Jesus Our Wonderful Counselor.

So we are going to be in Isaiah today. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there. If not, it will be on the screen. This is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the season of waiting.

Every time we approach Christmas, it is the season of waiting for Jesus to come. Now we are in a different Advent season where we know that Jesus did come, died on the cross, paid the price for our sins, was raised back to life, left with us his Holy Spirit. And now we are in this second Advent where we are waiting for him to come again.

Every year you'll see each week we light a candle and each candle represents something different. Today this candle represents hope, the first candle of Advent. Jesus came to be our hope. There is hope for us today and we are waiting for even more hope to come.

As we enter into this season of Advent, it is all centered around the hope, the peace, the joy, the love of Jesus. We are going to center our time for the next few weeks on Isaiah 9, which talks about who Jesus is and all the things that he came to do.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them. The bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on 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 will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:1-7

Now, I love passages like this. If you notice, there's one that is a little popular around Christmas time: "For to us, a child is born, a son is given, and he shall be called." We love that because it's great and it's beautiful, but it's surrounded by some stuff that you're like, what does that even mean? I don't know if you've ever heard people talk about the Bible like, oh, it's just you know, every word you read brings peace and it's like this love letter. And then you read things like this where you're like, the yoke of the burdens and the rod of the oppressor, and you're like, what? I'm not feeling very loved when I read those things. But when we read the whole thing and we get the context, it helps us to see a little bit more of the heart of God and what he came to do when he sent Jesus.

The Context of Isaiah 9

I want to walk through today a little bit of the historical context of Isaiah 9. What are we reading and what are we talking about here? What was happening for the people in this time?

Isaiah was prophesying, and the kingdom of Israel at this time was divided into two different parts. We had the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom particularly was facing this threat of invasion by the Assyrians. This is what's happening when we're reading this language we're talking about. In the midst of this, we're talking about political and military turmoil. They're facing this insane threat.

Assyria's threat essentially was this. The northern kingdom of Israel was experiencing the consequence of their rebellion. They had been rebelling against God and now there's this consequence that's coming into play. This chapter is coming at a time where Israel is headed for destruction, as a consequence for the sins that they had committed.

Isaiah is coming in the midst of this moment, offering this message of hope to them. There was going to be judgment and restoration, but he's right there in the middle offering this message of hope.

Another thing for us to note here is that this took place 700 years before Jesus came. So many years. When we talk about waiting, most of the time, I have trouble waiting until I have time to go to the store and the temptation to just click that prime on Amazon to get what I need. We can't even wait a few days. They're waiting hundreds of years to see this promise and this prophecy come to fulfillment.

They are uncertain about their future. They're literally in darkness right now, turmoil all around them. And in the middle of this passage, there's this message of hope. There's a promise that someone's going to come and be the light in the darkness. It begins with describing again the land, what was happening in verses one through two, symbolizing that there's going to be this divine intervention that comes to play.

And then we see that it's talking about the coming Messiah. We see then in the New Testament the fulfillment of so much of that. Right in the middle we read that. And then the judgment. It ends in verses 8 through 21. After this hopeful promise, it shifts back to God's judgment. It shifts back to that accountability for the rebellion and their idolatry that was happening in the northern kingdom. And they're being called out for their pride and the ways that they are not living in the light of Jesus.

It is this warning. But again, we are being reminded that Jesus is coming to be the light of the world. That Jesus is the child that is to be born. That he is coming. And we know now on this side that he came. Jesus was not only the promise of peace. He is that peace that came to dwell among us.

Jesus as Our Wonderful Counselor

So today we are going to focus on what does it mean for Jesus to be our wonderful counselor. The so what, if there's one thing that you get out of this, it's that Jesus is our wonderful counselor. And now what do we do with that when we hear that? We need to receive him as a wonderful counselor.

And that might seem like so simple and so cliche of like, he's the wonderful counselor. Receive it. Yes. Amen. But what does that actually look like for us to see Jesus and receive him and walk with him and talk with him as a wonderful counselor?

I want to talk about this in three different ways that we're going to receive him as a counselor: through prayer, through scripture, and through the Holy Spirit.

This year is really interesting for me as I was reading this passage. This is what I love about scripture. There's some things that you can read over and over again, but because scripture is alive and active and the Holy Spirit speaks to us through scripture today, things will just like hit you and words jump off the page. Pay attention to that. Like, why am I drawn to this phrase? Why am I drawn to this thing here?

This year, as we're talking about Wonderful Counselor, this is the first year that I started in August working as a counselor and as a therapist. I'm finishing up my master's in counseling right now. I'm now seeing clients many hours of my week. About 20 of them are spent sitting with clients as a counselor. Before this, for many years, I've been a pastor, and with that is pastoral counseling. I have experience with this to an extent, but this is just a little bit different, a lot different.

One of the things that happens is I see clients and they come in and I have one session with them, about 53 minutes to be exact. Based on what they tell me, I have to then document and come up with a diagnosis. After the next session, after I have a diagnosis, I have to come up with a treatment plan. But here's the thing. I can only diagnose people based on what they tell me, and I can only treat them based on the diagnosis.

For many of us here today, I think that we find ourselves where we're like, yes, like, I have all these questions. I need guidance. I need all this stuff. But the first thing is, many of us don't even show up to counseling. We don't even sit with the Lord long enough. We don't show up to meet with him. And then we wonder, why do I not know where to go in life? Why do I not know what to do? And it's like, well, are we showing up? Are we asking him?

And then I think for others of us, maybe you sit down and you show up to counseling and you're sitting before the Lord. You're like, here I am, God. But then you just kind of tell him what you think he wants to hear, right? Your guard is up. You're only showing so much of yourself.

But in order for the Lord to come and through the Holy Spirit be our wonderful counselor, we need to not only show up, but we need to be willing to let the walls down, to let him in, and to let him counsel us. To let him diagnose us, treat us, and do what only he can do.

Imagine if you showed up to counseling and you sat before a human person as a counselor and you went to them saying, I need help. And then you sat down and you didn't say anything. I've seen those breakthrough moments where all of a sudden you're with a client and you've been sitting here for a week. So I'm like, tell me about your week. It's fine. Tell me about this. It was fine. And then all of a sudden, something clicks. And before they can even shut the door, they're like, let me tell you about what happened. Something breaks, and it's when that break happens, when the walls break down, that's when the real work begins. But while those walls are still up, there's only so much that a counselor can do.

So as we talk about this today, I want you to think about what does it look like for you to experience the Lord as a wonderful counselor?

The Meaning of Wonderful Counselor

The meaning of this word, wonderful counselor. I want to talk about wonderful first. This Hebrew word here conveys this sense of awe, this sense of amazement, this sense of wonder. It refers to something incomprehensible, extraordinary, miraculous. Jesus, the wonderful counselor.

Here's the thing. When we're talking about this word, what's really interesting about this Hebrew word here is that there's not really a good word in scripture to describe supernatural, but this is probably the closest word to do that. So we're not talking about just like, oh, you're gonna get some good advice, like some good life coach in here, some good skills or next steps. We're talking about supernatural counsel when we're talking about God being through the Holy Spirit today, our wonderful counselor.

This Hebrew word refers to someone who offers guidance, direction, advice. In ancient Israel, it would have been common at that time that people would have a counselor like a king would have an advisor that would come and would give them advice. A king would have someone that would give them, like, what should I do in this situation? They would talk to them, they would process all of those things. But again, when we're talking about a wonderful counselor, we're talking about supernatural insight, supernatural guidance that you cannot just get from any self-help book. You cannot just get from showing up to someone a few times a week.

Although, again, I'm like a counselor now myself, so go counseling. We love counseling. But there's something about God being a wonderful counselor that no human person could ever begin to tap into.

What I love is that John talks about this in his gospel when he talks about the word becoming flesh. And so when we're talking about this idea that God came and sent Jesus to be our wonderful counselor, and Jesus left with us his Holy Spirit, we have everything we need. We have access to that because Jesus came to dwell among us and left with us his Holy Spirit to remain within us so that we can continue to experience God as a wonderful counselor time and time again.

Receiving the Wonderful Counselor

So then how do we receive this? What does this look like? It starts with prayer. What does it look like for us to talk to God? What does it look like for us to talk to God like we would talk to a counselor?

If you've been to counseling, think about it. There's something about having a person and a safe space. And maybe if you haven't been to counseling, maybe it's like a friend or there's someone in your life where you just know, like, when I sit with them, I don't have to hold anything back. Especially with counseling, it's like you legally can't tell anyone and they kind of have to be nice to you.

So when you know that, like when you walk into that room and that door shuts, when I go to therapy, it's like when I log in and I click that Zoom thing, it's like, whoo, okay, now I'm going to be real honest. With my friends, I might tell some things, but there's something about that safety of knowing that I can talk to you about anything. I also kind of know when I'm going to a therapist that the things I'm telling you, you've probably heard before, right? We've all been there where you're like, you've probably never had someone tell you this before. And they're like, yeah, you're not the first.

We're all human. We all share different struggles. Sure, there's unique aspects about it. But that's the thing. When we go to God, how much more safety do we have in his presence? How much more safety do we have with letting everything out?

We can ugly cry when we come before him. We don't have to even grab a tissue. We can just let it all out. We don't have to hold it back. What does it look like for us to pray like that? To pray and talk to God as a wonderful counselor. To not feel like we have to have the right words or to say the right things, but we can be fully honest.

Think in your life, who are those people that you can be honest with? And then I want you to think that with God, you can be just that much more real with him.

James 5 says, if anyone lacks wisdom, ask. We can ask God for the things that we lack. We can ask God for the things that we need. And he is a generous God, withholding no good things from his children. He will give you what you need.

Different people, yes, we approach him in different ways. It might take some time for you to feel safe, and that's okay too. The first session that I have with a client compared to the fourth, the fifth, something changes because they're learning me too. In the same way that I'm learning them, they're learning me and they're trying to discern by my facial expressions and by the posture of my body. Is she safe? When I say this, is she gonna like flinch a little bit? What's gonna happen?

So if you're there and you're like, I don't even know how to start being honest with God, start where you're at. Start where you're at, not where you hope to be, right? Start small. If it is testing the waters, that's okay. If you're feeling like God, like, I don't know that I trust you to be safe yet. If I trust you with everything, trust him with something today. And watch how he cares for you in that. Watch how he is so intentional with you through that. Talk to God. Be honest with him.

I think one of my favorite things to do, and now you're all going to be insecure about this, but I love hearing how different people pray and communicate with God. So the next time you pray out loud just know I'm listening and I'm watching. I love it because there's different ways that people approach God and it always shows us so much about how we see him.

I remember some of my first years when I was in ministry and I was a youth leader in a youth group. There was a young person who came out with some pretty strong language. I won't say the exact words because it is foul language and not appropriate for church. There was some like pretty strong language that he used where he's just like, oh God, you're so, and then this is where you would bleep out a bunch of things. But that was awesome. And what I loved about that is like, this kid didn't even know like I have to hold something back from God. Like he didn't even know I can't say the first things that come to my mind.

Where unfortunately sometimes we become a little too church cultured and we're like, can I actually tell God how I'm feeling? Yes, you can. Eventually you probably will change some of that language, like the awe and the wonder and the majesty, and not the like all the bleeped out words, right? But there's something so pure when you hear people pray and talk to God as a friend, as someone they trust, as someone that maybe they do doubt or they're not really sure about. But the realness that we don't have to have the right words. We don't have to put on this facade, but we can be real. We can be honest.

It doesn't always have to be a dear holiest of gods. Thou art in heaven. Like we can just be like, hey God, what's up?

What does it look like for us to talk to God that way?

I often travel and I get to speak at other churches and do conferences. Recently, a few weeks ago, I was in Maine and was preaching at this women's conference. It made me aware of just how much, yes, I love doing those things, but I love pastoring this community and all of you that much more. Because there's a difference when you pray and you're talking to someone that knows you.

You receive a different type of counsel and care. It never, like, never fails that after I speak somewhere in a room full of strangers, and again, I love the gift of like teaching scripture, and it's so beautiful, but I'll have someone come up to me and they will ask me and give me the wildest scenario. They'll go on for like five, ten minutes and be like, so then this happened, and then this happened, and then blah, blah, blah. So you're a pastor. What would you do? And I'm like, I don't know you. Like, what in the world?

For all I know, you could be lying to me. You could be making this all up. This last one, it was something about like, eternity, and this, and that, and like, is my grandma watching me from heaven? And all of these things. I'm just like, whoa, okay.

At first, I never knew how to respond to that. But I've kind of come up with some responses. Because the reality is, it's like, when I don't know you, I don't know what you're carrying into this conversation. I don't know the weight that you're putting on this question.

Sure, I've got some thoughts that come to my mind when you give me your big scenarios. But I have to be so careful to say, because I don't know you, I don't know the impact, the weight of my words. I don't know how to care for you. I don't know how to counsel you. What I say, if I'm not careful, could actually be really harmful to you if I just give you a quick fix, if I just give you a quick answer.

See, the value of when you know someone is that when one of you comes and you say, hey, this is what I'm walking through, this is what I'm going through. One, I know that you're coming to me as a pastor for counsel because you know me and you trust me. I know you probably to different levels, but still enough to know that there's some relational equity there that I can speak. I can listen to the Holy Spirit. I can counsel more appropriately in a more fruitful, helpful way because we know each other.

The more that we can understand that God knows us more than any human ever could, the more that we're going to want to give everything, every question, seek him, talk to him in that type of way. Because he knows us in a supernatural way, a way that no human ever could. He has supernatural wisdom and guidance and insight that he wants to give to us that no human ever could.

So we need to talk to him. We also need to receive his counsel through scripture.

I love there's so many different situations that we see this in scripture where it's so evident that Jesus is showing the people like hey, I know you, I know you, and watch how I'm going to care for you because I know you.

One of those is in John chapter 4, the story of the woman, the Samaritan woman. I love this that he said the woman said, and this is John 4, 25 through 26. I know that Messiah, called Christ, is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.

I know that Messiah called Christ is coming when he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.

John 4:25-26

You see, Jesus, in this interaction with the Samaritan woman, he counseled her in such a beautiful way. It's so evident that she was a woman that was struggling when she met Jesus. She was a woman that had experienced deep shame because of her experiences when she encountered Jesus. She was a woman that probably had so many aspects of her life that she wanted to hide and didn't want anyone to know about when she encountered and experienced Jesus.

But Jesus met her with kindness and compassion, and he showed her that, yes, I know you, and I care for you. And because I know you, I can care for you in intimate, specific ways that nobody else can.

This is the beauty of what happens when we approach Jesus as our wise counselor.

I also love in Matthew 16, verses 13 through 20, we read this interaction between Jesus and Peter, one of his disciples, where he's asking Peter to tell him, like, who do you say that I am? This is one of my favorite encounters in scripture with Jesus and Peter. Jesus knew who he was. So he didn't need Peter to tell him who he was, but he was asking him these questions. He's counseling him and saying, I want you to know who I am. I want you to come to this conclusion on your own. I want you to know why. And so he's saying, what about you? He asked, who do you say I am?

And Simon Peter replied, You are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And then Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. He's pointing again to saying like there's supernatural things revealed through the power of the Holy Spirit about us. He's our supernatural counselor, the God that knows us, the God that made us, the God that formed us, the God that wants to continue to give us that supernatural insight through dwelling among us.

We need to receive the Holy Spirit through, or to receive Jesus as our wise counselor through the Holy Spirit.

John 14, verse 15, it says this:

If you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him because he neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, and he lives with you and will be with you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you before long. The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live. You also will live. And on this day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

John 14:15-21

Jesus is telling his disciples about the Holy Spirit, who then he left with us. We read about this on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 1 and 2. And you read this beautiful story of when Jesus said, I am going to ascend into heaven, but I'm not leaving you alone. I'm not leaving you without an advocate, a counselor, someone that can guide you, someone that can direct you, someone that can give you that Holy Spirit strategy for how to live your life for me and with me together.

Over the holidays, I saw some of my little cousins, and it was hilarious getting to hear like how high schoolers are using ChatGPT right now. I'm like, where was this when I was in high school? I'm probably glad it didn't exist and I didn't have that temptation. But there's all these like specific math apps where they're like, yeah, I don't actually really do my math. I just like put it in here and ChatGPT spits it out. I'm like, what in the world? And they're like, well, what am I gonna use fractions anyways?

I'm like, great question. But there's all these different ways, right, that we're using AI to do all of this stuff because it's kind of convenient that you can just spit in a question and it just gives you that quick fix, right? That answer right away. No waiting. You get what you want when you want it.

And some of us, maybe you're actually using it for like important things. But it's also kind of fun when another one of my cousins was telling me, yeah, one time, and it wasn't exactly this, but I swear it was something along the lines of, yeah, I had ChatGPT like write me a country song about a cat that visited space around Christmas and stopped at McDonald's on the way. And it was actually a really good song. I'm like, what in the world? Like the way that we can just snap our fingers and get something is pretty incredible.

But here's what I want us to think about today. What if in the same way that we use ChatGPT and AI and all of these tools to solve our math problems, to write songs about cats going to the moon and stopping at McDonald's on the way, what if in that same way we relied and we asked the Holy Spirit for strategy for the way that we live our lives?

What if in the same way that when we're like, I need to know the answer to this, I'm going to Google it, we instead stopped and paused. We listened and we leaned in to what God was doing and what he was trying to speak to us in that moment.

What if we relied on the Holy Spirit to be our counselor and our guide and our strategy in that same type of way?

Receiving His Counsel Through Prayer, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit

I'm going to invite the worship team up as we get ready to close today.

As I was thinking about this, you know, I think that it is hard for us to not rely on the quick and the fast because it is convenient and because then we can avoid waiting. And why do we not like to wait? Why do we not like having the answers?

It's because when we don't have an answer immediately, in a way we are admitting that there's something that we don't know. And when we admit that there's something that we don't know, we're admitting that we need something that we don't have access to on our own. Which then requires us to say, where do I get the answers? Where do I look?

Isaiah starts by speaking to a people that were in a season of waiting, speaking to a people that had a lot of unknowns. A people that truly didn't know, like, am I going to have food? Am I going to survive? What is going to be destroyed? If it is destroyed, will it be rebuilt?

I don't know what you came in here carrying today or what you came in walking through. But I want you to know that if you are in a season of waiting, if there's things that look a little dark and cloudy and you don't have the answers to, that you are not alone. Jesus came, he died, he was raised back to life, he left with us his Holy Spirit, and promised I am coming back again. But he left with us his Holy Spirit to continue to be our wonderful counselor, our supernatural guide, our strategy that lays out the blueprints. But we have to receive him as that. We have to let him come in and be that for us.

God did send Jesus, and Jesus left with us his Holy Spirit to be that advocate and a continued counselor. So the Holy Spirit is with us every single moment of every single day to counsel us. Those little questions, like you can ask God and he will speak to you and he'll show up for you.

But here's the thing. If we do not show up to counseling, we can't be counseled. If we keep canceling our appointments, we can't be counseled. And then when we do show up to counseling, we have to talk. We have to talk to the counselor. We have to tell them what's going on.

But then here's the final piece of this. It's one thing to show up to counseling. It's one thing to talk to your counselor, to ask the hard questions. But then it's another to lean in and to listen. Because you can have the best counselor in the world that's giving you the best counsel that you could ever receive. A counselor that knows you, a counselor that cares for you. But if you walk out of that appointment, if you walk out of that room and you shut the door and you do not do anything that you decided you were going to do, or that the counselor revealed to you that you needed to work on or needed to do, then you're going to keep finding yourself waiting and waiting and waiting for the care, for the guidance, for the counsel.

You have to receive it. You have to show up. You gotta lay it all out there. You have to lean in. You have to listen. And you have to receive the counseling if you wanna see the change and the transformation take place in your life.

So will you receive the care and the counsel of Jesus through the power of his Holy Spirit this Christmas? Will you receive it? Will you let him in?

As we reflect on this today, and praying through how to respond to this, I want us to do this. To reflect on what does it mean for me this Christmas to let Jesus in as a wonderful counselor. What does it look like for you?

Is it first showing up? Is it first just saying, yeah, I don't right now create space to even show up to talk to Jesus. I don't actually ask him when I'm in need. And it can be that small of even starting to think every time I have a question, every time I'm struggling, how can I remind myself to say, okay, I'm going to come to you, Holy Spirit, come be my wonderful counselor. Before I pick up the phone, before I do anything else, I'm going to say, Holy Spirit, come, give me the strategy and watch him. He will do it.

The second is if you're here today, and maybe for you it's saying, I think that I need to actually have some honest conversations with God. And whether that's today as we respond in prayer or whether that's throughout this week to say, I need to work on when I do talk to God, being honest and actually letting him in on what's happening. Because he knows, he does, right? But like, will you be honest enough to show him?

And then I think the third is for some of us, it's that we need to lean in and listen. That God actually has repeatedly told us to do things. He's given us answers. He showed us how we should respond to the dark things and the hard things that we're walking through. But we have chosen not to respond in obedience.

And it could be as simple as maybe you're walking through some really hard things and he's saying, well, you just let me care for you. And you're like, nope, I'm gonna keep holding it all together. Nope, I'm gonna keep figuring it out on my own. And the obedience might just be like, you know what, Lord? Actually I'm gonna let myself just fall apart in your arms for a little bit. Actually I'm gonna allow myself to not be okay and trust that you're still okay and you're still faithful when I don't know that I can be faithful right now. I don't know what that looks like for you, but I want us to create a moment here today to just respond to Jesus and the ways that we need to respond.

I love in Matthew 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus talks about this idea of how do we not become just hearers of the word, but people that put it into practice. One of the things he says is don't build your house upon the sand, but build your house upon the rock. This Christmas, there's always a temptation for us to build our lives upon sand and not upon the rock, who is Christ, our firm foundation.

I've talked about this a lot here, but I feel like it's such a simple thing, but we really continually need to be reminded of this. What is sand? It is broken up pieces of rock, of glass, of firm foundation. We're pieces of it. I think there's always a temptation for us, whenever we're in need, whenever we're struggling, to go to things that have pieces of truth, pieces of Jesus, pieces of goodness, of hope, of love, of peace. But we can go to Christ as our firm foundation. We can go to Christ as our wonderful counselor. We don't have to settle today for anything less than the fullness.

And so I want to invite you to stand. The worship team is going to lead us in a song in just a minute. But I just want to give you space to just process and say, God, like, do I need this Christmas season to just show up more? Do I need to be more honest when I do show up? Or are there things that you have asked of me that I need to respond and I need to receive?

And so Holy Spirit, would you come and would you speak to us? Would you continue to reveal yourself to us? We thank you that you are a wonderful counselor, the one that guides us, the one that leads us, the one that cares for us, the one that knows us so that you can provide the care that we truly need. The real thing, not just a piece of it, but the real thing, the fullness.

And so Holy Spirit, would you just come and would you just speak to us for these next few moments? We welcome your presence in this place. So God, we thank you so much today that you are the light in the darkness, that you are Emmanuel, God with us. We thank you that your Holy Spirit is here with us to continue to be our wonderful counselor, our guide, our help in time of need.

And so, God, I pray would you continue to show us the ways that we need to show up, that we need to have the honest conversations. I thank you for the permission that we have to do that. God, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would continue to just draw us closer to you. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Throughout this week, I just want to encourage you guys like, spend time in prayer. If it's scripture, we have Bibles available in the back or the little brown books that you see. Just the New Testament, which is an incredible place, the Gospels, to start this Christmas season. If you're like, I don't know where to start in receiving the wisdom through scripture, grab one of those books, read that, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in that way.

And then communities, we mentioned it, but if you guys are not in a community group, those are essentially small groups of people that meet weekly together in different parts of the city. We will read scripture together, we'll pray, we'll talk about the sermon, sometimes we go through different video series. So if you are not in a small group community, please, please sign up. We would love to have you a part of that. That's really a way that we just practice like being the church throughout the week together.

And so do that. And we will see you next Sunday for the cookie exchange. Have a great week.