Do you trust God?

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We are in our second week of our Series Christmas Isn’t Cancelled. Last we look at waiting and hope in this Christmas time. We talked about how Christ can give us hope in a dark world.
This time of year reminds us that God is at work even in the struggle and beautiful time of life. Despite difficult circumstances, Christmas isn’t, and will never be, cancelled.
This week we will be in Isaiah 7:1-17 if you have your bible go head and turn there or follow along on the screen in a few minutes.
While I was gooding research this week I found this story that I would like to share with you. We are living in a dark time but there has been other time that have also be dark.
Take the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births. 
For example, William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesman. That same year, Alfred Lord Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner. 
On the American continent, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe began his eventful, albeit tragic, life. It was also in that same year that a physician named Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert. And that same year produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln. 
If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I'm certain these words would have been heard: "The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America.
Similarly, everyone thought taxation was the big news; when Jesus was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: the birth of the Saviour. 
This we are look a dark time in Kingdom of Judah. Join me as i read the first few verses in Isaiah 7
Isaiah 7:1–7 NLT
1 When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out their plan. 2 The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm. 3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet King Ahaz. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed. 4 Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah. 5 Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying, 6 ‘We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’ 7 But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “This invasion will never happen; it will never take place;
What going on here?

Israel is divided into two kingdom

This happened after the death of king Solomon. The northern kingdom was Israel and the southern kingdom was Judah. Both of this kingdoms struggled with stay faithful to God and would both end up in exile in few years.
This part of the verse we read. The kingdom of Israel and Aram were trying to invade Jerusalem the capital of Judah. The king of Judah was King Ahaz. We was nervous about the invasion.

God give instruction to Isaiah

In verse 4. God tells Isaiah to go to Ahaz and tell him to be calm and not be afraid. God also say that he would not all the invasion to happen. God wanted to protect Judah. That not were this story ends. verse 10 -12
Isaiah 7:10–12 NLT
10 Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.” 12 But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.”

Ahaz seemed holy sounding

but in fact he had no relationship with God.
2 Kings 16:2–3 NLT
2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had done. 3 Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel, even sacrificing his own son in the fire. In this way, he followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.

Ahaz was not a good king

He had a the temple of the Lord in is backyard but he chose to worship other gods. He did not put his trust in God. In fact, instead of trusting God in the possible invasion. He went and trust the Assyrian Empire.
2 Kings 16:7 NLT
7 King Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria with this message: “I am your servant and your vassal. Come up and rescue me from the attacking armies of Aram and Israel.”

Judah made a alliance

The Assyrians made the alliance and destroyed Israel and Aram. But you see the relief that the Assyria brought would not last. In do time the empire turn against Judah and they two went into exile.
We to have had situation where God told us to trust him. Instead we trust something or someone else. We made an alliance with our own empires. We trusted in ourselves to provide what we need instead of allowing God to be our provider.
Have you ever tried to hold four things at once while going up the stairs? Maybe someone asked if they could help and you said “I got this” shortly before you dropped everything because you tripped. When we struggle to trust God, we can tell him, “I got this” when we really don’t. That lack of trust shows our continual need to grow in our relationship with him.

What does this have to do with Christmas?

You might be wondering what all the has to do with Jesus and Christmas?
In verse 13 Isaiah turn from speaking to Ahaz to speaking to all people of God.
Isaiah 7:13 NLT
13 Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well?
Gods people are in a dark period of rebellion and judgment. They didnt know what was to come. They were willing to go to other instead of God. They were trying God. Then Isaiah laid out what God was going to do. Veses 14
Isaiah 7:14 CSB
14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Immanuel-God with us

The word virgin means young woman. In the new Test. When Matthew writes his Gospel of the life of Jesus. He refers back to Isaiah 7.
Matthew 1 tell us that Josephe was wrestling with the fact that Mary was pregnant while still a virgin. He was so considered with this that he was thinking of divorcing her until an angele appeared and said
Matthew 1:21–23 CSB
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

Immanuel-God with us

When I was in college I was part of a men quat one Christmas. One of the song that we sang that year was “Mary Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry. To this day I love that song. It still one of my favorite to sing.
You might have heard this song all over the place.
aThis song describes the amazing things that Christ has done and addresses Mary directly, asking if she knew her son would do all these great things. One specific lyric shows the main reason for Mary giving birth to Jesus, “the child that you delivered will soon deliver you.” Mary had the tremendous responsibility to bring into this world the One who would save her from sin and death.

Prophecy of hope

Isaiah’s prophecy of hope was given in a time of hopelessness and rebellion, a time where those leading God’s people were not holy. God would fix what was right through the incarnation (as Immanuel, God with us). He would physically walk with his creation and sacrifice himself to give life to those who were lost and dead in sin.
I also found what im about to say this week it was to good not to share. Im not sure how first said it.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; 
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; 
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; 
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; 
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

Do you trust the Savior?

Do you trust Immanuel- God with us?
No mater what you are going throw. You can put your full trust in Jesus . He can lead you out of the trouble and doubt.
you have to w
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