Rediscovering Wonder

Praise the Lord. Hey, we're beginning a brand new series for the month of December entitled Wonder. You've probably seen that around either on our social media platforms or even as you walked in there in the middle of the concourse today. We're gonna be talking today about the wonder of his name. And here's a prayer that I wanna encourage you and challenge you to be praying throughout the month of December, especially beginning today.

Here's the prayer, very simple prayer. I want you to really just be praying this over and over and just offer this up to the Lord as many times as it comes to your mind. Just pray this. Lord, help me to rediscover the wonder of who you are. Just as simple as that.

Lord, help me to rediscover the wonder of who you are. The word wonder, if you look it up in the dictionary, according to Merriam Webster, just simply means a cause of astonishment or admiration. A cause of astonishment or admiration. So that little simple prayer we prayed or that I challenged you to pray would sound something like this. Lord, help me to rediscover the astonishment and the admiration of who you are.

The astonishment and the admiration of who you are. I had a little fun this week. I asked ChatGPT to write a personalized poem for me using the word wonder. ChatGPT entitled the poem I Wonder Pastor Style.

Here it is. You want to hear it? I wonder why my sermons sometimes rhyme by mistake or why my dad jokes land with groans and heads that shake. I wonder why college football makes my heart race and cheer and why sweets disappear so fast. My lifelong sweet tooth is clear.

I wonder why Christmas feels like heaven on earth. Why life as pastor husband grandpa is a joy of endless worth. Today we're going to talk about the wonder of his name. Next week we're going to talk about the wonder of his arrival. Two weeks from today, we're going to talk about the wonder of his love.

Do me a favor and stand to honor the word of God. We're going to look in two places. The Old Testament, New Testament, Isaiah, chapter nine, Matthew, chapter one, Isaiah, chapter nine, Matthew, chapter one. If you have your device, if you have your Bible. Isaiah, Chapter nine, Matthew, chapter one.

We're going to look at two verses in Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six and seven. And I am going to resist the temptation to do what many of your kids walk around the house doing when it comes to those truth numbers six and seven, I'm not going to resist the temptation of doing that because I believe it's demonic. Like there's some things going around on Instagram and emails about it being demonic. And I'm like, you got way too much time on your hand if you're trying to make something demonic out of six and seven. I'm going to resist the temptation just simply because it is downright annoying.

Can I get an amen on that? It's just annoying. It's just annoying. Just makes no sense. Just dumb.

But the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9 says this. For to us, you've heard these verses. To us, a child is born, a son is given, and the government, the authority, the Mizrah in the original language, will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace, of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He'll reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness.

From that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. And then in Matthew chapter one, if you don't have a Bible or device, it's on the screen, but it says this beginning in verse 20. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son.

And you're to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, referencing the prophet Isaiah, but not Isaiah 9, but Isaiah 7. And he quotes from the prophet, verse 23. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us, the wonder of his name. Let's make some declarations together.

Church before you're seated, everybody out loud. You ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones.

Now I will be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated. If you love God's word, shout Amen this morning.

Listen. Names are important. Names carry meaning. Names give description. The two most popular names in 2025 that were given to baby boys and baby girls were Noah and Olivia.

Noah and Olivia. Some other honorable mentions were Liam, Oliver, Emma, Mia, James. My formal name, Charlotte, Theodore, Sophia and Elijah. If you have a son or a daughter by one of those names, if you have a grandchild by one of those names, I know that those names are really important. Those names are important.

They carry meaning, they carry significance. And every time you hear that name, I'm sure it just stirs something in your heart. But what I want to talk to you about today are not any of those names, but a name that's different than any of those names, a name that's actually superior to those names, a name that's above actually every other name. It's a name that heaven adores. It's a name that hell trembles when it's mentioned.

And it's a name that all creation bows to whenever that name is mentioned. The trees and the ocean waves and the animals all bow to the name of Jesus, a name that's above every other name. And listen, there's wonder in his name. There's astonishment and admiration in the name of. Of Jesus.

It's not ordinary, it's not common, it's not casual. And his name means something that really should stir wonder in us. Isaiah prophesies about him 700 years before he would ever come to the earth as Emmanuel, as God coming in the flesh to us, Isaiah prophesies about him. And Isaiah calls attention to the significance of his name. And Isaiah, the prophet, says his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.

What is Isaiah saying when he says his name will be Wonderful Counselor? In the Hebrew, that word wonderful pele. It means extraordinary, beyond human understanding. Isaiah doesn't say that his name will be impressive. He doesn't say his name will be good.

Isaiah says his name will be extraordinary. It'll be wonderful, full of wonder. It'll be beyond human understanding, he says. We've just come out of our series on mental health. Had so much feedback about the series, I felt, going into the series and even more so after coming out of the series, it might be one of the most significant series that I've ever preached here at the refuge in 21 years.

I really believe God did a work and is doing a work through that. But we talked about the role of counselors. As a matter of fact, a few weeks ago, I had at the conclusion of the series, three professional counselors on stage with me that I interviewed. And they brought a great perspective and great balance to some really difficult topics. They brought great balance to some very complicated issues.

And that's what good counselors do. That's why I believe God has gifted them for the body of Christ because they have a way. When we have difficulty sorting out our emotions, when we're having a hard time sorting out our thoughts, a good counselor has a way of helping us to sort those things out. Because we all know life can be extremely complicated. Life can be extremely difficult.

I had a little serendipity a couple of weeks ago when we were getting all of our decorations out, all 1200 and something. Tupperware bins or Rubbermaid bins felt like that many. It wasn't, but it felt like a lot. And I opened one of the bins that has the outside lights because I put lights up outside. And the serendipity was that there was in that bin an unopened package where I had won an auction on an auction site for 800 LED lights.

They're all in one strand, 262ft long, brand spanking new, unused, still in the package. And I was like, ah, I completely forgot about those. I can't wait to get those up. And I tear into the package and I start getting them ready so I can put them up outside. And I just want you to know that it took me two solid hours to untangle 800 LED lights on a 262 foot shot string.

Two hours.

Then when I took them outside and I was preparing to put them up, they got tangled again. And there were bad things that ran through my brain. They were just bad thoughts about life and about other humans and about the lights and there's just, just bad thoughts. And when I finally got them untangled for the second time and I finally got those lights up, I needed a counselor to untangle me.

It was an absolute mess. And here's what Isaiah's saying. He's saying like when life is a mess, when you got stuff going on you can't untangle. There's a man named Jesus that's coming 700 years from now and he's going to be a wonderful counselor for you. Like he's going to help you to sort through all the difficulties and the complications of life.

Is anybody thankful for the wonderful counselor by the name of Jesus? Listen, a counselor knows where you are. A counselor understands what you feel. They're able to guide you where you need to go. And Isaiah's saying Jesus is going to be that.

Plus he's going to be that on steroids. Jesus is going to step into your brokenness and bring beauty out of your brokenness. That's only he can do. Isaiah says Jesus is going to enter into your chaos. And he's going to bring order and put everything in place for you.

He's going to step into the darkness that's just so thick, and he's going to be the source of light that's going to pierce that darkness. Isaiah says he's going to be the one that steps into the sin and the depravity of mankind. And he's going to save them. He's going to deliver them from sin. He counsels us with truth that sets us free.

Come on, say Amen. He guides us with perfect love that casts out all fear. And he directs with clarity that dispels all confusion. He comforts us with his presence. And Isaiah says, the wonder of his name is that you're never going to be without guidance because he is your counselor.

The wonder of his name. And then Isaiah the prophet says, not only is he that like, there's more. Isaiah says he's the mighty God Gibor in the Hebrew warrior champion, a term that's reserved for extraordinary human beings who possess great strength and bravery and valor.

The strength that he possesses should provoke wonder in us because there's nobody who comes close to matching his strength or his valories. Psalm 145, verse 3. The Lord is great and worthy of our praise. No one can understand how great he is. Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 12.

Watch. Who else has held the oceans in his hand. Think about that. How we read that. We could skip right over that, not even ponder that, and miss the whole wonder of how incredible and how strong and mighty that he is.

But the Bible says he holds the oceans in his hand. He goes on to say, who has measured off the heavens with his fingers. I talked about this last year, but I gotta. I've just gotta remind you, give you some perspective on just how vast, how great, how strong, how powerful that Jesus is. Scripture says he measures off the heavens with his fingers.

We know that light travels at a rate of 186,282 miles per second. That's approximately 670 million miles per hour. Our moon orbits some 239,000 miles away from the Earth. If we were able to jump in a jet and travel to the moon, it would take us 19 days. But light reaches the moon in 1.3 seconds.

The sun is 93 million miles from the Earth. A nonstop flight to the sun, if you were able to do it, would take over 21 years. But light travels that same distance in 8 minutes and 20 seconds. The nearest star to the Earth after The sun is 4.3 light years away. That's the distance that light would travel in 4.3 years.

To reach that star by plane would take you 51 billion years. We know there are many galaxies. The closest one to our galaxy, the Milky Way, is called the Andromeda Galaxy. Its distance from Us is approximately 2.3 million light years away. Scientists estimate that there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars.

And yet Isaiah says in Isaiah 40, 25, 26. To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? Asks the Holy One. Look up into the heavens who created all these stars?

He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, Gabor, not a single one is missing. And he takes that the galaxies, the billions of galaxies. And the Bible says he measures them in his fingertips.

Mighty God.

And if he can do that, listen to me today, church. He can break chains of bondage and addiction off of your life. If he knows the name of every single star, the billions of stars and billions of galaxies, then he can heal your body, whether it be physical or emotional. He can step into your pain and listen. There's no disease that upsets him or that overwhelms him.

There's no disease there that he cannot heal.

If he can measure the galaxies in his fingertips, he can restore your family. He can calm any storm that's attacking your life. He can defeat the enemy on your behalf. Oh, the wonder of his name. Mighty God.

Stronger, greater, more powerful than anybody that we know. There's no way to compare him to anybody else. And then the prophet Isaiah says, if that's not enough, he's a wonderful counselor. He's the mighty God. And if that's not enough for you, then he's also Everlasting Father.

Everlasting Father. America has earned the title of the world's leader in fatherlessness. 85% of children and teens we know that suffer from behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. And over 70% of all adolescent patients in drug and alcohol treatment centers originate from homes without dads. And listen, the thing Isaiah is saying is that God wants you to know his son Jesus as the Father who will never abandon you, as a Father who is everlasting, the Father who will never walk out on you.

And the term everlasting father is not referencing the eternal nature of God. We know with him there is no beginning and there is no end. But the prophet Isaiah, in the original language is referencing the never ending nature of his care for us. His care that is not conditional. His Care that doesn't depend on you getting straight A's on your report card.

His care that's not conditional based on you just living a perfect life and doing the right thing all the time, or having degrees on your wall or a certain amount of money in the bank or acting a certain way. No, it's the everlasting father who loves you and I just because of who he is. And it's a love that never changes. I've said this for years. There's nothing you can do today that will make him love you anymore.

And there's nothing you can do today that'll make him love you any less. His love is unchanging. His love is everlasting. He will never abandon you. Some of you suffer from great and deep father wounds because you had a dad who walked out on you, walked out on your mom, walked out on your family.

You had a dad who was abusive. You had a dad that was never present in your life. And it makes it extremely complicated and difficult for you to embrace the concept of a heavenly father. So many people are like, that dad thing, that didn't work out too well for me. So you talk about a heavenly father.

Is he gonna do the same thing to me that my earthly dad did? And the answer to that is no. Because he's a perfect dad. He's a faithful father, he's a loving father. And his love for you never changes.

It's unconditional. His love is not temporary. It's not some seasonal love. It's not a fragile type of love. But his faithfulness is never ending.

And listen, there are benefits to being a child of the most high.

You may be here today and you're not in a relationship with Jesus. You may be watching online. You may be one of our friends that are incarcerated. And you're watching via Panda today, the Panda Wapping. And you're not in a relationship with Jesus.

Let me tell you what you forfeit by not being in a relationship with him. Or better yet, let me tell you what you gain by being in relationship with him. The first thing is that you gain identity. And there's so many people looking for identity. Who am I?

They're repeatedly trying to answer the question by being immoral or experimenting in different things. Because it's just a quest to know, who am I? And the moment that you step into relationship with Jesus, you gain identity. Because the Bible says in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, if any person is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things passed away and Everything made new.

Like all of a sudden that person that you once were, that adulterer, that addict, that hot tempered, angry mess, that liar, that thief. He says, once you're under the blood of Jesus, you get a new identity, my friends. Like that ID badge that you carried around where the enemy had labeled you, all those different things, Jesus strips that off of you and throws it away and puts a new badge on you. That's as forgiven and washed and clean and new in Jesus. That's who we are.

We get identity in him. Secondly, the benefit is that we're adopted. We're adopted by him. Paul says it in Ephesians 5:1, we're adopted by the King. And we met so many families yesterday and we have so many families here in the refuge that foster and foster to adopt.

It's amazing. Amazing. And it's amazing that our Heavenly Father would look beyond our failures, would look beyond our flaws, would look beyond our immorality and say, I want you as my son. I want you as my daughter. And Paul says in Ephesians 1:5, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure. Isn't that amazing? As many times as we've blown it and he says, you still bring me great pleasure. You're still my son, you're still my daughter. Oh, what a great benefit.

Everlasting Father. The fourth thing we get, or the third thing we get is protection when we are under his covering, when we are his son, his daughter. The Bible says in Psalm 121, verse 7 and 8, the Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

Fourthly, we get provision. Philippians, chapter 4, verse 19. And the same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Listen, if you're not in a relationship with Jesus today, if you're here in the room, if you're watching online, if you're watching from a prison cell, the greatest decision you can make is to say, I want you as my everlasting father. I want to be your son.

I want to be your daughter. Here's the last thing Isaiah says. He says, if that's not enough for you, he's also coming as the Prince of Peace.

The wonder of his name, the Prince of Peace. He would come in the original language, Sar. Shalom. Sar. Just simply means the head person, the captain, the chief, the governor.

Shalom meaning well being, happiness, peace. And Isaiah saying, Jesus is going to come as the governor of well being and the captain of happiness and the ruler of peace. And listen to me, peace is not the only absence of conflict because we're always going to have conflict. In fact, from the beginning of time there's been conflict. And in all of our lives there's going to be conflict.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but it's the presence of Jesus.

You can be in the midst of fierce battles for your life. You can be in the midst of fierce storms, there'll be conflict. But Jesus, if he's present with you, gives you a peace that passes all understanding. Isaiah, chapter 26, verse 3 and 4. You will keep in perfect peace.

Perfect peace.

Translated Shalom. Shalom. You'll keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all those whose thoughts are fixed on you. In other words, Isaiah is saying, he's not just going to give you peace, he's going to give you a double portion of peace. He's going to give you more than what you need.

You want one help in a peace? He says, I'll give you double portion of peace. He says, whatever you're facing, I'm going to always provide enough and more than enough for you so that the enemy does not win. He will keep in shalom. Shalom those whose hearts, those who mind, those whose minds are fixed on him, and those who trust in him.

I love what the apostle Paul says in Philippians, chapter 2, verse 9. He says, Therefore God elevated him, Jesus to the place of highest honor and gave him the name that's above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, the wonder of his name. Well, I just want to remind you today his name is greater than fear. And if you're here today and you're battling fear, maybe you're experiencing night terrors and nightmares constantly and it's messing with your sleep. And maybe all throughout the day you're just constantly wracked with fear, fearful about World War Three.

You're fearful about terrorists in our land. You're fearful that you might lose your job. You're fearful that the next doctor's appointment, they're going to give you bad news. You're fearful that you're going to fall into poverty. You're not going to be able to pay the bills.

You're fearful that your kids are going to go crazy and wayward. You're fearful that you're going to lose your marriage or lose your house. And the enemy is taking up space inside of your mind and he's not paying a penny of rent. I'm telling you, there's a name today that should provoke in us astonishment and admiration that is higher than fear, that's greater than fear. There's a name that's above depression.

And if you're battling depression today, you just cannot seem to get above those prevailing thoughts of discouragement and worry. You can't seem to ever find joy.

There's a name that's above your depression today. There's a name that's above shame and the mistakes of the past that the enemy keeps bringing up and throwing in your face. And Jesus is bigger than that. He's higher than that. And he wants to lift you above the shame and the reproach of your past life.

There's a name that's above sickness, and he can heal you today.

He can do a miracle in your body today.

He can cause the pain to stop right now.

I feel that for somebody that's watching from a prison cell right now and you need healing in your body. He can heal you right now.

There's a name that's above addiction.

He can break that chain off of you today.

There's a name that's above every other name that's ever been spoken over you, whatever it might be, whatever the source. There's a name that's above that.

I'm just asking you to pray a simple prayer. Lord, help me to rediscover the wonder of who you are, the astonishment, the admiration for who you are. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?