Take out your copy of God's Word and turn to Isaiah chapter 9. We're in a Christmas season study looking at the scriptures that are behind the hymns that we sing this time of year. And we just sang, come thou long-expected Jesus, And today's passage is really essential to that song. If you are using the Bible in your row, the Black Bible, it's on page 573. If you do not have a Bible of your own or one that you find readable, we'd be delighted for you to take that one home and get good use out of it. It is your gift from us. So Isaiah 9 verses 1 through 7. This is the Word of God. There'll be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever. Let me ask you to keep your Bibles out because we're going to be referring back to them often in this passage. Children, let me have your attention. I wonder if there is another day that you look forward to during the year as much as Christmas Day. Is there? Is this the day that you look forward to more than any other day of the year? I know that many of us, even the bigger children among us, we look forward to Christmas and then it comes and we have to wait a whole nother 364 days till the next one comes around. When you're young, perhaps the thing you look forward to most are the presents under the tree. I can tell you, when you get a little bit older and you have children of your own, the thing that excites you the most about Christmas is not so much what you're going to get, but watching your children open those presents. Except for, you know what happens a lot of the time? The littlest children, instead of playing with the toy, they tend to play with the wrapping paper more than anything. And you think, what did I spend that money on that gift for when all they wanted was a cardboard box and some wrapping paper? And then you get a little older and you're a grandparent or a great-grandparent and you just look forward to being in the presence of your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I want you to understand, children, that no matter how much you look forward to Christmas, I know somebody who looks forward to Christmas more than you. Do you know who that was? It was the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah looked forward to Christmas more than anybody I've ever seen. Can you imagine that? Was he sitting there waiting under the Christmas tree, wearing his pajamas, just waiting for Christmas to come? No, that wasn't what happened, you know that. Isaiah didn't have to look forward to Christmas for just 364 days, but Isaiah looked forward to Christmas for more than 700 years. Can you imagine having to wait 700 years for Christmas? Now we're nine days from Christmas and it might feel like 700 years, but Isaiah lived 700 years before Jesus and all Isaiah wanted was to see Jesus. It wasn't that he was looking forward to the presents or the family gathering or any of that. Those are fairly modern things. What Isaiah looked forward to about Christmas was that it was God with us, that Emmanuel was coming. Isaiah's soul ached over his sin and the sin of his people and he knew that there was only one person who would be able to take that sin and that aching away, and it was Jesus. You see, Isaiah was a Christian. That sounds kind of funny for us to say that somebody who lived 700 years before Jesus was a Christian, but Isaiah, even though he didn't even know Jesus' name, he loved Jesus dearly and he longed for Jesus. And that's what a Christian is, isn't it? Somebody who clings to Jesus and hopes in Jesus. And just as we spend our lives looking back towards what Jesus did, Isaiah spent his life looking forward to Jesus coming. Why did Isaiah long for Jesus so deeply? Because Isaiah knew that God's people were walking in darkness. Without going through too much of the historical context that we studied last week and the week before, things in Israel were very, very, very bad in Isaiah's day. He lived about 700 BC and he was a prophet. If you remember, Israel had divided after the time of Solomon into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. We said that the way you remember that is North bad, South good, right? So the Southern Kingdom was the legitimate kingdom. And there was a man there named Ahaz, and Ahaz was a descendant of King David. So he had a right to the throne, but Ahaz was a very, very, very, very bad king. The kind of king, he didn't really care about the well-being of other people. In fact, to show you how selfish he was, he actually sacrificed his own children at the altar of a foreign god. He was a terrible king who did not trust or love God at all. Well, because of Ahaz's bad decisions, things were going to get very, very, very, very bad for God's people. But things were even worse in the Northern Kingdom. If the Southern Kingdom was a land of darkness, the Northern Kingdom was a land of deep darkness. The kind of darkness where you'd hold your hand up in front of your face and you couldn't even see your fingers. It was that kind of spiritual darkness. You see, the Northern Kingdom had already been conquered by Assyria. And Assyria, what they did was they exported all the Jewish people that lived there. They got them out and they brought Gentiles in to the Northern Kingdom. So you can imagine, these people, they're not coming in as worshipers of Yahweh, they're bringing in their religions from their other nations. And so the Northern Kingdom of Israel is now being filled with people who don't worship God at all. That's how dark things were. It was a land of deep darkness. You would think, what good news could Isaiah bring in the midst of something like that? Look back at verse one. There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. Zebulun and Naphtali, those are those are two areas in the northern kingdom, that place of incredible darkness. They were full of Gentiles and there was really almost no biblical worship to be found up there in Isaiah's day. And Isaiah is saying here, that's where the light of the world is going to come in. That's where great brightness is going to shine, and the people would have heard that and said, really? The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali? Galilee? That's where you're saying brightness is going to come in? Now, we think it'll be, with all due respect, Isaiah, we think it'll be Jerusalem. That's where all the truly religious people are. That's where God would surely want to bring the light. I want you to remember Isaiah wrote this prophecy inspired by the Holy Spirit about 700 years before the Lord Jesus was born. We even have manuscripts. of this text in Hebrew and Greek from hundreds of years before Christ was born. And guess what? Isaiah prophesied rightly that the light of the world would come into the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali into Galilee. Now that is an incredible prophecy. Don't ever, ever miss that. Isaiah's speaking words that nobody would have thought would have come to pass, whether it's what we saw last week in Isaiah Seven that the Virgin will be with child or here that that the light of the world will come in through the northern kingdom Isaiah is speaking prophetically with incredible precision In fact, I want you to understand this if you have those maps in the back of your Bible These are the times that they're helpful. You probably have a map in the back of your Bible and it'll tell you the different tribes Where they settled and you can if you were to look at that later, you'd see the lands of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali up there and way up in the north and you'll see a town there called or an area there called Galilee. Naphtali was in the area of Galilee, which is really where Jesus spent the majority of his public ministry. Look with me for a moment at Matthew 4. Turn your Bibles to Matthew 4 for a moment. Matthew 4 starting at verse 12. Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested he withdrew into Galilee and leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them has light dawned. Let's look at verse two, turn back to Isaiah. the people who walked in darkness have seen great light." It's interesting, if you were paying attention as we read Isaiah 9, it actually, the prophet's speaking in past tense. Did you notice that? Pay attention to those kind of things as you're studying the word. The prophet actually speaks in past tense. He says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt on them has light shown. That's actually a prophetic technique. Prophets would use this technique in their prophecies to describe future events as if they've already happened. Do you know why they could do that? Because a prophet understood that if God said something was going to come to pass, it was as good as done. And so he's able, Isaiah speaks here really as if it's already happened because God has said it would happen. And therefore he doesn't say they will see, he says they have seen. What would come to the land of darkness? The light of the world. John chapter one, in him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Was the darkness of the Northern kingdom, the spiritual darkness, was it too dark for Jesus to come into? No, beloved, Jesus has never encountered darkness that he could not overcome. There is nothing so dark that Jesus Christ cannot shine his light into it. Verse three, you have multiplied the nation. In other words, Israel, which was once geographically bound as a small geopolitical nation, is now going to expand and cover the face of the earth. How? In the form of the church. Israel wasn't replaced by the church as if the church was plan B. Israel was the church in its infancy. Or we could say that the church is Israel now that Israel is full grown. and the church is going to cover the face of the earth. Turn with me to 1 Peter 2 for a moment. I want you to see this because Peter picks up on this whole language of what's going on here. 1 Peter 2, he shows us how the nation was multiplied. Listen to verse 9. But you, he's speaking to the church here, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you might proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Don't you think that as Peter was writing this verse, he had in mind Isaiah chapter nine, you are a nation, he's gonna multiply the nation. And he's going to shine light into the darkness of that nation. Peter is expounding on this passage for us. But he won't just multiply the nation. Isaiah says he'll also increase its joy. He'll increase his joy. I wonder if you want joy. I wonder if you want joy in your life. The misery of worldly longings and unmet expectations are going to be replaced by the Lord Jesus, who is joy itself. The joy that people seek today and have ever sought in the history of the world, that kind of joy is only found in Jesus Christ. That's why the angel in Luke 2.10, you remember that? We hear that it's at Christmas all the time. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. What kind of people? Well, not just the Jews of the Southern Kingdom, but Jew and Gentile, North and South, slave and free, black and white. This gospel joy is for all kinds of people, including you and me. Well, how will he multiply the nation and bring great joy? Look at verse four. the yoke of his burden, the staff for his shoulder, the rod for his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. Now you may not think that you know what the day of Midian was, but you do. And I know that you know, but you may not yet know that you know what the day of Midian was. Do you understand me? The day of Midian is the story we've read about before, back in Judges 7, when Israel was in one of their cycles of wickedness. And so God raised up the Midianites to come and invade the people, but they needed a deliverer, didn't they? And so God raised up a man named Gideon, who would lead an army against the Midianites. Do you remember that story? That army started with 32,000 people. That's a pretty good army. And God said, actually, that's way too big. That's too big of an army. And Gideon's thinking, well, sounded pretty good to me. And God says, every man that's scared, send them home. 22,000 men left. So Gideon's left with 10,000. And Gideon's thinking, God, more is usually better when we're talking about war. And God said, actually, you still have too many. I am going to prove my power to you and through you. So you need to get rid of all the guys who, when they come to the stream, they get down on their hands and knees to drink. And those who will stay are those who lay down on their belly and they lap the water like a dog. In all likelihood, those were not very good warriors. The good warriors were the ones that were on their hands and knees and were able to look around. It was the not very good warriors who lay on their belly and lapped it like a dog. In other words, Gideon, I'm gonna leave you with the worst of the worst. And so Gideon's army went from 32,000 to 10,000 to 300. Oh, and by the way, Gideon, you don't need swords. You need, just take a trumpet and a clay pot with a candle inside. But don't worry, I'll give you the victory. That's a paradigm for God the warrior who fights for his people. The Lord Jesus would be a fulfillment, a greater Gideon, who would appear weaker upon the surface. And yet he would lead to greater victory, not over the Midianites, but over sin and death. Look at verse six, who would be this warrior? Like the day of Midian, whom would God raise up? Would it be somebody like David? Look at verse six. To us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. I just want you to imagine standing around and saying, God, who are you going to give us to fight our enemies? And God says, I'm going to give you a baby. Doesn't sound like good news. But it is good news when the baby is the Son of God. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Given. You know, John 3.16 uses language like that, doesn't it? I wonder if John had Isaiah chapter 9 in mind. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." Now, to whom was he given? To us. To us a child is given. If it had only been for deeply religious people, then the baby probably would have been born in Jerusalem, and he would have had a great ancestry of the priestly lines and all those things. But he was born in the darkness of the north, showing us that he came not for just the religious elites, but he came for every kind of person. He came for outcasts, and he came for delinquents, and he came for people who know they are sinners who need a savior. What will happen with this child? Well, we're told here, the government shall be upon his shoulder. That's actually language that speaks of the mantle and the robe that were draped over the shoulders of the king, marking him as the legitimate monarch. In other words, this child is going to be the king of the earth. Now, it's interesting that the only thing that the Gospels tell us were draped over the shoulders of Jesus. It wasn't a robe, was it? It was a cross. Many of the people who had read Isaiah 9, even in Jesus' day, they expected a conquering king, but they didn't get all the way through Isaiah, because you come to Isaiah 53, and you read about a king who's also a suffering servant. The Messiah would come, and he would suffer. And he would die, Isaiah 53 tells us. You see, for Jesus, the cross came before the crown. that the crown would come. And then Isaiah tells us that this child, because he's royalty, spiritually speaking, this child would have a title. Royalty typically has some kind of title that goes just beyond their own name. Well, Jesus' title is Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. That is the title of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at each part of it. He shall be called Wonderful. Now, we don't know from original Hebrew, we don't know if there was a, should have been a, or would have been a comma there separating Wonderful and Counselor. We don't know that, but we do know in Judges 13, Jesus is addressed by the name simply Wonderful. So it's very possible that this was one of his titles, wonderful. He's the one who brings awe and wonder into the hearts of men and women and children of all who would receive him. G.K. Chesterton once wrote, we are perishing not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder. We're so infatuated with the lesser wonders of this world that we miss the true wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize that? That Jesus was given not to restrict you and to bore you, but to amaze you and enthrall you with how glorious he is. That the glorious God of the earth could come and dwell in bodily form among us. He is wonderful. He's also called counselor. He's the one who will rightly guide his people. They had Ahaz and they had false prophets in their day who misled the people. But Christ is the good counselor who would show his people the way. John 10, 27, the Lord Jesus said, my sheep know my voice. Where do we hear the counsel of the Lord Jesus? We hear it in his word. We hear it in the Scriptures. Christ, by His Spirit, reveals to us all that we need for life and godliness in His Word. There is nothing that you truly need in this life that you cannot find in Scripture. Then there's another name for Him, Mighty God. There's so much that we can take from that, but I want you to see one very significant point which is this child, this baby who will be born. You know, we talk about the virgin birth. It was actually the virgin conception. The birth was actually very normal. He was born like one of us. It was a very normal birth. And yet he was mighty God. This is talking about the dual nature of Christ. You know, we sang about that earlier, didn't we? We sang, Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate deity, Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. He is child. He is God. Now how big a deal is the dual nature of Christ? It's our only hope for eternity. You see, Christ was like me. and he had human flesh and he could do, he could take our place as only a man could do. Bulls and goats couldn't do it, an angel couldn't do it. It had to be a human to take our place and take the penalty for our sin. But humanity is racked with sin. And so he also had to be God so that he could keep the law on our behalf. And so Jesus is both God and man for our salvation. And then he bears the title everlasting father. Now be very careful here. Jesus is not the first person of the Trinity. We don't wanna mix or mingle the three persons of the Trinity. Jesus is not the father. This was actually a term used in the day of Isaiah to speak of kings. The kings of the nation were sometimes referred to as father. They were fathers of their nation. Isaiah's saying, the kings of the nation, they're great for a moment, but they'll be fleeting. Jesus is the everlasting King. He's the everlasting Father. Do you remember Ahaz's dilemma? We looked at it last week back in Isaiah 7, the kings of Syria and Ephraim, the northern kingdom were getting ready to invade and Ahaz is scared and Isaiah comes to him and says, don't worry about those two guys, they're gonna be gone soon. But Ahaz does worry, and then he makes an alliance with another king, Tiglath-Pileser III. And what happened? Do you remember? The same king that Ahaz trusted in would soon invade him and would soon do great damage to Judah. the same Assyria that he trusted in would help to destroy him. But let's think about the history for a moment. Do you know what happened to Assyria? They were conquered by the Babylonians. Do you know what happened to the Babylonians? They were conquered by the Persians. Do you know what happened to the Persians? Alexander the Great and Greece came in and conquered them. Do you know what happened to Alexander the Great? He was bit by a mosquito and he got malaria and he was conquered. History shows us that one king after another rises up and dies, and rises up and dies. But where is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the eternal king. He is on his throne to quote Handel's Messiah. He shall reign forever and ever. He will never die. He will never be conquered. Isaiah is saying here, if you want an eternal king, one who will never be a loser, who will never surrender his kingdom, then you need to trust in Jesus, the eternal father. the everlasting Father. And then Isaiah gives us another title, Prince of Peace. You know that word for peace, don't you? It's shalom. It's peace that's greater than world peace. It's peace in every direction. It's vertical peace with God. It's peace with man. It's inner peace. If you look at Israel's history, they longed for peace, but they actually never really got it, did they? Even in the time of David, when Israel was really great, there was really never peace. And that's a lesson that peace doesn't come through national expansion or political security. The great hope for peace in this world is that the Messiah would bring shalom, would bring peace. And you know the words of the angel to the shepherds in Luke 2, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." Where do we find peace? Where will you find peace? Not under a tree, and not in a political power, but in the Lord Jesus alone. Verse 7. the government of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on on the throne of David and over his kingdom to Establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever This is speaking of the reign of the Messiah the heir of David You know the earthly throne of David by this time had been lost But the Lord Jesus is gonna sit on that throne and forever. Now there's some in Christendom who believe this is a worldly throne and there's some who believe it's a heavenly throne and and for right now that's all beside the point because what we're talking about here is not so much whether he rules over political Israel or a heavenly Israel but we're talking about the Lord Jesus who is that great ruler who will sit on the throne and he will reign and he will never lose his reign and he will rule rightly forever. Now friends, this is all true of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that Isaiah prophesied about him 700 years before he came, every bit of it was true of him. I wanna ask you a very personal question. This is your one point of application. It's your homework today. Has the truth of who Christ is gripped you in the deepest places of your life? The truth of the coming Messiah grabbed hold of Isaiah, and it gripped him as he ministered among bad kings, and he put his life on the line repeatedly as he proclaimed the gospel. For 65 years he labored in the courts of the kings and nobody wanted to hear his message, and finally he was sawn in two by Manasseh, But this gospel, this Lord Jesus gripped him, it motivated him, it captivated him, and it was his hope and his joy, and it was the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing that he thought about at night. His chief concern in life wasn't whether or not people liked him or whether he had a comfortable or easy lifestyle. He was utterly obsessed with the salvation of God in Jesus Christ. Beloved, do you know the easiest way to be miserable in this life? Do you know the easiest way to be miserable? Live as if this life is all about you. Think about you first in the morning. Think about you last when you lay down. Think constantly about your own comfort. Avoid suffering and sacrifice at all costs. And beloved, you will be miserable. Because when you are the center of your world, It will never lead to joy. It will only lead to disappointment and heartache and it will never be enough. But when you come to Jesus and Jesus becomes the center of your world, He can increase your joy. And you might think, well, I can only hold this much. Well, the more you invest of your life in Jesus and the more you love Him and make your life about serving Him, you will be able to contain joy unlike anything you ever imagined. That's one of the ways you know that you have seen the light of Christ. Because all those things that you used to look to for joy, they grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Church family, has the light of Christ invaded your life? We live in a fallen world. Many of us have learned to cope with life in a fallen world through things like drinking and drugs and living fantasy lives, whether it's through internet, through television. We fix ourselves on our work. We fix our hearts and our minds, not on Christ, but upon the baubles and trinkets and shiny things of this world. And we're like the children who open the package and they ignore the gift and they play with the wrapper. Beloved, Christ is the gift and this world is the packaging and it is not worthy of your affections. Are you so distracted with the busyness of this world and the tiny worthless wonders of this world that you're missing the wonder of Christ? Years ago, I was in New York, and there were magicians on the street. And what they would do is they would hide a ball or hide a card, but they would use something to distract you. So you would look over here while they were doing their magic over here. Isn't that what happens to us at Christmastime? We get distracted with some kind of busyness, some kind of shiny thing, some kind of movement, and we miss what's really going on. We really miss what's at the heart of Christmas. Christmas is so amazing because Christ is everywhere. He's in the name Christmas. He's, scripture is everywhere and nowhere all at once. Beloved, has light invaded your heart? Has the love of God invaded your heart through Christ? I remember talking with a group of believers years ago. I was in college. I was a new believer. We were discussing what we love best about Jesus. Not an interesting question. What do you love best about Jesus? And there was a young lady there, and I remember that question. It's a very simple question, an extremely hard question all at once. And this young lady responded, I love that I am loved. A love that I am loved. Has light invaded your heart so that you're no longer marked by your past failures or by your appearance, how you look or how you don't look and how you wish you did look? Is it marked by how affirmed you feel by your peers? Is it marked by your accomplishments or your family line or your good marriage or your bad marriage or your fears? Or has the light of Christ shone into your life? So much so that those things have started to fade away and all that really matters is Jesus. All that really matters is Christ, and that he has entered into the deep, deep darkness of our lives, and he sees us warts and all, and he loves us anyways. Look back at verse 7 for a second, right there at the end. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Did Jesus reluctantly come to earth? Did he say, well, if John would get his life together, and if Tom would get his life together, and if Mary would get her life together, then I'd be happy to come. But, you know, the world's a pretty scummy place right now, and I'm not really interested in leaving heaven. Not at all. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. He didn't come reluctantly. He came into this world because he loves you. He knows all the worst things about you, and he loves you. And all our coping mechanisms for dealing with ourselves and our wounds and our baggage, they begin to melt in the light of his love. Do you know the name Robert Louis Stevenson? You know it probably from the book Treasure Island. When he was a child, he was sickly. And he had a nurse that had to take care of him around the clock. And one cold night, she came in and he had his nose pressed to the glass of his window in his bedroom. And she said, come away from there, child. You'll catch your death of cold. But he wouldn't budge. He was looking into the darkness. And he sat mesmerized as an old lamplighter slowly walked his way down the street through the pitch black night. And he lit each streetlight along the route. And pointing, young Robert exclaimed, see, look there, that man's poking holes in the darkness. Naphtali, Zebulon, they were utter darkness and so was our life. And the Lord Jesus comes and he pokes holes in it. He's never encountered darkness so dark that he couldn't light it up. And even the darkness and the loneliness and all the coping mechanisms of your heart are not too dark for him to deal with. As he poked holes in the darkness of your heart. Beloved, come to him. Come to him and plead with him that every inch of darkness in your heart that he would light it up in the light of his word. Come to him, come to his word, plead that he would poke holes all through the darkness of your heart and fill you with light because he can do it and he alone can do it. Let's pray together. Lord, we confess that this world can be very, very dark. And at times we feel like Narnia where it's always winter and never Christmas. Know that as much as many of us enjoy the Christmas season, there are many who dread it because it means loss and it means loneliness and it means heartache for them. And it does feel like it's always winter and never Christmas. But for all of us, the Lord Jesus is able, the Lord Jesus is able to shine his light into the darkness of our lives and of our hearts and take away that darkness. He's able to poke holes in it so that light fills the places where darkness once stood. He did that in history as we think about the Northern Kingdom and how terrible things had gotten. and He can do it in our own lives. Lord, we confess that we've figured out all sorts of ways to cope with life in a fallen world, whether it's drugs and drinking, or morality and self-righteousness. All of it is our way of coping, but only Jesus can poke holes in the darkness of our lives. Father, I pray that we would know that kind of light and that day after day after day, we would run to his word and plead with him, Jesus, poke holes in this darkness. And every time we see a little bit of darkness, say, Jesus, poke a hole in it. Light it with the light of life. We pray all of this in the matchless name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.