Well, good morning, church and a big merry Christmas to everybody, and also for all of us out there that are in the last-minute shopping world, now's our time to shine, right? It is our time to not only shine, but to pray that it's in stock. Amen. This year, it is not good for us this year. A couple of things before we jump into the message, I just need to say this morning, number one, one of the things that we do as the leadership of this place is to really and truly try to make a big place feel small. It is incredibly important for us for you to know that your valued, that you are a part. Being in groups, we talk about it every week is a central part of who this church is. And when we talk about our Christmas Eve services, one of our goals in that service is just to be able to have an intimate moment, a family moment, a quiet kind of that traditional like this is Christmas moment. So, this week, as you're setting your schedule, let me just almost beg you to say this be a part of one of those services.

This week, they're on the 23rd and on the 24th pick one. I'll tell you this they're all going to look exactly the same. All right. Just come to one of them. Grandmas and moms, listen, I need to tell you this sometimes your shame game is strong, and now it's time to put it on, right? Get the family here. Get them here. You can shame on the holidays, it's OK. All right, so get them to one of those services. Number two, I just need to say this. Some of you, your new this is your first round around the sun with us as a church. Can we just say that December is one of our biggest giving times of the entire year? So please, this week, as you're thinking, is your praying of what your year looks like, how God has blessed you, the gifts that you're giving. Man, think about how you could bless in this place and what you could do to propel ministry to happen. How you could just give sacrificially this week as part of your worship. These last two weeks of our calendar year, I don't say this just and kind of lightly, but it really does determine a lot of ministry that happens throughout the rest of this year. So please consider that in your end of year giving. All right, that was your public service announcement moment. All right, let's jump into the message. We are in the middle of a series that we have entitled, and he shall be called where we're walking through this prophecy that was given 700 years prior to Jesus being born by a prophet named Isaiah. We've been hanging out in Isaiah Chapter nine, and we're going to launch from there again today. If you want to go ahead and find it and fire the app up this morning.

We're going to continue watching this prophet Isaiah that spoke into an incredibly dark moment and incredibly despair time. A time where tension was high, war was happening. No one knew what the next day was going to look like. And this man named Isaiah with a message from God steps in and he gives a message to an evil king and a group of people who really and truly did not care who God was in their lives. And he begins Isaiah with an incredible moment. Isaiah didn't just kind of throw out this randomness of, hey, one day there may be some person that helps you. Or he didn't throw out this idea that one day God would just send a person. Isaiah gets incredibly specific. He incredibly named Jesus the Messiah the coming one with these attributes, or with these things that there was going to be no mistaking of who Jesus was going to be. And he calls out kind of these names of who Jesus was. Now let me say this, names are important. They're important. You say Matt, no, they're not. Yes, they are. In fact, let me just challenge you with this. For those of you that have kids, do you remember how hard it was to name your kid? Do you remember some of the biggest early years fighting that couple can do is how to name a child, how to name them? They really should include this in premarital counseling, but they don't. They throw you out there with everything else about marriage. And I just say, Go does your best right. And so, you get into this time where you realize, Oh, we're pregnant. Some of you was like, oh, sone of you were planning right? And now you've got to name this kid.

Well, here I want to give you a gift this morning. Those of you that are still in your childbearing years, those of you that's coming up. Let me give you something I found of some nuggets of gold this week on the internet. It is some rules for naming your kid, because names are important. All right, let me give you a couple of what I thought were incredibly profound and funny. Number one. Here it is. If you are your spouse have ever dated anyone by that name, it is off limits. It is off limits. You can't even name your dog that all. I just know that unless you hate them and then it might work. All right. You can't do it. That was number one. I thought that was no one told you that. All right. Just thought I'd do it. Number two, this is for you guys out there. If you suggest a name of a daughter, they're even closely reminds your wife of someone they did not like in high school. It's out. So don't do it. Pick up on the cues when you hear the stories. Don't even say it. Number three. All right. This is a good one. This is kind of for bonus points. Here it is. Number three, if you want bonus points in our society, name your child something that no one has ever named their child. All right. Just go ahead and do it. Name it. I'm not going to name any of those names because some of you've done it and it will get me in trouble. Here it is. Number four, here's my favorite one off the whole name list. It's to make sure, oh, for all things good. Make sure you say the name out loud before you name your kid that. Make sure. And make sure you even think about the possibilities of people that they might marry one day because weird things happen, right? Let me give you a couple I found this week in my extensive sermon research. Number one, how about this girl? Poor girl, she was born, and she is named Anita Mann. Anita Mann. Think about middle school just think for a minute going through middle school with the word, with the name Anita Mann. Is Anita Mann here? Yeah, I'm here. Here it is. How about this guy whose parents just thought it was funny? They would probably be vegan. Christopher P Bacon. Chris P Bacon. Get it! Chris P Bacon. Is Chris P Bacon around? There it is. How about this girl? She was a liberal and her name is Eileen Wright. Eileen Wright. You can't even go to the protests if that's your name. You can see how conversations may lean the wrong way. There it is. That was bad. Here's maybe Dave Ramsay's daughter. How about the Lois Price? Lois Price are you here? Lois Price. My all-time favorite. Oh, I found this on this week. All-time favorite is a poor little girl named Helen that got married and she happened to marry into the Back family, which made her Helen Back, Helen Back, which, after ten years of marriage, she affirmed that yes, I've been there. There it is. So, listen, names, that will get me in trouble, names are important.

They're important. In fact, in our culture, let's just be honest in our culture, we just name kind of mostly either we're carrying the name, or it just sounded cool or sounded good or nobody else had done it. But in the Bible, when you see names, they carry most of the time a meaning or a family line or something that has happened in someone's life, possibly a vocation or a region that that family is from, and that you could say that when you see a lot of people's names throughout scripture, it carries with it or describes their character or their nature or a calling that is on their life.

So, Isaiah, when he jumps into this text that we're looking at this whole month, he begins to bring some incredible form around who the coming messiah was going to be. He begins to pull it down from this ethereal that, oh, something is going to happen into an absolute concrete. Here is how you will know who he is and not only who he is, but what he's going to do. That's what Isaiah Chapter nine is doing for us. You see, we have the pleasure of being able to look back at Isaiah Chapter nine. We get to see it how it was lived out and is now continuing to be lived out. But the people that Isaiah was giving this message to, they were just in a dumpster fire of culture. They were in trouble. They knew they needed something. They didn't know where to turn. And Isaiah said, well, pause for a minute, because let me tell you what's going to happen. In fact, let me read the text to us again, Isaiah, chapter nine verse six, and listen to the hope in this message.

Isaiah, nine verse six says this, says, for unto us, a child is born now pause there just a minute, and we haven't done this yet. Now, I realize this week that we hadn't spent much time in this first part. When Isaiah said a child is born, he is speaking towards the fact that that this God, this messiah that is going to come is going to be fully human. He's going to be fully human, fully, man. He was born as a child into the world, as a child, and we are seeing the savior. In fact, you may want to circle that word of human or child and write humanity of Jesus right above that because Jesus was fully human. But watch this, for to us a child is born. To us, a son is given now look at the language because what does it do and it's saying that Jesus is going to be given. Now there's some hope in that language because what that means is, is that Jesus is not something that we work towards.

It's not something that we work for. It's not something that we just trying to balance a scale out in life. And as long as I'm doing more good than I'm doing bad, then I will come on to eternity one day and he will say, yes, he's mine. The Bible clearly says that Jesus is given to us. He is a gift that is grace from the Old Testament being pointed into the New Testament. And now we get to live it. That's what this week is about for us that we celebrate the giving of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, the coming to this planet of Jesus. Now, when we see that a child is born, that's the humanity of Jesus. But now when we see a son is given what that is speaking of as the divinity of Jesus, the divine ness of Jesus, the fact that he is not just fully human, but watch this he is fully God.

Isaiah is wrapping this idea all in this statement. He's a man. Yes, a son. The son of God, the divine son of God is going to be given. So, we got the humanity in the child. We got the divinity in the fact that he was the son of God. Now watch this, watch the rest of the verse and the government will be on his shoulders. The government will be on his shoulders. What does that mean? That means that not only is he fully human and fully divine, but is fully sovereign, he's fully sovereign. That means that yes, Jesus has a role in the operations of eternity, in the operations of heaven and the operations of one day when he reigns. But it also means he has a kingly role here on this Earth, and he is the king of this Earth. He is the ruler of the Earth. Not only is he king of heaven, he is king of Earth. He is sovereign overall. What does that mean? Nothing happens on this planet that does not pass through the character of Jesus. It doesn't pass through the filter of Jesus. It doesn't pass through the allowance of this happening from Jesus in the power of Jesus. I feel like when we see Jesus in his full human folly, God fully sovereign. It is at that point we're able to celebrate the birth of Jesus because that's who he is. That's who he is. But I just keep going. I know we haven't spent time. In the first part, I thought it was important. Keep going in the verse and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father. That's where we're going today. Let's keep going the verse Prince of Peace Now for those of you type A'ers who have been asking the question. Yes, next week. 

All right. Next week, we're going to finish this out. We're going to look at the Prince of Peace. We are having church on the 26 alright. We are. We're back. Come in your pajamas if you need to, but we're back. All right, here it is. So, Isaiah, what does he do? Talks about this fully human fully God messiah that's given to us. And then he begins to proclaim these given attributes of who Jesus is going to be of what he's going to do.

Now, these four phrases that we've looked at. They're not just cool phrases, they're not just pithy sayings. These phrases are actual moments and actual felt needs of the people that Isaiah was speaking in context to remember. Any time you're reading the Bible, you've got to read it, first of all, in the context of the people that was given first. second of all, in the context of where we are now. So, Isaiah throws out these phrases not as just these sayings, but as these moments saying, hey, this is what you need now. This is what you are going to forever need. And now we have the enjoyment of looking at it, saying these are the felt needs of who we need in a savior. We've looked at the fact, right, that he is the wonderful counselor, the counselor, the Pele-joez. Right? He is the one that is above all, he has a plan, and he guides us in times of need. That's what it means when we say that Jesus is the wonderful counselor. Last week we looked at he is the mighty God or the in Hebrew, the El Gibbor. He is the one that is mighty above all, but yet he stands in victory over those that are in defeat. He gives power. He has means he is the power of the universe. We've seen both of those things come true in their lives. A man is such a felt need in our life. We need counsel, we need guidance, we need Jesus to be behind us in our decisions, and we also need his power. Because let's be honest, we don't have it. We can't work in it. But watch what happens this week but look at the description that he's given because even in the description of the one we're going to see this week, there is some there's some background info that's given in the next two verses.

In fact, let me read verse six again and keep going into verse seven says, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of Peace, Verse seven, keep going. And of the greatness of his government and peace, watch this, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over the kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. You may want to circle. There will be no end and circle from that time and forever and your Bible. Because that in itself, let's just do this in itself. Even reading that verse at a 50,000-foot view brings comfort. It brings hope. It brings a message even on our side of the incarnation of the birth of Jesus. It brings us incredible hope that Jesus is on his throne, that he reigns, that he is redeeming authority that was there is still there and will forever be there. That's why we can celebrate Christmas. That's why we can get together, and we can sing about the birth of this child, this messiah. That's why we can get together and worship the holy God, the wonderful counselor, the everlasting father.

And so, this morning, no matter what culture says or what movements say or what the world says, or modernism brings, listen, Jesus is and will forever be the everlasting father. He's the everlasting father now. I know this for some of you. When I say that Jesus is the everlasting father, a lot of bells and whistles goes off in your mind. For those of you that have been studying the Bible for a long time, I need to pause and point out the elephant in the room for the others of you. You'll catch it in a minute. All right. No worry. When you look at this verse, when you look at what Isaiah calls Jesus at a glance, you see that, or you ask yourself the question Did Isaiah just call Jesus the father God? Are you tracking with that? Just a little bit? There's a problem in that. To which I would say no. When you read this for a minute, you know that Isaiah is describing Jesus. But in this moment, describing Jesus, he calls Jesus the everlasting father. Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, is usually referred to as the son. But right here in this text, we see that Jesus is referred to as the everlasting god. Now I need you to put on your advanced theology degrees just for a minute. OK, just put on that hat for a minute, and I need you to see something and this text I need you to see number one, that this text does not mean that Jesus and the father God have swapped places.

It doesn't mean that at all. Number two, it doesn't mean that the father, God and the son do not have distinction in the Trinity. It doesn't mean that they're just kind of this messed up deal and they're swapping around when they want to. It doesn't mean that. It means it means that the Bible teaches that God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit are each separate in personhood, but they're one in the godhead of who we say is our God. You see, some people have tried to water this down. Some of our Jehovah's Witness brethren, maybe even some of the Pentecostal brothers out there, have watered this down and have said that this is a proof text to say, See, I'm showing you that God, the father and Jesus are the same person to which that's not what the Bible teaches. The God of the Bible is God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit they operate in trinity. Think of a triangle with God in the middle. Each of those on one of the points and they have their own personhood, role and purpose. But their one being this is this is why we can see in creation, right? This is why we can see that in creation, it says, let us create man in our image. This is why we can see at the baptism of Jesus, right?

When Jesus was baptized, the dove descended the spirit to send it in the dove and the God the father speaks over and says, this is my son, and who I am well pleased. You can't mash them together in that roll. You can't match them together in purpose or personhood. But they are our God. In fact, we see the Trinity and the Christmas story. Watch this. Luke Chapter one verse 30. It's when the angel calls on Mary. Watch what the Angel says to Mary and watch the Trinity come alive says, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. There it is. There's Jesus, right circle that if you want, he will be great and he will be called the son of the most high. That's God the father he's talking about right there. The Lord God. That's it. God the father will give Jesus the throne of his father, David. He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be? Mary asked the angel. Since I am a virgin, watch verse 35 the whole trinity in one verse, the angel answered. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the son of God.

So, listen, when you read everlasting father, this is not speaking of God the father is speaking of God the son. When this prophecy came about, Isaiah is not combining them together. He's not giving Jesus the name that belongs to Father God. He's not declaring or speaking of the Trinity or the doctrine of the Trinity or any of that. What he is doing. Isaiah is describing the fatherly qualities, and this is good of who the Messiah is going to be in our lives. He's describing the fact that Jesus is going to have a tenderness. He's going to have a fatherlessness. He's going to have a being about him that wants to come beside us and wants what's best for us. So, when you read these names, OK, I know this is a teaching moment, right? I get a little deep for some. When you read these names, wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting father, think of them less as proper names and more as descriptions of who Jesus wants to be in your life. That's what Isaiah is doing.

So, let's look at these two words in the phrase Everlasting father everlasting father. Let's see what it means because literally the word everlasting. We don't even need the Hebrew for this word. It's quite simply forever. It's quite simply forever. And what does that mean? What does Isaiah say in in that? What Isaiah is doing is he is describing Jesus by saying that this messiah that is coming is ever lasting, which means implication one that number one, Jesus has no beginning. Jesus has no beginning. What that means is that Jesus has always been. He has always been present. Eternity did not bring Jesus about one day because they thought it was a good idea. Jesus is the one that brought eternity about. In fact, let me tie together with a Christmas quote from Adrian Rodgers. Watch this is going to blow your minds away. You better pay attention. He - this is Jesus - was the eternal son who rested in the bosom of the father without a mother and rested in the bosom of a mother, without a father. When he was born at his birth, he was as old as his father and older than his mother. There was never a time when Jesus was not Jesus. What does that blow you a little bit? This little baby in a manger is older than his mother, but at the same age as his father. But he doesn't have a father. 

So that's the point, right? You see when we see the Christmas story this week, when you read the Luke 2 account, when we when we look at it in our Christmas Eve services, don't think of that as Jesus checking up one day or God checking up one day and going, oh man, these people have gotten so far from us. Let's decide to do something. Create Jesus. Hurry up. Come on. Let's go. No, Jesus has always been. He's always been there, and he's always been the plan. Jesus is not the Plan B. Jesus is not there because something else didn't work. Jesus, from the beginning of time from the father was knowing that he was the plan. And he's the plan for you. He's the plan for me. He's always been that way, John, 1:1 says in the beginning was the word That's Jesus. The word was with God and the word was God. John, 1:14, says the word was made flesh.

He dwelt among us. This is Jesus. And we behold his glory. The glory of the only begotten father full of grace and truth. Even Jesus when he was on this earth. Do you remember how many times Jesus almost got stoned? It always was because he was claiming to be eternal. He was claiming to be part of the Godhead. John 8:58 Jesus checked up with the Pharisees and said, this very truly I tell you, Jesus answered before Abraham was born, I am. I am what was he saying? So, I know you love this guy named Abraham, he's great. I've met him, right? I know, I know old Abe, we're friends. But listen, I was way before Abraham. Jesus has always been. He has no beginning. Don't let someone pull him down into the, into uh oh, let's create Jesus’ moment. But not only was he everlasting by being always born, but what's this. Jesus number two, he has no end. He has no end.

Do you realize the Jesus that we serve has always been and will forever be? There have been so many throughout history, but so many movements that have tried to cancel him, tried to change him, tried to direct him, tried to move him, tried to kill him, tried to get rid of him. And I've got news for you. None of them worked. None of them will work and catch this. None will ever work. In fact, I've read the end of the book. Hey, man, we've read it. We know how this goes. Let me read it to you. Revelation 22 don't know when the last time you hung out there was. But listen to this. Says then the angel, this is speaking of heaven, speaking of eternity, when believers are there, then the angel showed me the river of water of life, as clear as the crystal flowing from the throne of God and the lamb. There it is again. God the father, God the son. That's the lamb of God, down the middle of the great street of that city on each side of the river, stood the tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of that tree are for the healing of nations.

Watch this No longer will there be any curse the throne of God and the lamb. There he is again, will be in the city and his servants will serve him. They, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. There will not need the light of a lamp, nor the light of the Sun. For the Lord. God will give them light. And watch this and they will reign forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

Look, Jesus is there. So why is it? Do we think other people are ruling and raining? Why is it that we give our attention to other rulers and rain? Why? Jesus is the one that's going to reign in eternity. So, let's serve the one that's raining there now. He's everlasting, he's everlasting. This is what Isaiah is saying. They're going, Look, this guy is going to come. He's going to be a messiah. He's going to be wonderful. He's going to be all powerful and he's not going to be temporary.

Some of you think that Jesus was temporary in your life for a season, but he's not, he's still there. He will always be there. When you put these two things together, you see number three, that Jesus as a result of this will never waver in his character. Number three, he'll never waver in his character, why? Because when you're everlasting, when you're all powerful, when you're almighty and you're gone. Your character does not change. It doesn't change. You say, man, why does that matter? It matters greatly because I guarantee you will come in contact with people that say, well, I know that's how Jesus was then, but that's not what he would think now. No. No, what he thought, then, is what he thinks now, and it's what he was think in eternity. His character does not change. Hebrews 13:8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday. He is the same today and he is the same tomorrow, no matter what modernity and he says to you. His character never changes. His regulations, his rules, his priorities, his precepts, what he has told us to do just because culture swings does not mean that Jesus did. It doesn't mean that he did. What is the same when you look at this promise from Isaiah this week when you look at this child that was born? When you look at the Christmas story this week, you can just be assured you can be assured that the Jesus of the past, the Jesus of the future is the Jesus who is the incarnated one who came to live the life that you couldn't live, died the death that you deserved to die. And is now giving you life. He's giving you hope. He is everlasting. The second word in the phrase is that he is fatherly his fatherly. 

You say, Matt, wait a minute. That's not what the Bible says. It doesn’t say fatherly. It says Everlasting Father. Yes, but we've established that that he is not the father. He is fatherly. Fatherly. What does this mean? This means that Jesus carries an eternal perspective of a perfect father for you, and for me, it means he carries, or he mirrors the father god of heaven. Perfectly for you. And for me, it means he is everything you have ever wanted in an earthly father. Jesus has given you. Now, look, I know when I say that Jesus is fatherly, can I'll just be real for a minute OK? There's a lot of emotions in that statement. There's a whole lot. I mean, for some of you, let's rejoice because we had dads that that were incredible dads that were there for us that were there with us, that wanted what was best for us.

We have fond memories for some of you. you have fond memories of your dad. But I'm just going to be honest, for some of you, that is not the case, it's not the case. In fact, any time you hear that God, the father or Jesus is fatherly, you don't you can't swallow that a little bit because you did not have a good relationship with your dad. You just didn't. You don't have fond memories from your dad. Some of the greatest pains and some of your lives come from some of your dads, and I get that from your relationship with him. Maybe he was never there. Maybe he was there, but he was just emotionally not there. Maybe he just died early, and you didn't have that kind of relationship with him. Maybe all you can remember about your dad is you felt like you were just always disappointing him all the time, and you can never live up to that. Or maybe he was even abusive to you. Let me remind you of a truth never, ever, ever see the heavenly father and the fatherly characteristics of Jesus through the eyes of your earthly father. Don't let Satan do that to you, because he's the perfection of your earthly father. He's the perfection. He's the perfection. I got to say that because when we read that Jesus is fatherly to us, we've got to feel that he's not the deadbeat dad that walked out on you. He is the perfection of what a father should be. He's the example of us that our fathers, how we should live. He is the hope that we can have him. So how is Jesus fatherly? Let me give you a couple quick fatherly qualities and we've got to go.

Here is number one, got off a little bit there. Number one, it is Jesus who gives life. It's Jesus who gives life. Just like when your mother and father come together and give your life, it's really because of Jesus that you have life and it's because of Jesus that you have the opportunity to have spiritual new life. Romans three Romans 6:23 right. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord Romans 14, or John, 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life. What no one comes to the father except through Jesus. Jesus is the one who gives life. That's what fathers do. We give life. Number two. I told you, we're going fast. Number two, Jesus is the one who provides life. He provides for us. He gives us life number two. He provides for us one of the synonyms of a good father all through the Bible is one that is a provider for their families. Now look, let's not play the culture card while I provide.

I get that right. There's a 50% everybody provides. But you show me a dad that's a good dad. And he wants to provide. He wants to provide. He wants to give to his kids. Wants to give life to his kids. Give food to his kids, gives clothing, give a great start to his kids. Romans, or Philippians 4:19. And my God, listen to what he says, will meet all of your needs according to the riches of his glory. What? In Christ Jesus. Christ, Jesus is the provider. Even last week, I argued right on the mightiness of God the mightiness means that he has the means to do it. The everlasting father quality means that he has the desire to do it. He wants to provide for you. He wants to give you life. Jesus gives us. He gives us the ways to get through tough situations. He gives us the means to walk through this life. He puts people in our path that can direct us. He puts words and messages in our hearts that can instructors. He is the provider, but also number three, the fatherly quality that Jesus cares for us. He cares for us, I had to put this one in there because some of you think that he is still this just person that is out there in the sky, this divine that doesn't care for you. But he does. He doesn't just want to give to you. He wants to care for you. He wants, well look at this, 1Peter 5:7. Cast all of your anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for you.

He cares for you. He wants to walk with you. He wants to be in the midst of the troubles that you are in. He is not Jesus as the creator. He is not spun. This universe into existence and said, hey, good luck, fam, go for it. I’m going to take a nap. That's not what he does. He cares. He cares about the littlest thing in your life, and he cares about the biggest thing in your life. He cares about the things that nobody knows about, and he cares about the thing that everybody else knows about. He cared enough to live the life. You couldn't live, die the death you deserved to die, to give you life. Not only does he care, but four, Jesus will never walk out on you. He'll never walk out on you, no matter how good, no matter how bad, no matter how far off you are, he is the good father parable of the lost son, a man. We don't got time to go there, but he is the father that is standing on the porch, just waiting on his son to come home. Come home. See, this is the Christmas story, is it not?

At the moment of the deepest, darkest desperation, 300 years of silence, people were all away from God. Jesus did not walk out. He walked in. He walked in. That's the fatherly heart of Jesus. That's who he is. So, what he wants to do, that's what he wants to be. And Isiah, 700 years before he came. Man, he nailed it. He he's the wonderful counselor. He has a plan. He has the means. He knows what to do. He's the mighty God, he's got the power, the means, and nobody stands in his way to do it. He's the everlasting father who wants to do it. And next week, not to spoil it. He's the prince of peace. He's the one who gives us peace, provides the sar-shalom. All of us this morning to close our service.

With the birth in mind. With the death in mind. The resurrection in mind. The fact that he is the wonderful counselor. The mighty God. Everlasting father. The Prince of Peace. We're going to celebrate this ancient meal together. You know, the Bible says that. That on Jesus' last night, he got together with his disciples and. He walked through the Passover feasts with him, and he turned it into the Lord's Supper that this moment that pulls all of the theology of who Jesus is into one moment together where we celebrate the bread, which is the life and the body of Christ. The juice, which is the blood that was broken for us. And we get to look back on what Jesus has done for us.

We look now at what he is doing for us, and we look at the future that Jesus is fatherly. He will never leave us, in fact, for those of us that are believers in Christ. We will celebrate this meal with him one day. We will have this with him on that. Let me read it to you out of Luke, 22, says when the hour came, Jesus and his disciples’ apostles reclined at the table and he said to them, I've eagerly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I tell you I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God. After taking the cup. He gave thanks and said, take this and divided among you for I tell you, I will not eat of the fruit of the vine or not drink from the fruit of the vine to the Kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread, and he gave thanks, and he broke it, and he gave it to them and saying, this is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup and said, this is the cup is the new covenant of my blood, which is poured out for you. 

You see, the Lord's Supper is a commemorative event, and we see what Jesus has done. It's an anticipatory event where we see them and we're going to live with him. And it's participatory, it's where it recenters us in this crazy world. And to who Christ is for us. So, if you're a believer this morning, if you've given your life to Christ, it doesn't mean you're Baptists, it doesn't mean you even go to this church that that's whatever. That's another day. This is for the children of the Heavenly Father. Encourage you to take this today. Just a minute, if you'll flip it over, you'll take the bread when your heart is prepared. Just a moment when you do that, and you flip it to the other side. Take the juice. And we do this thinking back on the Christ has done for us. 

Lord, walk with us today in this moment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's in your name, Jesus. Amen. 

As you take this today, remember, it's him and him alone. I'll be over here if you need someone to pray with love to do that with you. This is your time to worship and celebrate this.