Immanuel: God With Us
Rev. Rick Pendleton
Gourdvine BC
GOD WITH US
Matthew 1:23
Two days from now will be Christmas.
Today I have a message of hope… two actually.
To those of you who are procrastinators my message of hope is… you have 1 shopping day left if you don’t want to be in the dog house.
For those of you who are not procrastinators… my message this morning is also a message of hope.
I believe the greatest source of hope is the Bible.
And…I believe that the greatest message of hope to be found in all of scripture is one that is first stated in the Old Testament and then echoed in the New Testament.
Basically the greatest message of hope in the whole world can be summed up in three little words...
GOD WITH US
Today, I want us to take each of those three words and dig down to grasp the riches in each.
In those three little words are some big promises for us and I want us to pull them out where we can hold onto them.
1. With.
You say… "I think I’ll go get a steak."
And I say… "I’ll go with you.
You say… “I feel like a failure.”
And I say… "I am with you."
In both cases I used the word "with. What was the difference?
If you don’t see a difference then
1. You are probably a man, and
2. You won’t get excited when you read Matthew 1:23.
If you DO understand the difference, then you can join me in getting excited by the verse.
The scripture says… "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call his name Immanuel" which means "God with us."
Some of you are thinking, "What is so exciting about that verse."
It is the last part, the definition, the interpretation of the name, Immanuel.
And it is mainly that one word stuck right in the middle of the verse………………….God WITH us.
What is so exciting about one word... Especially such an insignificant word as WITH?
Well, lets look at the definition of the word.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: Accompanying 1 went with him,: Having possession of, "A man with a mustache": By means of: eat with a spoon: opposition to, to wrestle with.
Webster defines it as "denoting nearness or connection."
That is the way that most of us would define the word.
When we use with it usually means close to.
When I think of the verse from Matthew… I don’t get excited by the thought that God is close to me.
Now I’ve really lost you. Some are thinking "Is he crazy?"
I can clear it up with one question...
Ladies... Has your husband ever been WITH you,
Physically, bodily he was with you, in the same room, on the same couch, in the same car
Physically close to you…
but not WITH you… emotionally, spiritually, mentally he was in another area code!
Even when you try to tell him how you feel and why you feel that way... he is not really WITH you.
You tell him... "I feel so lonely"
What is his response?
"Lonely, how can you be lonely? You are with the kids all day long!"
Is he WITH you?
Right now my wife is wondering who’s sermon I’m preaching because this could not be my own...
I am the world’s worst about being near her but not WITH her.
I want you to think for a moment about what it would be like to have God near you.... but not WITH you.
If God was in the same room physically but not in the same county emotionally or spiritually
Would that thrill you?
What if God was there but only half listening to you while he watched TV." Would that thrill you?
What if you took the time and effort to pour out your heart to God, lay your soul bear about a problem you had and as soon as you stopped, God responded with "Have you seen my socks?"
Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to be sacrilegious... or make fun of God.
I just want to make the point ..... being WITH does not necessarily mean being close to.
And being close to does not necessarily mean being WITH.
So what does the verse from Matthew mean when it says His name is Immanuel... God with us. ???????
I think Paul told us in Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. "
The joy, the hope, the strength, the solace that comes from Matthew 1 :23 is not just that God came to earth and dwelt in a flesh body and was close to man for a while... it is not even the great promise that in the Holy Spirit, God is present with us today.
No the exciting thing is that He is WITH me… He understands me, He can identify with me, He can sympathize with my hurts, my weaknesses, my fears, etc.
I find great strength in reading John 11:35 “Jesus wept” because I know he can identify with my broken heart when I lose a loved one.
HE IS WITH ME
I like Matthew 8 where he healed a leaper. The Word says, “He took on himself our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Why? So He could identify with our sickness, how it feels to be sick.
He has compassion. HE IS WITH US!!!
I’m glad Jesus was betrayed by a close friend and abandoned by the 12.
He can be WITH me in my times of abandonment.
I’m glad Jesus was hated for doing the right thing.
I have needed Him to be WITH me in my trials.
I’m glad Jesus had to deal with ‘hard heads” like the Pharisees who were too closed minded to see something new.
I’ve needed Him to understand and BE WITH me w few times when I have dealt with committees.
Having almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe right beside me... with all of his power, and healing, and strength, etc... would matter nothing if He could not understand my needs and weaknesses.
What good would the Jesus be if He could not be accessed because He was too high and lifted up and could not BE WITH us?
I’m glad that Jesus was rejected by his friends.
I’m glad that Jesus was afraid of the cross.
I’m glad that Jesus knew what it was to have to stretch a dollar
I’m glad that Jesus knew what it was to have too little time and too much work
I’m glad because I know he can understand how I feel.
I’m glad that God is WITH me!!!!!!!!!
AMEN????????
Are you WITH me?
2. GOD.
But, by the same token...
while I don’t get excited by having an ALL-POWERFUL God close but not WITH me...
There are times when I don’t need someone in-tuned, with me spiritually and emotionally BUT POWERLESS... with me in my helplessness.
Yes there are times when all you need is someone to put their arm around you and sit quietly… just be with you.
But sometimes I need more.
If my son, Ethan, is in a motorcycle accident and is in serious condition…
I don’t want a doctor to come and put his arm around me and say, “I understand.”
I don’t want the doctor to come and out and tell me about his son who was in the same kind of accident.
I don’t care if the Doctor does not understand what I am going through
I WANT A DOCTOR WHO CAN DO SOMETHING FOR ETHAN!!!!!
There are times when I need to know that the person with me CAN DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!!!!!!
EX: When you house is on fire you don’t need the fireman to be able to understand… we want him to be able to PUT THE FIRE OUT!
I WANT HELP... NOW!!!!!
The promise of Scripture is I not only have someone who is WITH me. Understands and feels my pain…
But I have Someone who can DO SOMETHING about it.
That one is GOD ALMIGHTY.
I don’t just have somebody WITH me… I HAVE GOD
The ALL-POWERFUL creator of heaven and earth, the one who made everything.
The powerful God who made a way for the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry land
The Powerful God who delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace.
The same powerful God who allowed Gideon’s 300 men to destroy the Philistine army.
The same powerful God who shut the mouths of the hungry lions and delivered Daniel.
The same powerful God who made the sun stand still while his children defeated the enemy.
We have God who UNDERSTANDS US and, more than that, HE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT OUR NEED.
That brings us to the third word… Us.
Now this is the really exciting part of the verse.
I get great encouragement from reading passages like Hebrews 11. 40 verses with that tell the stories of 18 of the bible greats and how God was with them in their time of trouble and how God displayed his awesome power on their behalf.
Enoch who did not die because God took him home alive.
Noah who experienced the awesome delivery from the flood,
Abraham who became the Father of the Jewish nation… and all true believers.
Sarah who knew what it was like to give birth in her 90s.
Joseph who sent from the dungeon to the throne.
Moses who did incredible things in the 10 plagues.
Joseph who saw the walls of Jericho crumble.
Rahab who was spared when the walls crumbled.
Gideon who won the battle with 300 men using trumpets and torches.
Wow!!! That gives us such strength!
But then, the thought comes to me… “Wait a minute, those were the saints, the super-believers… the spiritual GIANTS.
Sure God would be with Moses, with Joseph, with Noah, with David, with Paul, With John, with Peter. THEY WERE SUPER SAINTS…
They had faith that did not falter even in lion’s dens, and fiery furnaces, and on chopping blocks, and walking through rivers on dry land.
BUT I DON’T
Put me in those same situations and I WILL FOLD LIKE A Christmas card.
They had faith even when it did not rain, even when loved ones died, even when there was no money or no food. Even if all was lost like Job.
BUT I DON’T.
I sometimes have REAL doubts and fears. I don’t always stand firm and unshakable.
Sure I can understand why God was with them and did powerful things for and through them.
BUT I’M NOT ONE OF THEM.
If there was a role call of the weak, the not-super, not-saints… I would be in that number.
So… it does not help me to know that God was with Moses… that God used His great power to help Moses.
Or David, or Joseph, or Abraham, or Shadrach, or Jonah, or Daniel.
I understand why he was with them, but I NEED TO KNOW THAT HE WILL BE WITH ME!!!!
And that is the promise of this last word… US !!!
This verse tells me...
not that Moses had the resources and access
not that Paul, Daniel, David, Job, Joshua, or Jonah had resources and access
That word US means you and me...
the little people, those who struggle as Christians, those who sometimes fall on their faces.
God… almighty creator of the universe, the one who traced the rivers with his finger, the one who raised the dead and healed the afflicted
The God is WITH… understands, identifies with…
ME !!!!!!!!!!!!
Romans 5:8 clarifies it... "God commended His love to us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL UNWORTHY.... Christ died for us.
Praise God...Praise God!!!
I have a God WHO KNOWS my every need and weakness and fear, and insufficiency etc.
AND I have a God WHO CAN meet my every need and supply my every sufficiency
AND that God will be there WITH ME.
I was at a conference where a black preacher was preaching to a bunch of white preachers and I guess we were not as vocal as his flock and he looked at us and said, “If that doesn’t light your fire, your wood is wet.”
I’m telling you today that if you hear this message that Almighty, all-powerful God of the Bible sees, hears, knows and identifies with your needs and He stoops down to wrap his arms around you, even though you are not a super-Christian
And that does not LIGHT YOU FIRE…. “your wood is wet."
I wonder if there is someone here today... spiritually broke.... tapped out you need to know you have resources....
You need to believe there is someone who KNOWS… your pain…
someone who CAN do something about your pain and
Someone who is willing to be with YOU… even though you are unworthy?
I have one word for you… Immanuel!!!!!!
