Virtual Christmas - It's Personal

 

Pericope: Isaiah 7: 14 14 Matt 1: 23 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Sermon Text: Matt 1: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[a] (which means “God with us”).

Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Zechariah 2:8 8 For this is what the Lord Almighty says…—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye… Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; …

Psalms 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.;

Psalms 139:8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 

Point 1. God takes sin personally. Gen 3: 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Gen. 3:8-9 - 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Gen. 3:15 - And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Romans 5: 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Point 2. God takes your wandering personally. Luke 15: 1-3 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Point 3. God takes separation personally. Matt 1: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Romans 8:38 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life Application:

1.  Accept God’s personal response to your sin.

2.  Accept God’s personal response to your wandering and separation – come back

3.  Accept that Christmas is about Jesus coming to take away the sins of the world not Santa and Christmas decorations.