Immanuel

Well, good morning everybody. So glad to see you this morning. I know that we have begun kind of not only looking a little bit like Christmas time, but feeling a little bit like Christmas time, singing a little bit about Christmas time, and those are all wonderful things. Maybe over the past couple of weeks you've done some things where, you know, kind of maybe traditions that you have. Maybe you watch some things on television, maybe there's specials that come on. Shout out to Rudolph and Frosty and all the old school, love those when they come on I just can't quite turn the channel. It's like they're there, I'm a kid again and I love it. But maybe one of the things that you do to kind of transition is on Thanksgiving day you watch the parade from New York City. How many of you have ever been to that parade in New York City? Just show me, show of hands. Yeah, I have as well. It's super fun. One of the things this year when I was watching, and I've seen this in past years as well, but this year as I was watching, I learned something that I had not known previous. Like I learned something brand new. As I'm watching this parade and I'm seeing all of these floats kind of floating by, right? And then I'm watching in the sky with all of these really kind of huge balloon characters that are coming through. And who do I see but the Pillsbury Doughboy that is there in the parade, right? The Pillsbury Doughboy is just floating massively. Now, I know some of you maybe are kind of going back in your mind to Ghostbusters and having a little bit of PTSD as a result of that, but it wasn't the Pillsbury Doughboy that was the the Marshmallow Stay-Puft person, right? That was the big monster in Ghostbusters. But to see this, first of all, it's slightly freaky, right? Just to look up and see a massive Pillsbury Doughboy, right? Just a little bit scary. But here's what I learned, and I didn't know this, that's not his name. And I have been going along this entire time thinking that his name is the Pillsbury Doughboy. It is not, that's just his designation. His name is Poppin' Fresh. I don't know if that's his rap name. His name is Poppin' Fresh. I had no idea. I'm just watching thinking, no, that's the Pillsbury Doughboy. And they're like, no, no, his name is actually Poppin' Fresh. And I also didn't know he had a family. His wife Poppie. His son, you ready for it? Popper. His daughter, Bun Bun. And their grandparents, Granpopper and Granmommer. I literally have gone on my entire life thinking that this was the Pillsbury Doughboy. It's not, that's just his designation. His name is Poppin' Fresh. You're welcome. I just wanna start your day that way. But you know, as I thought about it, I thought to myself, huh, we've been calling this person by their designation not realizing that they have an actual name. And I thought about in literature and entertainment, if there were scenarios that were like that, and one came quickly to mind because of my fascination with some of the books that J. R. R. Tolkien has written. And Tolkien wrote, The Lord of the Rings. Many of you have seen some of the movies, some of you have read the books. Notice I said, many of you have seen the movies and some of you have read the books. That's just how it goes, right? You're like, no, those books are kind of thick and I don't wanna read them, but I'll watch the movie, right? I get it, I completely understand. In that movie, there is a character that is kind of mysterious. You meet him in the very first of the movies or the first of the books called The Fellowship of the Ring, and he's this mysterious character that's hanging out at The Prancing Pony, kind of this pub, and his name is Strider or so we think. And it's interesting because you know, Frodo and his band, his fellowship, right? They end up meeting Strider and they determine that they can trust Strider because Gandalf, the Great Wizard, has told them that they can trust Strider. But he's kind of mysterious. He's not overly friendly. He's kind of always lurking in the shadows, right? But we find out that Strider is not actually his name, it's just a designation that's been given to him. His actual name is Aragorn and he's the king of Gondor. In fact, when you get to the the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's called The Return of the King. This is about him. It's about the return of the King of Gondor named Aragorn who has been given a designation, strider, by people around him, but he's actually Aragorn. And when he shows up at the end and leads the armies against all of the forces of evil, you can rest assured that those who were on the side of good, they were really happy that the name Aragorn had showed up. But those who were not on the side of good, they were not all together thrilled that the name Aragorn had showed up. So his name actually could have meant either good news or bad news depending on the scenario, right? And the reason that I bring up those examples is not just to get a laugh for Poppin' Fresh, which I think is just awesome by the way, but it's to remind us that these examples actually teach us something about a name that comes up at the time of Christmas that happens all the time for us. And it's this name, Immanuel. We hear it often at Christmas time, and it's an interesting name that I think we're going to see has some characterizations that we'll want to pay attention to. But to understand it fully, we're gonna have to go back in time from the first Christmas. If we backed up about 700, I'm using approximate terms here, about 700 years from the first Christmas, we would go back into the time of a prophet named Isaiah. Now, we're going to be in Isaiah's book here in just a moment. In fact, we'll be in Isaiah chapter seven, but I wanna remind us about what was going on at that time and place. As you probably maybe realize from his history, there was a time where the kingdom of Israel actually divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, you've got a divided kingdom. They weren't particularly friendly with one another, and this divided kingdom was now present. And you had Isaiah who was prophesying during the time of the divided kingdom. And he was prophesying to the king of Judah. Now, you probably remember that back in Isaiah chapter six where it talked about in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, right? This was Isaiah's commission into his prophetic ministry that God gave him. King Uzziah died, after him came King Jotham. And then after King Jotham came King Ahaz. King Ahaz is who we're going to pick up with in a moment in Isaiah chapter seven. And let me just suffice to say this, if I could boil his life down to one word, bad! Right? Ahaz is bad! Right? Ahaz did awful things. Ahaz built altars to pagan deities when he should have been worshiping the one true God. Ahaz also ended up involving himself in the sacrifice of even some of his own children. Ahaz ended up eventually partnering with an evil empire. Ahaz was a bad, bad king in Judah. And Isaiah was going to prophesy to Ahaz from what God had said. Now, what's interesting about this is at the time of Isaiah chapter seven, Ahaz has a great concern. And his great concern is that the kingdom of Aram, which we would know as Syria, and the kingdom of Israel, with their kings Pekah and Rezin... Rezin and Pekah, I should say. With those two kings, he was worried that they were going to join forces and they were going to try and overthrow Judah and ultimately Jerusalem. And so he was really concerned about this. What's going to happen? I'm nervous. They're plotting against us. Things are going to happen to us. And into that, God through Isaiah, speaks a word to Ahaz. Listen to what it says in chapter seven, beginning in verse number seven. This is the prophecy; "Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "It"... In other words, this coalition of these two nations that want to overthrow you, "It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin." The king. "Within 65 years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son." Pekah. "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." This was the word that God through Isaiah gave to King Ahaz and basically said, Hey, don't worry, these two nations, they're not going to overthrow you. They're not going to join together and overthrow you. But that's not all that God was going to say through Isaiah to King Ahaz. Listen to how it picks up in verse number 10. "Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, "Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test." Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah. He will bring the king of Assyria." Now, this is a remarkable, remarkable word from God for Ahaz. He basically says this. He says, don't worry, Syria or Aram and Israel are not gonna join forces to overtake you. Don't worry about that, that's not going to happen. Assyria is gonna come and wipe everybody out. It's like, wait a minute, I thought this was gonna be good news for Ahaz, right? And you kind of think it's going to be. It's gonna be good news. These two nations are not gonna join together and overthrow us. Nope, they're not. Assyria is gonna get into the mix. And by the way, it's gonna mess up those two nations and it's going to also overthrow you as well. It's a remarkable prophecy that he gives. And he even says... God says to Ahaz, I'm gonna give you a sign to confirm that what I'm saying is true. A sign that will demonstrate this judgment that I am going to affect. So what is this sign specifically? Well, the beginning of verse 14 tells us, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you sign." And here's the beginning of it: "The virgin will conceive." Now, when we read that term in the English language, the term is "alma" in the Hebrew language. And that word, it really depends on the context as to what the meaning of the word is. Depending on some context, when you read the word "alma" in the Hebrew language, it can mean literally a virgin, right? Or depending on the context, that word can mean a young woman of marriageable age. And so it depends on the context. Now, what's interesting is that this term is a little bit ambiguous, and there are more unambiguous terms in Hebrew that could speak of a virgin or a term that could speak directly of a young woman of marriageable age. There are more unambiguous terms that could have been chosen in Hebrew for this word. But this is the word that the Holy Spirit chose. Why is that? Well, I think we'll see in just a moment because it's bigger than just what's immediate. And we'll see that in just a moment. But this sign, it's specific, it not only talks about this virgin or this young woman of marriageable age who will conceive, but then it gives us a little more. Verse 14 says, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." And that word Immanuel means God with us, right? That's what the word means, God with us. So it's a specific sign. There'll be a child that will be conceived, that will be born, and that will be named. This was the picture, right? This was the picture that we get in the book of Isaiah. Now, who is this woman and who is this child? Well, there's plenty of debate related to that and we don't know unequivocally who this is. I have a belief in terms of who I believe that it is, and really I think there's one of two primary options as to who this woman and who this child are. The option that I think it is is simply because of what goes on in the following chapter. You see, in the following chapter, God is still speaking to Ahaz, and speaking to Isaiah about how he's going to speak to Ahaz. And here's what it says in Isaiah chapter eight beginning in verse one, "The Lord said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz." So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz."" Now, if you were translating that actual name, it would translate to something along the lines of there's going to be great destruction and the spoils that would come from that destruction. That's basically what that Hebrew name means. He says, "For before the boy knows how to say, "my father" or "my mother," the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria." The Lord spoke to me again: "Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty flood waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!"" You see, this is why I believe that this sign is actually pointing in this direction. It's because the context of Isaiah chapter eight actually finishes the story for us of what's happening in Isaiah chapter number seven. A son that would be born to Isaiah and his wife would be a sign of God's judgment against Judah's enemies and against Judah as well. So you know what's interesting about this? Is that the sign of Immanuel in Isaiah is generally speaking, bad news. It's not good news. It's kind of frightening for Judah and for Ahaz, and they're all thinking to themselves, oh man, this is not so good. It's mostly bad news, but this event is not just talking about this event, it's bigger than this event. Let me see if I can explain it this way. How many photographers do we have in the room? Just raise your hand if you're a photographer. Okay? Just put it up high. You're a photographer. Great. Some of you just volunteered for our next whatever we need as a photographer for the church, thank you for doing that. Here's the truth though, right? All of us are would be photographers because we have phones, right? Some of us know how to work like actual lenses and stuff like that. But we've all got phones, so we're all would be photographers, right? And we all think we know what we're doing. Some of us do, some of us pretend, right? Okay, you guys just like, like we're putting it up, you know. Oh, I'm gonna do like a 0.5 right now, you know? And we do all this kind of stuff, right? But here's what we can all do. We can all take pictures that we either highlight what's in the foreground or what's in the background. All of us can do that, right? We can zoom in or we can zoom out. If we zoom in, we see right here what's in front of us. If we zoom out, we're able to see all kind of the landscape of what's going on. Like if you take your iPhone for instance, and you take a picture in portrait, what it does is it kind of, it really heightens what's happening in the foreground and it kind of blurs what's happening in the background. Right? So you can do that with our camera. Prophecy a lot of the time works that way. Not all of the time, but a lot of the time it works that way. Where you have a prophecy that's given and it will have an immediate or a foreground fulfillment, but it also has a background fulfillment. Scholars call this a double optic. In other words, you're seeing two things at the same time, you don't just always realize it. Like if you were reading in Matthew 24 where it's talking about kind of what we've believed to be mostly about the end of the age, but is also talking about the events that happened in 70 AD. So simultaneously it's talking about two different things at the same time. It's a double optic. One is looking at the immediate or the foreground and one is looking further away or into the background. Prophecy works like this sometimes, and that's what we really see in Isaiah chapter number seven and into chapter eight. This Immanuel prophecy is something that happened immediately, but is also something that is of greater significance in the future. In fact, we know that even in the book of Isaiah, it's made clear to us because we've looked in Isaiah seven, we've also looked in Isaiah chapter eight. But by the time we get to Isaiah chapter nine, we also know that there's conversation about this son who is going to be born. And it's a conversation not about something that's gonna be immediate like Isaiah's kid, but it's talked about a son who gives a designation and has qualifications that no human child could actually ever fulfill. Here's what Isaiah nine says. It says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. And the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." This is no regular old baby that's born that's going to fulfill these things. So right here, within three chapters in the book of Isaiah, we can see the foreground and we can start to see glimpses of the background or what's in the future. So with that background in mind about the sign of Immanuel, it's a beautiful picture that some 700 years later, Matthew, when he's writing the story of the birth of Jesus, connects the Immanuel prophecy to the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah. In fact, this is how he states it in Matthew chapter 1 beginning in verse 18, it says, "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together"... In other words, she was a virgin. "She was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." 'cause this was scandalous, right? "But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means "God with us."" You see, once we backed up a little bit and seen what happened 700 years prior, now we begin to see through the lens that Matthew is offering to us as he connects the Immanuel prophecy to the birth of Jesus. Isn't it interesting that he said, all this took place to fulfill what Isaiah the prophet had prophesied? What is this, "all this took place?" Listen carefully; conception, birth, naming. That's exactly what we see in Isaiah's prophecy, that's exactly what we see in the story of Jesus. And all of this happened so that Isaiah's prophecy would be fulfilled, that we would see the two visions of this one prophecy at the same time. Now, when I read that, I was actually blown away. When I read Matthew's story of the gospel in light of what had transpired 700 years earlier, I was blown away by the goodness and kindness and grace of God. Let me tell you why. Because if God chose to reveal through Matthew the sign of Immanuel, could you imagine that if the angel said you will call him Immanuel, just as Isaiah had prophesied, you will call the birth of this son Immanuel. Do you know what the people, Mary, Joseph, and the people would've been experiencing? They would've been thinking to themselves, this is not good news. This is actually bad news. This is indicative of judgment because when we look back in Isaiah, the sign of Immanuel is actually a sign of judgment of Judah's enemies and a sign of judgment of Judah itself. And now if God were just to have left it by saying, you'll call him Immanuel, God with us, they would not have looked at that as really great news. God with them in Isaiah's time meant God was coming in judgment. But he didn't because Immanuel was a designation, but this child had a name. Immanuel, God with us. If it was just left there, they might think it was bad news. But God in His kindness through the angel said to Joseph, you'll call His name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. Do you know what the people, Mary, Joseph, and the people would've been experiencing? They would've been thinking to themselves, this is not good news. This is actually bad news. This is indicative of judgment because when we look back in Isaiah, the sign of Immanuel is actually a sign of judgment of Judah's enemies and a sign of judgment of Judah itself. And now, if God were just to have left it by saying you'll call him Immanuel, God with us, they would not have looked at that as really great news. God with them in Isaiah's time meant God was coming in judgment. But He didn't, because Immanuel was a designation, but this child had a name. Immanuel, God with us. If it was just left there, they might think it was bad news. But God in His kindness through the angel said to Joseph, you'll call His name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. You see, this is what's so beautiful about this picture is that Immanuel is not the proper name, it is a designation. It is a picture of God with us, but Jesus is the proper name. And that is really good news for every one of us because His name, Jesus, means God saves. That's why you will call His name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. So when Jesus was born, He was indeed Immanuel. He was God with us quite literally, because God, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, took on flesh and dwelt among us. He was indeed God with us literally, but His presence signaled something even greater. And it's this, that Jesus is our Immanuel means God is with us and God is for us. This is what it means for Jesus to be our Immanuel. It means God is with us and God is for us. This is really rich if we will allow it to seep into our souls, and maybe for some of us we're not quite able to let that seep in as deeply as it should. Let me see if I can bring it a little closer. Jesus is with us in our heartbreak. He's with us in our heartbreak. The holidays are here. And for some, the holidays are a really difficult time because for some they will be celebrating the first Thanksgiving just this past week and a half ago, or Christmas, they'll be celebrating it without someone that they love for the very first time, and it can feel heartbreaking. Or maybe the holidays are a reminder of loss that's happened in the past, where around that dinner table you realize there's a place setting that should be there that's not, and we can feel sometimes the heartbreak. Or maybe it's been a rejection in a relationship. It could have been with a parent or a spouse or a friend or a family member. You felt some rejection in some type of relationship or maybe you had a bad breakup in a relationship or maybe you felt misunderstood and the heartbreak that goes along with that. Listen carefully, Jesus is with you in your heartbreak. And the reason that I can say that is because He identifies with us. God identifies with us in Jesus. His dad, more than likely, Jesus' earthly dad more than likely died when He was a teenager. He had friends that also died, maybe even prematurely we might say. He knows what it feels like to make an investment in a relationship and show great love and great sacrifice and great care, only to be betrayed. He knows what it's like for maybe the people that are the most influential in the world that He's living in, to both misunderstand Him and reject Him. Jesus knows what this is like and He is with us when we experience this kind of heartbreak. But listen to me, He's also for us. See, Jesus is with us in our heartbreak, but He's for us in our healing. You see, what we need to understand is this, is that Jesus doesn't leave us alone in our heartbreak, He completely identifies with our heartbreak, He knows what we've gone through in our heartbreak, He knows everything that is common to humanity except He has been sinless in it. But He doesn't leave us alone in that. In fact, what He says instead is because of His work on the cross and through His resurrection and His ascension to the Father, that there is coming a time where He's going to make all things new. The heartbreak that we have felt will be undone. Or as Tolkien said, everything sad will come untrue. This is the promise that we have because when we put our trust in Jesus, He is the one even in the midst of our heartbreak who's not content to just say, I can identify with you in your pain and I can identify with you in your heartbreak, but I can bring you to a place of healing because I can bring beauty from the midst of ashes. Jesus... Listen, Jesus is with us in our heartbreak, but He's for us in our healing. And that's the great reminder of Jesus is our Immanuel because it means God is with us and God is for us. Or maybe we could say it this way, Jesus is with us in our humanity. We understand the limits of our humanity, don't we? Sometimes we fail to understand the limits of our humanity and we're reminded... We're reminded real quickly when we have a breakdown, when we have a collapse, when everything shuts down, right? We get tired, we get hungry, we get emotional, we get overwhelmed, we get tempted, we die. This is the state of humanity and Jesus is with us in our humanity. God is not a distant God who is just watching our plight, but instead comes in and takes on flesh and limits Himself to the place where His body is. That's a remarkable thought, that God the Son, came and took on flesh and limited Himself to the place where His body was. He got tired, He got hungry, He experienced emotions, He died. He didn't die in the same way that we do because of the curse of sin and what it ultimately works. He died on His own volition for us, but He's with us in our humanity, but He's for us in our glory. Listen to what I mean when I say that. Jesus has not left us alone to the limits and the destruction of our own humanity. When we end up turning from our sin and putting our faith in Jesus as our savior, what happens is this, is that the very life of the Son of God comes to live inside of us. His Holy Spirit. And that spirit, listen to this, is a down payment on what is to come. And do you know what is to come? The same thing that was to come when the Son of God took on flesh, died for our sin, was buried in the grave, but was resurrected in glorified humanity never to die again. That's what's coming our way. You see, Jesus is with us in our humanity, but He is for us in our glory because one day we will too die if Jesus has not returned yet. But we will not face the decay of death, we will live again because when He returns, we will be raised in glory to live in glorified humanity forevermore with the glorified humanity of the Son of God. Jesus is with us in our humanity, but He is for us in our glory. Or maybe we could even say it this way, and I think that this last way is the one most tied to the passage that we're dealing with; that Jesus is with us in our brokenness. He's with us in our brokenness. Friends, we live in a broken world. A sin tainted and sin cursed world. And we live among broken people that sin has wrought its power over, and we find ourselves in that as well. The story of Christmas, friends, is about God entering into a world of brokenness. Light that pierces into the darkness of a broken world, heaven coming to earth. This is the great story of Christmas that Jesus is with us in our brokenness. He didn't just glance at us from afar and think to Himself, man, do they have it bad? But instead He took on flesh and entered into the darkness and to the brokenness of the world that we live in. Jesus is with us in our brokenness, but He's for us in our salvation. He's with us in our brokenness, but He is for us in our salvation. Sin has affected the entire world and sin has affected every individual in the world. And the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that there is no hope whatsoever in our ability to save ourselves. That even the good works that we do look like filthy rags in the sight of a God who is so holy that we could never help ourselves, we could never rescue ourselves, we could never save ourselves. But God from the very outset had a plan in mind to rescue the world through the very Son of God, the Immanuel who is God with us. And Isaiah saw this playing out. In fact, when you get further into Isaiah's book, he talks about the son, the one who ultimately would be the one to come, is going to be a suffering servant because he's gonna identify with the brokenness and decay and sin of the world. And here's in fact what that prophecy says in Isaiah chapter 53. Listen to it and let the Word of God speak. "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give Him a portion among the great and He will divide the spoils with the strong because He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah was telling us that there was a sign of Immanuel that would be fulfilled in the Messiah. Jesus as our Immanuel, friends, means this, God is with us and God is for us. For those who believe, this is the greatest news we could ever hear. What it means, that God is with us and God is for us? Friends, it means regardless of the circumstances of our lives, hope abounds, salvation is offered. Glory awaits us. This is what this means to all who believe. It is great news when we hear the word Immanuel. But for those who ignore it or reject it, know this, God will be with us again. And when He comes, He will judge the world in justice. So the question for you is what kind of news is Immanuel to you? Is it good news or is it bad news? 'cause I can promise you this. What God wants is for it to be good news of great joy to all the people. Let's bow our heads together for prayer. As our heads are bowed, I've said much today about the sign of Immanuel. And we're reminded that Immanuel is a designation, but we know the name of the Savior. It's Jesus because He came to save us from our sins. This is why this is such good news to us and why God wants for this sign of Immanuel to be such good news to us, because it reminds us that God is with us, but also that God is for us. He's made a way for us to know Him, to be forgiven of our sin, to have our lives transformed, to be saved, to have an eternity with Him. And you may be here and have never put your faith or your trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. You've never in faith turned from your sin and put your trust in Him and allowed Him to come and take up residence in your life, to forgive you of your sin and live inside of you. Put His spirit inside of you as a down payment guaranteeing what is to come. And if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, then maybe right where you're seated in these moments, you can do that by faith. You say, well, I don't really know how to do that. That's okay. It's simply an act of your faith. And you can do that by simply praying and inviting Christ to come and live inside of you, to forgive you of your sin, to confess that only He can save and that only He is Lord and you are not. This is how we can be saved. We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we can be saved. So maybe wherever you're seated, you wanna pray something like this in your own heart; Lord Jesus... Just pray it in your heart; Lord Jesus, I know that I've sinned and I can't save myself. I believe you died for my sin. I believe you satisfied the justice of God against sin. And I believe you rose from the dead. I believe you are the one true Lord of the world. And so with all the faith that I have, I confess that you are Lord and I am not. And I ask your forgiveness of my sin. And I want to receive you as my Lord and my Savior. I want to acknowledge that you are Lord and you are Savior. With our heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe you are someone who just prayed that to receive Christ. I wanna encourage you that when we're done in just a moment, I'm gonna say amen, we're gonna be walking out, but there's gonna be some men and women who are gonna be down front. And I would ask you to come by and take one of them by the hand and say, I just prayed to receive Jesus, I just prayed to surrender my life to Jesus. Your words aren't overly important. You don't have to get all of that right, it just needs to be that which you confess. And here's what we wanna do. We wanna have somebody pray with you and send you home with something that's gonna help you in your journey of faith, to grow in your faith. Don't leave this place without having made that decision. There is no more important decision you will ever make. And it's why Immanuel is such good news to you, 'cause God has come in the person of Jesus so that through His death and resurrection, we can be reconciled to the Father by our faith in Him 'cause of an activist grace. So if that's your need, I want to ask you in just a few moments when we dismiss, come by and take one of these men or women who are making their way down here right now, take them by the hand And just say, I want to know Jesus. Father, thank you for every expression of your kindness to us. Thank you for your word. Father, I pray first for those who know you, love you, follow you. I realize that sometimes we can get turned around because of grief or being overwhelmed or the temptation of this season to be caught up in every other thing but what it truly matters. I pray that you would remind us that Jesus is our Immanuel means not only are you with us, and we thank you that you are, but that you're also for us. And I pray that we would lean on that in this season through every heartbreak or every area of brokenness that we might have. And Father, I pray for those who in these moments put their faith and their trust in you. And I pray that you would give them the courage, the boldness to walk that out in faith for your glory. I pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.