[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee. For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.
[0:13] Isaiah 11, verse 1, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
[0:28] The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding. The Spirit of counsel and might. The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
[0:42] He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
[0:55] And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist.
[1:08] And faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. And the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.
[1:21] The calf and the lion and the fattened calf together. And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze.
[1:32] Their young shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra.
[1:43] And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.
[1:54] For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This is the word of the Lord. Yeah I love hearing testimonies of what God is doing in the world.
[2:12] And in the lives of the people I know. Whether at church or in a book or online. Online hearing testimonies. I'm sure for yourself as well. It builds our faith.
[2:23] It fills us with joy. And presses us on in the Christian life. To follow the Lord. But sometimes if we're honest. We hear testimonies that are a bit hard to relate to.
[2:35] So positive. So cheerful. So over the top. That we're left wondering what went wrong with us. Have you ever listened to a testimony and thought.
[2:46] How do they bounce along from joy to joy while I barely crawl? How do they turn from sin immediately when it seems like all I do is keep turning back again and again.
[3:00] Sometimes I would like to hear a few testimonies like this. I used to be an angry man. Like yell at the top of my lungs and punch through walls and break things sort of angry.
[3:10] I came to Jesus and wonderfully found forgiveness for all my angry words and actions. I found some relief. I wasn't as angry as I was before.
[3:22] But to be honest. I still get really angry. And it's been happening more lately. Or this.
[3:33] And I used to care too much about what people think of my looks. I remember being called fat on the playground in the fourth grade. It echoed through my mind for the rest of the day. I can still see the look on his face when he said those words.
[3:48] It's been years since then. And my looks are still something I think about almost every day. I've come to see that Jesus doesn't look at me the way others do. But I still find it hard to accept.
[4:02] It's a dark daily battle. And I wonder if it will ever let up. Or this. There was a time when it seemed that my list of friends was a mile long.
[4:14] I was invited to all the parties and all the gatherings. But now it seems that all my friends have moved along. And left me right here. No one calls anymore.
[4:25] And everyone I get up the nerve to call rarely even picks up. I know that there's no friend like Jesus. But is Jesus really enough when there's no one else?
[4:37] You know, the Christian life may be a news flash. It's not one long celebration of success.
[4:48] It's often one long struggle filled with fits and starts. No wonder one theologian called it a long obedience in the same direction.
[4:58] Jesus did not come for those who have it all together. Not even for those who get it all together after he comes. Jesus came for those that are tired of new resolutions, new plans, new diets, and new promises.
[5:11] He came for those who take one step forward and sadly sometimes fall three steps back. He came for those who grow but slowly for people like you and me.
[5:23] Taylor mentioned a moment ago, next Sunday we begin the season of Advent. Advent simply means coming or arrival. One of these rare moments in the years we start using words we don't use every other week.
[5:37] You know, but nevertheless, coming or arrival. It's celebrated in the history of the church the four weeks before the coming of Jesus to anticipate and celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:49] It can be so helpful for understanding the Christian life. Jesus comes, but He only comes after years of waiting, longing, grieving, crying out for help.
[6:08] After the holding on of faith, which is the holding on of something you can't see. And Jesus doesn't come with a bang or a flash in the pan for all the world to see.
[6:21] He comes almost without notice. And so much of what He still does in this world is unseen. So much of what He's doing in your life and mine is unseen.
[6:35] So much so that we sometimes wonder where our lives are even going. And when we do, the Lord is calling us to remember and hope. This year for Advent, we're going to study four songs from Isaiah about this servant king who is coming.
[6:54] Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and 52 and 3. But we're going to set the stage of Advent by studying this picture of the servant king in Isaiah 11.
[7:04] When the people were sure that God was done with them. When they were certain that there was nothing good to hope for. The Lord sent Isaiah to call them to an unbounded hope.
[7:17] A boundless hope. And that's what He commends to us today about this servant king who is coming to bring peace forevermore. In a word, where we're going, as though His coming is slow and His kingdom appears small.
[7:28] Set your hope completely on Jesus who will reign with peace forevermore. Though His coming is slow and His kingdom appears small. Set your hope completely on Jesus who will reign with peace forevermore.
[7:42] We're going to break this out three points. The first, the unexpected king. The unexpected king. One historian wrote a fascinating book on the American Dust Bowl.
[7:54] If you've never read about that, it's a fascinating time in history. A very depressing time in American history. He wrote a book about the American Dust Bowl called The Worst Bad Time. You know, that's a word our culture likes to use.
[8:07] The worst. You know, the worst bad time. Well, in some sense, these verses were written to the people of God in the worst bad time. The year was 700 or so B.C.
[8:19] Assyria was closing in. A wicked empire. A wicked nation was closing in on the southern kingdom of Judah. The Assyrians had a strong, massive army.
[8:30] Judah doesn't stand a chance. A little twig hanging out there. About to get taken out. According to the reports from Sennacherib and his men, the Assyrians had already taken more than four walled cities.
[8:43] Forty walled cities and captured 200,000 people. Worse still, the prophet begins this letter by telling them that it is the Lord who is sending the Assyrians because they refused to turn to Him.
[8:59] Isaiah 9, the Lord says, The people did not turn to Him. Isaiah says, The people did not turn to the Lord who struck them, nor inquired of the Lord of hosts.
[9:09] So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail. The elder and the honored man who is the head. You know, the men that Moses appointed. And the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.
[9:23] The people are not serving the Lord. In the context of these chapters, the Lord imagines the people of Israel like a forest. They're just a forest filled with trees, but the Assyrians are like an axe that are being used to cut down the trees of the people of Israel all throughout the land.
[9:45] You ever driven by a new development and winced when you saw all the trees chopped down? Driven by the old farm and grieved to see it clear cut with only stumps left?
[9:56] That's what the Lord is saying. All the people of God are just stumps now. Taken out.
[10:07] After the Assyrians are done, the Lord, though, promises to deal with the Assyrians, which is fascinating in chapter 10. But He also purposes to fulfill His promise to Israel of providing a king.
[10:19] Look in verse 1. He says, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. The promise begins with this reference to the stump of Jesse.
[10:29] Now, sometimes in Christmas carols, we sing of Jesse, O come, O branch of Jesse's stem, or come thou promised rod of Jesse. But who is Jesse, and what's he got to do with Christmas?
[10:45] Jesse is the father of King David. King David, as you know, was the man after God's own heart. Not the first king, but the first king after his own heart.
[10:56] He took Goliath out for defying the living God. He led the people in victory against the Philistines again and again and again. He was crowned king.
[11:07] He became great. At the height of his greatness, in about 1000 B.C., the Lord promised that one of his sons would sit on the throne forever. In 2 Samuel 7.
[11:18] After he dies, Solomon, the son of David, becomes king. After Solomon, Rehoboam becomes king. After Rehoboam, Abijah, and along down the line.
[11:31] Now, some of these kings are like their father David, and some, like Manasseh, are not like their father David. But now the Assyrians are coming, and are going to take them out for all intents and purposes.
[11:45] The tree of Jesse is chopped down. Only a stump remained. The king will be killed, and the people will be driven far from home. The promise to David is as good as dead.
[11:56] But Isaiah says, a shoot shall come from the stump. A shoot's just a young growth, a twig, growing out of the stump.
[12:18] Just when it looks dead, just when it looks dead, I remember years ago, trying to rip out a stubborn shrub in our front little, whatever you call them, beside the door, front bed, I guess.
[12:30] Yeah, trying to rip it out of this bed. For several winters in a row, I would cut off all the branches. You know, we wouldn't prune back. We would just take everything out. I would cut it back to the bare trunk.
[12:42] I would pound the trunk with my 10-pound maul, just until I was good and sweaty. Then I would pour stump, a poor stump killer, down into the stump pile or whatever.
[12:57] I would cover it with pine straw, but come spring, that dumb shrub would keep poking up. A little sticker bush that I could not get rid of. Well, David is saying, or Isaiah is saying, the promise of God is like that.
[13:11] It keeps shooting off sprigs. But look at what he says. A shoot shall come from the stump of Jesse. Literally, what he's saying, a son, another son, shall come from Jesse.
[13:22] It's important to see what's going on here. Isaiah is saying, the Lord will not just give the people another son of David to lead them. The Lord will give the people of God another David. A true and better David.
[13:37] In fact, he says in verse 1, he says, a branch shall come from his roots, a branch, referencing Jeremiah 23, the branch of the Lord, the righteous branch for David, who will be king.
[13:51] The Lord is going to fulfill His promise, not by another David in the line, but the true David. The one to whom David pointed to all along, which is nonetheless than Jesus Christ.
[14:04] And this David will come when the people least expect it. That's what he's saying. It's a prophecy before the exile to remind them that he's going to come when they least expect it, when the promise looks as good as dead.
[14:16] And this David will come in a way the people least expect. A small shoot, a little twig. Years ago, Kim and I were visiting her cousin in New York City.
[14:29] We went to Madison Avenue. That's where all the stores are, I guess. And Kim was shopping and I was nearly bored to tears. I'd paced the store one too many times.
[14:40] So I walked outside on the sidewalk and I was just walking around doing whatever you do. And I saw some barricades being put up. Like, that's fascinating. So I walked over to the barricades and I saw this group of people beginning to gather.
[14:55] And after looking around a bit, taking in the barricades and what was clearly a long barricade down one of the cross streets, I asked one of the tourists nearby, I wasn't from America, I said, what's going on here?
[15:08] They said, your president is coming. I'm like, well, that's pretty cool. So I just stood still and sure enough, like five, seven minutes later, the presidential motorcade comes through.
[15:22] You know, whatever. Five police cars in the front. You can imagine how armed they are. Three limos in the middle so you didn't know which one he was in. Well, that's the way we often assume Jesus is going to come back and take over.
[15:33] Take over. Like with the procession that all the world sees. Bulletproof glass like the Pope's little golf cart in a way that's visible and obvious.
[15:54] But that's not the way he comes. Do you remember how he comes? Born into a little Jewish family in Bethlehem. Oh, little Bethlehem. Far off the beaten path into the wrong family.
[16:08] I actually love the way O Little Town puts it. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. There's a lot going on in the world when Jesus was born.
[16:25] A lot of people didn't notice. No ear may hear of his coming. So much so that when he began to prophesy, or he began to teach, they said, isn't that the carpenter's boy? Isn't that Mary's son?
[16:41] James' brother? Nothing good could come out of that town. But it's not just that Jesus comes in a way that we least expect, and when we least expect, the kingdom often advances in a way we least expect.
[16:56] Klein Snodgrass, an unfortunate name, he says, the kingdom which has already begun in Jesus does not come with a glorious bang in the defeat of Rome.
[17:08] Rather, it comes unexpectedly, almost unnoticed. You know, we often think that if the Lord had a plan to rescue things, He would save some important celebrity or some political leader.
[17:21] Bring them to Himself. But Jesus, the Lord seems to prefer the nobodies. He seems to hunt down the highways and the byways for the foolish and the weak, the low and the spies.
[17:35] We often think the Lord needs our strength. He needs our gifts. You know, we've got our things that we're really good at. He thinks that's what He needs to accomplish His purpose, but far too often He likes and uses our weaknesses a whole lot more.
[17:50] The events of His kingdom often looks weak and wimpy, small and puny, on the verge of being snuffed out. Can you imagine what the church in Jerusalem felt when the first persecution fell on them?
[18:03] Stephen was martyred. They're all driven from their nirvana-like state of sharing everything they had together with one another. They're driven out. What do they think?
[18:15] The Lord must be done with them. Tempted to give up, to forget faith, to abandon hope, but then the gospel takes off.
[18:29] The Samaritan believes, the Ethiopian eunuch turns to Christ, the gospel reaches the Gentiles, and so too with your life. Have you ever felt useless for God because you keep getting sidelined?
[18:42] Have you ever felt like your work has no eternal value? Have you ever wondered what the diapers, dishes, and disciplines have to do with advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Have you ever despaired facing another day of heartache?
[18:54] Don't give up on hope. You don't know everything you think you know about your life. Hold on to hope. There's a king who's coming in a way we don't expect.
[19:04] Set your hope completely on him. Second thing we're going to look at is the king's unimpeachable rule. The king's unimpeachable rule after promising that the king will come, the Lord promises that his rule will be unimpeachable.
[19:17] What's that mean? Unassailable. That doesn't help much, but perfect, flawless, without any blemish at all. His character, it will begin with his character to be completely upright.
[19:29] He will have the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit. We see in verse 2, the Spirit of the Lord of Yahweh will be on him. The Spirit came on people for certain assignments and certain leaders in the Old Testament, but this Spirit will rest on him in a way that it hasn't rested on anyone before.
[19:48] It will be completely aligned with the desires of the Spirit. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding will be his. He will not just have general understanding of things, but will be able to see into the heart of the issues.
[20:06] He will be discerning, able to identify and select that which is right. He will be truly mature. The Spirit of the Lord will bless him with counsel and might.
[20:17] He will know what to do and how to take up what is right. He will have the power to put into action his good plan. The Spirit of the Lord will bless him with knowledge of the Lord and the fear of the Lord.
[20:30] The idea there is for this one, he will not just know the Lord theoretically, but he will know the Lord truly and he will have an unmistakable gravitas and dignity about him and air about him that commands our reverence and awe.
[20:50] He will be thoroughly God's and advance God's purposes. As a kid, there was no one I revered more than my grandfather. I was named for him.
[21:03] He was a larger than life person who left an indelible imprint on my life. He was what every young boy wanted. He was good. He was joyful and generous.
[21:14] Wearing his heart on his sleeve. I think he passed that down to me. He would squeeze us kids tight showing his love and affection. There was never any doubt where he stood with me.
[21:26] But he was a man's man which is what made my eyebrows raised when I was a young kid. He was a hunter. I remember riding around in his scout hunting jeep and hunting quail and having a good time.
[21:42] He was a man of God. He served others. He was there for some real heartache for me. I loved him deeply.
[21:55] But there was something about him that I knew I should never cross him. I remember as a teenager with my hair down and my shoulders messing around. You know, he would come to town.
[22:06] He didn't want to sleep in my room because I had like an eight foot Bob Marley poster on the wall and he didn't want that man looking at him while he tried to sleep. But he would come into my room whenever he determined that it was too late for me to sleep.
[22:19] You know, I was in college then or high school then and he would just grab my big toe and yank me completely out of bed until I fell on the floor. You know, I was a dead sleep.
[22:30] It wasn't gentle. But you know what? I didn't say anything. Our king is like that. You know, he has a weightiness and a gravitas.
[22:40] And sometimes Jesus can be so manipulated in our image. He's just kind of this weak and frail man.
[22:52] That's not the way the Lord was. Not the way He is. His rule will be good in every way. He continues talking about His rule. Look down there. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
[23:04] This word delight comes from smell. This idea is the things He likes to smell is the Lord and the goodness of the Lord. That's what He wants to feast on.
[23:14] It reminds me of the Lord. Our Lord saying, it is my food to do the will of Him who sent me. That's what I love. It's my delight. It's my duty.
[23:24] I run after Him. The fear of the Lord is His delight. And He rules with truth. Look down there. Verse 3, He will judge by what His eyes He will not judge by what His eyes see or decide disputes by what His ears hear but with righteousness He shall judge.
[23:43] He doesn't decide by what His eyes see or His ears hear. Now immediately I thought, wait, what? Aren't you supposed to decide by what your eyes see and your ears hear?
[23:54] That's all that every earthly judge has but that's not this judge. He discerns more than what the eyes see or the ears hear. He discerns beyond the appearance to the reality.
[24:05] Beyond the veneer to the inside. He does not look on the outward appearance as man does. He looks on the heart. He's not diverted by smoke and mirrors. He's not thrown off by spin and stories.
[24:17] He rules with truth. His Word is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword able to divide joint and marrow.
[24:33] Discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart from afar. He rules with truth. He rules with justice. Rules with righteousness. Look who are the object of His rule.
[24:45] It says in verse 4, He judges the poor. He brings them justice. That's what that means. He decides with equity for the meek. The objects of His justice are those discarded by most of the world's justice.
[25:01] Those are His concerns. Why? What's the point? Well, the idea is that if they get justice, everyone else will. If this king gives justice to the poor and meek, surely He will give justice to everyone else.
[25:17] Look at verse 5. It ends with His clothing. Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist. Faithfulness, the belt of His loins. It's what holds Him together and holds His character inside, so to speak.
[25:31] You've got to follow the progression here. It begins with His delight, with His thoughts, with His insides, His heart. It continues with His eyes and His ears. It's the ability to see in a penetrating way in His character and in His action.
[25:45] It concludes with His clothing. He's clothed in righteousness and justice displaying for all the world to see His complete moral uprightness and His total commitment to the truth.
[25:58] His greatness. What you're supposed to see is unsearchable. This is the Lord. This servant king is clothed with the Lord's attributes and the wonder of His unassailable character.
[26:19] Is there a more stunning king? During the late 1600s, Scottish Christians were revolting against the Church of England because the Church of England and back and forth, you know, but they're enforcing some different standards.
[26:49] And would call the king the head of the church and the church in Scotland didn't like that because they're Presbyterian and so it looked like these scuffles would come up again and again and so one of these, they were revolting in the late 1600s and one of the man that was revolting is one of the covenanters, if you know that history.
[27:10] Known as the Christian Courier, a man named John Brown. He supported the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and resisted measures of the king of England taken against the church.
[27:23] He stood for what he believed was right. He stood against what he believed was wrong. The cost of much of his livelihood. In 1684, the king's delegation came to his house.
[27:36] They searched for what they deemed treasonable documents and when they found him, they executed John Brown at his cottage door in front of his wife, Isabel.
[27:52] Afterwards, the delegation, Claverhouse, the main man, turned to his wife and asked, What do you think of your husband now, woman?
[28:02] She said, I always thought greatly of him, but I think more of him now. I love that.
[28:15] Stand in the face of the king and say that. Well, you should think more greatly of Jesus now. You see this picture.
[28:26] This is our king. We've been delivered from the domain of darkness into his kingdom. There's nothing in him that should make us afraid. He's completely upright. No trace of darkness, corruption, or cowardice.
[28:38] So unlike the rulers of this age or any age. He's undeniably faithful. None shall stop him from doing what is best for his people. He is the king.
[28:50] He rules. And he's given us his word to rule us. If you notice, if you look down there, it says, he judges the poor.
[29:04] He strikes the earth with the rod of his mouth. How does the Lord govern the earth? How does the Lord govern the church? Historically, what we've always believed is the word of God.
[29:19] John Calvin famously called the word of God the scepter. What is our founding document? What is it that governs us and our lives? It is the word of God.
[29:29] In every generation, the clarion call is not to this next leader, this next system, or this next revival moment. The clarion call, the call that you must heed, is a call to the word of God.
[29:42] This word alone is that which comforts us and assures us, guides us, and directs us. Even as Jesus said, John 16, I will guide you into all truth. He's speaking about the word of God written and preserved for every generation.
[29:55] It anchors and bolsters us. Most importantly, it unveils Jesus before us and unites us to Him. So we set our hope completely on Jesus by running to this word, setting our lives on it.
[30:13] Point three, the king's unstoppable kingdom. The king's unstoppable kingdom. After promising that the king will come and his rule will be unimpeachable, the Lord promises that his kingdom will be unenstoppable.
[30:31] One day, it will no longer be hidden or secret. All eyes will see him and the knowledge of him will spread from shore to shore. None shall stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?
[30:43] The good king will bring forth an unbelievably good kingdom throughout the earth. Now these, look down at verse 6, he continues, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together and the little child shall lead them.
[31:04] Verse 8, the nursing child shall play at the hole of the cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Now these verses are a little bit unusual.
[31:18] Almost as if we've stumbled into a dreamlike Grateful Dead tune. Everybody's just happy. What happened? We were talking about the Assyrians whacking everybody and now we're talking about being happy and I think in some ways we've got to get in the mood of these verses.
[31:37] Take in the unusual language to understand what Isaiah is saying. He's saying the kingdom the Lord is going to bring about is filled with true peace and love.
[31:49] The wolf does not normally dwell with the lamb except for dinner. The lion sees the calf the fattened calf and thinks we have the meats, you know.
[32:04] But the Lord is saying all the old hostilities will be brought to an end. The wolf and the lamb the leopard and the goat the lion and the calf will live together and eat in peace.
[32:20] The cow and the bear the lion and the ox how much more will Jew and Gentile slave and free rich and poor be together.
[32:34] That's what the Lord is doing. A little child shall lead them. Isn't that fascinating? What's that come from? It's a return to Eden.
[32:45] Man will exercise dominion. Even a little child shall lead the lion. The beast of the earth will be under his rule.
[33:02] The kingdom will be emptied of all traces of the curse. It says the young child shall play over the hole of the cobra and put his hand into the den.
[33:15] It's an interesting way of saying two things. On the one hand the child will play because there's no more risk of danger. Kind of like playing too close to the manhole or too close to the road so to speak.
[33:28] There'll be no more worry of something coming out to snatch you. No more reason to say be careful to a toddler walking out of the house. On the other hand the king will put his hand into the adder's den.
[33:42] Why? Because the adder will have no more fangs anymore. There's no danger. There's no risk and no danger. These scenes are communicating that the curse is finally broken.
[33:57] That this wicked curse that the serpent introduced into the world wonderfully, poetically put here this curse is undone. Verse 9 they shall not hurt or destroy.
[34:11] There is no more pain in this picture anymore. The serpent will be finally completely under the foot of Jesus. There will be nothing to be afraid of ever again.
[34:32] I love the way Joy to the World puts it. no more let sins and sorrows grow nor thorns invest the ground.
[34:43] He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Everywhere where the curse reached this kingdom will reach.
[34:54] And so it naturally goes to this kingdom is stretching from shore to shore. They look at verse 9 they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Well what is all your holy mountain?
[35:05] Well we know from the parallelism that the earth or the second line that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord and the waters cover his seas. So the earth become or all of the earth becomes this holy mountain that holy place where the Lord dwelt with Moses up on the mountain.
[35:24] Now all of the earth is in the presence of God. Indeed he is the light day after day and night after night and the whole earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord.
[35:37] Everyone knows what the Lord loves what he thinks what he hates what he wants for the world. Indeed Habakkuk promised that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and Isaiah says this king will do it.
[35:51] Christmas is not a little parochial thing that happened in Bethlehem. It's about a kingdom that's stretching throughout this world. God is coming not merely to reconcile you to himself but to reconcile all things through Jesus Christ.
[36:04] You are just the first fruits of what he is doing everywhere for his glory and for the praise of Jesus Christ. But who is it all for?
[36:19] Pastor Tony Campolo died earlier this week. You might have seen that on the news. He was famous for pushing the boundaries a bit and would use profanity at times to make a point.
[36:30] I'm not going to try that today. Pushed us to remember the loss. One story always blown me away.
[36:42] He said one time I had flown into Hawaii for a speaking engagement and couldn't sleep. So he went to an all night diner where he heard a group of prostitutes talking. So he's there in the middle of the night.
[36:55] One of the prostitutes mentioned that the next day was her 39th birthday. Another said sarcastically what do you want a birthday party? She said quietly I've never had one my whole life.
[37:12] Why should I expect one now? Overhearing their conversation Mr. Campolo decided to plot with the diner owner to throw her a surprise party the following night.
[37:29] A cake was baked and everything was prepared and the lady was shocked when everyone including this stranger sang to her and celebrated her.
[37:41] When she finally left with the cake after the party Mr. Campolo offered to pray with the staff of the diner for this lady and for her salvation and for God to be good to her.
[37:55] The prayer startled the owner. He said you never told me you're a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to? He said church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3.30 in the morning.
[38:14] Who did the king come for? Who's welcomed into this kingdom? The people who were face to face with their worst enemies.
[38:29] The people who had failed. They'd left the Lord. They're about to be driven into exile. The people who assumed God was done with them has been.
[38:44] Discarded. People a lot like you and me. People who had failed. People who could never imagine that they could have hope again. This morning you may be hopeless because of circumstances.
[39:03] A job that didn't promise or didn't pay off like it promised. Maybe hopeless because of health that deteriorates and has deteriorated quickly in a way that you didn't imagine.
[39:15] You may be hopeless or have the feeling of hopeless because of finances. It's a difficult time right now. You may be hopeless because of relationships. You know family is not all that it sometimes is cracked up to be and friends can be wonderful but leave you so hopeless as well.
[39:37] You may be hopeless because of your failures or your sins and left to yourself you should be hopeless because of your circumstances. Because of your failures.
[39:48] Sometimes God it seems wants to make us hopeless to break all that stuff down to build our hope in Him. You may be hopeless because you've not yet run to Jesus with hope.
[40:09] This is you know one author said this is an undated hope that's in this passage for every person and every generation.
[40:23] No one is hopeless if they put their hope in God. That's what God is screaming through these pages. You can walk with Him. You can know Him truly through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[40:36] You can have hope again through the gospel. So that's what I offer you. If you are not in Christ the wrath of God remains on you in Scripture. You have gone astray.
[40:48] You've sought to do things your own way. God made you to live for Him. It is a good word that God wants you to face the harsh reality face the facts that you sinned against Him and He invites you to turn to Him in faith in Jesus Christ who obeyed perfectly to make you right with Him.
[41:10] And so you can have hope and also for the Christian I call you to hope. You know hope will not put you to shame. It's the truth of the word of God. So though His coming is slow His kingdom appears small set your hope fully on King Jesus who will reign peace forevermore.
[41:31] Let's pray. Father in heaven thank you for the joy of looking at these verses. God we pray against the temptation to run to anything else for hope.
[41:56] We turn to Jesus Christ there's room enough in Him for us to find all the hope that we need. Would you come by your spirit and unite some of us to Christ for the very first time.
[42:14] Or remind us of the hope we have in Christ once more. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.
[42:31] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at