Jesus Christ was born to save. Calls you one and calls you all to gain His everlasting hall. Christ was born to save. Christ was born to save. Invite you to turn with me in your pew bibles if you'd like to read out loud with me. Revelation chapter five. Revelation chapter five, page 1,113. Okay, I invite you to stand with me as we read together. Chapter 5, beginning with verse 1. Let's begin. I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open this book and to break its seals? and no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the world. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. When he had taken the book, The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Then I looked, heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. and every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and dominion, forever and ever. And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. Father in heaven, we look forward to this day, the time when we will get to see the one to whom everything belongs take possession and take dominion over and to rule over and to clean out all of the sin and filth that we have made of it. Lord, we ask that you would help us to prepare for that day. Help us to be vessels in your hand that you can use to preach the gospel to peoples from every group in the world. Because Lord, we want there to be more surrounding the throne and praising you. We ask, Lord, that your spirit would work in our hearts so that we would have our feet fitted with the gospel of peace, ready to rush to the opportunity to share the gospel with somebody so that they might hear the word being preached, so that they might have faith, so that they might believe and confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is God. They might turn their lives over to you. Lord, today, as we remind ourselves again about who Jesus is and about what he is able to do because he is the logos, the word, the reason, the speaking forth of God, deity, dwelling in human form. We thank you that you took the step to identify with us. Not that you needed to, to know, but that you chose to, to save, to demonstrate the glories of your grace, the wonders of your mercy, the redeeming power of your spirit, the amazing price that was paid for my sin, let alone the sins of everybody else. We come before you humbly. We ask that you would accept our worship and be pleased in it and by it. Work something in our hearts so that we would gain a little more understanding of who you are. Work something in our spirits so that knowing more about who you are, we would be more inclined to obey, to love, to serve, to worship, to exult in. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We have this interesting thing on the old Olympic Highway as you pass through Squim, through the outskirts of Squim, when Halloween is approaching, there's this one house that just goes all out. Now that house has apparently inspired somebody up here just 200 yards from the church to do the same thing and so when Halloween comes you see all these big air blown things and several places have dozens of tombstones, and skeletons, and witches, and brew, and all kinds of stuff going on. And every time I drive past them, I think, Lord, what is in their hearts that they would want to celebrate this? And it reminds me to pray for them. But then November 1st rolls around, and those things start to come down. And then starting to go up is the same display, only featuring Christmas elements. Some of which are representing Christ, and the story from the Scriptures, most of which are representing Santa Claus, and reindeer, and snowmen, and candy canes, and all kinds of stuff. And they just go all out for both things. Now I noticed last year for Valentine's Day, at least the one up here does it for that as well. And we have all of these celebrations and the knickknacks and the accoutrement of all of the trappings of a holiday that has lost the sense of the holiness of the day. Oftentimes now, you'll hear somebody give a testimony in the United States where they have stuff like this going on all the time. saying, I never heard of Jesus. And I'm often tempted to wonder, I don't really wonder, but I'm tempted to wonder about how in the world could we spend so much celebration on Christmas and then not hear the name of Jesus spoken of in a reverent way? I hear them say the name frequently. Oh Jesus, used as an exclamation of slander or a curse word. But when they're introduced to Jesus the Christ, they say, why didn't anyone ever tell me about this person before? We live in a culture that is saturated with the celebration of Christmas. and yet is devoid of the knowledge of the Christ of Christmas. Darlene's been listening to Alyssa Childers talking about deconstructionism and what's happening among so many of our younger people growing up as they're deconstructing their faith in Jesus Christ. And they start to question things and they question, the mark of a deconstructionist is that they question for the sake of the question. They're not looking for an answer, they're just challenging. It's like those shirts that we used to see, question everything. And they just want to argue and to try to prove that you are wrong so that they might prove that they are right and that you are wrong to have any belief in something that is absolute while professing an absolute faith that there is no such thing as an absolute. And we've been listening to that. And one of the questions has been, how do you engage them? How do you help them to see for themselves, what am I doing? Am I just asking because I'm interested in what it is? I don't understand what happened. I want to understand what happened. If I could understand it, I will accept it, embrace it, and believe it. or it just doesn't make sense, reject it. One of the things that we have, I should, one more statement before going on. The response to that question has been, are you prepared to engage somebody, to talk to them about who Jesus is? Are you studying to find answers, to build into your understanding, to build into your mind's data bank, the ability to answer questions about faith, questions about scripture, so that as they want to argue, you have an opportunity to say, well, here's an answer, and I know where I can find more answers to test the waters and see, do they really want to know or not? But at least you're prepared and ready so that those who are asking with a true motive, a sincere motive of I want to know, God has you on the spot to share your faith with them. That's one of the things that I'm hoping to accomplish a little bit more of today. And just as a reminder, my philosophy of preaching is that I want to help you dig the well of your understanding. We love Louis L'Amour books, and often when listening to them or reading them, there'll be somebody who will take possession of an abandoned ranch, and they'll go and they'll look for the springs. And when they find the springs, they'll dig out the mud and the rock and the debris that has fallen over and covered the spring. They'll dig it out so that the water can flow freely. And then they'll build some dams around it so that the water can be held and spill over into another bank and be held and spill into another one and be held. And that's essentially what we're trying to do here is to help you clear out the debris around the spring of the living water that is welling up within you unto eternal life. And so today we want to get your shovels out. dig a little more, expose a little more. If it's a shallow well, dig a little deeper and get ready for when the time comes that you are called upon to preach the gospel to your friend or your neighbor or to a stranger, your family member, your loved one, so that you have a store of understanding and knowledge of God that you are prepared to share. To begin with, we're going to just look at, well, not to begin with, the whole subject of this sermon is, his name will be called. That's taken from Isaiah 9, but it's also taken from Matthew chapter one. In the New Testament, in Matthew and Luke, we see, and let's turn to Matthew one, down to, oh, let's start at verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. You will call his name Jesus, Three different Greek words, or Hebrew words, are translated as Jesus. Joshua, Jeshua, and Jehoshua, or Yeshua, Yeshua, and Yehoshua. All three of those words translate into the Greek name Jesus. Something has tickled me just a few moments ago. Yes, please, thank you. A little bit of hot water, maybe. When I was talking with the Jehovah Witness missionary here a few weeks ago, she said, Jesus is not the name of the Christ. His name is Joshua. And I said, yes, his name is Joshua. When you translate it, it's Jesus. No, his name is... Joshua is the Hebrew, Jesus is the Greek, and also the English. And she just could not accept, and yet that's what, thank you, that's what the angel told Joseph to name him was the Greek translation of a Hebrew name, which means Yahweh will save. And then we saw in verse 23, this is what you will call him, his name will be Immanuel, which translated means God with us. This child would be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and would be signified by his name, Jehovah saves, Yahweh saves, would be a testimony to the Father's salvation. and in fact would be that salvation. Through his sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, his ascension to heaven, he would demonstrate his victory over sin and over death, and he would bring salvation in his own person. And he would draw The Father would draw and be drawn to Him all people who are moving from sin to repentance, that God is drawing from sin to repentance. And when they receive the gift of faith and accept the gift of His atoning work on the cross, they would be, as His name says, saved. God Himself would come in human form. Emmanuel, God with us. Yes, God came as a child, even as an infant. The God, the eternal deity was taking on human flesh. The infinitely rich became poor. The absolutely pure entered our sin defiled cesspool of the world. The perfectly holy took our guilt upon himself. The perfectly sinless bore our guilt, our griefs, and our sorrows. The Eternal One was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. 2 Corinthians 8-9 tells us that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that, one of my favorite words in scripture, in English it's I-N-A, in Greek it's inna, means in order that. This happened so that this could happen. And I love that word. Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. What a blessing. What a glory. In Luke, if we turn a few pages to the right, Luke chapter two, down to verse 11. And I copied it wrong. Oh, I'm in Mark, no wonder. There is. There we go. Luke. 2.11. Remember the story leading up to this that we'll read the entirety of in our Christmas Eve service, starting in verse 8 in that same region where Joseph had gone because of the census and the taxes that were being I started to say conscripted, but required. In that same region, there were some shepherds staying in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they thought this was just a normal evening out watching the sheep and getting bored with the sky show that was going on. We've seen this 10 million times. Every night we come out, we see this, right? No. Unique situation, the angels shine and they are terribly frightened. And the angel says to them what the angelic message frequently starts with, do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. He tells them where to go and look to find him. They go and look, and there are no celebrations going on outside the stable. There are no banners waving in the air. There's no fireworks going off every few moments. There's nothing to show that anything important has happened within. As they walk through the door, there are no celebratory gifts. There's nothing there to say, you have just entered into the presence of the eternal God who has taken on human flesh. not a single sign of His rank, His title, His deity, His sovereignty, and yet the angelic announcement to the shepherds was, this one is Christ the anointed one, the Messiah, the one that we have been praying for His coming for hundreds of years, Christ the Lord. The name Kurios became synonymous with God. It had other meanings, but in this context it is clearly who became the anointed one who is God. In the Septuagint, in the Old Testament, and in the Greek New Testament, the Septuagint being the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, translated by Jews who were experts in the Greek language, who wanted to translate the Hebrew into Greek so that those many Jewish people who had been scattered during the exile to Babylon and who had not chosen to return back to Israel when the way was opened to them, who had chosen instead to stay in the countries of their scattering, had lost the ability to read Hebrew and maybe possibly even to speak Hebrew. And so the rabbis, the priests, said we need to make a way so that they too can know the Word of God. So they collected translators. As the Septuagint, the name suggests, it's LXX, which means 70. The tradition is that there were 70 translators working independently. And when they brought their independent translations together, they were in agreement. And that became what we call the Septuagint. So in the Greek, the translations of the Hebrews into the Greek language and in the Greek New Testament, Christos means the anointed one. When they saw it in Daniel 9, 25 and 26, and it said, the Messiah, the Prince, will come, they translated Messiah as Christos. which is the Greek word that means anointed one. The parallel translation, though, it sounds very different. He's called in 925 of Daniel, Messiah the Prince. It literally means the anointed one prince. And it's translated Christos or Christ. Some have looked at that and said, there is no definite article before anointed one. And so they translated it in anointed one. But both of these words are used in the singular absolute form, which means the anointed one, the prince. In its biblical usage, it's the ultimate authority anointing someone to a very high office, as in God sending Samuel to anoint David to be the king of Israel, as in the anointing of Aaron to be the high priest. In this case, the father is anointing the son who is dwelling in human flesh, who has taken on human flesh to the position of the king of kings, anointing him to inherit David's throne, anointing him to rule over redeemed Israel forevermore, anointing him to rule over redeemed nations forevermore. In the angelic pronouncement, of Christ the Lord is this child in Bethlehem that I am sending you to see who will be wrapped in swathing clothes, laying in a manger. That child is the anointed prince of God. Incidentally, this is the first pronouncement of one who comes to faith in God. If we look to Romans chapter 10 down to verse nine, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Christ the Lord This name implies all of the sovereignty and authority associated with God. Kurios tells us, the Greek word for Lord, tells us that this is a valid and lawful authority as the Son of God. Kurios, the title, became interchangeable in the New Testament with the name of God. So then let's also, we see it in the New Testament, but let's look in prophecy and we see Son of Man and Son of God. Let's go to Isaiah 9.6. For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. A child will be born to us. In this case, there's a near prophecy and there's a far prophecy. There's an army outside the wall, and the prophet is saying before the year has passed, a son is going to be born to a young lady, and then the army will not be there anymore. The siege will be lifted. You will be out from under this danger. The far prophecy in the Septuagint, they understood that what the prophet was saying was not a young maiden of marriageable age who becomes pregnant in the normal way. They were saying a virgin is how they translated it, one who has never had intimacy with a man. We'll conceive this son. A child will be born to us. represents to us the humanity of Christ, born into the world as an infant, lived as a man. Hebrews 4.15 tells us that he faced every temptation that we face and yet was without sin. He took our life upon himself. son of God, a son will be given to us. We have a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. In Hebrew poetry it is often that you'll make a statement and then you'll repeat the statement with different words saying the same thing, but there's also I think something else that is signified in this. A child will be born to us, would look at it from the human perspective that this child is born in the normal way. A son will be given to us as looking at it slightly differently in that the child did not come from a man. The son was given to us, not in the normal way. He was already God. Before being conceived as a son, as a child in Mary's womb, he was already God, second person of the Trinity. Philippians 2, 6, and 7 tells us that he forsook the right of holding onto the power, the name, the authority of being God, and humbled himself and took on human flesh and became a man like us. He is the logos of God, to use the John 1-1 language. the logos of God in a human body, who came to conquer sin and death forever. When his disciples tried to dissuade him from going to the cross, he said, that's the whole reason I'm here. When Peter tried to turn him away from that, he said, get behind me, Satan. This is why I've come. This is what is necessary for me to do. He is the everlasting light shining in the darkness. He is the Holy One of Israel. He is the desire of nations. He is the promise of the ages. He is perfect Son of God. He is the only hope of the world. We continue on in prophecy. We see that he is not only son of man and son of God, but king of kings. This man will someday rule all the kingdoms and governments of the world. If we continue on, a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. An interesting phenomenon happens to men who take on the role of President of the United States. Have you ever noticed how they go in youthful looking, and four years later they come out looking 20 years older? I've been thinking a lot about Ronald Reagan's comment to, I think it was to the banquet where all of the media, Washington DC media people come, and it's kind of a roast there. And he said something to the effect of when he was running against Michael Dukakis, a man 35, 40 years younger than him, says, if you guys want to keep on focusing about my opponent's youth and inexperience, that's OK with me. I don't know if you remember that. The slap in the face of, don't talk about how old I am, talk about how young he is. Ronald Reagan, face full of wrinkles. had had many situations where lots of authority and lots of responsibility had been upon him. Governor of California, now then President of the United States. But then I remember Jimmy Carter. Partly because I used a picture of his when I ran for president of the student body. Had a picture of him with his big smile and a picture of me trying to have a big smile. So notice the resemblance. My classmates were kind of offended by that. We don't want to vote for him. He's going to be proud and arrogant. But he went in looking young, and he came out looking old. And his appearance didn't change much after that for about 20 years. I remember looking at my grandparents when I was little. First time I can remember meeting them, I was four, maybe five years old, and especially grandma, but grandpa too. They both looked really old. They were only about 60 at that time. And when I look at pictures of them as they got older, they always looked old. They never changed. until they both got to about 90 years old and then suddenly there was a degradation in their appearance. My grandpa always took on responsibility. Didn't retire until he was 95 years old. and the weight of the responsibility that he bore. The reason he retired was, I can't keep up with these ranches. He was the bookkeeper for five huge ranches, farms in the Oregon region. Multi-million dollar, each one of them multi-million dollar affairs, and he did it all with pen and ink. Didn't use a pencil. Used a... When the state tried to force him to use calculators and computers and get trained as a CPA, he said, what else would I do differently? Why should I spend the time and effort? I can already do it, and I'm already doing it, and I've been doing it for 45 years already. Why do I need to add another credential? The weight of responsibility upon us wears us down. but it's not going to wear down the ones, the one that the scripture calls the King of Kings. He will rule without the limiting effects of our limited strength. He will rule without the limited effects of our limited knowledge. in our limited understanding, in our limited wisdom, in our limited authority and power. He will rule all of the kingdoms and the governments of the world as one who is perfect in wisdom and knowledge and perfect in strength. And he will rule as sovereign over all of the world. Though for a little time his kingdom is hidden from view. The extent of his kingdom is not known. He said the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is like a little mustard seed. We get smaller and smaller until we open up this little seed on top of our finger and we crush it and there's powder inside. Such a small thing and you put it in the ground and it's not anything significant. But as it grows, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and soon becomes this huge plant. That's where we're at right now. The world looks at the church and says, oh, it's just something that we could cut down if we would try hard enough. Communist Russia tried. The church grew. Mao and China tried. The church grew. Pol Pot tried to eliminate all academics and all Christians. The church grew. The head imam in Iran has tried And they say that in Iran, the church today is the fastest growing portion of the church in the world. More Christians were put to death for their faith in the 1900s than in all of history from Jesus' death to 1899. More Christians have died for their faith and died knowing that they are serving the king of kings. You say, well why can't his kingdom take authority now because he's chosen not to? So that the glories of his grace might be revealed in saving all those who will be saved. He's not slow as some think of slowness, but rather he's patient. not wanting any to fall short of salvation, but for all to be saved. And so now this king of kings is ruling in the hearts of those who trust him as Lord. And oftentimes, if we're honest with ourselves, we would recognize to say, we're not being very good subjects of the king who rules in our hearts. Why is it that... He is not ruling overtly yet. I think part of the reason is to give those who belong to Him an opportunity to grow in their faith and the grace and the knowledge of their Lord Jesus Christ, to grow in their obedience, to grow in their ability to apprehend how great He is, how much He loves us, how wonderful His mercy applied to us is, undeserved the grace that He has poured out upon us is, all so that we might come to love Him more and more and more and more, so that when the time comes that we rule with Him, we will rule from a position of having experienced the wonders of His grace and mercy. His name in prophecy continuing, His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, He is the answer to the world's confusion. John 7, 46, remember, the priests sent a guard unit to arrest him and bring him in, and when they came back, they were empty-handed. And they challenged him, saying, what happened? And their answer was, no man has ever taught like this before. No man has ever spoken like this before. And underneath the line, between the lines, what you can almost hear them saying is, there's no man who has ever brought such conviction to my heart. There's no man who has ever helped me to feel that God is speaking to me now. And how could we arrest such a man? And the Pharisee's answer is not unexpected. Has he bewitched you too? Are you going to be followers now too? Are you going to be his disciples? He is the answer to the world's confusion. And everywhere he went, people said the common thing. No one has ever taught like this before. He is the answer to the world's confusion. He knows when to comfort, and He knows when to rebuke. As we're reading in Zechariah, the first night vision, we're looking at that and seeing how God is telling what's coming, but He's telling it from a perspective of, don't worry about it, I've got control. The worst is yet to come, but don't worry about that because I will take care of you. He is the source of all truth. He told the disciples that I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. He is the source of truth. He is the logos of God who dwells face to face with God, who is from eternity to eternity. And he knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We think that as we grow more mature and there ought to be, as we're growing up in the Lord, there ought to be a greater and greater and greater understanding of what truth is and of the deceitfulness of our own emotions and our own perspectives. And yet we are still tempted to trust in our hearts We may not like what we're hearing, and so in our hearts we say, it's okay, I can skirt this one. I can sneak around it. Paul warned Timothy about believers who would try to do that, when he would speak with authority, that they would try to weasel their way out of it. He said, don't let them. Don't let them work their way around what you're teaching. He knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. He has warned us that our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful. He's reminded us several times, who can know the heart of a man? Not the man, only God. He tells us that before a word is on our tongue, He knows it completely. Before we have even formed the word in our thoughts, He knows what we are intending to mean by what we are about to speak. You've heard me talk about the levels of communication, what I intend to say, what I actually say, what I thought I said, what you actually heard, what you thought you heard, what you thought I meant by what you thought you heard. And then there's what I thought you understood based on what I thought I said. And then there's what you thought I meant by what you thought you heard. And what you ought to respond, how you ought to respond. And it all flows out of this thing that before we speak, God already knows what we're intending to say and the tone with which we are intending to say it and the deceitfulness of our hearts. No, we should not trust in our hearts. We need to be, I can't remember which one of the men in the Bible study said this a couple of weeks ago. What do you think will be the first thing that Paul says in heaven when we meet him? I wish you would have believed everything I said. Paul Washer. I wish you would have believed me when I said I was the greatest of sinners. That I was the weakest of men. That God's strength in me was only made perfect when I was in weakness. I wish you would have believed that and applied it to your life. He is the source of all truth who knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. Therefore, His understanding, which is infinite, is where we need to lean and not trust in our own understanding. This verse 147, Psalm 147. was kind of fun to look at this week. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God. It's pleasant and praise is becoming. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. The Lord gathers the outcasts of Israel. The Lord heals the brokenhearted. The Lord binds up their wounds. The Lord counts the number of the stars. The Lord gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength. His understanding is infinite. It just caught my attention. Great in power, great in understanding, the only truly wonderful counselor And all other counselors who give counsel that is wonderful, it's because of what God has said, not because of what I or somebody else has said. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God. He's a God of peace, not confusion, we're told in 1 Corinthians 14. He gives wonderful counsel that displays his divine power to bring order. When my life is in chaos and I don't understand what to do, His counsel helps me to be able to remember that He is the light shining in darkness. He is the one who gives light to my path. And it may only be one step at a time, but it will be a sure step because it is the step that He appointed for me to take. It may lead into more suffering and more tribulation, but He is faithful, and He will provide a way of escape so that I may go through it, and I'll be able to go through it with the peace that passes all understanding. He tells us what to do, the wonderful counselor, and he gives us the power to do it. Mighty God. Have you ever been like me when the doctor said this is what you need to do and you go home and three months later you're saying, man, this is still bugging me. And so you go back to the doctor and the doctor looks through the notes and says, have you been doing this? Oh, no. And the doctor patiently, usually, not always, but patiently says, well, I would suggest that you do this. They may be able to tell us what to do, but they can't give us the power to do it. God is the one whose counsel is perfect. He not only can tell us what to do, But if we belong to Him and His Spirit is dwelling within us, the Spirit of Almighty God who exercised the power that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted Him to the highest position and made Him head over the church and head over the universe and everything else, that Spirit's dynamic, unequalable power is dwelling within us. And when we're faced with the temptation, we can lean on our own understanding. Oh, this won't hurt. Or like the famous last words, this sounds like a good idea. Oh, if it doesn't work, we can always try again some other way. or we can depend upon the Spirit of God to invest in us the power of God, to be able to perform the will of God as He desires for us to do. Not only the wonderful Counselor, mighty God, but the Eternal Father, the one who is face to face with God The one by whom, for whom, through whom all things have been created, and through whom all things are sustained. The word eternal father there is literally the father of eternity. The one who dwells in eternity without beginning and without end. The one who created time out of eternity. Hebrews 1 reminds us that He created everything out of nothing. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Greek letters that stand for the first letter and the last letter, the beginning and the end. And Isaiah 46 tells us that He has declared the end from the beginning. No other God is able to do that. No other spirit is able to do that. No demon nor angel can do that. The work between good and evil is not an equal battle because the ones fighting for evil are created beings trying to fight against the eternal God who created them. And he works for the ultimate good for all of his subjects, which is to shape us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ, so that we might look to him as our firstborn, the preeminent one. One last slide here, the Prince of Peace. He brought peace from God and peace with God. And Philippians 4.7 tells us that he brings the peace of God. And the angels told us that he would bring it onto the earth. Psalm 147, if we continued reading there, let me go ahead and read it. Continuing from where we left off, the Lord supports the afflicted and brings down the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praises to our God on the lyre, an instrument, not a mouth that cannot speak the truth. He is the one who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth, who makes the grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food, to the young ravens which cry. He does not delight in the strength of the horse. He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord favors those who fear him. Those who wait for his loving kindness are favored by the Lord. King James, I believe, says that those who hope for his steadfast love or hope for his mercy, the Lord favors those who fear him. He takes pleasure in them and he brings peace with God to those who trust him now. He brings peace with God. to those who trust Him now. Father in Heaven, our lives are often filled with such turmoil. Sometimes it's created by ourselves When we've trusted our own understanding and leaned on our own strength and worked ourself into a situation where we knew better, or maybe we didn't. Sometimes it's brought on from those who are fighting against your presence in our lives and trying to silence our voices. And sometimes it's just simply because we look at you and we question why, how, what, when. And sometimes we go even further and question whether you are good, whether you are trustworthy, whether you are loving. Lord, when we are tempted to give in to the struggles of life and accuse you of not protecting us, not providing a way out, not saving us from our lives in this sin-cursed world, Lord, we ask that you would fill us with that peace that passes all understanding. Help us, instead of accusing you, Lord, help us to rejoice in you. Instead of questioning whether you can work in our lives, help us to serve you with thanksgiving. Help us to be those who rejoice in you always. Let us be those through whom our meek spirit is filled with your strength so that your strength is known to all men because you are near. And instead of being anxious for anything, help us, Lord, in everything by prayer, even heart-wrenching prayer. Along with thanksgiving, Help us to trust you enough to bring our requests to you with rejoicing and thanksgiving. And Lord, your word promises that your peace, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. So Lord, help us to live like that. Help us to believe Paul's words and live in that place that says, I want to be weak in order that you can demonstrate your strength through us. Help us not to depend on our wisdom. Help us not to depend on our strength. Help us not to depend on our understanding. Rather, Lord, help us to lean wholeheartedly into you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.