# The Christmas Card Verse

Category: Special Seasons
Key Passage: Isaiah 9:6
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

We want to get our minds going towards Jesus. This verse here is maybe, if not the most, one of the most popular around Christmas. In fact, my wife has a Christmas card taped up around a little entrance way in our house. I looked through them this morning; at least one of those cards has this verse on it, usually this verse or Luke 2:8. So we are going to title this message, “The Christmas Card Verse.”

By the way, it is so important how you view Christ Jesus. How many mighty works God can do in your life is in direct correlation to what you think of Jesus? If you believe in me, the works that I do and greater works than these, John 14. In him, as Jesus, all his promises are yea, and in him, amen to the glory of God, the Father. It is very crucial what you think of Jesus. I am going to try, through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, just to elevate our thoughts of Jesus a little bit today from His Word. Isaiah 9, verse number 6, is where we will be.

As we read the verse and we will pray, Isaiah 9, verse number 6. The Bible says, “For unto us a child is born.” That is speaking of the humanity of Christ. “Unto us a son is given,” speaking more of the deity of Christ. “And the government shall be upon his shoulders.” That is not fully fulfilled yet; that will be fulfilled totally during the millennium reign. Jesus will actually sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem. That will be the Washington, D.C. of the world. He will be the president of the world. The government will be on his shoulders. That is what it is speaking of there in Isaiah 9:6.

Then he goes on and says, “And his name is…” Here it is: five names. We are going to focus on these five names. Here we go: Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Would you read those with me out loud, please? Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince…

You pray, because usually Baptist preachers only have three points, and I have five names to cover, folks. So we are going to get out at least by 3 p.m., I promise you. And you pray to get it into our hearts and our minds quickly—these names of Jesus. Would you pray and ask God to give you a better view of Jesus? Would you do that as I pray the same? Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

The first name he gives is Wonderful. It has to do with the feeling of something you stand in awe of. It is just amazing. You are like, “Wow, that is awesome. That is wonderful.” My family and I like to ride four-wheelers and dirt bikes. Periodically, we have gone to Chattanooga to a hunting preserve called Prentice Cooper Hunting Preserve. How many of you know of Prentice Cooper Hunting Preserve? Brother Ricky is the one that told us about it. It has, I do not know, several thousand acres, I would think. And it is up on a mountain. You ride down a dirt road for miles and miles, and then there are trails. You can ride those trails for miles and miles. If you go as far as you can, then you get off and go some trails.

Some of those trails back in the rear are a little rougher. You just keep going, and you go, and you go. Finally, you will come to where a mountain is coming out on the point. When you get all the way out to the point, the Tennessee River is flowing in a curve around the point of that mountain right there. And you look on the other side; there are some more mountain ranges over there. And there is a road sometimes you can see—it depends on how the leaves are—but you can see at least some of it always.

Here is the thing: man, you are riding for miles and working at getting out. Once you get out there to this point, and you step out a little bit on the rocks, there is a cliff that goes down, and you can see the top of the trees there, and then the river and the road and the mountains over there. I tell you what, when you first get out there, you are just like, “Wow, this is awesome.”

In fact, growing up, I remember for years John wanted to get engaged out there. He said, “This is where I am going to propose to my life,” you know. We tried to work it out, but different things hindered it. He did not get engaged there. But it is just a beautiful spot. When you finally get out there past all the trees and snakes and all those things, you finally get all the way out, it is just beautiful.

Now, if you get a good glimpse of Jesus, if you see him as he is, you will have the same response and much, much more. When you get a good glimpse of Jesus, you will be like, “Wow, he is awesome. He is wonderful.”

When I say that, there are a couple of reactions that can be going on in your heart and your mind. One is you can be saying, “Man, that is so true.” Or you might be saying, “Well, years ago when I first got saved, I used to think of Jesus like that. It has been a long time since I have seen Jesus like that.” Or you can be kind of like a calf looking at a new gate: “What in the world are they talking about?”

My purpose is not to put anyone down if you have not been there, but can I challenge you? Can I challenge every person here this morning? Would you ask the Lord to give you a better glimpse of Jesus? You say, “I guarantee you, Jesus is wonderful, no doubt about it. Amen?” It is not a matter if Jesus is wonderful or not. That is not the thing in question. The question is, have I seen him very much here lately?

If we are not careful, this old world will cloud our view of Jesus Christ. We will not get a good glimpse of it. Here is my challenge for you and I: this last Sunday in 2019, would you just start praying? Would you start seeking? Would you say, “I would like to see Jesus better”? Because if you get a good glimpse of Jesus, you will say, “Wow, he is wonderful. He is awesome.”

Can I challenge you: if you are not a born-again Christian, you could go to Jesus today and accept him as your personal Savior, and you can see him in a new way. You see, before salvation you know about him, but at salvation you know him. That is when the relationship begins. You get to see him and you say, “Wow, he is wonderful.” I like it. Sometimes our people when they just say, “Preacher, man, I am looking forward to seeing Jesus one day,” I know that person has gotten a glimpse of Jesus and how wonderful he is.

Hey, young people, young people, can I challenge even young people, even teenagers? Would you start praying, “Jesus, let me see you”? It is awesome when a young person—even a young person, 18, 20 years old—gets a good glimpse of Jesus; it is amazing. Sometimes that will change the rest of their life because when they were young, they had a moment in their life where they saw Jesus in a great way. The magnificence of Jesus, it will stick with you. Can it just challenge us all?

I do not see Jesus as much as I would like to in a real way. Can I just challenge us as we focus on this first name? Would you say, “Jesus, I would like to see you better”? 2020 is right around the corner, and Jesus, would you help me? Would you open my spiritual eyes? Would you enlighten? Would you help me look into heaven? Would you let me see Jesus better in 2020? If you get a good glimpse of him, you will say, “He is wonderful. He is wonderful.”

Five names. Five names. The first name—help me out. What is the first name we just covered? Wonderful. Good. I mean, that is good after Christmas time because during Christmas time, our minds are whom, you know, and we have had tons of chocolate and sugar and candy canes and all the rest. Somebody else wants to say, “Amen” out there? How many had some pecan pie over Christmas? Come on now. Pumpkin pie? Christmas cookies? How many of you got chocolate as at least one of your gifts? Every lady in the room, you ought to have got an “Amen.” That is a good gift for a lady. Amen. That is a good deal.

Let us get the next name here. Let us get the next name. First one, Wonderful. Isaiah 9, verse number six: “His name shall be called Wonderful.” Help me out. What is the second name? Counselor.

The land God has allowed us to purchase. God has been so good. He has given us the key people we needed to really help us get in the ball game and be able to get up to bat and hit the ball and all that goes. He has given us a real estate agent who has been a real estate agent for over 30 years in Murphysboro. He is very knowledgeable. He goes to church, but he loves this church train. He has been very helpful.

The Lord has given us a developer who developed large neighborhoods, and he knows town council members, and he is just kind of in the know, if you will. He goes to another church, but God has given him a love for our church. He has been listening sometimes on the YouTube channel, and it has just been so good. By the way, both of them have not charged our church a dime. It has been good to us.

Then there has been an engineer who works for the developer and is very knowledgeable about land. He is a certified engineer and all that. He has been very, very helpful. Now, here is what I am getting at. All three of those men, I have texted them, I have emailed them, I have called them, I have met with them to get their counsel. Man, I come up on a question: “What should we do here? What is the best thing to do here? How should we approach this?”

I will tell you what—I am just an old hillbilly, amen, you know what I am talking about? I am a hick from the sticks. Somebody will say, “Amen?” I will say, “Amen.” I will say, “Hey, what do you think?” In fact, there has been a time or two that I thought, maybe I am asking too many questions. I do not want to push it too much. But they have been so good, and they will say, “No, no, we know. We want to—you know—we want to help you when you need help,” and they have been there.

Have you been like that with Jesus? When you have a question, when you have a decision to make, when you have a problem in your life, when you have something you are debating about what you should and should not do, do you call up Jesus? He is our Counselor. I mean, he is the one I ought to be consulting all the time, every decision, everything. “Hey, I want your advice here. I need to know what you think here.” He is our Counselor.

Somebody said, “Preacher, how can that be when he is in heaven?” Well, when you got saved, if you are a born-again Christian, the Spirit of Christ moved inside of you. It is Christ’s Spirit. That is one of the titles of the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of Christ. So I can go, and I do not have to go very far because if you are saved, he is living inside of you. I can go and say, “Hey, Lord, what do you think about this here? What would you want here? What is the best thing to do here?”

I was meeting with one of our men last night in a prayer meeting, and he was telling me about his power steering. It had gotten a little low, and so he had—some of you men will relate to it. He said it was so small to get your hand in there; a baby’s hand would barely fit in there, you know. But he finally got his hand in there to take that lid off, and he took the lid off. Got some power steering fluid in there. He went to put it back on, and he dropped it. Clatter! You know, goodness gracious, what are we going to do here?

He said, man, he tried to get it, and finally he got it, and he tried it again, and he dropped it again. This time it fell farther down in there. I mean, goodness gracious! And this is what he said: He said, “I prayed about it.” And he said it just seemed like the Lord said, “Take this cover off,” and so on. He just used two screws, and he did. I said, “You are a wise man,” because he prayed about it.

Hey, when is the last time you went to your Counselor? There have been many times I have gone to those men and said, “Hey, on this part here, this situation here, whatever it may be, I do not know. You guys work in this field every day. You know much better than I. I will go with whatever you say. You have been there. You have done it many a time.” Hey, when is the last time you have been to Jesus and said, “Jesus, I am not the know-it-all in my life. I do not have it all together. I want to do what you want me to do”? When is the last time you got counsel from Jesus? And you said, “Jesus, not my opinion. It is your opinion what you want.” When is the last time?

See, one of the names of Jesus: He is wonderful, and He is a Counselor. I would suggest you go to him often. “Whatever you want, would you give me advice here? I want to follow you here.” I look out and see Ms. Jessica back there. Praise the Lord, she is here, and she has little Autumn, their little one. It makes me think about raising children. Somebody says that equals prayer, amen. Boy, parents, can I encourage us: every time you come upon a question, ask the Counselor, “How should I handle this? How should I handle this? How should I handle my grandkids? What should I do here?” He is the Counselor.

Jesus. Help me out. We have two names covered already. Help me out. First name is he is what? Wonderful. Second name, he is the Counselor. Let us get the third one in here. I do not think we will be long on this, as we covered Emmanuel the first Sunday in December. Help me out. Wonderful Counselor. Then the third name is what? Mighty God.

Look, if you will, over in Colossians chapter number two very quickly. Colossians chapter two. Colossians 2. Would you look in verse number nine there? Colossians 2:9 of God’s Word. Speaking of Jesus here, it is an amazing verse. It says this, Colossians 2:9: “For in him [that is in Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” By the way, somebody said, “Well, this Trinity and Godhead thing, man made that up.” God made that up when he said “the Godhead” right there.

But it says, “in him dwelleth.” It did not just happen one time; “dwelleth.” In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the Mighty God. This is a poor illustration, but if you take the speed of Muhammad Ali and you take the power of a Mike Tyson, and you take the skill of a Sugar Ray Leonard or whoever you want to put in all that, and you put them all together, and the fullness of all of those—all of those—the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily. Jesus had the fullness of God. He was God in flesh. That is why the Bible over here, 700 years before Jesus was born, says, “Hey, he is the Mighty God.”

Do not be careful of this. Sometimes we will do this in our mind. We will say, “Well, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.” No, no, no. Hey, they are the same. “He thought it not robbery to be equal with him,” Philippians 2 says. No, in Him, in Christ dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is God. Without Him was not anything made that was made. He is God the Creator. That is why we prophesying about the coming Messiah, it says, “He is the Mighty God.” That is Jesus.

Now, let us go on. We have to hurry along. We are trying to get these five names in. Number one, we said, He is what? Wonderful. Next of all, He is the Mighty God. And then the next one, look at it: The Everlasting Father. Would you say that? Here we go: The Everlasting Father. Look over, if you will, in John chapter number 14. John chapter 14. We are going to try to draw a couple of conclusions here and move on. John 14 in God’s Word.

Look at verse number seven, John 14, verse number seven. Once you find that, would you say, “Amen?” John 14, verse number seven, says, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” Philip saith unto him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Jesus said unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

Now Jesus is the Everlasting Father. Do not get caught up. Somebody said, “Well, you have to pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Ghost.” Oh, John Rice, and old preachers in heaven now—he was praying one time, and a young Bible college student came up and said, “Oh, you didn’t pray right, Brother Rice. You didn’t do it right.” He quoted what I just quoted: “Oh, you are supposed to pray to the Father through the Son by the Holy Ghost.” And old John Rice, so many of you might know him, he had always had his glasses on, and he looked down over his glasses—off—and he looked down over his glasses at the young boy, and he said, “Son, when you know the family like I do, you can talk to any member you want to.”

Hey, when you are talking to Jesus, you are talking to the Everlasting Father. He is the Everlasting Father. By the way, Satan loves to demote Jesus Christ. Have you ever noticed, they do not mind too much if you mention a higher power, if you mention God, but they do not like it when you mention Jesus Christ. Listen, the Bible is very, very clear, and I am getting off the subject for a moment here, but that is all right. We are going to shoot the rabbit while we are going after it. Amen.

But listen, God makes it very clear in His Word: it is not just believing in God. The devil believes in God, and he trembles. But it is when you believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that is what saves you, friend. That God gave His Son, Jesus Christ. That is why 1 John 4 says, when I am going to go look for a church, I am going to find out and test the spirits. The first thing I do is find out what that church teaches about Jesus. Jesus is this crucial for him. Jesus is the Everlasting Father.

He is the Everlasting Father. Notice that: everlasting father. By the way, I like that, because I believe once I am a child of God, I cannot be unborn. Once I receive the gift of God—please do not take offense to this, I need to think of a better term. Well, I have a better term. I will not use the term. We will just state this way: God does not renege on his gift. He does not take it back. It is a gift. It cannot be unborn. That is why the Bible calls Jesus—once you are saved, He is the Everlasting Father.

Now listen, there are some saved people who are a poor testimony to their dad. 2 Timothy 2 says this: “In a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth: some to honor, and some to dishonor.” That great house in 2 Timothy 2 is talking about the house of God, and it said, “Hey, some people are a child of God; they have been born into the family of God; they are saved—but they are a sorry child of God. They are living like a child of the devil.” But God Almighty says, “I love you so much, I gave it to you. You are still saved. I am the Everlasting Father.”

And the sad thing is there is such a poor testimony, and they make their dad look so bad—a vessel of dishonor. What a sad thing. He saved them. He is their Everlasting Father, and yet they represent him so badly in this world. Satan capitalizes on that right there. He will do all he can to keep someone else from making Jesus their Everlasting Father because this child is a poor child. Oh, yeah.

There is a story about a young man. He was a very sinful young man. His dad tried to raise him better, but he would not listen. He was very hard and very rebellious. He was in a court of law for a horrible crime. The sentencing time was there. The judge called his name, the boy’s name. He stood, and he was sentenced guilty. But when the judge called his name, his dad was sitting in the courtroom a little bit back, and his dad stood up also. If I remember the story right, the judge even said, “Sir, you do not have to stand. This is your son, not you. You are not responsible for your son.” But the dad said, “Judge, if you do not mind, I like to stand. I feel some responsibility here.”

That boy had brought shame to his dad. When his dad stood up and said, “He stole my son,” still identifying, “my son,” they say the boy broke. Started crying, “My dad loves me so much, and I have been such a sorry, sorry testimony of how my dad raised me.” And that is exactly how the Everlasting Father is. There is not a person in the world that deserves to stay saved—not one—unless you are perfect. But He is the Everlasting Father. Oh, when you are born into his family, you are accepted in the beloved. He says, “I will always—I am the Everlasting Father.”

Help me out. Five names. We have got four of them covered. Amen. It is only 10:30, and your preacher is lying to you also. Amen. Help me out. First word, He is Wonderful. He is the Counselor. And He is the Mighty God. And He is the Everlasting Father. Let us get the fifth one. We are done. What is the fifth thing? He is the Prince of Peace. Would you say it out loud? Here we go: The Prince of Peace.

A little before I got saved, I was a boy, and the Lord was convicting me. It was a stage where the Lord was working on my heart. We lived in Jacksonville, Florida. I slept in a bunk bed. I can remember nights in that bunk bed during that time of my life thinking, “Am I going to walk on the streets of gold really one day, or am I going to go to hell?” Mom and Dad taught us to witness, tell other people about Jesus, and be involved in church. I mean, I went to church nine months before I was born, you know what I am saying there. I was raised on drugs, dragged to church—Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday. I was just there. And yet I think after all this, am I going to wake up screaming in hell one night, burning, tortured in pain, flames? Am I going to spend all eternity just crying and saying, “I am in hell?” And I thought about that. I did not have peace. Is the Spirit of God convicting me?

I was riding home from church during that time of my life—I do not know if it was a Sunday night or Wednesday night—in the backseat of the car. In my little heart, I said, “Now Jesus, you said if I will call on you, you will save me. Jesus, I am calling on you.” I am telling you, when I did that, something moved inside my heart, and I had peace. I went back to back. We lived in the camper at that time. I went back to that camper, got the top bed of that little camper, and I had peace. Peace. I did not have to think, “Am I going to go to hell? Am I going to wake up in hell crying and fearful?” And I had peace.

That is what the Prince of Peace can do. He can move in and bring you peace, no matter what battle or what problems are going on in your life. He is the Prince of Peace. He can bring you peace that the world does not understand. Jesus—He is a Prince. That word prince means leader, if you will—peace.

Can I say this? You can be saved. It is amazing when Jesus moves in, the peace he brings, and yet you can reject him and kind of get cold to him and not follow the leader of peace and lose that peace. There are a lot of born-again Christians who are poor examples to the Everlasting Father, and they have no peace. Why? They are not following the leader, the Prince of Peace.

But oh, you start following the Prince of Peace. It is amazing; in the toughest of times, He can bring a peace. He is the Prince of Peace. I have had the privilege of watching godly Christians over the years—wonderful people—and they go through incredible tough times and health issues and financial problems and marital problems. Yet I have watched those that follow the Prince of Peace, and I watched them have incredible peace in the midst of turmoil.

I remember a lady—I was not planning on telling it—but she had gotten right with the Lord, her husband and I want to… I believe she got assurance of her salvation, and her husband had already started having an affair or whatnot. And she said, “I am going to do what God wants me to do.” Oh, it ended up horrible. They are divorced. She moved to where her sister lived, miles and miles away, and went to go to a good church there. But I never forget she called me. She said, “Pastor, I want to call you. You kind of helped me and counseled me during that time.” And she said, “You remember, I tried to be a godly lady in the midst of all that turmoil.” She said, “I want you to know I am thankful I did that, because in the middle of that worst—one of the worst things you can imagine,” she said, “I had peace.”

About a year later, she said, “I still have peace about the situation.” By the way, God has given her a good home now, a good husband now. They are in church, doing good elsewhere. But in the worst of time, she followed the Prince of Peace, and she called me; she said, “I had peace,” because she did it right, following the Lord during the midst of that trouble. He is the Prince of Peace.

There is a man; his name is Jeff Strueker. He was in an Army Ranger—excuse me, I have this cold trying to get me here—but he served in a lot of different missions. He was in what is often called “Black Hawk Down.” Probably many of you have heard that. They made a movie of it. I did not get this from the movie; I got it when he was interviewed with James Dobson, and I heard it from his own mouth, not a movie. But Jeff Strueker was in Somalia. It was one of our—just a horrible incident. Five of the six Black Hawks that were carrying troops were shot down. It was in 1993. Nineteen of our people were killed, 73 wounded.

Jeff Strueker, let me tell you a little bit about him. As a boy, from the earliest time he could remember, he had just an incredible fear of dying—just an unusual fear of dying, to the point of paralyzing him. As a boy, it is odd, he just had a fear of dying. They could not get past that. When he was 13 years old, some neighbors—and listen close to this—some neighbors invited him over and befriended him and told him about Jesus. Some neighbors, a 13-year-old boy in the neighborhood. And Jeff said, “I want that Prince of Peace,” and he asked Jesus Christ to save him. He got saved because his neighbors witnessed to him at 13 years old. He got saved, and he said it was like a supernatural peace came. He said, “I was shocked. All these years I have lived in just a fear, a terrifying fear of dying, and now…”

He said, “Really, I was just shocked. I was like, is this real?” In fact, this is from his mouth: He said, “I joined the army, and the biggest reason why I joined the army was I wanted to see if this peace was real or not. So I thought, I will join the army, and I might just face some life and death situations, and I will find out, is this peace real or not?” He became Special Forces, Ranger, and so on. In fact, they had a competition; they had all the military branches there, and I am not sure the name of it, but he got the top spot in the Special Forces among all the different branches. He had been on many missions.

But when he went to this Black Hawk Down, it was a different situation. He said, “I was absolutely sure I was going to die. There was no way of getting out alive.” He was a combat leader, had 10 men under his immediate care at that moment. They were in two Humvees. One of his men was killed. Both Humvees were shot to pieces. You see, it was an intelligence mistake. They thought just a handful, but it ended up being 10,000 to 20,000 fully armed Somalis. They thought it would be a handful; it was 10 to 20,000.

The man that was killed in his company—he was sitting behind him, excuse me, in the Humvee—and he died. His name was… He said it was standard. “I had to radio it in: ‘Dominique, one of my men, is killed in action.’” He said when you are radioing it in, everybody could hear that. And he said, radioed it in, just like everybody. You could feel it. Everybody thought, “Am I going to be the next one? There is no one getting out of this thing alive.” And everybody just kind of like, “Probably next.”

And he said, “Yeah, in the midst of that, I was absolutely convinced I was going to die. I still had a peace.” He said, “I knew I was going to die, but I was all right with it. I had a peace.” We were still there. He said, but once Dominique died, I started getting conviction. And he said, “Jeff, it may be because of you that Dominique is in hell right now.” He said, “I thought all my men were going to die.” He said, “All I did was keep praying, ‘Lord, give me one more chance to witness to him. Forgive me; I never witnessed.’” He said, “All night long, that is all it did: ‘Lord, keep him alive; I witnessed to him.’ He said, ‘All of us should have died.’ He said, ‘All of us should have died.’ He said, ‘All of us should have died.’ He said, ‘There is my prayer all night long: Lord, keep him alive; I witnessed to him.’”

He said this: He said October the 4th, it was in 1993. The battle was almost over. He said there were just thousands of brass casings, just thousands, just all over the place. And they said, “We are getting out of there. We are making it alive. This is a miracle.” He said men started randomly showing up asking me about heaven and hell. They would say, “There was something different about you. We all knew we were dying, but you had a peace. I have got to know what you have, because you had a peace in the middle of all that. Nobody else had it. You had that peace. Tell us, where did you get that peace from?” Jeff had the privilege of telling them about the Prince of Peace.

He can bring peace in the midst of the worst situations.

Original File: The Christmas Card Verse - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday 122919