Turn your Bibles, if you would, please, this morning to Isaiah chapter number 9. As you're turning, have a couple of advertisements. Let me use it that way, okay? First of all, tonight we'll be receiving our others' offerings. Some may have already put that in the giving station, and that's perfectly fine. And we won't pass an offering plate. The giving stations are there. And what you would do is take an offering envelope, or on your offering envelope, or maybe your online giving, there will be a place for other, and you would write in that particular area what portion of your giving, or like us, we'll put it in a separate envelope. It'll mark others offering. You say, well preacher, what does that mean? What is an others offering? Well, another offering is where we give out of our own abundance to be a blessing to someone or a family or people maybe within our own church that maybe would have particular need and our deacons would know that need and then they would distribute whatever those resources are in the lives of those individuals to be a blessing and a help to them. in that particular way. And so we'll be receiving that tonight. Of course, if you've already given that, that's perfectly fine. And the guys at our counters will know exactly where that designated offering needs to go. And so thank you in advance for your being a blessing to someone else of what God's blessed you with. And it teaches us to be extravagant givers. It helps us to learn generosity in our own lives. How many believe God's an extravagant giver? How many believe that? And that's what He wants for His children. And we want to be a blessing and extravagant givers back to God. And we want to be faithful in that area. And then let me mention to you, we will be tonight beginning sort of a close to our theme of the year being Rooted. We're a rooted church in an uprooted world. And I'm going to talk to you these final weeks about being a rooted Christian. We're going to go to a particular passage of Scripture and talk about that because I'm going to promise you Satan wants to uproot your life. He wants to uproot your marriage. He wants to uproot your family. A young person, he wants to uproot your future. And sometimes we think of that as like a big wind blowing and uprooting the tree. But do you know why that tree was uprooted? Because it already had problems. Already had issues. Maybe it had a root problem. It may have had a heart problem in the trunk of that tree. And as a result of that, it weakened it. And then when the wind blew, it uprooted it. And I'm going to talk to you about these things and how we can remain rooted. beyond this particular year as we've sought to be a rooted Christians, a rooted church, and all of that, so I hope you'll be back tonight for that short series of messages that we'll be preaching on that subject. Now, by now you should be in Isaiah chapter 9, and let's look, if we could please, in this Christmas prophecy, but yet it reaches far beyond that. We normally associate this with Christmas, but Isaiah's looking far beyond Bethlehem, to the day when the Lord Jesus will be enthroned in Jerusalem as King of kings and Lord of lords. And we see that in the passage. And while that is not the heart of what we're preaching on, I believe it will work its way into it through this series of messages as we're unwrapping the names of Jesus. Look at verse 6. Notice the Bible said, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. So the child born is a son, already in existence, who is given. God would become man. And the government, there it is, shall be upon His shoulders. So there's already 2,000 years that separated the first part of verse 6 and the next phrase in verse number 6, the government being upon His shoulder. And His name, if you want to know something about the King, here He is. And His name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. What an amazing, what amazing designations of the Son of God. We've learned that there are over 300, not preached on all of them, there's over 300 names and descriptive titles given to the Lord in the Scriptures. And the reason is that no one name can define and describe and declare all that He is and all that He is to you and me. Robert Morgan in his book On the Names of Jesus said, Our Lord's names and titles are so rich they must be pondered, savored, mulled over, and thoughtfully applied to the heart. His love is spread across our souls, His promises are under our feet, His presence is around our lives, and His name is above every name. We looked last week at the first of these five names given to us in Isaiah 9, verse 6, the name Wonderful. And we learned that the root word of the name Wonderful is wonder, that our Lord is a wonder in Himself. He's extraordinary, marvelous, astonishing, awe-inspiring, unspeakable, indescribable, inexpressible, beyond description. Hey, He's more than amazing. And I love the choir song. That just came right in to this series of messages today. And there was a preacher, he was on a train, and he noticed a man in the same car he was in, a couple of seats over, he was looking out the window, and as they were passing by, he was looking at all the scenery, the mountains, the trees, and the rivers, and all of this, and he would just go over and over again, oh wonderful, wonderful! Look at that! It's wonderful!" And it kept going on and on, mile after mile, and the preacher's curiosity was aroused. So he went over to the man and he said, Sir, I'm not being nosy. I'm not trying to pry into your life. And it is beautiful scenery, but I've just been amazed as you're sitting there looking at this stuff, and over and over again you're saying, wonderful, wonderful. And the man said, Oh, you're not being nosy or prying at all. He said, Sir, I just had surgery. And he said, I've been without sight for years and years, and now for the very first time, I'm seeing again all the things that I'd forgotten. He said, I'd forgotten how blue the sky was, how green the grass. He said, I'd forgotten how beautiful the trees and how bright the flowers. And he said, Sir, it is just wonderful! Wonderful! And friend, listen, as we get into these messages over the next weeks, I pray that the Lord will open further our blinded eyes that you and I might just see more and more just how wonderful the Lord is. He's wonderful today. I just can't say anything, but He's wonderful. Amen? And when we come to chapter 9 verse 6, we're going to find that second name that we're going to unwrap today. He's a wonderful counselor. There it is. We're going to unwrap the name together. Counselor. Let's pray and ask the Lord to help us. Lord, we love You today. What a wonderful, wonderful time, Lord, already we've had in Your house. I'm glad I hadn't missed it. God, I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I'm a part of it. Lord, how You blessed us today. And Lord, I just want to say, we didn't deserve it, Lord, but You've been so good to us. And Lord, You met with us, and I pray You'll meet with us now as we unwrap one of the names of Your Son, the name Counselor. And we learn who the Lord Jesus really is in our lives, and we'll learn to trust Him and listen to Him, and follow Him and obey Him, because He knows what's best for our lives. Lord, there's someone here today that the greatest counsel You would give them is to be saved. Lord, they don't know if they died they'd go to heaven. They don't know if their sins are forgiven. I pray they'd come to know You today. Other, Lord, You'd give them counsel about areas of their life, their family, their marriage, their future. I pray, Lord, that we would hear today, that we'd learn of You, and we'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, I'm glad that we don't have to navigate life by ourselves. What about you? We don't have built-in GPS systems to guide us through life. But we do have a wonderful counselor, and his name is Jesus. And I learned some truths about the Lord as my counselor, and I want to share them with you this morning. First of all, here's what I've learned. I've learned that He is a competent counselor. He's a competent counselor. You know that everybody that people go to for counsel is not always competent. Did you know that? They're not always fit to counsel or to give advice or direction in people's lives. But I'm here to tell you, there is no wisdom like our God's wisdom. He has wisdom like no other. Let me give you some verses, you can jot them down. Isaiah 25 verse 1, Isaiah said, O Lord, thou art my God. I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name. For thou hast done wonderful things." There's that name, wonderful. And then he goes on to say, "...thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." Can I remind us that just because something may be old doesn't mean that it's not fresh and new and relevant in our lives. And just because the Bible is an ancient book does not mean, young person, that it is not a relevant book to your life and to my life today. Can I tell you what God said thousands of years ago is just as faithful, it's just as true, it's just as real and powerful as it was when God first gave it, and it's exactly what you and I need in our lives. Isaiah 28 verse 29, he said of God, You're wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. In Psalm 73, the psalmist is going through a very difficult time, and he said this to God, he said, Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel. I'm glad that God can guide us with His counsel. And then he said, And afterward receive me to glory. Isn't that a blessing? God will guide you through this life and then He's going to take you into the next. What a blessing! Friend, can I tell you, giving counsel, a Christian giving counsel to his children is one of God's most gracious and loving works. I'm glad God doesn't just save us and leave us to ourselves. I'm glad He's constantly at work in our lives, and where man's wisdom fails, Jesus' wisdom never does. He's wisdom personified. In John chapter 1 and verse 1, we won't turn there, John gives the Lord another descriptive title. He calls Him the Word. He puts it this way in John 1 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It's an important word. It is. The name Word, that title Word, is the word logos. It's very important. Words, you see, that word logos means that it's an expressive word, not a spoken word as much as an expressive word. Words are vehicles of expression. You don't know my mind and you don't know my heart, unless I express that to you with my words. And friend, you and I can't see God. We can see the handiwork of God, we can see the power of God, we can see the greatness of God all around us, but we can't see God. We can't see Him. And so the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is the visible expression of the invisible God. And when you and I read the life of the Lord Jesus, you know what we're doing? We're seeing God at work in people's lives. Can I tell you the God that worked in their life is the God that's working in your life today. He is. He's not quit working. And all that God the Father is, God the Son is. And it reminds me that the child that was born that Isaiah was talking about didn't begin at birth. No, He's the Son who already existed, the eternal Son of God who was born into this world. So that tells me that my Counselor is a heavenly Counselor. He comes from heaven. And it reminds me that the Creator, Omnipotent, Omniscient God of the universe is my heavenly Counselor. Friend, can I tell you, you can't have a wiser, more greater, wonderful Counselor than the Lord Jesus, the Word of God. King Solomon was held as one of the wisest men to ever live. The Bible tells us he spoke 3,000 proverbs. I can barely quote 10 sometimes, you know? And he could speak to 3,000 of them. And he knew 1,005 songs, and he could just share them. Wisdom came up. The queen of Sheba came up out of Ethiopia, came up to Jerusalem because of what she heard of King Solomon, and she asked him hard questions, and as she left, she said, She said, I've asked this, and I've asked these questions, and I've heard of thy wisdom. And she said, the half has not been told me. You're more wonderful, Solomon, than I ever dreamed you to be. And more wise than I ever dreamed you to be. And friend, can I tell you, hundreds of years after Solomon lived, there was one that stepped foot on this planet. And you know what he said? Behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Friend, can I tell you, hey, human wisdom fails, but God's wisdom never fails. Colossians 2.3 says this, and Humer hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1.24 says this, Christ, the wisdom of God. I just want to tell you, I said all of that to say this, dear child of God, you have a competent counselor. Now let's follow him today. Let's let him direct our lives. Let's let him be in charge of the steering wheel of our lives. Not only is he a competent counselor, but here's something else I learned this week as I study in my Bible about this named counselor. I found that he's a confidant counselor. Now you see, what do you mean by that? A confidant. That means I can tell the Lord anything and He's not going to tell anybody. You can tell other people and you might think they'll keep a secret, but you know what? You don't know for sure that they're not going to some way slip up and share it. And so, one of the things that we want to be as pastoral staff and working in your life is to be confident, that you can be confident that we're confident counselors, that we're like the Lord, that we won't tell anybody. That we will help you and bring God's Word to bear upon your life, but I can assure you this, that the Lord will never tell. Isn't that good? Sunday night we were talking about how to be thankful in tough times. And I pray you go back and listen to that message and maybe catch the message on Wonderful if you haven't heard it. And you can do that on our website or app or several different ways you can get that and listen to it. We talked about one of the reasons why we can be thankful in a tough time is because of the God who helps us. And we talked about Hebrews 4.16. And I had to bring it back today because there's something important in there that we learned in that message and I think it bears repeating. You remember in Hebrews 4.16 we talked about our high priest, the Lord Jesus, who's passing into the heavens for us. And He says this, "...let us," talking about His people, "...therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we can come into the presence of the Lord, and we can share our heart with Him, our hurts with Him, our problems, our burdens. We can bring them to the Lord. And that word bolly means to tell all. We can confidently tell all. That you can tell the Lord everything and anything. You can bare your heart completely to God. That's what He's saying. We can come boldly. We can come confidently. We can tell Him everything. We can tell Him everything. There was a hymn writer that captured that in verse and I want to share it with you. Here's what they wrote. Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Are you grieving over joy's departed? Tell it to Jesus. Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden? Have you sins that two men's eyes are hidden? Tell it to Jesus. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Are you anxious? What shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus. Are you troubled at the thought of dying for Christ's coming Kingdom? Are you saying, Lord, it's so terrible, we want You to come! Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Thank God. Listen, when I don't know where to go and what to do and how to respond and I don't know what the answer is, I can go to Him. I can come into His presence and I can tell it to Jesus. I can tell Him everything. I can bear my heart to God. Oh, when was the last time you just told it to Him? Maybe today ought to be that day. That you just bear your heart to God because He cares. And then He tells us about the blessings that we receive. He says, let us therefore come boil into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And we talked about those two blessings, those two attributes of God, those two virtues that God works into our lives. Mercy for our failures. Anybody here without failure? Oh, you need mercy. You need mercy. Oh, we all have them. Every area of our lives. We have personal failures, spiritual failures, sinful failures, marital failures, family failures. We have all kinds of failures in our lives. Thank God for mercy! Oh, praise God for His mercy. I can come and I can obtain mercy. I need mercy for our failures and grace for our struggles. Anybody here that doesn't struggle? I think we all fit in the same boat. Everybody struggles. I struggle. You struggle. Everybody struggles. I don't know anybody that doesn't struggle. Nobody lives on the mountaintop spiritually all the time. They just don't. Now there are some people that have a more naturally happy disposition than others. Thankfully, God gave me a wife like that. I used to tell my Sunday school class, I am a total E-orange. She's my Winnie the Pooh. I didn't know how else to put it. I mean, I'm just, oh, oh, woe is me. Oh, you know, and she's like, what are you doing? What are you doing, Eeyore? Quit! Quit! You know, if I ain't got what I wanted to get done that day by nine o'clock, my day's over. She said, what are you talking about? It's just starting. Get it, you know, hey! You know, just, aren't you glad for that? We all struggle. I've got struggles. You've got struggles. I'm thankful for grace today. Where would we be apart from the grace of God? Oh, I need grace. You need grace. Hey, some people need grace for their sins. You need to be saved today. For by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourself is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Thank God for the grace that saves. Thank God for grace that sees me through life, that strengthens me for the struggles of life and the hardships of life and the battles of life. We're all battling in life. Thank God for grace that will see me through. Hey, we can come into His presence. He's a confidant counselor. And we can be confident that when we tell Him everything and anything that He has mercy for our failures and grace for our struggles. But yet, as one other hymn writer put it, Oh, what peace we often forfeit! Oh, what needless pain we bear! All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Oh my. Oh my. What a wonderful counselor we have today. But I said all of that to get to this. Not only is he a competent counselor, not only is he a confidant counselor, but he is a complete counselor. A complete counselor. Now we're going to go to this verse in a moment, but not right yet. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. The Bible says, Christ is made unto us wisdom. Okay? In Him are all the treasures of wisdom when you meet the Lord. We talk about when we find the Lord. The greater truth is when He finds us. That's it. Because He's seeking for sheep today, lost sheep today, and He found us. Alright? You following me? And when we know Him, He's made unto us wisdom. We found a treasure chest of wisdom and knowledge. Now listen to this, I want you to get it Christian. God has given us in Christ everything that you and I need, both for this life, and the life to come. God said that I can be successful in this life and I can be ready for the life to come because He's made into me wisdom. So I saw first of all counsel for life. He's made into me wisdom. I don't have wisdom. I need wisdom. and He's my wisdom, alright? He's my counselor, verse number 6. And His name should be called Wonderful Counselor. That word counselor, if you want to jot down in your Bible a little note here somewhere so you remember it, means to steer or to guide. That means He's at the helm of my ship. That means He has the steering wheel of my life. Here's where the problem comes in. Do you know why we need counsel at times? Because we grab the steering wheel from Him. We don't like where He's driving us. Or we don't trust where He's driving us. Or we don't think He knows what's best, or He knows the way. And so we grab the steering wheel, and guess what we do? We veer off somewhere and we're in a mess. And that's why He needs the steering wheel of your life. He needs the steering wheel of your marriage. He needs the steering wheel of your family. He needs the steering wheel, young adult, of your future. He needs the steering wheel of our church. I don't know best, but He does. He does. We need to allow Him. Wonderful. And listen, He will never steer your life wrong. He never will. He'll never take you down a wrong path. His wisdom, we already learned, is faithfulness and truth. The name wonderful has to do with the dullness of life. Jesus adds years to the life and life to the years. He gives us abundant life. Counselor, that name is the answer to the decisions of life. We all have to make them. And people can have all the knowledge necessary to make a living. They can. Matter of fact, there's a lot of wealthy people in our world. Billionaire. You had to have a little bit of sense about you how to make money if you're going to be a billionaire. How many would agree with that? Okay? People all over can make a living. They have a knowledge to make a living. They know how to make a living. But watch this. They lack the wisdom to live a life. Oh, if Hollywood or Wall Street had the answers, that's where we ought to go. But yet, that's why they live broken lives, broken marriages, broken families, and the suicide rate in both of those places is higher than the national average. They don't have the answers. People seek help for their life and the answers for life's problems all over the place. How about their barroom friends? I thought about this. Why in the world would you go to a barroom to find advice? You just have one impaired person going to another impaired person for the answers to life. Now you tell me how that works. They're all impaired. That means they're not thinking right to start with. Matter of fact, the moment you put that to your lips, you're not thinking right. Break room friends. See, maybe never go to a bar room, but do you go first to the people you work with? Matter of fact, your break room lady friends will talk you out of your marriage. They will. What about your school room friends? Young people will go to their friends. And so now we have one 15-year-old tell another 15-year-old how to live life? I'm not trying to diminish that there's not some godly young people that can be a help to their friends, but when you start looking there for advice, their life's a shambles. How in the world are they going to help your life to be a shambles? I mean, to get out of a shambles. What about psychics and fortune tellers? Oh, that's big money. Now there's 1-900-PSYCHIC and you can get in touch with the West Coast and you can talk to somebody who will tell you a lie and you'll pay them for it. What about books, blogs, and magazines? There's professional bloggers everywhere. I'm not saying all of them are bad, but all of them have that. Dear Abby, how do you remember Dear Abby? Let's date ourselves. Oh, there's not a millennial in the room who has a clue who Abby is, except maybe their friend. Dear Abby was everybody's psychotherapist and analyst in the newspaper. I read the Dear Abby column for fun. It was hilarious. And they would write in about life. And I don't even know if Abby was a real person and if that was her name. I have no idea. But I know somebody will Google it before the day is out. Somebody is probably Googling it right now. In the newspaper, Dear Abby. And they would share their heart. And Abby would write back into the newspaper, Dear Heartbroken. Dear, love's sick. Dear, whatever." And she'd give advice. Celebrities. I thought, boy, if I retire and all I've got is Winfrey and Oz, I'm in trouble. But yet they make billions. They make millions, but Oprah makes billions off of being the world's psychiatrist. Isn't that amazing? secular therapists and psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. And I'm not saying that there's not times that people need some type of help. I'm not saying that. But most of the time, they're coming from a place where they're not just going to give you bad advice, but if it's unbiblical, they're going to give you wrong advice. Can I reason with you for a moment? The world's been following man's wisdom for 6,000 years. Where's that got us? They got the answers. Or they ask all the questions, but they don't have any answers. Matter of fact, people live longer than they've ever been before, but that doesn't mean they live any better. They don't. Can I remind you, Psalm 11 says, Blessed is the man that walketh not. That's a generic term. Man, woman, teenager. That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. When you and I, we're blessed when we do not follow man's wisdom. What is he saying? We're blessed when we follow the Lord's wisdom. You say, preacher, if I can't go to all these other places, where can I go? I am so glad you asked me that. Because Proverbs 2 and verse number 6 tells me, For the Lord giveth wisdom, and out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. My God has wisdom for me. James 1 verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally. God says, I'm going to give you more wisdom than you want or need. And upbraideth not. God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't give wisdom to one and not give wisdom to another. And it shall be. I ask in faith. And God said He's going to give it to me. Can I tell you, you find the wisdom of God in the Word of God. You remember Jesus is the logos, the Word of God, okay? That means He's the visible expression of God. That means He makes Him known. Do you realize if the Lord were a book, He would be the Bible? And if the book were a person, it would be the Lord. Because He's the living Word who has given us the written Word. We have, church, the mind of Christ. And the reason our lives is in a shamble is either we don't read His Word or we don't believe His Word. We don't really believe it works. That He really doesn't have the answers and He can't guide me where I need to go in life. And see, that really may be where the crux is. It's so often God's going to lead you where you need to go rather than where you want to go. Because where we want to go will destroy us. The psalmist said in Psalm 119 verse 24, Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. It is. Psalm 119 verse 105, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The greatest counselor you can ever have is the Son of God. And the greatest counsel you will ever follow is the Word of God. And friend, can I tell you, as you seek the Lord through His Word, God will speak to you. You say, I know, but it didn't come right away. Learn to wait upon God. It will come. It may be you're not ready for it yet. Several weeks ago, it's been a while back, I told our church we're getting ready to close. Well, that closing wasn't the Spanier Road property. I thought it was. I just said closing date. Oh, we're closing on Spanier Road property. But it wasn't. We were refinancing. It was time to refinance one of our teacher housing places where some of our teachers live. And so anyway, We were still waiting to close, and if I had it my way, church, I had it my way, we would have closed really back last year. We'd already had it all done, but the latest would have been March. Okay? We're going to close this Friday, 2 p.m. God has so orchestrated it, because we would have been leasing that property for our school that entire time. Do you know God saved us over $31,000 doing it in His time? Can I help you that if you and I learn to wait on God, we will learn in our lives that His way is always best. Young people, will you listen to your pastor for just a moment? I realize that as young adults, one of the greatest fears that we have is to go through life without a mate if we want a mate. But if you don't wait on God, you'll make a mistake. And you'll wish you'd waited. Wait on the Lord. Don't jump to this college or that college or this career or that career without the Lord. The Lord has a plan for your life. Listen, if you will let God write the script of your life, if you will, Can I tell you, at the end of that life, you'll look back on it with little to no regret. But if you write the script of your life, it'll be filled with regrets in the last chapter. Let God write the script of your life. And you know what? Maybe you've grabbed the steering wheel of your life. I'm talking to people of all ages in our auditorium. It doesn't matter where we are in our life. But if we're not careful, we've got the steering wheel and we're going to take us the wrong way. But if we'll take our hands off and let God put His hands on the steering wheel of our life, He will always direct our path in a right way. We may not see it. We may not understand it. And there's sometimes the Lord drives me through a fog. There are some times that I can't see clearly. Sometimes it's pitch black, dark. Because I don't see it, Lord. But if I can learn to trust Him, I'm going to come out on the better side. He's a counselor. Let's follow His counselor. Let's let Him steer our lives. He can guide us. But then not only is there counsel for life, there's counsel for eternity. Can we now go to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30? And this is where we're going to end up, okay? This is where we're going to end up. There's some young people and there's some not-so-young people today, I fall into that category, that probably need to find your place here today saying, Lord, I want what You want. And you may need to make some changes in your life. And you may need to change some decisions you're getting ready to make before you make a colossal mess of your life and you won't see it right now. But ten years from now, you wish you'd made a different decision. Let God lead. And that's true for all of us, by the way. How many of you would say amen? Yeah, yeah. We'll never get to a point He doesn't need to lead. When I come to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, and we're just going to touch the hem of a garment because we're going to spend a lot of time next year in 1 Corinthians if the Lord doesn't come, and we're going to learn how to be a functional church in a dysfunctional world because this church was anything but functional. And the book of 1 Corinthians was written by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul to help this church become functional again. And he tells them something about the Lord in our lives. Verse 30, But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom, there it is, and then out of that wisdom comes righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Because now wait a minute, I'm not ready to live until I'm ready to face eternity. Because I may think this is all there is to life, but it's not. There's another chapter. There's an after this. And He not only can counsel me to be successful in this life, but also in the life to come. And notice what He says, that He's my righteousness. That's what God has done. That teaches us how to be right with God. Righteousness comes from the root word right. You see, we're born into this world wrong with God, and all of us need to be made right with God. And that may be the Lord's counsel to you this morning. You're not right with God. You don't know if your sins are forgiven. You don't know if you died you'd go to heaven. You don't know if you belong to Him. You don't know if your name's written in heaven. You don't know if you're saved. And friend, God's counsel to you is right now, be right with God. Be saved. Come to know the Lord. Friend, He can't steer your life if He's not in your life. He can't do it. I need to make sure that I have that one. I can't be as successful even in this life. By the way, that's what Christmas is all about. God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. He wants to save you today. He wants you to be right with Him. But now wait a minute, Christian. I'm going to tell you, you can be saved today and not right with God. There's things in your life, attitudes in your life that's not right. And the Holy Spirit, God's counsel to you is if you want to be successful in life, you want me to steer your life in the right direction, then you have to get some things right with me. And there may be some Christians today that you need to break down and come to God and say, God, I'm not right. My attitude's not right. What I'm doing's not right. Where I'm going's not right. What I'm involved in's not right. My family's not right. My marriage is not right. Whatever it is. And we need to be right. Because that's how we're successful. We follow His counsel. We're right with God. But then there's something else in our verse. I'm going to move very quickly. And it's the word sanctification. And we're going to look at that more in detail when we get into 1 Corinthians. But that's what God's doing in my life right now. As a Christian, He is sanctifying me. God is transforming my life into the image of His Son. This is how God makes us holy. The person that He desires for us to be. As a counselor, God has a wonderful plan for each of our lives. I was talking about that script. Ephesians 2.10. There's our verse for that. For we are His workmanship. You're a work of art. God is working on you. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. God has a plan, a purpose, a path for your life which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. And God wants to guide you down that path. Letting. Letting. Oswald Sanders said, sanctification is not just something that the Lord does in us, sanctification is Himself in us. Preacher, how do I give Him the steering wheel of my life? It's by yielding your life to the life of Christ in you. He's a living Lord, and I'm yielding my life. I'm letting Him call the shots. and make the decisions. And as we do that, He sanctifies us and transforms our lives into what He wants them to look like. And I'm going to tell you, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. There's nothing more beautiful than a Christian doing the will of God for their life. Nothing more beautiful. Righteous is what God has done. Sanctification is what He is doing. He's counseling me in life and He's working in my life to make me where He wants me to be, what He wants me to be, where He wants me to go, what He wants me to do. And it's all good. It's all good. And then notice there's one more word, and I'm going to close with this one. This is what God will do. It's called redemption. You see, God's not going to be finished with us until He comes for us. And one day in the not-too-distant future, the Lord's going to come for those who belong to Him. 1 Corinthians 15, 51 and 52, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, not every believer is going to die, but there's going to come a day when there's going to be some living believers will be changed. We shall all be changed whether we're... whether we've died or whether we're alive, everybody's going to be changed. Dead be resurrected, living's going to be changed. Okay? The Bible said, "...in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Now listen, Christians, here's what's going to happen. God's working on me, okay? But when He's going to be done with me is when He comes for us. And at that moment, in that twinkling of an eye, this robe of flesh, we're going to drop. We are. It's going to be gone. I can't wait for that day. No more aches, no more pains, no more sorrows, no more worries, no more anxiety, no more fears, no more difficulty, no more sin and disobedience. And we're going to seize the everlasting prize that He has for us. We're going to receive a new body, like in His glorious body, and we're going to be made like Him, saved to sin no more. You see, Jesus today is my wonderful counselor. I hope I've shared Him with you today. My words don't even touch the hem of the garment, but if some little thing I've said today could help you to see what a great counselor He is. and to come to Him and follow Him. Because Christian, He's taking care of your past, He's taking care of your present, and your future is already secure. It's already done. Surrounded by God, encircled with love. His arms are beneath, His eye is above. A rearward... I can't say that in my Appalachian dialect. A guard behind me. a leader before me. He dwelleth within me, so what need I more?" Oh, He's my everything. He is. I get in trouble when I think I'm something, and somehow I got the answers, and somehow I can make it work, and that's when the trouble comes. But when I realize that He can steer, He can direct, He can fix, that's when I yield to Him. And maybe that's the message today. As your counselor, maybe you need to yield to Him afresh and new. Maybe some need to get right with Him in some areas of their life. Maybe there's some people that need to say, God, my hands are off, now You put Your hands on. You steer, You guide. I just want to follow. I don't know the way, but Lord, You do. And Lord, when I don't think You're going the right way, or I'm not sure what's happening, or I can't see the way, I don't know about You, but I can't stand a dirty windshield in the passenger seat because I want to see where that driver's taking me. But there's times God's going to take me and I can't see, but He can. Help me to trust Him that that's enough. He's a wonderful counselor today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.