Mighty God Series

An elderly man in Phoenix, Arizona, calls his son in New York and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing – 45 years of misery is enough.”

“Pop, what are you talking about?” the son asks.

“We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” the old man says. “We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her.”

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. “Like heck they're getting divorced,” she shouts. “I'll take care of this.”

She calls Phoenix immediately and screams at her father, “You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing till I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing.”

The old man hangs up the phone and turns to his wife. “Okay,” he says, “They're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own fares. Now what do we do for Christmas?” (Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky; www.PreachingToday. com)

That’s a good question: What do we do for Christmas? Often, at this time of year, relationships do get frazzled. People lose focus, and priorities get all messed up. So what do we do to bring purpose and meaning back into our lives at this time of year?

Well, we do what Isaiah did in a time when his world was in turmoil. We focus on the One that Christmas is all about. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 9, Isaiah 9, where Isaiah talks about this One who would bring light and life to a dark and despairing world.

Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned… Why? Skip down to verse 6

Isaiah 9:6 For unto 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.

Do you want to bring purpose and meaning back into your life? Then focus your attention on the Child Isaiah saw 700 years before He was born. Focus your attention on Jesus Christ, who is not only the Wonderful Counselor, as we saw last week; He is also the Mighty God! El Gibbor in the Hebrew – i.e., God, the Mighty One. If you want light in the midst of your darkness, it begins when you…

REVERENCE JESUS AS DEITY.

Worship Christ as Lord. Adore Jesus Christ as your God. You see, Jesus is none other than YHWH God Himself. You’re in Isaiah 9. Turn with me to the next chapter, Isaiah 10

Isaiah 10:20 In that day – i.e., in the day when God destroys Israel’s enemies – the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

Notice, the word, LORD, is all in capital letters. Whenever you see that in our English Bibles, it is a translation of the Hebrew word, YHWH, the personal name for God Himself. So there’s coming a day when the survivors of Israel, a remnant, will rely on YHWH. Well, just who is this YHWH? Look at verse 21.

Isaiah 10:21 A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God (El Gibbor in the Hebrew).

That’s the same name we have for Jesus Christ in Isaiah 9:6. He is none other than YHWH God Himself. Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “For the LORD (YHWH) your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty (gibbor, same word) and awesome…” When Isaiah called Christ “the Mighty God, his readers understood this as a clear reference to YHWH God Himself. In Jeremiah 32:18, the prophet calls God “the great and mighty God” (El Gibbor in the Hebrew, the same word we’ve seen all along), whose name is the LORD (YHWH) Almighty.”

Jesus Christ, the child born in a manger, is none other than YHWH God Himself! And our life regains purpose and meaning when we take the time to worship Him as such. The problem is too many of us “worship our work. [Then] we work at our play, and… play at our worship.” (Gordon Dahl, Work, Play and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society, Augsberg Press, 1972). No wonder our lives are so messed up. No! If we want to bring purpose and meaning back into our lives, then we must worship JESUS as Lord, Him and Him alone!

A man was inspecting a house he wished to buy and was particularly struck by the beauty of one of the rooms he was going to use for his study. He didn’t like a cupboard in the corner, so he said to the builder, “I’ll have to remove it.”