Hopelessness is the saddest word in the dictionary.

Steve Brown:
Hopelessness is the saddest word in the dictionary. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend Matt Heard to do the teaching this week. Matt is a speaker, teacher, writer, pastor, coach, and the founder of a ministry called Thrive.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hope you guys had a great week-end and I hope your sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. We’ve got a really great thing coming up. My dear friend, Dr. Matt Heard is here and I’ll tell you a little bit more about his ministry later on, but I’ve asked Matt to join us during the four weeks of Advent. Now, we’re not going to do the whole week on Advent, but every Monday, Dr. Heard is coming in and we’re going to have him teach us on a theme for Advent. Is that cool or what? And it’s going to be good. And then I’m going to ask him to stay for Christmas Eve. And we’ll talk on that particular broadcast about things that are really Christmassy. It’s our practice on Monday before we study to pray. Let’s do that. Father, we come into your presence surprised that we’re here. They told us if we were good, if we loved you, if we memorized Bible verses and prayed a lot, you would like it and you would accept us. And we tried. And we were just turning to leave when we heard your voice, welcome child, welcome. And we came running and we’re never leaving. Father, thank you for the invitation, for the sufficiency of the blood of Christ, and for especially during this season, that you cared enough to come, the Word become flesh. And Father, we ask that you would forgive the two guys who teach on this broadcast. We would see Jesus and Him only. And we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Matt, thank you.

Matt Heard:
Amen.

Steve Brown:
Thank you for spending time with this. Matt Heard is one of the voices of Key Life, as you know. And we decided to do something that we’ve sort of ignored Advent in the past. And I’m told by the powers that it’s time to stop that. Now, Advent is the time when you remember two Advents. The first Advent, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that would be Christmas. And the second Advent, we look forward to, and that’s when Jesus comes back and cleans up the mess. But for these Mondays, we’re going to address different subjects. And Matthew has assigned me a text to read to you. And then what we’re going to do is look at the names of the coming prophesied Messiah. And this is from Isaiah 9.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. For unto 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.

And so Matt, what we’re going to do over the next four Mondays is look at those names.

Matt Heard:
Love that.

Steve Brown:
And the first one has to do with hope. And you know, it’s easy to lose hope in our present situation. You know, there’s so many books written about what the church has done wrong and how many people have been hurt. And the nuns, none of the above, seem to be growing. And we’re finding ourselves in a political morass that is horrible for both sides. People are fighting, they’re divided, and sometimes, I just wanted to say, this is hopeless. Is it?

Matt Heard:
Well, Merry Christmas to you as well, Steve. You know, have you ever thought about working for Hallmark and just doing Christmas cards that come up? Actually, you know what, I think the, we, our celebration can be more significant, more authentic and more meaningful when we actually own up to the darkness, actually. So often people think, you know, let’s not talk about that. What X, Y, or Z, it’s Christmas. And I think what’s going on there is sentimentality is being inserted into this nostalgia and, Hey, we just want Christmas cookies and tinsel and great Christmas carols. Actually, there is not a more powerful time, I don’t think, in the entire year to be honest about fallenness and brokenness than during Advent because you look at the juxtapositions and all, it’s like the jewelers who, they put the black velvet behind the diamond and it highlights the diamond. I think during Christmas to be honest on one side with, okay, yeah, everything there’s a lot of stuff that’s a miss, but on the other side, we do have hope. So yeah, during, so during these four Mondays and what I love about this is we’re changing it up and I know how much you like change. I mean, we’ve talked about that. So, we’ve never tried this before, but on each of these four Mondays and we’re going to take that, the Advent theme, and so many of us in our churches will have those, sometimes the order gets changed, depends on your tradition or your denomination. But the four words, basically, the four gifts of Advent being hope and joy and love and peace. And those, if you do have an Advent candle, that’s what each of those stand for. And so, what we’re doing is we’re going to take those four, hope and joy and love and peace and put them parallel to that statement, that powerful statement that Isaiah makes about what his name is, where people living in darkness, but we’ve seen a great light and that light has a name. Yes, it’s Jesus, as many say, but that light has four names in this text. And so, whatever darkness we’re grappling with, let’s get to know those four names coinciding with each of those four words of Advent. And so, this Monday, the first week of Advent, looking at the word hope and the reality of it and the beauty of it and the power of it, let’s key in on that phrase, Wonderful Counselor, that he’s called that. So, why do we go to the counselor? What are some of the reasons that come up?

Steve Brown:
You know, basically that’s what it is. We’ve got no other place to go. And so, we go to a counselor, but if we go to the right counselor, hope can be the gift that’s given us. Right?

Matt Heard:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there’s so many things that a good counselor will do, but I think they all come underneath the umbrella of giving me hope. And yes, helping me be honest about my my mess. And helping me be aware of resources, but you stir all of that in the same pot. And there should be an environment of hope that’s substantive, it’s not just, hey, let’s pretend it’s not hot and I’m not here kind of thing. That’s the beauty of, what that text is, as those of us who’ve been in Scripture for a long time, but the.

To us, a child is born and a son is given.

Right there, both the humanity and the deity of Jesus, the child is born, his humanity,. But his son is given, the deity. And those two coming together, that in his humanity as a son, he grew up in the same fallen world that we’re in. But he also is the son that’s been given. So, I’ve got a Christmas gift for you.

Steve Brown:
Okay.

Matt Heard:
And so, I don’t want you to say I’ve never given you anything.

Steve Brown:
I hope it’s money.

Matt Heard:
So, I’ll drop these two things. You might be able to hear them maybe in the studio, at the studio sound, but it’s a nail. And every Advent, I’ve done this for years, I carry a nail around in my pocket and starting on the first day of December or depending on the calendar. And whenever I put my hand in my pocket and I feel that nail and for the first few days, it’s ooooh, what’s that? But it reminds me that Jesus is not some mascot that started a holiday, but he is this Wonderful Counselor who comes. He’s the Son who’s been given, he’s fully God and fully man. He’s, he’s this, yes, he is the Son, but all of a sudden you start engaging with the fact that he’s this child that grew up and he grew up to die. And he didn’t die as a martyr, he died to address our hopelessness and he comes to invade that hopelessness. You know, what do good counselors do? They’ll give care, they care for us, they show empathy for us, they give us direction. Our Wonderful Counselor does all of that. And as a result, we can celebrate Christmas in big time ways, engaging with the fallenness, but at the same time engaging with the hope.

Steve Brown:
Oh man, that’s so good. Hope, real hope from a Wonderful Counselor. So, during this Christmas season, if it feels dark, during this Advent season, if you want to run, don’t because you’re forgiven and you’re loved and you’re going to live forever. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thanks Steve and Matt. That was Steve Brown and Matt Heard. And today we started a very special look at Advent, in a way we’ve never done before. As Steve mentioned, we’ll do these studies on Mondays up until Christmas. Do join us for that. And of course, hope you’ll be with us tomorrow as we resume our journey through Philippians. Well, welcome to the holiday season, Christmas, Emanuel, God with us. In his Incarnation, Jesus entered our time and space and nothing has been the same since. If you have questions about life, your purpose, even about God himself, there are real answers and all because of what happened there in Bethlehem so long ago. Steve wrote about all this in a powerful book called If Jesus Has Come, and for a donation of $15 or more to Key Life, that book is our gift to you. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to order that book. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply text Key Life to 28950. And of course we always say this, but we always mean it. If you can’t give right now, all good. But if you think about it, if you have time, please pray for us. Would you? Appreciate it. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.