Untitled Sermon (7)

Advent Faith

Isaiah 11:1-9

Isaiah 2:1-5

***Isaiah 26:1-7 or 26:3-9

Children’s Church

Sermon Title , “A great God, a great Faith”

Isaiah 26:1-5?

*** LORD’S SUPPER

Read and Pray

Start right i

Hebrews 9:27

-Those who have not given their life in faith to Jesus will be judged guilty of their sin. As a consequence they will be cast into hell forever.

Those who have given their lives in faith to Jesus will live with Him forever. Why? Because they received the gift of forgiveness which comes through faith. Jesus took on their sin and paid for it on the cross.

This believer will live in a heavenly city with God.

In that day - The Christ Follower will see this great city described in Verse 1 & 2.

-If this is you, You will see a city that has walls made of the salvation of God - the most powerful walls ever made.

-The gates of the city will open, and you will enter it.

Christ will have defeated all his enemies. His enemies on earth. He will be the final eternal King of the earth.

His enemies in the spiritual realm (Satan and Demons) will have been cast into the lake of fire.

In that day = When Christ has come back to defeat all his enemies.

There will be a city = There is a city. It is the city of God. It is the new Jerusalem that comes after Jesus comes back.

It is a place of perfect protection.

The walls are made from the salvation of God.

Nothing can penetrate them.

-Jesus has already fought and has broken all of his enemies.

-Jesus has dominated and won over sin and all evil.

When we contrast the majestic King of the heavens to the Christ child we see a massive contrast.

You have a king in heaven who cannot be helped by anyone. There is nothing he cannot do for himself. No need that anyone can meet for Him.

The helpless Christ child who cannot meet any need for himself.

We celebrate God at Christmas, because God humbled himself as the weakest of human flesh.

He came in weakness & humility. 33 Yeats later, He rises from death to life as a powerful savior.

“He sets up salvation” We have not saved ourselves. It is God who sets up salvation.

Picture or Jerusalem was difficult to attack.

Jerusalem is on the top of a mountain (flat top).

It is surrounded by valleys with steep inclines to the city.

Then, you have to go over the walls.

The army of Jerusalem sees you coming literally a mile away and has plenty of time to get ready for you.

The walls of Jerusalem represented to the people the strength of the Lord.

What kind of strength does the salvation of God have?

A salvation that is strong enough to work well as the walls of a city.

A power strong enough to repel spiritual war.

A power enough to easily protect you from the enemy.

Transition - Because of the power of the salvation of our God there is peace not only in the City of God, but in those who have a heart for God.

AND, This can be you!

vs. 3 & 4 - Perfect Peace, the Fruit of Faith

Read verses, 3 & 4

What we have seen so far in on this passage is described perfectly in

Isaiah 9:6-7a

6  For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

[We have already looked at the child’s domination of government]

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7  Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,  

Let me ask you a personal question -

Do you worry? Do you get stressed out with both the little things or big things in life?

All of us have.

Amidst the worry & the stress.

God has promised to you, “PERFECT PEACE”

Literally in the original it means Peace of Peace.

We would say, Fullness of Peace.

It is God’s desire to bring peace into your life.

What is peace?

Peace is not the absence of stress or challenges.

Peace is an inward condition that is birthed out of FAITH. (X2)

-I have had friends who experienced extreme stress and anxiety in a community who sold their house and moved, only to find out later that they still struggled with great stress and anxiety.

-Their anxiety followed them because they were the source of it.

You trust God - HAVE FAITH IN HIM - and as a great fruit of FAITH, God promises you peace.

-Who does God give peace to? Vs. 3

-The Christ Follower who’s mind is stayed on Him.

Pause

Transition - Now I am going to take a liberty and make a pastoral statement. I would like to speak to a sensitive topic.

-There are people in our church family who have anxiety disorders.

-Because of an overwhelming struggle with anxiety you take medication for it. (True for depression as well.)

-I want to be very clear. There is a place for taking medicine when someone has been overwhelmed by anxiety and depression.

I want you to know that...

-Your pastor believes that the medication can be a wonderful grace from God. You will find zero shame from me. You should receive no shame from anyone else.

-If you need it, take it. It makes you no less of a person or a Christ Follower.

-Here is my caution.

-Do not allow the medication be an end in itself. Use it for what it is intended for. Drawing down the intensity of your anxiety.

As your intensity is drawn down by the medication, you can then focus on - CHANGING HOW YOU THINK. Changing how you approach life. Doing war against the lies we all struggle believing.

It is with the intensity of the anxiety drawn down that...

You can then begin to work on attacking the stinking thinking in your life.

ALL OF US HAVE Stinking thinking in our life.

-False views of self, God, Others.

 -2 Corinthians 10:5, tells us to take every thought captive to obey Christ.

But today we are focused on Faith.

Verse 3 tells us that Perfect Peace is a Fruit of Faith.

If you are anxious or overstressed, and you desire to have peace, you will have to change your faith.

How do I do that?

-Your thinking must retrain your mind to think trusting thoughts of God.

-You must take scheduled breaks throughout your day (5 minutes) and refocus your life on God.

-What if you set a timer on your phone every 3-4 hours that reminded you to take a moment in silent prayer. Praising Him and asking for His help.

-Your heart must allow faith to touch places that have not been surrendered.

Verse 3 makes a wonderful promise.

Read verse 3.

-Here is what I know.

-We all struggle keeping our mind “Stayed” [focused] on God.

-We go to church and during a prayer time we say, “God I trust you with this difficulty in my life.” By the time we get to the parking lot to get home we’ve snatched it back.

-I do that too.

Illustration - There is going to be a child who gets a bike for Christmas this year. It’s going to be the bike that the training wheels will come off of.

-It’s going to be the bike that dad holds on to the back of the seat as their child petals and wobbles down the street.

-The goal when riding the bike is to just stay up a little longer.

-Each attempt to balance, the goal is to just stay up a little longer.

-The biggest mistake is the child can make is to stop trying.

One of the biggest struggles we have in trusting God with our struggles is we stop trying.

-We give our struggle to the Lord. Shortly after we snatch it back. Our faith doesn’t last very long.

-I want you to view having faith like riding a bike.

-The goal isn’t to be a pro BMX rider the first time.

-The goal is to stay up (on your faith) a little longer than the

-When you fall off the bike of faith, get up and re-surrender to God.

-Don’t stay down! Re-surrender and try to trust him a little longer next time around. Slowly strengthen that muscle of faith.

Keep your mind stayed on the Lord.

Trust Him who holds the seat for you.

Transition - Why can we surrender to Him and trust (Have faith).

YOU COULD TEACH VERSE 4 SEPERATLEY

He is an everlasting Rock

Illustration -

Stone mountain was formed with magma pushed up through the earth’s crust.

It is 825 feet high, 5 miles around, & believed to go 9 miles deep into the earth. Stone Mountain is primarily one big stone. Estimated to weigh 1 trillion pounds.

It is so large and so strong, a direct nuclear blast would damage it, but not remove it.

-It is the closest thing we have in Ga to something that is an eternal rock.

-If you were on the ground on one side of stone mountain and a nuclear blast happened on the other side, you would not be directly effected by the blast. (There would be other complicating issues, but you’d be protected from the immediate blast.)

-If a giant rock, can shield you from a nuclear blast, what can The Eternal Rock of the Universe save you from.

-The onslaught of Satan of the enemy...

(MAYBE STOP AT VERSE 4).

Application to God being an eternal rock.

-

-Yet, He humbled Himself and came as an infant - to save His people from their sins.

We have 5 days until Christmas.

Some of us are like Mary, You have Jesus right in front of you, but you are running around trying to get everything just perfect.

God wants you to be like Martha, and sit at the feet of Jesus, have your mind stayed on Him. Locked on Him.

Transition - And verses 5-6 gives evidence of why we can have faith and trust Him.

vs. 5-6, God is in control over the powerful

vs. 5, God has crushed the city of the proud.

The city has been turned to dust

vs. 6 Even the poor and needy can follow the Lord and and stand on the dust of their enemy.

Here is what we know about the prideful.

The prideful will be brought to humility either in this life, or the ilife to come.

vs. 7, God makes level the path of His people.

vs. 7, It is God who controls the stress of my life, not me.

How did Jesus as a baby “make level the way of the righteous”.

vs 8, I wait for God, not rely on self

(Maybe stop at verse 8)

vs. 9 , 2 seperate thoughts in this verse, Seeking God intimately and God’s judgements.