Mighty God

One of the hardest decisions to make when getting married is how you are going to spend your holidays and which side of the family you will spend them with.

For us, we have figured out what works best. Since my extended family gathers for thanksgiving every year, we go to Southwest Georgia!

For Christmas, we go Birmingham to visit her family.

It has been fun to learn and share about each other’s traditions we grew up with!

My family every Christmas eve goes to see a movie and then is follows it with a ride through the Christmas lights in our local zoo.

We then go home and get to open presents from family members. The presents from Santa are opened on Christmas morning of course.

Caroline’s family watches Christmas Vacation every year!

I remember watching it with them for the first time and listening to her dad quote literally every single word. Every. Single Word.

What I learned the most about the difference between our families is not what leads up to Christmas morning, but the temperament of Christmas morning.

I was always the kid who was up at 1 or 2 a.m. sitting in front of the tree just staring at the gifts.

I have always been an early riser- but on Christmas I didn’t sleep!

After I would drag my sisters out of bed, mom would cook a quick breakfast and we would get to work…

Now there are two types of people-

The first type of Christmas morning people are the kind of people who pass the gifts out and take turns on Christmas morning opening gifts!

You people, do it right… It’s fun- we would go from oldest to youngest and go one by one until all the presents were opened!

This also provided ammo for who was the favorite child that year…. ;)

The second type of people are the people who fire the gun and all heck breaks loose.

Everyone is opening gifts, chaos ensues, and it all is done in 10-15 minutes…

This should be illegal. It shouldn’t be allowed…

Anyone in here do that? SMH

So no matter what group you’re in, you fit in one of those two categories…

Unless your Caroline’s family where you do something that is unbeknown to humanity…

What starts off as an amazing experiences becomes a slow death in their home..

They, too, pass out the gifts and go one by one…

But they are one of the nicest, most humble, most encouraging families I have ever met and it becomes their vice on Christmas morning.

Let me show you how it goes…

*Cue Diagram

Even though I share this just to start our time together on a fun note, I do want to end with pointing out something that is common in every family’s experience of opening gifts…

It’s the part where your gifts are made available to you because of the name written on it.

The older I get, the more I realize that I will always love looking to see if my name is on the tag or box of the present.

Because…

The question we will always instinctively ask is- Is this good thing meant for me? Or is it mean for someone else?

In our teaching team, we talked about how this question sits at the center of our passage for this Christmas series.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, will you turn to Isaiah chapter 9 with me as we read verse 6.

As I mentioned last week, moving forward I’d like to honor the reading of God’s word by standing together as it is read- so would you please stand!

After I am finished, I will state, “This is God’s Word.” and you will respond with “Thank you, God.”

Let’s read Isaiah 9:6

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 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.

This is God’s Word. (Thank you, God)

You can be seated.

In this passage are a list of names given to the coming Messiah, savior of the world, who we know now has been fulfilled by Jesus’ life on earth.

Last week, we talked about how Jesus is our wonderful counselor, the one who remains available with compassion and all wisdom.

Today, we are going to zoom into what it means for Him to be a “Mighty God.”

When we hear this title, we can all agree pretty quickly that, yes, He is mighty.

God is in fact mighty in the way He heals the sick and blind, casts out demons, raises the dead, calms the storms, etc.

After all a god who is not powerful or mighty at all can’t be God.

The challenge that we face is in believing that God is mighty for me, for you.

It’s believing that where life is hitting you the hardest, He will intervene. Or maybe in areas of life where the struggle is real, He is mighty enough to enact change for us.

Each of us are carrying a relationship, circumstance, or hardship into our service this morning.

Maybe you have been wondering when God is going to make a change in your life, someone else’s life, or maybe just answer the prayer you’ve been praying for some time.

Because of this, when you hear me say the name Mighty God, you agree He is mighty, but if you’re honest, you’re not sure if you will ever experience it in your life.

His might feels like the big gift under the tree that has someone else’s name on it…

If you feel this way this morning, know you aren’t the only one to feel it…

In fact, the people during the time when Isaiah wrote this book were experiencing similar feelings.

They believed God was mighty- they knew what He was capable of and had heard the stories of past generations.

According to their expectations, God was not acting mightily among them…

Notice what I am saying here- they had expectations… And if God wasn’t acting according to what they expected, it affected their view of God’s activity in their lives…

Yet Isaiah calls the coming messiah mighty…

During that time, there was serious political division that insighted great fears and even spiritual confusion.

In order to understand the weight of Isaiah 9:6, we need to go back to chapter 7.

The kingdom of Israel is divided as a result of spiritual decline.

The northern kingdom, who held the name of Israel, consisted of ten of the twelve tribes. The southern kingdom known as Judea, consisted of the other two tribes.

By the time we get to Isaiah 7, the relationship between the two kingdoms is bad… some would have said hostile.

Before we read a passage that provides context for us out of chapter 7, you need to know that sometimes the northern kingdom was given the name of “Ephraim.”

Ephram, the northern kingdom, had formed a military alliance with Syria, often called Aram, in hopes to be a great threat against the kingdom of Judea.

Their plan was to to march down, defeat Judea’s king, King Ahaz, and then prepare to defend the land against the rising empire of the Assyrians…

Look how Isaiah describes the climate of their day…

Isaiah 7:2 ESV

2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim (Israel’s Northern Kingdom),” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

All of that context to tell you this- their world felt unstable…

I bet their prayer requests, if there were any, were centered around God strengthening their military or praying for fire from heaven to wipe the enemy’s army out…

But in the immediate, they are feeling what might be similar to you this morning… Is God mighty for me?

This is the tension in Isaiah is prophetically speaking into.

After King Ahaz receives this news, the prophet Isaiah-

Remember the role of a prophet- the mouthpiece of God during this time, one who would speak on behalf of God-

He receives a word from God to King Ahaz in verse 4, look what he says.

Isaiah 7:4 ESV

4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands…

In other words, trust God! Trust that He is mighty and His might will be at work.

It is in this moment we see the table begin to turn- as a result of King Ahaz’s fear, God meets Him where He is at and declares that they will receive a sign that points to the activity of His might..

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Have you ever noticed that God’s kingdom functions in an upside down way?

Here is an example of this-

God’s might is going to be shown, not in a stronger military, not in the wiping out of the enemy… but in a child.

You know what a child cannot do?

Conquer. Lead armies. Fight a war.

This seems like it would be the opposite of might.

Yet this is how God expresses His might… This is how He shows He is active and working.

He tells them to stop thinking about How they would operate and trust the way God is working.

This child is purposeful. Intentional. There is more happening here than just the regular birth of an infant.

The prophet Isaiah says this child will be born of a virgin- not created by man but formed in the womb of a woman by God.

The name assigned to the child is a name we might have heard of before…

Immanuel.

Meaning, God with us...

Now many of you have already jumped the gun because of how familiar you are with this passage and prophecy- yes it is alluding to the coming of the messiah and is quoted in the Christmas story in Matthew’s account.

We will get to that in a second.

But before we do, we must finish the story here in Isaiah that will give you an even greater in depth understanding of the might of God then and even up until now…

Isaiah 7:15–16 ESV

15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

Essentially, what is being said is that this child, by the way, which was a real child born during that time, will be the initiation of the countdown clock for the destruction of Judea’s enemies.

It is through his birth that they would be reminded that God is with them and He will not forsake them!

But remember- this isn’t what the people would have drawn up as the plan…

Waiting for a baby to be born? When? How long will this take?

Maybe that’s the question you’ve been asking.

“God, I know you are mighty, but this circumstance is still a reality.”

“My prayer has yet to be answered.”

“I am still suffering.”

“I feel like I can never gain victory over this part of my past.”

To the one who is tired.

The one who is weary.

To the parent with a prodigal child.

To the couple who’s marriage is struggling.

To the family who recently experienced death.

To the the one gripped by crippling finances.

To the addict.

To the worrier.

To the one who is angry.

I want you to know this-

God is mighty…

His might may not be expressed in a way we’d choose it to be-

but it is expressed in the best way.

And here is your truth for this morning…

God’s life-changing mighty power is found in His life-changing ighty presence.

God being mighty for you is God being present with you.

Although that passage in Isaiah 7 was a real prophetic word for the people of their day, it is what we would call a dual fulfillment.

He was in fact prophesying for King Ahaz and Judea while simultaneously prophesying for the world…

We know this to be true because of Matthew’s account of what we know as the Christmas Story.

Matthew 1:23 ESV

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

This was the word the angel gave Jospeh to declare the coming of God’s son through Mary.

This message quoted Isaiah 7.

Joseph, a jew, would have been familiar with this story.

We now know that the angel was introducing a new truth- that this coming child would not just simply shift the landscape of Jospeh’s current political landscape-

But that this child, who would be named Jesus, would shift everything.

Jesus’ birth is miraculous.

Because, without His birth, we don’t receive His life.

Without His life, we don’t receive the truth we have today.

Without this truth, we don’t understand the significance of God’s plan.

Without God’s plan, we cannot endure this life with a hope for the next- made possible by His death and ressurection.

Without His death and ressurection, we don’t receive the Spirit- the physical and divine presence of God in us and with us.

Without the Spirit, we can’t experience change. We can’t receive peace. Truth is not revealed. Comfort is not extended.

God’s might is not experienced in the way we can experience it today.

“The coming of Christ into the world is the source of hope to mankind. Had he not come, we should have had no hope beyond the grave.” (Spurgeon)

Jesus’ birth changed everything.

This is God’s might- extended through a child- expressed in His presence.

Remember when I was talking about how looking for our names on the gift under the tree is one of the most exciting things?

Remember, grabbing a box to not find your name on it?

Well listen- this gift of God’s presence where God’s mighty is experienced… You may not feel like it is for you…

But your name is written on it.

It is in His presence that you are able to endure, gain victory, receive peace, rest in comfort, and are restored.

Draw to Him and He will draw nearer to you.

This doesn’t mean everything will turn out like you expected-

This does mean that you will experience God’s ways.

And God’s ways are the best ways.

Do you trust that this morning?

Will you receive His mighty presence this morning?

God being mighty for you is God being present with you.

*Gospel Invitiation.