Emmanuel, God with Us
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Introduction
Introduction
How would your life change if you were convinced that God was with you?
What would you do differently?
What difference would it make in your daily routine?
How would it affect your conversations with others?
Would the focus of your life change?
As Christians we are taught that God is everywhere. Sometimes it seems that Christians believe that, but only in an abstract way. God is everywhere. God is with me everywhere I go. God meets with us at church. But as we live our daily lives I wonder if we live our lives like God is with us everywhere we go.
God has always been and he has always existed everywhere, but when Jesus was born to us in a manger some 2000 years ago God came to mankind in a way that God had never come to humanity. He came in the flesh, to live among us, to be present with us, and so that he could give his life for us.
Some of us might even wish we could have been at Bethlehem that night when Christ was born. After all, can you imagine being able to be in the same room with the Son of God? Boy, would our lives ever be different if God was with us; present with us in the very place that we are.
The thing about it is that God is with us in a very real way. God is as present with us right now, in this very place, as he was with Joseph and Mary and the Shepherds that first Christmas morning in Bethlehem. He is as present with us right now as he was with the wise men in the house where the star had come to rest.
The important thing for us to remember is that God’s birth was not the first time he was present with mankind and it was not the last. In fact, the entire purpose for Jesus being present with Joseph, Mary, the Shepherd’s, and the wise men was so that we could forever be in His presence through all eternity.
I. The Promise of God’s Presence
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
In thy presence is fulness of joy;
At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
II. The Purpose of God’s Presence
II. God’s Presence
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
II. Christ was present with Israel
III. The Power of God’s Presence
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 18:20
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Does the Presence of God Change Your Commitment
I. God’s Presence Affected the Zeal of the Shepherd’s. -
II. God’s Presence
Psalm 139:7