Wonderful Counselor

HIS NAME WILL BE CALLED…WONDERFUL COUNSELOR

If you would like the Power Point to this contact me at coolguybri@verizon.net

The language in Isaiah 8 is ominous and dark and foreboding. People are rejecting God’s ways and are walking and living in darkness. Despair is rampant in the nation, distress is common and the pressures or an enemy attack lurks in every shadow.

The people are afraid and stressed out.

Why are they afraid? Was it because they had an enemy poised on it’s border, the nation called Assyria, power and vicious? Is that why they were afraid? Is that we are afraid?

NO!

They were afraid because they had totally lost sight of God, that is why God sent Isaiah, to help them recover their sight.

- The days of God’s nearness – GONE

- The days of God’s great works – GONE

- The days of God’s glory – GONE

- The days where a word from the book brought comfort – GONE!

In their desperation where do they turn?

Isaiah 8:19-22 (RSV)

19 And when they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! Surely for this word which they speak there is no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their God, and turn their faces upward; 22 and they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness.

Looking for answers they thrust themselves further into darkness and hopelessness by having their palms read and checking out Madam Balboa’s astrological charts and the whole time cursing God!

It is interesting, but God says in verse 20 that all they need is the teaching and the testimony, in other words, just look in God’s word and that’s all you will need.

But lets understand something; the recent uprising of palm reading, witchcraft, séances, horoscopes and psychic fairs in this community is not only Satanic and evil, it is just one more evidence of the total lostness of people around us everyday.

This was the culture of Isaiah’s day, and how little things seem to have changed today!

The next several verses in Is. Indicate that God was going to do something new and significant. These are the exact words that many people are needing to hear today…if we can listen…

Isaiah 9:2-5 (NLT)

- Those in darkness will see a great light…

2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light—a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow.

- Joy will replace despair

3 Israel will again be great, and its people will rejoice as people rejoice at harvest time. They will shout with joy like warriors dividing the plunder.

- The enemies power will be broken

4 For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the army of Midian with Gideon’s little band.

And then Isaiah says that this will all be fulfilled because of the birth of a baby who will be named Jesus Christ.

Can Jesus really be all that?

Can Jesus really do all that?

Let me say as a reminder that this whole book is about Jesus and the greatness of God. It is all about how life apart from Jesus is

- meaningless

- clueless

- fatiguing

- empty and dark

W/O Jesus there is no reason, no purpose, no way, no path, no hope for the future and no forgiveness for the past. That’s what we believe!

He is the light and the life! He is the definition of life, the defining moment of life, the sustenance of life and the reason why everything exists. That’s what we believe!

If you meet this Jesus you will be forever changed.

- you are different then you were before

- going to a place you weren’t before

- filled with something you didn’t have before

- the difference is equated in scripture with the difference of being DEAD AND ALIVE! That’s what we believe!

WE WANT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO JESUS!

Here is Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is given a name, let’s read it…(how did you name your baby?)

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

What was your process in naming your child? (Precious the dog)