Emmanuel: God With Us
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For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”
God is looking for yielded vessels.
God is looking for yielded vessels.
God is looking for people who are available, submitted, yielded and willing to be used by God. Yes - God is always on the lookout for willing workers… yielded vessels… those who are available and want to be used by him for his Glory!
God is searching for people who are willing to work for him, who want to be a part of what God is doing in the earth, who desire to see the manifestation of his will on earth as it is in heaven!
Thompson Community Choir:
Lord, I'm available to You
My will I give to You
I'll do what You say do
Use me Lord to show someone the way and enable me to say
My storage is empty and I am available to You
Now I'm giving back to You all the tools You gave to me
My hands, my ears, my voice, my eyes
So You can use me as You please
I have emptied out my cup so that You can fill it up
Now I am free, I just want to be more available to You
That’s who God is looking for - those who are available...
Songs: I give myself away… Withholding nothing...
Young woman in the text… mother of Jesus… Mary...
Mary was a yielded vessel.
Mary was a yielded vessel.
Angel Gabriel comes to her with greeting… vs. 28
Remember the Lord is searching for those he can work through...
Show himself strong in… release grace to… someone he can use...
God can use anybody…
off the corner..
Snatch you out of the crackhouse... clean up addictions
Pull you out of the whorehouse… change mindset…
But he’s looking for those who are already ready...
God’s preference is to use those who are already prepared to be used...
She’s surprised by the Angel’s Greeting...
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Why would he call her favored? She doesn’t feel favored… her situation isn’t favorable… the Jews are living in fear and oppression from the Romans around them…
What Gabriels says doesn’t match the situation Mary is living in...
Similar to when the Angel of the Lord visited Gideon Judges 6:12-13
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Sometimes what the Lord says, doesn’t match what we see...
Sometimes what the Lord says, doesn’t match what we see...
So it forces us to see what the Lord says by faith, and not by feeling...
By faith and not by sight… It forces us to look beyond where we are right now, and envision what the Lord has envisioned for us… to see what the Lord sees… to hear what the Lord hears...
Look Beyond...
The Lord’s favor is not dictated by your present circumstances or your current predicament…
what’s going around you...
When the Lord’s favor is on you… when the Lord sees something in you… and puts something on you… he repositions you.. even those it may seem like you’re in the same place!
Have to embrace it by faith - sometimes the Lord’s favor has repositioned us and it looks like we haven’t moved… it feels like we are still where we were…
It’s spiritual....
God will move your spirit before he moves your body...
God will reposition your mind before he repositions you...
Ever said to yourself - I don’t belong here...
Ever felt uncomfortable in place you had previously felt comfortable?
Ever felt like an outsider? a foreigner in what used to be a familiar space?
Ever felt stuck? Like you’ve outgrown the environment you’ve been in?
That’s God repositioning you… Getting you into position where he can use you...
The angel Gabriel says to this young teenage girl… You’ve found favor with God… God was looking for women yielded and available… Someone he could use for a special purpose… Someone he could trust with a unique assignment… and he found you!
God is about to use you to bring something great into the world! God is about to do something in you that he’s never done before… God is about to use you to change the whole world!
Luke 1:30-33
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
The world at that time was quite similar to the times in which we live right now… people had grown away from God… forgotten about God… no longer knew God...
John 1:10
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
There were others who knew God - but didn’t honor him as God...
Romans 1:21-25, 28
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
It was necessary that God would intervene on behalf of humanity...
That God would send a redeemer… a savior… a deliverer… an ambassador from Heaven… a representative of himself...
And Mary said YES… Luke 1:38
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
And the Lord used her to bring Immanuel into the world!
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This Word became flesh and dwelt among us... this word was with God but now with man…
He came to make God known... to bridge the gulf between man and God... to reunite and reconnect humanity and divinity.... to reconcile the relationship between the fallen and the Father...
Isaiah spoke of this experience… in Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Matthew 1:23 helps us out - because it defines Immanuel - it tells us it means God with us - with us God…
Important - children of Israel in their disobedience wanted distance between themselves and God… Exodus 20:18-21
Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
Some people don’t want God in their midst… in their life because they know it will mean changing… some things they’ll have to give up.. things they’ll need to stop doing…
God is with us… life with God is better than life without God…
We are not alone…
Important - God want's to be in your life... active... every day... not just when you are in trouble... God desires to have relationship with you!
He'll be your God and you'll be his people - if you seek him and turn to him...
His desire is to be present in your life...
When God is present - love, joy, peace…
Anything that’s not like God - has to go…
Provides - Protects - peace and power...
Psalm 16:11; Psalm 22:3 (enthroned on praise of Israel)
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
But not only is God with us… we celebrate because God is for us! Rom 8:31; Psalm 124:1; Psalm 121:1-2
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side— let Israel now say—
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
God is for us… he is our helper… our strength…
2 Cor 12:9 - My grace is sufficient…
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Grace - God’s wonder working power…
God at work… for us… around us… in us… through us…
Grace - the supernatural activity of God in our lives…
God’s power that enables us, equips us, and empowers us to do what we otherwise could not do..
God is in us… John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Power - God’s power for life resides in us…
1 John 4:4
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Eph 3:20 (according to power at work in us…)
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
God in us enables us to be God’s light in this dark world…
God in us enables us to be God’s love in his hate filled world…
God is us enables us to be whatever God needs us to be to transform this world.
You ought to let God in..
Old church used to sing - won't you let him in - hoist up your windows, open up your doors - let him come on in!
One of the reasons the church is failing… We ain’t got God in us… God is with us… working for us… available to us… but we’ve not allowed God to dwell in us…
Because God’s not in us…
we don’t have power…
Can’t walk in authority…
crippled by fear, doubt and uncertainty...
limited in our capacity to be used by God for his Glory!
We never reach the potential that God intended us to reach!
We never become all that God ordained us to be!
And because God’s not in us...
We haven’t been transformed… we’re just like the world…
so our impact is limited… our growth is stunted… and we are powerless and not powerful…
We must submit and surrender… Like Mary… Joseph…
We must submit and obey… like the shepherds..
We must submit and follow like the wise men…
When we submit… when we humble ourselves…
He gives more grace… that’s power…
1 Peter 5:6 He’ll exalt in due time.. that’s after a while…
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,