Sermon Central
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Advent Day 1: Hope Series
Contributed by Damien Saylor on Dec 11, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus will be called wonderful.
Sermon - Advent 1 - 2019- Wonderful
- Our society is known for labeling, or stigmatizing other people.
- I was offended when I realized that I was lumped into the group of millennials,
mainly because of majority of their misguided ideas.
- Then I came across the stigma that, once again, labels people wrongly.
- Baby Boomers are being called “OK Boomer”.
- It’s a phrase to put them down, just because they’re a baby boomer.
Q- Now, what happens when you find a good labeling?
- A good name changes our attitudes, & even how we interact with other people.
- Our first outlook for Advent is Hope.
- Jesus is given a name that draws people to Him, inspires people, & causes
people to adjust their lives because they want to be more like Him.
- Last week I began with reading Isaiah 9:6, & we talked about the child is born, the
Son is given, & the government will be on His shoulders.
- Let’s read now the name that comes next.
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 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
- Jesus will be called wonderful.
Q- Doesn’t the name, by itself, just draw you to Him?
- You want to know what exactly makes Him so wonderful, & it gives you hope,
because you hope the name is true.
Prayer
- The name wonderful calls in thoughts of greatness, peace, joy, comfort, & etc..
- This name of wonderful however, means so much more than what we perceive it to
be.
- This is a name that is meant to show the sheer wonder of our God.
- In the book of Judges, Samson’s dad asks the angel of the LORD what His
name is.
- This was God! He was in a form, revealing Himself to man. Listen to God’s reply.
18 And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
- The Word secret is what is translated Wonderful in Isaiah.
- His name is wonderful, His name is secret, His name is beyond what we could ever
comprehend.
- Whenever we hear a secret, we want to figure out what the secret is.
- We often imagine up ideas as to what the secret could be.
- Isaiah prophesied, one will be born unlike anything, or one we have ever known.
Q- Could you imagine meeting a man who turned water to wine, healed countless
people both near & from far, walked on water, calmed the sea, fed 5,000 plus with a
boy’s lunch, & had wisdom by far smarter than anyone else?
- Those things were but a fraction of Who God is.
Q- What about the fact that He called from the empty void of space everything into
being.
- When we start grasping the idea, that His name means wonderful. Then we are
accepting the call to fear God, or be in awe of God.
- It’s a call to stare into the vast, unsearchable, universe, focusing on the trillions of
miles it stretches, & realizing There’s still so much more we haven’t seen yet.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
- Each year we celebrate the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.
- Each year people question our sanity questioning why we believe in such a man.
- When we first are saved, questions like these bother us, but as we get older,
wiser in our faith, questions/statements against us don’t bring much of rise out
of Us.
- That’s Because we can look passed the things that are ugly, or unpleasant,
& see something wonderful!
Q- Is that not the full picture of hope?
- In the moment Jesus was born, Hope was complete.
- No longer is there searching for a better future, because the moment you make
Jesus Lord, He gives you His future.
- In Psalm 102, the psalmist, an exile from Jerusalem, & in poor health, teaches
us how he looks forward to what’s wonderful.
19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth;
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
21 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
- He looked forward to what God was going to do. The exile removed, & his home
restored.
- These were things unthinkable, at this moment, but he knew his Wonderful God
