Matthew 1:18-25 & Isaiah 7:1-17 — Emmanuel
Main Idea: God wants to have a daily, interactive relationship with you.
“GOD WITH US” MEANS WE’RE NOT ABANDONED
• Run to the God who loves you over & over again. Pray to Him, spend time in His Word, and be with His Body (the church).
“GOD WITH US” MEANS WE’RE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE
• You don’t honor God by asking nothing of Him. You honor Him by living a life that would be utterly foolish if His Word weren’t true.
“GOD WITH US” MEANS GOD WILL SAVE & PROVIDE
• You can’t save yourself, your loved ones, or anyone in your circles. Only God can save, but He’s promised to save whoever comes.
“GOD WITH US” MEANS LIFE’S SO TOUGH WE NEED HIM
• Don’t find satisfaction in our broken world & its pleasures. God’s presence, not earthly ease or joys, should be our constant desire.
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
So, if you have your Bibles today, turn over to Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one, it's the very first book in the New Testament. And we are going to begin there this morning.
If you don't have a physical copy of God's Word with you today, the verses will also be up on the screen so you can follow along. We're gonna be looking at over the next month or so, the names of Christmas.
That is, Jesus was given some titles during his time here on earth. Names that we still call him today, names like Emmanuel or Jesus or Christ or Messiah. And so we're gonna be looking at what those words mean.
Nowadays, when we give someone a name, we're not often thinking about what does this name mean. When I named Evelyn, I wasn't like, okay, Evelyn means this or that. I probably couldn't tell you what the name Evelyn means.
I know what Bryon's name means because, well, it's my name too, much like John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt, if you know that old song. But Bryon's name means strong.
And so I know what his name means, but in Bible times, and especially when we talk about names of God, his names communicate something about who he is, what his purpose is, what he came to do.
And so we're gonna be looking at that over the next month or so. And beginning today with the name of Emmanuel. If you have your Bible, we're gonna be in Matthew 1 and verse 18 through the end of the chapter.
And scripture says this, The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.
So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. When you think about the Christmas story, you don't automatically think of, oh yeah, the Christmas story is a story about divorce.
But this is what Joseph engaged in right at the beginning. He realized that from everything he could see, Mary had been unfaithful to him in their engagement. And so as a result, she was now expecting a child.
But his love for her and scripture elsewhere would describe him as a righteous individual. He didn't want to disgrace her openly. And so he decided, I'm just going to secretly put her away.
Verse number 20 says, But after he'd considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Here is the moniker given, son of David. This is referencing Joseph as being from the kingly lineage of King David. It's not necessarily that Joseph's actual physical earthly dad was David.
It's go back about 34, 36 generations, and you will arrive back at King David. And so here he lets Joseph know that what Mary has told you is true. Now, I know it's Christmas time, we're used to singing the songs, the carols.
You'll hear it at any store you go into. It's either a Christmas carol, or you get Mariah Carey's, It's time. And you get that, and you go, Oh, no, I've been struck again by all I want from Christmas is you.
As that happens, we forget about the wonder of it.
We forget about the wonder that 2000 years ago, there was a gal that for the very first time and the only time in human history, without having known a man as the old King James would put it, she was pregnant.
And you can think about the fear that would be in her heart, especially given that patriarchal culture, she could be the subject of incredible judgment and hatred.
And even here, her fiance said, I don't believe you, even though I've had some interactions with you. And so I think you need to be shunned. You need to be put away from me.
But what a gift from the Lord for Mary, that God communicated to Joseph. No, she's telling the truth. You can believe her.
But then I love what God tells Joseph.
He tells him two names, two ways to think about this child that will be born from the Holy Spirit. He says, she will give birth to a son, and you're to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
The very first thing that's mentioned is, this isn't any normal child. This is a child who will bring salvation to his people.
In verse 22, Matthew, the writer of this gospel account, interjects a little something that he thinks you need to know as you're reading through this story. He says, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
And here's what the prophet wrote. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us. Can you guys say those four words with me?
God is with us. What a precious truth.
We're gonna look at where the prophet said that, what the circumstances were, because that's going to have some really practical impact on your week this week, because I promise you, none of you are going to have either your spouse, your fiance, your
boyfriend or girlfriend this week, say, hey, I know that I'm a virgin, but I have conceived a child from the Holy Spirit. That's not gonna happen to any of you this week.
But some of the events that we'll be looking at when the prophet prophesied, those are circumstances we often find ourselves in. I think we can gain some incredible joy and comfort through that.
Verse 24 says, when Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord's angel had commanded him, he married her, but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son and he named him Jesus.
So we're familiar with the Christmas aspect of this story. We'll see over the coming weeks even the journey that Joseph and Mary make down to Bethlehem, of all of the events that await them there.
But today, we're going to be looking over in Isaiah 7, Isaiah 7, at Emmanuel, God with us. Emmanuel, God with us. And I want us to understand a truth today, which is that God wants to have a daily interactive relationship with you.
A daily interactive relationship with you. When we think about Emmanuel being God with us, it brings to mind the battle we often face, which is loneliness. And loneliness can affect so many people in so many different ways.
Loneliness can come even if you're surrounded by people. Loneliness can come. I know we have some people that watch online that maybe there aren't many people in your home right now.
And you feel alone because you're literally physically alone. It could be even in a room this size that you feel alone, that no one around you understands what you're going through. They don't understand the hardships that you're facing.
And so you feel alone even surrounded by people. Loneliness can affect our good times.
I can think, even last year, I believe it was last early September, I had a friend that had given me some tickets to the Sing Conference, which is put on by Keith and Kristin Getty and a whole bunch of their friends. And there was amazing music.
Jesus was uplifted. There were some incredible sermons given by some godly guys and guys that I've looked up to for a long time.
But because I was there and my wife wasn't there, even in the good times, I felt lonely because I didn't have someone to share it with.
I've also experienced the loneliness of, I can think just two or three months after my first girlfriend had dumped me. And I was all alone in my dorm room at college. And I was just feeling such an ache because I felt totally alone.
I was on a campus with a thousand other college students, but I felt so alone during that time. My son's laughing because he's like, you're a girlfriend? Yes.
And so whether it's good times, bad times, whether it's people all around us or no one around us, loneliness affects us so much. And that is when we turn over to Isaiah 7, the circumstances in which the children of Israel found themselves.
This was during the time in Israel's history where there was the northern kingdom named Israel and the southern kingdom named Judah.
Several generations before, they had split after Solomon's son, Rehoboam, had been just a terrible leader and the entire nation had split into the northern portion of Israel and the southern portion of Judah.
This was probably in the 600s, maybe late 700s BC.
And as the southern kingdom of Judah, as they did everything that they were about, if you know anything about the stories of the kings of Israel, the kings of Israel and of Judah were totally messed up.
They showed us over and over and over again, we do need a good king, but human kings are not it. And one of the worst of these was a man named Ahaz. Can you guys say Ahaz?
Okay. Ahaz was a descendant, a direct descendant of King David, but he was nothing like King David. Instead Ahaz, he worshiped false gods.
He made idols. He sacrificed and burned incense to them, and he even sacrificed some of his own children to the false gods of the nations around Judah. Ahaz led Judah away from Yahweh.
Israel and Syria invited Ahaz in the southern kingdom of Judah to unite against Assyria, which was in kind of the Mesopotamia area. So think about where present day Iran, Iraq is.
There was a huge world power with incredibly cruel and evil armies called the Assyrians. And the... Okay, so here's what I'm going to do.
Bryon, come here. Ms. Jen will have you come, and John will have you come.
Okay, I'm going to use you guys as my example. That way we don't get lost in the geography. Okay, Jen, I'm going to have you stand right there.
You're going to be the southern kingdom of Judah. Can everyone say Judah? Okay, Bryon, I'm going to have you stand right here, and you are the northern kingdom of Israel.
Can everyone say Israel? Okay, then John, I'm going to have you come up here, and John is going to be the country of Syria. Everyone say Syria.
Okay, so we've got Judah, Israel, and Syria. Assyria, Assyria, not Syria, not very helpful. Assyria is over here in Iran, Iraq, and they are taking over all sorts of places.
They've made mincemeat of Egypt. They've made mincemeat of places north of Syria. They've conquered all of this area in Mesopotamia, and so Syria and Israel talked to Judah, and they said, hey, would you gang up with us against Assyria?
We think that's kind of our only way of hope. That's the only way that we are going to survive as nations. But Ahaz said, I don't really like this plan.
I'm more scared of Assyria than I am of you two. And so Ahaz took gold and things from the Lord's Temple, from the palace in Judah, and even from the Judean nobles' estates, and he sent all of that stuff over to Assyria, asking for assistance.
Well, Assyria and Israel did not like that. And so they attacked Judah. You guys attacked Miss Je— No, just kidding.
Don't do it. So they attacked Judah. They killed 120,000 men, including Ahaz's son, and they kidnapped 200,000 women and children.
So this is not a good set of circumstances. It makes it even a little bit worse. Miss Laurie, I'm going to have you come up too.
You are going to be Philistia. Can everyone say Philistia? Okay.
Miss Laurie, you're going to stand right over here. And then Miss Judy, you're going to stand over on Jen's other side. Philistia.
And then Miss Judy is Edom. Can everyone say Edom? Okay.
These guys wanted to gang up against Assyria. Judah said no, so they attacked Judah. Then Philistia came, destroyed some of the southern cities in Judah, and Edom came, and they attacked Judah too.
So literally from every direction, from all of their nearby neighbors, Judah was getting demolished. Thank all of you for standing up here real quick so we can give a quick geography lesson. You may all be seated.
So all of this is happening. However, despite all of these attacks and losses, Ahaz didn't turn to the Lord. Instead, he thought that since Syria had defeated him in battle, he should worship and sacrifice to Syria's gods.
He took the designs of the altars in their capital city of Damascus, and he took even more riches from God's temple. He boarded up the temple and set up the Syrian altars in every corner of Jerusalem. He thought, okay, Syria beat us.
This couldn't possibly be because we have forsaken the Lord. No, it has to be because Syria's gods are more powerful than whatever gods I'm worshipping. And so he set up altars all across Jerusalem to these false gods.
This is where we find ourself then in Isaiah 7 and verse number 1. I'm going to read through probably about verse 9 and then just give you guys a quick, hey, here's what's happening.
This is during the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Aram's king Rezin and Israel's king Pecca son of Ramalia went to fight against Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.
So this is going a little better than the previous time that they had attacked.
When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, Aram is another name for Syria and Ephraim is another name for Israel, that Syria had occupied Israel, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of the people trembled like trees of a
forest shaking in the wind. But verse number three, Yahweh said to Isaiah, this is a prophet, this is someone that speaks on God's behalf to the people of Israel.
He says, go out with your son, Shir Jishab, I'm not going to make you guys say his name, but imagine naming your kid Shir Jishab. To meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool by the road to the launderer's field.
That means nothing to you or I, but they would have known Jerusalem at this point did not have its own water source during times of famine. You would have to get water from somewhere else and put it in this location.
And so here, as Ahaz knows, Syria and Israel are both coming against. They've been fighting against us. We might have to undergo another difficult siege.
We've got to make sure that we have enough water. And so here Isaiah and his son, they go to the king at the very spot where the king is wondering, are we going to make it? Are we going to survive as a nation?
In verse 4, here's what God said for Isaiah to say to the king of Judah. Calm down and be quiet. This is also great words for your kids.
Calm down and be quiet. Don't be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Ramaliah. For Aram along with Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah has plotted harm against you.
They say, let's go up against Judah, terrorize it and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel's son as king in it.
These nations wanted to terrorize the southern kingdom of Judah, and they wanted to install a puppet king who would be loyal to them and do what they would want. But verse 7, this is what Yahweh God says, it will not happen, it will not occur.
The chief city of Aram is Damascus. The chief of Damascus is Resin. Within 65 years, Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
The chief city of Ephraim is Samaria. The chief of Samaria is the son of Ramalia. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.
Here, God gives his promise. Ahaz and the children of Judah, they have not previously received this promise. They had not been told by the Lord, your enemies will fail in what they are trying to do in this moment.
But now God has given a promise. Salvation has been promised to the kingdom of Judah and to this king Ahaz. Which, I told you guys about all the terrible stuff that Ahaz did.
We would not think this is someone who has earned the right to salvation from the Lord.
But the truth over and over again that we see in scripture is that salvation, God's forgiveness of you, God's ability to work for you and to provide in your life is not based on your perfection, but on his. So we think this is good news.
Maybe there's some Thanksgiving or something that comes from Ahaz or from Judah as a result of this. But we see in verse number 10, then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz. Ask for a sign from Yahweh, your God.
It can be as deep as the grave or as high as heaven. Here's the offer put out.
I want to give you proof of what I'm talking about, that when I say God will save and deliver you, and within 65 years, actually, the northern kingdom of Israel, they're not even going to be a nation anymore. I want to give you proof of it.
So ask for any sort of sign, as low as the grave, as high as the heaven, the skies above. Let's bring it down to humanity real quick. What would you ask for?
God's given you this promise, and then now he's saying, I want to give you some proof that what I'm saying is legitimate. What would you ask God for as a sign?
Very unfortunately, in verse number 12, we read this, but Ahaz replied, I will not ask, I will not test Yahweh. He says, I'm not going to ask for any proof. Now, we could read this one of two ways, and verse 13 will tell us how we should take it.
We could take it, man, he has such great faith in God, such great confidence. He says, I don't need a sign, I totally believe you, Lord. Or it's, no, I don't actually believe that God can give me any signs, and so I don't trust.
I'm not gonna ask him for anything. Verse 13 tells us which of those options it truly was. Isaiah said, listen, house of David, because he has as a descendant of David, is it not enough for you to try the patience of men?
Will you also try the patience of my God?
He says, why in the world I'm trying to extend an olive branch, I'm extending salvation, I'm extending, like, I want to give you proof of what I'm saying, and you don't even want to have this relationship with me.
So verse 14, he says, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. You don't want to ask for proof? Fine, God will give you proof.
He says, the Lord himself will give you a sign. See the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Emmanuel. Here's the truth of this.
To the wicked, murderous, idolatrous King Ahaz, God extended salvation, not based on Ahaz's righteousness, but based on the word of God.
When Ahaz refused the relationship with God, God did not then back up and say, okay, well, no, no, no, I'm going to go back on my word. You won't receive salvation. You guys will be toast.
He says, no, Ahaz, you think that what you do is going to rescue your people. You have taken things from God's house and sent it to Assyria to say, God won't protect us. Assyria will protect us.
You thought that the gods of Assyria would protect you. And so you took things from the Lord's house. You boarded it up.
You said, no one's going to worship in the temple of the Lord anymore. And instead, everyone can worship the Syrian gods. He says, but I want you to realize, salvation isn't going to come from you or what you do or what you do for your people.
Salvation is going to come through the Lord. And as the proof of this, he says that there is a virgin that will conceive, have a son and name him Emmanuel. Now, commentaries tend to be split one of two ways on how we are to interpret this passage.
One mindset says, there is a woman at that point that is a virgin that would conceive and there would be a son named Emmanuel. You can even read through the rest of the verses.
Verse 15, By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he'll be in curds and honey. For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.
So, in kind of that near prophecy, you would have this promise to Ahaz that says, look at this woman over here.
By the time that she has a kid, these nations that you're so concerned about, they'll be completely off the map and you won't even have anything to worry about. They're going to be little kids.
I see in here we've got Tripp, we've got Amelia, we've got Evelyn. I don't think Tripp knows his right and his left yet. I don't think Evelyn knows.
Hey Evelyn, do you know your right and your left? Can you raise your right hand? Yeah, that's your left hand.
That's a horrible trick, because I'm on this side of her. That's messed up. I'm a bad dad.
So there's that viewpoint that says this is the direct thing that Isaiah is proclaiming.
There's another way to interpret the passage that would say this is ultimately, well, in both instances, ultimately, this is still talking about Jesus Christ, which as Matthew is writing Matthew 1, well, he didn't write it in chapters, but as he's
writing his gospel account, he recognized that as Isaiah wrote this account down, he wasn't just writing it detailing something that happened in the past. Isaiah was writing something that would occur in the future.
That is, during this point, you do have the redemption of Israel. Their salvation from their physical enemy of Syria and Israel.
But Isaiah and then Matthew also thought about this fact, that even if Israel survives the attacks of Syria and Israel, Assyria is still coming. And after them, Babylon was still coming, and Isaiah was no, he was not shocked by any of that.
You can read even through Isaiah 41 through 44, and you can see him detailing the fact that successive nations would eventually deal with the sin of Judah, they would be taken away into Babylon, and Cyrus the Persian would then allow Israel to go
back into the land. So as Isaiah is writing this, yes, there's an immediate thought of God will save you, and God will save you in such a way that even within a two, three, four year period, these nations you're so worried about, they'll be totally
off the map. We would see that later in world history, where Assyria came and absolutely destroyed Syria, and took away all of the captives and everything from the northern kingdom of Israel. But God says there's a bigger rescue that is needed.
There is an ultimate salvation that needs to occur.
And so, as the disciples of the Lord looked at the Old Testament through Christ-centered eyes, you can read in Luke, I believe it's 23 or 24, as Jesus tells them that whatever was written in the law, and the prophets, and the Psalms, all of it was
written about Jesus. And so, wherever we go in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we can see Jesus. And so here, salvation is promised to the southern kingdom of Judah.
And from the house of David and to the house of David, a promise of salvation is given. So, as Matthew writes then in Matthew 1, he says, you will call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
And as Matthew thinks about history, as he thinks about the Old Testament, he remembers Isaiah.
And when God's people were saved, not through the result of human conniving, not through the result of what Ahaz did, but because God brought the salvation. And so he says, Jesus is this ultimate promise of God with us. God with us.
And I also think it's so incredible that it was Ahaz's descendant Joseph, so like his, you know, 17 generations down, great grandson, that Ahaz's great grandkid was able to hear, Jesus is the one who will save his people from their sins.
That the promise that the house of David would not be destroyed was fulfilled. And so he could, in that moment, take such great comfort that God would keep his word.
So in closing today, want us to look at just a couple of things that God being with us, what does it mean for us? First I want us to see that God with us means that we are not abandoned.
You will not live one second of your life without God if he is your Lord and your Savior. You will never need to fear eternity at all if God is your Savior.
Because that same God who came down in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ is the same God that also said that he would give us a comforter, the one who would always be with us, that would remind us of everything that Jesus said, the one who
will never leave us or forsake us. And so we can know always, if you have put your faith and trust in Christ as your savior, you can know that God is always with you. That's his word. That's his promise.
And you can take that to the bank. In the moments that you feel alone, that no one understands, that no one feels the hurt that you're feeling, realize that your feelings are lying to you. And Jesus is one breath away.
God with us means we are not abandoned. Run to the God who loves you over and over and over again. Spend time with him.
Pray to him. Spend time in his word. And be with his body, the church.
And in each of those moments, you can be able to feel and hear and see that God is actually with you. We don't come to church because we need to check, you know, a list of things to do.
We come to church because when I'm here, I truly, genuinely believe from the heart that the Holy Spirit of God is here, that he resides within all of those that have placed their faith in Christ.
And so when I talk to Mary, or when I talk to April, or when I talk to Martha, or when I talk to Bob, I am not just conversing with a human, but the Holy Spirit of God has something that he wants to say to me.
He has something that he wants me to grow in or to be comforted by, and he has people that I need to be talking to so that they can receive the comfort of the Lord. So don't believe that you are abandoned by God.
And in times when you feel abandoned, run back to where you know God is speaking to you. Run back to Scripture. He will always speak to you there.
Run to prayer. You can always find him available there. He's never busy.
You're never going to get a call rejected when you call on the Lord. And when you come to his church, you can look around and know, OK, whether I'm young or old, whether I'm a man or a woman, God has worked in all of these people's lives.
And so I believe that he is there for me even now.
Secondly, there, God with us means that we are invited to participate. It's God with us. I think of how Ahaz behaved in this passage.
You don't honor God by asking nothing from God. You honor God by living a life that would be utterly foolish if his word were not true. You were called to participate with God.
When he says, I want you to pray, I want you to ask for your daily bread, I want you to ask that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven, we are invited to participate. You don't honor God by saying, Ah, that's too small.
I'm not going to pray for it. I was laughing earlier today. Last night, there was one random Christmas decoration that we could not find anywhere.
And I was stressing about it. And I was like, Oh, man, what in the world? And I prayed with the music team last night, Lord, would you please help us to find this lost baby Jesus?
And once you know it, this morning, I heard exactly where that thing was. And I was able to say, man, Lord, thank you for answering this prayer. And it was a stupid prayer request.
I felt stupid praying it. Like, does God really care about this random item? He might not have cared about the item, but he cared about me.
And the same is true for you. What are you refusing to bring God into? That you say, this is too small, this is too little, this is maybe too big of an ask.
There's no way God can actually do this. Whatever it is, realize God with us means that he is inviting us to participate with him. Think about the Garden of Eden.
God could have named all of the animals himself. He could have made all of the plants just perfectly idyllic, but he called on Adam to work until the ground. He called on Adam to name the animals.
God has always desired a partnership. It's even as we think about international missions and the Lottie Moon offering, God could just send an angel that would speak to all the people in the world, and there would be no use for us.
But he called us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that he commanded. So God wants to participate with us. Want to challenge you?
Participate in church. If all you can do at this season of your life is sit in a seat, then sit in that seat to his glory and his praise. If you can do more than sit in a seat, you've got no excuse.
The church is God's first priority. The church is what Jesus died for. So love the church, give to the church, sing while you're in church, serve others within the church, invite people to church, beautify the church.
So many more things. Participate in what God is doing. Participate in God's work of redemption by evangelizing, by living a distinctly Christian life.
That there's something different about you, not because you're just a weirdo, but because you have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you.
And so the things that you used to say, you don't say those anymore, and the attitudes you used to have, you don't have those anymore, and maybe some of the ways that you used to treat people, you don't treat them that way anymore, because you have
been made new. Love people like Jesus did.
God with us means God will save and provide. He didn't say the best human with us. He, though Jesus certainly is the best human, he didn't say some king with us, he said God with us.
And God with us means God will save and provide. For your life, believe in God's goodness and his provision to meet all of your needs.
Don't be like Fearful Ahaz, who put all of his hope into Assyria, who put all of his hope into the Syrian gods, or the gods of the nations around him that even sacrificed his own children to.
No, my friend, don't put your faith for salvation or provision in anything else. Don't put it in any other person. Don't put it in any religious action.
Don't put it into any, even with provision in mind. Don't think, my provision comes from my job. My provision comes from my 401k.
My provision comes from my social security. No, my friend, your provision ultimately comes from the Lord.
Now, he might use some of those other things to provide provision for you, but realize that you or some other person are not the source of what God has given to you. They are merely the conduit through which God gives his provision to you.
With God saving and providing, the truth is you can't save yourself. You can't save your loved ones. You can't save anyone in your circles.
Only God can save, but he has promised to save whoever comes. What do you think today that in your life you need to save or provide for? Are you trusting God, or are you trusting in some other person or some thing or some program?
I got to read a sermon even last night from an 18th century preacher, and he said this, Believe in God. God is near you. Throw yourself fearlessly upon him.
The day may come when all that is human, man and woman, will fall off from you, as they did from him. Let his strength be yours. Be independent of them all now.
The Father is with you. Look to him, and he will save you. Today, if you don't know Christ is your Savior, don't rely on your good works.
Don't rely on maybe a baptism that you had as a kid. Don't rely on you being better than some other person in order to get you to heaven. No, turn to Jesus Christ.
And if you ask him to forgive you of your sin, he will. If you ask him to be your Lord, he will be that for you. God alone will save and provide.
And then lastly, I see God with us means that life is so tough that we need him. If it could have been some other option other than the son of God giving his life on the cross, certainly God would have done it.
But the truth is that this life is so tough, so filled with evil, so filled with wrong on the part of others and on our part, that we are in desperate need of God. So don't find satisfaction in our broken world and its pleasures.
God's presence, not earthly ease or joys should be our constant desire.
We get distracted and we think that by sacrificing to this God, we think that by devoting all of our time or attention to this other nation other than the kingdom of heaven or through putting our belief in some other God or what worked for someone
else, that we neglect to realize that God wants a relationship with us. He is wanting us to pray to him and to love him.
If God himself needed to come to earth to die in our place, if God himself needs to live inside of you and I in the person of the Holy Spirit, then what truly sorry state are we in?
If God himself has to move in, then that means we were in incredible trouble. We are blind to our faults. We are powerless against our sins, except when we pay attention to God's indwelling presence and his living word.
How much of your day, your week or your month do you live apart from acknowledging God's presence, his wisdom and his changes for who you are? Don't be satisfied with what this world can offer.
Instead, turn over and over and over again to the God who is with you, who wants to grow and change and work in you. Today, God wants to have a daily interactive relationship with you.
So this week, spend time in his work, spend time with his people, spend time in prayer to God. Realize that if God is with you, he's not a begrudging add-on. He is thrilled to be with you.
God's not upset that he lives inside of you. He is thrilled. You were the reason Christ came.
So be thrilled that he is there. He can motivate you towards love, towards holiness, towards forgiveness. So let him motivate you towards those.
Scripture would say, don't quench the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption. If you don't know Jesus, I would love to talk with you today or any of our elders would love to or if you came with a friend or someone.
Or I could set up a time with you this week where we could meet up and talk about what it would look like for you to give your life to Jesus.
Can I tell you this saving God, the God with us, he is not willing that anyone would perish, that they would die in their sins. Instead, he wants everyone to come to repentance. Today, God is with us.
Will you choose to recognize his presence? Will you live with him? Will you live for him?
Will you realize that your salvation doesn't come from any other source other than the source of Jesus Christ? We're going to pray together. The music team is going to come up during this time.
We're going to sing a song, Jesus' name above all names. However, the Lord has spoken to you today, I encourage you to respond in obedience to him. If there's a sin that you need to repent of, I encourage you to do so.
If there's some action that the Lord has been leading you to take that you've been hesitant to, press forward in faith. God, the Savior, God, the Provider, is the same today as he was back in Isaiah 7.
And his promises to us are promises of joy, of love, of peace, of long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and self-control. And you can take God at his word. Let's pray together.
