The God who restores what's broken and makes all things new || Pastor Will Hawk | December 21th, 2025

A shoot rises from a dead stump, and a Spirit-filled King brings wisdom, power, and holiness to a weary people. We imagine a world where power is not exploited, truth is not twisted, and creation is not harmed.

• Isaiah 10’s felled forests and the end of proud power
• The stump of Jesse and life from unexpected places
• The Spirit resting on the King with wisdom, counsel, and might
• Leadership, effectiveness, and holiness united in Christ
• An unfoolable judge who lifts the meek and confronts the wicked
• Words that rebuild after lies, and the fall of manipulation
• Creation at peace and the earth filled with knowledge of the Lord

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Chapters

• 0:00 Reading Isaiah 11:1–3
• 2:36 Christmas Anticipation And Isaiah’s Gifts
• 6:06 Imagination And Tomorrow’s Promises Today
• 9:16 The Christmas Tree Question And Isaiah 10
• 13:26 God Fells Proud Forests, Chooses A Stump
• 18:56 Life From Death And The Spirit’s Rest
• 23:26 The King’s Wisdom, Power, And Holiness
• 29:16 An Unfoolable Judge Who Sees The Heart
• 33:46 Power Not Exploited, Truth Not Bent
• 39:06 Words That Build And The Fall Of Pride

Transcript

Asher Howard: 0:58

Please turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter eleven, verse one, which is page f five hundred and fifty seventy-five in the Pew Bibles. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.

Will Hawk: 1:38

Great job, Asher. Merry Christmas, everybody. What's our countdown at? How many days? Okay. I did a little bit of research on how many folks wait until Christmas Eve to buy a gift. 51%. So for the, I don't know, maybe it's this side, maybe it's this side. Just giving you a heads up. Amazon Prime Shipping's about to get real tough. It's already over. Forget about it. Your best shots at Walmart at this point. I want you guys to know how much I've enjoyed being in the Isaiah as we've gotten ready. I don't know if you know this. I I love preaching. I love teaching the Bible as well. And every now and then I just love giving out little tidbits so that we can feel like we can get our hands around a book that is far too big and wide and deep for us. There are so many Christmas passages in the Gospels, primarily in the Gospels. But if you were not in the New Testament and all you had was the Old Testament, what book would you go to if you wanted to read about Christmas? Anybody want to know? It'd be Isaiah. Now, the the reason that I bring this up is because I simultaneously love looking at this book in Christmas, but I also feel like here's what has happened. Do you remember in a Christmas story where he gets to the very end, all he wanted was a Red Rider BB gun with the compass in the stock and the thing that told whatever it is? He he gets to the end of Christmas, he's opened up all of his gifts and he looks at his mom and dad. He's like, Yeah, it was a good Christmas. It's a good Christmas. And I think his dad says, Did you get everything you want? He said, Almost. And his dad's like, Yeah, you know, like that's kind of just like knowing that there was this gift sort of hidden behind the tree that he was about to get to. When we get into Isaiah, let me just tell you what I feel like as a preacher. What I feel like is we've opened up a bunch of gifts. And instead of there being one at the back of a tree, it's more like the father saying, Oh, and by the way, and he opens up a door and there's a room just replete with gifts that have yet to be unopened. That is what Isaiah is. It is all of these packages and promises pointing forward to who Christ is and what he has done. And the reason that I point that out is this morning we were singing this song, and it said, So come though you have nothing, come, he is the offering, come and see what your God has done. So this is the warning for our time in God's Word. It's gonna be easy to miss. And one of the reasons it's going to be easy to miss is Isaiah is doing something that is hard for us. He is saying, I want you to imagine a life completely different from anything that you have experienced thus far. I want you to imagine a Savior that you can only picture a little bit. I want you to see him for who he truly is. And the moment Isaiah says that, he knows in our hearts and in our minds, all these little butts come up. Yeah, I I know that's in God's word, but today, this is where I'm at. But if you saw my life, but if you saw my calendar, but if you saw my budget, but if you saw my kids, but if you saw my family, but if you saw my tomorrow, and all of these things compete with this picture that Isaiah wants to give. And so this is what I'm gonna plead with you as we get into God's word this morning. I want you to be able to imagine. I want you to go back to being a child a little bit, where that imagination still works on steroids, because Isaiah wants to give you a picture of something that is incredibly real. It's just not real yet in the way that it will be. But one of the things that God wants for us to be able to do by faith is live in the tomorrow today. Okay. Can you hold on to the promises knowing that they are so true that you can get all of the joy, all of the hope, and all of the peace from a tomorrow promise today? That is where I want you to just start wrestling right now. Can you do that? Now, to give us a little bit of a lighter question, let's go here. All right. I want you wrestling, but I also want you to answer that. Is it biblical to cut down a tree for Christmas? Okay, all right. Strong answers coming from the right. All right. Now, immediately when I put this up, here's what probably starts running through your head. Will you went really into the paint on nativities next year, last year? Please don't make me take my tree down. It's got all the lights and the balls and the bangle. Like we got four days, families coming over. Can there not be I I got nothing like that for you. But I will tell you this. I think there's an incredible passage that very few of us would know that actually point toward a Christmas tree being cut down for Christmas. And lo and behold, it comes from the Old Testament prophet of Isaiah. So here is what we will find in Isaiah 10. We're gonna be in 11. We've done 7, 9, and 11, but I want to give you a little bit of a preface. So, what happens in Isaiah 10? Well, God's people are terrified. That's why we talked about pressure within, pressure without. We talked about Ahaz the king being fearful rather than faithful Isaiah. And in this, in chapter 10, the Assyrian army surrounding them, life in difficulty surrounding them, God's people are starting to panic. And here is what the prophet writes Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the bows with terrifying power. All right, so we've got boughs. That's good, that's Christmassy. The great in height will be hewn down. That's a tree-felling term. The lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one. Now listen, this is talking about a tree getting cut down. Before you get excited about it, you need to understand what this tree is. This is not the tree you want to put in your house, okay? These boughs being lopped off with terrifying power. If you've ever had to hire somebody to come and take down a tree, and it was a big tree, and you're not offended by the fact that you're a man in this room, and I said you might hire someone to cut down a tree. If you have ever done that, you know they climb up that thing and they take the limbs off first, so that when it falls with all of its weight, it does less destruction as just a pole. What God is describing here are all of the kingdoms of the world that have arrayed themselves against God, and God is saying, it's time to clear the forest. He looks at them and he calls the Assyrians, in fact, he calls all human evil and arrogance a metaphorically tall tree. And God says, systematically, all of this pride, all of this arrogance, all of this strength that the world sees, I'm gonna begin taking down, and I am finally going to fell this tree. Now, if you need a verse to put a tree in your house, you must start here because it gets cut down. But what we do is a little bit different than what the prophet Isaiah does. What we do is we cut down a tree, we then put that tree in a bucket of water, like dum-dums, and we're like, and now it shall live. My my wife sent me a text two days ago. Well, our tree's dead. And I was like, Well, baby, um, you decided to decorate for Christmas before your surgery. I think you bought that on September 4th, and that's not true, but it was like mid-November, okay? That thing is a tinderbox in my house. You can't come down the stairs without like a ring of um needles like surrounding the tree. It is dry and it is dead. Here is what you're gonna see in Isaiah 10. God says, all of the trees that seem so impressive, the ones in the lot that people would pick, I can see what they truly are. They look majestic, they look powerful, but they're powerful in their own arrogance, they're powerful in their own strength. That's never the tree that I would pick because I don't pick impressive, proud, arrogant people. I pick the small. I pick the one that looks like it wouldn't necessarily make it. And then we turn the page, literally the very next verse from 34, and God says, but I'll tell you where life will come from. Unexpected places. That it isn't taking a dead tree and putting it in water, putting lights around it, and saying, look at how warm and life-giving it is. God says, Here's how I would do my Christmas tree. I'm not encouraging you to do this, all right? There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and it's going to get better. I do think you can have a Christmas tree. I know everybody talks about pagan traditions. There's a conversation to have behind that as well. But what I will tell you is this if you're gonna cut down a tree and you're gonna put it in your house, when you walk by, you need to walk by and sort of say, arrogance. I'm killing that. I'm killing that in my life right now, okay? Because God's tree is a stump. The one thing we don't bring into our house is the thing that God would bring into his house. That you imagine there, this dead stump of a thing dried out, and then all of a sudden, Isaiah opens a gift and a shoot begins to come up from this stump. Life from the unexpected. That is who God is. That is what God does. For every one of you who is a Christian, that is your story. Dead, and then life comes out of it. This is what Isaiah chapter 11 wants to point to. It's not impressive, proud, perfect trees that God selects, because it's not impressive, proud, perfect people that God selects. He picks the ones that are not terribly impressive, and they shouldn't be able to stand against a great storm. But we do. We shouldn't be able to survive our roots being trampled, and yet, believer, you will. We shouldn't be able to endure the cold winter of life. Christian, you will. The ones that have so little to be proud of, that are so far from perfect, who can tell the story of their brokenness, those are the ones God wants to put on display. And as is typically the case, God continues to make it better and better. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. So all of a sudden we have death. That death turns into life, and then God says, This little bit of life, I am gonna crown it with the glory of my own presence. The spirit of the Lord will rest on this life coming from death, which will be the promise of a new Messiah. Now, I want you to notice this word rest. A lot of times in the Old Testament, we see the Spirit of God rush upon someone, fill someone temporarily. But here, the Old Testament points to someone who is full of the goodness of God, morning to night, start to finish, from first cry in a manger until it is finished upon a cross. This is what we're expecting, and we actually see it in the Gospel of Matthew. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, take note of this, the heavens were open, he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming. That little line is what Isaiah was talking about thousands of years before. You see, when the disciples saw this, when the people saw this, all of a sudden, for some of them, they finally got to open a gift at the back of the tree from 2,000 years ago when Isaiah had said it. Here it is, the Spirit of God resting on life coming from unexpected places, because that is who Christ was. But this is not just life coming from an unexpected place. This is a whole new way of living. Now, believer in the room, here is going to be my challenge for you. I need you to picture this. I need you to picture the Messiah the way Isaiah does, because you have not seen Jesus this way yet. You have read about him. He sits on a throne now. If you could see him now, you would see it. But he has chosen in his timing not to return yet, though, David, Johnson, thank you very much. We ought to stay awake and look for this. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. What will that look like? It will look like a Messiah, it will look like a leader, it will look like a living king with wisdom and understanding. It will look like you being led, not by your own intellect, but by something so much greater. It will look like you being led by someone who has not only counsel but might. Someone who has simultaneously knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And when you see it, it is going to be a delight. This is who Jesus was day in, day out to this very day. Now, if I were to take all three of these things that the Holy Spirit displays in Christ in the coming king, here is what you would see. You would see leadership, you would see effectiveness, and you would see holiness. That's what you would see. If you're a no-taker, fear not, I got you. All right. This is what we have in Christ. Now I want you to imagine this. If you're a kid, it's easy. I want you to imagine your dad being this way. If you're grown, it's going to be a little harder. Life's beat you up, and you've walked through enough dark things, you've opened enough dark closets. This may be a bit more difficult for you. I want you to imagine not an employer, not a boss. I know we don't live in a monarchy. I want you to imagine a king who rules over your life and is in charge of everything, but somehow he knows everything about you. All of his responsibilities in no way detract from the intimacy with which he knows and cares for you. And he looks at your life. He looks at your Tuesday, not just your Sunday 90 minutes. He looks at your Tuesday and he says, I want to give you good leadership. I want you to know that you are seeing my world your way, but the king who is coming will see God's world God's way, exactly as it ought to be. He will have discernment. He knows what is truly going on beneath the surface in your life, in the lives of people around you, and in everything that surrounds you. But he doesn't just know it, he can't just see it, he's not just projecting toward it as a good leader. He is incredibly effective. He has all of the counsel and the might. If you've ever been in a leadership position, one of the most frustrating realities is to know where you are, where you want to be, how you think you're supposed to get there, and then not have the resources to pull it off. By the way, you can feel this without running a company. Have a child. You can look at them and you can see everything you want them to be. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. You you can see the table being set before and cleaned up after without asking. You can see this young man or this young woman being able to navigate the world with confidence but not arrogance, with strength that comes from gentleness. You can see it, and you're like, now how do I make somebody do something they don't want to do? And this is the nature of God toward us. And yet, this coming king, life from death, resurrected in glory, has all of the might to pull this off. And if you doubt it today, I would just encourage you to wait. There are so many things that you believe God wants for your life. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it isn't coming. Because his counsel is perfect, his timing is right. But one of the things that exists in Christ that is so different than a dad today or a politician today, a boss today, is this last piece of holiness. Now I'm not saying that none of us are. This isn't a woe is me where I'm trying to throw spiritual two by fours at the foreheads of all the men in this room. I'm not. I I I every guy in this church that I get to hang out with, I find myself encouraged by. I love doing church with you guys. I just know that I'm such a failure. It is a difficult thing to call your kids to be something when you're struggling with it as well. But here we have a leader, here we have a Messiah, here we have a Savior. I want you to see this, picture this, who has knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The reason I point this out is because if we go all the way back to Genesis 3, we have one of these things without the other. Adam and Eve desire knowledge. We want to know. We want to see what God sees, we want to know what God knows. They desire all of the knowledge with none of the fear, and what they find is sin. What Christ has is all of the knowledge and a fear, respect, awe of the nature of God. And when this happens, when you have all three of these things combined, and I told you it was going to be a challenge, you begin to get a picture of the Savior who wants to lead your life today. You get a picture of what a little bit of faith would bring to you if you would trust him. Olivia's story of how she came to faith in Christ, then walked toward the darkness temporarily, only to find on the other side of a 45-minute prayer, this is who God always has been, always will be. And the question is, who is she going to follow? And the same question is presented to us today. And the thing about this king of life, his delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. Okay, just real quick pause. I'm not even gonna talk about my kids. When I did education, uh, when I did camp ministry, and I spent tons of time with children, here was the one if I walked out to Gaga Ball in 30 minutes, here would be the thing that you would hear more than anything else when there's A disruption. That's not why is it that from a young age all of us have a sense of justice put inside of us? A sense of right and wrong. Now, even that is skewed because it is what we think is right and what we think is wrong. I say that to you to prop this up for the God, for the Messiah who wants to lead you. He is unfoolable. He's not judging by what his eyes see. You can put a pretty face on it. You can smile a little bit and change the tone of your voice. He still knows your heart. He's able to listen to the words you say and discern what is real in the midst of it. This king is unfoolable. You are wasting your time coming in here trying to fool a God who knows everything about you. You're wasting your time. What you could do is you could say, you pick the worst trees, you bring life from death. Here is the un like this is all of the truth of me. I'm not going to try to fool it because there is no reason to try to fool you. If I really wanted to go into the paint and I can't, for the sake of time, when Job sees God, he comes up. And by the way, in every one of these little passages, you will find leadership, effectiveness, or holiness. But I would just get you to look at verse 16 for a minute. With him are strength and sound wisdom, strength, might, sound wisdom, leadership. The deceived and the deceiver are his. In the hands of God are the people who deceive and cause you at your own age to say, That's not fair. And unless Christ returns, you're going to be saying that until you go into the grave. There's something about this world where we can find it a hundred times a day. That's not fair. But this coming king, he holds the deceiver in his hand. He also holds the deceived. One to comfort, one to draw near, one to say it is okay, but these do not get away with it. He will rule in justice. That is who this king is. With righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. If you want to know what this king is like, righteousness. It's going to be like a belt on his waist and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. Isaiah is asking you to do something that is difficult for us to do. He is asking you to imagine a better tomorrow and live in that joy and excitement and hope. But I know it is difficult for us to do. If you were able to, this is what you would see. Three things he brings, he brings sort of into focus. Under the reign of this new king, power is not exploited. No one takes advantage of others anymore. A boss, a ruler, a politician, a dad, a whatever. No one takes advantage of those below them because the highest among us cares for the least among us. With righteousness, he will judge the poor, and he will decide with equity for the meek of the earth. What this is saying is God is for the lowly who would scream out day after day, my life hasn't been fair. God, I I've tried to do the right thing. I keep saying no to sin and saying yes to holiness, but my life still crumbles at my feet. Well, why is it that I'm pursuing you fill in your own blank? Why am I pursuing you and I'm still single? Why am I pursuing you and we still don't have children? Why am I pursuing you and our finances are still a mess? Why am I pursuing you and I can't find meaningful friendships? Why am I pursuing you and you just fill in your blank? This is Christ saying, There is a day coming where everything that is good and right and true is going to happen. And I am going to see the meek, those who humbly, quietly try to serve me while the world takes advantage of them. And I'm going to judge for them. I will decide with equity. This is what we see all over the Sermon on the Mount. Again, I'm not going to read this whole thing to you, but I would point out that the poor, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Boom. You've had nothing, now you have everything. Those who mourn find comfort, and here's our word, the meek, and they own everything. Those who have been taken advantage of, those who have never been able to get ahead in the coming kingdom, because they have sown meekness into their life, God says, Today you own it all. I own it all and I hand it over to you. In Christ's new kingdom, power doesn't rest with the mighty, nor with the manipulative. Which is why the next part of this verse points to the fact that not only is power not exploited, but truth is not manipulated. Let me just hit pause for a minute. This is the one where I get hot and where I get angry. So I'm going to try not to preach from Will's experience. I'm just going to try to preach the word. But there is little that gets me more frustrated than people being taken advantage of because somebody can put words together in a way that draws them away. And it doesn't matter to me if it's a pyramid scheme. It doesn't matter to me if it's some guy trying to date some girl. It doesn't matter to me if it's a spouse saying one thing and completely doing another. It doesn't matter to me. I will just tell you this: there is something that sets a fire inside of me. I don't know if it does it with you. When you see people being manipulated. But in this coming kingdom, watch the usage of words. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. Words. Where did our problem come from? Words. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Did God actually say, Satan hadn't quit using this line on you? It's too effective. It's way too effective. Why is it that the coming king rules with his words? Because that's where you fell in the first place. The enemy still says this to you. Did God actually say you need to live like this? Did God actually say this is what holiness is? Did God actually say, and you tell me that you don't feel this, come up from this quiet little voice that is not the still small voice. This is still being said to you today. But Christ will come with a different set of words. And they will not destroy, they will rebuild. Calvin puts it this way Christ will have no need to borrow aid from others to cast down his enemies, to strike down everything that opposes his government, for these tall, trout proud trees of life to fall, for a mere breath or a word will be enough. Let there be light, and there was. Let there be earth, and there was. How hard is it going to be for God to make everything unjust? This hard. Make it right. Done. This is the power of the coming king. Can you begin to see him? Can you begin to follow him? But I would like for you to notice this before I move on to the third thing. I want you to see the axe that comes to the tree, because I want to make sure you're on the right side of it. This is one verse, Isaiah 11:4. I've already read it to you twice, but I wonder if you notice this. With righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. One direction. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. This is the axe being laid not just to the great trees, but to every tree. Here's what I need you to understand about Christianity and about the gospel. Everybody gets cut down. Everybody gets cut down. None of us make it to full growth. Look at how great I am, look at the fruit I can produce, look at the shade I can create for those who are under my care. None of us get there without first being cut down. The question is, will you be cut down lovingly so that new life can come that will actually grow? Or are you gonna try to do it on your own only to realize that the axe is coming one way or another? Now, look, I know it's Christmas and it's like, Will, can you be a little more upbeat, like joy to the world? Yeah, I can do that. It's coming. Fear not. But I can't do that if you're gonna try to live life on your own. I can't do that unless you're gonna find what Addison said when she said, Look, I'm not trying to live my life based off of what I can do or what I can create. It's Christ. It's Christ alone. Doesn't matter how gifted you are in filling up the blank, soccer or something else, it doesn't matter. Every one of us will have the axe brought to us. The question is this some in arrogance are gonna cling to their own autonomy. They're gonna cling to power like tall trees, believing that they can stand against the very breath of the God that created them. Or you can willingly say, God, I need you to prune me up. And if I'm honest, I don't just need to be pruned, I need to be remade. I need to be cut down as painful as that sounds, and it seems like death, but that is the only way that true life ever comes up out of your word. So I'm trusting it. I'm laying myself on the altar of sacrifice, that by you felling my pride and arrogance, life may come up from it. But both people are changed. Both people fall. From those who fall willingly, though, sprouts of life come up. This isn't just theology. It's not theological, this is logical. This is what a holy God would do and must do. Why? Because there is a kingdom coming where certain things that we know simply cannot survive, so that things you cannot imagine can begin to thrive. What does that look like? Well, this is the final one. Under his reign, power isn't exploited and truth isn't manipulated, but creation isn't violated either. Now I'm gonna read this to you, but depending on if you've had your cup of coffee or not, if you think you're gonna stay awake or not, I would encourage you to close your eyes and I want you to just picture this. I debated putting a video up of a little kid running around with a poisonous snake. I don't know if you guys, there's a million of these, by the way. There's not just one, where this mom like opens the front door because she hears a commotion in the front yard, and her three-year-old is like dual-wielding poisonous copper heads, and she's like, ah, and freaking out, okay? There's a reason you would freak out if you saw a little kid with a snake. But here's what I want you to begin to imagine. You're not going to be able to. I just want you to give it your best shot. Close your eyes if you want, but this is the world that Christ shall reign over. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them. Eyes on the screen for a minute. Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. That's nuts to me. If you go through Pine Mountain Wild Animal Park, I don't even want to hang out with like half of those deer-looking things. But in God's new kingdom, there's gonna be a four-year-old that's like hand feeding a leopard that right now would drag them up a tree and end it in a horrible, horrible way. Wolves and leopards and lions and kids are just like and they're like cuddling with them, like it's a German shepherd laid out on a rug in your front uh uh around your fireplace. The cow and the bear grazing together. Their young shall lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Here's where it gets really weird. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra. Timeout. I didn't even think snakes are gonna be allowed in the new creation. And here he is. Keep legs off that thing. But this itty bitty baby is just hanging out with a snake. And I can't even picture it in my head without my heart dropping because we have snakes in this area where I live in. All right? If I see a snake climbing up the leg of my 17-year-old, my heart's gonna drop. This is a nursing baby. But don't worry, when they get older, it changes. And the weaned child will put his hand in the adder. That means snakes, din. What is going on in this place? Look, the point Isaiah's trying to make is I want you to imagine it, you can't. That's what he's doing. Because in this new place, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain four. Don't worry, it's gonna get better again. But what I want you to realize is this if this sounds odd to you, watch what comes next. Because it should sound weirder. If this sounds unbelievable to you, imagine the earth being full of the knowledge of the Lord. Imagine not having to go to a church or have a preacher on his good day to find it. Imagine not needing this perfect quiet time where the music is so and your kids aren't arguing and your work life isn't astray. It's just everywhere you go. You're at publics, and all of a sudden the knowledge of the Lord is everywhere. Everybody's walking around with delight on their faces, serving and caring for one another. How much will this be the case? As much as the waters cover the sea, the whole earth will know God. And in that day, this little bit of unexpected life will stand as a signal for the people. Of him the nations shall inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious, and there will be a highway from all of your troubles for the remnant that remains of his people. For those who stand not in their own strength or arrogance, but in him, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. The earth will not be covered with sin or brokenness or darkness. In fact, darkness goes away forever. It will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, and life will come from unexpected places, and this little sprout will stand up like a sign. In fact, Paul saw it in his own day. I don't know if you realize this. When Isaiah wrote about a Messiah who was coming that would change the world, you are part of that gift being opened. You sitting here in Harris County, Georgia today is Romans 15 and Isaiah 11 coming to be. People who celebrate Christmas because they know what it means, and even people who celebrate it and they don't know what it means, they are evidence of Isaiah's reality coming true. This new Messiah is going to change the world. Every nativity in every yard, every bit of generosity given in this season from believers and even from unbelievers, is Isaiah saying, Did you see that opening? Did you see this opening? And Isaiah says, he points all the way back, Paul does, the root of Jesse will come. Even he who arises to rule, in case you don't know it, that's you. People who did not begin as God's people. That is what he is going to do. That's why this has been our theme from the beginning, because Isaiah has wanted you to open these things up. I want to close by showing you the last little portion here. Isaiah 11, 16. Now remember, Assyria was the big problem. You can fill in that blank for you. There's probably not a warring army surrounding your house right now, giving you just a little bit of respite to run off to church, but you have problems. The darkness of this world not being the way that it should be, whether it's stuff on the inside or stuff on the outside, you get this. But I want you to see what this new king does. This new king with all the leadership and all the effectiveness, but also all the holiness. There will be a highway from your trouble for the remnant that remains of his people, for those who hold firm to Christ. Just as there was for Israel when they came up out of the land of Egypt, as much as the Red Sea was ripped open and dry ground provided so they could walk through it, this is the Holy Spirit, this is God, this is the Son saying, Do you see the highway that I've created for you? Do you see the way that I would have you walk? Even in the midst of this dark world, can you see it? You see, this verse told us that people were going to inquire of the Lord. They're gonna see the world, begin to see it the way God meant. Even in a moment like this, what if Isaiah is right? What if I can follow that kind of a savior today? And what always comes up are the questions. This was true for people around Jesus, it was true for the people who walked closest with Jesus, which is why Thomas would look at Jesus and say, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How am I supposed to know the way? If you're leaving us, if I can't see you, if I can't touch you, how am I possibly going to follow you? Well, many of you know what Jesus says after this. You see, this Assyrian army was the problem from the beginning. Chapter 7, Ahaz is fearful, Isaiah is faithful. Which are you going to be? Chapter 9, there's pressure within, wanting to crack you, pressure without wanting to drag you down. And Jesus says, My shoulders are broad enough to carry every burden. Are you gonna bring them to me? And in chapter 11, Isaiah says, If you could just imagine a God who loves you this much, if you could just imagine a God who sent his son this far, if you could just imagine the life he wants to create in you and around you, if you could see it, I'm telling you, it would give you hope and joy and encouragement today. Lord, how? We can't see it. How are we going to know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through me. Where is the joy? It is in this: a highway is created. The trees fall, not randomly, but righteously. Pride is cut down, predation is ended, corruption exposed, and when the forest of self collapses, something unexpected appears. A highway, a clear path made by God because we never could have made it ourselves. And standing at the center of that is the King, the Savior. See, in the beginning was a tree that we ate from and brought death, Genesis. In the end is a tree that brings life and life eternal, Revelation. And in the middle, God places a tree. On that tree, he places his son. And it is by the mid-tree that we have access to the Father. That's where the church got its name from, in case you were curious. And this highway being cleared is for any who desire to walk down it. Cleared not by human effort, but by God Himself, because Jesus wasn't sent just to teach the way or to tell the truth or to offer life. He is all of those things. And the question before us today, as we see a savior of life coming from death, is this what would it mean for you today? To leave behind arrogance that enthrones the self? Get on the highway. Get out of the brambles and the brushes. What would it mean for you to leave behind exploited power that feeds on others and instead to serve them? What does it mean instead of manipulating truth and bending reality to just tell the truth and to be the truth? What does it mean for you to see and bring about creation the way God intended it to be? Because all of those other things will never survive on this road. So pick which road do you want to walk on? And I will tell you this: one is better than the other. One is less painful than the other. One is more delightful than the other. And it was paved by God Himself so that we could come near. This is what Isaiah always wanted us to see: a highway that we never expected, that Christ cleared himself. Now I don't know what that means for each of you, but I'd be willing to bet it's in his word and it's on the screen. What bowels need to be loft off so that you can stand not in your own pride and self-righteousness, but in what God has done. That's what people ought to see. And that's what God wants to see in you. So let's draw near to Him. A couple of ways we do it. You can stand and sing, you can sit and pray and reflect. A group of us are going to be praying on the back. If you want to join us, we would love for you to do so. But let's respond to God's word together today.