Good morning, Watermark.
And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Alfie, and I help out.
I serve with the outreach that Watermark does on HKU's campus.
And in case you haven't noticed, it's Advent time.
It's Christmas season.
We all have different traditions for remembering Christmas.
In my family, Christmas always started on December 1st,
which was my little sister's birthday.
It would always start with her birthday party,
and us bringing out the Christmas tree and putting on these decorations
to remember and begin our preparation for the Christmas season,
for the Christmas time.
Now that I don't live with my parents and my sister anymore,
about three years ago, I put a Christmas ornament on the door of my house,
and it stayed there for the past three years.
I haven't moved it and touched it.
I guess I've been doing a lot of preparing for Christmas.
But this Christmas, this Advent season, as a family,
we're going to be preparing for Christmas by looking at this passage in Isaiah.
And each week we'll be looking at a different part of Jesus' character.
We'll be looking at who he is and why he calls out to us to trust him.
The book of Isaiah was written about 800 years ago.
Goodness, that's a lot of reverb.
Can we do this?
Am I standing wrongly?
Isaiah was written about 800 years ago by this prophet.
He lived in the southern kingdom of Judah,
and he was calling out to these people to repent and turn back to God.
If you want a summary of the book of Isaiah,
you can read chapters 1 and 2,
because it starts telling this story about how God has raised Israel
like his own children,
and he's given them so many good gifts.
He's rescued them from slavery, but they still rebel.
And because of that, God is bringing judgment.
He's bringing judgment, but with that, he says he's going to fulfill a promise.
He's going to bring hope.
He's going to bring the light of a new kingdom
that will come and will bring light and joy and hope to so many people.
He says,
to these people in darkness,
to these people who are suffering under Assyria,
who are away in Babylonian exile,
he says,
a child is coming,
and his name will be Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
and Prince of Peace.
It's these four names that we'll be looking at
over the next couple of weeks
as we unpack what Christmas means
and who Jesus is for us.
That he isn't the kind of God that we take out at Christmastime,
we put on our shelf,
or we polish him off when we're in trouble.
But every day, he's our savior.
Every day, we need him.
And today, we'll start by looking at Wonderful Counselor.
Now, the difficulty with this kind of passage
is that the word counselor has changed
in the way that people use it
over the past couple of years.
If I was to say to you right now
that you need to find a counselor,
some of you will be outraged
at the suggestion that something might be wrong with you.
And others of you will say,
actually, you know, I probably could use a counselor.
But that's because we mostly think of a counselor
as someone who's there to help us
with our personal problems,
with our psychological problems,
who's there to therapize us.
But the counselor described in this passage
that's described in Isaiah is quite different.
The word here, it kind of relates to advising and planning.
Think of a royal advisor or, you know, a wise man.
If it really helps you, you can think about Yoda
or the Jedi Council in Star Wars
who were there to advise the Galactic Empire
on how to run their wisdom,
to give younger Jedi wisdom that they didn't have
because they lacked experience.
A counselor in this passage,
this wonderful counselor that Isaiah is talking about,
is someone who comes and he gives wisdom.
He teaches from his experience
and he teaches from a place of knowing and seeing
and understanding what is going on all around us.
So as we're unpacking this wonderful counselor,
I'm going to try to answer three questions.
The first is, why do we need a counselor at all?
The second, why do we need a wonderful counselor?
And lastly, how is Jesus this great, wise,
and wonderful counselor that we need?
So why do we need a counselor?
Think about your morning.
What happened between you waking up
and getting here today, this Sunday?
For me, my alarm went off early
because I wanted to go for a run.
And I stayed in bed and I thought,
oh, I really don't want to run.
I should probably sleep.
Then I remember that actually I'd said that
the past couple of days
and haven't been running for a while.
So I got up and went on that run.
I went on that run.
I got home.
I showered.
I had a Snickers bar.
I went to the community center.
I printed off my notes.
And I came here.
It's fairly simple.
If you're a young, single, childless guy like me,
you don't really need a counselor
to get from bed to church in the morning.
But some of you guys here have young children.
Some of you here have very sleepy teenagers.
And getting into church on a Sunday,
maybe you feel like you need a counselor.
You need wisdom to figure out the mess
of diapers and, you know, angsty teenagers
before you get here on Sunday.
Now, if you're here and you're young
and, you know, your Sunday is very simple,
get to know your family here.
Get to know some of the young people,
the young babies,
and the parents that take care of them
because they're your family as well.
Now, I'm not going to get sidetracked
talking about that.
We're going to look at this counselor.
We may not face it every day.
I really didn't face it this morning.
But at some point, we get to this place
where we realize that we don't know
which way we should take,
what our next step forward should be.
A singer, Bob Dylan, wrote a song about that.
He says that he's got mixed-up confusion
and it's killing him.
There's way too many people
and they're all too hard to please.
He says that his head is full of questions
and his temperature is rising fast.
Well, I'm looking for some answers
and I don't know who to ask.
Bob Dylan was confused.
Bob Dylan had questions.
Bob Dylan needed to ask somebody for some help.
You know, like Bob Dylan and like me,
it's usually only when we don't know what to do
that we realize we need help.
When the things that we try don't work anymore.
That we come to the realization
that maybe we're not as wise as we think we are.
Because most of the lives,
we live under this delusion
that we know what to do.
We know how to make right decisions.
We know how to go about our job
and our family life
and to deal with our relationships.
And some of us even think
that we've got it all together.
We start giving out advice to different people.
Thinking that because we've got
this little part of our life in order
that we can start telling everybody
and adding confusion to their lives
about how they should be doing it.
We need counselors because we don't know.
We need counselors because we don't have all the knowledge.
We need counselors because we don't have the skill
to deal with that knowledge
to help us understand and interpret
the world around us
and our different situations
that we're facing day by day, week by week.
And it's not just us.
King Ahaz, which you heard the scripture readings
and the video that we had earlier in the service,
he was the kind of person
who needed a counselor as well.
In the two chapters before this prophecy
for a wonderful counselor,
we see a king.
Ahaz is a ruler.
And he's a guy that people are looking to
because he's in a position of authority.
They look to him because he should be the one
that has everything under control.
But today, he doesn't.
Today, he hears that the kings of Syria
and the kings of Israel are coming
and they intend to wage war against him,
to kill him, and replace him with a puppet king.
The Bible says that all of Judah,
the king included,
were shaking like trees in the wind.
Now, I don't think anybody here today is a king.
But we all face situations like this
where we feel trapped,
where we feel lost and confused.
Earlier this year, I got my tax bill
and I looked at it and the number was huge.
They asked for money that was multiple times my salary
and even if I did manage to pay it,
I would have no more savings left
and I'd be down to a couple of pieces of rice every day.
I felt trapped.
It was, I walked around in a daze for a few days
just looking at this piece of paper wondering,
okay, if I look hard enough,
maybe the decimal point will move over
and this won't be so bad.
I felt trapped and I needed a counselor.
I needed someone who could see more than what I was seeing,
which was just lots and lots of zeros.
I needed someone who would look at this
and tell me, actually,
this is the way you should be reading it.
This is the way that you should be approaching this tax bill.
The king Ahaz needed someone who was going to come
and tell him that this is the way that you should look
at this enemy that's coming on your doorstep.
And each of us face situations
where we need someone to show us
and to tell us how it is
that we can look at and interpret
and understand what's going on in our day-to-day lives.
When we feel trapped with a doctor's diagnosis,
when we feel trapped with that phone call
from your child's principal,
when you feel trapped
because your employer tells you
that they simply can't afford to employ you anymore,
we look at these situations
where we're trapped and confused
and we don't understand what's going on
and we think that the situation
is our biggest problem.
We think that the situation that we're in
is the thing that we need to fix,
that we're going to devote our energy
and our heart and our mind
and everything that we can gather
and our resources to fixing.
But in Isaiah chapter 7,
God says something quite different.
God says that what we need is we need faith.
God tells King Ahaz
that if your faith is not firm,
you will not stand firm.
If your trust isn't in me,
then you can't deal with this enemy.
In our trouble,
God doesn't say
that we need to fix our environment.
He's a counselor that says,
here's the big picture.
Your feet are standing on jelly
and you need a counselor
who's going to look at this
with your best interests at heart,
who knows what is going on,
who understands what is going on
because he is a God
who knows all and sees all
that he has the wisdom
and the experience
and the knowledge
to walk with us through it.
To Ahaz, God says,
let me be your counselor.
God says,
don't be afraid of these people
because they're a dying fire.
They don't know it,
but their end is coming.
And I'll give you a guarantee.
I'll give you a promise.
He said there would be a virgin
who would give birth to a son,
God with us.
He says,
when you're feeling like God is far away,
when you're feeling trapped,
God will be with you.
We need counselors
because we don't see
that the situations that we enter
are like a dying fire.
They're temporary.
They're not forever.
We need a wonderful counselor
because our arrogance says
that we're going to figure out
a way to do it ourselves,
that we don't need to trust God.
We don't need to put our faith in God.
We're like a toddler
who's trying to put on his shoes
and is crying
because he's trying to put his left shoe
on his right foot
and it's not fitting.
And he's refusing to let
mommy and daddy give him a hand.
We need a counselor
because sometimes we think
that God is too close and interfering
or he's too far off
and he's untrustworthy.
The reality is that
God is not untrustworthy.
It's that we are not trusting.
God comes and he gives us a promise
in Isaiah
that God will be with us.
that in those desperate moments
that we are not alone,
that he's bringing
a counselor for us
who will give wisdom
and will shed light
on what it is
that we need to do.
Why does the counselor
we need
have to be wonderful?
Why does he have to be marvelous
and without understanding?
That's what the Hebrew word here means,
that it's something
that cannot be understood
in human terms.
Why do we need a counselor
that is wonderful?
We don't have the answers
and for most of the time
I feel like I don't even know
the questions
that I'm supposed to be asking.
And when we go around
and we gather counselors around us
to help us deal with different aspects
of day-to-day life,
we go to a friend for advice,
we read the Financial Times
so we can know
what's going on
with the financial markets,
we have our different gurus
that we go to.
Some of you find them
in the pages of
the Cosmo magazine
or Elle
for your fashion tips.
If I have anything
to do with money,
I go and ask my dad
and he helps me understand
what this tax bill means.
And if he has questions
about exercise,
he asks me
and I still don't know
why he asks me.
But here in Asia,
we have other things
that we go to.
We go and we
go to gravestones
and we burn justics
and we worship our ancestors
in hoping that they'll give us
good fortune,
that they'll be with us
as we're working
through our lives.
Or we go to palm readers
to read our future,
then afterwards
to the Feng Shui Master
so he can help us
adjust our future.
But even when these things
go against what God asks for us,
even when they go against
what society asks for us,
we continue to seek
these other counselors.
You know,
just earlier this year
in Tianjin,
there was a communist party leader
who was removed
from his position
because they found out
that against his cultural environment,
against the party
which says that you shouldn't
be looking to those things,
he still went to his Feng Shui Master
to figure out how it was
that he was going to get
his promotions,
how it was he was going
to advance through the ranks
in the party.
And that's not the first time
this has happened
because God's people
also turned away
from what God
had asked of them
to find a different counselor,
to find a counselor
who would give them
the answers they wanted
when they wanted them.
We go,
and we turn away
from the counselor
that God has given
because we actually,
we're pretty impatient.
And I think this is the effect
that Google has had on us
because it teaches us
that we get our answers
right now,
that we get them
when we want it.
And if it's not Google,
then we go on Facebook.
And if not Facebook,
then we look on Wikipedia
to find answers
to our questions.
But instead of answers,
we get information.
And information
isn't really wisdom.
Google isn't really
a wonderful counselor.
You know,
we turn to all these things
because at the bottom of it,
even as Christians,
we don't trust
an all-knowing,
our all-wise,
our loving Heavenly Father
who sees us
and wants to answer
not just the question of
what do I do today?
What do I do with my toddler
who won't eat?
What do I do
with this really,
really infuriating boss?
But he goes
and he sees
the bottom of it.
He sees our hearts
and he gives us wisdom
to deal not just
with the surface
of things in our life,
but with our hearts.
Because we have
deep heart questions
that we need to answer.
We have deep heart questions
that go beyond
the crises that we face
day by day.
questions like,
how am I going to deal
with this guilt?
How am I going to deal
with this sin
that seems to have
a stranglehold on me
and I can't shake?
God, how am I going to know
what it is that you have
planned for me in my life?
Should I take this job?
Should I quit
the job that I'm in
right now?
How do I deal
with injustice
and poverty
and discrimination
that I see
all around me?
How can I have
this conversation
with my father
who's dying
and I haven't talked
to in years?
We have all these questions
and very often
the answer we get
from God
either isn't one
that we like
or it doesn't come
right away
and it doesn't come
in our schedule
and we don't trust God
and we run to Google
and we run to our gurus
to try and find our answer.
Because King Ahaz
didn't trust God,
because we
didn't trust God,
God says,
you need a counselor.
You need
a wonderful counselor.
God sent an empire
to destroy Judah
because Ahaz
wouldn't trust him.
And even as this
was happening,
God called out
to his people in Judah
and he said,
don't be distracted
by what's happening
around you.
Keep trusting me.
Keep running to me.
Keep fearing me.
Keep holding
on to my word.
He says,
run to me
because there
you'll find wisdom.
There you'll find hope.
There you'll find
peace.
In chapter 8,
Isaiah says
that even though
God isn't happy
with his children,
even though God
seems silent
and far away,
even when the enemy
is knocking on the door
that he's going
to come through
for them.
He says,
patiently trust the Lord.
Wait for God.
Has anyone ever
told you that
when you're
struggling?
When you can't figure out
and make sense
of your crisis?
It says,
patiently wait for God.
That doesn't sound
like the right response,
but that's what God says.
He says,
patiently wait for me.
God says that God knows
that we're impatient
and when those two years
or three months
or 30 seconds are up
and we're tired
of waiting for God,
we'll run to something else.
We'll run to our Google
and to our gurus
to find our answers.
He says that the people
around you will say,
forget God.
He's not going to help you.
Go to the fortune tellers
who make those chirping noises.
They will help you out.
They will give you wisdom.
He says,
they will say,
go and ask the spirits
of the dead
and maybe you're looking
at me right now
and you're thinking,
I've never done that before.
I've never seen a fortune teller
or ask spirits of the dead,
but just because
you don't do this
doesn't mean that
you're turning away from God.
It doesn't mean that
you are not running to God
for your hope
because we go to things
that we think
will give us salvation.
We go to our friends
who we think
will give us the answers
to deal with our struggle.
When God doesn't seem to work,
when God doesn't seem
to be answering your questions,
who are you going to?
Who are you asking?
Who are you hoping
will give you wisdom?
Who are you hoping
will answer your questions?
The Bible tells us
that God will answer.
The Bible also tells us
that the gods
that we're looking for
will leave us dead.
Verses 21 and 22
of chapter 8 say that.
They say that for these people,
they are going to be
greatly troubled
and distressed
because their counselors
will give them food
for a little bit
but it won't reach
their hunger.
It will give them
a little bit of light
but it won't show them
the way.
Because Google
will give us three ways
to fix our life
now
on our schedule
and not God's.
The palm readers
will tell us that
this is your future
and now you can be
the driver
of your destiny.
Our counselors
and gurus
will speak to us
on our terms
and tell us that
even as we're struggling,
we can still
be the rulers
and the king
of our little kingdoms.
And that's what Ahaz did.
Ahaz said,
actually,
I don't want to wait
on God.
I don't want to wait
for this promised child.
I'm going to go to Assyria
and I'm going to ask them
to help me
deal with Israel
and Syria
who are trying
to kill us.
In the end,
God used the same Assyria
that Ahaz went to
for help
to conquer
and to destroy
the kingdom
that he was trying
to save.
The Bible teaches us
that our earthly counselors
may do a good job
at helping us
right now
but ultimately
they will lead
to our death.
that they're like
they're like
a little match
that we're trying
to light
in a huge
corn maze
when God
instead is offering
us GPS
and sunlight.
The problem
with our counselors,
the problem
with the Financial Times
and Google
and Wikipedia
and social media
and our fortune tellers
is that
they don't get
to the heart
of our matter.
They don't get
to the bottom
of our souls
and our desires
and the things
that are taking
our crises
and making them
seem eternal
and all encompassing
because
your analyst
will help you
figure out
how to make
the most
of the market
but
it may not
tell you
how to deal
with greed.
Oprah will teach
you how to make
friends
but she won't
help you deal
with the loneliness
in your soul.
You can do
all the community
service
that you want
but it won't
deal
with your guilt.
You can rearrange
your office
but it won't
help you deal
with the unease
that you feel
because you're
out of control.
You can go
and get the best
advisors
who will help you
get into the best
companies in your field
but they will
let you down
because you will
get there
and you're
at the bottom
and if you're
a fresh guy
you're going
to be looking
up and wondering
how is it
that I'm going
to get to the top
and you'll find
mentors will help
you get there
but even though
you get to the top
it still won't
deal with your
longing
for meaning
and significance
and belonging
and love.
Our counselors
don't reach
the bottom
of our troubled
hearts.
They just deal
with things
on the surface
they make us
feel satisfied
and appeased
now
but not
in the long
term.
In C.S. Lewis's
The Lion, Witch
and the Wardrobe
Edmund was
tempted
by the
witch's
Turkish delight
it was tasty
and delicious
and made him
want more
but in the end
he realized
that the witch
was just going
to leave him
with stale bread
not more candy
and that the
promises
that the witch
gave him
of being
in control
of his brothers
and sisters
actually
were never
going to come
true.
We need a
wonderful counselor
a counselor
who's going
to understand
our world
and our lives
beyond the
surface
because
our
earthly
counselors
will only
touch the
top
of our
problems
that they'll
never give us
wisdom
to deal
with what's
going on
underneath.
They'll make us
feel like the
rulers of our
lives
but never
really give us
control
like that
toddler
you know
they're like
a toddler
going to another
two year old
to get them
to explain
shoelaces
because we need
a wonderful
counselor
because our
earthly counselors
can't explain
what is going
on beneath.
They can't give us
peace
and hope
to work through
the trouble
that we're in.
They can't give us
wisdom
that goes
beyond the
surface.
So where does
Jesus come to
this picture?
How does
Jesus come
and how is
he our
wonderful
counselor?
How is he
the answer
to Ahaz's
trouble?
How is he
our wise
counselor
who's going
to come
into our
lives
and give us
wisdom and
understanding
and help us
to walk
through
trouble?
You don't
have to read
much of the
Bible or even
be really
familiar with
it to know
that Jesus
was a wise
counselor.
If you're
non-Christian
you may even
think that he
is a wise
teacher,
a moral
prophet.
But just
another
counselor,
not really
God.
I think that
for many of
us we look
at the things
that Jesus
said,
we look at
the things
that he
did and we
think that
they're foolish.
We might say
that those are
very holy
things.
Those are
very good
things.
But in the
bottom of
our heart
we think
that the
things that
Jesus said
are foolish.
And if you
look at
Matthew
chapter 5
and Matthew
through Matthew
chapter 7,
the Sermon on
the Mount,
Jesus says
all kinds
of things
which our
earthly counselors,
even our
own selves
would say are
ridiculous,
that there
are no ways
to deal.
There are not
the ways to
deal with the
world.
He says that
it's not the
proud and the
strong that will
inherit an earth,
but the weak
and the
humble.
He says that
anger isn't
just about
you being
right and
you being
justified,
but that our
anger should lead
us to
reconciliation and
humility.
Jesus said that
actually marriage is
something that he
wants us to work
through when the
going gets tough,
not to cut and
run at the
earliest opportunity.
he told his
followers that
actually they
shouldn't seek
retaliation for
those who are
hurting them and
those who are
trying to kill
them, but
instead they
should love
their enemies,
they should
serve their
enemies.
He told these
people that
they shouldn't
worry about
treasures here on
earth, but they
should store up
seemingly intangible
heavenly treasures.
Now, if you
took these things
and you wrote
them in the
Financial Times,
well, they
wouldn't get
published.
They don't make
sense.
Our earthly
counselors don't
see this as a
way to dealing
with the world, a
way for working
through our
trouble, a way
for living wisely.
But these
seemingly foolish
things, they
teach us to
trust God.
The very
problem that
Ahaz in the
beginning had
when God
said if you're
faith is not
firm, then you
won't be firm
at all.
They teach us to
trust God and
have faith and
trust that he is
going to be the
one that is going
to come through
for us.
The things that
Jesus says are
wise seem
foolish because
we aren't
thinking of a
God who is
telling us these
things, who
says I'm going
to be with you
and I'm going to
carry you
through this
seemingly foolish
and ridiculous
list of wise
sayings.
And it's not
just the things
that Jesus says
that are foolish.
The way in which
Jesus saves us
is foolish.
Couldn't he have
saved us by
raising up a
giant army or
through a
political revolution?
Could he have
saved us by any
other way rather
than being hung
up on a cross?
You know, the
Greeks and the
wise Jews of
that day said
that's ridiculous.
There's no way
that he's our
God and our
Savior because
a God shouldn't
die.
God shouldn't
let himself be
disgraced like
that.
And even the
way in which
Jesus comes
into our life,
the advent that
we're remembering
is foolish in
our eyes because
our wise
counselor,
shouldn't be
born in a
haystack.
Our wise
counselor should
be given all
the privilege,
should be the
child of nobles,
should be sent
to the Oxfords
and the Cambridges
and getting his
PhDs to
understand the
world so he
can advise the
wisest people
on how to
live their life.
Instead,
God asks
Mary and
Joseph to
trust him.
He asks the
people of
Judah to
trust him
because he's
going to send
them a wise
counselor and
he's going to
be born to a
young carpenter
and his
disgraced wife
in a barn.
And this
foolish
birth is
actually the
greatest wisdom.
wisdom.
The
apostle Paul,
a church
planter,
wrote about
20 years
after Jesus'
death,
he says
that God
chose things
that are
foolish
to shame
the wise.
He chose
things that
are weak
to shame
the strong,
that the
foolishness
of God
is wiser
than the
wisest wisdom
of man.
Paul wrote
that God
is a
great God
who knows
and sees
and loves
and cares
and is
looking out
for your
best.
That when
he gives you
wisdom,
that tiny
little bit of
wisdom,
that is
greater than
anything any
of your
counselors or
fortune tellers
or Google
or Wikipedia
will ever
tell you.
He says
that Jesus,
the baby,
Jesus who
taught,
Jesus who
eventually would
die on a
cross,
became
wisdom
for us.
Now here's
the thing about
a wonderful
counselor.
Jesus reaches
the bottom
of our
hearts.
He deals
with our
sin and
our rebellion,
the things
that we
do that
go against
God.
He deals
with our
arrogance
that makes
us say,
no,
we're going
to put
on the
shoe
ourself.
He deals
with that
and he
says,
the way
that you
find wisdom
isn't by
being on
the throne
of your
life,
isn't by
being in
control,
but by
stepping off
your throne.
letting Jesus
sit in your
place and
saying that
Jesus,
you're going
to be my
king,
my savior,
my advisor,
my counselor.
You're doing this
picture of a
toddler struggling
to put a left
shoe on his
right.
We need a
loving heavenly
father who's
going to say,
no, that's not
the way you put
on your shoes.
Jesus says,
and to take
us and gently
put the shoe
on our right
foot and tie
the knot in
our laces for
us.
Jesus says
that if you
trust me,
if you have
faith in me,
I'm going to
send my Holy
Spirit to be
with you,
to be your
counselor,
to walk you
through your
life.
I think it
can be really
easy, and I
think especially
talking about
Jesus as a
wonderful counselor
to think of
Christianity as
good advice.
You know, that
if we do all
the things that
Jesus says,
if we stop
looking for
the advice,
that we'll be
happy.
That if we only
go to our
pastors to help
us deal with
our problems,
that we'll have
peace.
That if we're at
church every
Sunday, that we're
going to have
meaning.
a purpose in
our life.
That if I use
the Bible as
my manual,
then everything
will be alright.
But Christianity
isn't just an
encouragement for
nice people who
want religion.
Our wonderful
counselor isn't
there to help
you have a little
Jesus wisdom in
your life.
Because if we're
doing that, if
we're just using
Christianity as
another
head on to
the list of
counselors that
we have, then
really we're
missing a point.
We've just
Christianized our
counsel.
Because Christianity
is not good
advice.
It's good news.
It's good news
that says that
God sees us in
our struggle and
he hasn't left us
alone.
He hasn't abandoned
us.
He's not far away.
But he sent
Jesus to walk
through and
struggle with us.
To experience
the troubles that
we have.
To be rejected
by his family
and friends.
To be betrayed
by those who are
close to him.
To be persecuted
by those who
didn't like him.
So that he would
be our savior.
And when Jesus
asked to be our
counselor, he
asks for us to
trust him.
He says that
your greatest
intentions aren't
going to get you
where you need to
be.
But I can.
And I'm going to
accomplish all the
wisdom that you
cannot do.
And I'm going to
accomplish all the
counsel that you
need that you
can't do by
yourself.
That he's going
to make us right
with God.
He's going to
help us to
trust God.
He's going to
give us the
Holy Spirit.
He's going to
help us look at
the financial
times and
understand it.
Not in terms
of us getting
through our
problems.
But us following
God.
Who's going to
look at the
Google page that
we found about
how to feed our
toddler.
And help us
look at that.
And help us
understand actually
what's going on in
our own hearts and
our desire for
control.
And trust God to
be the one to
walk us through
this.
Christmas.
At Christmas we
can remember that
God came to be our
wonderful counselor.
And we can choose
to say, Jesus, I'm
going to step off my
throne of being in
control of seeking my
own counselors and
not you.
And I'm going to
follow you.
This morning Jesus
is calling to us
and he says, I want
to be your wise
counselor.
I want to be your
wonderful counselor.
Will you trust me?
will we trust God?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I
need you.
I need your wise
counsel because I
don't know what I'm
doing.
I don't know how to
work out my life.
I don't even know
what to ask.
But God, I thank you
that you have not
left us alone.
You have given us a
savior who is wise,
who became wisdom for
us, who did foolish
things in our eyes,
so that we can trust
you, so we can walk
through our day-to-day
life and say that you,
Jesus, are our king.
Well, this Christmas,
Lord, help us to trust
you.
Help us to follow you,
our wonderful counselor.
Amen.