The Hope of Christmas - Wonderful Counselor, Part 1

Even though Christmas is right around the corner, maybe you're feeling a little down, maybe even really discouraged or hopeless. If you need some encouragement, let me tell you, we have a word for you today from the God who made you.

Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program motivating Christians to live like Christians. Well, with Christmas just around the corner, we're going to highlight the first message of our meaningful series, The Hope of Christmas. And sadly, as Chip just mentioned, this time of year has become stressful and anxious for many people instead of a time filled with joy. So if you're struggling with the demands of this season, settle in for Chip's message from Luke chapter 10. He's going to remind us why Christmas is the best opportunity to celebrate real hope no matter what. To learn how to make that happen, join us after the message as Chip shares some practical advice that'll challenge your status quo this Christmas.

Okay, here's Chip now for his talk, Wonderful Counselor. What's your hope this Christmas? Now, there's two kinds of hope.

We use that word in English. Hope is, in fact, here's a definition of hope the way we use it in English. It is a wish or desire with anticipation for a specific positive outcome. It's a wish or a desire.

And I think we ought to hope. I mean, hope is sort of, someone said, the oxygen of the soul. But when you hear the word hope or read the word hope biblically, that's not what it is. It's not a wish and it's not a desire. In fact, good definition of biblical hope is an unshakable promise or guarantee from God concerning a future event or outcome for your good. So when the Bible talks about this is our hope, it's not like wishful thinking and maybe something will happen when scripture says the return of Christ is the anchor or the hope of your soul. When scripture says he is our hope, what it means there is an unshakable promise.

There's a guarantee that you can bank your life, your priorities, everything about your life because it's not up for grabs. It will occur. Let me give you an example. It was about 700 B.C. Israel had turned away from God. They're worshipping idols.

They're consulting mediums. God has told them repeated times that this is about 15 years before the Assyrians actually completely take Israel out and then later Judah. And the people are just, I mean, far, far from God. And so Isaiah is telling them, you need to turn back to God.

You need to turn back to God. And so when people don't, God brings what I call the velvet vice of his love. There are consequences. And so Jerusalem is up on this mountain and it's very, it was like a fortress. And so what would happen is that you would surround the city and then they would build barricades or ramparts and sometimes it would be a year or two and they would just pile up the dirt and they would hold the city hostage until they would come and take it over. And that's what was happening during this time. And all the false prophets were saying, hey, everything's going to be okay. And Isaiah is saying, actually it's really not.

This is God's judgment. And then he talks about how terrible life is going to be for God's people because they've turned away from him. And then there's this little window and this little window says, but I want you to know there is still hope. All the promises I made to Abraham, all the promises I made to David, God never gives up on us even when we're really disobedient and far from him. And so he says, someday a little bit later, here's your hope. You're going to be taken to exile.

There's going to be consequences, but here's what I want you to know. A child is going to be born and his name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 700 years before Jesus was born, he made this prophecy that there's going to be hope.

If you have your notes, you might pull them out because I put that passage on there. And so there's an absolute sense that this is what's going to happen and we get to be in on the side of looking back 2,000 years when that child was born of that virgin that was prophesied in Isaiah 7. Now the circumstances when that was written was the Assyrians. The circumstances when Jesus came was a world that was in absolute turmoil. They had the ISIS of their day.

They were called barbarians. The economy was going in the tank. The false gods and the religion of the day and the corruption in the Roman government, it was unbelievable. The taxes were overwhelming. You had a very, very small group of elite people.

Over 70, almost 80 percent of all the Roman Empire was slaves. And so into this, Galatians 4 says, when the earth or history was pregnant, is the word literally, at this pregnant moment, God sent his son. And he sends Jesus into a world where there is, people are looking for hope economically, spiritually, relationally, morally.

It looked a lot like today. And this son was going to bring peace. This son was going to be a savior. And he was going to be a wonderful counselor. What's it mean a wonderful counselor? If the hope of Christmas is that we have a wonderful counselor, what do counselors do? They give you wisdom, don't they?

I mean, early in our marriage we, you know, everybody gets stuck. So we went to a counselor. And this counselor helps us see blind spots. They helped us see our sort of family of origins and why Teresa and I would argue and why she would shut down and I would get upset. Counselors give you tools to work through issues. They give you insight about how you're wired. See, a great counselor is an amazing thing. And this word wonderful, it literally is supernatural counselor.

The other time you might jot in your notes there. By the way, I gave you a blank sheet of paper so you all could sort of do a little work with me this Christmas season. Judges 13, 18, there's an angel that comes and it's the father of Samson. And the father asks, who are you? And he says, why do you ask me?

Because you know that my name is wonderful. The Hebrew word is it's supernatural. We have a supernatural counselor. Jesus came in the body of this little baby that was born of the Virgin Mary.

He was fully God and he was fully man. And one of his major roles would to become and give you supernatural wise counsel. Wise counsel about relationships. Wise counsel about your future.

Wise counsel about dealing with problems like finances and kids that aren't doing well or aging parents you don't know what to do with or what treatment with this kind of cancer you should take. I mean, he is a wise counselor that wants to help you. And so what I wanted to do in our time today is to look at maybe three quick counseling sessions that Jesus had that I think really relate to maybe some things we need to hear during this Christmas time. So turn in your Bibles if you would to Mark chapter 10 where Jesus is in a counseling session.

Mark chapter 10 and we'll pick it up at verse 17. Counselors show us our motives, our blind spots, give us insight and help. And here's the deal, good counselors are objective.

They tell us what we need to hear, not always what we want to hear. And he was setting out on his journey and a man ran up and noticed knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Do you know the commandments?

You know them. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness.

Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all of these I've kept from my youth. And Jesus looking at him and in your Bible you might circle this little phrase, loved him. Sometimes counselors tell us things. In fact, the wonderful counselor, the supernatural counsel of God at times tells us things that feel so hard and so painful and so impossible to obey but notice his motive. He loved him. And he said to him, you lack one thing.

Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And so like a good counselor, he has a presenting problem, right? I used to do, actually I did a major in psychology so I'm not a very good counselor but at least I know what you're supposed to do. And so people come and they say, I have a presenting problem.

And so you ask questions and you find out about them. So you find out and this, this counselor is wealthy, he's young, he's moral, he's successful, he's kind of the kind of person that you think, man, he's got it all together. I mean in our day he's driving a great car, he's got a good looking family, he's morally pure as far as we can tell, high integrity, very wealthy, super successful and yet he's restless. Something in his soul says, I've been doing and doing and doing and doing and doing. In fact, you tell me what you're supposed to do, man, it's a target on the wall, I go get it, I've done it but something's missing. This isn't an unusual counseling situation. Here's the lie, if I do this, if I did that, if I achieve this, if I do that, if I go to that school, if I finally get married, if then, if then, if then, it's sort of scary if you ever achieve to a great degree and then you just stop and go, is this all there is? And that's the situation. So Jesus thought, well you know the commandments and he lists them, so how are you doing there?

Got them? Man, I learned that as a little kid, I've been tracking, I do all those things. Now it's interesting if we had time to study this a little bit more carefully, you would notice that he mentions almost all the commandments but he doesn't touch on the 10th one. Anybody remember what the 10th commandment is? You shall not covet. And he doesn't emphasize the very first one either, does he?

You shall have no other gods before me. And so Jesus listens, he has a presenting problem and like a good counselor, you know, I'm sure they had a little conversation and I mean the guy even has a great attitude. Notice he came, he knew Jesus, you know, he knelt before him and so he says, you know what, he doesn't give him a list of things to do. He says there's one thing that you lack. See, in counseling people have presenting issues and then what we call is what's their real issue, what's the core issue, what's really going on inside that needs to be addressed. His core issue is idolatry. His core issue is materialism. His core issue was I can do it.

These things will make me happy. So Jesus obviously wanted to help him, right? It said he loves him. So in this counseling session he says, well here's what you do.

He got his little pad out, you know, and you know his prescription, he wrote a prescription, okay? Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor and then by the way here's the results that are going to happen so you know, I mean this is a great prescription so that you'll have treasure in heaven. See Jesus actually believed heaven is a real place, that there's real treasure, there's real reward and then come follow me. See the problem was you can't have a relationship with me when you have an idol in your life and Jesus doesn't tell everyone he meets, I mean a good counselor doesn't tell everyone, you know, go sell everything you have, that wasn't the issue with a lot of people but it was with this guy. So he gets to the core and he loves him and he says look, there's a big idol, we need to address it and here's how we can address it. There's a lot of things more important than money and stuff.

So do this and it's going to be great. And so then you kind of pick up the story and you find out well how does he respond? He only lacks one thing and Jesus desires that I want you to follow me, let's connect, this is great. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. See counselors, especially the supernatural counselor, you know, we bring him all these symptoms, there's this issue and this issue and there's this and there's that and there's this. Really good ones, they go uh-uh, bing, this is the one, this is the domino, this is the issue, this is the core and when you address that all the rest of your life is going to. But he went away sad because he had great possessions and Jesus looked around and said to his disciples how difficult it will be for those who have great wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven. And I think this is probably a pretty good application to get some great counsel. It's hard for us, all of us, wealthy people to have the right focus during any time but especially during Christmas.

See at the heart, the heart of Christmas, at the heart of grace, at the heart of really experiencing God left, God gave, God cares and he counsels us but there's always a counterfeit and the counterfeit is stuff. I'm a semi-avid Sports Illustrated reader. The article opens up for almost five days, the most decorated Olympian in history lay curled in the fetal position in his Baltimore home, crestfallen, fearful, embarrassed at his behavior, uncertain of his future. He had another run in with alcohol and did some outrageous things.

Over three Olympics from 2004 to 2012, Michael Phelps had won 18 gold medals and 22 medals overall, each more than anyone ever in history. And the article talks about checking into a rehab, the journey that he's on but I thought it was really interesting. They have a quote, I was in a really dark place not wanting to be alive anymore. See that's what happens to rich, young rulers when they try and fill their soul with stuff. He's young, he's wealthy and he talks about the bubble that he lived in and how stuff couldn't satisfy. We intellectually agree with what Jesus says but most of us live like someday some way we want to be a Michael Phelps in our area.

Can I encourage you this Christmas to take a good word from the wonderful counselor and just ask yourself, so what are you going to do with your money this Christmas and how much stuff and why are your closets full? So counseling session number one is with a rich, young ruler that has it all and Jesus says to him, address idolatry. Don't want what other people have because if you got it it would never satisfy. And number two, have no other God before me, no other God. And it's interesting, he almost always pokes around half of all, a little more than half of all of Jesus' parables are about money.

Not because he cares about money but because it's the other God. Ready for counseling session number two? Turn if you will to Luke chapter 10. We have the story not of a rich, young, successful man but we have the story of a very stressed out, overextended, under pressure, frazzled woman. And we'll see in just a minute that her presenting problem is she feels overwhelmed. She feels so overwhelmed like most of us do that we start to blame other people and we're a victim and why do other people not help us or why am I doing all the work? And so she has some misguided views about God.

She has some misperceptions about what really matters and what's really important. And I don't know about you but is there a month in all of the calendar that our calendars just go. I mean if you ask me for coffee right now and you know most of us you just look at your calendar, it's crazy. And you got to ask well what happened?

Why at a time when we would ponder and rejoice and be thankful and well we've got some things built in. You got to buy gifts for all these people. You got to write cards to all these people. You know you got to go to parties.

A lot of them you don't even want to go to. There's a lot to do that you got to bake right? And there's some traditions you got to fulfill and then some that you got to travel.

You got to, you got to, you ought, you should, you got to, you got to, you ought, you should. And what Jesus is really going to say is really who made up the got to's and ought to's and ought's and that you should that make Christmas season the most stressful time in many of your lives. So stressful, so busy, so overwhelming that the only thing you really forget is Jesus.

Chip will be back in just a minute with his application. You've been listening to the first part of his message Wonderful Counselor from his series The Hope of Christmas. Centuries before Jesus came to earth the prophet Isaiah said for those who live in a land of deep darkness a light will shine and they will rejoice.

He was reminding the Israelites that their Messiah was coming and not to lose hope. And that word hope has tremendous power. It can heal hurts, help push through tough times and provide motivation to live like a genuine follower of God. And sometimes we need to be reminded to hold on to that hope too.

Which is what Chip's been talking about. So if you're looking for some comfort and encouragement this Christmas season don't miss a word of this uplifting message. Well Chip's been sitting here in studio with me and Chip before we get to your application take a minute if you would and share some deeper context to the verse I mentioned from Isaiah. I mean can you help us kind of zoom out and get a better understanding of this Christmas message? Because I think we sometimes lose sight of that this time of year.

Sure Dave. You know sometimes Christmas gets overwhelming and most of us know the big story. But 700 years before Christ was born the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9 verses 6 and 7 gives us the titles of the Messiah. He calls this Messiah Christ Jesus the one that we knew who came to save the world. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And so what I wanted people to see was the very life of Jesus as a wonderful counselor.

How he revealed himself as a mighty God, an everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. And so I think it's going to be one of those especially when we think of all the things we're going through in the world and in our country. Now's the time for a bedrock unchanging view where there's hope. Hope no matter what happens anywhere at any time.

Our God is on the throne and the Lord Jesus came. And I can't think of anything more important in this season than to remember that. That's so true Chip, thanks. Well let me encourage you to download the message notes for these important programs and listen to this entire series at LivingOnTheEdge.org and then download the free MP3s.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well here again is Chip to share a few final thoughts. As we close today's program I wonder, just between you and me personally, what is distracting you right now? What is happening this December that is causing you to begin to push the very person of Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas into the background? Are you struggling perhaps to balance between expectations and reality? You know, what you thought this Christmas might be and some things that you thought might really be fantastic and great and hopeful. And then like all of us, especially in the season that we're living in as a nation and in the world, that maybe those expectations and reality are bumping up against one another. And then to be honest, this is a time traditionally where I don't know what we do.

We kind of take our brain and we stick it in a little box and we put it on the shelf. And then we go out and spend a bunch of money that we don't have to buy presents for people thinking that if I buy people nice things, some of them even for myself, that we'll all feel better and it's going to be this joyful, wonderful time. And then as you know, you will wake up about the middle of January with bills and credit card. And could I caution you and would you just for a moment pause and say, Lord, maybe there's a fresh way to experience more of Jesus and less of Christmas tradition this year. Would you show me, would you show us as a family how maybe this season loving and caring and giving and helping others and remembering who you are and what you've done for us and why you came could take center stage in our hearts, our minds, and our activities.

Maybe the challenges that we faced and are facing could make this our best Christmas ever. Good word, Chip. Before we go, I want to remind you that the Chip Ingram app is an easy way to share messages or complete series with others. So whenever you're encouraged by what you hear, I hope you'll pass it along to a friend or loved one who will benefit from hearing it. And be sure to tell them how it made a difference in your life. We'll be with us again next time as Chip wraps up our short Christmas series. But until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.