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God WithUs6 Parts + Preview
God With Us was our Christmas series for 2018. We partnered with Life Church to bring the encouraging message of how God is really with us. We hope that you have a blessed time with family and friends this Christmas season and the knowledge to know that God Is With Us. So feel free to use our free God With Us resources.
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Resources
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| Life Church God With Us Cover Picture |
| Life Church God With Us Square |
| God With Us Facebook / Twitter Cover |
| God With Us Preview |
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| God With Us Background (Blank) |
| Part 1 |
| Part 2 |
| Part 3 |
| Part 4 |
| Part 5 |
| Part 6 |
| God With Us Preview |
| God With Us Story (Blank) |
| Part 1 |
| Part 2 |
| Part 3 |
| Part 4 |
| Part 5 |
| Part 6 |
Preview
God Is With Us.
He is with us in the valley, the desert, and the mountaintop, God is with us always. He is with us in our darkest and lightest moments. He physically came to Earth to save us.
God is with us.
He is with us in the valley, the desert, and the mountaintop, God is with us always. He is with us in our darkest and lightest moments. He physically came to Earth to save us.
God is with us.
Part 1
Welcome to our new series God With Us. We are partnering with @life.church to bring you our Christmas series and to inspire you and give you hope this Christmas season.
Have you heard God’s story lately?
It’s like this. God had perfect relationship with the Holy Spirit and His Son, Jesus. Together, they were all they needed. One day, they created a new kind of creature: our distant relatives, Adam and Eve. God didn’t just create us as a side project to be forgotten. He wanted to be with us from the beginning. Genesis records He walked with us in the garden in the cool of the day. Do you know God like that? You can. God wanted to be closer with us, so He sent His only Son, Jesus, the ultimate priest and once-and-for-all sacrifice. Jesus came to Earth to be with us, where He gave His life to fulfill the law for us. When God sent His only Son to be with us and announced Him to Earth, you know what He called Him? Immanuel, which means “God with us.” God literally had a baby on our tiny planet and named Him God with us! Consider again today what He’s done to be with us, to be with you. What are you willing to do, or give up, to be with Him?
Have you heard God’s story lately?
It’s like this. God had perfect relationship with the Holy Spirit and His Son, Jesus. Together, they were all they needed. One day, they created a new kind of creature: our distant relatives, Adam and Eve. God didn’t just create us as a side project to be forgotten. He wanted to be with us from the beginning. Genesis records He walked with us in the garden in the cool of the day. Do you know God like that? You can. God wanted to be closer with us, so He sent His only Son, Jesus, the ultimate priest and once-and-for-all sacrifice. Jesus came to Earth to be with us, where He gave His life to fulfill the law for us. When God sent His only Son to be with us and announced Him to Earth, you know what He called Him? Immanuel, which means “God with us.” God literally had a baby on our tiny planet and named Him God with us! Consider again today what He’s done to be with us, to be with you. What are you willing to do, or give up, to be with Him?
Part 2
Remember God’s story? God’s all about being with us. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, literally says our new advocate will not only be with us, but in us. It’s as if in that moment, Jesus put His reputation, His own God-given name, the entire history of the with-us God on the line when He introduced us to the Holy Spirit. Imagine Santa comes down the chimney into your living room, spends Christmas with you, then tells the kids he has to go back up, but he’s leaving behind all the gifts, joy, cheer, and magic of the North Pole forever. You’ll never have to mail Santa a wish list again, kids. Except God’s story is real. Through the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is not only with us, but in us, beside us—our strength, power, counsel, and Comforter always! You’ll never have to hurl worried prayers at a distant God again.
Part 3
Many Bible historians believe David wrote Psalm 23 around age 13, right about the same time he was anointed as the next king of Israel. Imagine for a minute those two life experiences colliding. Maybe you don’t have to. Maybe you were or are a teen who experienced some of the most life-altering news in your story. We tend to read this famous Psalm as a reminder from a well-experienced pro to trust God in difficult times—in the valley of the shadow of death. Today, let’s read it through the mind of a teenager who’s just received word that he’s way less prepared for his life than he’d ever imagined. Also, keep in mind David lived before Jesus came to Earth, before Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, during a time when faith in God was culturally less intimate and more based in religious, transactional practices. How do we talk to God in the valley? Constantly. Personally. Honestly. Kindly, as if we know Him and He knows us. Why? Because we do, and He does.
We encourage you to read Psalm 23 today, read it in the eyes of David. https://my.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.23.niv
We encourage you to read Psalm 23 today, read it in the eyes of David. https://my.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.23.niv
Part 4
Desert. Chew on that word a bit. Maybe you think of the verb. To desert is to abandon or leave a person or a cause, especially at a crucial moment when you’re most needed. Maybe you’ve felt deserted. Maybe you think of the noun: a place with scorching sun, desolate landscape, and the scarce cactus riddled with painfully sharp spines. Maybe you’ve been through some deserts in your life. Much of the Bible was either written or lived in regions of the world that exemplify the noun, desert. Think about that for a minute. The Earth-restoring, heart-quenching, spiritually nourishing cold cup of water that is the Word of God was birthed, for the most part, in the desert. Come on! Have you experienced a dry season in your faith, your finances, your marriage, your family, your work? Maybe it feels like more than a season. Maybe you feel like you’re living in a dry region. Maybe you feel deserted. Be encouraged. Our God is the God who chose to speak His words of life from the desert. Does God desert His people at the crucial moments when they need Him the most? Well that depends whether you’re talking about the verb or the noun. As for the verb, no, God will never leave us nor forsake us. He’s clear about that. As for the noun, yes, God has a history of allowing His people to experience dry seasons and regions. The desert reveals God as a trainer, not a traitor. He’s a compassionate coach, not an absent killer. The desert teaches us to thrive without rain by connecting directly to the rainmaker. He’s right there with us, encouraging us in power, teaching us to dig deep wells in Him, to rely on the water Jesus talked about, that leaves us never thirsting again.
Part 5
Whether it’s getting a new job, beating cancer, surviving a horrible accident, getting a huge promotion, getting married, finally getting pregnant, discovering faith, we all experience mountaintop moments. Imagine you’re climbing a mountain. With each step your altitude increases, the oxygen decreases, your blood thins, your heart beats faster, and everything below you grows smaller. As your mind clears, you notice the once-towering tree that made you feel tiny at the trailhead is now a pinhead in a breathtaking view of valleys, rivers, hills, meadows, homes, roads, and distant communities full of people who can only see what’s right in front of them. Something inside you wants to sing, throw your fists in the air, shout, write, or respond to the power of what you see. Mountaintops do that. Mountains are a constant geographical fixture of some of God’s greatest stories in the Bible. Remember Moses on Mount Sinai retrieving the Ten Commandments? Remember where Noah’s ark finally landed and he received God’s promise? Mount Ararat. How about when Abraham obeyed God with Isaac, and God provided a ram? Mount Moriah. Where Moses finally caught a glimpse of the Promised Land? Mount Nebo. Then, there’s Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taught us how to live. And finally, Golgotha, the hill where Jesus died. If God is with us on the mountaintop, what’s He up to?
Part 6
Wait. How do you like that word? Hold on a moment. Just a second. Be with you in a minute. I’ll be right back. Feeling antsy yet? Notice all of our euphemisms for waiting include some kind of effort to make you believe the amount of time you have to wait will actually be very small? We just love to belittle waiting. What are you waiting for? Have you ever been asked that? Do you ever wonder what you’re not waiting for? Maybe you’re waiting on a diagnosis. Waiting on a promotion. Waiting for some kind of break. Waiting tables on the side to make ends meet. What if we shouldn’t belittle waiting? What if there’s holy power in waiting? What if waiting is not what we do while we grow, but it’s the soil God uses so we grow. Think about Joseph. He was pledged to be married. We know from Scripture he was honoring Mary and God by waiting on marriage to consummate the relationship. We also know that after the angel told Joseph his virgin fiancée was pregnant with Jesus, that Joseph took Mary as his wife. Was God with Mary in the waiting? Yes. He was literally inside of her everywhere she went for nine months. Think Mary still felt like she was waiting? If you’re unsure, ask the next pregnant woman you see, “What are you waiting for?” Mary’s proof God’s not only with us in the waiting, He is growing something powerful in us through the waiting. Was God with Joseph in all his waiting? Yes. While God grew Jesus in Mary, He grew faithfulness, persistence, and hope in Joseph. Was all his waiting worth it? Well, Scripture mentions at least four siblings of Jesus. So there’s that. But seriously, He got to raise up the Savior of the world! Jesus was worth the wait. For 4,000 years the earth waited for Jesus to come, But it was worth it. So What are you waiting for? How can you stop belittling waiting? What’s God growing in you because you’re waiting?
That was our series God With Us. We enjoyed partnering with Life.Church to bring you this amazing series. Merry Christmas!
That was our series God With Us. We enjoyed partnering with Life.Church to bring you this amazing series. Merry Christmas!
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