Christmas Surprises (2)

The Winning Team

Isaiah 8:12–9:7 KJV 1900

Say ye not, A confederacy, To all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; And let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, And be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, That hideth his face from the house of Jacob, And I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me Are for signs and for wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: Should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, It is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; And they shall be driven to darkness. Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, Beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, And garments rolled in blood; But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 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, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Introduction:

"The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity."-Anonymous

"In the game of life, its a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieves you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season."-Anonymous

Isaiah 8

The Game

Man vs. God

1. Man

Isaiah 8:12 KJV 1900

Say ye not, A confederacy, To all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

In the game of life, men decide when to quit. Men decide what and who to fear. We call it “peer pressure”. Even though we say mainly youth deal with “peer pressure”, the truth is we all deal with “peer pressure”. Most of us tend to follow the crowd. This is true even in our churches..

Illustration:

It’s time to quit if:

I don’t get to play the position I want to play.

I don’t get to run my plays.

I don’t get put on the “highlight films” (recognition).

The other team is better.

Isaiah is told that although this looks like the winning team sometimes, that it is not. God says He is the One that is Holy. He is the One to be feared and dreaded.

2. God

Isaiah 8:13 KJV 1900

Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; And let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

God is the One Who sets the standards. We should not allow man to set the standards. God also tells us that He is the Leader of the victorious team, yet many people will never realize that.

The Plays

Every team has a playbook. A winning team must have a plan and those plans are found in the playbook.

1. Man’s Playbook

Isaiah 8:19 KJV 1900

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: Should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?

We find in this verse that man is consulting mediums and spiritists for help. We are reminded here that Satan has a false version of everything God has. Satan knows how to keep his team full. Satan definitely has a playbook. He runs trick plays and often they work. People see and hear what they want to. We see this still today with all of these “psychic hotlines”, astrology and online palm reading. I do believe that some of these things work.

In Exodus, we see God placing plagues upon the Egyptians because Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go. God changed the river into blood, but we see that Pharaoh’s magicians could do the same thing. The fact that they could do this kept Pharaoh from being convinced of God’s power. Now where do you think that came? Satan of course!

2. God’s Playbook

God writes His own plays. God also determines the time, the place, who is going to run that play, and how they are going to run that play. God is the coach of this team and although many times His plays may not make sense to us they do work if we will follow them completely. Sometimes we are tackled. Sometimes we are tired. But, if we are going to play on God’s team, we must follow His instructions.

The Winners

1. Man’s Team

Isaiah 8:21–22 KJV 1900

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, And curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; And they shall be driven to darkness.

This team may think it is winning, but ultimately this team will be defeated. Many players on this team will realize too late that they had been playing for the wrong coach. In fact, this team will find out that its coach has been lying to them about winning because he knows he is going to lose.

Unfortunately, this is one game that the losers cannot play over. Once the game is over, if you are on this team you are cast into outer darkness.

2. God’s Team

Isaiah 9:1–7 KJV 1900

Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, Beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, And garments rolled in blood; But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 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, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

This team seems to struggle at times because the players get tired and quit. The players argue with each other. The players tackle one another. The players try to get all of the glory. But, even with all of these problems, this team will still win.

The great thing about this team is anyone can be on this team. It does not matter how good or bad you are.

In verses

Isaiah 9:6–7 KJV 1900

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, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

we see Who the quarterback of this team is. This leader will lead His team to victory. Here is yet another Christmas Surprise.

Conclusion:

1. Notice that “to us a child is born, to us a son is given”.

2. This Christmas season we must realize that Jesus was born for us.

3. As Isaiah prophesied the birth of a Savior, he also prophesied the fact that many would never join the right team.

4. What team are you on?

5. If you are already on the right team, are you following the coach? Are you running the plays that have been called? Are you even playing in the game or are you sitting on the sideline?

As Christians, we know that we are on the winning team. What are we doing to enlarge our team?