Shane Idleman shares four life lessons from Isaiah 9:6, emphasizing the importance of hope, experiencing God, preparing one's heart, and remembering who God is. He highlights Isaiah as a prophet who called people back to God amidst judgment, reminding us that true hope comes from recognizing our spiritual condition and turning back to God. Shane stresses that experiencing God is crucial for transformation, and that we must prepare our hearts to receive His guidance and peace. Ultimately, he encourages believers to remember God's authority and character as the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9, chapter 6. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Isaiah 9, 6. Four life-changing lessons from Isaiah. I'm going to read that. It's a very popular verse. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. And it's interesting, I want to talk about Isaiah for a minute, the prophet Isaiah. And it's been said that prophets are like trees, they are planted for the future. And a lot of times these guys, God would raise them up like Jeremiah, where the Bible says that before you were even born, Jeremiah, I formed you in your mother's womb, and I called you to be a prophet among the nations, planting them in that womb for later, to call that nation back. Same thing with Isaiah, he was called to bring God's people back. And he's actually considered the greatest Old Testament prophet. He's the greatest Old Testament prophet. And people say, what about John the Baptist? Well, number one, he was New Testament, we consider him. But also, John the Baptist was the greatest, Jesus said this was the greatest person who ever lived in regard to his proximity. He was actually baptizing Jesus. He brought in the ministry of Jesus, preparing the way for the Lord. So he was great in that area. But the greatest Old Testament prophet, hands down, is this person Isaiah who wrote this. He's quoted over 50 times in the New Testament. Isaiah is quoted. And so I find this interesting, a lot of people say that the Old Testament isn't valid today, we don't really look to that anymore. Well, if Jesus quoted it, and Paul quoted it, and the New Testament writers quoted it, it's something that we need to look to. And we don't look at the Bible as Old and New Testament separate, we look at it as one story, the Old Covenant, and then fulfilled in the New Covenant in Christ. So it all fits together like a perfect puzzle. So I'd encourage you to read the Old Testament and the New Testament together. And he also served during the reign of five kings. His call was faithfulness, not success. And I want you to remember that. God calls us to be faithful, not necessarily successful. Because how do we rate success? By the world's standards. And this greatest prophet, it was said, tradition holds, that he was put on a tree stump and sawed in two by wicked king Manasseh. So what happens to the wonderful life that we talked about, right? God has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, tell that to Isaiah. But I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, because God might have a wonderful plan for our lives, and I pray about that. And if you weren't here a few weeks ago, go listen to that message, because it's important. But we also have to have a correct view of what the Christian life is like. Did you read it on the news this week? The four Christian boys were beheaded by ISIS because they did not renounce Christ. New York Times, Christian Post. I mean, these are serious times, folks. This is serious stuff. Isaiah, what about his commission and his context? The commission of Isaiah, the context of Isaiah. He was considered what we would consider a Navy SEAL prophet. He was bad. He was educated. He knew the Old Testament. He knew the history of Israel. And his name actually means the salvation of the Lord. So Isaiah means the salvation of the Lord, and he's prophesying about the soon coming salvation of the Lord. Isn't that interesting how God intertwines these things? He was a patriot. He loved his country and his people. And it's funny, if you study the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that they were statesmen, they were reformers, they were preachers, and they were authors. A lot of these guys. And he was a patriot. And sometimes I get worried, sometimes people don't think we should have a love for what God has done in our country. It's almost like watching a family be destroyed from what he built to where it's at now. And there's nothing wrong with that cry of Nehemiah, why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? To look at the direction we're heading and look at the direction where we started and where we are now. It's disheartening. It's okay to feel that pain and have a love for what God has done in our country. For those who were born here and call this their nation. And the context is Assyria was coming to judge Judah. And what happened is when there was a King Saul, King David, and King Solomon, they ruled over the children of Israel. There was one kingdom. And then the kingdom became divided. And different kings went over to the, it was almost like America and Canada, right? Northern, southern kingdoms. Judah was that southern kingdom. And Isaiah was called to prophesy, to warn this nation. And Assyria was coming. And Assyria was not a nation that would be gentle with them. So why is this? Why would God allow this Assyrian nation to come and judge his people? But we also have to remember that God is gracious and merciful and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. So he takes, he uses the prophets to call his people back. So why are they coming to judge Judah? Why? It's because the fear of God has vanished. And the people were calling good evil and evil good. They had left God, the fear of God, they had departed from God. So the only way to get them back is how? Sending an Isaiah or a Jeremiah or Ezekiel or a Joel or Amos or an Obadiah or Jonah to, actually Jonah went to Assyria, the capital Nineveh there, and called that whole, that whole secular nation to God. They repented. And they turned to him. They spared, God spared that city for 150 years. Because of these prophetic messages going out and turning the people back. And here's an interesting point. The first 39 books of Isaiah contain strong messages of judgment and a call to repentance. If you sit and you read Isaiah, you're going to go, Whoa, man, what's this guy's problem? Wow, this is, this is hard. What side of the bed did he wake up on? Why is he such an angry prophet? And you have to remember that you can't confuse anger with passion all the time. He was called to bring God's people back. However, he offers them comfort and hope with where we're at here. Isaiah 9, 6. God promised a Redeemer. So he lovingly encourages the people to turn back to God with strong language. You've left your first love. All those types of things that we, you know, that's New Testament. But he said those kinds of same truths that you've left God, you stiff-necked people. And the interesting thing is this, does a person change when all is well? I mean, let's be honest. Does somebody turn from domestic violence and anger when everything's going good? Or is it when their wife says, no more, I'm leaving? What about Oxycontin? All pain meds, all these different things that people, do they decide to just go off of that? When, hey, my job's going good, I'm making $100,000 a year, my marriage is intact. Do they decide to go off then? No. I mean, everything from alcohol to anger to all these things, it usually takes a wake-up call. People do not change when all is well. Very few times, and maybe we can think of very few times every now and then, but you've never had, I've never seen somebody completely get off a bad course if that bad course is not going wrong. They usually try to just live it out as long as they can until there's a wake-up call of God. And many times, even then, people don't change. So that's why God uses Assyria in the Old Testament or trials or sometimes difficult things in our lives. And why is this happening? I can't believe this is happening, whether it's injury, illness, whatever it is. And I don't want to say that God always does that, but we can't rule it out. Because we will not change unless there's consequences sometimes. Until we get that knock at the door and there's a wake-up call. That's when most people change. So that's what He's doing here. He's giving the children of Israel a wake-up call. Just read the first few chapters of Isaiah tonight. So what are the four lessons that we can glean from Isaiah? Primarily Isaiah 9.6, of course, but the whole message here of Isaiah. Four lessons. The first one I want to just give you tonight is hope comes from seeing a way out. He offers hope here, does He not? He's offering hope. There's hope here. And hope comes from seeing a way out. We've all heard that saying, right? Light at the end of the tunnel? Well, there's truth to that. When you take away that light, when you take away that hope, people want to die. People want to just give up. And there's hope. Hope comes from seeing a way out and pointing people in the right direction. If we always say that nothing is wrong, all is well, just stay positive, then we avoid the cure. We avoid the hope. That's what Isaiah is doing. He's saying, listen, you want hope? You want to see the light at the end of the tunnel? You need to look at the real condition of the heart. Look at how we've drifted from God. Look at where your heart's at, your lifestyle. The hope is getting back on the right path. See, the wrong path leads to destruction. The wrong path leads to heartache. The wrong path leads to disappointment. So God, through Isaiah, is trying to get these people back on the right path. That's where the hope is. See, when you're on the right path, you can say, I see the hope now. I see it now. Once I get through all these challenges and consequences, I see that there is hope at the end. But you have to get back on the right path. And Isaiah offered real hope. Here's how. By painting a real condition. The people were lost without God. And that's why the types of, well, mainly our church, your Westside Christian Fellowship, some people just do not like these messages. I've talked about that before, many times, right? I'm not going to belabor the point again. But they just don't like these messages. And it often leaves me baffled than others because we're painting hope. We're not saying, oh, you're in trouble now. You're never going to, I can't believe you sat in this church. How can you be here? You better get out of here. You better run for cover. We don't do that. We offer hope. But in order to offer hope, you have to paint the real condition of the heart. Here's why. Because then you can direct the heart in the right direction. Once you paint the real condition. And think about this. Ironically, the number one sign of a false prophet in the Bible is, do you know what that is? They offered false hope. I mean, we think of false prophets, right, as their theology is off, and they're out there, they're saying things about God's Word that's just not true. And that's true, absolutely. But throughout the Old Testament, the number one sign of a false prophet was false hope. Look throughout, they'll say, Jeremiah especially, Jeremiah 23 and 24 and throughout, he's talking about, you tell my people, peace, peace, safety. When God says, there's no peace, there's no safety, there's judgment coming. But they would encourage people in their sin by saying, it's no big deal. It's no big deal. God says, peace. He says, good job, good job. God's not angry. He's not upset. God says, false prophet, because they're giving false hope. And that's one of my concerns with a lot of the TV preachers. It's God that loves everybody. God, you know, just go team, go team. He's got no false hope. False hope. Things are not going in a good direction. Just look at the news. Shootings increasing. Porn addiction increasing. Abuse in the home increasing. Sexual assault increasing. Everything's on the rise. But it's okay. God's happy. It's okay. Peace, peace, peace. Don't worry. Don't worry, guys. Come on. And God says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, but they spoke. But had they truly stood in my counsel, they would have turned the people from the error of their ways. It's that famous verse. Is my word not like a hammer? Like a fire that devours? If you just preach the word, in season and out of season, love and mercy and grace, but also holiness and righteousness and judgment, the whole counsel of God, that's how you turn a person back. If all we talk about is the pleasantries, and all we do is offer hope, you don't always help people. I can share with you guys, because I don't think she might be here at the second service. I don't want to share with them. But somebody we know that's close to us had to flee from domestic violence. And talking with them, and trying to talk to the guy, you know, you have to paint a picture of hope, right? Hey, listen, she's ready to give up. There's hope there. But I'm going to shoot you straight. You are destroying your family. This is getting out of control. Do you see the red flags? You need to turn to God. You need to repent. Won't it be to me if I just offer hope? Hey man, don't worry. Things will get better, just look up. What? How's that going to help anything? That's actually going to encourage the sin. So you see how important it is to shoot people straight. We have to shoot them straight. Once you get them on the right track with God, now they see the hope. Without being on the right track, they don't see the hope. They don't see the hope. So hope is vitally important, but you have to see a way out, but you have to look in the right direction. So be very careful because hope, the sign of a false prophet is false hope. So be careful there. And it's nothing new, right? Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I want to hear that's nothing new. Nothing new. Who doesn't want to meet somebody? Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I want. Oh, that's right. Tell me what I want to hear. There's nothing new. It almost reminds me of how teenagers love parents that are friends with them. Right? They're just telling me what I want to hear. Parents, you should never be close friends with your kids. You're called to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Because once they love this relationship, they're going to end up hating it later. I remember when I was growing up, 14, 15, all the kids' cool dads were the ones who got us drunk. And alcohol. And at 16, that led to giving us free crystal meth. And at 17, that led to weekend trips to Vegas. So what was cool now is a nightmare. And I loathe those men. I hate those men. I have to forgive them. I have to love them. But I hate how they planted those seeds early on. But tell me what I want to hear. I just, man, my dad's so cool. He's my best friend. That might be good later on, but right now when you're training them, what is cool eventually becomes a nightmare. And the truth is, we love the gospel of hope and forgiveness, but not the gospel of repentance and change. See, if I just say half of that, everybody would love it. We love the gospel of hope and forgiveness, but not the gospel of repentance and change. So on this point, hope comes from seeing a way out. Do you see a way out? Do you see a way out right now? Because I talk to people all the time that maybe they're pregnant and they don't know how to tell their mom or their dad. They see no way out. Or what about the 1.2 million, did you catch that? 1.2 million abortions the nation has on a yearly basis. Should we offer hope to those people? Absolutely. Camp out in Psalms 51 or Psalms 23 and live there because there's great hope. But we have to get to them before that point. So if somebody is just hearing this and they're struggling in this area and they're pregnant or whatever, I don't know why I put this in the notes. It's here for a reason. But there is a way out. Hope comes from seeing the way out and looking to what he just said. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. That's where the hope is found. It's not going to be found down at Planned Parenthood in Palmdale, I'll tell you that right now. It's not going to be found in worldly advice in Oprah and see if that brings hope. That brings nothing but despair and brokenness. There's hope if you look to the right person. See, that's the key. There's always hope if you look in the right direction to the right person. Or people say, my life is falling apart. They don't see the hope. My marriage is crumbling. Or this addiction has me trapped. I'm an emotional wreck. Depression is taking its toll. My children have walked away from God. I owe so much money that I don't see a way out. God, where are you? I'm scared. I desperately need you. And I want to point you in that direction. I want to point you in the direction of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Because we have to see the real condition of the heart and then from that, point us in the right direction. So if these issues, if there's sin in our life, if we're holding on to the sin and certain lifestyle things, God says, I want to give you hope. I want to give you that freedom, but you need to bring it to Me. You need to take it to Me. All of these speak of hope. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, those all speak of hope. So the next point on Lessons from Isaiah, we must experience God. You might say, well, Shane, that's not real profound. Well, trust me, I'm getting somewhere because I think the majority of Christians have this problem. They've never truly experienced God. They've repented, but they don't know the passion that I'm talking about. They don't know the fire in their belly for the things of God. Scriptures never came alive. Have you ever sat just for an hour or two and wept during worship or just worshiped God and couldn't stop? Have you ever experienced Him in the fellowship of the suffering and the pain of going through life and being drawn back to Christ and having that ongoing relationship? Isaiah, we can learn from Isaiah. I found this interesting as I was studying all 40 authors, the Bible written over 1,500 years on three different continents, 40 different authors. All of them, unless you can find me one, experienced God. All of them had a powerful encounter with the living God. So much so that they were able to pin His words. And they experienced Him without sound systems, without hymnals, without Bibles, without plush buildings, without sermon apps, without commentaries. They experienced God without all this. And now it's like, right? But they experienced Him. Now if you do that, it's okay. Sometimes it can get hot. I'm not making fun of that. But we have all this stuff and we still haven't experienced God. Experience changes you. Here's why I want people to experience God, because that changes you. Listen, I've heard of people drop off of eight or nine prescription meds in one night, spending one night in the Word of God, and having it break them. I've seen people get back on course in one night of prayer and in the Word of God. I've seen how experience changes you. Think about it. All those people who say, you know, kind of tease parents, right? Oh, can't you keep your kids in order? Can't you make them do this? Wait till you have kids. You just wait. And once you have that child, does that experience not change you? Radically change you. Dramatically change you. Has anybody ever been to the Holy Land and walked where Jesus walked? Or, I mean, it'll bring tears to your eyes. I haven't yet. But I've heard it. It's just absolutely amazing. Why? Because experience changes you. So what's happening? What's blocking this experience with God? Well, I think again, Isaiah, this time instead of 9-6, think of Isaiah 6-9. God says to him, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed. People sometimes have a question here. Why is God telling him to make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy? Why doesn't he want them to hear God's message? And personally, this is my own personal opinion. When we hear, but we ignore, we become dull. So God is telling Isaiah, listen, go and tell these people, preach to them, keep on hearing, but do not understand. And the more he kept proclaiming God's truth, the more they got quieter and quieter and silence and dull. And God's just saying, keep on proclaiming it, Isaiah. Keep on proclaiming it and the people are going to get dull. They're going to not hear. Their ears are going to be heavy. They're going to shut their eyes because of the preaching of God's Word. We must experience God. Do you know that Isaiah experienced God? That's after God called him, after he experienced him. And you can, it should be in your bulletin, Isaiah 6-1, where it talks about Isaiah saying in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up, and the entire train of his robe filled the entire temple. And the seraphim or cherubim or whatever those were, they covered their eyes with the holiness of God. They couldn't see it. They covered their feet and they flew. And then they cried, holy, holy, holy is our God. Holy, holy is our God. Isaiah sees this. The whole place is filled with smoke. And as they said holy, holy is our God, that whole temple shook. Holy, and the pillars and everything just shook. And then Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm a man of undone lips, and I dwell among a people that they are ruthless, they are evil. God, I'm undone. Basically saying, I'm exposed. I'm a sinner. Once you meet Christ, you change. Once you truly meet God, you change. And I'm tired of prideful, arrogant people telling me how spiritual they are. When you meet God, you don't become prideful, you become humble and broken. That's the problem. We don't have a lot of people experiencing God. They're not saying their own story. When I saw God high and lifted up on His throne, the whole smoke filled the temple. I saw Him. I felt Him. And I cried out, Lord, I'm undone. I'm a man unworthy and an unclean lips. I met the risen Savior. I've met God and He's changed my life. And then that changes everything else. Now Isaiah can prophesy to a wayward nation. Now Isaiah can proclaim truth. Now Isaiah can die for his message because he's experienced God. Many people haven't experienced God. How can these four Christian kids who refuse to announce their faith and become Muslims be beheaded? People get upset when you can't find a parking spot or these little things. How is that possible? It's because we haven't experienced God. I guarantee you take... I'll be conservative on my estimates here. You take 60% of the church in America. You say denounce Christ and you're going to get beheaded. They'll say, where do I sign up? Where do you want me to come? You want me to worship Allah? You want me to be Hare Krishna? You want me to be this? You want me to be that? I'll sign it. I don't care. And that's conservative numbers. Because they haven't experienced God. Or for many of you, you need to experience Him again. Like D.L. Moody said, right? We are leaky vessels. We have to sit underneath the fountain of life every day or every week. You've got to sit. You've got to receive from God. Because I know my own human heart. I can preach like this, this Christmas, next Christmas. I can just be dull and boring and I haven't experienced God in a year. I don't know where He went. I'm just tired of church. What happened? Did God drift? Or did I drift? And I need to experience God again. That's why Paul talks about, you know, the song we sing at the end, worries some people, Holy Spirit come and you're welcome here. Oh, gosh, you guys are so... No, that's what you need. That's what you need. You need all the Holy Spirit. It's a triune nature of God. You think God the Father is going to dwell inside of us? No way. The Holy Spirit, which is God the Father, the triune nature, don't have me try to explain it because I can't. But know that that's the very nature and character of God. That's the same Holy Spirit that rose Christ from the dead. That's the same Holy Spirit that does miracles and powers. All we're saying is, Lord, fill this place. You are welcome here. Instead of, no, we don't believe any of that weird stuff. That's too emotional. You're not welcome here. Right? We've got the Bible. We've got God the Father and God the Son. Holy Spirit, you don't come in this place. But that's how you experience God. When Paul talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit will receive God. It's vitally important. Psalm 34, 18, on this topic, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. Are you brokenhearted? Are you crushed in spirit? Because that will pull God to you like a magnet. The problem is most people aren't. I'm just here to shoot you straight. They're worried about what's for dinner. What time is this over? They've got all kinds of things on their mind. They're not thirsty for God. And on this truth, those who are satisfied will never experience more of Him. If you're satisfied with where you're at with God, you will never experience more of Him. Think about it. If I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat. If you're good with God, hey, I'm going through the motions. If you're not satisfied, those who are satisfied will not experience more of Him. See, there's a longing in my heart. Lord, I need a deeper relationship with you. Lord, I need that. I need prayer time tomorrow. Lord, I will want that because now when you want something, what are you going to do? You're going to seek it. Those who seek me will find me. If you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me. You see how that's tied together? If I'm fulfilled, I'm not going to seek God. I'm going to go this direction. I'm not going to seek God. I could care less. I'm satisfied. And I would say the majority of the church, I wish I could preach a whole sermon series on this because we're not experiencing God. How do you know, Shane? The petty arguments would end. We'd have extended worship and prayer time. We'd be seeing people confess and ask for forgiveness and repent. The love of Christ would be evident everywhere. Televisions would be out in the garage. We'd be worshiping. We'd be praying at home. We'd be putting God first. We'd be experiencing Him and the power of the Holy Spirit. And we're just not. And the third thing we can glean from Isaiah is to prepare your heart. Set your heart. Isaiah said, So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. One great lesson from Isaiah is to prepare your heart, to set your heart. That word there, to set your heart, is like when you break a leg or break something, they have to set that. They have to put that bone right. So this is putting your heart right back again with God. Set your heart towards Him. Return that heart back to Him. One of the hardest things about preaching is preaching this type of thing, this type of message, and very few people are receptive. That's what I said last week. Let's stop saying, Great message, Pastor. And let's start applying it. I'd rather just say nothing to me, and then just see the glow off of you next week, of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. That would be my greatest, greatest thing. Because I even know people say good message when it stinks. Right? I mean, we're all nice. I used to go to some church's desert, Dorno. I'd say, Oh, good job. You handled Matthew 18 really well on that. It's like, Oh, this guy needs to be filled with the Spirit again. He's sitting on ice. He's cold up there. But you want to compliment people. So, I mean, those things are good, but we have to really look. Are we experiencing God? Well, here's how. Isaiah 118. Come now. See all this truth from Isaiah? It's unbelievable. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Reason together. He's saying, Come, let's talk about this. Let's reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool. Praise God. Thank you. People are saying, Oh, thank you, Shane. I need to hear that. Oh, keep reading. Keep reading. If. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land. If. If. And maybe it's just me, but I often wonder sometimes. You read the Bible. What if Abel or Cain rather, Cain would have just asked for forgiveness instead of killed his brother? Or what about we read the sin of Achan? It's traumatic in the Old Testament. What about if Achan would have just not grabbed the accursed things? They conquered a city and God said, Do not grab the accursed things. Do not take of these people. Do not take of the spoil. And this man, Achan, grabbed the accursed things and hid them. And God said, There's sin in the camp. And all of Achan's family was destroyed. How can you stone little kids and his wife and daughters? How can you? Folks, the cost of sin. That's why all these difficult passages in the Old Testament are difficult because of the cost of sin. What if the children of Israel would have just thanked God instead of complained in the desert? Two people see the promised land out of, I don't know, it's been estimated 1.5 million to 3 million people. Two people see it because of grumbling and complaining. Why is that? What about if Samson, this mighty man of God, Samson, would have ran to God instead of Delilah? What about David? David, if he were just called for his chariot instead of Bathsheba? Three lies are gone. Four lies are gone. The baby and Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah. He just killed four family members because of that sin. And how it would play out later. And Absalom, his own son, he's running. David's running from his own son. And finally, when they catch Absalom, David said, spare the boy. And they don't. They thrust him through his spear a few times. And when David hears the news, he just weeps. Absalom, Absalom. Absalom, my son. Do you know why he weeps so hard? It's probably because he knew he caused it. The fallout. The fallout. See, I think sometimes we forget about the cost of sin. Like it's something like patty cake with the devil. It's no big deal. Trust me, I know it's hard. I got to watch it. I know the enemy's got a bullseye here and here. He's coming after us. That roaring lion. So that's why you have to set your heart. Prepare your heart. What about all the wicked kings in the Old Testament? Would it just turn to God and set away from Him? What if the church today would actually set their heart towards God? You would see revival. You would see people changing. They've actually set their heart toward God. Get pride out of the picture. Get stubbornness out of the picture and become men and women of humility and prayer and brokenness. God says, I just want that heart. That's all I want is I want that heart. I don't care about money. I can have a cat on a thousand heels. I don't care about sickness and illness. I can heal the body like that. I don't care about all those things. I just want a humble, broken, contrite heart. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. That's what He wants. He says, I will not reject that offering. I will not reject that gift. But if you come into the presence of God with arrogance and hideousness, you go through the motions. God says, I will reject your very worship because the heart's not right. You have to set your heart towards God. It's interesting too, when the Ark of God was captured, the Philistines finally captured the Ark of God. It records it was so traumatic for the people that when the priest fell, broke his neck, older guy, and then also this lady gave birth and died and named, I believe it was Ichabod, says the glory of the Lord has departed from this place. See, there wasn't, the Ark wasn't, the power wasn't in the Ark. The power was in the fact that that was where God's manifest presence was at. It went with the people and they were going to the Tabernacle and to the Holy of Holies where only the high priests could come once a year to atone for the sins of the people. God's presence was there. So when we don't do these things, we actually watch the glory of the Lord depart from our own lives. I don't believe we can lose the Holy Spirit, but you can quench and you can grieve to such a degree that you know nothing of the power of God in your life. That's why you're angry. That's why you're miserable. That's why you're moody. That's why you're upset all the time. That's why you lash out. Because you need to get right relationship with God again. Boy Shane, you nailed it. Yeah. I've lived it. I've lived it. I can tell when I'm getting angry and snappy and moody, it's always because that light is flickering and you've got to get back into the presence of God. Why do you think that's all we want to do here? Promote worship and prayer in the Word. Worship and prayer in the Word. That's what rejuvenates the heart. That's what's going to change the heart. And then the fourth point, Isaiah tells us and this is critical, remember who He is. You have to remember who God is. And I see so many people, myself included, we forget who He is. We know He's out there, but we forget actually who He is. That's why Isaiah said, and His name will be called and he lists all these things. But before that he says, and the government will rest on His shoulders. This is an interesting word for government. It's misrah. It will sit on His shoulders. And there's a couple different thoughts here. The weight of anything, right? You can carry more weight on your shoulders. People can squat a lot more than they can bench press or curl because of the weight. But also in our armed forces you can see four-star general, five-star general, they wear it on their shoulder. And this time they would have signet or areas of authority on their shoulders telling people who they were. But Isaiah is saying and the government will rest on His shoulders. The whole government of mankind, there's authority, there's domination, Christ is in control. That's why I often say Christ and Satan aren't going back and forth wondering who's going to win. He's already been defeated. He's a defeated foe. So Christ has that authority. So if you look to that authority, listen, I know I'm being harassed, I know I'm being this, I know temptation's coming, but Lord, the government, the actual principalities of everything sits on your shoulders. You are in charge. You're an authority, not Satan. So Isaiah's reminding the people that, then he goes right in and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. In some translations, I believe have a comma after wonderful, but the principal still applies. He's a wonderful counselor. Meaning, he'll never be upset. He'll never be angry. He won't be biased. If you come to me, you're not going to get 100% godly counsel every single time, are you? Why? Because I'm a sinner trying to look at God's word. And every single counsel, counselor, I believe, worth their salt should point people to the Wonderful Counselor. All my job is is to point you to him, point you to him. And people get tired. Why not? I don't want, I know what the Bible says. I want to know, no, what do you mean you know what the Bible says? You want me to give you little seven little nuggets I just pull out here, eight positive, you know, thinking sentences to kind of help lift you? It's all in the word of God. If we don't want to look to the word of God, I can't help you because he's the Wonderful Counselor Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. He's a counselor that will be there, as I said before, two in the morning at six in the morning on your drive home late tonight. He's always there. He's an ever present help in time of need. That's who we look to. So when you start to add all this up, he's got the authority. He's not under authority. He is an authority. And then he's a Wonderful Counselor, always there, always there for me, always going to listen. Then it moves right into mighty God. What else do you need to say? Mighty God means all powerful, all sufficient. Nothing else needed. Nothing else needed. All mighty, powerful God. That's where people, if they get in issues with their debt with money, it's interesting. God doesn't need money. He needs your heart. What about disease or sick? He created the body. He could heal it like that, or he can have the grace to take you through. And often a lot of people now are saying, Shay, I'm in impossible. I've encountered impossible obstacles. I just can't see a way out. We have to remember that he created the obstacle course. Listen, I've seen God open doors that you didn't even know was a door. He just steers the hand of the judge. The court paper forgets. The IRS credits. He's just in charge of everything. Does that mean you should be healthy, wealthy and rich? No, I'm not preaching that. That's for sure. But I am encouraging you to look to the one who holds all of that in his hands. That's who we serve. That's who we look to. And then the one right before the end eternal father, eternal father. It's interesting. You know, God doesn't have any grandkids, right? You've heard that before, stepkids or anything. All people, all believers are children of God. The Bible refers to the children of God, and he's the eternal father. He never leaves nor forsakes. Never. And it was preparing the sermon actually last week. I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday. Actually, my dad passed away 20 years ago. It's coming up in January, January 6th. I've only been there twice. And I felt this time I just went kind of reflecting on this, remembering back to that 20 years ago and having so many questions. You know, just a boy in my early 20s. You know, Dad, teach me how to be a man. What does a father look like? You have all these questions. Especially, many of you know my history coming from, you know, a broken childhood. You know, I had dreams of pitching in the big leagues and ruining that and injury. And then a father who didn't know how to father. All he knew was anger and coming from the farms of Oklahoma and having a broken relationship and broken home in that area. And then a broken education. Barely getting through high school and not even going to college. And then a broken marriage. And everything's broken. Now I feel like this. God, how can you use me now? And he often says, that's exactly who I'm looking for. If you turn to me, that's an eternal father. You have the fatherly instincts, right? The kids, who do they run to when they're scared? Who do they look to when there's somebody outside? Who do they look to to save them, to rescue them? It's a father. That figure. That leadership figure. That figure of bringing peace and stability into the home. They look to that example. And so we have an eternal father. One that will never leave, never forsake. He'll always be in that function of fatherly love and guiding and directing. So I can bring to him my broken home. My broken marriage. My broken relationship. My broken education. My broken life. I can bring all that to him and say, could you rebuild it now? Could you do that? Father? Daddy? Could you? Because I can't fix this. I can't fix this. I've tried. I've tried with everything, and I can't fix this. And he says, yeah, just come to me. And then we see the last aspect. Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace. It's not just peace. It's the Prince of Peace. The authority. The ruler over it. The only source. If I can throw that out there, the only source of true peace. I see so many people trying to get peace in all these different places. But this is the only true source of peace. Many never experience peace because they are at war with the Prince of Peace. Nine times out of ten when there's problems at home, it's because we're at war with the Prince of Peace. I know. Been there. Done that. Probably going to be there again. Prince of Peace. No peace in the workplace. If there's no peace in our spiritual life, you have to look. Say, Lord, is my heart going in the right direction? Is my heart set on you? Because that's how you get this peace. You look to his hope. You look to his experiencing him. You set your heart and you remember who he is. And of course, with Christmas here, I want to throw this out there. If you've never experienced that peace, if you've had religion and not a relationship, if you've gone to church, if it's the only time you're going to be here because you come on Christmas and Easter, let me encourage you. You will never know peace until you truly know God. The Bible makes it very simple. It says, if you confess that Christ is Lord, that God raised him from the dead, if you believe in your heart and you repent, you will be saved. All you're doing is aligning your heart with God's. Actually, somebody might get me on the theology of that, but we're repenting and then God aligns our heart with his. He saves us. He redeems us. That's how you experience this for this Prince of Peace. So if you're a believer and you've been drifting, that's the secret. There's hope, but you have to look. You have to look in the right direction. You have to set your heart in that direction. You have to experience God again and allow that peace that surpasses all understanding to guard your heart by remembering who he was and what he did.