Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Good afternoon.
Let's pray together. Our Father, who art in heaven, you've asked us to call you that. And it's interesting that you didn't teach us to pray my father, though you are my father, but you called us to say our father because it's something we should do together. We should pray together. We should worship together.
We should serve together. We should study the word of God together. And we're thankful for that.
So now as we're gathered together in this place with your family, our church family, We ask you to bless this time as we open up your word. And we ask you to speak to our hearts. We commit this all to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You can all be seated.
Well, today we're wrapping up our Jesus and You Old Testament series. And the title of my message is The Name That Changes Everything. And I want you to turn to Isaiah 9. And we're going to look at verse 6 in a few moments. Once again, the title is The Name That Changes Everything.
So I heard about a guy who had the unfortunate last name of Odd. Imagine going through life with the name of Odd. You can anticipate what people said to him. Oh, that's Odd. What a weird last name.
That's Odd. He got so tired of hearing that throughout his life, so he gave instructions that upon his death, he wanted his tombstone left blank. He didn't want anyone to comment on his name any longer. And so he did die. They buried him.
And just as he requested, his tombstone was left blank. People would walk through the cemetery and they would read the inscriptions on other tombstones. And when they came to the blank tombstone, they were overheard to say, That's it. How many of you have heard this joke before? What do you want, a medal?
How many of you have never heard this joke before?
Okay, more of you. How many of you have heard the joke before, thought it was still kind of funny? Raise your hand.
Okay, how many of you who have not heard it before, that's a good joke. Raise your hand.
How many of you who have heard it before and never want to hear it again? Get out. No, you don't have to get out. That's all. Names matter.
People spend a lot of time thinking about what to name their children.
Sometimes people even go to court to have their name changed. And then you might get stuck with a nickname. How many of you got stuck with nicknames in your childhood? Oh, I had one and I did not like it. My nickname was Pogo.
I was named after a cartoon character called Pogo the Possum. There he is. Because apparently one of my aunts saw me as a little baby and said, well, he looks just like Pogo the Possum. I didn't quite see the resemblance.
So I went through my entire childhood being known as Pogo.
Well, of course, my name was Gregory. I was named after an actor that was popular back then, Gregory Peck. But my name has fallen out of favor. It used to be a very popular name. Not any longer.
It's not even in the top 1,000. Nobody names their kid Greg or Gregory. But don't get me started on the name Karen, okay? That name has really dropped in popularity. You know, in the 60s, it was like in the top five.
Lots of Karens. But since whoever that woman was named Karen, who did whatever it is she did, and then it became the thing we use to describe bad behavior, unfortunately from women, now it has dropped down to 4,800. That's pretty low. but uh and then there's all these kind of trendy names that people use now you know river sorry river there's actual river here uh river sky wolf legend apple sounds like they're naming their kids after scented candles i don't know but so there's all these names that we go through life with and then there's people who change their names because they wanted to show business for instance have you ever heard of Archibald Leach? Probably not, but he was better known as Cary Grant.
Norma Jean Mortensen became Marilyn Monroe. Francis Gumm became Judy Garland. This is interesting. Karen Johnson became Whoopi Goldberg. I would think that would almost be the reverse.
Like your name was Whoopi Goldberg and you change it to Karen Johnson, but it's the opposite. Thomas Mappather, I think I'm pronouncing it right. The fourth became Tom Cruise. Reginald Kenneth Dwight became Elton John. Peter Gene Hernandez became Bruno Mars.
Aubrey Graham became Drake. Calvin Broadus became Snoop Dogg. And Gordon Summer became Sting. David Hal Evans became The Edge. And Paul Hewson became Bono.
Brian Hugh Warner, they got the thing out of order, Brian Hugh Warner became Marilyn Manson. And Vincent Furnier became Alice Cooper. There he is, Alice Cooper. And Arnold Jerry Dorsey changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck. It seems like Engelbert Humperdinck would change his name to Charles Dorsey, but the opposite took place.
Well, I want to take those names to talk about the most important name ever given to any person. I bet you can guess who it is. Can you? It's Greg. No.
It's Jesus, of course. And remember the angel Gabriel came to both Mary and Joseph, told them they would have a child. And Gabriel said, and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus Christ. It's a name above all names.
If you don't believe me, just use it in a conversation. Try doing it in a crowded room or in a restaurant. Just be talking about anything and just say, well, you know, Jesus Christ says people will stop. They'll look over at you for a moment. People use it to punctuate their sentences.
People use it as a form of profanity. Isn't it interesting they don't use other names? They don't, when they're angry, say, oh, Buddha, what was that? You know. They use the name that is above all names, Jesus Christ.
And in a backhanded way, they're acknowledging there's power in that name. It's a name that divides time. It's a name that changes life. It's a name that everyone will bow before one day at the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Well, that brings us to Isaiah 9.6. He talks about what Jesus will do. And he gives us different names, if you will, or titles or descriptions of Jesus. And by the way, this was written 700 years before Jesus was born. My wife was making me breakfast this morning.
And she said, what are you speaking on today? And she made me a great meal. What was it? You know better than I do. Huevos Ranchero.
That's exactly right.
So you follow me on social media. It looked good, didn't it? It's on Instagram, Facebook. I even put it on X. It's everywhere.
Okay.
So she's making me huevo ranchero. And then she said, what, they put it up on the screen. Let's see that again. Look at that. I had that for breakfast.
But that may be why I'm forgetting things all of a sudden. I don't know. But she asked me, what are you speaking on today? I said, Isaiah 9, 6. She said, it's a little early for Christmas, isn't it?
I said, first of all, Christmas starts after Halloween, in case you don't know. And number two, this is not about Christmas. It's just a verse about Jesus. You know this verse well. I'll put it on the screen.
Let's read it out loud together. Isaiah 9, 6. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Don't you love that verse? It really tells us about Jesus from both an earthly and heavenly perspective. Unto us a child is born. That's how we saw him on earth. The little baby was born in the manger of Bethlehem But from heaven perspective a son was given For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son So we saw his entrance into our world, but he departed heaven to come and walk among us.
You see, the birth of Jesus was not his beginning. He's always existed. He's without beginning or end because he's God. Micah understood this when he wrote in Micah 5 too. But you Bethlehem, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth one whose origins have been from everlasting.
And that word everlasting can be translated the vanishing point. You see, before there was a world, before there were planets, before there was light or darkness, before there was matter, before there was anything, there was the Godhead and there was Jesus. Jesus Christ, co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit and he left heaven to come and walk among us as a man. He walked in our shoes, he breathed our air, he lived our life, he died our death, then he rose again. And then he laid his life down for each and every one of us.
So as I mentioned earlier, this is the end of our series called Jesus and You in the Old Testament. And by the way, we're starting a brand new series next Sunday in the Gospel of Luke. And it's called the Gospel for Everyone.
So I want you to read ahead Luke chapter 1. You can read as much as you want, but at least read Luke chapter 1. And it will parallel beautifully with Christmas as it gets closer. But coming back to what we're talking about in this series, we've looked at Jesus and his appearances in the Old Testament. Jesus said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad.
So Jesus was effectively saying, look, people, I knew Abraham. I talked with Abraham.
So we know that Jesus made an appearance in the Old Testament to Abraham. We assume it was when Abraham was preparing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God, and the angel of the Lord appeared and stopped him. And we believe that was not an angel at all, but it was what we call a Christophany, an appearance of Christ. Then we know that Jacob wrestled with an angel who he later said he believed was God, and he called the place the face of God where he wrestled with his angel. We believe that too was another Christophany.
Jesus appeared to Joshua before he conquered Jericho. He also appeared to Gideon when he faced the Midianites.
So he made all these Old Testament appearances because Jesus is in the Old Testament concealed and he's in the New Testament revealed. But now we come to this beautiful passage that tells us what his mission is. And it tells us more about his character. It's sort of like a diamond with many facets. You hold it up to the light and you turn it around and you see something different from every angle.
In Isaiah 9, 6, it shows us all of these facets of the diamond as we talk about Jesus.
So let's start with the first part. And his name will be called Wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. I want to mention also that I want to thank Warren Wiersbe for his great outline on this particular verse in his book. his name is wonderful.
So his name is wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. The word wonderful obviously comes from the root word wonder. And I wonder if we have not lost our sense of wonder in this modern world of tech. As Blaise Pascal said in the 17th century, quote, all of humanity's problems stem from the inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
And if that was true in the 17th century, how much more true is it today? We all carry these devices around with us. You can't stand in a line to get coffee or anywhere else without pulling that phone out of your pocket. No one talks to each other anymore. We stare at the phone.
Even when we come to a light in our car, pull out the phone, start scrolling. We're so distracted by this. And these phones are super computers. computers. NASA engineers say a modern cell phone has more computing power than all of NASA had during the Apollo mission.
Can you imagine that? That little device you carry in your pocket has more computing power than all of NASA had when they landed people on the moon.
So it's an incredible thing.
So here we now have access to the greatest libraries in the world, but we watch cat videos all day long. It makes no sense at all. And we have smart homes and smart cars and smart TVs and we stream movies and 8K to our game consoles and we have VR headsets where we can travel the world and see more real than reality at times. And now Elon Musk is building humanoid robots. Here's a picture of one of them.
And you can purchase these now. This particular robot is called Optimist. It can walk, it can lift objects, learn tasks, and more. Then on top of that, you have AI that is changing everything before our very eyes. And yet with all of this tech literally exploding around us, you'll have someone say, usually young, I'm bored.
Gene Twenge, a researcher on Gen Z, said, and I quote, we have a generation that is constantly stimulated, yet more bored, anxious, and restless than ever, end quote. I think that's true. And you see that they have iPad holders and baby strollers now. Is this a good idea? Experts say we're actually remapping the brains of these children and exposing them to all of the stimuli that we don't even know what the long-term effect of it all will be.
And I think there has to come a moment where we put the cell phone away, we put the iPad away, and we go out in God's creation and just get our sense of wonder back again, right? Yesterday, I saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. I said, Kathy, come look at the rainbow. And I took a picture of it. Have you ever noticed that rainbows don't photograph well?
It's almost like the Lord wants us to just enjoy them and not photograph them. By the way, the rainbow belongs to us. We want it back now. We're taking it back. God gave it to us as a symbol of a promise that he made to all of us.
So whenever you see a rainbow, be reminded of the simple fact that God keeps his promises.
So his name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. That word wonder can be translated as amazement, surprise, astonishment, admiration, bewilderment, worship. Maybe the best word to put in its place would be awesome. His name will be called awesome.
Now I think people believe that people in California, specifically Southern California, use that word constantly. Oh, that's awesome, dude. you know. Maybe we say it occasionally. And we do use the word a lot.
You'll say, oh, that's an awesome car. That was an awesome sunset. That was an awesome taco. God is awesome. If you want to get technical, only God is really awesome, awe-inspiring.
We sing, our God is an awesome God, and so we should.
So his name is wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. When Jesus came, the angels came to the shepherds and announced his birth. And we read, when the shepherds shared what had happened, all that heard it wondered at these things, told them by the shepherds. Everything Jesus did was wonderful.
His birth was wonderful. His life was wonderful. His death and resurrection were wonderful. Everywhere he went, he created wonder. Walking on the water, healing the sick, even raising the dead.
The more you know of Jesus, the more you will say he is wonderful. And all of that wonder will lead to worship and a desire to know him better. Ordinary people experience extraordinary things because of the wonder of Jesus. His name shall be called Wonderful. Again, that takes care of the dullness of life.
His name is Counselor. That takes care of the decisions of life. You know, people will go to Google, chat GPT Grok for answers to life questions I read about a young man who said that his chat bot had become his best friend Dude you need to get out more I read a story about a young woman that literally married her AI avatar Actually had a wedding ceremony. This is insane, people. Here is the creator of the universe, the almighty God, who is saying, I want to be your counselor.
I want to reveal my will to you. and we turn to all these other places for direction. You know, well, some people will say, well, I'll just follow my heart. What does that even mean?
Well, the heart wants what the heart wants. Shut up. I mean, stop. What are you really saying? Are you saying you're gonna follow your emotions or you're gonna follow your intuition?
Well, it's just my heart.
Okay, problem. The Bible says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things who can know it. Your heart can mislead you. Your emotions and even your intuition can mislead you. But God's word will never mislead you.
This is where you need to look for direction. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. God wants to counsel you. And when we read that, it just reminds us that God has a plan for our life. Did you know that?
God has a specific plan for your life that is actually unfolding right now. And he's gonna reveal that plan as you study the word of God. Another interesting thing about our counselor is he loves us.
Now, people who counsel folks for a living are advised to never get emotionally involved with them. Don't get emotionally involved with your patient or your client.
Well, our counselor, the mighty God, loves us and is very involved in our lives. He doesn't just love us. He prays for us. Jesus said in John 17, Father, I pray not just for these alone, but for those that believe on me through their word.
So he was praying for us in the future, and the Bible says he lives to make intercession. His name shall be called Wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. His name shall be called Counselor. That takes care of the decisions of life.
His name is Mighty God. that takes care of the demands of life. When Jesus walked this earth, it's important for us to realize that he was the God man. Not man becoming a God, that's impossible. But God becoming a man and walking among us.
Here's a perfect illustration of it. One day the disciples and Jesus climbed into a boat and went out to the Sea of Galilee and a huge storm came. and he was asleep in the lower part of the boat. What could be more human than being asleep from an exhausting day of hard work and ministry?
So they woke him up and said, Jesus, we're gonna die, do something.
So he came up on the deck and he said, peace be still and the storm stopped. What could be more divine than stopping a storm?
So there was Jesus walking among us, the man who wanted to tell us how to know God and the man who was God. And it's an amazing thing. And he's the mighty God and he has this power for you. All power is given to me. And he said, now go therefore into all the world and make disciples.
He said, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
Now power's a very appealing thing, especially to men. Men like power, all kinds of power, horsepower. Get some guys together with some cars. How much horsepower do you have under that hood? I think the new Corvette ZR1 has 1,000 horsepower.
Where are you going to use 1,000 horsepower? There's a Bugatti that has come out that supposedly is 1,500 horsepower and can go 350 miles per hour. Where are you going to drive?
Well, to have a suit. Yeah, okay. Hope you don't get a speeding ticket. I think it's just bragging rights. Or if you go to a gym with a bunch of guys, how much can you bench?
How much power do you have? We talk a lot about power. But God wants to give us power to live this life. Because sometimes it seems difficult.
Some will say, it's really hard to be a Christian. And I would have to agree it's hard. But I would take it a step further. It's impossible to be a Christian. It is impossible for me to love my enemies.
It is impossible for me to forgive someone who has hurt me. It is impossible for me to go the extra mile. I can't do it on my own. But then the apostle Paul writes, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. No, I can't do this on my own ability or my own power, but through Christ I can live this Christian life, and so can you.
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. But you need to be plugged into that power.
Now, if you have an electric car, you know you need to plug it in. Unfortunately, some people have tried to put gas in their electric cars. You don't want to do that.
So you want to keep that car plugged in just like you plug in your phone, right? And as Christmas gets closer and people get a lot of new gadgets and they'll try to figure out why they're not turning on or why they're not functioning, they'll call tech support and they'll be asked two questions. Number one, is it turned on? Number two, is it plugged in? It's incredible how many times it's not plugged in.
I'm going, I don't know, I can't get this working. Is it plugged in?
Well, of course, oh, I didn't plug it. It came unplugged somehow. And we get unplugged spiritually. How do we plug in? We plug in by reading his word.
We plug in through prayer. We plug in through being involved in church. We plug in in so many ways. His name shall be called Wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life.
His name is Counselor. That takes care of the decisions of life. His name is Everlasting Father. That takes care of the future of life. It's a reminder to us that as Christians, we will live forever.
Now I know that one day, if the Lord doesn't come first, and he could, we will die and we will be buried in the ground. But I also know there's a bodily resurrection. But even more I know that the moment I take my last breath on earth, I take my first breath in heaven. This is the hope of the Christian. And I have an everlasting Father that will welcome me into eternity.
And He will never abandon me. Not in this life or the afterlife. And you know when you think of a father, you look at our country today with so many broken homes and absentee fathers, this is a great comfort. I read recently that according to the Pew Research Center, almost one quarter, that's 23%, of children under 18 in the United States live with one parent. And specifically, that's probably their mother.
So one quarter of the American population is being raised without a father. One expert said this is the first fatherless generation. And of course you know when a father is not present, other issues are magnified. Children from fatherless homes are statistically more likely to face economic hardship, behavioral problems, drug addiction, depression, suicide, and the list just goes on. I know a little about this personally because as you know my mother was married and divorced seven times.
and she would marry some new guy who I'd never even seen before and she'd say, Greg, this is your new father. Call him dad. That got a little old. And then I found out that the man that was on my birth certificate and listed as my biological father was not my biological father. I was a result of a one night stand in Long Beach.
I was not planned. It's a good thing I didn't get named Oops instead of Greg. But despite the fact that my mother didn't plan on having me, God has always had a plan for my life, just as he has a plan for your life, right? But of all the guys my mother married, she married one man that adopted me. His name was Oscar Lorry.
He treated me as a father should treat a son.
So when people ask me, who's your father? I say, Oscar Lorry's my father. He wasn't my father because he helped bring me into the world. He was my father because he chose to stand in my world. You see?
And here's the thing. Once again, if you're going to applaud, just engage. Just full commit.
Okay, it's too late. But here the thing Even if you don have a father you can have father figures And I think this is where the church can really shine Men, I'm talking to you. You can be a father figure or a grandfather figure to a young person who maybe doesn't have a dad. I found a lot of that when I came to faith. And godly men like Chuck Smith and others that were an example for me, someone for me to look to because I didn't have that growing up.
And the church can supply that. We can be the family that people don't have. We can fill in those gaps for them. That's why the church is so important. And that's why it's so important to be involved in church and not just show up and get out as quickly as possible.
I know you don't like to get stuck in traffic. I understand that. But there's so much more to church than just come sitting, worshiping, hearing a message and leaving. It's being engaged and being involved. And that is why we encourage you all to be in a small group.
Did you know that over 4,000 people in our church are involved in small groups every week studying the Bible together? Are you in one? You really ought to be because you're going to find connection. You're going to find new friendships. And a big church is going to become a small church for you.
As I've often said, some things are learned in rows. And other things are learned in circles, like in a smaller group where you can engage and ask questions and contribute to the conversation.
So our church is a family, and we can make up for a family maybe you don't have biologically. It certainly did that for me. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. That takes care of the disturbances of life. And life is filled with disturbances, isn't it?
The storms of life that hit us. There's family troubles. There's work troubles. Relationship troubles. Health troubles.
But Jesus, the Prince of Peace says, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in me.
So he can bring peace in the midst of our storm.
Now this verse addresses our future. Look at verse six. And the government will be upon his shoulder. There's a bit of space in human history between unto us a son is given in verse six and then verse seven where the government will be upon his shoulder. See, when Jesus came the first time, a lot of people misunderstood what he had come to do.
They thought he was gonna overthrow the power of Rome and free the Jewish people. But they missed those portions in the Old Testament that spoke of the suffering Savior, the Messiah who would come and die for the sin of the world. They missed the graphic description of Isaiah 53 that showed us how Jesus would suffer. They missed that statement in Psalm 22 where it says, they pierced my hands and my feet. You see, before he will carry the government on his shoulder, he would first carry the cross on his shoulder.
So this part about the government upon his shoulder is in our future. It hasn't happened yet. This will happen when Christ comes again in the second coming and establishes his kingdom on earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Before he will wear that crown of glory, he had to first wear the crown of thorns.
So these five names of Jesus represent five dimensions of what every believer needs. His name shall be called Wonderful. That answers our disillusionment. His name shall be called Counselor. That answers our confusion.
He'll be the Mighty God. That answers our weakness. Everlasting Father. That answers our loneliness. And finally, He'll be the Prince of Peace, that answers our turmoil.
It's a name above all names, Jesus Christ. And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is the Lord. Every emperor, every atheist, every president, every pop star, every person will bow before him, including you and me. As I mentioned earlier, this series is called Jesus and You. And we've been talking about how Jesus engaged different people.
It's fascinating to note that Jesus never dealt with any two people in exactly the same way. The way that he dealt with the woman at the well, a woman living in a moral life, is different than the way he dealt with the religious man named Nicodemus, which is different than the way he dealt with the tax collector Zacchaeus, which is different than the way he dealt with other people. He always varied it and it was very personal. And that's what this is all about. That's what I was talking about to the folks in Utah.
I was saying you can have a relationship with God, you see. A personal relationship with him where he comes and takes residence in your heart. And you'll know it when he's there.
So if I ask you right now, is Christ living in your life? And you say, I'm not sure. that would indicate that maybe he isn't. I mean, think about it this way. If somebody moved into your house at three o'clock in the morning, would you be aware of that maybe?
Especially if they were cooking fish. I'm not suggesting Jesus is gonna do anything like that. But what I'm saying is, if someone is in your home, you'll know it. And if Christ is in your heart, you'll know it. And if you don't know it, maybe he's not there.
You say, well, what do you mean Christ in your heart? I don't know what that means. where you ask him to come to be your savior, your Lord, your God, your friend. Jesus says, I stand at the door and I knock. If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.
And actually what he says is, and I will sup with you. That's King James. We might update it and say, I'll have a meal with you. We'll develop this relationship. Do you have that?
If you don't, you can have it right now. You can ask him to come into your life to forgive you of your sin. And if you've never done this yet, I wanna close by giving you this opportunity so you can know he's wonderful.
So he can be your counselor.
So he can be your mighty God.
So he can be your everlasting father.
So he can be your prince of peace. He's just a prayer away. Let's bow our heads and pray.
Now, Father, I pray for every person here and anyone watching at various campuses or online. If they don't know you, Lord, let this be the moment they believe. Let this be the moment they ask you to come into their life to be their Savior and Lord.
Now, when our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, If you want him to forgive you of your sin. If you want to know that when you die, you will go to heaven. If you want him to give you a second chance in life, wherever you are, would you just lift your hand up and let me pray for you. And when you lift your hand, you're saying, I want Jesus today. I want this relationship with him now.
Pray for me. Lift your hand up wherever you are and I'll pray for you. God bless you. Lift your hand up higher where I can see it. And Christ can come into your life today.
God bless you. God bless you folks over there. Wherever you are, God bless you.
Now I can't see some of you, especially if you're in an overflow space, but you can take this little step of faith. God bless you as well. God bless you. Anybody else? Just raise your hand up saying, I want Jesus to come into my life today.
Let me pray for you. All right, God bless you. You that have raised your hand, just pray this prayer after me. You could even pray it out loud if you like. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead.
I repent of my sin now, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer in Jesus name I ask this amen God bless you hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast to learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God
