A pregnant woman and her husband were on the way to the hospital to deliver uh their incoming twins when they got in a horrible accident. Now thankfully everybody was OK, but both parents ended up in a brief 5 day coma and that doctors had to go into an emergency C-section to save the babies. Now, 5 days after the delivery, as everyone was in the hospital and everyone was OK, the parents came out of the coma and the nurse came in and said, hey, I have good news and some not so great news. The good news is your babies are OK. The not so great news is, is that it's state law requires that babies be named within 48 hours of delivery, and you've been in a coma for 5 days. So since both parents were unavailable, we went to the next next of kin and your brother named your children. That nervous laughter is what she had as well. And she said, oh man, can I trust my brother from all of our childhood spats back and forth? Could he be responsible with this crucial moment of naming children? And so the nurse brought in and says, I want you to meet your daughter, Denise. She goes, oh. Lovely name. I love that name, Denise, very pretty. OK, maybe my brothers turned the corner and everything's gonna be OK. Then the second nurse comes in and says, I want you to meet your son, the nephew. I have to think about that one. Names matter, OK? Names matter. Name signify really who someone is called to be. And what we're gonna do here is that over the next 4 weeks, we're gonna study the name of Jesus, the names of God. And so our series is entitled God with Us, which comes from his name that was prophesized in Isaiah, Emmanuel. Now Emmanuel, uh, is literally means God with us. When you see Emanuel with an I, that's the transliteration from the Hebrew text. When you see Emmanuel with an E, it's actually the same word, uh, they get that though from translating or transliteration from the Greek text. And so if you see Emmanuel with an I or Emmanuel with an E, it's the same meaning, God with us, and it's really a title referring to what it represented the coming of Jesus. Now Jesus, the name of Jesus itself comes from Yeshua, which in English then gets translated oftentimes as Joshua, and that means God saves or Yahweh of salvation. And then the other name that's referred to Jesus is Christ, which is another title, meaning the anointed one or the Messiah. It wasn't Joseph and Mary's last name. It wasn't Joseph Christ, right? It was, it was Joseph and Mary. And so when you look at the names of Jesus, OK, and you put them together, so you have Emmanuel, Jesus Christ. What you unders what we understand then is that is God with us. God saves through the anointed Messiah. OK. So this is the name of God and and so it's very valuable to us. And so what we're gonna do is that we're gonna spend the next couple weeks walking through the meaning and the importance and the value of a truth that really travels throughout scripture, the presence of God throughout scripture, that God truly is with us, that God is with us in our obscurity, God is with us in our battles, God is with us in our valleys, God is with us on our mission. And then on Christmas Eve, we're gonna culminate everything there where God is with us in our victories. And so there is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name, Emmanuel. And so this morning as we kick things off, we're gonna look where that comes from, and really try to understand how is it that God is with us in obscurity. See, when you think of the word obscurity, what it is is is to be unknown. To be lost, to be unseen. To be a lost at sea, to be adrift in the wilderness. To be Overlooked or overwhelmed or overcome. Anyone felt a little overwhelmed heading heading into the holiday season? Anyone feeling a little bit overlooked? Maybe in your job, maybe in your family. Maybe in your friendships. Maybe You just feel on the other side of Thanksgiving, this, this, feel that, that life is just coming at you. And it's coming at you faster than what you can keep up with. Makes me think of the old Lucy clip in the chocolate factory, if you've seen that, and the chocolates just keep coming and she can't, she can't do her job. She just starts stuffing them everywhere, hiding in her hat and putting them out like she can't keep up with it. Sometimes life can feel that way, where life is just coming at you too fast, right? You wanna, you wanna happen to life, but a lot of times life happens to you and it's just like I just can't. I just can't. You, you, we get so stressed out that we can't even finish sentences, right? It's true, we get through it's like I, I just can't. Can't what? Anything, right? And it just this sense of stress, this sense of busyness, this, this chaotic whirlwind of responsibilities that we have, the pressure that comes. OK, we can feel like, if you have an insta pot at home, that little pressure it just like, you just see that steam coming out and it's like, I just can't take it. I want to encourage you today that God sees you. And God speaks to those obscure, lonely. Overwhelming moments. For taking notes, I encourage you to write this down that with God. Even small moments become significant. With God, even small moments. Become significant. If you've ever found yourself asking, how did I get here? Or maybe you're thinking, how do I get out of here? I don't see a way forward. I want you to know that God sees you in those moments. Now, the name Emmanuel really comes from a prophecy, the prophet Isaiah, that was written 700 years prior to the Christmas story as we know it. So as King Ahaz was the king of Judah, he wasn't a great, he wasn't a great guy, to be honest. And there was a threat of invasion from the countries from the north. And so he was pretty controlling and he wanted God to act. But through the prophet Isaiah, he was told, well, ask God for a sign. And pretending to be religious, pretending to be humble. The king says, no, I will not test the Lord. Which really it was pride speaking, saying I don't need to ask God. I'm the king. I'm in control. I want God to do something for me. So instead of sending a sign for King Ahaz, through the prophet, Isaiah, we actually receive a sign for something greater, not just the people of Judah, but for all people. Fact, it'll be later described as good news of great joy for all people. And we get this incredible verse found in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. It says, therefore, The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. So this one verse, 700 years before the coming of Jesus, really offers us 3 things. We see in here there's the covenant or the promise of God. A covenant is a contract between two people in this case, it is the connection of God and His people. You can actually view much of scripture through the covenants found throughout scripture. In fact, the Old Testament really can be described as the old covenant. The New Testament can be described as the new covenant. And so here is a promise of the new covenant, a promise of a new relationship God is gonna establish with his people. And so we have a covenant that's gonna be given then through a child, the coming of Jesus coming through the virgin birth. This is gonna be the sign that's coming. So we have the sign itself that's gonna be born of a virgin. It's pretty clear sign here. And then not just a baby born, but a baby born of a virgin, and then we have a son, and so we have a child of God. He's he's now speaking to a king, but yet he's he's promising the coming of a child. So he's not coming like this great warrior, which he is. This great king, which he is, this great priest, which he is, but it's gonna come in the most humble innocence. Minuscule and almost obscure way. Through a son, through a baby. And then ultimately, he's coming to be the Christ, the Messiah. The Savior So we see the covenant of God coming through a child of Jesus who really is the Christ, the Messiah. Another way to think about it is that we have a sign, born of a virgin. We then have then a son, Jesus Christ there at Christmas, and then we have a savior there we celebrate at Easter. And so Christmas and Easter are forever linked, that Jesus comes in a cradle, but he comes for the cross. Right And so this, this story, this picture, well, John, how, you know, how do we know that this verse is tied to the Christmas story? I love this because the writer, Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience understands that people won't connect the dots. Do you have, do you have people in your life that can't connect the dots when it comes to movies? You know I'm talking about. Do you have that person, do you ever watch a movie with someone who asks 1000 questions during the movie? OK, I see some gentle nudging going on. Um, Matthew understands that the Jewish people are gonna ask a lot of questions when it comes to the movie, right? And so he just comes out and says it. In Matthew chapter 1 verses 22 to 23, he says, and all of this took place, this is referring to the Christmas story, all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. They will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. So he directly quotes Isaiah 7:14 and says, the Christmas story fulfills this verse. So I don't want you to miss it. I'm gonna connect the dots for you. 700 years apart. The prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ fulfills the promise of God. For the purpose of God. So, so why is it important that Mary was in fact a virgin when giving birth? Really 3 reasons here. 3 reasons. Number 1, it's important, the virgin birth is important because it demonstrates or shows the purity of the body of Christ. See, all of mankind since Adam and Eve are marred by the sin of humanity. OK, for all of sin and falls short of the glory of God. And so, by God coming into the world, God wasn't gonna come into the world through mankind. Yes, through the humility of a baby, of the incarnation of Jesus. The word became flesh, didn't lose his divinity, took on the limitations of a physical body, but to maintain his divinity. It had to directly come from God. So there was a purity piece at play because when Jesus would die on the cross, it was only a pure sacrifice that could eternally pay for separation from him. So it was the justice of God that required a pure sacrifice, and Jesus Christ himself is the only pure sacrifice, and the only way that comes is through the virgin birth. Now, the second reason we see this, uh, the importance of a virgin birth is actually prophecy fulfilled. That was predicted 700 years before the coming of Jesus. We know that this is the Jesus that we that the people have been waiting for through the virgin birth. Now, can you imagine being Joseph and hearing the news from your fiance? Hey, I'm pregnant. Don't worry it was God. OK. There's no way you're believing that, and, and Joseph didn't either, except for an angel came to him as well. Say no. This is, this happened to fulfill a prophecy. Trust me on this, OK? And so the prophecy shows the intention of God, that this wasn't an accident. Right, which then leads to the 3rd reason this is important, is that it actually shows the purpose of God. That Jesus came down to earth for the purpose of dying on the cross as payment for our sins, and ultimately glorifying God through the resurrection there from the dead. And so, outside of the resurrection and creation, I believe the the virgin birth is the greatest miracle in scripture. It's top 3. And so it's valuable and important for us to believe it. That's why the Christmas story is so essential for us to believe. It's not just Red and green and. And in presence, but with a T, but presence in CE. That's why his name is not nice teacher guy. His name is moral, not moral leader. His name is Emmanuel, God with us, the very presence of God in our midst. A way to think of it is that the virgin birth almost serves as a notary. To the signature of God. Have you ever had to go to a notary for like an official document? Maybe it's for a a living will or a marriage or a housing document or anything that's that needs verification, you have to go to a government approved official who's assigned the title of notary who verifies your signature. Looking up the definition of a notary, it says that the primary role of a notary. is to help prevent fraud by verifying the identity of those who signed the document. Now, attach this to the Christmas story. OK. The virgin birth and the angels that come and speak of this serve as the divine notary to verify what God said was gonna happen and who God said he was. We, we see this throughout the ministry of Jesus to where even when Jesus was baptized, right? The dove flies down and the voice of God comes down and says, this is my son. Say, don't miss this. I'm gonna verify who he is through the prophecies that predicted him, to know, for you to know that he came here on purpose with a purpose, with my promise and the power to defeat death itself. Now how do we know that God is with us even in obscurity, even in the unknown? One, we have this prophecy that was 700 years prior, meaning that it was on purpose, it was intentional. OK. But second, the very characters in the Christmas story, you would not choose. Right? You cannot open social media or or turn on the television without seeing constant commercials. From celebrities and athletes. Why do businesses pay celebrities and athletes and musicians and artists and actors? To promote something. Right? Well, it's because they think that if you see someone, like if you see Matthew McConaughey, all right, all right, all right, right, like, oh, I need to buy this car now, right? Or an athlete comes in. You know what I'm saying? Like, and like, top athlete in the world drinking Gatorade, oh, I could run like him, right? They don't bring in Joe from accounting. He says, oh, drink this Gatorade before your next Excel spreadsheet. Right. But in the story of Christmas, this is exactly what God does. He doesn't use kings, he doesn't use priests, he doesn't use. The religious leaders of the day. He used the most unknown, obscure, lowly people. To execute his story, his plan. To show us that he sees us. And that he's gonna use us to build his kingdom. Notice every single character in the Christmas Story. And how God We use them And how he turned small moments into significance. Let's read through this together. Luke chapter 2, verse 4. Joseph, who is Joseph, right? He's a carpenter. OK. He's a carpenter. He's a blue collar worker from Galilee, from Nazareth, OK? He has to go to Bethlehem because of his lineage with Bethlehem itself, the city, by the way, meaning city of bread. OK. Jesus comes as the bread of life. We're gonna take communion at the end of the service connecting the dots here. That you have Joseph, the carpenter, no name from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, the house of bread because of the house and lineage of David. So he's traveling 90 miles away with his pregnant, soon to be wife, OK. I mean, that's, that's a journey, right? OK. Um, to be registered with Mary, who's Mary? OK, Mary? Teen girl, we don't have these accolades beforehand. I Says his betrothed who was with child. And while they were there, The time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swiddling cloths and laid him in a manger. Hold on. This was predicted 700 years before the coming of Jesus. And you can't reserve an Airbnb? You can't, you can't reserve like the right hospital fit. It's, it's enough that it's Joseph and it's Mary. It's enough that it's Bethlehem. And now we're in a stable. And in a manger, which is a feeding trough. Basically given birth and placed on a cafeteria tray for animals. Right. Because there's no place for them in the end. And in the same region there were shepherds. OK, look, these are the middle of the night in the field shepherds. They don't have valid testimonies in court. This is who God chooses. While they were working. With nobody around, nobody seeing them. This is exactly Who God sees, who God chooses, who God uses to bring him glory. They were keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And now he's gonna give the shepherds a sign too. Says, this will be the sign for you. That you will find a baby wrapped in swirling cloths lying in a manger. OK, God, we're gonna follow you. How do we know which baby is Jesus? He's gonna be the one in the stable. Right? Make sure your sheep don't eat baby Jesus, OK? Every single character in the story. It's unknown. Minding their own business. You got the carpenter, you got Mary the teen girl, you got, they have to leave their town, they're not even surrounded. She was just a small town girl living in a small town world. On a journey. To not stop, OK, I was. To not stop believing, OK, I had to finish the thought. Game First people to come and to celebrate and to bring gifts are the shepherds. And we shared this last year, but. But it's a good reminder to us all. Then when it comes to The Christmas season, when it comes to our attitudes for where God has you in your current season of life. We have to remember that it's not about your position. It's about your disposition. See Mary's position. Was not one of strength. Was not the title or the money or the location or the popularity or the wealth that you thought you should have. But her disposition was one of worship and obedience and trust. OK, God, if you tell me to go, I'm gonna go. Some of you are sitting here right now as you head into this holiday season, you don't like your position in life. You find yourself thinking, how did I get here? I wasn't planning on divorce. I wasn't planning on being a single parent. I wasn't planning on working at this job at this time at this place. I thought I'd be somewhere different. I thought I would beat this addiction. I thought I would be clean. I thought. I'm still experiencing the ripple effects of a choice I made a decade ago. I'm still experiencing the ripple effect of a choice somebody else made a decade ago. I'm in this hamster wheel of bad choices or bad relationships or bad financial decisions, and I find myself just, I just find myself just overlooked and overwhelmed and overcome, and like, God, I, I don't know, I don't know where you are. I don't know if you see me. I don't know how I'm supposed to get out of this. I can't see the next day in front of me, like I read the scriptures and I see that you are good, and I look up and my week does not look good, and I'm not quite sure what to do with the cognitive dissonance. My life doesn't feel good, but God, I know you are good. And so here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what God tells us to do. Is that when our position doesn't feel right. We can choose to worship God with our disposition, because God is always right. And our comfort in that tension, the comfort in the wilderness, the comfort when we feel alone, is the truth that Jesus is with us. He's Emmanuel, he is present. I want you to know today that in stressful times, know that God still sees you. Don't mistake God's silence for God's absence. God is with you. And we know that because we have a promise 700 years before the coming of Jesus. And using Joseph and Mary and Bethlehem and the stable in Bethlehem, and then the shepherds, this, there is nothing about the stable that was holy. We sing holy night. Silent Night. If you go in a barn with someone giving birth at night, I don't think there's anything holy and anything silent about that evening, OK? But the reason you can celebrate the goodness of God, the holiness of God, is because the presence of God. That the peace of God comes not from the absence of hard things, but through the presence of God Himself, who is our peace. Another prediction, another prophecy or this coming or or foreshadow of who Jesus was gonna be was given these four names in Isaiah. Do you know what the last one was? Prince of what? Peace. The peace of God comes through the presence of God, and that is with you, even in obscurity, even in unknown. This truth really does travel all throughout scripture. Let me give you 3 examples. If you've ever felt overlooked. Verify overlooked. David was overlooked. God told Samuel in the Old Testament and First Samuel 16, hey, go, I go to Jesse's house. One of Jesse's sons is gonna be the next king of Israel. It's a big deal. Right, if you know the prophet is coming to your house, and one of your sons are gonna be the next king, you're gonna line up all your sons, aren't you? He thought Jesse thought so little of David. That when the prophet of God was coming to their house, said David, you need to get out of the house. You need to watch the sheep. To the point where Samuel's walking through the line, like, nope, nope, nope. God, you told me one of these. Kids of Jesse is supposed to be the next king, I don't see any of it. We have this verse here, it says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things that people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. I think we get so focused on appearing right. When we miss the fact that God sees us for who we are. Can you imagine if someone came up to me and says, hey John, tell me about your children? And I go, oh, I have 2 incredible children. He, yeah, John, but don't you have 3 kids? Yeah, but 2 of them are amazing. You would look at me going like, what? To clarify, I have 3 incredible amazing children. I love them all. In fact, that part of my, uh, bedtime routine with them as I say, um, at that I say if daddy could light up all the children in the world. And I could pick 3 to be my kids, who would I choose? I say Jackson Carter or Chloe. I said why would I do that? Because Daddy loves you. Yeah, this is exactly what Jesse does. Bring me all your kids. Oh, not David, he doesn't count. And yet it's David who gets chosen. It's David. Who slays Goliath It's David who writes much of Psalms, who gets described as a man after God's own heart. Why? Because when you feel overlooked. God still sees you. If you're sitting in a job where you're like, man, I just got passed up for promotion after promotion, I'm not seen. If you're in a broken relationship, you're like, I wasn't planning on being a single parent. I don't know how to walk through this. If you have a broken relationship or friendship, where like, I don't, I feel alone, I feel lost. I, I like when you have a move, when you go to some place new, like I don't know anybody. Whatever situation where you feel overlooked, passed by, taken for granted. I want you to know that God still sees you and that comes to the promise of Christmas. Emmanuel, God is with you. What about for those who feel overwhelmed? Elijah. Arguably the greatest profit of all time, based on resume. I mean, Elisa did more stuff, but like the initial stuff. I mean, if you call down fire from God. And take down 400 profits of bail. That's That's pretty awesome. That's a cool resume, right? So this is a guy who's doing incredible things. But what's crazy to me is that right after that happens, right after that incredible mountain top experience, he dips down into the lowest of low valleys. Someone says, I'm gonna kill you for what you did, and he gets afraid. And he's overwhelmed, and he's just done. He's just done. Have you ever felt just done I just can't, I just can't do it. I can't Elijah felt that way. But says this here 1 Kings 19:3. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life, and he came to Beersheba in Judah, and he left his servant there. And while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, he came to a broom bush and sat down and under it, he prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord. He said, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. This was, this is Elijah. This was God's man, and he was done. This tells me that any one of us could feel done at any moment. And If you've ever felt yourself in position. Know that you're not alone. And that God's not done with you yet. How do we know this? Because in his lowest moment, it says here. Verse 5, he lay down under the bush and he fell asleep. And all at once an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. He looked around and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water, and he ate and drank and then lay his head down again. And when you feel like this idea here that he would go on instead of rise and eating and he would, he would run away again, and he'd get in a cave. And again, he's alone, and there was this earthquake that happens and God's not there. There's this mighty wind that comes by and God's not there. There's this mighty fire that happens and God's not there, but God instead speaks to him in a whisper. But the only reason you whisper It's because you're close. That even when Elijah was in his lowest. Moment Overwhelmed, didn't see a future, didn't even see a present for that matter. God comes in and goes. I'm not done with you. I'm with you. Take a nap. Get some food. Get fueled up We've got work to do. When you are overlooked, God is with you. When you are overwhelmed, God is with you. And lastly, when you feel overcome. God is with you. Jesus to his disciples. Leading up to his death, and then really foreshadowing what was gonna be coming their way. Says these powerful words in John 16:33. He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you have will have tribulation, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. With God Even small moments become significant. That when you feel Overlooked when you feel overwhelmed, when you feel overcome. There is peace in the truth that God is with you. That when you look through the Christmas story that was prophesized 700 years before the coming of Jesus, 2700 years before our current day today, we can see that God's coming through the virgin birth really offered purity of his body. It it was offered fulfillment of his prophecy, and then the purpose of God, the Father, that he meant for this to happen this way, that in the very lowest of Blows, God is with you, that God chose to use Joseph, a carpenter, marry this teen girl, the town of Bethlehem prophesized and advanced this rural town, meaning house of bread, but not even the town itself, not even the inn, but the stable in the back, in a manger, then visited by the shepherds in the fields whose testimonies weren't even valid in court. Why? Because God sees you, God loves you, and God knows you. We're gonna take communion in just a moment. To represent really. What Jesus did on the cross for you and for me. And may we be reminded. That God is with us. Picture A parent Holding the hand of a child. Walking through a crowded unknown space. Picture getting on the bus for the first time, not knowing a soul. The anxiety that comes from being surrounded by strangers, not knowing if you'd be received, but instead greeted by friendly face. Hey. I've been waiting for you. Come sit with me. Maybe it's an old friend that goes with you to the doctor's appointment where you wait for diagnosis or treatment. Whatever you're walking through in life right now, there is comfort in the fact that God is with you. You know, advent really is a waiting season. And some of you are in a waiting season. Waiting for what's next. Waiting For something to be restored or renewed, or a new direction. And the common question to ask is why? And I wanna encourage you With the answer That 20 years of ministry. Has to offer, and that is this. I have no idea why. I really don't. But I can answer a deeper question. And that is the question Of who cares? And that we have thousands of years and story and story and story and story. That God is with his people. Jesus Christ, Emanuel. That when you hurt, he hurts. That he will hold your hand and be with you and walk you through whatever every trial, and that when you read to the end, that ultimately you you will have healing, you will have restoration, you will have hope that comes ultimately in eternity through Jesus Christ, and that comes because he came down to earth. In the most humble way, a manageable, Emmanuel, God with us. Will you pray with me? Dear heavenly Father. Whatever people are walking through right now, I pray that you can just encourage them today. That if they're walking through a difficult situation or relationship, or financial situation, or physical hardship, God, I pray that in our waiting, we will not choose worry, but instead choose worship. That will not focus on our position in life, but our disposition towards you. That we will recognize that you are with us every single step of the way and that we are not alone. That God you are Emmanuel, that you save, that you are the Messiah, and that you are with us every step of the way. So may we have peace and whatever walk we find ourselves in, whatever wilderness we find ourselves in, may you be with us just as you were with the characters in the Christmas story, just as you were with David and Elijah and Jesus and the disciples, may you be with us now. May we remember of how powerful your name, how beautiful and wonderful your name truly is, God. We worship you. He says we pray amen.