.

  Mark Ort:

  42:33-42:35

  Yeah, it was a long time ago.

  Mark Ort:

  42:35-42:35

  Late '90s.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:35-42:45

  But I think that was a ministry that the Lord really used to grow us because people would come in with all kinds of questions about these things.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:46-42:47

  And it was Q and

  Mark Ort:

  42:47-42:48

  A day every Friday night.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:48-42:51

  Every Friday night was Q and A day for like three hours.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:52-42:55

  So, but the pleasure's all mine, Mark.

  Pastor Jeff:

  42:55-43:00

  Let's, I tell you, why don't you close our time here in prayer while the worship team makes their way forward.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:00-43:04

  And we wanna thank everybody for the amazing questions that you submitted.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:05-43:10

  And yeah, I think this is the first time of the 14 times we've done it that we've gotten through all of them.

  Pastor Jeff:

  43:10-43:14

  So thank you, thank you so much for being a part of Q&A Day with us today.

  Mark Ort:

  43:15-43:16

  All right guys, let's pray.

  Mark Ort:

  43:16-43:19

  Lord God, we thank you so much for who you are.

  Mark Ort:

  43:20-43:40

  You are awesome, you are amazing, you're all powerful, all-knowing, a God who is patient with us, kind with us, and a God who offers an infinite amount of love and grace toward us through His Son, through your Son, Lord Jesus Christ.

  Mark Ort:

  43:41-43:55

  So we're here today, Lord, to thank you for that, to give you honor and praise for these questions and for those who ask them, people who legitimately, honestly want to know answers from your Word.

  Mark Ort:

  43:56-43:58

  And Lord, that's what we're here for.

  Mark Ort:

  43:58-44:00

  We want to preach your Word.

  Mark Ort:

  44:01-44:02

  We want to share your Word.

  Mark Ort:

  44:02-44:06

  We want to proclaim what you've said to us in your book.

  Mark Ort:

  44:07-44:09

  And so we thank you for your word.

  Mark Ort:

  44:09-44:24

  We thank you for how it changes us, how it convicts us of sin, how it comforts us, how it gives us instructions on how to live, and how it tells us how we can be in a right relationship with you.

  Mark Ort:

  44:25-44:28

  Lord, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from our unrighteousness.

  Mark Ort:

  44:29-44:30

  We thank you for that, Lord.

  Mark Ort:

  44:30-44:31

  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):

Review the questions submitted above. Discuss any of these that stuck out to you, or that maybe your group finds particularly interesting.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

My Prince of Peace

Introduction:

For to us a child is born,
to 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, Prince of Peace.
~Isaiah 9:6

Luke 2:14 - "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

When Jesus is My Prince of Peace:

1. I am at peace with God .

   Romans 5:1, 10 - Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

2. I am at peace in my Heart .

   John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

   Philippians 4:6-7 - do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

3. I am at peace with Others .

   Romans 16:20 - The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

   Romans 12:18 - If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:20-01:23

  We're going to focus our attention on one verse, verse 6.

  01:25-01:29

  We just heard on the video, and we're going to read it again.

  01:31-01:34

  It says, "For to us, a child is born.

  01:35-01:37

  To us, a son is given.

  01:40-01:42

  And the government shall be upon his shoulder.

  01:45-01:47

  And his name shall be called.

  01:49-01:51

  Wonderful Counselor.

  01:53-01:54

  Mighty God.

  01:55-01:57

  Everlasting Father.

  01:59-02:00

  Prince of Peace.

  02:02-02:11

  We've been going through each of these four names for Jesus over the past several weeks.

  02:14-02:18

  Tonight, very simply, we're going to focus on this last one.

  02:18-02:21

  purpose of peace.

  02:23-02:24

  Let's talk about peace.

  02:27-02:37

  You know, Adam and Eve's kids, the first generation born, one brother murdered the other brother.

  02:37-02:38

  Cain killed Abel.

  02:39-02:54

  And from that day, you can trace, through human history, you can go through the Bible, and you can go through the last couple thousand years of human history and trace mankind's treatment towards one another.

  02:58-02:59

  It's been anything but peace.

  03:02-03:03

  Can't we all just get along?

  03:05-03:06

  No.

  03:08-03:13

  No, apparently we cannot all get along.

  03:14-03:18

  You understand that man really has no concept of total peace.

  03:20-03:28

  Because mankind has always been at war with someone to some scale, to some degree, throughout all of history.

  03:32-03:48

  And then, every Christmas, we put on our good clothes, usually red, and we shuffle off to church and some guy gets up in front or maybe we have a kid read it, right Jesse?

  03:48-04:20

  Or Luke chapter 2, somebody reads it. And especially the part where the angels announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds and they praise God saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased." And we We read that verse and in church our hearts just swell and we think, "Oh, oh yes.

  04:22-04:23

  Peace on earth.

  04:24-05:01

  Peace on earth." Then on the way home, we yell at the kids, we argue with our spouse, and we turn on the news and we go, "Oh yes, peace on earth." And I just want to ask you tonight, where's the peace? Right? If that's the thing that the angels showed up to announce and that's the name that is given to Jesus, not just peace, the Prince of Peace, where's the peace?

  05:03-05:04

  Were the angels mistaken?

  05:08-05:09

  Or are we?

  05:11-05:17

  Maybe we need to sort of circle back and take a look at what is meant by peace.

  05:20-05:31

  Because peace means so much more than "the kids are finally asleep." It means so much more than I made up with the neighbors.

  05:33-05:36

  And it means so much more than merely the absence of war.

  05:36-05:41

  In the Hebrew, the word peace means fulfillment or wholeness or harmony.

  05:42-06:20

  Literally, the Hebrew concept of peace was imagine all of these loose ends hanging off of like a garment or a blanket, all these threads, all these strands, all these loose loose ends unraveled, hanging from a garment, and somebody comes along and takes all of these loose ends and they weave them back together into the whole. That's the Hebrew concept of peace. And as we've been studying for the past several weeks, Isaiah lived in a time of darkness. He lived in a time of political corruption.

  06:20-06:21

  Does that sound familiar?

  06:24-06:26

  He lived in a time of immorality.

  06:26-06:27

  Does that sound familiar?

  06:29-06:31

  He lived in a time of incredible fear.

  06:32-06:33

  Does that sound familiar?

  06:34-06:35

  Are we hitting a nerve yet?

  06:38-06:42

  In Isaiah's day, just as to our day, God sent a message.

  06:44-06:46

  The message was this, a baby's going to be born.

  06:49-06:58

  This baby that's born is going to take this unraveled mess that you see before you and he's going to weave it all back together.

  06:58-07:00

  He's going to put everything right.

  07:01-07:06

  Because this baby is going to be known as the Prince of Peace.

  07:07-07:09

  He's going to make it all right.

  07:13-07:24

  But I need to point out to you that peace isn't going to come in some automatic or passive or gradual or eventual way.

  07:26-07:34

  This mighty warrior God, this Prince of Peace, He's going to come, and He's going to establish peace.

  07:35-07:43

  You're like, "Well, what does that look like?" When I was in high school, we had this gym teacher.

  07:45-07:46

  His name was Mel Simanko.

  07:48-07:53

  "Kristen, you remember Simanko?" "Yeah, yeah." On a scale of 1 to 10, how scary was he?

  07:55-07:56

  Off the charts, right?

  07:57-08:12

  If you can imagine, like, stereotypical, like, 80s movie gym teacher, This gym teacher made those characters look like strawberry shortcake, okay?

  08:12-08:14

  He was scary.

  08:17-08:18

  And...

  08:22-08:27

  He would say things like, "Yeah, you know, he's got a really kind face.

  08:28-08:42

  The kind I'd like to punch." I think at one point, what was it Aaron? He was like, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as like Canada's meanest man or something like that. I mean this guy was so scary.

  08:44-09:11

  And I had him for gym class. Well, we would get dressed and go into the into the gym before he would come in. He'd be in his office, you know, hanging out, taking a nap, I don't know, doing a cross from whatever he did in the in the in the office. But all the boys would be in the gym before he would. Now let me ask you what happens when you get a group of about 30 or 40 teenage boys in the same room? What happens?

  09:14-09:35

  Choir practice, right? Look, I have a 15 year old and a 14 year old. I see what happens. Left unsupervised, teenage boys, you say, don't always make the best decisions, all So, you get all these kids in the gym, and you know what we used to do?

  09:35-09:41

  We used to take the basketballs and play dodgeball with them, just pelting each other with the basketballs.

  09:41-09:47

  Then one day, I remember, somebody found the jump ropes, and we took the jump ropes out, and we hogtied this dude, okay?

  09:48-09:49

  Like, completely hogtied.

  09:49-09:54

  And we'd be jumping off the bleachers, or climbing the ropes, or all kinds of hijinks.

  09:58-10:04

  But then when Mr. Semenko walked in, What do you think happened?

  10:06-10:11

  Everybody immediately on their spot, stone quiet, it looked like a military camp.

  10:14-10:15

  Like, why are you telling us this story?

  10:17-10:25

  I just simply want to illustrate that when you're in the presence of someone powerful, that certainly establishes peace in a hurry, doesn't it?

  10:27-10:31

  The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to come and reign on the earth.

  10:32-10:43

  So if this gym teacher was able to establish peace in a room full of rowdy teenagers, what do you think is going to happen when God Almighty is ruling over this earth?

  10:43-10:46

  What do you think His presence is going to do to establish peace?

  10:49-10:53

  When the Prince of Peace is present, there will be peace.

  10:55-10:57

  Tonight I want to ask you, is He present in you?

  10:59-11:00

  Is He present in you?

  11:00-11:03

  If you're taking notes, three things I want you to jot down.

  11:04-11:11

  When Jesus is my Prince of Peace, number one, when Jesus is my Prince of Peace, I am at peace with God.

  11:13-11:14

  I am at peace with God.

  11:18-11:27

  This may come as a shock to some of you, Do you realize mankind's natural state is not peace with God?

  11:28-11:36

  That's why sometimes I cringe when somebody who doesn't know the Lord refers to God as "the big man upstairs." Well, He ain't a man and He ain't upstairs, okay?

  11:38-11:43

  He is the holy sovereign of the universe, and He's not your buddy by nature.

  11:45-11:49

  In fact, the Bible says that we're enemies of God.

  11:51-11:53

  We're born with this sin nature.

  11:53-11:57

  We're born with this nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve.

  11:58-12:01

  It's completely self-centered and rebellious.

  12:01-12:08

  And we insist on bowing down to our own will instead of to the will of the One who created us.

  12:11-12:16

  That's our natural state as rebellion towards Holy God.

  12:17-12:23

  And it is here where the work of the Prince of Peace begins, to bring the peace that matters the most.

  12:24-12:26

  It's peace between God and man.

  12:27-12:47

  Romans 5, verse 1, look at this, it says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then verse 10 says, "For while we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

  12:47-12:56

  Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." We were God's enemies.

  12:58-13:04

  But when you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are no longer an enemy of God.

  13:04-13:06

  You are at peace with God.

  13:07-13:10

  I heard somebody say one time that peace always comes at a price.

  13:11-13:16

  and the price of this peace was the death of the Son of God.

  13:17-13:19

  We don't like to talk about that much tonight.

  13:21-13:36

  As at Christmas Eve, we like to think of little baby Jesus in the manger, but the reality is the purpose for Him coming, the reason He laid on that manger, is so He could grow up to be a man and lay down on a cross on our behalf to make peace with God.

  13:37-13:38

  That's why He came.

  13:39-13:40

  That's why He's the Prince of Peace.

  13:41-13:46

  So believing in Jesus, receiving Him means we're no longer enemies with God.

  13:46-13:48

  God's no longer mad at you.

  13:52-13:53

  How can that be?

  13:55-13:59

  When Jesus Christ was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself.

  14:01-14:07

  And while Jesus was on the cross, God poured His wrath out on Jesus.

  14:08-14:11

  The wrath for your sin, Jesus took it.

  14:13-14:23

  Every wrong thing you've ever said, done, every horrible attitude, nasty thought you've ever had, every sin you've ever committed was laid on Jesus.

  14:23-14:28

  And God punished Jesus the way that I deserve.

  14:32-14:37

  So if you're a believer in Christ, you never have to worry about the wrath of God.

  14:38-14:41

  Because you see, Jesus experienced it for you.

  14:42-14:46

  The Bible says God is satisfied with the payment that Jesus made.

  14:48-15:04

  But I know some people, even Christians, that think, you know, someday when I stand before God, God's going to be mad at me, and I've got a lot to answer for, and I've got a lot of explaining to do, God's really going to scold me?" Not if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

  15:05-15:14

  Because you see, God's not going to punish Jesus for your sin, and then turn around and look at you and say, "Well, I'm still mad about it, so I'm going to punish you too." No.

  15:16-15:20

  Jesus Christ brought perfect peace between God and man.

  15:20-15:32

  God, when He sees you, He looks at you through the lens of His Son, It says, "The payment's been made." That's how I'm at peace with God.

  15:34-15:38

  When Jesus is my Prince of Peace, number two, I'm at peace in my heart.

  15:41-15:45

  Because we have peace with God, we can have peace in our hearts.

  15:49-15:52

  It's just too easy to not feel peace right now. Right?

  15:53-16:00

  We got COVID. We got all this talk about the safety of the vaccine.

  16:01-16:09

  We got the economy. We got government lockdowns. We got family. We got all of these issues.

  16:12-16:14

  It's real easy not to feel the peace.

  16:17-16:22

  But I need to remind us that peace doesn't mean that life is easy.

  16:22-16:34

  "I heard what he was saying about peace, but my life is a wreck." Peace doesn't mean your life is easy.

  16:36-16:42

  You're like, "Well, what does it mean?" Peace means I have the calm assurance that God is in control.

  16:45-16:50

  I have the assurance that God not only is in control, but He's doing what is best.

  16:52-16:53

  Do you believe that?

  16:56-17:01

  No matter how things look, God can be trusted.

  17:04-17:07

  You're like, "Well, how can I have peace at a time like this?

  17:08-17:11

  I hear what you're saying, but I'm going to be honest with you.

  17:11-17:14

  I still lie awake a lot at night.

  17:14-17:16

  I'm still worried about a lot of things.

  17:16-17:20

  How can I have this peace?" Well, here's the thing.

  17:22-17:23

  Peace is given.

  17:24-17:26

  You have to receive peace.

  17:27-17:34

  Jesus said in John 14.27, "Peace I leave with you." Look at this, "My peace I give to you.

  17:34-17:36

  Not as the world gives do I give to you.

  17:36-17:42

  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Peace can't be achieved.

  17:44-17:46

  You can't muster up peace.

  17:47-17:49

  You can't create peace in your heart.

  17:49-17:57

  You can't wake up some morning and say, "You know what, today I decided I'm going to be at peace." It has to be something that you receive.

  18:00-18:05

  You can't make it happen, but you can block it from happening.

  18:08-18:11

  You can refuse to receive peace.

  18:12-18:12

  Like how?

  18:14-18:16

  in some ways, unrepentant sin.

  18:17-18:22

  If you're living a sinful lifestyle, you're not going to feel peace because God's trying to get your attention.

  18:25-18:25

  Unforgiveness.

  18:26-18:30

  If you have hard feelings towards someone and you know the Lord is like, "Hey, make it right.

  18:31-18:32

  Make that phone call.

  18:32-18:33

  Send that message.

  18:33-18:36

  Make it right." And I'm not doing it. I refuse.

  18:36-18:43

  If you're carrying around that unforgiveness, you're blocking the peace that Jesus Christ wants to give you.

  18:46-18:48

  You can block peace by choosing to worry.

  18:50-18:55

  Instead of saying, "I'm going to fix my mind on what God said," you're going to fix your mind on what CNN said.

  18:58-18:58

  You're choosing to worry.

  19:01-19:09

  And one of the biggest ways, according to God, that we can block peace, that we can refuse to receive peace, is prayerlessness.

  19:11-19:12

  What are we doing there?

  19:14-19:26

  Philippians 4 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Look at this next statement.

  19:27-19:38

  "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How's your prayer life right now?

  19:41-19:41

  Let's do a little exercise.

  19:43-19:45

  We're not gonna check your papers when you leave, by the way.

  19:46-19:47

  But just write it down.

  19:47-19:50

  Your prayer life, on a scale of one to ten, how are we doing?

  19:50-19:55

  One is, "I don't pray at all." And ten is, "I pray without ceasing." Give yourself a number.

  19:56-19:57

  How are you doing in your prayer life?

  20:00-20:04

  And then below that, I want you to write your level of peace.

  20:06-20:14

  One is, "I am a nervous wreck all the time." That's ten, as I am calm.

  20:15-20:16

  Cool as a cucumber, Daddy.

  20:18-20:19

  That's ten.

  20:21-20:23

  What's the correlation between the numbers?

  20:24-20:32

  According to God, and I've experienced this personally, the more you pray, the more peace you have.

  20:35-20:45

  Or to state it in the negative, Maybe you aren't experiencing peace right now because you won't come into the presence of the Prince of Peace.

  20:46-20:47

  Maybe that's your problem.

  20:49-20:52

  But this peace of God surpasses all understanding.

  20:55-21:05

  You know you have the peace of God when the whole world is crashing around you and your response is, "Everything's going to be okay.

  21:06-21:07

  God's got this.

  21:09-21:10

  It just doesn't make any sense.

  21:11-21:16

  The Bible says the peace of God surpasses all understanding.

  21:16-21:19

  And you're like, "Jeff, can you explain that to me?" No!

  21:19-21:23

  I can't explain that to anyone because it passes understanding.

  21:24-21:33

  All I can tell you is this, when you know Jesus Christ and you're spending that time commuting with Him in prayer, and trusting His Word.

  21:33-21:38

  When you do that, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now.

  21:41-21:44

  You get it, or you don't.

  21:45-21:50

  But when you do, you realize Jesus Christ isn't just the Prince of Peace.

  21:50-22:08

  You say, "He's my Prince of Peace. He's the reason I keep going." And finally for tonight, when Jesus is my Prince of Peace, not only am I at peace with God, and I'm at peace in my heart, number three, I'm at peace with others.

  22:12-22:13

  I'm at peace with others.

  22:15-22:18

  We've been spending so much time on Isaiah 9.6.

  22:18-22:19

  I want to look at the next verse for a second.

  22:20-22:29

  It says, verse 7, "Of the increase of His government and of peace, There will be no end.

  22:31-22:33

  Can you just let that marinate for a second?

  22:35-22:39

  How big and awesome and specifically here, peaceful.

  22:39-22:43

  How peaceful is His government going to be when He's ruling over the earth?

  22:44-22:45

  How peaceful is that going to be?

  22:46-22:48

  He says you can't put a cap on it.

  22:49-22:50

  There's no end to it.

  22:51-22:51

  It's eternal.

  22:54-23:12

  He says, "On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore." The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

  23:14-23:16

  This verse is obviously looking forward to His return.

  23:19-23:24

  After the tribulation, Jesus will reign on the earth for a thousand years.

  23:24-23:26

  Revelation 20 talks about that.

  23:27-23:30

  And this verse describes what His reign is going to be like.

  23:31-23:33

  It's going to be permanent, and it's going to be perfect.

  23:33-23:38

  It's going to be total righteousness and justice.

  23:40-23:44

  I've got to tell you, the day is coming.

  23:46-23:47

  Today's coming.

  23:50-23:58

  I don't know if Jesus is sitting on that white horse yet, but there are days that I think I can hear Him opening the barn door to go in and get it.

  24:00-24:00

  Because it's coming, people.

  24:01-24:02

  It's coming.

  24:02-24:04

  It's coming soon.

  24:07-24:08

  What's coming soon?

  24:08-24:17

  Well, when Jesus Christ reigns on the earth, Do you realize injustice is going to be a thing of the past?

  24:19-24:28

  Do you realize during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, people are going to be talking about injustice the way we talk about Y2K?

  24:29-24:31

  Do you remember Y2K? Do you remember Y2K?

  24:31-24:36

  Everyone else, "Do you remember Y2K?" We're like, "Oh yeah, that was crazy." We're all scared like the computers were going to, whatever.

  24:39-24:42

  millennial reign is going to be like.

  24:42-25:06

  People are going to be sitting around going, "Do you remember back in the day when people would just sin and hurt people and get away with it? Do you remember that?" And people are going to be like, "Yeah, man, that was crazy, wasn't it?" And like, "Whew, I'm glad that stopped happening forever and will never start up again." Two, the day's coming. It's coming.

  25:09-25:11

  It's going to be awesome, isn't it?

  25:12-25:14

  Like what about until then?

  25:15-25:16

  What about until that day?

  25:18-25:31

  Well, Romans 12.18 says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." So perhaps not yet can you be a part of world peace, but today you can have peace in your world.

  25:33-25:43

  I want to commend this to you, an area where the Lord is still teaching me, as far as it depends on you be at peace with those you encounter.

  25:46-25:49

  Church, we are in such a volatile situation right now.

  25:50-25:55

  People are ready to jump at each other's throats for all kinds of reasons.

  25:56-26:02

  And it's easy for me to feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

  26:02-26:08

  "Oh, you want to fight?" That's not what God's called us to.

  26:10-26:18

  As much as it's up to me, and as much as it's up to you, live peaceably with all.

  26:20-26:25

  You see, we have the privilege in His church to live out the peace that's coming.

  26:26-26:34

  We have this awesome opportunity as a church to show the world, When you come in here, you're going to get a preview.

  26:34-26:35

  You're going to get a sampler.

  26:35-26:44

  This is like the teaser trailer of what glory is going to be like, the way that we interact and love and live at peace with one another.

  26:47-26:56

  We can show the world, "Hey, this is what it's like to have a wonderful counselor guiding and instructing us perfectly.

  26:56-27:01

  Hey, look, this is what it's like to have a mighty God who fights all our battles for us.

  27:02-27:06

  This is what it's like to have an everlasting Father who's always with us.

  27:06-27:16

  And look, this is what it's like to have the Prince of Peace who provides harmony by His very presence.

  27:20-27:21

  Peace on earth, huh?

  27:25-27:26

  There's more fighting right now than ever.

  27:30-27:33

  It just seems like more and more people are divided into camps, right?

  27:35-27:37

  And these camps are all at war.

  27:38-27:40

  The Democrats versus the Republicans.

  27:41-27:44

  The mask wearers versus the no-mask wearers.

  27:45-27:49

  Racial tensions. I could go on and on and on.

  27:52-27:57

  The peace out there, it's coming. It's coming.

  28:01-28:08

  But as people who bow to the Prince of Peace, we have peace with God.

  28:10-28:11

  And we have peace in here.

  28:14-28:18

  Therefore, we're going to have peace in here. Amen?

  28:19-28:20

  Bow your heads and pray with me, please.

  28:21-28:28

  Our Father in Heaven is such a hard concept to grasp right now.

  28:30-28:37

  This whole idea of peace, because it just seems like there's a powder keg everywhere.

  28:40-28:42

  People are literally burning cities to the ground.

  28:44-28:49

  People are literally murdering people in the streets over nothing!

  28:53-28:55

  Nations against nations.

  28:59-29:02

  And even so much in America right now, a nation against itself.

  29:05-29:21

  You've provided something better for your people, God, so I pray That is, we are a people who embrace the peace that You brought us with Yourself through Jesus Christ, as we're a people who live according to the peace that passes understanding that guards our hearts.

  29:21-29:29

  As we're a people that live at peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and live peaceably with those outside the church.

  29:32-29:41

  Now more than ever, Father, we need to show people what this concept of peace is all about.

  29:43-30:02

  By Your grace, Father, in Your power, by the guidance of Your Spirit and Word, Father, let this church be the preview of glory as we bow our knees to the Prince of Peace.

  30:04-30:08

  In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we pray. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 9:6

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. Give a Biblical definition of peace. What does the Bible mean when God speaks of peace?
   

3. Explain how the peace Jesus gives is different from the peace the world gives (John 14:27).
   

4. Tell of a time you experienced the “peace that passes understanding” during a personal crisis (Philippians 4:6-7). How would you encourage another believer to experience this during their crisis?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

My Everlasting Father

Introduction:

For to us a child is born,
to 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, Prince of Peace.
~Isaiah 9:6

You Will Call Him... (Isaiah 9:6)

How Can a Baby Be an Everlasting Father?

1. Everlasting: Born , but without Beginning .

   Luke 2:25-32 - ...waiting for the consolation of Israel...
   ...revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
   ...my eyes have seen your salvation
   that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

   John 8:56-58 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."

2. Father: Unique , but Exactly Identical .

   Hebrews 1:2-3 - ...the exact imprint of his nature"

   Colossians 1:15-19 - in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell...
   ...you do know him and have seen him."

   John 14:6-10 - Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

What Do We Need from a Father?

• Provider (Luke 11:9-13)
• Role Model (Eph 4:32-5:2)
• Selflessness

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:20-01:33

  Good morning, everyone. In the late 1920s, Walter Chrysler, the president, owner of Chrysler Motor Company, had a dream. He wanted to build the world's tallest building in New York City.

  01:34-01:40

  Chrysler involved himself in every aspect of that construction, its design.

  01:40-01:43

  It was going to be a monument to himself, to his company.

  01:45-02:05

  He poured over the drawings that his architect would send him, and he made changes, and he wanted to incorporate automotive elements, things like hubcaps on the outside of the building and gargoyles in the shape of eagles that looked like the eagles that they put on the hood ornaments of his cars.

  02:06-02:09

  And he just invested himself in every way in this building.

  02:09-02:11

  He paid the full price out of his own pocket.

  02:12-02:17

  And he had an elaborate office built for himself in the building.

  02:17-02:23

  He had an apartment, including what he liked to boast was the highest bathroom in the city of New York City.

  02:25-02:29

  He was going to have a showroom on the first couple floors of the building.

  02:29-02:33

  and it was ultimately going to be Chrysler's world headquarters.

  02:34-02:42

  It was just an Art Deco masterpiece of modern design, technology, power, prestige.

  02:42-02:48

  Well, as I said, he involved himself in every way in the construction of this building.

  02:49-03:19

  And the day after the spire was raised up through the roof and installed, Walter Kreisler and his architect William Van Allen took a construction elevator up to about the 60th floor or so and from there they started climbing ladders inside the building up to the peak of the building. Now I'm sure you've probably seen pictures of the Kreisler building, right? You're familiar with this.

  03:20-03:27

  It's just a beautiful building. But they climbed all the way up as high as they could go inside the building.

  03:28-03:32

  And then they crawled out that window at the very top.

  03:32-03:36

  Now you can barely see it, but there's a window at the very top of that building.

  03:36-03:41

  They crawled out of that window onto scaffolding.

  03:41-03:45

  So you can see the picture of the scaffolding there, where that arrow is.

  03:45-03:47

  They crawled out there on scaffolding.

  03:47-03:52

  No railings, no harnesses.

  03:52-03:54

  Osho wasn't around then.

  03:54-03:56

  They're out there.

  03:57-04:02

  I'm like, "Oh my, oh my." This is insane.

  04:02-04:03

  But there they are.

  04:03-04:10

  Because Chrysler wanted to put his hand on that spire and get his picture taken doing it.

  04:10-04:30

  Now, if you think Walter Chrysler went to extreme measures to connect with the pinnacle of his creation, well, you ain't seen nothing yet because what God did to connect with the pinnacle of His creation is in many ways beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our ability to understand.

  04:31-04:39

  Because God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

  04:40-04:40

  Let's pray.

  04:41-04:44

  Our gracious Father, give us eyes to see.

  04:45-04:48

  Give us eyes to see Jesus as our everlasting Father.

  04:49-04:58

  This is, it beggars the imagination that you would do this, but you have and you are.

  04:59-05:00

  Teach us this morning.

  05:00-05:04

  I ask that you help me to speak clearly so that we all understand.

  05:05-05:09

  And we ask in the great name of our Savior Jesus, amen.

  05:11-05:13

  So we return to our text, Isaiah 9.6.

  05:14-05:33

  For to us a child is born, to 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, Prince of Peace." Now before I get started here, I have a couple of housekeeping notes for us.

  05:33-05:38

  The first is that Isaiah 9.6 does not describe the Trinity.

  05:38-05:41

  We don't see Father, Son, Holy Spirit here.

  05:42-05:54

  Now there was probably a time in my walk with Christ where I first read Isaiah 9.6, "Oh, wonderful counselor, that's the Holy Spirit, everlasting Father, God the Father." All three, they're all right here.

  05:54-05:58

  Well, that passage does not describe the Trinity.

  05:58-06:08

  These are all names for the Messiah, who is 100% human, 100% God, without any blurring or blending of those two natures.

  06:09-06:25

  The second housekeeping note is, when Jeff gives me an opportunity to speak, I get really excited and my mind starts racing and I just think if I'm going to say something about anything, I want it to be about everything.

  06:26-06:35

  I want to get up here and explain this grand cosmological, Christological meta-narrative and Jeff is like, "You know what I think.

  06:36-06:37

  I'll tell you what I think.

  06:37-06:39

  I think you don't know what you're talking about.

  06:39-06:43

  You don't know what any of those words mean, Rich." I'm like, "Jeff, you're right.

  06:43-06:44

  You keep it simple.

  06:45-06:47

  Keep it simple, but here we are.

  06:48-06:49

  Here we are.

  06:50-06:53

  A son is given and he's an everlasting father.

  06:55-07:07

  The goal of today's message is not just to see how Jesus is an everlasting father, but for you to understand and for you to be able to say, "Jesus is my everlasting father." So that's our question.

  07:07-07:10

  How can a baby be an everlasting father?

  07:11-07:12

  How can this be?

  07:13-07:16

  Well, let's look at the two parts of this name.

  07:17-07:18

  First, we'll look at everlasting.

  07:19-07:23

  Jesus was born, but he's without beginning, right?

  07:24-07:25

  We have some common ideas about Jesus.

  07:26-07:28

  Maybe before we're saved, we have ideas about Jesus.

  07:29-07:36

  Maybe even after we're saved, we're like, well, let's see, Jesus came into being when he was born.

  07:36-07:39

  He didn't exist before he was born.

  07:39-07:47

  They just talked about him, but he came into being when he was born and he became divine through his good works.

  07:48-07:51

  God was so pleased with him, he made him a God.

  07:52-07:53

  That's not the case.

  07:54-08:08

  Or maybe Jesus became divine on the day when he was baptized and the Holy Spirit came down as a dove and the Father said, "This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased." That's when Jesus became God.

  08:08-08:09

  No, no.

  08:10-08:21

  And of course, there were all kinds of crazy ideas throughout the history of the church that well, Jesus wasn't even human, he was just like an aura, because the body's evil, so God couldn't take on a body.

  08:21-08:28

  So Jesus was just kind of like this spirit being, and not only was he not really human, he didn't even really die on the cross.

  08:28-08:31

  All these ideas are wrong, right?

  08:31-08:33

  Jesus wasn't created when he was born.

  08:34-08:41

  He is eternally existent, present before and at the foundation of the world.

  08:42-08:43

  Jesus simply is.

  08:44-08:47

  You see, Isaiah wasn't just predicting Jesus' birth.

  08:48-08:50

  He wasn't predicting his incarnation.

  08:50-08:56

  He wasn't looking down like in a vision through the tunnels of time, and he saw this event.

  08:56-09:02

  Oh, there's a baby out there, and oh, he's gonna have these names.

  09:02-09:03

  It's not what's happening.

  09:03-09:11

  He's not looking forward, and he's not standing, so to speak, in some future vision state looking at what's going on.

  09:12-09:15

  He saw what is.

  09:16-09:17

  He saw what is.

  09:18-09:20

  From his point in time, he saw what is.

  09:20-09:33

  This is hard for us to understand, but in the Hebrew, our passage, you will know it says, "To us a son is born, is given, "but then it shifts to the future tense.

  09:33-09:35

  "The government shall be upon his shoulder.

  09:37-09:41

  "His name shall be called." That's not what the Hebrew says.

  09:41-09:46

  For some reason when we translate this, we figure, okay, Isaiah's in the past, he's looking to the future.

  09:47-10:01

  The Hebrew says, "The government is upon his shoulder, "and his name is called." So Isaiah sees this child and says what he is.

  10:02-10:03

  He is an everlasting Father.

  10:04-10:08

  He is a wonderful Counselor, a mighty God, a Prince of Peace.

  10:09-10:15

  It's sort of like me, if I were to come up here and say, "Hey, the Steelers are Super Bowl champs.

  10:16-10:23

  I've seen this snowy night in February, and the Steelers are Super Bowl champs." And you'd say, "Well, of course they are!

  10:23-10:33

  They're six-pack." And I'm like, "No, no, let me put on my 'Seven is Heaven' hoodie, because the Steelers are Super Bowl champs." would disbelieve me.

  10:33-10:37

  If I was talking about the pirates winning the World Series you'd be more likely to disbelieve me.

  10:38-10:48

  But the fact is Isaiah is seeing what is and he's telling the people the Messiah is an everlasting father.

  10:49-10:50

  See we're confined by time.

  10:51-10:54

  Jesus is not at all confined by time.

  10:54-10:54

  He's eternal.

  10:55-10:59

  Whether he's present at creation as we read in John chapter one.

  10:59-11:18

  whether he appears as the angel of the Lord to Abraham or to Gideon or Moses, whether he is a newborn, whether he's transfigured on the mountain before his disciples, whether we see him as the resurrected Lord in glory in Revelation, Jesus is.

  11:19-11:30

  And since we're celebrating Jesus' advent, I think it's appropriate for us to turn to Luke 2 and an account that highlights Jesus' eternality as a newborn.

  11:31-11:44

  If you would turn to Luke 2, verse 25, "Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

  11:45-11:47

  And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

  11:47-11:54

  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

  11:55-11:57

  And he came in the Spirit into the temple.

  11:58-12:11

  And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

  12:12-12:28

  For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." See, Simeon was waiting for Messiah.

  12:29-12:30

  He knew the time was right.

  12:30-12:33

  He was looking, as it says, for the consolation of Israel.

  12:34-12:35

  That means he's looking for Messiah.

  12:35-12:38

  He's any day now, right?

  12:38-12:41

  And Simeon, he didn't see any miracles.

  12:42-12:43

  He never saw any healings.

  12:43-12:47

  He didn't see Jesus lay his hand on lepers and cleanse them.

  12:48-12:51

  Right, he didn't see any dead people raised.

  12:51-12:53

  He never even heard Jesus preach or teach.

  12:54-12:56

  He didn't see his death and resurrection.

  12:57-13:02

  And yet Simeon considered the work of Messiah as good as done.

  13:03-13:03

  Why?

  13:04-13:06

  Because he knew the promises of Isaiah 9.

  13:07-13:11

  He knew the promises that Messiah would be the salvation of all people, even Gentiles.

  13:12-13:17

  And of course now he is seeing the personal promise made to him by the Holy Spirit fulfilled.

  13:18-13:30

  For Simeon seeing the child was enough because he knew the eternality of the one who promised the eternal Messiah, whom he's now holding in his arms.

  13:31-13:32

  We just sang that song.

  13:32-13:33

  Mary, did you know?

  13:34-13:37

  Simeon's holding God in his arms and he knows.

  13:38-13:39

  It's done, it's good as done.

  13:40-13:40

  We're saved.

  13:41-13:43

  God has delivered us.

  13:44-13:51

  The fact that the child had been born was assurance that everything else necessary for salvation was going to be accomplished.

  13:53-14:01

  Simeon saw not just the baby, he saw and believed in the finished work, even though he was not going to live to see it.

  14:01-14:03

  But Simeon also knew there was more to come.

  14:04-14:10

  He knew the child would grow and become both suffering servant and the righteous ruler of Israel.

  14:11-14:18

  Simon knew what the law and the prophets said about Messiah, which leads us to what Jesus said as an adult.

  14:19-14:22

  And we've covered this with Jeff in his messages.

  14:23-14:29

  In John chapter eight, Jesus is contending, disputing with the Pharisees.

  14:30-14:39

  And he gets to the point where he says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced "that he would see my day, "and he saw it, and he was glad.

  14:40-14:51

  "So the Jews said to him, "'You're not yet 50 years old, "'and you have seen Abraham.' "Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

  14:52-14:58

  You can't get a clearer declaration that Jesus is God than that right there.

  14:58-15:01

  And they knew it, and they were gonna stone him for it.

  15:02-15:10

  Yes, Abraham, Abraham saw him, as did Moses and Gideon and Isaiah and Simeon.

  15:10-15:14

  They all saw the eternal Messiah, Jesus.

  15:15-15:17

  and seeing, as they say, is believing.

  15:18-15:23

  I tell you, it's difficult to have a temporary outlook on life.

  15:23-15:29

  It's difficult to have a temporary theology when your God says, "I am eternal.

  15:30-16:13

  "My steadfast love is forever." Right, when God revealed himself to Moses, he said in Exodus 34, verse six, He said, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious." But really what he's saying there is, "I am, I am a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands." When we contemplate that Jesus is God and He is God with us, we can have the assurance that things aren't just gonna be okay, but everything is gonna be great.

  16:14-16:15

  So let's look at the next part, Father.

  16:17-16:18

  What do we know about Father?

  16:18-16:25

  Well, His everlasting Father, Jesus, is unique, but He's exactly identical.

  16:26-16:29

  So again, we have common ideas about God the Father, right?

  16:30-16:37

  In some religions, some systems of Christianity, God's mad at you.

  16:38-16:39

  He's really mad at you, and you know what?

  16:39-16:41

  Jesus isn't too pleased with you either.

  16:42-16:44

  So what you've got to do, you've got to pray to Mary.

  16:45-16:46

  She's like mom.

  16:46-16:47

  You know, mom's nicer.

  16:48-16:49

  And you can pray to the saints too.

  16:50-16:51

  They'll help you out.

  16:54-16:58

  Some people think that the Old Testament God is not like the New Testament God.

  16:59-17:01

  He's all wrath and anger.

  17:03-17:05

  Whereas the New Testament God, Jesus is love.

  17:05-17:07

  Everything's love. Everything's good.

  17:07-17:09

  No judgment zone here.

  17:10-17:21

  But the verse I just read, Exodus 34, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, that's Jesus.

  17:23-17:25

  Another view is that he's kind of remote.

  17:26-17:29

  God the Father, it's far away.

  17:30-17:33

  I don't get him, I know he doesn't get me.

  17:33-17:54

  He's just remote, he's disconnected, he's up there, handing out rules like, "Do this, follow these rules. You better do this now or I might zap you." He's just this imposing faraway God who's totally a do as I say supreme being.

  17:55-17:59

  Beloved, those ideas are completely wrong. This is what the scripture says.

  18:00-18:06

  Hebrews chapter 1, I only have verses 2 and 3 up here, but I'm going to start at verse 1.

  18:06-18:11

  Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

  18:12-18:20

  But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.

  18:21-18:26

  He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

  18:27-18:36

  And then Paul tells us in Colossians 1.15-19, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

  18:37-18:48

  For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

  18:48-18:52

  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

  18:53-19:02

  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." See, the Greek word for imprint is character.

  19:03-19:05

  It's the basis of our word character.

  19:07-19:12

  And it can mean the tool used to engrave something.

  19:12-19:16

  It can also mean the one doing the engraving, creating the image.

  19:16-19:26

  But for our purposes, the meaning is the exact expression or a precise reproduction in every respect.

  19:26-19:30

  So Jesus is not like a carbon copy of God.

  19:31-19:32

  He's not a mimeograph.

  19:33-19:33

  You know what that is?

  19:33-19:40

  I know some of you, just by my saying mimeograph, you can see the purple print and smell that fluid.

  19:42-19:43

  I'm very old.

  19:46-19:50

  Jesus is not even like a Xerox of God, right?

  19:50-19:58

  Because if you know something about Xeroxes, you know, when you start making a copy, the multiple copies begin to degrade, right?

  19:59-20:01

  They're not like the original, right?

  20:01-20:07

  And you've seen copies, you know, they got all these little speckles all over 'em and they're crooked, right?

  20:08-20:14

  So no, Jesus is exactly like the Father.

  20:15-20:22

  Quite simply, Jesus is the glorious exact representation of God the Father and in him, all the fullness of God dwells.

  20:23-20:44

  If you wanna know who God is, what he's like, what he thinks of his creation, what he thinks of people, "What he thinks of you, look at Jesus in the scripture." And Jesus also had quite a few things to say about his relationship to the Father, and perhaps nowhere more clearly than on the night before he was crucified.

  20:45-20:54

  Jesus was talking with his disciples, and he's talking to Philip, and he says to Philip, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.

  20:55-20:58

  "No one comes to the Father except through me.

  20:58-21:01

  "If you had known me, you would have known my father also.

  21:02-21:16

  "From now on, you do know him, and you have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the father, "and it's enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, "and you still do not know me, Philip?

  21:17-21:19

  "Whoever has seen me has seen the father.

  21:20-21:22

  "How can you say, 'Show us the father'?

  21:22-21:25

  "Do you not believe that I am in the father, "and the father is in me?

  21:26-21:34

  "The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, "but the Father who dwells in me does his work." It can't be any clearer.

  21:35-21:36

  Do you want to know the Father?

  21:37-21:39

  Then fix your eyes on Jesus.

  21:40-21:45

  Now I thought about what is it we need from a father?

  21:46-21:47

  Well, we need many things.

  21:47-21:51

  And to list them all would keep us here for a week, so I'm not gonna do that.

  21:52-21:56

  But I would like to look at three things that we do need from a father.

  21:56-21:57

  We need a provider.

  21:58-22:00

  We need a role model.

  22:01-22:03

  And we need a man who is selfless.

  22:04-22:14

  Now our earthly fathers, they are or they were, they demonstrated these qualities, perhaps to greater or lesser degrees.

  22:15-22:22

  But Jesus is the exact imprint of God the Father is all of these things far more abundantly than we can ask or think.

  22:23-22:26

  Let's look first at provider.

  22:26-22:40

  Jesus, after he taught his disciples to pray and told them a parable about asking urgently and persistently, says at Luke 11:9, he says, "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you.

  22:40-22:42

  "Seek, and you will find.

  22:42-22:44

  "Knock, and it will be opened to you.

  22:45-22:53

  "For everyone who asks receives, "and the one who seeks finds, "and the one who knocks, it will be open.

  22:53-22:59

  "What father among you, if a son asks for a fish, "will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

  23:00-23:02

  "Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

  23:02-23:15

  "If you then, who are evil, "know how to give good gifts to your children, "how much more will the heavenly father "give the Holy Spirit to those who seek him?" So as children, we need our needs provided for.

  23:16-23:21

  And our fathers, again, to a greater or lesser extent, took care of our needs.

  23:22-23:31

  My father rarely gave me all the things I wanted, but I don't think he ever gave me anything that I wanted, come to think of it.

  23:32-23:33

  (audience laughing)

  23:33-23:37

  But he always gave me the things that I needed.

  23:38-23:41

  And God knows we have needs.

  23:42-23:43

  And he wants us to ask.

  23:44-23:46

  But this is not prosperity gospel.

  23:46-23:48

  Please don't misunderstand me here.

  23:48-23:49

  This is not prosperity gospel.

  23:50-23:51

  It's not the things that we want.

  23:52-23:57

  God wants us to pray and talk with him about what we need.

  23:57-24:04

  And 'cause what happens over time is God impresses on our mind, oh, Lord, you're right, that's what I really need.

  24:04-24:08

  I wanted this, but you're telling me I need this and you're right.

  24:09-24:14

  And what he tells us most of all that we need is God himself, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

  24:15-24:18

  The second thing we need from a father is a role model.

  24:19-24:22

  And this sort of partakes of presence.

  24:22-24:27

  I use role model, but there's an aspect of presence to this, right?

  24:28-24:31

  Because as little children, we need examples.

  24:32-24:37

  We need an example to follow, to imitate, and to understand what right looks like.

  24:37-24:42

  And for that to happen, it requires the father to be present.

  24:43-24:46

  And I understand, some of us, we haven't always had a father who was present.

  24:47-24:49

  And that was a bad role model.

  24:50-24:52

  But we're looking at a good role model this morning.

  24:53-24:57

  And by being present, we speak even without words.

  24:58-25:04

  I was reminded of this recently by my grandson who is staying with us.

  25:04-25:07

  He loves to help me feed the cats at night.

  25:07-25:16

  We have three cats and he's like, "I help, I help, eat, eat, I help." And he gets up there and he helps me put the food in the bowls.

  25:16-25:18

  Well, one of our cats has to take some medication.

  25:19-25:21

  So I smash that up in there, mix it up in the food.

  25:22-25:23

  And then we'd go down and we'd put the bowls down.

  25:25-25:29

  And because the one cat has medicine, we don't want the other two eating it.

  25:30-25:32

  Well, the other two, they're dum-dums, they don't know that.

  25:33-25:39

  So we got a gray cat, he just like comes over, pushes the orange one out of the way and tries to eat his food.

  25:39-25:45

  And I have to stand there and watch them and I'm like, okay, no, I promise you, I don't kick my cats.

  25:45-25:47

  but I just move him with my foot.

  25:48-25:50

  Go back to your own bowl.

  25:51-25:53

  My grandson's standing there watching this.

  25:55-25:57

  He's pushing the cats around.

  25:57-26:05

  And I'm like, wow, I have to be careful what I say and do because he's going to copy me instantly.

  26:06-26:14

  So as you can see, I by no means hold myself out as a paragon of fathering or an ideal to follow.

  26:14-26:20

  But Jesus, yes, he is the ultimate fatherly role model for us to imitate.

  26:21-26:31

  Listen to the qualities that Jesus models and that Paul says we should imitate in Ephesians 4:32-5.

  26:32-26:38

  He says, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

  26:39-26:52

  "Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

  26:53-26:54

  You see, our culture denies it.

  26:55-27:03

  We ourselves may not always be conscious of it, but a father is the center point around which children's lives orbit.

  27:04-27:10

  For good or for ill, the father is the one to whom we all refer back.

  27:11-27:21

  Even when we're grown, even as adults, even if our fathers are gone, we look back and we either have a good example or there's absence.

  27:21-27:32

  And for some looking to our father, that's soulless and for others it's pain because they yearn for a father who wasn't present.

  27:33-27:37

  But for us, the good news is Jesus is always present.

  27:38-27:51

  The Bible says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And Jesus said, "Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." In John 14, verse 18, he says, "I will not leave you as orphans.

  27:51-28:00

  I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live.

  28:01-28:13

  In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." Jesus is the God-man who connects us directly to the triune God.

  28:14-28:15

  There's no separation.

  28:15-28:17

  He's got a hand on us.

  28:17-28:18

  He's laid hold of us.

  28:18-28:24

  He's laid hold of the Father, and he connects us directly to the Trinity.

  28:25-28:27

  There's no separation.

  28:27-28:30

  Jesus is always present with us.

  28:31-28:35

  And then the last thing, we need a Father who is selfless.

  28:36-28:41

  You see, a good father will give time, spend time, give attention to his children.

  28:42-28:43

  And that partakes of sacrifice.

  28:44-28:49

  It partakes of laying down one's life a little bit at a time.

  28:49-28:55

  A father has to set aside his own wants and desires for his children's needs.

  28:56-28:57

  And again, not all fathers do this.

  28:59-29:01

  But a good father would do this.

  29:02-29:10

  And I dare say a good father would give his life for his child, would substitute his own life if it meant that his child could live.

  29:11-29:21

  You know, go back to Walter Kreisler, standing up there in the wind and the cold on top of his building, you know, kind of teetering up there.

  29:21-29:26

  What if he had fallen headlong off the building, plunged to the sidewalk below?

  29:27-29:30

  That's all we would remember about Walter Kreisler, wouldn't it?

  29:30-29:41

  "Oh yeah, that guy that fell off of his building 'cause he was just so proud he wanted to go up there and touch the top of it." What a fool, what folly.

  29:41-29:45

  You know, we wouldn't think about this beautiful Art Deco building anymore, right?

  29:45-29:51

  We would, oh, we would remember about Walter Chrysler as he's the guy that plunged headlong off his building.

  29:52-29:52

  Guess what?

  29:53-29:57

  Jesus plunged headlong into our existence.

  29:58-30:06

  He emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and selflessly gave his life to redeem ours.

  30:06-30:12

  Jesus gave the last full measure to connect with us, the pinnacle of his creation.

  30:13-30:24

  This might seem like foolishness and folly to some people, but we know the foolishness of God is wiser than men and God chose what is foolish to shame the wise.

  30:25-30:43

  Now you may be wondering, "Well, what do I do in response to this message?" "I really don't want you to do any specific thing." "I don't want you to do something." The goal of this message is to renew your mind and cause you to think about Jesus in ways perhaps you haven't before.

  30:44-30:54

  Because as your mind is renewed and transformed and conformed to the truth of God's word, you will quite naturally do what God wills.

  30:55-30:58

  and it will come naturally to keep God's commands.

  30:59-31:28

  See, in our case today, whether you've had a great earthly father or you're among those of us who did not, I want you in your inmost being to lean into the truth that you have an everlasting father in Jesus who provides what you need, who is always present, and who selflessly gave himself and gives of himself for you who loves you with a steadfast everlasting love.

  31:29-31:37

  I want you to say with great confidence that indeed Jesus is my everlasting Father.

  31:37-31:38

  Let's pray.

  31:39-31:44

  Oh great God, merciful, kind, loving, gracious.

  31:45-31:52

  We praise you for the gift, for your indescribable gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  31:53-32:03

  Help us, Lord, to see Him always as our wonderful Counselor, our mighty God, our everlasting Father, our Prince of Peace.

  32:04-32:07

  And it's in His great name we ask, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 9:6

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. Do you think of Jesus as eternal? How has your understanding of Jesus’ eternality increased as you have matured in Him?
   

3. If available, read different translations of Isaiah 9:6 (HBC uses the English Standard Version, or ESV). How do those translations differ, if at all? How does the present tense of the verb “to be” (used in the Hebrew text) affect your understanding of Jesus?
   

4. In what ways are we helped by knowing Jesus is “the exact imprint” of God? How does that affect your understanding of God?
   

5. What are ways Jesus models God the Father for us?
   

6. If you do not or did not have a positive relationship with your earthly father, how can Jesus as your everlasting father transform and satisfy your need for that essential relationship?

Breakout
Pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to you as your everlasting father.

My Mighty God.

Introduction:

For to us a child is born,
to 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, Prince of Peace.
~Isaiah 9:6

You Will Call Him... (Isaiah 9:6)

1. My God .
   • Romans 10:9 - Jesus is Lord
   • John 20:31 - Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
   • John 8:24 - unless you believe that I am (he)
   • Matthew 12:32
2. My Mighty God.
   • 2 Chronicles 14:9-12a
   • 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 - For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:20-01:22

  We are in week two of our Christmas series.

  01:22-01:25

  Open up your Bibles to Isaiah 9, verse 6.

  01:26-01:28

  Rich Sprung kicked us off last week.

  01:29-01:42

  The series is called "You Will Call Him." And we're looking at a very familiar passage, Isaiah 9, verse 6, but we're slowing down.

  01:45-01:57

  in each of these phrases, "that you will call Him." It was a time of political corruption, oppression, inverted morality.

  01:57-02:02

  What was evil was considered good, and what was good was considered evil.

  02:02-02:04

  And it was a time of fear.

  02:05-02:10

  And it was a time of a wicked king named Ahaz.

  02:10-02:12

  You can read more about him in 1 Kings 16.

  02:15-02:30

  But before you complain too much about the leaders that we have in our country today, or in our state, or whatever, A has - he was a wicked human being.

  02:33-02:36

  He was pro-child killing.

  02:39-02:41

  to the point that He sacrificed His own Son.

  02:45-02:52

  I guess to appear woke to the other people that worship the false gods.

  02:53-02:55

  He promoted idolatry.

  02:55-02:57

  He was terrible with foreign affairs.

  02:57-02:59

  He was a true worshiper.

  02:59-03:01

  It was a terrible time.

  03:04-03:09

  And God's people need to know God was still in control.

  03:12-03:19

  And if it sounds familiar, people living in fear, under corrupt leadership.

  03:23-03:25

  Israel was suffering.

  03:26-03:27

  Israel needed hope.

  03:28-03:33

  And you know, there's a lot of people today feeling the same.

  03:34-03:34

  Like, where's the hope?

  03:35-03:36

  Where's the hope?

  03:36-03:37

  Christmas, did you hear?

  03:38-03:39

  Where's the hope?

  03:40-03:45

  Well, through Isaiah, the Lord said, "Hope is coming." Hope is coming.

  03:46-03:50

  And you see, God's answer wasn't political reform.

  03:52-03:55

  God's answer wasn't social justice.

  03:57-03:59

  God's answer wasn't even religion.

  04:00-04:11

  God's answer to all of the problems that Isaiah's culture was facing, his answer was a baby.

  04:13-04:14

  And that's Isaiah 9.6.

  04:15-04:19

  He says, "For to us a child is born.

  04:21-04:23

  To us a son is given.

  04:24-04:26

  And the government shall be upon his shoulder.

  04:28-04:37

  And his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

  04:39-04:44

  In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, names were often a commentary on character.

  04:46-04:49

  And here, the name of the Messiah will be called.

  04:49-04:55

  In other words, you will call Him - first of all, we saw wonderful Counselor Rich cover that last week.

  04:55-05:00

  The counsel of Jesus Christ is timeless and it's personal, and it's life.

  05:01-05:03

  You will call Him my wonderful Counselor today.

  05:05-05:08

  You will call Him my mighty God.

  05:10-05:15

  So on your outline, if you're taking notes, it doesn't get much simpler than this.

  05:16-05:18

  Number one, you will call Him my God.

  05:19-05:20

  Write that down.

  05:20-05:24

  You will call Him my God.

  05:28-05:30

  Matthew or Isaiah promises a baby.

  05:32-05:32

  Right?

  05:32-05:36

  But not just a baby and not just a man.

  05:36-05:44

  We see here very clearly, God says this baby is going to be born, and you're going to call this baby God.

  05:47-06:26

  And I have to remind you here, for some this isn't a reminder but new information, but believing that Jesus Christ is God for salvation. I'm going to say that again. Believing that Jesus Christ is God is essential for salvation. You know, there are a lot of religions out there that acknowledge Jesus on some level. You can talk about the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Muslims and the Christian scientists and even the Scientologists. You realize all of those cults are pro-Jesus, right?

  06:27-06:43

  If you would sit down with one of the members and say, "Jesus, thumbs up or thumbs down?" They would all say, "Thumbs up, Jesus!" But none of those cults believe that Jesus Christ is actually God in the flesh, and they're not saying.

  06:47-06:55

  And you're like, "Well, Jeff, what about somebody, "like what about my neighbor that maybe thinks He said, "Jesus was just this really good teacher.

  06:56-07:01

  He was this really good moral person, but I don't necessarily believe that He's God.

  07:01-07:04

  You know, what would you say about that person?

  07:04-07:12

  It's like, I think Jesus was a good person and I believe His teachings, but I don't believe He was God." That person's not saved.

  07:15-07:16

  Like, how can you say that?

  07:16-07:19

  Well, there's no - listen to this closely.

  07:20-07:28

  There's not one verse in the Bible, not one, that allows for believing in Jesus simply as a good teacher.

  07:29-07:37

  But there are many verses, many verses in the Bible, that teach you must believe that He is God in order to be saved.

  07:38-07:39

  Let me give you some examples here.

  07:39-07:44

  Romans 10, 9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that..." What?

  07:44-07:52

  "Jesus is Lord." That means so much more than Jesus is just my boss.

  07:52-07:55

  This is Jesus is the exalted God.

  07:56-08:02

  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

  08:03-08:04

  John 20, 31.

  08:06-08:10

  We're gonna get here Lord willing, unless he returns before that in our series in John.

  08:11-08:13

  But he tells us the whole purpose for his writing.

  08:13-08:19

  He says, "But these are written that you may believe "that Jesus is the Christ." Look at this next phrase.

  08:20-08:25

  "The Son of God." And some people say, "Well, 'Son of God' means that He wasn't God.

  08:25-08:29

  He was like the Son of God." And that is completely ignorant thinking.

  08:30-08:37

  Because in Jesus' day, if you're walking around telling people, "Hey, by the way, I'm the Son of God," they knew exactly what you were saying.

  08:37-08:41

  You were saying that you were the embodiment of Almighty God in the flesh.

  08:41-08:42

  That's what that phrase means.

  08:42-08:44

  Not lesser than God.

  08:44-08:46

  I am God in the form of a man.

  08:46-08:47

  That's what that means.

  08:49-08:54

  And John says he wrote everything he wrote for that reason, that you would believe he's the Son of God.

  08:54-08:57

  And then, what would Jesus Himself say?

  08:57-08:59

  What would Jesus Himself say?

  08:59-09:00

  Well, here's what Jesus said.

  09:01-09:05

  Jesus said, "I told you that you would die in your sins.

  09:07-09:14

  For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Now, I put "He" in parentheses because you know He's not in the original language.

  09:15-09:25

  Jesus was literally saying here, He says, "For unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." I am - what's I am?

  09:26-09:27

  I am is God's name.

  09:27-09:30

  The Old Testament name for God.

  09:30-09:30

  Yahweh.

  09:31-09:33

  God said that's what My name is.

  09:33-09:35

  It means I am. I am who I am.

  09:36-09:53

  And Jesus said, "Unless you believe that that's who I am," look what He said, "you will die in your sins." and I stand up here and tell you, you must believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh in order to be saved, I did not make that message up.

  09:53-09:55

  That comes from the Bible.

  09:57-10:00

  So if you're struggling to believe that, your struggle is with God.

  10:01-10:02

  Best of luck to you on that.

  10:06-10:13

  Okay, I see what you're saying, but why do I have to believe that Jesus is God?

  10:13-10:15

  Why is that essential for salvation?

  10:15-10:16

  I mean, think about that.

  10:18-10:24

  I have to subscribe to a particular theological framework in order to be saved.

  10:24-10:26

  Why do I have to believe He is God?

  10:26-10:27

  I'm going to tell you why. Listen.

  10:27-10:35

  Because until you recognize Jesus for who He is, you will never receive what He offers.

  10:38-10:40

  I'm going to rephrase that in a positive way.

  10:43-10:44

  You might want to write this down.

  10:44-10:48

  When you believe who He is, you'll receive what He gives.

  10:50-10:51

  That's why it's so important.

  10:53-10:55

  That sounds like a Dan Smith thing, right, Mike Wolsky?

  10:55-11:00

  Until you believe who He is, you'll never receive what He gives.

  11:04-11:10

  In other words, if you think Jesus was just good moral teacher, you'll always receive Him on that level.

  11:10-11:14

  "He has a little nugget of information to help me get through my day and help me be a good mom today," or whatever.

  11:16-11:17

  He is so much more than that.

  11:19-11:22

  Or Jesus says, "Jesus is my life coach." Really?

  11:25-11:31

  No. Jesus is nothing less than Almighty God in the form of a man.

  11:32-11:34

  And that's what Isaiah was prophesying here.

  11:35-11:38

  And when you believe who He is, you'll receive what He gives.

  11:39-11:41

  I want to illustrate this for you.

  11:41-11:45

  You don't have to turn there now, but I want you to turn there later.

  11:45-11:46

  Matthew 12.

  11:48-11:57

  I just want to use this passage to sort of illustrate this idea that you absolutely have to receive Jesus as He is.

  11:58-12:00

  Believe who He says He is.

  12:01-12:05

  In Matthew 12, Jesus healed a demon-possessed man.

  12:05-12:14

  And the Pharisees come along and they're like, "Well, he did that by the power of Satan, you know." And Jesus said, "Well, a house divided against itself can't stand, right?

  12:14-12:20

  Satan wouldn't go around casting out Satan." But listen to what Jesus says here in Matthew 12.32.

  12:21-12:23

  I think we'll have this on the screen here. Yeah.

  12:24-12:42

  Jesus said, "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven." But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

  12:45-12:48

  Jesus said you can speak a word against the Son of Man and be forgiven.

  12:49-12:54

  In other words, someone could initially reject Jesus Christ.

  12:56-13:01

  out of ignorance, but then repent.

  13:01-13:03

  And say, "I was wrong about who Jesus is.

  13:04-13:13

  And I see who He is now, and I believe that Jesus is who He said He is." And that person could be saved, for sure.

  13:13-13:15

  That happens all the time.

  13:16-13:17

  What's happening in this passage?

  13:17-13:18

  Again, I want you to look this up.

  13:19-13:27

  Because I'm going to explain what's happening you understand that when you believe who He is, you'll receive what He gives.

  13:28-13:33

  In this passage, the Pharisees saw the Holy Spirit at work through Jesus.

  13:35-13:41

  What the Holy Spirit was doing was giving everyone clear evidence that Jesus is God.

  13:43-13:53

  So the Pharisees witness, again, through the Testament, the Holy Spirit, God at work, and they walk away with the conclusion Jesus is satanic.

  13:56-13:57

  Here's what this means.

  13:59-14:01

  You better listen really close to this.

  14:02-14:08

  When you see Jesus for who He is - God.

  14:12-14:23

  Through the Word of God, and instead of receiving Jesus as God, You choose to dismiss the evidence.

  14:27-14:32

  You are denying what the Holy Spirit is testifying to you.

  14:33-14:37

  You are denying what the Holy Spirit is speaking into your heart.

  14:40-14:43

  And there is no hope for you, whatsoever.

  14:46-14:55

  When you hear the Word of God proclaimed, and the Spirit of God works with the Word of God, The Holy Spirit is saying to you, "Jesus is God. Jesus is God.

  14:55-14:56

  Jesus is God.

  14:57-14:57

  Put your faith in Him.

  14:58-14:59

  Believe Him. Trust Him.

  15:00-15:00

  Cry out to Him.

  15:00-15:03

  Jesus will save you because He's God.

  15:03-15:13

  Jesus is God." And the Holy Spirit is speaking that to your heart, and you know the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, and you just dismiss Him.

  15:14-15:14

  No.

  15:18-15:19

  There's no hope for you.

  15:20-15:21

  It's just not.

  15:22-15:25

  That's what some people call blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

  15:30-15:37

  Right now I can tell by the look on some of your faces, you're asking, "Have I ever done that?" Have you ever wondered that?

  15:37-15:38

  Don't raise your hand, but have you ever wondered that?

  15:39-15:41

  Like, "Oh my gosh, this is serious business.

  15:41-15:42

  Have I ever done that?

  15:42-15:50

  Have I ever committed the unpardonable sin?" Well, if you're asking that question, you haven't done that.

  15:52-15:57

  Do you feel the air pressure just raised with the sighs of relief that went in the room?

  15:59-16:02

  If you're asking the question, you haven't done that.

  16:02-16:06

  Because the person who truly does this doesn't care to ask.

  16:07-16:08

  You see, that's the difference.

  16:09-16:20

  The person who blasphemes the Spirit, the person who wholesale rejects the person of Jesus Christ, they're not sitting around asking, I wonder if I committed the unforgivable sin.

  16:20-16:23

  They don't give a rip. They don't care.

  16:25-16:26

  They've made up their mind.

  16:27-16:31

  They're not going to believe despite what the Holy Spirit has revealed to them.

  16:31-16:33

  And the point is this.

  16:36-16:39

  You have to receive Jesus Christ for who He is.

  16:42-16:58

  and a refusal to acknowledge clear testimony from the Holy Spirit of the deity of Jesus Christ, that's an unforgivable sin.

  17:00-17:02

  Because God doesn't have plan B.

  17:04-17:07

  God's not going to say, "Oh, you're not interested in My Son?

  17:07-17:12

  Well, let me see what other option I have for you to get you into Heaven." There is no plan B.

  17:15-17:24

  Your eternal destination hinges upon Jesus is who Isaiah said this baby is, and that is He is God.

  17:25-17:26

  He is God.

  17:27-17:27

  Okay?

  17:28-17:40

  So if you've been visiting this church, or you've been coming for a while, you've been watching online, and you're wondering what do we really think about Jesus, can I make it any more clear to you?

  17:41-17:42

  He is God!

  17:42-17:44

  That's what we believe at Harvest Bible Chapter.

  17:46-17:48

  He's God. You will call Him my God.

  17:50-17:54

  Secondly, you will call Him my mighty God.

  17:55-17:56

  My mighty God.

  17:59-18:06

  You know, like you, I've read this passage hundreds of times, or heard sermons on it.

  18:06-18:08

  It's on the Christmas cards.

  18:09-18:10

  Charlie Brown might have said it.

  18:11-18:23

  But when I heard "My mighty God," I used to think that that word "mighty" just spoke to His power, like creation power.

  18:23-18:25

  Like God speaks and He creates.

  18:26-18:27

  Or like His miracles.

  18:28-18:30

  I used to think that that's what "mighty" meant.

  18:30-18:35

  And listen, yes, God does have that kind of power, creation, miracles.

  18:36-18:37

  He can do that.

  18:37-18:42

  Now this, this word "mighty" is speaking very specifically to something else.

  18:43-18:55

  The Hebrew word is "gabor," which literally means "to prevail." In the Hebrew, it's a military term.

  18:57-18:59

  It refers to military might.

  18:59-19:05

  You could say a proven soldier, or a champion, or someone who is unconquerable.

  19:07-19:11

  That's the flavor that the word "mighty" has here.

  19:13-19:19

  And to try to illustrate this in a human sense, "mighty" doesn't look so much like this.

  19:23-19:26

  Now before you ask, give back to that, no give back.

  19:27-19:29

  Before you ask, that is me.

  19:31-19:34

  Some of you might not recognize me because I didn't have a beard, my hair was darker back then.

  19:36-19:39

  I used to think, "Well, this is what'mighty' looks like.

  19:39-19:40

  Power, right?

  19:40-19:44

  But that's really not the Hebrew word "gebur." "Mighty" doesn't look like this.

  19:44-19:45

  Okay, go to the next picture.

  19:45-19:46

  Here's what "mighty" looks like in the Hebrew.

  19:50-19:53

  That's "mighty." Do you understand the difference between the two?

  19:54-19:55

  See the difference?

  19:58-20:04

  In other words, this Hebrew word is telling us That Jesus is a warrior.

  20:08-20:10

  Jesus is a fighter.

  20:13-20:17

  That no enemy can prevail against Him.

  20:21-20:24

  That's the message that Israel needed to hear.

  20:27-20:29

  And church, that's the message that we need to hear today.

  20:30-20:39

  because let's be honest, doesn't it feel right now that we are being smothered by evil?

  20:40-20:42

  Doesn't it feel like that? Right?

  20:45-20:54

  We've got wicked leaders, we've got sex trafficking, we've got abortion, we've got violent protests, we could go on and on and on and on.

  20:55-20:58

  I can't even turn the news on anymore, honestly.

  20:59-21:03

  I'm like, I'd rather just not know what's happening today.

  21:05-21:07

  Because it just got to be so much.

  21:11-21:24

  And not just what's on TV, think of the battles that we face personally with sin, and with sickness, and with anxiety, and with autism, and with addiction, and with depression.

  21:27-21:33

  We feel smothered and overwhelmed.

  21:33-21:40

  And like Israel, what we need, we need someone who's going to fight for us.

  21:41-21:47

  We need somebody that's going to overcome that which we cannot overcome ourselves.

  21:49-21:50

  That's what we need.

  21:52-21:55

  And like Israel, our answer comes in the form of a person.

  21:56-22:01

  He's a child born, He's a son given, Jesus Christ, the mighty God.

  22:02-22:03

  That's God's answer.

  22:06-22:07

  I could be done now.

  22:10-22:11

  But I'm not going to be.

  22:12-22:13

  Now I'm going to tell you why.

  22:15-22:24

  I don't think saying that Jesus is God, I don't think that's a hard sell in a church like this.

  22:24-22:35

  I imagine most of us sitting here, and most of the people that watch us on TV, and all over the world people watch this stream, I just, I don't imagine it's a hard sell.

  22:35-22:41

  To say Jesus is God, I imagine most people are like, yep, yep, yep, not a hard sell, not a hard sell.

  22:41-22:46

  I think the harder sell for the church, honestly, I think the harder sell is that He's mighty.

  22:50-23:04

  I believe the harder sell, even for Christians, is believing that we can, today, experience the power of God on our behalf.

  23:06-23:06

  Like today.

  23:07-23:08

  I think that's the harder stuff.

  23:09-23:12

  We talked about this recently going through John.

  23:13-23:16

  We talked about Jesus being the "I Am," which is the name of God.

  23:18-23:22

  He said, you know, it's interesting that God revealed that as His name.

  23:23-23:24

  I am.

  23:25-23:28

  That God didn't say, "I'm the I was." Like God's like, "Hey, you know what?

  23:28-23:30

  You should have seen me back in high school.

  23:31-23:37

  I was great back then." He didn't say He's the I was, and God didn't say I'm the I will be.

  23:37-23:47

  Like someday, someday I'm going to be something in this town, and I'm training, and I'm saying my prayers, and I'm taking my vitamins, and I'm going to be awesome someday.

  23:47-24:25

  you wait. God's not the I was and He's not the I will be. He's the what? I am. Jesus Christ is the I am. And back when we talked about this in John, we said, sometimes in the church, we read our Bibles and we say, "Wasn't God awesome back then?" Remember back in like Moses' day and Noah's day and Abraham's day and David's day. Wasn't God awesome back then? Wasn't he just, God was always like, you know, every day just doing really awesome things and boy God was awesome and then we turn to Revelation and we're like, isn't God gonna do awesome things in the future?

  24:25-24:31

  Like someday when he comes back he's gonna do awesome things. Isn't that gonna be awesome? Awesome, awesome, awesome. You're like, please stop saying awesome.

  24:32-24:46

  God's gonna do awesome things in the future and I think sometimes in the church that's what we've done is we've put the awesomeness of God in the past in the past and the future, but not the present.

  24:50-25:07

  And that's why when I say, "He's a mighty God!" You're like, "Yeah, someday He will be." And I'm saying, "No, He is right now." And I want to ask you, what battle are you facing today?

  25:10-25:12

  What enemy are you staring down today?

  25:12-25:15

  What victory do you need the Lord to win today?

  25:18-25:24

  Because when Isaiah says, "He's mighty God," it doesn't just mean He can pick up heavy things mighty.

  25:25-25:28

  Mighty God means He whoops the enemy mighty.

  25:28-25:29

  That's what that means.

  25:33-25:52

  But you're like, "Okay, so how can I experience our Lord as my mighty God?" I'm going to tell you, it's not so much something that you need to do as much as it's something you need to stop doing.

  25:56-26:00

  2 Chronicles 14, that's another passage.

  26:00-26:03

  Bookmark it. You can turn it off if you like, but I want you to bookmark it and read it later.

  26:04-26:07

  I'm going to paraphrase it for you as we're coming down the homestretch here.

  26:07-26:12

  2 Chronicles 14, Asa was the king of Judah.

  26:14-26:16

  And Asa, he was a good king. He honored the Lord.

  26:16-26:22

  And the Bible says that Asa had an army of 580,000 men.

  26:23-26:27

  but we're going to look at verses 9 through 12, first part of 12.

  26:28-26:37

  It says, "Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots." I can stop here.

  26:39-26:40

  That just always cracks me up.

  26:42-26:44

  They had a million men and 300 chariots.

  26:44-26:47

  Do you think they ever thought about who got the chariots that day?

  26:50-26:54

  And they're like, "Hey, Mr. Zerah, there's a million of us.

  26:54-26:58

  Do you think we can make a couple more chariots?" It just always cracked me up.

  26:59-27:05

  Like, how big was his army? "A million men and 300 chariots!" Okay, sorry. Continue.

  27:07-27:16

  "He came as far as Mirashah, and Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the valley of Zephathah at Mirashah.

  27:17-27:19

  And Asa, look at this.

  27:21-27:26

  Remember, he's got a little over half a million, and the Ethiopian's like a million, right?

  27:28-27:36

  Asa cried out to the Lord his God, "Oh Lord, there is none like You to help between the mighty and the weak.

  27:38-27:44

  Help us, oh Lord, our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name, we have come against this multitude.

  27:44-27:46

  Oh Lord, You are our God.

  27:47-27:51

  Let not man prevail against you." So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians.

  27:55-27:57

  There's more of the story, but you can go back and read.

  27:57-27:59

  But fast forward to chapter 16.

  28:03-28:22

  In an act of civil war, Basha the king of Israel - remember Israel and Judah were split at this time - Basha the king of Israel, He built this town called Ramah in order to block all of the traffic that was going in and out of Jerusalem.

  28:22-28:24

  It was an aggressive act of war.

  28:25-28:47

  Like, "I'm going to put this town here, and I'm going to stop all the traffic from coming in and out of Jerusalem." Okay, so Asa in chapter 14, "Cried out to the Lord and saw the Lord defeat a million men and 300 chariots." And now, he sees an act of aggression from Israel.

  28:48-28:54

  Let me ask you, what should Asa do in this situation?

  28:54-28:55

  What do you think he should do?

  29:00-29:03

  I don't know, cry out to the Lord like he did before, right?

  29:03-29:07

  I mean, didn't God show up and win the battle two chapters ago?

  29:09-29:10

  Another threat?

  29:11-29:15

  Fall on your face, cry out to the Lord, trust God to do what only God can do, right?

  29:17-29:18

  But do you know what Asa did?

  29:20-29:31

  He took money from the temple, and he took money from the king's house to pay off Ben-Hadad, who was the king of Syria, to help him.

  29:31-29:34

  See, Ben-Hadad at that point had a covenant with Israel.

  29:34-29:49

  And Asa goes to him and he's like, "Hey, if I give you a truckload of money, will you break your covenant with Israel and join us and help Judah out?" And he did.

  29:50-29:53

  What I want you to see is what was said to him afterwards.

  29:54-30:16

  "At that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him..." Look at this, "Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you." Weren't it the Ethiopians and the Libyans?

  30:16-30:20

  A huge army with very many chariots, 300, and horsemen?

  30:23-30:26

  To that prophet, 300 was a lot of chariots.

  30:26-30:32

  Yet because you relied on the Lord, He gave them into your hand." Look at this last phrase.

  30:34-30:38

  How can I experience mighty God on my behalf, Pastor Jeff?

  30:38-30:38

  Right here.

  30:39-30:43

  "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.

  30:44-30:56

  He gives strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him." Your Bible says the Lord's looking right now.

  30:58-30:59

  He's searching the earth.

  31:00-31:02

  Right now the Lord is saying, "Who loves Me?

  31:04-31:25

  Who's seeking Me? Who really trusts Me?" Because it's to that person, "I'm going to show up and give strong support." It's that person, I'm going to show up and I'm going to win their battle for them.

  31:30-31:32

  But we have this tendency.

  31:34-31:38

  You and I, we have this tendency to be like Esau.

  31:39-31:49

  We know God's power, we've seen God's power, but we forget God's power and we start to rely on other things and other people.

  31:51-31:52

  Why do we do that?

  31:56-31:59

  And you're like, "Well, I bet you Asa learned his lesson after this, right?" No.

  32:00-32:06

  Because your Bible says three years later Asa became ill, and instead of seeking God, he sought the physicians.

  32:08-32:12

  Now, we are not condemning going to the doctor.

  32:13-32:16

  I know for a fact that God is pro-doctor.

  32:16-32:17

  Do you know how I know that?

  32:18-32:20

  Because a doctor wrote about half of the New Testament.

  32:21-32:22

  Okay, so God is pro-doctor.

  32:24-32:25

  That's not the point.

  32:25-32:40

  The point is this, church, why are we so quick to exhaust every other option, explore every other avenue, and try to solve our problems with our own resources instead of crying out to the Lord?

  32:40-32:42

  Why do we do that?

  32:44-32:48

  Why is God so often our last resort instead of our first resort?

  32:49-32:50

  Why do we do that?

  32:53-33:02

  Why is it that when we're in a financial crunch, we'll whip out the credit card instead of seeking and asking God to provide?

  33:02-33:03

  Why do we do that?

  33:06-33:13

  Why do we trust the government to help us instead of crying out to the Lord to help us?

  33:13-33:40

  that. Why do we turn to medication before we cast our cares upon Him? And again, I'm not anti-medication, but do you understand the point? So often, people that struggle with anxiety think that the answer is going to rely on medicine, and it's not. When you You need to cast your cares upon Him.

  33:42-33:44

  The Lord is looking right now.

  33:45-33:46

  And He's saying, "Who?

  33:46-33:48

  Who is going to let Me fight their battle?

  33:48-33:48

  Who?

  33:49-33:50

  Who's going to let Me?

  33:51-34:05

  Who here has faith to believe that I not only can show up and win their battle, but I will show up and win their battle?" Were you?

  34:08-34:09

  Were you?

  34:16-34:19

  We've faced a lot of things together in 2020, haven't we?

  34:23-34:32

  Sickness, fear, division, economic collapse.

  34:34-34:38

  I saw an advertisement a couple of weeks ago for a Christmas ornament.

  34:40-34:44

  It looked like a little dumpster, and there were flames coming out the top.

  34:45-34:57

  And it said, "Christmas 2020." And I thought, "That is an icon for our year, the year of the dumpster fire." And it sure has felt like that to a lot of people.

  35:01-35:10

  I just want us to close by crying out to God the way Asa did.

  35:12-35:18

  To God when he was facing the Ethiopians back in 2 Chronicles.

  35:21-35:26

  I'd like you to bow your heads as the worship team makes their way up.

  35:26-35:28

  I'd just like you to bow your heads for a moment.

  35:28-35:34

  I just want you to think about the enemy over which you need victory.

  35:35-35:41

  I want you to think about what battle needs to be won.

  35:46-35:48

  Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the mighty God?

  35:52-35:55

  to lead us in praying exactly what Asa prayed.

  35:59-36:09

  When he said, "Oh Lord, there is none like You to help between the mighty and the weak." God, we echo that prayer to You today.

  36:10-36:11

  There is none like You, God.

  36:12-36:20

  There is no one who matches Your sovereignty, Your authority, Your power, Your majesty.

  36:22-36:28

  There's no one who matches your omniscience, your omnipotence, your omnipresence, God.

  36:28-36:33

  No one comes anywhere close to being who you are.

  36:36-36:50

  Asa continued, "Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude." And God, I cry out on behalf of this church, help us, God.

  36:50-36:51

  We rely on You.

  36:53-36:56

  Father, it's in Your name that we've come against many battles.

  37:00-37:03

  God, we need You to show up and do what only You can do.

  37:04-37:06

  We rely on You, God.

  37:09-37:12

  Asa said, "Oh Lord, You are our God.

  37:12-37:17

  Let not man prevail against You." Father, we echo that.

  37:19-37:22

  We say Jesus Christ is our God.

  37:25-37:27

  And He will not let man prevail against Him.

  37:28-37:30

  God, we've read the book and we know how it ends.

  37:31-37:33

  And we know that victory is available today.

  37:34-37:42

  I'm asking God, please, grant us the grace to repent from seeking other solutions first.

  37:46-38:04

  And instead, Father, let our knee-jerk reaction, let our impulse be in any battle, the first thing we do is to fall on our faces and cry out to my mighty God, Jesus Christ.

  38:05-38:06

  It's in His name that we pray.

  38:07-38:07

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 9:6

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. Why is believing “Jesus is God” necessary for salvation? Why can't someone be saved by believing “Jesus was just a great prophet and example for mankind”?
   

3. What is “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 12:32)? Why is that an unforgivable sin? How do you know when someone has committed that sin?
   

4. Name some ways people look to other avenues for help instead of seeking the Mighty God’s help. Why are we so prone to do this?

Breakout
Pray for one another, specifically to seek the Lord to fight your battles, instead of enlisting other help.

My Wonderful Counselor.

Introduction:

For to us a child is born,
to 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, Prince of Peace.
~Isaiah 9:6

Three Reasons Why Jesus is The Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6):

1. His counsel is Timeless . (Isaiah 46:9-10)
2. His counsel is Personal . (Hebrews 2:17-18 | Hebrews 4:15)
3. His counsel is Life . (John 12:46 | John 8:12 | Matthew 11:27-30)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:20-01:42

  What a year, huh? What a year. I mean what didn't happen? I mean where do you begin with this disease, rampant fear and dread and conspiracy theories everywhere, a coalition of political forces threatening to tear everything down and delivering ultimatums. If you're not for us, you're against us.

  01:43-02:10

  Empty shelves, hunger, economic ruin, people profiting off of others' misery and taking advantage of crises while others suffered and lost their livelihoods. Unrest, riots, oppression, turbulent youths causing dissension. There's foreign and political intrigue involving large sums of money and bribes and corruption at all levels of government.

  02:10-02:15

  A great economic and military power in the Far East threatening the nation's security.

  02:15-02:41

  Worship, where it actually happened, was characterized by fearfulness, compromise, worldliness, and outright ungodly practices. The destruction of children, injustice, and there's really a topsy-turvy society where evil is called good and good is called evil. And people so fearful about the future that they're looking everywhere for answers, even consulting mediums to talk to the dead.

  02:42-02:56

  You could find out what's going to happen next and over all of this just gloom and darkness. What a year. I'll tell you there there are people, there were people who just could not wait for 735 BC to be over.

  02:58-02:59

  Wait, did you think I was talking about 2020?

  03:00-03:32

  No, no, if we're gonna talk about 2020 you got to add hurricanes and massive wildflower flower wildflowers wildfires cancel culture censorship and government shutdowns now all the things I mentioned are described in the first eight chapters of Isaiah he has had just become the king of Judah and the kings of Israel and Syria well they wanted a Ahaz to join them in a war against a superpower, Assyria, far to the east.

  03:33-03:38

  And then when Ahaz refused to do that, Israel and Syria came down and they attacked Jerusalem.

  03:39-03:47

  And Isaiah counseled Ahaz, look, trust God, ask him, ask him whatever you want, as high as the heavens, as deep as Sheol, whatever you ask, he'll give it to you.

  03:47-03:50

  And Ahaz is like, nope, nope, I'm not gonna do that.

  03:51-04:06

  Instead, Ahaz goes to Assyria and pays out all the gold and silver in his treasury and in the temple to the King of Assyria to come down and attack Syria and Israel and drive them away.

  04:07-04:08

  And he was more than happy to do that.

  04:09-04:26

  And after he got the King of Assyria's help, Ahaz went off to Assyria and visited the king there and was so impressed with Assyria's pagan worship practices that he replaced the bronze altar in the temple with a copy of the one in Damascus.

  04:27-04:35

  And then when the king of Assyria visited Jerusalem, he himself goes into the temple and offers sacrifices on this altar.

  04:36-04:43

  Ahaz made other alterations to the temple to please the king of Assyria, and he even sacrificed his own son by fire.

  04:44-04:51

  You can read all of this in 2 Kings 16, And it's obvious Ahaz was not going to take God's counsel.

  04:51-04:54

  He was not gonna do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God.

  04:55-05:11

  See, Ahaz may have thought he had appeased the king of Assyrian and that he would be an ally, but in Isaiah chapter eight, the prophet warns that Assyria would soon wipe out Syria and Israel, ultimately carrying the 10 northern tribes off into exile.

  05:12-05:15

  And eventually, Assyria is gonna come for Jerusalem.

  05:16-05:20

  Isaiah describes what's gonna happen next in chapter eight, verses 19 through 22.

  05:21-05:29

  It says the people will grow to despise God and will instead consult mediums and conduct seances so they can find out from the dead what will happen in the future.

  05:30-05:34

  So Isaiah rightly asks, "Should not a people inquire of their God?

  05:35-05:37

  "Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

  05:38-05:39

  "To the teaching and to the testimony.

  05:40-05:43

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

  05:44-05:54

  "They will pass through the land greatly distressed "and hungry, and when they are hungry, "they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously "against their king and their God "and turn their faces upward.

  05:54-06:08

  "And they will look to the earth, "but behold distress and darkness, "the gloom of anguish, "and they will be thrust into thick darkness." Isaiah urges the people to turn to God and his commandments, but the people will have none of it.

  06:08-06:10

  They wanna go their own way.

  06:10-06:12

  They wanna do things their way.

  06:12-06:16

  The result will be distress, darkness, hunger, and contempt for God.

  06:17-06:21

  Whether it's 735 BC or 2020 AD, the result is the same.

  06:22-06:23

  Gloom, anguish, thick darkness.

  06:24-06:35

  If you turn to Isaiah chapter nine in your Bibles, you see in the midst of all this bleak, black darkness, Isaiah makes a startling promise.

  06:36-06:38

  I'm gonna read verses two, six, and seven.

  06:39-06:42

  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

  06:43-06:47

  And those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shown.

  06:48-06:58

  For to us a child is born, for to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.

  06:58-07:06

  Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

  07:06-07:15

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

  07:17-07:19

  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

  07:20-07:29

  Over the next four weeks, we're going to unpack Isaiah 9.6, the promise of a Messiah who is the absolute divine sovereign king over all things.

  07:29-07:36

  And yet, a fully human child born to us, the Son of God given to us.

  07:37-07:40

  Messiah has given four descriptive and meaningful names.

  07:40-07:43

  This week, we're gonna focus on the first, Wonderful Counselor.

  07:44-07:47

  We should ask, why is Wonderful Counselor the first title listed?

  07:48-07:53

  Well, in Hebrew, the words translated Wonderful Counselor are Pele Ya'atz.

  07:54-08:08

  Now, we say things are wonderful if we like them, or if they're pleasing or beautiful or kind of lovely, but Pele refers to something extraordinary, incomprehensible or inexplicable.

  08:08-08:15

  It refers to a phenomenon lying outside the realm of our explanation and separated from the normal course of events.

  08:16-08:21

  Jesus is wonderful in a way that is mind boggling and beyond our full comprehension.

  08:22-08:24

  And then, "yahatz" means to give counsel or to advise.

  08:25-08:29

  In the Bible, it refers to a wise leader or a king like Solomon.

  08:30-08:37

  So together, these words show us that the child given to us is an extraordinary advisor, both in his appearing and his counsel.

  08:38-08:42

  Wonderful counselor is listed first because God knows that's what we need.

  08:43-08:45

  We need counsel to gain understanding.

  08:46-08:51

  There's never been a time in your life that you haven't received counsel of some sort.

  08:51-08:57

  You call it parenting, training, rearing, teaching, coaching, even preaching.

  08:57-09:00

  It's all been a form of counseling.

  09:00-09:04

  But if we want to understand God and his purposes, We can't just get any counsel.

  09:05-09:09

  We need awesome, miraculous, life-transforming counsel to understand him.

  09:10-09:16

  And that's why God sent a baby, and not just any baby, but a child who is a wonderful counselor.

  09:17-09:23

  Now we of course know that this child is Jesus, the Messiah, and we know it because Luke tells us so.

  09:24-09:29

  The angel said to the shepherds, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy "that will be for all the people.

  09:30-09:41

  "For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

  09:42-09:46

  This morning we're going to look at three reasons why Jesus is the wonderful counselor.

  09:47-10:02

  The first is that his counsel is timeless. What do you think of when you hear the word counselor? Maybe a therapist, you know, someone you go to and they listen to you and they to give you some things to work on until you come back for your next appointment.

  10:02-10:09

  Or maybe an attorney, like a counselor at law, or a school counselor who advises you on the classes to take and helps you with your schedule.

  10:09-10:17

  Or maybe a person who's an advisor, you know, like a life coach, or one of those internet influencers who claims they can help you get your life together.

  10:17-10:18

  And why do we seek out counselors?

  10:19-10:25

  Because we recognize we need help with our finances or our careers, our health, for instance.

  10:26-10:29

  But we also seek out counselors because we crave direction.

  10:30-10:31

  We want control.

  10:31-10:38

  We want to know what's gonna happen, especially in a really fearful and irrational world that's gone mad.

  10:38-10:43

  We gravitate towards those people who we think know what they're talking about.

  10:43-10:44

  We think they know something.

  10:44-10:51

  Anything that can explain in a simple way what's going on in the world and perhaps give us assurance that things are gonna be okay.

  10:52-11:00

  But the problem with all of these counselors is they all have limitations that prevent them helpful over the long run or even in the short term.

  11:00-11:01

  They have limited knowledge.

  11:02-11:04

  They have limited perspective, limited experience.

  11:05-11:14

  And most of all, their advice is limited by sin, such as pride and selfish ambition, self-interest, and really what do they have to offer?

  11:15-11:16

  Self-help programs.

  11:17-11:20

  10 steps to this or that, seven highly effective habits.

  11:21-11:24

  Pep rallies topped off by walking through hot coals.

  11:24-11:30

  And all for a very low price, payable by credit card and easily monthly installments.

  11:31-11:35

  You know, neither these counselors nor we know the future.

  11:35-11:39

  We don't know what's gonna happen in, say, 10 years, let alone the next 10 minutes.

  11:40-11:48

  We can put things on our schedule, but we have no assurance those things are gonna happen, and that we're even gonna be alive to do them.

  11:49-11:51

  But Jesus is not limited.

  11:52-11:57

  Jesus' counsel is not limited by time or circumstance or culture or anything else.

  11:57-12:01

  As the wonderful counselor Jesus, the Messiah's guidance can be trusted.

  12:02-12:08

  His view of things is always true because he's eternal, because his counsel is timeless.

  12:08-12:13

  It's an understatement to say that he takes the long view of things because he knows all things.

  12:14-12:20

  Isaiah 46, verses nine and 10 says, "I am God, there is no other.

  12:21-12:35

  "I am God and there is none like me, "clearing the end from the beginning, "and from ancient times, things not yet done, "saying, my counsel shall stand, "and I will accomplish all my purpose." We see this in scripture.

  12:36-12:38

  We see timeless counsel.

  12:38-12:42

  The counsel he gave to Abraham about his offspring, timeless.

  12:42-12:47

  To Moses from the burning bush, or up on the mountain, or in the tent of meeting, timeless.

  12:48-12:51

  To Elijah when he was hiding in the cave, Timeless.

  12:52-13:00

  The counsel to David that inspired the Psalms, convicted David of his sin with Bathsheba, and promised to David that he would have a son that ruled forever?

  13:01-13:02

  Timeless.

  13:02-13:06

  His teachings and counsel to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee?

  13:07-13:09

  Beloved, it's as timeless and relevant today as it was then.

  13:10-13:11

  And how do I know?

  13:12-13:13

  I have it right here.

  13:14-13:19

  We have the oracles of God from all history at our fingertips.

  13:20-13:22

  How marvelous, how wonderful.

  13:23-13:31

  You know, throughout the coronavirus, we have had a multitude of counselors and advisors and experts all telling us different things.

  13:31-13:33

  The virus lives on surfaces.

  13:34-13:35

  Sanitize, sanitize everything.

  13:36-13:39

  Oh, nevermind, it doesn't persist on surfaces.

  13:39-13:43

  Hey, we're gonna have 100 million deaths or more.

  13:43-13:46

  Oh, nevermind, nevermind, that was a faulty model.

  13:47-13:50

  If you follow the science, you don't need to wear a mask.

  13:51-13:54

  But if you follow the science, everybody needs to wear a mask.

  13:55-13:59

  You know, we have to close everything down to prevent the disease from spreading.

  14:00-14:03

  But protests and looting and riots, that's an exception.

  14:04-14:08

  We got to close all the restaurants and all the businesses and everybody stay home.

  14:09-14:18

  Except if you make the rules and you're the governor or the mayor and you got a swanky birthday dinner or a wedding to go to. That's okay.

  14:19-14:22

  I mean you get the gist. Who can you trust?

  14:23-14:32

  I'll tell you who you can trust. You can trust Jesus, the wonderful counselor who knows all things, who knows the end from the beginning, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last.

  14:34-14:40

  His counsel alone can be trusted because in Jesus we have a perfect and reliable counselor.

  14:41-14:50

  Jesus always leads us according to that which is good and right, and his timeless counsel is rooted in his eternal existence.

  14:51-14:56

  Next, Jesus' counsel is personal. Look again at verse 6.

  14:57-15:18

  "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given." You know, perhaps because we have heard it so much, because, you know, we set up our manger and little baby Jesus, And it's also familiar that we don't fully appreciate that when Jesus appeared, he didn't come as a fully mature human being.

  15:19-15:28

  He didn't come as a high-born ruler, but as a newborn dependent upon the parents he created and sustained.

  15:29-15:38

  You see, by experiencing human existence from its beginning to its end, Jesus endured and went through the same things every one of us goes through.

  15:39-16:04

  In Hebrews 4.15, we are told, "He is able to sympathize with us because in every respect, he has been tempted as we are, yet he was without sin." And in Hebrews 2.17 and 18, that "He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

  16:04-16:10

  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

  16:11-16:12

  What does that mean for us?

  16:13-16:17

  Simply it means that whatever you're going through, Jesus has been there and done that.

  16:18-16:20

  Are you grieving the death of a loved one?

  16:20-16:21

  You know, he gets it.

  16:23-16:29

  Remember a couple of weeks ago, Jesus weeping with Mary and Martha and weeping for Lazarus.

  16:30-16:33

  You've been betrayed, he gets that too.

  16:33-16:35

  He was betrayed by a good friend.

  16:35-16:38

  Have you been falsely accused or despised or ridiculed?

  16:39-16:40

  He knows what that's like.

  16:41-16:43

  Are you sharply tempted in some way?

  16:43-16:44

  Well, he has been too.

  16:45-16:48

  Do you experience distress over unsaved loved ones?

  16:49-16:55

  I'll tell you, his sorrow for the lost exceeds that of all humanity combined.

  16:56-17:05

  You see, Jesus is able to counsel us on our level with understanding and empathy for our situation in our circumstances.

  17:06-17:13

  He knows everything about us, our fears and our insecurities, our hopes and desires, our situation and our sin.

  17:14-17:18

  And yet he comes alongside to patiently and humbly counsel us.

  17:18-17:25

  After John the Baptist was born, his father, Zechariah, praised God in a song and concluded with these words about the Messiah.

  17:26-17:54

  In Luke 1, verses 78 and 79, Zechariah is saying that because of our God's merciful compassion. The dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace." Do those words sound familiar? The light of dawn from on high coming down to shine on those who live in darkness and to guide our feet in the way of peace?

  17:56-19:30

  It's exactly what Jesus does as a wonderful counsel. He illuminates everything for you with the light of his truth and guides and instructs you how to walk in peace. Peace with God the Father and peace with others. How so very good of God to guide us and save us not with a multi-step program, not with a self-improvement program or habits of highly effective people, not even a system of social justice, but with a person. Jesus Christ, the light of the world who illuminates our lives with his truth. Jesus, God in the flesh, is the wonderful counselor who comes to show us that all his ways are better than our ways. His thoughts are better than our thoughts. His wisdom is far higher and better, more beneficial, more beautiful than all the wisdom of all earthly counselors combined. Finally, his counsel is life. I've spent 35 years in government service as an attorney and occasionally someone will call me counselor and that makes me feel like my counsel is appreciated and followed. But I also had a commander who after I provided some what I thought was sound legal advice, he'd say, "I appreciate that advice, counselor, but this is what I'm gonna do. You've probably heard that too, right? From co -workers or bosses, your kids, your spouse or significant other. Unless your counsel lines up with what they wanted to hear, they don't want to hear.

  19:31-20:52

  The best counsel is useless unless you act on it. And you may have listened to this whole sermon and you may understand that the counselor promised in 735 BC was actually Jesus and you may even think he's sort of wonderful but if your response to this astounding message in Isaiah is yeah I'm not so sure it applies to me today you got anything else to tell me about God anything that will soothe my conscience while I do things my own way as a matter of fact no there really is nothing else there is no other truth no other way besides Jesus there is only Jesus the wonderful counselor. There's no plan B, as Pastor Jeff often reminds us. There is no other way out of darkness to God. And I tell you, living life your own way is darkness and death. Just consider the past year. A whole society pursuing only human counsel. I don't see much human flourishing going on, do you? I see dread and fear and despair. I see oppression wreck lives and businesses. I see a In a world full of idols that have proved vain and unable to help or save, I see a nation in almost the same situation as Judah in 735 BC.

  20:53-20:56

  People greatly distress. People are starting to go hungry.

  20:57-21:04

  People are enraged and they speak contemptuously to each other, to their government, and of God.

  21:05-21:08

  People are not looking to God but to the earth.

  21:08-21:16

  "And behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, "we're gonna be thrust further into thick darkness." You've heard that somewhere.

  21:17-21:18

  It's gonna be a dark, dark winter.

  21:19-21:23

  You see, I see very few people advocating that we should cry out to God for help.

  21:24-21:29

  And I only recall a few people this year suggesting we ought as a nation to corporately repent.

  21:30-21:34

  But you know, that is the very first thing that Jesus counsels all people to do.

  21:35-21:36

  He commands them to repent.

  21:37-21:51

  In Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, at the beginning of his ministry, we read that Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

  21:52-22:05

  "Repent and believe in the gospel." Now at this point, you probably expect a brief recitation of the gospel as Jesus dying on the cross, according to the scriptures, and then he was buried, and then he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

  22:05-22:11

  And all of that is true, and those singular events in history make possible and guarantee salvation.

  22:12-22:17

  But we're pondering Jesus in his advent, and Jesus is the wonderful counselor.

  22:18-22:32

  And there are many, many, many things I could recite that Jesus preached about and counseled his disciples on during his three years of ministry, but I would like to draw your attention to three statements that align with Isaiah chapter nine.

  22:32-22:37

  Three statements from Jesus by which he identifies himself as the wonderful counselor.

  22:37-22:41

  So to ask you, what would it be like if you went to Jesus for a counseling session?

  22:42-22:45

  More likely, he would come to you because he makes house calls.

  22:46-22:47

  He would meet you where you are.

  22:48-22:49

  What would he say to you?

  22:50-22:52

  What counsel will he give you?

  22:52-22:56

  Well, first, he will counsel you to believe in him.

  22:57-23:08

  See John 12, verse 46, where Jesus says, I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

  23:09-23:12

  Second thing he would counsel you is to follow him.

  23:13-23:16

  See John 8, 12, where he says, I am the light of the world.

  23:17-23:21

  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

  23:22-23:29

  You see, whether you were among Jesus's listeners in 33 AD, or you're hearing him today in 2020, his message is clear.

  23:29-23:33

  The light promised in Isaiah chapter nine is Jesus.

  23:33-23:38

  Not simply a light in the world, but the light of the world.

  23:38-23:41

  And if you believe in him, you're delivered from the domain of darkness.

  23:41-23:50

  And if you follow him, that is if you listen to his wonderful counsel, you will no longer walk in darkness, but you will have life in his light.

  23:50-23:54

  You have ears to hear and eyes to see these two verses.

  23:55-23:56

  Jesus is calling you.

  23:57-24:05

  He is counseling you right now come out of the darkness into his marvelous, life-giving counsel in the light.

  24:06-24:08

  And 30 will tell you to learn from him.

  24:09-24:16

  This is the counsel that penetrated my heart over 35 years ago and opened my eyes to the life that Jesus affords.

  24:17-24:20

  It's found in Matthew 11, verses 27 and 30.

  24:21-24:53

  Jesus said, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Now listen to this. "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

  24:54-25:03

  These verses show us why exactly Jesus is the wonderful counselor, because his counsel produces real change.

  25:03-25:07

  I said 35 years ago, I was in the darkness.

  25:08-25:13

  Let's take my word for it, I was a wicked, despicable person.

  25:14-25:23

  And I was destroying myself, but worse, I was destroying and had destroyed other people and their lives.

  25:24-25:27

  And this was all piling up on me.

  25:28-25:32

  And then I read these verses and I said, this is what I'm looking for.

  25:33-25:38

  I am, I'm heavy laden, I'm burdened.

  25:39-25:41

  I need someone to take this off of me.

  25:42-25:46

  Sometime after reading that, I was sitting in the back row of the church.

  25:47-25:48

  The message had been preached.

  25:49-26:12

  An altar call had been given, sitting in the back row with my head in my hands, and in an instant, I guess I would call it a vision, an instant I'm looking into the abyss of the blackest darkness I could imagine, but it was the abyss, and I knew this is where I am going.

  26:12-26:37

  Jesus was right there, and he said, "Come now, I won't call you again, And I'll tell you, dear heart, it didn't take another verse of "Just as I am" to convince me, no, no, I bolted down that aisle to the pastor and I said, "I need to confess my sins." And he said, "Which ones?" I mean, like, "All of them." What do you mean, which ones?

  26:37-26:37

  All of them.

  26:38-26:45

  And my life changed that day and I have been learning from Jesus ever since.

  26:46-26:47

  Those three things.

  26:48-26:50

  Well, four, you include repent.

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  Those things, repent, believe, follow, learn.

  26:57-26:59

  That's not just good counsel.

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  It's not even excellent counsel.

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  Beloved, that is wonderful counsel.

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  Whether you are a new believer or you have been walking with Christ for most of your life, that is wonderful counsel.

  27:16-27:28

  Because we live in a dark and a sin-wrecked, irrational and wicked world, in which Satan seeks to beat us down and load us with fear and despair and shame and guilt, anger and hate.

  27:29-27:32

  But Jesus, our wonderful counselor, calls us out of that darkness.

  27:33-27:34

  Learn from Jesus.

  27:35-27:39

  Take his counsel, and you will find rest for your souls.

  27:39-27:46

  His yoke is indeed easy, and his counsel will direct you in the way of light and life and rest.

  27:47-27:47

  Let's pray.

  27:48-27:51

  Oh, gracious Father, thank you for our wonderful counselor.

  27:52-28:10

  Thank you for instructing us and teaching us, but most of all calling us through your son, Jesus Christ, out of the darkness, for giving us a wonderful counselor who comes alongside and directs our path and gives us life, and that's life abundant.

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  We thank you for this and celebrate him.

  28:14-28:15

  We celebrate you, Lord Jesus.

  28:16-28:19

  In your great name, we praise you and bless you.

  28:20-28:20

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 9:6

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
   

2. Why are we prone to take counsel from “experts” whose perspective is limited?
   

3. Does the timelessness of Jesus’ counsel affect the value you place on it? Why or why not?
   

4. Can you recall a time when Jesus gave you counsel, e.g., through the Scripture, through a sermon, during prayer, etc.? What was that counsel, and what did you do in response?
   

5. Light and darkness are recurring themes in Scripture. What does light make possible? What does the light of Christ do to or for us? (John 12:46)
   

6. What is the relationship between light and counsel? (see John 8:12)

Breakout
Pray that God will illuminate the Scripture and your mind more and more to better understand and apply Jesus’ wonderful counsel.