God with us 4 – Always

https://youtu.be/tn2jyo8vTq8

Merry Christmas! We

are so glad to celebrate with you today in Plano Tx at Redemption

Church. My name is Chris Fluitt and I am excited to be bringing the

Word of God to you today.

GOD

WITH US

For the past month we have been discussing the true meaning of christmas - which can be explained in three simple words; God with us.

Matthew

1:23 (NIV2011) “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Over the past 3

weeks we have told you that God is with you in the silence, in the

pain, and in the struggle. Today I want to tell you that God is with

us always.

God

with us - Always

The Christmas story

should not be limited to the month of December. The Christmas story

reveals God’s plan from the beginning.

Genesis 1 tells us about the beginning of creation.

Genesis 1:1 (NIV2011) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:2 (NIV2011) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Genesis 1:3 (NIV2011) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God

with us from the beginning

God starts

everything by drawing near to a formless, empty, and dark place. God

draws near and allows his Spirit to hover upon this formless, empty,

and dark world.

God draws near and

says “let there be light.” God then continues with creation. He

creates everything that we would need… light, land, sky,

vegetation, sun, animals… and then once everything we needed was

created, God reached down into the earth and created us.

You are the centerpiece of God’s creation from the beginning.

God created Adam &

Eve and then He walked with them. God was with them. God did not

just create them and then walk away. God was with them.

God is with us, from

the beginning. From the beginning it was God’s desire to walk with

us.

The Christmas story

is the fulfillment of God’s desire to walk with us.

John 1:1 (NIV2011) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In that same

beginning that we read about in Genesis 1, John tells us about the

Christmas story.

John 1:14 (NIV2011) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the beginning was

the Word… the Word was God… the Word came in flesh… God came

in the flesh.

Jesus Christ is the

fulfillment of Mathew 1:23 where He is called Immanuel – God with

us.

Christmas is all

about the Incarnation.

INCARNATION

– IN FLESH

Incarnation is a

Latin word that means “in flesh.” Incarnation is used in the

Latin translation (Vulgate) of John 1:14. “The Word came in

flesh.