Amen. May that be our heart's prayer this morning. Thank the Lord for being here. Good to see each and every one of you. I've already been blessed already this morning by every word that's been spoken. prayers that have been prayed, the hymns that are sung. Just thank the Lord for his presence, his nearness. I hope you've been blessed as well. So, how do you come this morning? What's in your heart? What's on your mind? Pray that the Lord would give clarity of mind and heart to each individual. We all come in different ways because we each come as our own individual self. So for a moment, think or ask yourself the question, Lord, how do I come this morning? What's on my mind? What's on my heart? And of course, I hope that it has come to worship Him. But as humans, there are many other thoughts and things that weigh on us from time to time. It might be something from a month ago or two weeks ago. It might be something from this very morning. But how do you come this morning? And maybe your heart is full of joy and rejoicing that is great. Hope and pray that is true for everyone this morning. But no matter how you come, God is near. His presence is here with us this morning. And he has promised to give strength where there is weakness. He's promised to give joy where there's sadness. He's promised to heal the brokenhearted and to carry our burdens. For a few minutes, I want us to look at Isaiah chapter number 53. This is a beautiful description of why what I just said is so true, that no matter what may weigh us down or no matter what burdens we may have, how has the provision been made for us to be able to cast all of our cares onto someone who can carry every one of those cares and burdens and give us strength. Let's just bow one more time and ask the Lord's blessings on this passage. Father, we need you, as has been mentioned and prayed already this morning. Help us to lay aside all the weights and cares. Help us to see past our own selves, our own concerns, whether they be burdens, whether it be pride or whatever. Lord, help us to lay it all aside to see you. And Lord, to continue to enjoy presence of the Holy Spirit that we've already felt this morning. We pray that you would bless your word to our hearts and open our understandings. If there's anyone here this morning that doesn't know you as their Savior, or may their eyes and ears be opened in a way that they've never seen or heard before. May the understanding of their heart be opened up to receive your word. May you get all the honor and the glory and the praise. In Jesus' name, amen. In Isaiah 53, he says, who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Of course, I should say in the beginning that this chapter 53 in Isaiah is a prophecy of at the time it was written of Jesus Christ to come to die on the cross. And so several things that we'll see from this passage is what we just read there that It was unlikely. Everything about his coming and the way that he came to earth, they were looking for a king. The children of Israel, they were looking for a king. They wanted royalty. They wanted to see a crown. They wanted to see him on a throne. They wasn't willing to accept someone born in a manger and coming poor and lowly. We'll see how he was despised and rejected and how he bore our griefs and sorrows, how he was oppressed and afflicted. And in the end of his earthly life, he was buried with the wicked. I'm glad that it didn't end there, though, because as this passage closes out, we see that the will of God was perfected and completed for our salvation. But he came as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. May our hearts be tender this morning. You know, how does a root grow out of a dry, hard ground? We've got some really hard clay back here and can't get any grass to grow behind the church. Because it's hard, it's not fertile, but yet Christ, he can he can come up in that type of ground and that type of environment. And he did. As we see later on, he was oppressed and afflicted, and yet he thrived. He didn't come with the form of a king, he didn't come with royalty in a robe. He came without that form of comeliness. You look upon Him, what beauty was there in Jesus, the way that we know that He grew up as a human. He was just a carpenter, a carpenter's son. He didn't even, as he said later, birds have nests, foxes have holes. He didn't even have anywhere to lay his head. He didn't even have a house that he would go home to. There was nothing beautiful in the eyes of man. How do you look this morning? What do you think about yourself? Maybe you feel that, well, there's nothing about me that is worthy. Well, that's actually a pretty great start because there is nothing about us that is worthy. As we come before Him, we come in rags ourselves with sin and helplessness. We didn't love Him. He loved us first. But if you know Him as your Savior, if you're a believer this morning, then you are complete in Christ. His blood has washed away all of your sins, past, present, and future. And they are forgiven, and you are complete in Him. So when the devil whispers to you all the things that he does, even in temptations of doubt, of fears, We can look to Christ because Christ is made a way and no matter how weak and unworthy we feel in and of ourselves, He is holy. He is promised to be faithful to us, to lift us up and to carry us through no matter what it is that we're facing. Verse three says, He is despised and rejected of men. You know, as young people, we face a lot of peer pressure. You go through a lot in the teenage years and struggle to figure out who you are, where you're headed. You know, this person said that, and that person said something else, and he didn't like me or she, whatever. Jesus was despised and rejected. Not just as a young person, as a teenager. What if those thoughts and those feelings, those struggles never ended? And sometimes in certain areas of our life they don't. The adversary's gonna always tempt us and try to burden us down with what someone else thinks or what someone else says. Or even what our own mind and heart tells Ourself. But. God has prepared us. And he said that he would carry our burdens, but he says he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. There's many sorrows in our lives, sometimes there's much grief along the way at times. But Christ has trodden this path before us. It says that we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. Do you feel broken sometimes? Do you feel completely helpless, completely lost? Well, Jesus, our sacrifice, you can't get any more broken. You can't get any more wounded than he was. And for what? What did what did he do to deserve? The things that he suffered, the things that he bore. I mean, we're talking about the son of God. If we pause for a moment to think about God, who is God? I mean, he's always been he's always existed. I don't know about you, but I can't wrap my head around that. I find myself sometimes paused to think about My God has always existed. In the Godhead, there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are one. How do you explain that? How do you explain three separate beings that are one? There's always been and always will be. So, guess what? That's my father. If you're a believer, that's your father. So then if you can imagine eternity past. Which I can't, but there came a point in time when he created what we now exist in. Which also includes you this morning and me. And he had a purpose for this. This is not by accident. We're not here this morning by accident. You're not placed in 2024 as opposed to any other previous year or any other future year because of His perfect will. So He created this universe. He's placed us in it. This is my father, and I hope that you can claim him as such. So, the son, in his plan, it was not an accident that man fell. It was man's choice, just like we have a choice this morning. But dead in trespasses and sins against God, we can't choose him. So in his, Almighty power and in His mercy and grace, He chose you. And He sent His Son to come here to be born in a manger. Why a manger? I mean, what are the chances that there was no available room anywhere else? He was born in a manger. Can anyone here this morning raise their hand that they were born in a manger? I hope I'm not mistaken here by asking that question, but I would assume that no one here this morning was born in a manger. And for the very little ones saying a manger is like what you put the hay in to feed the cattle or the animals. He was born in a barn. It's the term that we use today. He was a tender plant. He was a root out of a dry ground. He didn't come with former comeliness. He was a carpenter's son. So we have the Son of God, I mean the creator of this universe, who has come for one purpose, to fulfill His Father's will, to make a way for you to make a way for me. But in making this way, he was despised. He was rejected. I mean, by the chosen people, the religious people, but they wanted nothing to do with him. I hope that there's no one here this morning whose heart is so religious that we can't see the simple plan of salvation that God has laid out for us, which means it's by grace. There's not anything, again, it's human nature to want to earn something, to want to make our own way, to do our own thing. That's why at two years old, the little toddlers become what they become for a little while, because they're trying to create that independence. already starting to flex their muscles. That actually lasts for quite a while. But there's nothing that we can do to earn salvation. There's nothing that we can do to make our own way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. If you're going to come to the Father, this morning or at any point in your life, you must come through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood that was offered on the cross. He was wounded. Why was he wounded? He was wounded for my transgressions. You must make it personal to come through the sun, to enter into eternal life everlasting. You must make it personal to yourself. The blood must be applied to your sins. You must realize that your sins put Jesus Christ, the son of God, on the cross. If you cannot realize that, if you cannot accept that, if you cannot own that your sins sacrificed Jesus on the cross, you cannot experience eternal life. So he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. Do you have peace in your heart this morning? Again, going back to the questions we asked starting out, What is on your heart and mind this morning? What might burden you down? Do you have eternal peace, heavenly peace inside? You can. But look what it took to provide that it took chastisement, it took. As we read on there, it says, and with his stripes, we are healed. Think about what all that he went through. If you've ever heard the description of what they called the cat of nine tails, it's pretty gruesome. And that was laid across his back, probably wrapped all the way around. As they pulled, just tore the flesh. I mean, to almost an unrecognizable point. Why? What did he do wrong? He did nothing wrong. It reminds me, as he stood before Pilate, he had very little to say, but when Pilate referred to truth, Jesus said, you said it. That's that's all he had to say. He didn't have any defense. There was nothing to defend. The truth does not have to be defended. He bore not only the physical pain and the physical suffering, but he bore the mental, the psychological anguish of rejection, as we see in various points through his his ministering as he neared the cross. Everything from going with the disciples to pray and. They fall asleep while he's in anguish over what is soon to come. And then, Peter, You know, Peter always had a lot to say. He was real quick. I find myself that way sometimes. Oh, I got this. I can do this. Lord, I'm not going to deny you. No, no, no, no. I won't deny you. What happened? Peter denied his Savior. I've denied my Savior many times before in different ways. When we allow doubts and fears to come into our life and into our heart and into our mind, we are denying our Savior. Don't think, well, I haven't done what Peter did. Any time that we allow doubts or fears to creep in, we have done the same thing that Peter did in denying our Savior because Christ made this sacrifice once and for all. It is done. It is done. My sins from the past, current, or any future sins that I may commit, they are under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Apostles Paul said, does that give us a right to sin? Does that mean that we can just do whatever we want to do? No, why would we sacrifice our Lord all over again, willingly and knowingly? When we fall, there is forgiveness. But as God has created a new heart in us and he's made us a new creature, from that should flow the fruits of the spirit and the fruits of obedience, the fruits of righteousness and service to him, not willful disobedience. But there is none of us exempt. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. We were just talking about that as he stood before Pilate. He had nothing to say, didn't even open his mouth. I mean, how quick are we? It's just human nature. The first thing is is self-defense. I mean, I've been guilty of that many times. Sometimes even misunderstanding what someone was saying. It didn't even have to do with what I thought it did. And yet, I gotta put in my two cents worth. Jesus had nothing to say. He had no reason to defend himself because he had done no wrong. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is done, done. So he opened not his mouth. He didn't fight, he didn't resist. He knew. He knew what he had to do, and he wanted to simply do the will of his father. May that be what your heart's desire is this morning. So you may think, well, he was the son of God. So of course he could do this or that. You don't understand the humanity of Christ. You don't understand the miracle of baby Jesus, who was born in the manger that we referred to, as human as you are. Again, Pause to think about that, the miracle of that. If you can't believe that in faith, then you can't understand what this passage is about. You can't understand the sacrifices that He made for us. You can't understand what the verse in the New Testament that says, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. he felt the same things that we feel as a child. I'm sure that he was mocked and ridiculed and teased just like every one of us have been as children or are as a child this morning. I'm sure that he was picked on, maybe pushed around as he grew older He was challenged in the same ways that we're challenged. And as a human, those things, he felt the burden of those things. He felt the pain of those things. Going back to what he felt as Peter denied him. He was concerned about his own mother. There was none there with him, and then ultimately his father turned his back, turned his back on him. I believe as he was in the garden praying, the burden was so great, his sweat was as great drops of blood. I can't imagine the turmoil of soul that he was under. I can't prove in his humanity, he said, Lord, if this cup can pass, I believe the greatest Burden that he was facing among all these other things that we've mentioned is the fact that he knew his father would turn his back. Why? Because of my sins. If you know him as your savior. The father turned his back on his son. because of your sins. Your sins were upon him at that time, and God cannot look on that. He was taken from prison, from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people. Was he stricken? If the world had had their way, if the adversary, Satan, had had his way, that would have been the end of Jesus. That would have been the end. He would have never gotten up out of the grave. But thank God that was not the end. Our God is greater than that and his power is greater than that. He rose from the grave and now he's ascended in heaven on the right hand of God to intercede for me, to intercede for you. And he's given us the right to come before the throne of God. Again, that is reality, brothers and sisters. That is reality. You can come right now. You can come at any moment before the very throne of God into his presence. In the Old Testament, the way it was designed with the altar and the Ark of the Covenant, they couldn't come like that. They had to bring offerings. They had to come through the priest. You can come into the very, and even the priest had to be very careful and follow God's laws and rules about how to come into where the Ark of the Covenant was. But this morning, you can come into his very presence. You can take hold of that altar and you can talk to God. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of his people with his drinking. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth. None. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, even though there was nothing wrong that he had done, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why? He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Again, it was no accident. It was the will of the Father. It was the will of the Godhead predetermined before the foundation of the world that this was to take place and have purpose and meaning for you this morning, if you believe. in His saving grace. It pleased the Lord to do so, to bruise Him, to put Him to grief for His soul to be an offering for sin. In the Old Testament, again, there was all the many, many, many sacrifices that was made, and there was this type of sacrifice for this sin, and that sacrifice for another sin. There was so many of them. Why? because God is holy. He cannot look upon sin. He will not tolerate sin. And in order for those sins to be forgiven, there was a temporary sacrifices that were made in faith, believing, looking forward to the ultimate sacrifice that would come, which is what this Psalm 53 was prophesying, of a Christ that would come. And so they had to offer those animal sacrifices as a temporary sacrifice. That's why they had to offer it over and over and over. Imagine this morning if, imagine this morning if you had to get up and you had to go outside. Most of us don't even have animals, the type of animals that were sacrificed. Imagine if you had to get up this morning and offer sacrifice this morning before we could gather together. And every day that we have something in our heart that shouldn't be there, or we say something that we shouldn't, or do something that we shouldn't, what if you had to make another sacrifice? Well, thank God you don't have to do that, because Jesus Christ did come, and He died on the cross, and His blood was shed for our sins, and He was buried, and He rose again, that the pleasure of the Lord would prosper. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied as Christ suffered everything that he suffered The father was pleased he was satisfied with that offering By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many are you one of that many this morning? If so he will and does bear your iniquities So Christ was the ultimate sacrifice made once and for all. We don't have to sacrifice again by faith. Through the grace of God, we believe. that his blood was shed for our sins. Therefore, I will divide with him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he had poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. His life was sacrificed as an intercession for us. And every day, He is there at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. And we can come to him and come boldly before the throne of grace because of that sacrifice. I want to close this morning with some verses out of Matthew chapter 11. That every I'm sure every one of you are familiar with coming to me, all you that are that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You don't have to go through. You don't have to go through this day, you don't have to go through tomorrow, this week. Bearing those burdens by yourself. That's why Christ. died on the cross. That's why He sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to guide us. He promised. He said, I will give you rest. Are you tired this morning? There's rest. Are you weary this morning? There's strength. It's amazing. And again, the mind cannot comprehend how, no matter how weak we are, God will provide strength in our weakness, through our weakness. That's how he does that. The human mind cannot wrap around that. So he didn't say that we would never be burdened. He didn't say that we wouldn't be heavy laden. He didn't say that we wouldn't be afflicted. On the contrary, he said that we would. But he said, come to me, come to me and I will bear I will give you rest. He said, take my yoke upon you. He didn't say, again, he didn't say there was no yoke. We must take on the yoke of Christ. We must take on the yoke of serving the Lord. He said, I am meek and lowly in heart. The world thinks and looks on meekness or humility as weakness. But again, quite the contrary, that's what the Lord wants in our lives, wants portrayed in our lives is humility and meekness. I love where he says the meek shall inherit the earth. Does that sound like weakness? Does that sound like incapability? The meek will inherit the earth. So as we think about all these things this morning and our Heavenly Father, that is my Father this morning. My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. My Father put the stars in the sun. and all the planets into orbit. Beyond what, no matter how great the telescopes that man can create, they can't see all the glory of God and how far it goes or understand it. All the beauty that we find in creation, the majestic mountains, the beautiful waterfalls. And I've only got to see a few of those, but it is endless. the grandeur and the beauty. That's my father. I hope that you can claim him as your father this morning. Your father created all of the things that we have to enjoy. And you can find rest to your soul. So as we close this morning, I pray that you will bring all of your burdens, all of your cares, to Him, and in simple childlike faith, believe and know that He's conquered death and the grave, that this is your Father, that all that you need, He has promised to provide. If you're experiencing, maybe you're going through a wilderness, Well, He can provide water and rest. He can provide food. I hope that you will always be hungry and thirsty for Him. In that sense, never be filled to where you're not hungry and thirsty, but at the same time, again, the human mind can understand this, how you can continue to be hungry and thirsty, but yet be filled at the same time. May your souls hunger and thirst after him, but may they also be filled to where your cup runs over.