Sea World, See God

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Good morning. Merry Florida Christmas. You know, I actually, I am really enjoying not being in a Michigan Christmas where I grew up. I know the Christmas I grew up with, probably a number of you did, right? Was the one with the drifts this high or this high, depending, right? And you bundle, like, three layers on. Really, that movie, A Christmas Story, that's supposed to happen in Cleveland, I remember those days. I remember getting my tongue stuck on an aluminum door because I tried to do, not on a pole, but on a door. And I remember the times when you'd walk out of the house looking like, I don't know what. The Pilberry Doughboy, right? Or the marshmallow, or the Michelin Man, I guess. And the lights, and the darkness, and a fire in the fireplace, and some hot cocoa, and just sitting there. None of which is in the original Christmas at all, right? None of it. And I think the point is, so often we have, so many times, and have you noticed how much Christmas is about everything but Christmas? Christmas has been commodified. And what's really running Christmas now is commerce. I'm not really saying anything new, I know, I know. Actually, what's so amazing, I was just listening to a podcast this week, and I know I'm off topic already, but we're going to get there. And what's fascinating about the New Testament, I don't know if you realize this, but each of the letters that were written, 90% of the people at the time could not read. And a person took the letter, not because they had to. They could have paid someone, Paul could have paid someone to take one of the letters to the church, drop it off, and let them read it. But what they always did, is they had a person deliver the letter, and a person read the letter, and a person helped them understand the letter, time after time after time. And what you find out through the Bible, there has never been a time where God has mediated His message without a person involved in it. It's not like you can stand at a distance, it's not like you've got... And so what we find is, we have always put things in the way of the real message, and the person of Jesus Christ. And so in this series, even though it's kind of snarky that we're looking at a Florida Christmas, what we're trying to do is look at how Christmas relates to us, and Jesus, who is personally present, and is personally showing up this morning, anytime His gospel is preached, He is present wherever two or three are gathered in His name. And that's what we're really after, is His presence, not a bunch of presents. Sorry kids. So today we're going to discover, when God talks about His future, that basically Christmas was what Christmas would bring, the future that God would have. He doesn't use the metaphors that we so often associate with Christmas, like the North Pole, or reindeer herds. He uses a metaphor that we understand in Florida, called Sea World. Now, not this little Sea World that happens to be in Orlando, not an amusement park, but rather the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. This happens, actually, in one of the biggest messianic promises from the prophet, the person of Isaiah, who speaks this word about how God will send a person, the little branch, the young sapling, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, and what will happen as a result is the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. So that's what we're going to look at this morning in Isaiah chapter 11. And gathering together is so important, and I'm glad we were able to do that. But we want you to, in person with each other in your homes on Sunday, December 25th, to celebrate and worship together in your homes. And the premiere of our service will be at 10 a.m., but afterwards you can watch it on demand. OK, let's get to the text now. Isaiah 11. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots 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. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. The wolf shall lie down with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion and the fat fattened calf together. And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing c...