God with us

How many of you had a Merry Christmas? How many of you had a Merry Christmas? Pastor Samuel and I have a prayer before God and we want, we long for a 100% answer to that prayer. There is something that God has for you that you should be happy and content about. That God is with you and that he has never left you or forsaken you. Let's go in prayer.

Lord Jesus we thank you for your presence. Thank you for every song and chorus that was raised before you. Thanks for this chorus. Thanks for the drama. Thank you for the many ways you have given us to tell you that we love you and that we need you. And thank you for this word. Spirit of God, this is your word, that it be you blowing on it and make it alive so that souls can be freed, that bodies can be healed and that those who are chained can leave here free. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

We are reading from Matthew, chapter 1, verse 18: “…. And she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. And, behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call his name Immanuel, which translated is God with us….”

What does Christmas mean to you? You know, there are a lot of people out there who would rather Christmas not come and I would imagine that maybe there are some of you here today, maybe some of you listening on the Internet, that maybe this Christmas is not what you expected. . Perhaps you have not had the Christmas you have wanted for many years and I understand that there is a reason for this. And I suggest that maybe the reason why you don't enjoy Christmas, and despite all the choruses that have been sung, that maybe some of them don't make much sense to you, and maybe you're sitting there saying, I want to understand what is the big issue of this. I wish I could feel the same joy that others feel when Christmas comes around. But if I want to be honest, maybe I don't enjoy Christmas and I can't understand why people who sing about it are so happy. And I still dare to go further: maybe some of you think that these people are making you feel like you are something. Maybe some of them don't quite understand what Christmas is and are just faking it in some way or another. Because maybe you've been faking it too. Perhaps there are some among you who have been spending Christmas after Christmas and New Year after New Year misrepresenting what is the true feeling of that season, but it is not yet in your heart. And I think the most important reason for this has to do with what you think about Christmas.

Each one of us has been programmed about what Christmas is or what Christmas should not be. And this changes from culture to culture. There are people here from Africa, Latin America and even from Jersey. Also Jersey can feel like a foreign country at times. But no matter what culture you come from, you grew up with the idea that if these points a, b, and c are not present you didn't have Christmas. If you didn't have a little tree, if you didn't have many gifts, if you didn't have something to give, if perhaps you didn't have a little bit of coquito... by your blood that redeems you. Maybe if you didn't have someone to party with with a four or something, then you didn't have Christmas, you'll think you didn't have it.

I want to reconfigure in some way or another your idea of what Christmas is. And I have a confession to make: I love Christmas, I love Christmas. I am one of the biggest fans of Christmas. But it's not because all my Christmases have been perfect. I lost a grandmother on December 24 and almost 20 years ago today, I also buried one of my aunts who died on Christmas Eve. People die at Christmas. But it's still Christmas. And I rejoice when Christmas comes. There are people who lose their jobs at Christmas, but I rejoice in Christmas. And I rejoice when this season comes.

I have known what it is to live with or without but I love it and I love Christmas. Because there is a central idea that gives meaning to what Christmas is. Without that aspect there is no kind of Christmas. It does not matter any other ingredient that you put in your Christmas if this ingredient is not present, there is no Christmas. And if you have nothing else but you do have this truth, no matter what happens you are going to have a tremendous Christmas. Do you know why? Through Emmanuel, God is with us.

Please see, a 21st century instrument in a 20th century hand. God is with us. Everybody say Emmanuel. All this means is God with us. Say God with us. Say God with me. This is the central idea of what the incarnation is. What this means is that God left his throne, came to earth, clothed himself in flesh, and walked in our midst. There are books that talk about how this can be possible. And I am not here to explain to you how God came to this earth, became flesh in the person of Jesus, I am here to celebrate the fact that God came from heaven and became flesh here on earth in the person of Jesus. I am here to celebrate the fact that if Jesus, if God had not left his throne and been here with us, there would be no reason to celebrate.

This is not only the central idea of Christmas, just as we serve Jesus, or rather, you, servant of Jesus, you who are a disciple of Christ Jesus, Emmanuel is not only the secret ingredient for a good Christmas, Emmanuel is the secret ingredient for a successful Christian life here in the midst of the world in which we live. Emmanuel means that no matter what hell throws at you, you are going to have victory because God is with you. That is what Emmanuel means, that God is with us.

Well, Pastor Samuel, of course God is with us. Isn't he omnipresent? Isn't he everywhere? Well of course yes. You know, we needed the incarnation to prove that God was everywhere. Throughout the Old Testament they knew that God was omnipresent. Throughout the Old Testament many women had a sense of communion with God. Isaiah did not have to prophesy the arrival of an Emmanuel to say and believe that God was everywhere.

So this tells me that there is more to Emmanuel than the mere fact of his omnipresence. Don't let anyone fool you, there is more to the concept of Emmanuel than the mere fact that God is everywhere. To make it simple, there are people who understand this idea very well that God is everywhere, but for them God is like an uncle who lives far away who at Christmas only sends them an email to say hello. It is almost not present in his life. They know that it exists, they know that it is somewhere but it is on the periphery of their existence.

The point is that God doesn't want to be a distant uncle to you. What does this mean? First of all it means that God is among us. You know what I love about this Emanuel idea? This idea that God is with us. That even if you were a theologian, and that you love language and you are, as they say, analyzing this sentence, this phrase, God is with us, it is one of the most perfect poems in any language because it means all these things at the same time. And the first thing it means is that God is among us, not just with us but among us, walking on our streets, in our businesses, with you when you are at that funeral, with you when you are giving birth to a baby. He's with you when you get that bill from work, he's with you when you get an unwanted diagnosis from your doctor. He is a God that you can know and a God that can be known.

God did not have to have assumed flesh or have flesh for you to know that he was there. He didn't have to go through that process to know what a broken heart is, but he wanted you to know that he knew what it meant to be human, what it felt like to go through what you're going through. So Jesus took on all of these things like you do every day.

My Bible says that Jesus wept. My Bible says that Jesus went to weddings. My Bible says that Jesus knew what it means to be betrayed. Jesus knew what it meant to be disappointed. My Bible says that Jesus knew what it was like to be abandoned and alone. And Jesus was the one who, when he looked at the heavens, fulfilled the prophecy that said, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? So when it's your turn to look up at the skies and all you see are clouds and you have to say, God, why have you forsaken me? They will be able to hear what he tells you, I have not gone anywhere, I am with you. He is with us. He wants to be part of your world, part of your life.

The fact that God is with us also means that God is for you, in other words, if God is with us, in other words it means that he is not against you. God is with me and in the same sense as when you turn around and you look at your friends and you are about to leave and maybe you think, and who is with me now? Who is next to me? God is trying to tell him that he is not there to persecute you, he loves you.

Let me allow that into your heart there. He loves you. He is not there to cause you trouble. He wants to be your friend. What we have in Emanuel is God daring to take some very big risks for the mere fact of wanting to be your friend. And the Bible is full of attempts that God has made to be our friend. This great, strong and powerful God, humiliating himself, as we would humiliate ourselves with a child, trying to be our friend.

You know, it's possible, God does have friends. Abraham was known as a friend of God. The Bible says in exodus 33 that Moses talked to God face to face as if a man were talking to his friend. The Bible says that David was a man who followed the heart of God, in other words, who knew the heart of God. He saw her heart. He talked with God heart to heart.

When was the last time you had a heart-to-heart conversation with God? When was the last time you were not in the presence of a distant uncle but in the presence of a friend who is all powerful and is there for you? When was the last time you experienced that God invaded your Bethlehem, that area of darkness and told you, here I am, I am your friend? If they cannot understand this, it may be for one of two reasons: perhaps you are convinced that God has forgotten you, that circumstances have proven to you that this God these people are talking about is not interested in me. Let me suggest something, maybe those same circumstances, those same tribulations do not mean that God is abandoning you, maybe it is the opposite, maybe what God is trying to do is get your attention, maybe God is giving you a reason so that you cry out to him, perhaps God is motivating you to go one step further in being able to know him. He wants to be your friend. So you say, Pastor Samuel, wow, with friends like that I don't need enemies! But you know, he loves you too much to let this fall on the floor. God will continue looking for you because he knows how much you need him. He's not going to drop. Until there is breath in your lungs he sees hope. As long as there is breath in you, when God looks at you he sees someone he can befriend. He sees a soul with whom he can connect. He sees the heart with which he can speak. He sees a life to which he can minister. He sees a miracle that he can make come true. He sees a forum where his glory can be manifested. When God sees you, he sees a temple waiting for the Holy Spirit to inhabit it. Literally, literally God he wants to get under your skin and make you understand, literally. He not only wants to be with you but in you too. He wants to be your friend because he has a purpose for you.

Which brings me to the next meaning of what Emmanuel is: that God is accompanying you, supporting you and directing you. And I still add to that, motivating you and also shaking your hand. God is with you in the sense that God is there by your side motivating you. It is like a singer in an opera, perhaps you have heard when a singer says, today I sang like never before because I felt that the audience was with me. Well, you know, God is with you, applauding you, and shaking your hand, giving you ideas, giving you his anointing, his revelation.

When I think of this idea of God being with me, I think of the book of Ezra. Ezra had a sentence throughout the entire book, you don't see many miracles in the book of Ezra but what you see is a pattern that is repeated continuously. You know, Ezra getting this idea from God, something a little crazy that no one has ever done before but God tells Ezra, go and do it yourself. So through dreams and whispered through the Holy Spirit, and God plants this idea in your heart and in your mind.

I ask you, how many of you know what I'm talking about? That suddenly your mind receives a message that can only come from God. That maybe in one way or another, no one in your family had gone to college and you get this revelation from God to conceive that idea, to push yourself to achieve this. No one has ever been successful at anything before, but somehow God is telling you it's you, you go and do it. No one in your family had been freed from drugs or alcohol before, but the light of God shines on you, and he says, I have put life in you and you are going to be that one, you will be the one who is going to eliminate the darkness in your family. Go, I am with you. Go, dare. Perhaps you have been sitting in these seats for years here in León de Judá. You see this choir singing like angels. Why don't you talk to the members of that choir? Why don't you ask him his story? Why don't you ask them how they got there? Why don't you ask if they ever had a difficult Christmas? Why don't you ask if they've ever been through hell? And the reason why they sing the way they do. It is because God has whispered to them. And he has told them, I have a life for you, something you cannot imagine. So go ahead and do it. Do this that no one has ever done before. I'm with you. I'm with you.

There is a big difference between those people who live as they say from day to day, with that perspective of what Emanuel is, and those who do not. there is a big difference.

I want you, my brothers and sisters, to leave here asking God to give me a mission worthy of your glory. Give me something impossible, because if there's one thing about Christmas, it's that God can do impossible things, all things are possible with God. When you finally wake up to that idea that God is with me, there is nothing that can stop you.

If you take the example of Joseph, in Scripture you never see Joseph saying anything specific, he never says a word. Nowhere in Scripture can you see what it says, and Joseph said, but what we do see is God revealing himself to Joseph through dreams. And the Bible says that the day after Joseph got up and acted on that revelation. If God is with you, live in a strong way, if God is with you, pay attention to those dreams and dare to risk things for the Kingdom of God. If God is with us, who can be against us? If God is with you, who can stop you?

I have tried to live my life encouraging others to hear the voice of God and maybe if you can't see anything but the end of the road even if you think this movie is going to end right now, that's it. what he can say: 2010 is about to be already and I can say with all conviction, I have never, never, never seen a just man fall helpless or his children beg for bread and that is the same God who is with you. It is the same God that is in you, it is the same God that is giving that promise to your life. Lion of Judah, God is with you. It doesn't matter if hell doesn't like it. He doesn't care if hell has a plan against you, God is with you and the gates of hades will not be able to prevail against you.

Let's stand up for a minute. I want you to be able to say these words with me: Emmanuel. God is with me. Can you believe it? Please bow your heads for a moment. Thanks God. You have never turned your back on this planet. You have a plan. You are that eternal God. You are great. You are almighty, the God who reigns forever, Prince of peace. The government is on your shoulders. There is no one like you. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you. The angels bow before you and call you King and it is you who says that you are with us, it is you who says that you are with each of these people. You are powerful, you are invincible, you are tremendous and there is no one like you.

Master, if there is a life for you to flood, I declare the heavens open as if it had been that day there, I declare Gabriel in his post as on that day, I declare the heavenly hosts declaring those words of great joy. I declare that light of yours shining on that soul that needs a savior to be born in his life today. It brings life to the one who has only known trouble after trouble. Be with them Jesus. Be with them Jesus. Be with them.

If you are here today and this is good news for you, that you have never seen Christmas in this way because maybe you don't see God in that way, and you say, Pastor Samuel, I want God to be with me today, I don't I want to leave here without the certainty that God is with me and I want to receive him today. I want God for Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, forever. I want it with me today.

Please I invite you to raise your hand. If you are receiving the Lord Jesus for the first time, I invite you to come forward. If this is the first time that you are saying I want to receive Jesus for the first time in my life, I invite you to come forward, we want to pray for you. If you are raising your hand because you are receiving this strength from God, I want you to receive this too today.

Thank you Lord Jesus. We give glory and honor only to you Jesus. My God, these people who are raising their hands, you know their heart, you know their request, you know the longing and desire of their lives. You know what each of my brothers and sisters need in a season like this, so Father, as we have heard this word, we declare once again that you are with us. Father, we declare that you want to be that eternal friend for our lives, that you are there to encourage us, to lift us up and Father, that is why our hands are directed to you now, Lord. We do not want to leave this place without any doubt, Lord, that you are with us. So Father, manifest yourself to each of your sons and daughters. Lord, that each of us can be affirmed in the truth that you are with us.

Today we declare an Emmanuel. We declare an Emanuel over our lives that you are with us, that you are with us, with our loved ones, that you go with us wherever we go. May your light shine upon us always and always, Lord Jesus. All the glory and all the honor is for you, Lord. Be glorified in our midst, Lord. We seek you with all our hearts. Thank you Lord Jesus. Thanks God.