A Hopeful Christmas: Our Hearts’ Desire

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at gregg.harvest.org. Again, it's gregg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. We have so many options to keep ourselves entertained, at least temporarily. Pastor Greg Laurie points to where real contentment is found. We've never been more advanced technologically. We have our social media. We're on TikTok. We're on Facebook. We're on Twitter. All of this is going on simultaneously while we're playing our video games. And many young people are saying, I'm bored.

But Jesus is wonderful. Jesus will take care of the dullness of life. Several decades ago, most homes had a TV that could receive maybe a half dozen channels.

That was it. Well, in March of this year, the FCC said there are currently 1,758 channels in the US, and many of us still flip around and complain there's nothing on. Could it be that we're looking in the wrong places to satisfy an internal desire? Today, on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see what our hearts are really longing for. Hope. It seems to be in short supply these days, doesn't it? A lot of people are in despair right now. They're worried. They're filled with anxiety. They're filled with hopelessness.

Maybe that's why drug use is up, alcohol use is up, in the days in which we're living. You know, it reminds me of how it might have been around 2,000 years ago, when the people of God had not heard from the Lord for 400 years. That's a long time. 400 years without a single angelic appearance. 400 years without a messenger from the Lord thundering God's word to them. 400 years since they'd seen a simple miracle.

And because of that, it appeared there was an icy silence from heaven. Yeah, things looked pretty bleak 2,000 years ago at the first Christmas, but everything was right on schedule. In fact, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, understood this when he said in Luke chapter one, because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

Yes, the Messiah was coming. Now, I want to focus on a passage of scripture that I think really sums up what Christmas is all about and why Jesus came in the first place. It's a passage you probably have memorized. Isaiah 9-6, and here's what it says. 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, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Have you ever noticed that that verse gives sort of a heavenly and an earthly perspective of what happened when Jesus came at the same time? From our perspective, unto us a child was born in a manger in Bethlehem. From God's perspective, a son was given. For us, it was an arrival. For God, it was a departure.

But listen to this. The birth of Jesus was not His beginning. Jesus is part of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He always has been. But what happened at Christmas, the Incarnation, as it's called, is God walked among us as a man. He breathed our air. He walked in our shoes. He lived our lives, and ultimately, He died our death.

It's such an amazing thing that all of this happened for us. And I want to go over those descriptions of Jesus given in Isaiah 9-6, because it shows how Jesus is sufficient to meet whatever need you have in your life. Let's start with this one. His name shall be called Wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. Bertrand Russell was quoted to have said, At least half of the sins of mankind were caused by the fear of boredom.

The word wonderful comes from the root word wonder. And think about all the tech we have today. We've never been more advanced technologically than we are right now. We have our smartphones. We have our tablets.

We have our mega screen televisions hanging on the wall. We have our social media. We're on TikTok. We're on Facebook.

We're on Twitter. All of this is going on simultaneously while we're playing our video games, and many young people are saying, I'm bored. But Jesus is wonderful. Jesus will take care of the dullness of life. But if you look to this culture or this world to find answers or fulfillment, you're going to come up empty.

There is nothing this world offers that will satisfy a person who is created to know God. I read an interesting interview with actor Ethan Hawke the other day when he first started out in Hollywood as a young actor. One of his contemporaries was River Phoenix, and he really looked up to him.

But tragically, River Phoenix moved to Hollywood and ended up in the fast lifestyle of that culture and tragically ended up dead of a drug overdose outside of the Viper Room in Los Angeles. And so Ethan Hawke in this interview made this statement, and I quote, drugs, alcohol, and depression are formidable opponents all over the world. People think getting what you want will make you happy.

But then he says, but a sense of self-purpose and love don't come from the outside. You can get so distracted by this culture that celebrates things that sometimes aren't what they seem. End quote. That's an understatement.

People get caught in the undertow of this culture. Take someone like Justin Bieber who's had more than his share of fame and adulation. And he made this statement, quote, hey world, this glamorous lifestyle portrayed by famous people on Instagram, don't be fooled and think their life is better than yours because I promise you it's not.

End quote. See, this is where God comes in. He's wonderful. The word wonder means he's amazing, he's astonishing, he's bewildering, he's beyond our human comprehension. You know, we have one word that really sums up God, awesome. We use that word a lot, especially here in Southern California. You know, people like to imitate Californians and it'll sound something like, whoa, that's awesome, dude.

Nobody in California talks that way, by the way. But we use the word a lot. Oh, that's an awesome car. Oh, that was an awesome taco. I hope you don't think a taco is as awesome as God. This is a word that really is reserved for the Lord alone. He's awe-inspiring.

He's wonderful. And this will add meaning and purpose to your life when you have a relationship with him. Medical science seeks to add years to your life, but only Christ can add life to your years. So for all of us, his name can be wonderful. But then Isaiah says his name is counselor.

That takes care of the decisions of life. Did you know that God Almighty wants to reveal his will to you? He has a specific plan for your life as an individual.

Psalm 73 says, you guide me with your counsel and afterward receive me to glory. But many will go to the local bar and pour out their troubles to the bartender or anyone who will sit around and listen to them. Others in desperation will spend thousands of dollars on therapy. Even others will go to a psychic trying to get some kind of an answer. Others might even turn to Google or Siri to try to find the answers to life.

Listen, I'm gonna tell you, here's where you're gonna find the answers. You're gonna find them in the Bible. God is a counselor. He's not only wonderful, he wants to bring his specific counsel to you. The Bible says, if any man likes wisdom, let him ask of God and the Lord will give it. You can have an appointment with Jesus Christ whenever you want it. He always has time for you. One dark night, a man named Nicodemus, a religious leader, had an appointment with Jesus. One afternoon, a woman from Samaria, who had tried to fill the hole in her heart with relationships with men, had an appointment with Jesus. And God is ready to make an appointment with you and be your counselor. And he's vitally interested in whatever you're facing. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, there is a blessing that the Jewish priests were to pronounce over the people.

And it went along these lines. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. If you ever wonder what that means, I think we understand the Lord bless you and keep you. But when the Bible says he'll lift up his countenance, it means God's gonna be paying attention to you.

You have God's attention. He's interested in what you're facing. He wants to be your counselor. His name is wonderful. His name is counselor. And he is the mighty God.

That takes care of the demands of life. As I pointed out, Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was not just a good man. He was the God man. Not man becoming God.

That's impossible. But God becoming a man. It's kind of hard to wrap our minds around the idea that that beautiful little baby, born in the manger of Bethlehem, was God almighty. He was deity in diapers. God came among us and walked among us.

Listen to this. Jesus became one of us without ceasing to be himself. He became human without ceasing to be God.

Unbelievable. But he is the mighty God, which means that he has all the power that you need in life. Whatever you're facing, whatever challenge, whatever difficulty, whatever addiction, the almighty powerful God has taken residence in your heart if you've put your faith in Jesus Christ. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment, right after a quick look at the way a new beginning touches the lives of listeners. 20 years ago, I gave my life to Jesus after listening to you on the radio. God bless you always. Thank you for leading me to Christ three years ago at the Harvest Crusade.

You had a major influence on my life, and I can't thank you enough. Early last year, I found the Lord and accepted him there at Harvest Christian Fellowship. God is so good. I'm happy to partner with you in your mission.

I pray God continues to bless you exceedingly, abundantly more than you could ask or think. Well, folks that know me know that I often end my message, no matter what the topic, with an invitation for people to come to Christ, because there's always someone out there that doesn't know the Lord. Maybe they're in the congregation. Maybe they're listening on radio.

Maybe they're watching online. And I want those people to know they can have a relationship with Christ. And I know that this is what God wants, because the Lord says he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So I like to throw the net. And as you know, if you listen to A New Beginning, we throw the net a lot.

And you know what? We see thousands of people come to Christ every year through our radio program alone. So that is why I'm thankful when you invest in our ministry, because you enable us to reach a lot of people that I could never reach otherwise.

They'll never darken the doorway of a church. But they might be turning the radio dial and come upon our show and say, well, what is this all about? And I've had more than one person tell me that's how they found our program and ended up listening and coming to Christ. So that's what we're all about. So when you support us, you help us to reach more people like the ones you just heard from with the message of the gospel. Yeah, and you can make a generous year-end donation today by going to harvest.org. Well, we're considering the nature of Christ today by way of a special holiday message called A Hopeful Christmas.

Let's continue. His name is Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. The Everlasting Father. This brings hope and encouragement to those who maybe grew up without a father in life. Maybe I'm talking to someone who came from a fatherless home or a broken home. Or maybe your father never had time for you.

Or maybe he was a harsh, abusive father. Regardless of how your father on earth was, I want to tell you, you have a father in heaven who loves you. I didn't have a dad growing up.

My mom was married and divorced seven different times, so I never had that father figure. But when I became a believer in Jesus Christ, suddenly I had a heavenly father looking out for me, that I could come into a relationship with. After Jesus rose again from the dead, he appeared to Mary at the empty tomb, and he said, I'm going to ascend and go to my God and to your God and to my father and your father. See, because of Jesus dying on the cross and rising again from the dead, now I can call God Almighty Father.

How did he teach us to address God in what we call the Lord's Prayer? Remember, our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the Bible even takes it a step further. It says God has not given you a spirit of bondage again to fear, but one of adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father. Now, the phrase Abba, Father doesn't mean a lot to us today, but it means a lot to someone who speaks Hebrew. In fact, if you're in Israel today, you'll see the little children calling their father Abba, and that's their version of daddy. So the Bible is not only saying that God can be your father, but it's saying he can be your Abba, your daddy, your papa, if you will. He is the everlasting father. And everlasting reminds us it's eternal. It reminds us that he'll be my father on earth, and he'll receive me into heaven where I will go one day because I put my faith in Jesus Christ. And it says also here in Isaiah 9, he is the prince of peace.

That takes care of the disturbances of life. You know, in the storms of life, we long for peace within. In our crazy culture, with so many uncertainties in the air, an uncertain economy, you're uncertain about your health, you're uncertain about so many things, it's great to know that he can be your prince of peace. When the angels appeared to those shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, remember what the message was? It was glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men with whom God is well pleased. The way you have peace is by having a relationship with God.

When your life is well pleasing to God, you can experience this personal peace. Now, Isaiah shifts gears, and he says, and the government will be upon his shoulders. This is speaking of a future event. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the government will be upon his shoulders. Now, there's a lot of time between the birth of Jesus and the return of Jesus. When Christ comes back again, we'll have a perfect government. And we want that, don't we?

There's so much corruption in government, no matter how you vote. And one day, there'll be a perfect government of righteousness. But that will not happen through political channels. It will happen when Jesus Christ returns again to this earth and establishes his kingdom. And he will reign righteously as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But listen to this. Before Jesus would take the government upon his shoulders, that's a future event, he would first take the cross upon his shoulders. He came to die on a cross.

We don't like to think about that. We like to think of that beautiful little baby in the manger, bathed in blue light. But that little baby came with a purpose, a mission, to die for the sin of the world. Remember those wise men that came a little bit later in the Christmas narrative? And they brought to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Curious gifts to bring a child. How about a stuffed camel?

No. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They had an insight as to the mission of what Jesus had come to fulfill. Gold because he was a king. Frankincense or incense because he would be our high priest representing us to God. And myrrh? That was an embalming element.

They understood that he was coming to die for the sin of the world. So I want to say to you in closing, red is the color of Christmas. You say, well why? Because Santa wears red or poinsettias are red?

No. Red is the color of Christmas because that is the color of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for the sin of the world. That's why he came. Because God knew way back that we would sin against him. He knew we would break his commandments. And so in the Garden of Eden the Lord gave the first passage that points to the arrival of the Messiah when the Lord said to Satan, there is coming one who will crush your head but you will bruise his heel.

And when Jesus came, he was born, he lived his perfect life and then he went to the cross and he crushed Satan and he rose again from the dead and we can come into a relationship with him right now. But first we have to receive the gift. Christmas is about giving gifts isn't it?

I hope you've done all your Christmas shopping. If you're like me you forget some people and have to go out and get them a gift at the last minute. But you know you give a Christmas gift to someone.

You say Merry Christmas. Hopefully they reach out and say thank you very much and they open it. Now ladies are usually more polite about a gift. If there's a card with it they'll open the card. They'll read the card. Sometimes they're visibly touched by what they read. They'll say thank you and then they'll carefully open it. Oh I'll save this ribbon for later and carefully undo it.

You know I might you know I might use this another time. Guys are very different. Now if you give a card to a guy he'll look at it but he's not reading it all right. The only reason he opened it is he's hoping there's gift cards in it or there's some money. He'll throw it aside and wrapping paper to a man is a mere obstacle.

He just wants to get it off as quickly as possible. Doesn't really matter how you open your Christmas gift. Just open it. Listen to this. God is a gift for you. It's called the gift of eternal life. The Bible calls it the unspeakable gift which is another way of saying the indescribable gift.

And by the way this is the only gift that keeps on giving. In fact I think this gift of eternal life only grows more precious with the passing of time. You know when you're young and you're told that if you ask Jesus to come into your life you'll go to heaven one day you think well that's nice but I'm kind of looking for meaning and purpose in this life.

But as you get older well like me and you realize you're closer to the end than you are to the beginning all of a sudden that eternal life part becomes even more precious to you. This hope that you can spend all eternity with the Lord in heaven. Well if you want a gift you receive it. So God is offering you a gift. This gift was purchased for you by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago. And if you want this hope of heaven if you want your sin forgiven you must receive this gift.

The Bible says for as many as received him he gave them the power to become sons of God. So in the same way if I'm going to offer this gift to you you must say I accept this gift. And God is offering you this awesome gift of eternal life. But you must say I accept it.

You say well I don't even know what that means. It means you say to the Lord in prayer I need Jesus to come into my life. I need him to forgive me of my sin. I want to know that when I die I will go to heaven.

Jesus born in that manger living that perfect life dying the death on the cross for our sins and rising again from the dead is standing at the door of your life and he's knocking and he's saying if you hear my voice and open the door I'll come in. In a moment I'd like to pray with you and pray a simple prayer that a child could understand. A simple prayer that you're offering to God where you're saying Jesus come into my life forgive me of my sin I want a relationship with you. Listen if you want Christ to come into your life if you want him to forgive you of your sin if you want to discover that awe of God that I talked about where his name will be wonderful to you where he'll be your counselor your mighty God then just pray this prayer after me. Again I'll just pray this prayer you could pray it out loud after me. This is where you're asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. Pray with me now if you would.

Pray these words Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you're the savior who was born in the manger of Bethlehem who died on the cross of Calvary and rose again from the dead. Now Jesus I ask you to come into my life and be my savior and be my Lord and be my God. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus name I ask this amen. Pastor Greg Laurie closing with an important prayer with those making a decision for the Lord. An appropriate way to close today's study on a new beginning with our celebration of the Lord's birth just a couple of days away. And if you've just prayed with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely your sins have been forgiven.

Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we want to help you get started living the Christian life. We'd like to send you our New Believers Growth Packet. Just ask for it and we'll send it free of charge.

Request it when you write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or when you call 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Well here during this Christmas season we want to make available a special gift for you. Perhaps you've heard of this. It's the critically acclaimed TV series called The Chosen. It's a gripping cinematic portrayal of the life and ministry of Jesus.

It's as though you're right there beside the Lord as he walks through life. It's the kind of series that will speak to believers and non-believers alike. It's directed by Dallas Jenkins, the son of Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins.

He's produced over a dozen films for Universal, Lionsgate, Pure Flix, and others. Maybe you've seen the trailers for The Chosen online. Anne Graham Lotz said she was moved to tears and to worship as she watched. Pastor Greg has said literally millions of people have been getting to know the authentic Jesus through this series. And we want to send season one of The Chosen to you on DVD to thank you for your investment in the ministry of A New Beginning. And your donation helps us reach out with a gospel not only through this program but also through Pastor Greg's large-scale evangelistic events. It's such an important time for that work.

Hearts are hungry. We even saw it several weeks ago at SoCal Harvest. One person wrote us and said, can you believe how many people are here? We came from Los Angeles, and frankly, we would have driven across the country to be here.

We wouldn't have missed this for the world. It's such an important time to reach out with the love of Christ, and your investment makes that work possible. And with your donation right now, we'd like to send you season one of The Chosen. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning, box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. And we have operators who can speak with you by phone anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, Pastor Greg brings enlightening perspective on when Christ came and why He came. It's a look at the importance of Christmas from a heavenly perspective. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions, and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.