Isaiah 9:1-7; A Child Is Born: Everlasting Father

Jason Sterling December 14, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me to
Isaiah chapter 9.
Isaiah 9.
You'll see the entire text 1through 7 printed in your
bulletin.
I will only be reading verse 6.
That verse we've been looking atevery week for the past couple
of weeks.
I hope this passage is startingto settle into your heart.

(01:10):
Advent, we've been looking atthese royal titles.
Wonderful counselor, mighty God,everlasting Father, and Prince
of Peace.
This morning we'll be focusingon Everlasting Father.
This is God's word, Isaiah 9,verse 6.
For to us a child is born, to usa son is given, and the

(01:33):
government shall be upon hisshoulder, and his name shall be
called Wonderful Counselor,Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
This is the word of the Lord.
Let me pray and ask for theSpirit's help this morning.
Please bow with me.
Father, would you come?

(01:55):
I feel weak, and my voicecertainly feels weak.
And I pray that you wouldsustain me and sustain my voice.
You've called me to preach thismorning, this passage to these
people.
And I pray that when I open mymouth, uh your words would come
out.
Um that you would speak throughme and sustain me this morning.

(02:22):
Would you show us Jesus?
May we all have an encounterwith him this morning.
We don't just come to do church.
Uh we want to be changed.
We want to encounter you throughyour spirit and through the
preached word and through thetable and through your people.
And so leave us different thismorning than when we came.

(02:45):
It's in Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
Will you always be there?
That's the question that hangsin the air in bedrooms, in
hospital rooms, in moments ofcrisis all across the world.

(03:11):
Every child asks it, sometimesliterally with words, sometimes
children ask it with just alook, searching eyes, and every
parent wants to say yes, thatthey promise they will always be

(03:36):
here.
But we can't make that promisebecause we're human, we grow
old, we get sick, and we die.
And even the best of fathers,humanly speaking, are only

(04:00):
temporary.
And that's the ache, isn't it,that some of you feel this
morning when you hear the wordfather.
You had a good father, maybeeven a great father, but he's
gone.
And so there's grief.
Some of you, maybe it's notgrief, maybe it's gratitude.

(04:24):
Because you do have your fatherwith you, and he's wonderful,
and he loves you, and he'spresent, and he engages you, and
it fills you with joy andgratitude.
But some of you feel somethingdifferent when you hear that
word because you had a fatherthat walked out on you, that

(04:50):
left your family, a father whowas maybe there physically, but
completely checked outemotionally and absent.
Maybe you had a father thatnever showed up, didn't protect

(05:10):
you, and failed to provide foryou.
And so not only is there thisgrief inside of us, there is
also a deep longing to havesomething that we've never had.
If we were to chart the emotionsjust by saying the word father
in this room, it would beastounding.

(05:35):
Grief and longing and gratitudeand disappointment and joy and
sadness and warmth and pain, itwould run the spectrum.
And into all of that, God speaksthese words.

(05:55):
Everlasting Father.

Three things this morning (06:00):
the problem, the promise, and the
practice.
Problem, promise, practice.
That's where we're headed.
Let's look at our first heading,the problem.
So before we can reallyunderstand what's happening

(06:20):
here, we've got to understandwhat Isaiah is promising and
what the original audience wouldbe experiencing.
In the ancient Near East, whenyou used the word father, it was
a royal title for kings.
It didn't mean biologicalfatherhood.
It meant the king was your royalprotector and provider,

(06:45):
responsible for the welfare ofhis people.

Think about this (06:50):
a father protects and provides for their
children.
A shepherd protects and providesfor the sheep.
A king protects and provides forthe people.
Same job, different metaphor.

(07:13):
And I tell you that becausethat's why the Bible uses all of
those words, shepherd, king, andfather, interchangeably.
Think about the Lord's Prayer.
Our Father who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name, what?
Thy kingdom come.
Father and King.

(07:34):
You can't separate those.
And so when Isaiah promiseseverlasting Father, he is
promising a king who will alwaysbe there, who will always care
for you.
And friends, that was somethingthat Israel desperately needed

(07:59):
in huge ways because they havebeen failed by kings over and
over.
Read first and second Kings.
And what do you see?
You see a pattern ofdisappointment, of kings dying.
Some started well and fell intosin.
Some were corrupt from thebeginning.

(08:22):
But over and over and over, yousee this pattern of failure
until they eventually, God'speople, end up in exile.
Then you get to the prophetEzekiel chapter 34.
It really captures, I encourageyou to read that sometime this
week.
It captures the devastation.

(08:44):
And the prophet indices theshepherd kings of Israel, and he
says, You are only looking outfor yourselves.
You don't care about the weak.
You don't reach out to the sick.
You don't search for the lost.
And he says that they have ruledharshly and brutally.

(09:07):
And the result, the sheep arescattered with no shepherd, and
they are left to be food for thewild animals, scattered all over
the earth, and there is no oneto search for them.
That was their experience.

(09:34):
Father kings who did not search,who did not rescue, who did not
protect, who did not provide,and that left them, think about
how you would feel, that leftthem vulnerable and exposed to
danger.

And here's the hard truth (09:52):
it isn't just ancient Israel, it is
the human pattern.
Even the best fathersdisappoint.
Even the best fathers die.
Some fail through neglect andcruelty.

(10:15):
Others promise to love.
But they fade.
Even the best fathers cannot bethere forever.
And so, either way, you are leftvulnerable, you are left exposed
and unprotected in a broken anddangerous world.

(10:37):
And that reality drives us toone of two broken responses to
despair because of ourvulnerability.
We live in constant fear, inworry, and anxiety.
Or it leads you to become yourown father, being alter

(11:04):
controlling and striving andexhausting ourselves in order to
protect and order to provide forourselves, because we refuse to
be that exposed and vulnerableagain.
And so we build our lives aroundmoney.

(11:25):
We build our lives aroundreputation and our work and
success and our health and ourfitness.
Because we're convinced if wecan just manage everything
perfectly, then we will finallybe safe.
Please hear me.
Those things, in and ofthemselves, are not bad things.

(11:49):
They become bad things when wemight make them idols and
functional fathers.
And we start to trust in themfor our source of security.
And when we do that, we've madeourselves our own king, trying
to manage and protect our lifethrough those things.

(12:12):
And here's what I want you tounderstand those things, those
functional fathers that we tryto look to for security are just
as temporary as every otherearthly father.
They will eventually fail youand leave you in the end.

(12:35):
You see, both responses, despairand self-sufficiency, reveal the
orphan heart inside of us andour condition.
We are trying to survive in aworld where nothing and no one
can promise to stay forever.

(12:55):
That's the problem.
You see, we don't just need afather, we need an everlasting
father.
And that's what God promises us.

Let's look at our second point: the promise. (13:07):
undefined
So into that darkness, we havethe promise.
God speaks everlasting Father.
Let me be clear here by usingthat name.
Isaiah is not saying that Jesusis God the Father.
That would be heresy.

(13:28):
The Father and the Son aredistinct persons in the Godhead,
distinct persons in the Trinity.
Rather, Isaiah is describing howJesus, the Messiah, will relate
to us.
Remember John 14?
Philip says, Show us the Father,Jesus.

(13:50):
You remember what Jesus says?
If you've seen me, you've seenthe Father.
God's fatherly heart is presentand visible in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But notice the very crucialword, everlasting.

(14:14):
Literally, it means Fatherforever.
So unlike David and Solomon andall the other kings in Israel's
history who disappointed, Jesusis the king and the father whose
care never ends.

(14:34):
His protection doesn't expire.
His provision does not run out.
His compassion never fades.
He provides for us, hischildren, what we cannot provide
for ourselves.
John chapter six.
Jesus says, I'm the bread oflife.

(14:57):
Come to me and never hungeragain.
The soul, the deep soulnourishment that we need, Jesus
gives us.
The forgiveness that we can'tearn, the righteousness that we
can't muster up, the hope thatwe cannot bring about in our
lives, Jesus provides it.

(15:19):
That's what fathers do.
They provide what their childrencannot do for themselves.
Jesus also protects what wecannot protect.
John chapter 10.
I give thee, give them eternallife.
They will never perish.

(15:42):
And they, you, will never besnatched out of his hand.
You are held by his grip on you.
And his grip does not slip.
It is never weak, and it willnever let you go.

(16:06):
He shows compassion as ourprovider.
As he shows compassion in ourweakness.
I love Psalm 103.
As a father shows compassion tohis children, so the Lord shows
compassion to those who fearhim, for he knows our frame.

(16:28):
He remembers that we are dust.
You know how if you havechildren, you ever have an
unrealistic expectation for yourchildren?
Yes.
Jesus never has unrealisticexpectations.
He does not shame you for beingfrail and afraid and having

(16:54):
limits.
He knows your frame.
Think about the disciples hadbeen with Jesus for years, three

(17:16):
years, teacher and leader.
He had was protecting them,providing for them.
And then he says that he's goingaway.
And in that scene, you can justfeel the panic.
You can feel the exposure.
You can feel the vulnerability.
Lord, where are you going?
How are we going to make it?

(17:39):
And in the middle of that fear,Jesus says, I will not leave you
as orphans.
I will come to you.
Jesus knows exactly what theyare feeling, that they're
feeling vulnerable and exposed.

(17:59):
The one that they had dependedon is now leaving, and Jesus
says, No, I will not leave you.
And he promises in that momentthe Holy Spirit who will come
and live inside of them and bethe ongoing presence, his
ongoing presence to be with themforever.

(18:21):
So we've seen the problem, thepromise, lastly, the practice.
So what?
What is the fact that Jesus iseverlasting Father have to do
with you this morning?
And how should it shape yourlife?
Well, there's lots of thingsthat we could say.

(18:42):
Let me mention a couple.
You can rest instead ofstriving.
Because Jesus is everlastingfather.
You don't have to be your ownfather anymore.
You can release the exhaustingburden of self-provision and

(19:04):
self-protection.
I was at a book event, AlanLevi, you've heard me talk about
Theo of Golden.
It was a book event, a littleprofessor this past week.
And one of the things I learnedwas that he goes to the
elementary school every week toread to second graders.

(19:27):
He's done that for years, andhe's done all grades.
And he said that with the secondgraders, and you know this early
on, all the hands go up,whatever the question is,
whatever the comment is, whetherthey know it or not, their hands
are going up.
It's unfiltered.

(19:50):
And then he said, somethinghappens by fifth grade.
Because then he said there'sdeafening silence.
They've learned to be afraid.
They've learned to be insecure.

(20:12):
They've learned the fear ofbeing wrong and of looking
foolish and of being too muchfor other people.
And that fear doesn't go away.
We carry that into adulthood andwe just get better at hiding it.
We carry it, we're managingeveryone's perceptions of us,

(20:37):
and we never let someone see usall to all the way to the bottom
because we have learned thateveryone has a limit.
That eventually someone's goingto have a bad day.
And everyone can get tired ofyou.

(21:03):
And you can't just decide not tofeel that way.
Because the fifth grader haslearned to be afraid for a good
reason.
Because that's true.
People do have limits.

(21:24):
People's patience do run out.
And fear starts drivingeverything in our life.
And you start making decisionsfrom what if I fail, or what if
this fails instead of fromsecurity.
And we start to choose the safejob over what God's really

(21:45):
calling us to do and taking arisk and stepping out.
Or we keep all the relationshipsin our life at arm's distance at
surface level.
We hide our struggles because wedo not want to risk being seen
and known all the way to thebottom.
And into that church, into thatfear, into my fear, into my

(22:12):
shame, God speaks the words,everlasting Father.
He meets us in our fear.
He doesn't scold us for beingafraid.
Instead, he shows up and hekeeps showing up.

(22:38):
Day after day after day, yearafter year.
He's the same.
Never weary, never frustratedwith you, never done, he said,
never says enough is enough.
His fatherly love never wearsout, never grows cold, and never

(23:02):
gives up.
And he doesn't demand that youchange by telling you to stop
being afraid.
Instead, he changes you byproving that he's different.
That he really is kind.

(23:24):
That he really is patient.
That he really is committed andpresence and present.
And slowly over time, as weexperience God's consistency,
something starts to happeninside of your heart.
It starts to thaw.

(23:46):
And the fear that's been runningyour life starts to lose its
grip and its power, not becauseyou've worked harder, but you
have finally met someone whonever has a bad day towards you.
Everlasting father.

(24:07):
The other thing is that phrasemeans that you can face your
loss without despair.
I've mentioned it, but earthlyfathers are temporary.

(24:28):
And so when your fatherdisappoints you or leaves you,
you're not ultimately orphaned.
You have an everlasting father.
In your marriage struggles, whenyour job ends, when your health

(24:53):
fails you, when your savingstake a hit, when you have the
hardest day of your life, whenyou are on your deathbed and
you're dying and breathing yourlast, and when you're standing
before the judgment seat of God,Jesus is there.

(25:17):
Interceding, advocating, andprotecting.
Friends, please don't hear mesaying minimize your grief.
No.
Weep.
Grieve.
But we weep and grieve with hopebecause our ultimate security

(25:41):
isn't in what we've lost, it isin him, the everlasting Father
that will never leave us orforsake us.
And here's the last thing Ithink it means.
You can come home if you'vewandered.

(26:08):
Some of you right now, maybeyou're far from home.
You walked away from the faith,maybe from God, and you know
you're not living the life thatyou should be living, and you're
afraid that if you come back,that the door will be closed and

(26:28):
locked.
It will not.
You're afraid you've used up allyour chances and that God will
be done with you.
No, that's not who God is.
You know what God is doing?

(26:51):
He's scanning the horizon.
He's looking for you.
He's waiting for you to comehome.
And when he sees you, thinkabout Luke 15, the prodigal son
sees you a long way off.
He doesn't run the other way.
He runs in a full sprint towardsyou.

(27:15):
You see, the good news of thegospel is the everlasting father
doesn't just stay when you'regood.
That's not good news.
He stays and is there when youwandered, when you have failed,
and when you're limping home.

(27:39):
So come back.
The door is open.
There's a children's book.
I'll close with this.
Perhaps you're familiar with it.
It was a favorite in ourhousehold about the stuffed bear
corduroy.

(28:01):
Familiar with that book?
He lived in a toy store.
And day after day, someone he'dlonged for them to bring him
home.
And one morning, a girl namedLisa stops and looks at him and
says, Oh, mommy, look, the bearI've always wanted.
And Lisa's mom says, Oh, we'vespent too much money already.

(28:26):
Besides, look at him.
He doesn't look new.
He's got a button missing fromhis shoulder strap.
And Corduroy watches them sadlywalk away.
And he says, I didn't realizeI'd lost a button.

(28:46):
So that night, Corduroy tries tofix himself.
He looks all over the store forthe lost button because he
wanted someone to want him.
He couldn't find it, so he goesback to his spot in the store.
And here comes Lisa.

(29:07):
Lisa's smiling.
And she says, You are my veryown bear.
I went home and I counted allthe money in my piggy bank.
And I have enough to get you.
And my mom said that I couldbring you home.
So she takes Corduroy, bringshim home, and when he gets

(29:30):
there, Corduroy says, This mustbe home.
I've always wanted a home.
She puts Corduroy in her lap andshe sews his button back on.
She says, I like you just theway you are, but you'll be more
comfortable with your shoulderstrap.

(29:53):
And then she says, he says, youmust be a friend.
I've always wanted a friend.
Me too, said Lisa.
And she gives him a hug.
Think about that story.
There's Corduroy.

(30:15):
Passed over, broken down, tryingto fix himself.
Lisa sees him, loves him,missing button at all.
And she spends everything tobring him home.

(30:38):
And then she heals him, sews thebutton back on, and replaces the
things that were broken.
That sound familiar.
Sounds a whole lot like thegospel to me.
The everlasting Father, throughJesus Christ, when you were dead

(31:05):
in your sins and everyone hadpassed you by, Jesus saw you and
he loved you as flawed as youwere.
And he spent a whole lot morethan his savings in a piggy
bank.
He gave his life so that hecould bring you home and give

(31:30):
you a permanent home where youbelong and where you will be
safe forever.
I don't know where you are withJesus this morning.
But this, whatever it is thatyou're looking to for life in

(31:53):
security, this is what you'rereally looking for.
This is what we've alwayswanted.
A father who will never leave orforsake us, a home that will
never be taken away, and a lovethat will not let us go.

(32:17):
That is what everlasting fathermeans.
That's the gift of Christmas.
Jesus is better than you think.
Will you come to him thismorning?
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for seeing usand for giving everything in

(32:44):
order to rescue us and bring ushome.
Forgive us for living likeorphans and striving to protect
and provide for ourselves inthis world and for looking for
things that are temporary.
And Holy Spirit, I pray that youwould help us to live like

(33:05):
children who have been broughthome.
We need your help in Jesus'name.
Amen.