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Emmanuel // Emmanuel Prophecied // Isaiah 7:1-14 // Pastor Josh Evans

Union Grove Baptist Church / Pastor Josh Evans
The Truth Network Radio
January 7, 2025 9:29 am

Emmanuel // Emmanuel Prophecied // Isaiah 7:1-14 // Pastor Josh Evans

Union Grove Baptist Church / Pastor Josh Evans

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January 7, 2025 9:29 am

Pastor Josh begins his new Christmas series entitled Emmanuel. He starts with a prophecy that happened over 700 years before Jesus' birth. One day all wrong will be made right through the birth of Jesus.

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Amen. Amen.

You can have a seat here today and we'll listen. Can we say Merry Christmas? Is it that time, right?

I mean, come on. Like, we are singing full-fledged Christmas music and it is that time. I always joke because how many of you are just Christmas music people even before Thanksgiving? You just don't care and that's you.

Raise your hand, okay? And how many of you are like not one thing Christmas until after Thanksgiving? Where you at on that? And so I know some of you are that and so I'm not going to tell you where we are because you're going to tune out everything I say from this point forward and so we don't want to do that but no, it is definitely Christmas time because last Sunday, that Sunday after Thanksgiving, you're kind of in limbo. You're not sure if you're still doing Thanksgiving or if you're kind of moving forward and so this week though, we're like we are moving forward. So let me say Merry Christmas. In fact, look to your neighbor and say Merry Christmas.

Right now, it is okay and Merry, Merry Christmas here today. Well listen, it is good to see you today and I do want to mention to all of our guests, we have guests in both of our services each week and we're so grateful for you and if you are a guest, maybe your first time ever here at Union Grove or the first time in a long time, let me echo what Pastor David said earlier. Make sure you take one of those new here cards and stop by our Welcome Center and we would love to get a free gift in your hands and love to be able to connect better with you. Well listen, with the season in mind, just before we jump into our series here today, I wanted to mention just a couple of things to our church. Statistically, they say that around Christmas time and around Easter, those are kind of the two highest days that people might say yes to an invitation to church or some spiritual event of some sort and so we want to kind of leverage our church during this time of year to really take advantage of that and so many of you do such a good job throughout the year inviting people to church, inviting them to think so that they can hear the gospel and we want to really take advantage this Christmas season with inviting people and so I want to mention two specific things. Usually we take our announcement times to spend some time on this.

I wanted, because I think it's so important, I wanted to mention it now. Two specific things that we would love for you to leverage your influence into the community and in your neighborhoods and at your workplaces and your schools that you would invite people to be a part of. The first is a movie night that we are going to offer next Saturday evening and you say, is that a good thing to invite people to?

It is and here's why. We do a few things throughout the year. One of those is like a trunk or tree, that kind of thing and this is kind of along those same lines where we try to really reach out into our community in ways that, you know, somebody might not be ready to come to a church service and things like that but they might say yes to a movie night. They might say yes to coming to trunk or treat or something like that and so the movie night is an opportunity that I would love for you if you have somebody maybe in your family that says I am never going seven foot in a church or if you have somebody in your neighborhood or something like that that really just isn't ready for that church invitation, this might be a good in route for you to invite them to come to this. It's going to be held in our gym next Saturday evening at 5 30 and everybody's invite is free.

There'll be free popcorn, free hot chocolate. We are going to be showing the holiday classic, the movie The Grinch and many of you have probably seen that before and just a fun fun kids movie and an adult movie. Let's just be honest, it's fun and so this is just a way for you to invite somebody to be a part of that. The second thing that I would love for you to invite people to is our family Christmas service and we are super excited about this.

This is something that we started a few years ago. We're going to sing songs by candlelight. There will be a message, a gospel message proclaimed at this event. So this is something that at our movie night we're going to push everybody. Everybody's going to get an invite to this so that they can hopefully come and hear the gospel and see their life changed if they're not a Christian and so but this is going to be a fun thing. It's going to be a big service so we'd love to pack this place out.

I want you to bring somebody to be a part of this if at all possible. Pastor Grady is going to be reading the Christmas story to the kids. Kids Choir is going to be singing that night. It's just going to be a great night. We'll be singing a lot of good Christmas carols and after that we'll have a winter wonderland outside which is exciting and who knows maybe we'll have a real winter land. Wouldn't that be awesome and so but we'll be doing all sorts of fun things. Some s'mores, Christmas cookies and a lot of fun things afterwards. This is for all of you. It's free to attend for everybody.

All the extra events afterwards is as well and these are opportunities. Church, listen to me. These are opportunities that we have to leverage our influence and invite people to be a part of these things and so I'll tell you this. I say this all the time jokingly is that for me you know as a pastor I come to work every single day and I work around like church people, Union Grove people, right? That's the people I'm around all the time. The real influencers in our community isn't just the pastors.

It's really you. It's you going into your neighborhood, your neighbors, going into your workplaces, your schools and you inviting people to come be a part of what God wants to do in their life and in our church and in our community. So let me encourage you to invite people to be a part of those things. Well listen we are beginning a brand new series today that's going to take us through Christmas and it is the the name of the series is Emmanuel. I am super excited about this series for a number of reasons just because I love Christmas for one and I love any time we can talk about Christmas and you get a chance to talk about Christmas. I'm excited about it but more importantly than that the reason I'm excited about this series is because this is my favorite name of God in scripture. Now we all probably have a favorite name of God that we look at. In fact if you have attended our Wednesday night adult bible study in here we came through a series not too long ago where we looked through the names of God and some of those might stick out you know because of an experience that you've had that the Lord really spoke into your life and you say hey this is my favorite name of God like an example Jehovah Jireh or something like that and we all have a favorite name of God but through the years this has become my personal favorite name of God and so when I was praying through what we could talk around or talk about this Christmas season I wanted to really just share some things that I have learned about this name of God and why this is important to each one of us. Now I do want to say by way of introduction to you if you're a a church person and you've been in church your entire life that's my story and if that's your story how many of you are like that you're a church day you're born you know well maybe not the day you're born but you know what I'm saying like right right away my parents probably have my parents probably had me in the nursery what's that kind of time frame like six weeks is that what parents do I don't know some take longer whatever my parents were die-hard church goers and so they had me in there early and I've been around church I've been around the gospel I've been around the Christmas story my entire life and so I don't know anything else from that and that's all that I know and perhaps that's your story and you say that's all that I know and here's what I'll tell you because you're probably like me and we can relate to one another with this is that sometimes the Christmas story can become routine can it not sometimes that the Christmas story and the songs that we sing and and just the different passages of scripture that we speak from around this time of year a lot of times it can just become routine something that we've heard a thousand times we know the story we know what the preacher is going to be preaching on you know in the month of December and it is what it is and so my challenges to you and my intent really with this series is this is that if you're a church person and and you've been in church your entire life that this series we could get a fresh glimpse of who Jesus is and that we could first of all behold him okay behold him in fact if you look even in the new testament anytime the angel appeared to to whether it be you know the shepherds or joseph or mary he always came and he really told him to do two things he would say fear not but then he would say behold him the word behold means to see him to to get a fresh glimpse of him to recognize him and that's really my prayer and so over these next few weeks I hope that you will behold him and then there's a second group of you that perhaps you've never trusted Jesus as your savior you're uh you're an unbeliever and you just can't can't get behind this story that that you hear about each and every year you maybe are trusting in your own good works and you've never trusted in what Jesus has done for you and that's you here's my challenges to you is I want you to behold but also to believe him to believe what Jesus came to do and understand why he came to do it with that in mind if you have your bible if you would join me and go to Isaiah chapter number seven Isaiah chapter number seven now um this is a um a a story I want to give you a little bit of background we're not going to read uh all of chapter number seven but this is super important to the name Immanuel so that you can understand the the prophetic meaning from here in Isaiah chapter number seven now in Isaiah chapter number seven uh we find ourselves at a time where the kingdom had been split now uh if you don't aren't familiar with that in fact recently we went through the series through Nehemiah and you know and the you know the kingdom split and all that kind of stuff and we learned a little bit about that well this is after Solomon you know had sinned and part of the judgment that they were having is that Israel and Judah would be split they were once together in 12 tribes of Israel right and now Israel is the 10 northern tribes and Judah is the two southern tribes and Judah was the home to one of the most spiritual places that we did look at in Nehemiah Jerusalem that was you know in Judah and so what was happening here is in verse number one of chapter seven we find that Isaiah comes onto the scene and Isaiah was a prophet sent by God to deliver God's message to his people now we know prophets were always sent by God to deliver a message sometimes that message was judgment hey judgment is coming if you do not repent sometimes the message was just hey you better repent and other times the message was hey listen one day something's gonna happen and it's gonna provide hope for them well Isaiah comes onto the scene during the reign of three specific kings that is really important to the series and what we're going to look at here today and so the first king we find in verse number one was a man by the name of Ahaz Ahaz was the king of Judah he was a wicked king and he did not do that which was right in the sight of God in fact he allowed the God's people to worship other idols and he allowed other idols to come in in fact he did something as bad as you could ever imagine he took the temple Solomon's temple and he actually converted areas in the temple that they could worship other other gods he got that from Assyria when he allied with them around the same time that this is happening and so here's what I'll tell you he was a wicked king he even sacrificed his son to a false god Molech and so Ahaz was a bad bad dude and he didn't care anything about about God and so Isaiah comes onto the scene when Ahaz was king of Judah but also Rezin was also the king of Syria and Pekah was the son or was the king of of Israel so you had Ahaz king of Judah and then you had Pekah which was the scene or the king of Israel and Rezin which was the king of of Syria and what was happening here is that there was a massive empire that was starting to take over all the different countries all the cities and they were coming in and they were just capturing and they were building this massive empire it was the empire that we know as Assyria now I want to now don't confuse that with Syria Syria and Assyria different places okay and so Assyria was coming through and they were growing this massive massive empire and they were overtaking all of these different other smaller empires well here Israel they got fearful and so the king of Israel Pekah he gets really nervous because he thinks that you know Assyria is going to come in and capture Israel now this was a problem and you say why is that why is it wrong to be fearful about these things here's why is because God was supposed to be providing the protection for Israel in other words all the protection that they needed was found in in God and so they were were to look to him and trust in him to find all the protection that they needed and they didn't need to go team up with anybody else and ally themselves with anybody else because everything that they needed for protection was found in in God well the problem was they were not walking with God so instead of trusting him what Israel did when they were afraid of Assyria coming in to attack them they teamed up and allied themselves with Syria and that is the king Raisin that we learn about here in Isaiah chapter number seven so you have Israel and Syria teaming up with one another and they wanted to build an empire that they could overtake Assyria so they went down to Judah and they said Judah Ahaz we want you to team up with us so that we can build this big empire so that when Assyria comes in to attack us we can take them on because we have as big of an army as them well Ahaz he said nope I'm good I'm not going to team up with you guys or anything like that and so what he does he declined it and so now Israel and Syria they are mad that he declined their offer so they decide we're going to come in and we're going to invade Judah we're going to invade Judah and we're going to overtake them so that they we're going to kill Ahaz so that they can appoint a new king that would go along with our plan so that we can ally ourselves together so that we can defeat this massive empire that is building and growing called Assyria so it's in those moments Judah is afraid of what is going to happen Judah is afraid of Israel and Syria coming in to attack and so Judah is afraid of its future Judah is uncertain about what is going to happen Judah is unstable Judah is shaken with with doubt and with fear it is in those moments those different emotions that they have that are fearful and doubtful about what the future is going to look like it is in those moments that God raises up a man by the name of Isaiah to deliver a message to Ahaz during this moment in verse number 11 you look at it with verse number seven rather you see this here's what God says through the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz he says thus saith the Lord God it shall not stand neither shall it come to pass so here's what he's saying God told Isaiah hey go deliver this message to Ahaz because he's fearful he's doubting uh you know Judah's worried and they're uncertain about different things and what the future is going to look like so God says Isaiah here's what you need to go tell them it shall not stand neither shall it come to pass in other words this invasion that Syria and that Israel is going to come in and try to invade Judah here's what it's not going to be successful they're not going to win they're not going to come in and overtake you in fact if you don't believe me you can get a a sign and and he says that uh in verse number 11 he says listen Isaiah's talking to Ahaz and he's delivering a message from God and he tells Ahaz this ask thee a sign of the Lord thy Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above here's what what Isaiah is saying to to Ahaz Ahaz scared to death right he wants answers he's uncertain about his future he doesn't know what's going to happen and he's fearful and in the midst of this here comes this man Isaiah a prophet and he says hey listen Ahaz they're not going to be successful this is from God they're not going to be successful and in fact if you still can't believe the one true God of Israel you can ask him a sign and it can be whatever sign you want to ask him there is no limit to the sign that you ask of him it can be either in the depth or in the height it does not matter now if if I was Ahaz I would want to sign wouldn't you if you were fearful and uncertain about the future wouldn't you want to sign I know I would have you ever been in a situation where you have to make a tough decision with your life perhaps you're choosing a career field to go in or perhaps you're choosing a college to go to attend or perhaps you're kind of thinking should I change this job and go take this other job should I retire whatever should I move should I uproot my family and take them wherever I don't know and so when we get you know those difficult questions that we don't know the answer of we sometimes will say things like I just wish that the Lord would make it really clear to us right and we joke about it and we say things like man I wish he would give me like a letter in the mail telling me exactly what I'm supposed to do that when I go to the beach I hope that an airplane comes by with this banner that says choose this college right there's your your sign if you would well if we were in Ahaz's shoes we would have said man I want to sign I want it to be clear what is going to happen but remember what I said earlier Ahaz was not a godly king Ahaz didn't care one thing about God and he was doing everything opposite of what God wanted him to do and commanded him to do and because of this he didn't want no part in what God had to say or what God wanted to to to do and so look at what he says here in verse number 12 but Ahaz said I will not ask neither will I tempt the Lord in other words he's like listen I don't need what God wants to say I don't care what God wants to say so Isaiah is saying man I got a message from God so God's going to give you a sign anyway isn't that just like the God that we serve sometimes is we don't really care what he has to say but he's like hey I'm going to say it anyway and that's what we get here and in verse number 14 Isaiah delivers the sign that Ahaz and that all of the world would need and want to hear and here it is verse number 14 he says therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel you see I wanted to give you a little bit of context so that you can understand when the name of Immanuel was first mentioned think about the setting Ahaz was fearful living in sin he was doubtful he had no hope and he was uncertain about his future and uncertain about Judah's future and here comes the prophet Isaiah with a message from God that says one day one day a baby is going to be born of a virgin and one day that baby we're going to call him Immanuel and he is going to deliver you from everything that you are fearful of in fact you could say that Isaiah's message to Ahaz was a direct rebuke directly to Ahaz you can see that because this is that Immanuel means God with us and with Immanuel meaning God with us Isaiah from God was directly rebuking Ahaz in other words saying this is that listen Ahaz here's your problem if you recognize that God is with you you have nothing you have nothing else to fear like you're fearing Israel and in Syria and you're fearful of your future and you're fearful of your protection and what I want you to understand is that the answer to your problem Ahaz is found in God because if God is with you you have nothing else to fear but the problem is is that Ahaz his issue was this is he was only looking for deliverance from an invading army wasn't he like all he cared about was just to get out of the situation that he was he was in and by the way before we hate on him sometimes we're the same way right like you pray to God and your only motive is God get me out of the mess that a lot of times we messed up and got ourselves into in the first place right and that's our prayer and that's our desire we're looking for deliverance from the invading army of life like Ahaz and that's all we cared about but here's the thing is God's sign that he gave through the prophet Isaiah was actually not just deliverance from an invading army it was a promise of ultimate deliverance ultimate deliverance from their greatest problem and that was the problem of sin that they had that they could not fix in and of themselves you see here Emmanuel means God with us this prophecy here in Isaiah it was prophesied by Isaiah 800 years before Jesus was born 800 years before Jesus was born Isaiah says that behold one day a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel Emmanuel is a Hebrew name and it's actually made up of two Hebrew words first you have Immanu which literally means with us combined with what you find at the end of Immanuel is the name El which means the mighty God and so you can that's where we get the translation Immanuel Imahu El really means God with us and here's what I want you to understand Immanuel God with us mattered not just for Ahaz but it matters for you and here's why just like Judah we were born into this world without hope right we had no we had no hope and and the scripture says that we were born into this world as sinners Ephesians chapter 2 says that you were dead in your trespasses and in your sins that means that you were completely dead you weren't just drowning in your sin trying to keep your head above water you were completely submerged at the bottom of the sea dead lifeless breathless at the bottom of the sea because of your your sin you had absolutely no hope and you had no certainty about your your future just like these different emotions that Ahaz and Judah felt we feel in our life and here's why this name of God is so important and this is really the big idea that I want you to dwell upon and and meditate upon today and also over the next several weeks as we approach Christmas is this Immanuel is the answer to our greatest need Immanuel is the answer to our greatest need and and this idea is the reason why the name Immanuel is my favorite name in scripture and I'm going to tell you why is because we all have a need that is the exact same in fact every single person on the face of the planet has the exact same need it is our greatest need and Immanuel is the answer in fact Immanuel is the only answer to solve the greatest need that every single one of us have and the greatest need that we have is really the story of the entire Bible wrapped up in in one it's this in Genesis chapter number one you know this is when God created the world God created mankind with a very specific purpose in fact every single one of you have the same purpose not just to make money it's not just to get a good job it's not just to become highly educated it's not just to even raise a family now there's nothing wrong with any of those things those things are great things and I think they're an awesome awesome thing that God did create for us but here's the thing your greatest purpose your most important purpose we all have the same one here's what it was we were created to have a relationship with him think about that your purpose not just be a good student you should be a good student that's that's not your major purpose your purpose isn't just to go to work you know work hard that's a good thing and a noble thing to do that's not your greatest purpose your purpose is not just to make a lot of money here on this earth that's a good thing and I hope that you do okay but here's what I'll tell you it's not your greatest purpose your purpose is not just to raise a beautiful family and listen I hope that you do but that's not your greatest purpose you see every single one of us mankind was created so that we could have a relationship with God that God could like he did Adam and Eve walk and talk with them you see that's the greatest purpose that any of us have and so so that's our purpose and so what you say that Emmanuel's are the answer to our greatest need what do you mean by that here's the problem is that in Genesis chapter number three we know the story is that sin entered into the world you know Adam and Eve they sinned and and when sin entered into the world what happened was that original design you see God designed man so that man could walk and talk with him that was his perfect original design and in chapter three sin entered into the world God's design had been broken now let me be very clear not because God did anything wrong but because mankind disobeyed God's commandments and because of that sin relationship with an almighty God was completely broken and because of that sin entered into every single one of us every single one of us are sinners and we were all born into this world of of sin and here's the problem is that we cannot by ourselves reconcile our relationship back with God you see God's original design is your purpose to have a relationship with him so that he can walk with you so that he can talk with you and you can know God and have a relationship with him but because of your sin and my sin that relationship has been broken it has been broken and so now your greatest need in life your greatest need in life is to restore your life back to his original design your greatest need in life your purpose in life is to restore your life back into a relationship with him so that you can know God so that you could walk with God and so that you can talk with God but the problem is is that if that is our greatest need how in the world do we fix it what do we do to reconcile ourselves back to his original design well listen there's nothing that you can do in and of yourself to reconcile it and that's pretty and that's pretty discouraging isn't it if that's where the story ended that would be a terrible ending to the story right that we can do nothing to reconcile ourselves back to God's original design there's not enough good works that you can do to reconcile yourself so that you can know God there's not enough good deeds that you could do there's not enough money that you can give there's not enough kind good things that you could ever do to ever get into a relationship with him again by yourself and here's what I want you to know because of your sin and because of my sin God had every right to leave us there this is what I don't think we get about God is that God had every right to leave you in your sin God had every right to leave you in your sin he didn't have to come to rescue you he didn't and and here's the thing because you sinned and I sinned we're the ones in the wrong he didn't do anything wrong we did we're the ones that violated his commandments it's like it's like with your kids right is when your kids violate a command or or something that you said right and you had a consequence for it that like in our household here's the biggest consequence that we could have it's different from my daughter and uh and my son if I really want to get my son's attention here's what I need to take away video games right if I if like he's in trouble it's this it's like hey if you don't do as I say we're going to take away your video games for the entire week that's like the worst punishment that he could ever have you would think man the world is falling apart if his playstation's not there right that's my son here's my daughter she's 13 and so if she doesn't obey something that I said or do a chore or whatever that kind of thing uh here's what it is I will take your phone away for the whole week that's like the worst thing in the world for a 13 year old I don't get it and so but it is what it is so they have these punishments it's this is that when they do wrong and I take something away from them they're like why would you do this and here's what I'll say I have every right because they did wrong and they violated a a direct order that I gave as the dad they I have every right to withhold something from them right because I'm their dad here's what I want you to know about our almighty God he created us and we're the ones that broke the commandments he had every right to leave us in the midst of our sin because that is what we deserve because we did wrong but aren't you thankful the story doesn't end there that's not where the story ends in fact that's what Isaiah is trying to tell Ahaz that's what Isaiah is prophesying to the nation of Judah he's saying this is that because of your sin God had every right to leave you and let you get completely overtaken Judah you have done evil in the sight of God and because of that God should let you go into captivity and they would eventually but he's saying this is that one day one day 800 years after what I'm telling you today by the way 800 years later a baby is going to be born and this baby we are going to call Immanuel God with us and he is going to be the answer to your greatest need that you have in life it is through that baby that God is going to restore you and I back into a relationship with him it is God with us you see he had every right to leave you in your sin but aren't you thankful that God looked at you in the midst of your sin and even though you were the one rejecting him he still said I am coming to you I am coming to you and that is what Immanuel means that is what Immanuel means God with us what you could not do by yourself that's to reconcile you back to a holy God he did all of that for you aren't you thankful for that you see that's why Christmas that's what Christmas is that's what we get to celebrate that's why I want you to know that this name of God it might not be your favorite and you might have a situation in your life where you know you got another name of God which is awesome and there are so many great names of God but this name of God I hope it becomes one of your you know top names of God that you can study it's because Immanuel God with us it is the answer and the solution to the greatest need that every single one of us have we were designed to have a relationship with God and because of our sin we can't so God loved us enough that he sent Jesus to live a perfectly to live a perfect life and to die the death that you deserve so that you through trusting in what he did on the cross for you can now be reconciled back into that relationship with God that he created you to have in the beginning that's the purpose that's why Immanuel God with us so you say what is the next step here's what it is you know many of you identified with me in my story I've been in church my whole life I've heard the Christmas story a thousand times I could quote Luke chapter 2 probably before I was eight years old you know we had to memorize it in my Christian school that I went to I know this story we celebrate it as a family on Christmas morning we read Luke 2 every single year and and all I can care about as a kid is waiting to open the gifts and hoping my dad reads really fast you know and stuff like that and as I've gotten older you know you're kind of like we get so off track sometimes around this time of the year where we focus on the music or we focus on the lights and we focus on the traditions and we focus on the gifts and all and let me just tell you this those things are all good and we do those things as well I'm not at all saying those things are wrong but here's what I want you to know about this season is that your next step if you're a church person here's what your next step is and here's what I want to do this season more than ever before I want to behold him I want to behold him I want to see him for who he is I want to get a fresh glimpse of who he is and why we celebrate Christmas is so that he could come to us so that you and I could now have access to him Emmanuel God with us so I want you to behold him but then I want to talk just briefly to those who don't know Jesus you're in here today and you say this Christmas story thing perhaps you're skeptical about it you don't really believe it and you doubt it and different things like that here's what I want you to know it it's wild it's far-fetched trust me I get it that's why it takes faith to believe in what God has done for you and for me but here's what I want you to do I want you to behold to see it but I want you this season to believe it to believe it you see all you have to do it's like gifts on Christmas right you wake up on Christmas morning and you give gifts and and I don't tell my son on Christmas morning hey you got to do 10 chores before you can open that gift right stuff I might this year that'd be fun and so but we don't do that why because it's a gift it's a gift he's gonna receive this all I'm asking you to do is receive the gift that I'm offering you right well this is the gift of eternal life this is the gift of having a relationship with your creator it's the gift that you can be reconciled back into a relationship with him the way he originally designed back in Genesis 1 and 2 it's a gift for you and all you have to do is accept the gift you say what do I have to do just accept it and believe it believe it believe in what Jesus has done for you and believe the Christmas story that God loved you enough that he didn't want to keep you in your sin and he didn't want heaven without you so he sent Jesus the son of God God the son down to this earth to do what you could never do for yourself to live a perfect life you see that's the thing that we have to understand the only way we can be reconciled back to God is through living a holy perfect life without sin and here's what I'll tell you none of us can do that none of us can reach the standard of God none of us could live a life worthy of God and having a relationship with God so he had to send the only one that could the only one that was worthy and is worthy and that is God the son God in the flesh so he sent him and he dwelt among us he lived the perfect life that you could never live and then just to double down on everything he paid the penalty for you he paid your penalty in full and so this season here's what I want you to know Emmanuel God with us behold him and if you've never believed believe him today you see Emmanuel our greatest need in life is solved the solution is found through Emmanuel God with us can you bow your heads with me today I'm going to invite everybody at this time if you would just to stand with me heads bowed hearts lifted in prayer nobody's looking around this is what we call it our church a invitation or a response time it is an invitation to respond to the word that we just heard proclaimed Emmanuel God with us we sang about this song today and Laurie led the choir in such a phenomenal song about this Emmanuel our God has come close the world needs to know this good news we have to share what good news is it wow if you're in here today and you say pastor I'm a church person I'm a Christian I'm a follower of Jesus but this year I want to behold him I want to see him in a fresh light I want to not just get so wrapped up and gifts and lights and traditions and school being out and all the good things that we get to enjoy but I want to really behold him and I want that to be my testimony here today would you slip up your hand high enough for me to say it yes I see hands going up throughout the place that's my prayer that's my prayer I want to behold him every single day not just around Christmas but throughout the year wake up every morning and behold him I want to see him for who he is but if you're in here today and you say pastor I don't know Jesus as my savior maybe you're trusting in your own works trusting in something other than what Jesus has done for you or maybe you're just struggling to believe it and you say that's where I'm at here today would you slip up your hand high enough for me to see it if you don't know Jesus as your savior would you just be honest before God here today if that's you and maybe you're scared to raise your hand here's what I'm praying for you is this I want you to believe him believe that Jesus came to do what he came to do and believe Jesus is who he says he is and it's by believing in him that you can be reconciled back to a relationship with God forever this altar is open you have time to respond if you need anything you need to pray for or perhaps if you're a Christian and you want to just kneel where you are and kneel at this altar and just ask him to keep our focus fixed upon him that we can behold him for who he is this altar is going to be open this invitation is open for you this morning
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-07 10:27:59 / 2025-01-07 10:43:13 / 15

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