Sunday, December 3, 2017 @ 10:30 am

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017 @ 10:30 am

Good morning! I’m glad to welcome you to worship today at Hillcrest Baptist Church. 

Today we are beginning a 5-part sermon series, EMMANUEL, in which we will learn that Christmas is about God desiring to be with us. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” When Jesus was born, He was God in human flesh, and He dwelt among the people at that time, but what about today? Is He still Emmanuel, God with us?

In John 16, when Jesus was telling His disciples that He would be returning to the Father, He told them that it would be to their “advantage” (v. 7) that He go away, because He would send the “Helper” (v. 7). Of course, the “Helper” is the Holy Spirit who dwells in every true follower of Christ. So not only is God with us, but He is also in us in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

What a wonderful truth to know and live–God with us! God is with us in the good times and bad, times of loneliness or surrounded with family and friends, and in trials and triumph. It is my prayer that regardless of what you are facing in life, and where you are with God, you will come to know Him as Emmanuel. That you will begin to live every day, and face every circumstance of life knowing that God is with you.