Isaiah 9:6-7 • Christmas Regrets - No More

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Let me ask that you would look in your bibles this morning at Isaiah chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 9.
We're looking at prophecies leading up to Jesus as we move closer and closer to Christmas.
So this Sunday, we are moving seven centuries closer than we were last Sunday but still eight centuries away from the coming of Christ.
Isaiah is going to talk about a child that's going to be born and describing Him in details that you will recognize this side of the manger, but you must recognize Isaiah did not know about a manger; he simply knew about a promised child.
The message comes to Isaiah in a way that may be surprising to you, though.
While we have such glitter and gloss and fun, the opening chapters of Isaiah are much more Grinch-like.
It is a time of gloom and doom, because the people of Israel have turned their backs on God, and He is saying to them, "Discipline is coming in the form of the nation of Assyria that is going to cut you down."
But that is not the end of the story.
The Lord says in chapter 5 and 6 of Isaiah, "For I will yet preserve My people, and the tree cut down will be a stump with life yet in it."
That life is described in chapter 7 and verse 14 as coming forth from a virgin who will bear a son named Immanuel, meaning God with us.
And now when we get to Isaiah chapter 9, we learn out of the darkness what will be the nature of that child.
Let me ask that you stand as we read verses 1-7.
I'll focus on verses 6 and 7 in the message, but we'll get the background as we think of where the light is coming from.
Isaiah 9 and verse 1.
"But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, here You show us Your heart, what You have zeal for, even the sending of a Son with four names, all which magnify the greatness of Your grace.
In a day, Father, that there are nations at war and hearts torn and people still seeking the light, show us the light that was in Him, we pray, that we might be a people who know the joy of the Risen Son.
We pray to You in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Variety, as you may know, is the mother of regret.
I mean, now just think:  If there were only one color or design or brand of the sweater that you're going to give to a dear one, life would be so much easier.
But the fact that there are so many varieties of sweaters and colors and brands and designs means that you are always second guessing, aren't you?
Is that the right one?
Will it be appreciated?
And it's not just the sweater:  It's the scarf; it's the cap; it's the camera; it's the pony; it's the bike.
You know, there are so many possibilities where you could go wrong that we end up in this time of joy being filled with potential regret.
And maybe it's that great potential for regret that sparked a radio program I listened to recently, which had people talking at Christmastime about life's regrets.
What are things that they regret?
Some of these were obvious, some not so much so.
The list was long of what people regret but not very surprising.
One told of regretting a lie told in childhood, which actually got her out of trouble but made her wonder the rest of her life about her character.
One regretted marrying too soon.
Another regretted bailing out of a marriage too soon.
One regretted a tattoo with the wrong name.
Uh-oh.
[Laughter]
There's a regret.
[Laughter]
A drug habit.
Regrets about time away from family was a common theme.
Child over or under disciplined a common regret.
Often when children forget, parents still remember the word or the strike or the rage.
Virginity sacrificed for the acceptance of someone long since departed.
Opportunities not explored.
Vacations not taken.
Churches not attended or not left until a family was damaged.
All kinds of regret.
The more I listened to the regrets, I recognized they were not about Christmas choices:  They were about life choices.
What happens when you end up regretting a different life path or priority or partner?
What if yours just isn't the right life?
What do you do then?
The way we might handle regrets is given some instruction here in the book of Isaiah as you see a whole nation living in regret.
They have turned away from hope, from God, and in doing so, they are facing gloom and darkness like they never expected.
And the hope is coming; the light is dawning out of places that we need to know so that we, if we are facing such regret as they are facing, might know where it really is there are going to be some light in a life of regret.
Where the regret comes from is obvious, if you know a little bit of history in verse 1.
The words go by quickly, because they're not familiar.
"There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish," begins verse 1.
"In the former time he," that is God, "brought contempt into the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali."
You're going, "What in the world is that about?"
Well, this story of Christmas is not starting with a tale about the 12 Days of Christmas:  It's starting with the 12 sons of Jacob.
Do you remember those sons, the majority of whom sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt?
As Joseph later rescued the betraying brothers, they brought their families into Egypt and they prospered and they multiplied and became 12 tribes.
And the 12 tribes had names attached to them, the names of the original brothers.
Not Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen but.
[Laughter]
Simeon and Judah and Zebulun and Naphtali.
Zebulun and Naphtali are picked out because when the people of Israel went into the Promised Land there were two tribes that did not follow the instruction of Joshua.
That is, they did not separate themselves from the Canaanite practices.
There were two tribes who almost immediately began to intermarry and adopt idolatry as part.
Those two tribes were Zebulun and Naphtali.
And that means that the area in which they settled became known as Goyim land, Goy-Land, Galilee, ultimately.
Galilee of the nations.
It was Galilee where ultimately God's people turned away from God, the way of the sea, that is, there was a major highway that went right by Galilee and that major highway became the highway that people went from Egypt up to Assyria, back and forth in the ancient world.
And all the nations would go back and forth along that ancient highway through Galilee.
Until a particular time when a child would be born, and after he had been raised in Egypt and gone back to the area begin to preach and to teach around Galilee in a particular town called Capernaum.
That's where Jesus would preach the most and do the most miracles and disciple the most.
It was right there at the intersection of the major highways of the ancient world where God's people had turned away, where the nations would gather and the nations would pass.
That's where Christ entered in.
He went to the dark place, to the place of sin, rebellion, where everything had gone wrong.
That's where Jesus entered.
It's the light coming into the darkness.
It's the message; it's the theme that's flowing throughout this portion of Isaiah.
If you just think of it, verse 1:  There is gloom first, and glory comes into the gloom.
Verse 2:  Light comes into darkness.
Verse 3:  Joy into anguish.
Verse 4:  Victory into oppression.
Verse 5:  Peace into war.
Over and over again, the message is the light comes to the darkness, not light polite.
And the reason that message is so important is one of the great barriers to the gospel is that people think that they have to be light before they get light.
I've got to be dressed up before God can help me.
I've got to get my life all fixed up before God is going to somehow pay attention to me.
I've got to look good, be straight, get fixed, and then God will help.
And the whole message of Isaiah is:  "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light," that the light is coming into those who are messed up, not dressed up.
If that's what God is saying, what's He saying to us now?
He says, "If your life is full of regret, that's actually a target for the gospel, not a means to avoid the gospel."
It's true that the gospel is meant to make us free of regret, but it doesn't do that unless we're able to acknowledge first that we had something to regret in the first place.
God is going to work where we know darkness once dwelt.
I could not help thinking of that as I was reading this past week the biography of the French atheist Guillaume Bignon.
And as he was talking about his own history, he talked about how light had to penetrate his darkness before he ever accepted the gospel.
It happened in a strange way, a way that you would think no one would really even be concerned about, but somehow the darkness became so apparent to him he had to have light.
He wrote this:  "One day I was returning from the beach on a Caribbean vacation.
A car pulled over and two young women were lost and they needed help.
The one that I was interested in happened to mention, as I pressed her for what I wanted, that she believed in God, and because she believed in God, she believed that sex was reserved for marriage.
My new goal in life was to disabuse her of that belief."
To learn how to refute the Christianity that she held to, he went to church and began to bombard the pastor with questions.
In one sermon he said he left and said, "This is ridiculous.
I have to find out why people believe this stuff."
So as he continued with his questions, he then at some point even began to pray, "God, if You are real, show me the light."
But he was not aware of how much darkness he had to confess before he could see the light.
He wrote this:  "I realized after a while that my investigations had started as a way of committing a particularly sinister deed.
I was trying to seduce a young woman by destroying her faith.
Even for an atheist, that was immoral.
I could not stand myself.
I tried to shove it down inside.
God brought it back full force.
I was struck with an intense guilt and regret.
I was disgusted with who I had become.
I was lying in pain in my apartment when all of a sudden the quarter dropped," he said.
"That's why Jesus had to die:  me.
He took on Himself the penalty I deserved so that God's justice could be satisfied and my sins could be forgiven.
I saw the light was meant for my darkness."
It's not a new revelation until it happens to you, but it is a necessary revelation.
The reformers in the French Reformation had a phrase that became their own calling card.
They had it and said, "Ex Tenebras Lux":  Out of darkness, light.
That what ultimately has to happen is we have to see how great is the darkness before we appreciate the light of a little child.
What does that light look like that comes from that child that Isaiah is saying is going to be the great hope to the people walking in darkness?
You know.
It's verse 6.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given."
Now, how is a child light?
Well, it certainly lights up your face.
We, who have a new grandchild.
[Chuckles]
We love the light of a new child in our family.
But even we recognize, as all of you do, that a child comes out of anguish and creates anxiety.
In what way is this particular child supposed to give God's people hope again?
The language is itself very special.
Just the opening clauses of verse 6:  "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given."
You have to remember that already in Isaiah 7:14 God has said a virgin will be with child and he will be called Immanuel.
There has to be a product of humanity and at the same time a gift of heaven.
"To us a child born, to us a son given."
Surely Isaiah does not know the full impact of his words, but they are going to unfold as he continues.
"And the government shall be upon his shoulder."
Here we are in a time of gloom and anguish.
The nations are raging.
There's a nation coming upon us.
And God is going to put on the shoulder of this baby to be born the responsibility for the nation.
Can he bear it?
This child is responsible for everything.
Can he hold up under it?
We learn from the descriptions that are given the child in these four names:  "His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
As you read those names, I think you recognize they are more titles than they are a given name.
They are a representation of what this child is to stand for and accomplish.
He is first to be Wonderful Counselor.
Now, if you sang Handel's "Messiah" in a high school musical, you know that that was Wonderful, Counselor; the words were separated but probably meant to be together.
Wonderful Counselor:  Actually, the best translation is probably, "He will be a wonder of a Counselor."
What does that mean?
I have a daughter, my oldest daughter is a professional counselor.
And we visited down with family recently when the new grandchild had come, and so my daughter, not the mother of the child, just, at this point, an aunt.
[Chuckles]
That sounds strange:  My daughter is an aunt.
[Laughter]
She was wearing her counselor T-shirt.
And the counselor T-shirt said, "So what you're saying is," dot, dot, dot.
[Laughter]
Known as reflective listening.
What would a wonder of a counselor do?
Yes, give good advice.
That's what a counselor would do.
But only if I had understood you first that I could reflect back to you what your hurt, what your need was.
The Wonderful Counselor truly understands.
It's what we would be told about Jesus when He came, that He is able to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, because He was in all manner tempted like as we are and, yet, without sin.
He knew our hurts.
He knew our anguish.
He is a wonder of a Counselor, not just because He has a word to give us, not just because He has instruction, but because He knows the hurt; He knows the feeling that we go through, and He's able to sympathize with it.
I can remember in my own seminary training a professor one time saying, "There's all these different schools of counseling.
And you can say this method works for some people; this method works for.
But bottom line, what's the common denominator of all counseling that ultimately works?"
And the kind of scary answer was:  Somebody who understands and cares at the same moment.
And here is Christ being described as a wonder of a Counselor.
That is what we definitely need.
I thought of it recently when Austin Thurman allowed us to put within the E-community letter his own testimony.
Austin, bless his heart, was just willing to say what was in his heart.
He said, "When I declared myself as a Christian, I was like, 'Oh, now, life is going to be so awesome.'
But the more I saw it unfolding, the more it was actually hard.
To this day, it's a struggle for me to cope with the fact that I'm a sinner.
But knowing that I can definitely find comfort in God and know that God has a purpose for my life, I can go on."
How amazing is that?
To say, "I can be known by God."
I don't have to put on a mask.
I don't have to put it in front of you.
I don't have to put it in front of him.
God can know who I am.
I have regrets.
I have sin.
I have things that are not right in my life.
And at the same moment, to say, "Even though I am a sinner, I know that God has purpose and reason for my life."
Because I'm not just worshipping one who is a Wonderful Counselor:  He is at the same time a Mighty God.
That's the title that's given to Jesus here is He is able.
Think of this:  Even while He is the babe in the manger, to uphold the universe by the word of His power, He is that baby who in His humanity is not even speaking yet.
And, yet, in His divinity, at the very same moment, holds the world and the stars in space by the word that comes from His lips.
It's an incredible statement of power that you and I need, because when we have confessed out of our hearts out regrets to this Wonderful Counselor, we need to know that He can do something about the statement.
Like He could take the penalty for our sin upon Himself and taking the penalty of our sin upon Himself and paying the ultimate price, His own death, He could then have the power to rise in victory over it as a Mighty God, the victor over it all, the one who conquered death and sin.
Because He's not just a Wonderful Counselor:  He is a Mighty God.
[Applause]
But then I would be afraid of Him.
I mean, if that's all I knew about Him, that He had that kind of power, that the lightning bolts and the thunder were all Him, I would be like the Hebrews of old and I would say, "No, I don't want to get close to Him."
And so we are told He has another attribute, which is in his title.
He's not just the Mighty God.
He is the Everlasting Father.
At the very same moment that His power's on display, His understanding is there.
He is one who holds us precious to Himself.
As I listened to that radio program of people giving their various regrets, I will tell you the one that I struggled the most to keep listening to was the man who said he had not left his church soon enough.
He was attending the church of Warren Jeffs, the cult leader who was ultimately imprisoned for molesting children, many children.
And this man had raised his family in that church.
He said the reason he finally pulled away is there came that moment in which the edict came from the leadership of the cult that you had to take away the children's toys, that they were to know happiness only through the church and what it provided.
So even toys were to be taken away.
He said he could take no more.
At that point, he took his family out.
And on their first day out of the cult, he said he took his children to see "Despicable Me" in 3D.
[Laughter]
He said they'd never even seen a movie and this was the first one.
And because they were seeing "Despicable Me" in 3D, he said the children, you know, were just entranced, occasionally dodging whatever was coming at them in 3D.
[Laughter]
But he said while they could not take their eyes off the screen, he could not take his eyes off his children, as he saw their joy, as he saw them bounce in their ste--, seats with happiness.
He was entranced, captivated by the joy of his own children.
Such is the joy of the Everlasting Father for you.
Do you remember?
It's what He says.
"I will rejoice over you with singing.
He will take great delight in you.
In His love, He will no longer rebuke you," says Zephaniah.
He will rejoice over you with singing.
This is our God who is representing Himself in the Son, who is the Baby in the manger saying, "Even His title is that of a Father who loves."
He takes the character from His own Father and He says, "This is what I will be to you.
It's what He said in the gospel of John:  "I will no longer leave you orphans.
I will be a Father to you."
And that understanding of this one who holds us precious is saying:  He doesn't just recognize our sin for what it is because He's a wonder of a Counselor; and He doesn't just take care of it because He's a Mighty God.
But then He continues to love us as a Father, knowing the worst about us, caring for us, and delighting in us.
Do you recognize in the titles there's the actual progress of the gospel?
Right?
If He's the Counselor, He knows our sin.
If He's a Mighty God, He takes care of it.
And then if He's a Father who is everlasting, He continues to care for us.
If you knew that, your sin could be confessed and taken care of and the Father would still love you.
What would you have then?
You would have peace from the Prince of Peace.
And, ultimately, that's the title He gives us to say, "Here's the culmination.
Here's what is being offered."
This is the greatest gift of all, because you know when the peace comes that everything else has been taken care of.
And, yet, sometimes the peace is so hard to find in a life of regret.
I want to tell you honestly one of the things that pastors struggle with the most is depression, the depression that is in others, the depression that's in themselves.
I mean, we have easy explanations at times.
We can say:  What causes depression?
Sometimes sin.
Sometimes terrible situations in peoples' lives that are not sin-caused at all.
Sometimes it's disease of one sort or another.
Sometimes it's totally inexplicable.
And the person who may struggle the most with inexplicable depression is the Christian leader who knows all the answers, who knows all the explanations, who can cite all the verses and still goes through the horror of walking in darkness.
I read of a pastor who was honest enough to talk about his own struggle, where he got to the point where he could not stand up in the pulpit; he could not do anything and sought the help of another pastor.
And the other pastor was wise enough to say, "I can give you no answer that you don't already know.
So here's what we're going to do:  You come to my house every week.
And you come to the house, and we are just going to listen to praise songs, and I will sit on the sofa and listen to you if you want to say something, if you just want to cry.
I'm not going to say anything.
We're just going to listen to praise of God."
And the pastor said, "My depression was intractable and unexplainable, but week after week I listened to praise of God until He lifted me up again.
I learned two things from this experience.
The first one is that the Lord, a Mighty God, will fight for you.
I just sat and cried.
And the Lord slowly began redeeming my heart again.
The second thing that I had to understand was I could not get out of the pit by myself.
So the Lord showed me He loved me enough to get into the pit with me.
He is, after all, Emmanuel, God with us.
Light into the darkness.
He came into the darkness.
When I thought I had exhausted His grace, I would look up and He was still there with an ocean of it left.
Because of my sin and my depression, I was waiting for God to backhand me.
But He never did.
He said, 'I love you now at your worst.
You have only to be silent.
I, your Lord, will fight for you.'
I love it, because I know in the moments of my sin and depression and darkness, I can't get out of it.
He has to get me out of it."
That's what many of you know too.
You have to recognize in a world of sin, of hardness, of a fallenness, there will be the regrets.
But what you and I face in a time of regret is not the regret:  We face the Lord who says, "I will make this right with Myself; I will be with you.
I am a wonder of a Counselor.
I am a Mighty God.
I will be your Everlasting Father.
And I will be a Prince of Peace in your life."
Why should you care?
Why should you care about a child of four names?
Because the Prince of Peace is not just a name of power:  It's a name of preparation.
He is going to be the King of Peace.
The Prince of Peace is one who says, "I have a kingdom in preparation."
And verse 7 is simply telling us what that preparation is all about.
Do you remember?
This one who has the four names, verse 7, "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end."
It's a balloon being blown up.
"Of the increase of his government and peace."
It's just this expanding kingdom.
It's becoming universal.
"On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore."
This influence of God is going to expand and expand, becoming universal and ultimately eternal.
It's following the covenant that God made with David:  "I will make you an eternal king through your seed," which became Christ.
But ultimately we recognize this has not yet run its full course.
It's not yet universal, this kingdom.
It is eternal, but it has not conquered the world.
What does that mean?
But that this is chapter 1, and chapter 2 is still to occur.
He is coming back.
And we prepare with this light of the Child of God, because He comes back to reign as King.
And our hearts are to be prepared to understand if my life is full of regret, if there are things that I have got to deal with, I should not regret anything if He, the King of Peace, is my King too.
When you know that, then life has no regrets that Christ cannot make right.
A holiday gift from a well-intended mother a few years ago came to Etta Thoresen.
She was in jail when it came, on drug charges.
The gift came from her mother.
It was bus fare for a rehab clinic.
Etta knew she needed help, took the bus fare, headed to the rehab clinic in California.
The bus had to make a stop at the bus station in L.A.
And as she went to a lunch counter with just a couple of bucks in her pocket, a guy in the line started to talk to her.
He said, "Where you raised in Alaska?"
"Yes."
"Are you on your way to a rehab program?"
"Yes."
"Is your mother's name Meg?"
"Yes."
"Etta, I'm your father," he said.
"I met you ten years ago, and your mother gave me a call now to come and give you a few dollars so you could have some lunch."
He took out a little wad of money, gave her 40 dollars and said, "Don't say I never gave you nothin'."
And then he walked away.
She later said, "I never saw him again.
It made me sick.
I thought we would sit down and we would eat together and we would tell each other our life stories, but it didn't happen.
Mostly, I just wanted to study his face.
Why didn't I run after him?
I'd spent my whole life wondering about the man, and suddenly I had the chance to talk to him and I didn't hold onto him.
I'd regret it so."
What did she regret?
That she never really knew her father.
She really never understood or saw his face in a way that she could recall it.
Some of you wonder the same thing.
I want somebody who will care for me, who will keep me, who will hold on.
And so what God has done in a marvelous revelation of light for the darkness of your regret is He has described Himself in the person of His Son.
"Here's who I am," He says, "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Open your heart to Him.
He has shown you what He looks like.
And there'll be no regret, no regret, as you turn your life to Him.

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