We're going to take our bowels and turn to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 9 is where we're going to start. Isaiah chapter 9. I do want to mention, as we have the revival meeting coming up with Mike Schrock, just in about a month or so away, and as I do, of course, revival meetings just like Brother Schrock, The evangelist doesn't bring it. It's the preparation of the church folks. And so I want to encourage you to be in prayer for that. And you know, we all have heard Brother Schock before. He's an excellent communicator, but he will give the gospel. And so maybe you can pray and ask God, God, would you give me somebody that I could bring here? that we could, you know, they could hear the gospel. And so please be in prayer for that meeting now. And the key to the meeting really is the preparation beforehand. And so, you know, of course, as evangelists, you know, we want to see God work in a powerful way. And so I believe that God has him here for such a time as this. There's several other things I want to share with you. I'll skip those for now, I think. Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9 and look at verse number 6. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse number 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name should be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for all that you have done for us. Lord, thank you for the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for the peace that you give. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies that are new every morning. Lord, thank you for your presence. Thank you for your fellowship, your companionship. Lord, thank you that you never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, I praise you for the gift that we have in Christ. Lord, that gift that just keeps on giving. Lord, thank you for all that we have in Christ. And Lord, I pray that you would help us here tonight, as you've gathered us here for this service, to exalt Christ. And that you would, as you are lifted up, that we would be drawn nearer to you. I pray, Lord, that Christ would be enough for us, would be more than enough. Lord, that we would truly be content in Him. I pray that you would purge out the discontentment that is in our lives, Lord, the things that we pursue that is apart from you, Lord, even as your people. I pray, Lord, that you would... Purge us of half-hearted living, half-hearted praying, half-hearted singing, Lord, half-hearted obeying. Lord, may we be people that are surrendered and sold out to you and loving you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Lord, may you stir our hearts once again. Get our eyes back upon Christ. Lord, please exalt yourself here tonight. We ask in Christ's name, amen. We see here in this text as we start off, Isaiah chapter nine and verse number six, when I read that, I want to sing it, as it's also one of the songs in the Handel's Messiah, as we were there in Auburn a few weeks ago, and I saw this great crowd there, and I wanted to preach to them. I wanted to give them the gospel, and yet God's reminding me that he is. giving them the gospel through that song and through the many other songs that were given. And it says here, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And sometimes we just stop right there. Okay, there's the babe, we have Christ, and that's it. But there is so much more to Christ than just the babe in the manger. I've mentioned this a couple years ago, but my mom, she... is getting her first smartphone. And she goes there to the Verizon store, and they're telling her about this phone. They said, what do you want your smartphone to do? What are you wanting it for? And she's like, I like to make phone calls with my phone. That's what I want it to do. And well, what other features? Well, I mean, voicemail's nice. Yep, it's got voicemail. What kind of apps do you want? She's like, well, a calculator would be nice to have. With a phone, too, sometimes I need a calculator. And she didn't realize all that that smartphone could do. And sometimes we look at Christ, and yes, we're saved. We've got eternal life through Christ, but there is so much more to him than salvation. Here's a gift that just keeps on giving. There's so much more to him. Yes, he is the child that is born. He's the son that is given. But there it says, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, you can just go right to the Lord and say, Lord, you're wonderful, that's your name. You're the counselor, you're the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Here is this God, there's just so much more to him than just the babe in the manger. Now we start off with Isaiah chapter nine, but I wanna turn over to Psalm 23, Psalm 23. And this psalm is probably the most famous chapter in the Old Testament. In Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. You see, all that we truly want, all that we truly desire, is found in Jesus Christ. He is the one that gives us this contentment. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a tale before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, whether they're good days or bad days, all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We have this great God that is behind us, that loves us more than anyone, that knows everything about us. He is the God that is omniscient. There's not a time in your day that He does not think about you, that He doesn't know where you're at or what you're doing. He is right there. He knows everything about you. I read this this morning in my devotions, Romans chapter 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Oh, his omniscience. It is so great. And there is no other God that has omniscience. The devil is not omniscient. Only our God is omniscient. He knows right where we're at. One of the highlights last year that we had was we were in Branson, Missouri, and there is two places, one's in Branson, the other one's in Pennsylvania, but it's called Sight & Sound, and they have this big production, and it's first class, well done, and it gives the Bible stories. And the first time we went was several years ago, and they were doing the program Jesus. And I'm like, well, I don't really want to go and see that, you know, I was kind of skeptical about it all. And my friend, Mike Westberg, who's a brother in law of Rich Tozer said, no, Tim, you need to go to it. And so he, the church took up some money in our very first girls group, we took them to sight and sound, and oh, God just spoke to all of our hearts. Every one of us, there wasn't a dry eye. I mean, just you think about Christ and what he went through, and then his love for us, and that he saved us, and just so much in that one. And then the next year, Meg and I, for our anniversary, we went and saw Esther. And then last year, we saw it again with the other girls' group. And if they were playing it again this next year, I would want to go to it again the next year. You see the whole story of Esther, and as you look through the Bible, in that book of the Bible, you don't see God's name mentioned. And it just portrayed Satan versus God, evil versus righteousness. And it was so well done. And even though God's name is not mentioned, God's all over it. God's right behind them. He's working these things out behind the scenes. And of course, Esther, who's for such a time as this. And you think, well, God's not really working in our day, and God can't really do anything. One of the things I appreciate about Charlie Kirk is that he went to an area that that most people gave up on, the colleges, the universities. Oh, nothing can happen there, and yet God used him to penetrate through and bring truth to those college young people. And you think, oh, nothing can happen, but God is greater than our circumstances. And the theme verse of that Esther program was Psalm 46.10, be still and know that I am God. When's the last time you were still before God? Just stop and just say, God, I just want to be still before you. I want to meditate upon you. I just want to think about you. Just to quiet your heart, to be still before him. Be still and know that I am God. Truly, this is a great verse for Esther. I will be exalted among the heathen. I'll be exalted in the earth. There is a stillness. There's a contentment there because of who our God is. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. Jeremiah 23, 23, am I a God at hand? Sayeth the Lord, and not a God far off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Sayeth the Lord, do not I fill heaven and earth? Sayeth the Lord. Oh, he's with you. He knows you, but he's with you. There's no one better to have with you than God. And I do feel a little off tonight, I miss Megan. You know, I wish she was here, I feel off. But you know who's with me is God. All throughout this week has been God. God's always with me. And what a tremendous gift that is. Yes, he's the babe in the manger, but here's a God that is with you all the time. He knows everything about you, he's with you all the time. And then we think of the other attribute of God is his omnipotence. Colossians 1.16, for by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And so God is the God of omnipotence. You can go to him. I read this week, you know, the disciples told the man, trouble not the master. Oh no, you can trouble the master. You can go to him and pour out your heart to him, pour out your burdens and so on to him. You can trouble the master and he can do something about it. He has the power to revive, to restore, to heal. You think of this psalm, and it's a tremendous psalm. And what it does is it reflects, of course, our relationship with him, but it reveals so many aspects about God. We see in verse number one, it shows us that he's our shepherd. Now, what does a shepherd do? Well, he guides us. There's times where I ask preachers for advice. How can I get things better? What do I need to work on? And there's some preachers I do not ask for advice. They're not worth asking. But some of them are. And I'm thankful for the counsel and the wisdom that I've gotten from various preachers throughout the years. But who's the best one to give counsel? God. And if you were to sit down with the one who really knows everything about your life, that would have the best plan, it would be God. Someone said if you knew everything about God, or you knew everything about your life like God does, and knew everything about God, you would always choose His will for your life. You would always want it, no matter how difficult, no matter how trying it may be. You'd always want God's will because he knows what's best. Here's the one that will guide us in the right direction. Isaiah 30 to 21, in nine years she'll hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left. Oh, the shepherd, he guides the sheep into the right places. And then he's a protector. He protects us. I'm so thankful for God's protection, aren't you? Oh, how many times God has protected me. I really ought not be here. God has been so merciful to me and has protected me and has kept me from so many things. I'm thankful for his protection. He's that constant companion. The shepherd's there with his sheep and he's here with us. Hebrews 13 in verse five, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. We have this shepherd who is always there, that companionship. You know, He is our closest companion. He can be our closest friend. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. The Lord is my shepherd. That word my, I believe, is the sweetest word in this whole chapter, just my. He's mine. You have that personal fellowship with Him, that relationship with Him. He's our shepherd, He's our provider. He provides for us. He meets our needs. There's several college students, of course, that God has me pray for. I was listening to some testimony times last night of some of the old chapel services that had happened this semester. And to hear how God has provided for those different students, it just was wonderful. It was encouraging to my heart. And he provides for us, not just financially. He provides strength. I think of that song, Jesus is all the world to me. He is my strength from day to day. Without him, I would fall. everything to us, he's our provider. In verse number two, we find that of course he's Jehovah Rahi, Jehovah Jireh, our provider, he's Jehovah Shalom in verse number two. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures and leadeth me beside the still waters. Verse number one, we have relationship. Verse number two, we have rest and refreshment. We have the supply, we have the relationship, we have rest, we have refreshment. And then verse number three says he restoreth my soul. Here we have this reviving. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. He guides us for his name's sake. He gives us guidance and purpose in our life. He's our healer. He's our righteousness. He's Jehovah Rapha. He's Jehovah Sinitku. He is Jehovah Shema. He is the Lord that is there. Verse number four. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. this testing, the shadow of death. But we see that we have this protection. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. We know that He is with us. He is faithful and true. And He gives us this discipline. The rod and staff helps to correct us. And so He is our righteousness. He's the one who's there. But then He's also our banner. He's our victory. Verse number five, thou preparest a tale before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Oh, he's my hope. He's my consecration. And then he gives abundance. He says, my cup runneth over. He is our victory. He's our banner. He's our sanctifier. He said this anointing sanctifies us and he helps us to walk in holiness, Jehovah and Kedosh. Then we have in verse number six, the Lord most high, Elyon, surely goodness and mercy, this goodness to meet my needs, the mercy to blot out my sin shall follow me all the days of my life. We have blessing and I will dwell, this is the abiding in the house of the Lord forever and eternity. Oh, what a great gift. What a great God we have in Christ. Not just the babe in the manger, but oh, so much more that we find in Christ. This preacher I was talking to recently, he said I was preaching there on Pearl Harbor Sunday a couple weeks ago, and one of the men in the church, he says, I had preached on the holiness of God. He said, I poured my heart out preaching this message on the holiness of God, and one of the men who had been coming to the church for a little while came up to him and said, I am very disappointed in you, preacher. He's like, what do you mean, what? What'd I do? He says, today was Pearl Harbor Day and you did not mention it once in your message. I'm very disappointed in you. And for that young pastor, it hurts. You don't want the sheep to be disappointed. And I said, you know, if that was me, I probably would have said, well, did I preach the Bible? I was concerned because if I didn't preach Christ, then I would have been disappointed, too. If I didn't preach the Bible, I would have been disappointed, too. So often we get away from other things, and this man, he needs to grow in the Lord. But a preacher, what is he doing? He's preaching the holiness of God. He's trying to lift up the Lord, and that's our message. That is the one whom we really need. One of my evangelist friends, he said, I was preaching at this conference, This Bible conference with a bunch of other preachers, and it's been a couple of days, and every, Pastor Rod, I told Pastor Rod this several years ago, he said, every day, you know, we're having different preachers, and then it came my turn on the Wednesday or Thursday morning, and he says, my heart was so grieved at this conference. He says, all of these messages, but nobody preached Jesus Christ. He says, I just, I was so burdened for it. And I got up there and I said, I said, I feel like Mary looking for the Savior. Where have you laid him? What have you done with Christ? All these messages and this preacher's conference and not one of you have preached Jesus Christ. He said, I never got to preach that day. He says, because then all these preachers flooded the altar. You know, my preaching, our preaching must be Jesus Christ. He is the theme of our life. He's the theme of our message. He's the theme of the word of God. There is so much to Christ, not just the babe in the manger. We have so much more in him. He's the one that needs to be exalted. And yet so often we tend to get distracted away from the purpose of Christ. And I don't have that testimony that we could truly say the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Because we're wanting all other kinds of things. We're truly not content in Christ. Jeremiah 9.23 says, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. That I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Oh, we have this God that is greater than wisdom, greater than man's wisdom, greater than anything we can personally glory in, greater than any riches that any man has ever known. He is so much better, so far greater. Song of Solomon, chapter six, verse number three says, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. Oh, he is mine, I belong to him, and he belongs to me. I'm so thankful. that we have this great Savior. We have one that we can go to that brings hope. One of the saddest funerals I've ever been to was a cousin of mine. He was a young man. We're not exactly sure what happened, but he was in the San Francisco area, was hiking, and then he went missing. And we didn't know where he was at and was praying that we'd be able to find him. And then about two weeks later or so, they found his body there in the San Francisco Bay. And so we went down to Manteca, went to this church there. It was a Baptist church, large Baptist church. And we went to this funeral and he was very popular in his high school. There was probably 400, 500 people there, most of them teenagers. And the church, the guy who is, wasn't the main pastor, but he was a pastor in the church. The church probably holds a couple of thousand. He got up and never once did he give the gospel. He talked about Tyler, but never once gave the gospel. The best gospel message that was given was when they were playing a slideshow of his life, and they had in the background the song, I Can Only Imagine. That's the only snippet of a gospel that it ever got, was just that one song, I Can Only Imagine. And I look at that congregation that was there that day, and I just saw lostness. No hope, no hope. And it just, I remember my parents, and Megan and I, we went to Denny's, and it was around this time, Christmas time, and here they are, you know, playing Christmas hymns. And I'm like, there's more of the gospel in these Christmas hymns than what I just heard at this funeral. And oh, how it just hurt my heart. What's their, you know, what's the answer? It's Christ. Christ is the one that gives hope. Oh my, we have the answer. We can give them hope because we have Christ, and we can give them Christ. Oh, Christ is the answer that people truly long for. Again, they're trying to fill their life with all kinds of things, but it's Christ that they need. And when they find Christ, as that song says, hallelujah, I have found him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings. Through his blood, I now am saved. Oh, here is Christ, he is my shepherd. I shall not want, there's great contentment in him. Oh, are you content tonight? I'm praying, I'm praying through this passage, and I'm just like, Lord, I don't wanna just say these things, I wanna live it. Lord, I don't want to just, okay, yeah, we need to be content, but what about Tim Schmidt? I can't live your Christian life, but I can live my life. Are you really content in Christ? Or are you longing for things of this world, longing for other things in life? Are you truly content in Christ? What a bold statement this is. The psalmist makes, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Because all that we truly want and desire is found in him. Years ago, Wednesday nights, Pastor Rogers put on a series that really worked in my heart, and it was called Quieting a Noisy Soul by Jim Berg. And that really helped me. I remember different times. I wasn't able to come to all of them. And I had a booklet that we filled out, and I kept that booklet in my Bible for many, many years. And the Lord really used that in my life. Because what was it about? It was about the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. who you really want in life, who you really desire, quieting that noisy soul, it's Christ. Christ is the answer. That contentment is found in Him. You know, J.D. Rockefeller, and we've talked about this several times throughout the years, started the Standard Oil Company. And Rockefeller was, at one point, the richest man in the world. He was the American billionaire, and considering that he was a billionaire in the early 1900s is amazing. He probably would still be one of the richest people in modern history. But a reporter asked him, how much money is enough? He responded, just a little bit more. I wonder, is that your heart? You know, okay, well, I've got Christ, but I just, I want a little bit of these other things in my life that contradict Christ. Or is he really all that you truly desire, truly want in your life? Or do you want just a little bit more other than Christ? Can you say that the Lord is my shepherd? I shall not want. Most contented people I have ever known was my grandmother, and she lived a very simple life, but oh, how contented she was in Christ. Christ was everything to her. I shall not want. That means there is nothing lacking. We have this great shepherd that we all truly want and need. One of my evangelist friends, he was able to meet Roy Hessian. Roy Hessian wrote the book, The Calvary Road, and I highly recommend that book. It's about brokenness and revival. Roy Hessian was a godly man, and God really used him to see revivals in other countries. And he went up to him, and I think he ate lunch with him one day, but he was talking to him, and he says, when can I expect revival? in my life. When are we going to have revival? He said, when Jesus becomes enough, you will have your revival. When Jesus becomes enough, you'll have your revival. Revival is Christ. Revival is this. I am content. He is enough. And the reason why he can say all the other things in verses two through six, because it all hinges in that relationship with number one, that he is his shepherd. Oh Christ, he's the gift that keeps on giving. To the artist, Jesus Christ is the one that is altogether lovely. To the architect, Jesus is the chief cornerstone. To the astronomer, Jesus is the son of righteousness. To the baker, he is the living bread. To the builder, he is the sure foundation. To the banker, he is the treasure of all treasures. To the biologist, Jesus is the life. To the carpenter, Jesus is the door. To the doctor, Jesus is the great physician. To the educator, Jesus is the great teacher. To the engineer, Jesus is the new and living way. To the farmer, Jesus is the sower of the Lord of the harvest. To the forest, Jesus is the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon. To the geologist, Jesus is the rock of ages. To the judge, Jesus is the righteous judge, the judge of all men. To the jeweler, Jesus is the faithful and true witness. To the jeweler, Jesus is the pure pearl of great price. To the lawyer, Jesus is the counselor, the lawgiver. To the news man, Jesus is the good tidings of great joy. To the preacher, Jesus is the word of God. To the sculptor, Jesus is the living stone. To the servant, Jesus is the good master. To the student, Jesus is the incarnate truth. To the statesman, Jesus is the desire of all nations. To the soldier, Jesus is the ten-star general. To the sailor, Jesus is the calmer of the seas. To the theologian, Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. To the toiler, Jesus is the giver of rest. To the sinner, Jesus is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And to the saint, Jesus is the Son of the living God, the Redeemer, the Savior, and the Lord. Oh, what do you need today? He's there. You need comfort, he's there. You need strength, he's there. You need forgiveness, he's there. You need companionship, he's there. You need provision, he's there. All that we truly desire is found in Jesus Christ. Is Jesus enough for you? Can you say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Why don't you right now, before we pray, just spend a few moments with the Lord in prayer. Are you wanting something outside of Christ? Are you saying, I just want a little bit more other than God? Father, we know what it's like to pursue other things other than you, to be so dissatisfied with ourself, with sin. Lord, we know what it's like to waste days, to waste weeks, to waste months, to live lives of discontentment, to live, as Jim Berg says, that noisy soul. when yet you invite us to come unto you and learn of you and take your yoke upon us. Lord, to have that peace, that contentment. Lord, you truly are everything that we really desire. Lord, this world, some are trying so hard and they'll never find it until they submit and surrender to you. But yet Lord, so often we as Christians can try to fill our lives with all kinds of other things other than you. So Lord, I pray that you would purge us of this. Lord, purge it in my own life and that I would be able to boldly say to you that you are enough for me. That I don't want just a little bit more outside of you. That truly I am content in you. Lord, thank you for this greatest gift that you've given in your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for this gift that is so much more. Lord, salvation is just, it's amazing. Lord, what you've done just there. Lord, there's so much more that you have given to us. Lord, thank you for the greatest gift in Jesus Christ. Thank you for speaking to our hearts. Thank you for your word. Thank you for exalting yourself. Thank you for working in us. Lord, we love you and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let's take a few moments now to come to the