Lathem Postell: Well, good morning. It's so good to see you here on this 1st Sunday of Advent. I meant to say at the beginning, if you hear my voice and I sound a little sick, I promise I'm not. It was good until about the 4th overtime. So it doesn't hurt or anything, so don't be sitting there going, oh, I hate that he's having to talk.
It's fine. I enjoyed the game. It turned out good for me. So, I know maybe not true for everybody, but, it it was a great great weekend. As we prepare our hearts to get ready for Jesus, as we go through this Advent season, I want us to read a couple of scriptures together this morning.
So we're going to start first with Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 through 7. We're going to be reading this scripture every Sunday as we go through Christmas together. And then I want us, after we read that one, I want us to read together from Luke chapter 6 verses 46 through 49. So if you have your Bibles, open there with me. I know it's, 2 passages of scripture.
Hopefully, you've had a chance to open there already. But let us listen to and read God's word together. Here first this scripture from Isaiah chapter 9, which tells us this. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.
And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Our second passage of scripture, as I told you, comes from Luke's gospel, the 6th chapter verses 46 through 49.
Hear also this word of the Lord. Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house that could not shake it because it was well built.
But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed, and its destruction was complete. Will you pray with me? Almighty and gracious god, we are so thankful for this day. Lord, I thank you for this time and the gift of your scriptures.
Speak to us this morning your story of life and of grace. Prepare us for the coming of your son, Jesus. For it's in his name that we pray. Amen. The names of things are important.
You you know that. I don't need to tell you. But what we call something matters. A name can give us a glimpse, a small window into the the characteristics of something. It's true with us.
Right? We look at the history of of human names, and we see that that this is true usually for last names. Not as much now, but but in its origin. You can go back, you can find the use of last names or surnames pretty early in human but they really didn't come to to popularity until about the 11th century. As populations expanded, as more and more people began to be born, there there needed to be a way.
They realized they had to figure out a way to determine who different people were. Right? If you weren't living in a village, and you had 2 Johns, which John were you talking about when you said to go see John? And so they began using last names, surnames, and these often described something about the person. Some last names, some surnames were used to describe who your parents were.
Think of names like Johnson or Williamson. You can even still hear it in there. Right? Son of John, or son of William. Other last names were based upon your trade, which you did.
Think of names like Smith, Miller, or or Baker. They tell you something about the person. And so if you were in the 12th century, and you walked into a village, and someone told you, oh, you need to go look for John Smith. You knew immediately something about this person before you ever met them. There's something about names that that matters.
And this is still true today. We think about how carefully folks choose the names for their own children or for other things. There there's usually a purpose behind it. There's a there's a reason they gave them that name. A couple will think long and hard.
They may choose a name to to honor a relative. To tell a little bit of their family history, or their story. Other families may choose to name a child after a person we find in scripture. Right? That tells a little bit about their their character and and their their values.
All of these things go into a name, and they tell us something that we didn't know beforehand. Names are important. And so if we're going to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus, we should probably know who he is. And one way, again, to know who someone is is through their names. In Isaiah's chapter that we read here, that we're going to read throughout this season of Advent, Isaiah the prophet gives us four names for Jesus.
Not just any names, but vital names, which like all names if we'll pay attention to them, will tell us a little bit about who our savior is. I think if we're gonna prepare our hearts, if we're gonna receive Christ at Christmas, we need to know who he is. And we should start with his names. Isaiah says, he's Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Four names, 4 weeks.
We're gonna look at these names of Jesus and who he is. And so we'll start today with with Wonderful Counselor. Now, if you've heard this text before, you might have read some of Isaiah chapter 9. You're probably familiar with it for a couple of reasons. First, you may have come to a Christmas Eve service.
It's very common to to read that at Christmas Eve. We we do that every year. So maybe you're familiar with those words. For others, and maybe this is even if you haven't grown up in the church and been in the church a long time, you're familiar with these words as a part of Handel's Messiah. I was going to until my voice was bad, sing that for you.
But I decided this morning that that I won't sing that part for you. But I I say all that to say, you've probably heard these words, and and anytime we're familiar with a scripture, I'm worried that our familiarity with it might mean that we're ill equipped to understand its message. We hear it in one context, but but then we don't understand what it is that that Isaiah was was trying to see. So So to truly get what this prophet is trying to tell us, I think we need to understand a little bit about what was going on when it was written. So by the time we get here to chapter 9 in Isaiah, a lot has happened.
If If you go back to Isaiah chapter 7, we see the story of King Ahaz, who's the king of Jerusalem, when 2 armies, the 2 armies being the northern tribe of Israel and the Syrian army, they're both preparing to come to attack. They've kind of joined forces. They're they're hoping that the kingdom of Jerusalem, the southern part, the southern tribes. Right? 10 2 tribes in the southern part, 10 tribes in the north.
They've split by this point. And so these two armies, the northern tribes of Israel, the tribe of Syria, or or the kingdom of Syria, they're they're coming together. They're trying to convince the southern tribes to go with them to war against the Assyrians. So so they're doing this by by pressure. They're threatening to conquer Jerusalem if they don't help them.
And and so all of this is going on, and when we get to chapter 7, it tells us that King Ahaz is shaken. Makes sense, he's got 2 armies at his door. Part of why he's shaken is he's worried. He realizes that he hasn't been a good king. He's fearful that God will or has abandoned his people.
And and so he's worried that he's gonna fall against these armies. And so Isaiah is sent by God. He's sent to King Ahaz to remind him that God has not abandoned his people. That that despite his failings as king, right, that his love for for the Israelites is still there. And and so we see Isaiah, he goes to King Ahaz and says, you know, what what you're fearing now won't take place.
Don't worry, God God is with you. And he even goes so far, he says, If you don't believe me, ask God for a sign. Ask God for a sign. He wants to show you that that he's with you. King Ahaz isn't a good king, but he knows his scriptures well enough.
He he knows that, as scripture says, don't test God. So he says, no, no. I'm I'm not gonna ask for a sign, even even though God had told him he could. You know, it's very common. We've been doing it for a long time.
We like to use parts of the Bible to misuse it for our own good. But Isaiah says, okay. Fine. Look. You're you're not doing what God asked you.
That's okay. You're not gonna ask for a sign. God's gonna give you one anyway. And he goes into this long piece starting in in chapter 7 verse 14 where he says, the sign that that that is coming is that a child will be born of a virgin whose name is Immanuel. He continues on describing this sign, describing this child for King Ahaz.
When we get here to chapter 9, here's the sign. Here's the child. Here who's coming for you. He is the one that you'll know as the Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. You see, in that context, it makes sense why this was such good news for Ahaz.
Ahaz, you're surrounded by 2 armies. Good thing I'm sending to you the wonderful counselor. He'll provide you good wisdom, good advice. Ahaz, I'm sending to you I know you're surrounded, but I'm sending to you the mighty God who will fight for you and protect you. I'm sending to you the everlasting Father who will comfort you and guide you in this trying time.
I'm sending you the Prince of Peace. You need not worry about armies or war, when the Prince of Peace is with you. This is the good news of Isaiah chapter 9, written to King Ahaz and to his people. God God has seen their problems and He is sending the one who can solve them. Unfortunately for King Ahaz, he doesn't listen.
I told you earlier, he wasn't really a good king. If you go elsewhere in scripture, in 2nd Kings, it lists out the reigns of various kings of the Israelites, and he's listed as one of those who who's evil. He he didn't trust God. He didn't trust the words of Isaiah. He didn't trust that he would send a sign.
And so rather than joining forces with the Syrians and the northern tribes, he goes to the Assyrians. He says, look, they're trying to come and turn us against you, but we would never turn against you, mighty army. We're we're gonna swear fealty to you. We're gonna swear to you if you'll protect us from these invading armies. He didn't trust that God would do what he said he would.
My prayer for you, as we think about what King Ahaz did and as we think about the promises of Isaiah so long ago, my prayer is that you don't miss the sign of God, that you don't miss the coming of Jesus. Don't miss what God is doing in our world and in your lives. It's easy. We give people a hard a hard rap all the time. We look at people in the Bible, and we go, how could you how could you not trust what Isaiah was saying?
How could you not trust what the prophet was doing? But it's so easy to look past those promises, because the promises of the world seem a lot better, at least at the surface level. They seem stronger. They seem more capable. Think about it from Ahaz's perspective, to think charitably about him.
Here, he has 2 armies standing at his door. And God, you're sending me a child? How is that helpful in any way? No. You know what?
Assyria, they promised if I would if I would support them, that they'll send me an army. They have soldiers, not little children. I think I'm going to go with that promise instead. Don't miss the promises of Jesus because you're looking at the promises of the world. Isaiah was preaching to Ahaz, but he's preaching to us as well.
Prepare yourself because God is sending you someone. God is sending you Jesus. He did it 2000 years ago, and He promises to send him again. And the person that is coming will be known as Wonderful Counselor. When you hear that word, you probably have a lot of things come to mind.
Counseling has become a relatively well used word in our society and our culture. We've come a long way on this topic. Right? In decades past, it it might have been a bad thing to say that we were seeing somebody for counseling. Many couples might be afraid to tell their friends that they were seeing a counselor.
Individuals might be afraid if they were referred to someone for that purpose. But but as we become aware of of the good that that can provide, as more and more people go and and visit 1, it's become a natural part of our culture, and we see the value that they provide. Now, I'm not a a counselor. That's a a legal term. I'm I'm just a pastor.
I'm not licensed to be a counselor in any way, but but what I can say is I've done enough premarital counseling to know that there is one basic function for someone who is a counselor. A a good counselor is there to help you see what is true and what is not. A counselor provides a a third party objective perspective. They give you insight into what you would not be able to see on your own. If you're going to a counselor, your hope and your prayer is that they will help you see the truth.
And even if you've never been to to an official counselor, or even if you're someone who's a little weary of them, what I would argue is that each of us, at some point in time in our lives, have actually gone to a counselor. I I don't mean necessarily that you've made an appointment, gone to an office, and sat down in in someone's chair. Maybe you have, and and if you have, that's great. But but each of us, even if we haven't done that, have gone to someone seeking truth. You you might don't give me the answer.
You might go and say, okay. Do these pants go with this vest? Right? I don't want to know if they don't. Please, I didn't get a chance to ask my wife.
She let me leave the house, so I assume it was good. You know, you might ask, do these shoes go with this dress? Does this tie go with this clip? Right? All all of these things.
Some point in time, you've gone to someone asking for outside perspective, looking for truth. But it's not just true for little things. We do it for big things too. You you go to trusted people in your life. You you know, should I buy this house?
We're we're struggling to to decide, is this a good idea? Is it a bad idea? Should should I take this job or or should I not? Right? All of these major decisions in our life, my guess is you've never tried to take those on on your own.
Whether it's simply going to a spouse, to a parent, someone you trust, we see the value in having someone help us see the truth. When was the last time you asked Jesus to help you see the truth? That's what King Ahaz needed. He needed wisdom. He needed guidance.
He needed a counselor for this wartime, yet he didn't listen. We we look even to the time of Jesus' birth. The Jewish people under Roman oppression. What did they need except a counselor? Someone to give them wisdom, advice?
Some listened, and and some didn't. You see, in scripture, what we find is that God sends us a counselor, a wonderful one at that, whose name is Jesus. Ask yourself another question this morning. Where do you get your wisdom? Who is leading you?
Because what I just said is true. We each go to other people for truth. So the question isn't whether or not you're receiving counseling. The question is, who are you receiving it from? Are are are you letting Jesus define truth in your life, or are you letting the world define it?
Because what you'll find is it doesn't take very long for bad counsel to lead to a lot of bad problems. If we go and we base our life off false truth, we won't take very long to figure out that it was false. Even if at the very beginning, it was only off by a little bit, it won't take long for the gap to become large. I've told several stories and sermons about opportunities I've had privilege to to go on mission trips to the Bahamas. And so, I've shared some of those stories about going to to Andros.
I think you can see some of these stories or or pictures up here, many years ago and and many pounds ago. Some of those pictures are the the skinny guy yeah. That's me. That's me up there. And and so these are I I don't think this is actually the pictures from the story I'm telling you, but it just kinda gives you an image of some of the stuff that we were working with in the Bahamas.
And and each time we would go, we had I don't think he's up there. We had a construction supervisor who was named KP. He was from the Bahamas. He was actually from the town that we did a lot of our work in. He's just one of the purest human beings I've ever met.
He loved Jesus and and loved Chick Fil A almost as much as he loved Jesus. He always tried to convince us to bring him Chick Fil A when we would come. He he was a great construction supervisor. He was good because he knew that standards in the Bahamas are are a little different than standards in the US. We would often get into a task and figure out that things weren't exactly perfect.
He was a wizard at fixing problems. And one of the biggest problems that often happened was that things weren't square. If you know anything about construction, what that means is that things weren't always perfectly at 90 degrees. Things didn't always quite, line up. And so there's this one roof that we're working on.
It was a a total rebuild. We tore the roof down to the to the studs, to the joists, and and our task to start was to to put decking back on. So we started at at one side of the roof, and we were supposed to deck the whole thing. And and and we started going, and we we noticed that it didn't always quite line up. We'd put a board down, a big piece of plywood, and supposed to, if it was put in the proper spacing, the board should lay down and you go right into the joists.
No problem. But sometimes we put them down, and there'd be a little gap. You couldn't quite make it fit. It would be just short enough or or just too long. And so, KP would say, okay.
That's fine. Just scab it. Just scab it. A little piece of metal, you know, put piece of wood. You'd put it up next to the joint, and, screw it in, and then you'd screw the deck into it.
I don't wanna get too into the weeds there. Just scab it. We'd go and we put this decking down. And and what started as as a few inches, eventually, it took one scab. And then, kind of halfway through, we started realizing even a scab wasn't enough.
So we'd have to put 2 there. But by the end of the roof, we started at one side and went to the other. What what was a gap of inches at the beginning, quickly became a gap of feet. It's an illustration that truth matters. What may start as a small gap can become a big one.
And finding someone who can help show us what that truth is matters tremendously. That's what I think Luke is telling us in the 6th chapter of his gospel. He's saying, look, you've got to build a foundation of your life on something. It's another one of those it's not a question of whether you're getting counseling or not, it's who's given it to you. Same thing with our foundations.
Right? You've gotta have one. Where is yours? It's not a question of if you're gonna have one, it's gonna Is yours gonna be strong? Will you have a foundation of stone, something that won't shake?
The image Jesus gives us is of someone building a house, digging deep down to find that that true stone to build the house upon. And he says, look, if you'll do that, if you'll build your foundation on that strong stone, when the storm comes, you won't be shaken. The alternative, he says, is you can not do that. We've often heard it as a foundation of sand in other places. Rather than digging down and finding what's true, we kinda go with what's there, with what's easiest.
And Jesus says, if we do that, we can. We can do that. But when the weather comes, when the storm hits, you'll be washed away. Isaiah is telling us that through the birth of Jesus Christ, God has sent us the solid foundation, the wonderful counselor. For you see, a good counselor is the person that helps point you to what is true and helps you see what is not.
Now, I know that you're probably never gonna be like King Ahaz. You're never gonna have 2 enemies at your wall, 2 armies who are prepared to defeat you. But what I do know is that each and every one of us walk out of here every day bombarded by the enemy of Satan. You need a wonderful counselor. Will you go into the world seeking the the Assyrians, convinced that the promises of the world will stop him?
Or instead, will you consider looking for a baby in a manger? That may seem counterintuitive, but God tells us who the baby is. He's the wonderful counselor. May this Christmas be the time that we stop listening to what the world tells us is true, and instead, start listening to what Jesus tells us is true, so that when the storms of life come, we'll find that solid foundation. Will you pray with me?
Almighty and gracious God, oh, we thank you for the gifts of your Son, Jesus Christ, for that baby in a manger who we await for on Christmas day. Lord, we thank you for the names that you've given so that we can understand and see who he is, that he is our wonderful counselor. Lord, as we pray together, we admit that for far too long, far too often, we've looked other places for truth. We've looked to ourselves. We've looked to the world.
We've looked anywhere and everywhere. God, help us now to look to that manger. Help us to now see that it is that baby through whom we might find truth. That he is our wonderful counselor who has come to show us what is true and what is not. Help us, Lord, to build our foundation upon him.
Help us, Lord, to trust in his promises, not in ours. Help us, Lord, to receive this sign. We have that same fear that King Ahaz had so many years ago. Our fear, Lord, is that you've left us, that we've just done too much wrong, that you've abandoned us. Because Lord, we haven't been good.
We haven't lived up to your standards, and so Lord, we're afraid. Quell us of those fears, for you sent a son, one of a virgin in Bethlehem named Emmanuel. May we rest in his promises. May we rest in the presence of our wonderful counselor. For it's in his name, the name of our savior, Jesus the Christ, that we offer this prayer.
Amen.