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[0:00] Well, my name is Pastor David Corrente. I have the joy and privilege of being an associate pastor here.! And it is my joy this morning to preach the Word of God to you this final Sunday of 2025.

[0:15] I invite you to turn your Bibles into Matthew chapter 1 verse 23. Matthew chapter 1 verse 23.

[0:40] Let me pray for us this morning before we go into His Word. Father, we thank You that You are with us. Thank You, Father, for coming and condescending and making Yourself low.

[0:55] So that You would bring us to Yourself. So, Father, as we walk through Your Word this morning, would You walk with us?

[1:10] Would You reveal the things that You need to reveal in our hearts, in our lives, and in this church? As Pastor BK has already prayed, Lord, would You let Your Word do a sovereign work that I as a preacher cannot do?

[1:30] That there is no trust in my words, there is only trust in the work of Your Holy Word. So we thank You, Father, that we can come and You can reveal Yourself to us through Your Word this morning.

[1:44] In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Matthew chapter 1. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

[2:02] No, this wasn't planned. If you were here on Christmas Eve, when Pastor BK walked through this text, it's probably the reality when leaders are on the same page and desire to bring the same truths to a congregation.

[2:16] BK essentially stole my introduction this morning, which is good. It's a good thing. Because we're seeing the same things. We want the same things as leaders here.

[2:30] It's simply the Spirit of God working in the life of the church, bringing us the truths that we need. I want to be an encouragement to you this morning as we enter into this new year.

[2:40] More specifically, the promises that God has given to us to grant us that hope, peace, and grace that we've been hearing so much about in Romans. That we have access to.

[2:55] We would love to think that as the calendar shifts from 25 to 26, that it is some reset that just puts all of life's troubles and trials and difficulties away.

[3:08] We'd love that, right? That'd be comfortable. It'd be easy for us. But in reality, although the date changes on the calendar, these encouragements, these things that are happening in our lives, these trials or health struggles, school, work, home life, it doesn't really change.

[3:28] They still continue on from December 31st to January 1. So, as life goes on, what has God revealed?

[3:41] What must we believe to stabilize, strengthen, mature us in this next year? And it's these three words. God with us.

[3:59] Beloved, do we realize? The significance of those words. God with us.

[4:13] Not merely the reality that Jesus Christ came in the flesh in Christmas as BK preached about. How glorious that is that he now reconciled us and drew us near to him.

[4:25] That Jesus, the one who is called Emmanuel, saved sinners from their sins. Now we can have a personal relationship with his God who created us. It's incredible. It's incredible.

[4:42] But there's so much more than that. So, I'd like this time to be almost a devotional time for us. I would love that this one truth dominates the mind, heart, and soul during our time this morning.

[5:02] That this devotion with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This one truth. This one singular promise that God is with his people. So that whatever the Lord brings.

[5:15] Whatever he is doing in your life now. You can bank on this. Anchor your soul to this reality. This ever present reality of a very present God in our lives.

[5:29] Maybe this example will kind of give illustration sometimes to how we live our Christian lives. I'm sure this has never happened to you, but let me just illustrate it before.

[5:41] You've lost something. And you start looking around, no big deal. And then you realize, man, this thing is really lost. It takes more time than you expected.

[5:53] And you've got your day to go on to. And you get a little bit more frustrated. And then people are noticing that you're looking for something. You're getting frustrated. They come in and help.

[6:03] And they may say something to you that maybe you don't appreciate at the time. Because you're busy looking for something. And then maybe they come and ask a question to help you.

[6:15] And maybe that doesn't help you. And so you get more frustrated, more exasperated. And then 10 to 15 minutes of your day go by. And then somebody asks you, or maybe even the thought comes into your mind.

[6:27] And says, have you prayed about this? And what that question is asking you is, have you thought that the God of heaven and earth that knows where everything is at every exact moment in time, space, and history could actually help you?

[6:43] That the God of heaven and earth cares so intimately and so deeply about you that you could even pray about a lost little toy or a set of keys or maybe it's your mind in the moment.

[6:53] I don't know. I don't know. Beloved, as we enter into this new year, I want us as a church to have this attitude, this mindset, this heart in this new year.

[7:04] No matter what the Lord brings to you, don't turn here, but just listen to Exodus 33, 15. Moses says, if your presence does not go with us, don't lead us from this place.

[7:16] He's saying, don't tell us to go anywhere, Lord, unless you are going to be intimately with us and leading us and guiding us. Don't take us anywhere if you're not with us.

[7:29] It's pointless. It's useless. For us to be on our own, to go into the wilderness. I don't want anything to do with my life moment by moment without the foundational belief and understanding that you are with me.

[7:48] That the God of heaven and earth is with you. Because here's the temptation, beloved. We try to grow spiritually on our own. We try to battle sin on our own.

[8:00] We try to walk through difficult trials on our own. We try to experience peace, hope, and grace on our own. We try to live this Christian life, sometimes, without the God that actually saved you and is with you.

[8:14] We start to get opinionated about things in our lives, in our Christian lives, without asking maybe what the Lord thinks. Or how he wants to lead us and guide us. Or maybe without the reality that he's actually walking with us in that very moment to lead us and guide us.

[8:35] Paul warned about this in the Galatians. He says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being perfected in the flesh? Here's Paul's, you know, translation here in the new 21st century version.

[8:50] Do you really think that you can finish what God started? So here's our question. Do we truly believe with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength that God is with us?

[9:04] And that changes everything about the situation that you're in. Everything. That God is with us. Here's the main point I'm going to repeat over and over again this morning.

[9:18] That the God of heaven and earth, who knows all things perfectly, and knows you personally, promises to be with you, lead you, and guide you to strengthen faith in every circumstance, until you see him face to face.

[9:31] When did the intimacy with his creation and people on earth start?

[9:44] Let's go back to Genesis 2. I hope you have your Bibles with you. And as per expected, I'm going to walk through multiple scriptures this morning, because I want you to be overwhelmed with the reality that God is with his creation personally and intimately, and is with you personally and intimately in everything you do.

[10:08] Genesis 2. Genesis 2, verse 7. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

[10:29] This is intimate language of a potter. Formed means to shape something creatively, taking very personal time and effort and strength to create something.

[10:45] This is God being very personable and intimate, creating humanity. Look at this. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

[10:58] He came near his creation to give creation life. He designed it to be in his image and in his likeness, so that there would be this relational intimacy, this closeness with he and his creation.

[11:15] He just didn't point. He just didn't throw some pattern into some software and create. We've got this new little device in our home.

[11:26] Our son Simeon has a 3D printer. It's really cool. These things are really neat. But all he has to do is essentially put the design in the computer, press a button, and then he can go away for a couple hours and just go play with his buddies.

[11:43] And have nothing to do with whatever is ultimately creating. It's done. God has the power to do that. He could have just pointed, but he didn't.

[11:58] He formed. He shaped. He fashioned. The divine artist from heaven, as he created humanity, was very personal, was very intimate.

[12:12] Every breath was very personal and intimate to him. How else can we know that? Well, you can think of Psalm 139, verse 16, when he says, In your book or in the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

[12:27] He knows every breath that you have. He knows your very first. He knows your very last. He's very personal and intimate with all of your breaths. When your breath becomes shallow because of the news you just heard.

[12:40] When your breathing speeds up because you're fearful and anxious. When you fall asleep and you have no control over your breath. God attends every single one of them. God is with us.

[12:54] The God of heaven and earth, who knows all things perfectly and knows you personally, promises to be with you, lead you, and guide you to strengthen faith in every circumstance until you see him face to face.

[13:08] Go to Genesis chapter 3, verse 8. These aren't going to be long-winded explanations of each text. I just want to make a couple notes and think about it.

[13:20] Have the word of God enter into our minds and hearts this morning. Look at verse 8. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

[13:31] And a man and his wife, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. This is that dark day where sin entered into the world, where they disobeyed God, and the consequences of sin are now entering into man's heart.

[13:51] We've been hearing about this in Romans chapter 5. In Adam. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. It became mentioned on Christmas Eve that God shows up in the chaos.

[14:02] He shows up in the very reality where everything is going wrong. Here's that reality for the first time. I love this.

[14:13] This is so intimate and so personal. So much so that he records how he's approaching them, and he records the actual temperature of the day.

[14:25] He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, right after sin entered into humanity.

[14:40] God was present when sin affected humanity. He was still allowing even the balmy temperatures, since obviously clothes wasn't a real thing yet, they hid from the presence of God.

[14:53] That this word presence also has the reality of head or face. You could even say something like, they hid from the face of God, meaning God was walking towards them face to face, even when they just disobeyed and sinned against him.

[15:09] How intimate and precious and personal is that? God came to see them while they were in their sin, while they were in their shame, face to face as their God, talking to them face to face, intimately as a parent comes to a child.

[15:26] And then look at the response. They hid themselves from the presence among the trees of the garden. Verse 9, Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

[15:39] He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. This is the same response that we have, the same response that our children have when they sin.

[15:53] They hide, they walk away, there's fearfulness, and then they try to fix it on their own without God, who's just walking in the cool of the day with them. What does God do?

[16:06] The rest of this chapter, he gives them instruction. He gives them promises. He does give them consequences. Then he gives them clothes.

[16:18] The divine tailor from heaven to cover their sin and shame. In that moment, he is present with them, face to face with them through it all.

[16:29] Again, do you remember Exodus 33, this familiar face to face language? Exodus 33, 11, God spoke with Moses face to face as one speaks with a friend.

[16:43] It's the same word here in verse 8. Same root word of presence, face to face. What's the context of Exodus 33 or 32 to 34?

[16:57] A little bit of chaos, wasn't it? God saves his people, brings them out of Egypt, miraculously, powerfully with a sovereign hand against the superpower nation of the day, and then they go craft some metal cow and say, this is the God that brought us out of Egypt?

[17:19] God was still speaking face to face with their leader, and he was still leading them on the mountain. He was still present with them in grave disobedience. The God of heaven and earth, who knows all things perfectly and knows you personally, promises to be with you, leads you and guides you to strengthen faith in every circumstance until you see him face to face.

[17:45] Go to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6, verse 8. Things are going to speed up here in the text a little bit more. Look at chapter 6, verse 8.

[18:06] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Look at verse 18. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

[18:26] God was looking down intimately in the process of salvation to make covenant with people, to be intimately involved with his creation. And what's the context here in chapter 6?

[18:38] Smooth and rosy, all going well on the earth. No, look at verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

[18:55] God shows up and says, I'm still going to make a contractual obligation of myself to you, to a person, to Noah.

[19:05] Talk about chaos. We still experience God's personal, present reality of this covenant. We see it a lot here, don't we, every time it rains?

[19:20] It's a continual reminder that God is with us. When you look up at that rainbow, you're thinking to yourself, God is with us. He'll never flood the earth again.

[19:31] He is protecting. He is guiding. He is with us. Go to Genesis chapter 17. This is the same reality here.

[19:48] You have a man, Abraham. Starting in verse 1, I love this.

[20:13] Walk before me and be blameless. This was the call, but what happened in chapter 16? Didn't go so well, did it? God, your promise isn't happening as quickly as I'd like it to happen, so let me help you a little bit.

[20:32] He was still personal, still intimate with Abraham. Made a covenant with him. Look at verse 3. Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him.

[20:46] After Abraham had already messed up pretty badly, he says, walk before me, come talk to me. This personal contractual obligation between me and you, I'm going to make it happen.

[21:01] And then the rest of the chapter is about him doing the work. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this. You don't have to turn there, but Genesis 26 and 28, this Isaac and Jacob, same thing.

[21:18] I will be with you. I will be with you. Turn to Exodus 19 for a moment. Exodus chapter 19. This is after God saves them.

[21:31] Out of Egypt, powerfully with that mighty hand. And again, I want you to look at this language that he says about the people whom he just saved.

[21:45] And the people who he knows in a couple chapters from now are going to raise up a golden calf. Verse 4, chapter 19. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

[22:00] Just hear that language. I brought you to myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

[22:23] These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. You tell them, Moses, this is what I want out of them. This is what I want the relationship to be.

[22:35] Out of all the peoples of the earth, you are a personal possession of mine. Everything is mine, but I want this group of people to be personally intimate with me.

[22:48] And I want them to take on my character. A kingdom of priests, personal, intersary people and a holy nation. I want to give them my very nature and character.

[23:02] They're so precious to me. I'm going to give myself to them and they are going to be mine. I'm going to bring them to me and I want them to be just like me. That's what God did to this nation.

[23:16] But you will also see here that there is a call to obey. It wasn't just Israel would sit down and do nothing. There was a call to obedience, but this was the kind of people he wanted them to be.

[23:31] Go to chapter 29. What would that look like? What would that look like to be a personal possession of God and for them to be a holy nation, to take on his very character?

[23:50] What would that look like practically? Exodus 29 starting in verse 42. Shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord where I will meet with you to speak with you there.

[24:08] I will meet there with the sons of Israel and it shall be consecrated by my glory I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate Aaron and the sons to minister as priests to me.

[24:21] Listen to this beloved. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. They shall know that I am the Lord God who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them.

[24:36] I am the Lord their God. I brought them out to meet with me. They're a personal possession to me and I'm going to make everything right. That's what this consecrate means.

[24:48] I will make them approachable to me. This chapter in chapter 29 here is about how the priests are going to continually sacrifice. So God is going to provide the means by which Israel can consistently come to meet with God.

[25:07] because they're a personal intimate possession of His. Pastor BK read Psalm 46 that they would know be still and know that I am God.

[25:32] Turn to Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26. Verses 11 to 13.

[25:49] Moreover, I will make my dwelling among you and my soul will not reject you.

[26:07] I will also walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

[26:25] I will make my dwelling. I will live. I will make my home with you. That's what he's saying. And my soul will not reject you. You will be personally accepted by me.

[26:39] Listen to these words again. My soul will not reject you. how many people maybe some of you right now in this room maybe right now during this Christmas season live by the fear of being rejected by people.

[27:06] You live by wondering how others see you and then you tend to draw your own personal identity from opinions formed by other people.

[27:22] And there's just this appetite to not be rejected. Maybe you've been rejected in the past. Maybe you've felt a certain kind of hurt before and there's just this massive amount of shame behind it.

[27:37] And people especially around Christmas being one of the most difficult times for loneliness and all of humanity are dying to hear these words my soul will not reject you.

[27:50] They want to hear it from people mainly. But what about what about God himself the one who created you and saved you to hear these kinds of words I'm going to make my home with you I'm not going to reject you I'm going to walk among you.

[28:07] I'm going to make you walk direct. I'm going to make you my own and help you walk faithfully. And I will not reject you.

[28:21] No Leviticus is not just all about the sacrificial system. It's about a personal intimate God who draws his people near to him. The God of heaven and earth who knows all things perfectly and knows you personally promises to be with you lead you and guide you to strength and faith in every circumstance until you see him face to face.

[28:44] And I know what you're thinking now you're like Dave come on are you going to go through every book of the Bible? You all know I want to. But I wanted to lay this foundation that it's always been this way.

[28:58] God has always been intimate with his creation. He's always been with his people. He's always drawn himself near and wanted his people to come to him in the same nature and the same character and he did all of the heavy lifting.

[29:11] He did all of the work. All of the sacrifices. He says come near to me. So I do want to draw out some more passages though.

[29:24] I'm just not going to go through every book of the Bible. So let's go to one that we do know well. Psalm 23. Go to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. Look how personal this language is.

[29:59] The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.

[30:12] He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Verse 4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.

[30:25] Why? For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

[30:39] Even if you are walking in this darkness with little earthly hope, there is no need to fear but be personally comforted, personally led, personally drawn to your chief shepherd.

[30:54] turn to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 verse 10.

[31:16] I think Israel's got this wonderful track record at this point. You think they've turned it around? Think they've really, really shown up?

[31:31] If you read Isaiah 1 through 39, you'll realize that they haven't. But what does God say still? Look at verse 8.

[31:43] But you Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called you from its remotest parts and said to you, you are my servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.

[32:07] So do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God. I will strengthen you.

[32:18] Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. God's already said these things.

[32:32] He's graciously reminding them, giving them tender reminders, just like we do with our children sometimes. You are my son, you are my daughter.

[32:43] I love you. God will always love you. That's what God is doing here. You are my own. I have chosen you.

[32:56] I have not rejected you. I am with you. God go to Ezekiel 37.

[33:12] So, what did that mean for Israel? if you recall in Ezekiel 36, remember he promised them a new heart.

[33:34] He says, I'm going to place my spirit within you. I'm going to take out your heart of stone and put into you a heart of flesh.

[33:52] And then look what he promises. Verse 24, my servant David will be king over them and they will all have one shepherd and they will walk in my ordinances and keep my statutes and observe them.

[34:05] They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob my servant which your fathers lived and they lived on it. They and their sons and their sons forever. And David my servant will be their prince forever.

[34:19] I'll make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them and multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever.

[34:32] My dwelling place also will be with them and I will be their God and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.

[34:47] He's saying in the future I am going to dwell with them forever. I'm going to give them new hearts. I'm going to give them new spiritual life and all of the nations will know because I am going to be right in the middle of it all.

[35:04] You're not just some chosen people of mine and then I just take off. No, I'm going to set my presence. I'm actually going to put my Davidic king, my servant who will be Jesus Christ.

[35:15] He is going to rule and reign on the earth. He's going to be with his people. He promises that.

[35:31] Go to Zephaniah chapter 3. I know Zephaniah is not maybe a place we do our morning devotions all the time. But Zephaniah is such a precious, precious book of God's presence among his people.

[35:53] Zephaniah chapter 3. He has to continually remind his people. Look at verse 15.

[36:10] Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 15. The king of Israel, the Lord, is where? In your midst. You will fear disaster no more.

[36:24] In that day it will be said of Jerusalem, do not be afraid, O Zion. Do not let your hands fall limp. Why? Verse 17. The Lord your God is in your midst. The victorious warrior.

[36:36] He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Yes, the same Israel that has sinned greatly in all of the rest of the Old Testament.

[36:51] God is still going to dwell with them. He will still love them. He will exalt over them with joy and he's even going to rejoice over them with shouts of joy, with praise.

[37:02] everything everything that Israel has gone through. What does he say? In the future, I'm going to be in your midst.

[37:15] It's not going to change anything. Okay, last Old Testament text. Haggai chapter 2. I chose this one very specifically because of the context of Haggai.

[37:34] Haggai chapter 2 verse 4. But now, take courage, Zerubbabel declares the Lord.

[37:48] Take courage also, Joshua, son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and all you people in the land. Take courage, declares the Lord, and work. For I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.

[38:01] And for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is abiding in your midst. Do not fear. The context here is that they were rebuilding their own homes before they were building the house of God when they came out of exile.

[38:18] They concentrated more on their comforts than their worship. And then things got hard, things got difficult, because the nation surrounding them noticed that they were building the house of God and they wanted to stop it.

[38:31] And so he's saying, take courage. I've instructed you to rebuild my temple because my worship is the most significant reality. Not your comforts on earth, not building your own paneled homes, not your post and beam homes, house, but my house so that I can dwell with you.

[38:51] He was more concerned about him being with his people. He says, take courage and work. Do the job I've asked you to do. So constantly through the scriptures, it's not just that God is with you so that you just feel better about yourself and then you go on living your own way how you want to live.

[39:12] He is with you, gives you instructions and guides you and gives you promises so that you can submit to him and work so that you can conform to the very person that he calls you to be.

[39:34] See how everything is connected here is the promise which I made you when I came, when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is abiding in your midst, do not fear. It was a constant reminder for Israel, I am with you.

[39:54] And then the Christmas promise, I am with you. God with us. Emmanuel. Go to Matthew 28.

[40:09] Can we have this confidence as a church? We talk about making disciples.

[40:23] We talk about how this passage leads and guides us in the church, whether it is a Sunday morning Lord's Day worship service, whether it is growth groups, whether it is BSF, whether it is meeting at a coffee shop with a dear brother or sister, whether it's meeting with Dave Nannery, whether it's Grace Kids, whatever we are doing.

[40:52] Jesus says in verse 18, Do we believe that as a church?

[41:16] That everything we put our hands to the plow in this coming year that God promises Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who took upon himself sin and death and shame for us so that we would be reconciled and we would dwell with God.

[41:31] And he personally promises, I will be with you always, even to the end of the day. I'm going to make this my people, my church, my body, and I'm going to be with them and accomplish and build my church even to the end of the age.

[41:55] Do we believe that in everything that we do that God is with us? That would change things. A couple more texts, beloved. Go to John chapter 14. How can we know personally and intimately that God is with us?

[42:13] Well, let's go back to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The upper room here, John chapter 14, verse 16.

[42:32] In the Old Testament, there was the promise of the Holy Spirit and Jesus confirms it here. Verse 16, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever, that is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because he does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.

[42:57] Jesus promises, confirming from the Old Testament here into the New Covenant that we will have God's spirit, the third person of the Trinity in us and with us.

[43:12] Paul confirms that. He says, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you're not your own? Paul is saying you can't just live separately from the reality that God purchased you and that he drew himself near in you and that he is with you and that you're no longer a slave to sin, carried about your desires and every whim and opinion of life?

[43:42] He says in 2 Corinthians 6, for we are the temple of the living God just as God says, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

[43:53] Sound familiar? How precious is that? These Old Testament truths coming into the New Covenant. A couple more texts here.

[44:06] Hebrews 13 and this beloved is something that we have to believe with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength here. Hebrews chapter 13 starting in verse 5.

[44:30] verse 5. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. Be content with what you have for he himself said I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you.

[44:49] So that we confidently say, okay, let's read that again. So that we confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Remember those who led you, spoke the word of God to you, considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. You have this very personal and intimate God who created you, breathed life into you, who came to dwell with you, who sacrificed himself for you, gave him his spirit among you, and none of it has changed. You have Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever.

[45:44] The same God that we saw going through the Old Testament into the New Testament is with you. I want to see where does this all end? We saw the beginning. What about the end? Go to Revelation 21.

[46:05] Revelation 21. This is what God has been doing with salvation. He's been drawing people near to himself to make him like himself so that he would be with his people forever.

[46:27] Revelation 21 verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself will be among them and he will wipe away every tear from their eye and there will no longer be any death and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away.

[46:56] Revelation 22. Chapter 22. Chapter 22 verse 3. Clearly I cannot go to another verse here.

[47:11] Another chapter. Because this is the end. For those of us who are in Christ Jesus, this is it. Verse 3. There will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his bond servants will serve him and they will see his face and his name will be on their forehead.

[47:37] There will no longer be any night. They will not have need for a light or a lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.

[47:50] The God of heaven and earth who knows all things perfectly and knows you personally promises to be with you, lead you and guide you to strengthen faith in every circumstance until you see him face to face.

[48:09] If he will be with you intimately and personally, then that means he cares. If he cares, then he will provide wisdom and instruction for you on how you are to think, believe, and respond in your current circumstance and whatever the Lord brings to us in 26.

[48:29] And the strength of your perspective or your feelings doesn't change the reality that God is with you. And that he will be with you and that he is who he is in all of his glorious characteristics for you in your circumstance and for us in where he takes us as a church.

[48:57] Because of this, he will grow you. He will mature you in that very circumstance because he is walking with you. So let's do a little bit of a review here.

[49:13] So God the Father who orchestrated salvation and knew you before the foundation of the world. God the Son who accomplished salvation and knows you taking the consequences of your personal sin upon himself and knows the heart of every man and still personally intercedes for you.

[49:32] And God the Spirit who is in you and applied the benefits of salvation in Christ, who is also interceding for you.

[49:43] You have his word, God's word, who the Spirit wrote, giving light, wisdom, and understanding, training you in righteousness, and preparing you for everything God is accomplishing within you.

[49:55] And then you're here in the midst of the church, which he calls the body of Christ, being built up and strengthened, growing and maturing, people together to know Jesus Christ and to help you pursue Christ.

[50:12] God is with us. God is with you. God's personal presence is here to humble us, to motivate us to trust him and to propel faith in him, in whatever he calls us to do, wherever he calls us to obey, so that we would be like him and conform to the image of his Son.

[50:45] Not just to make us feel good and comforted and go on to live according to our own whims, but to submit to him as he surrounds us with himself and everything that he's given us.

[51:01] Maybe it's significant health issues, ongoing health issues, challenges in your marriage, difficulties in family life and parenting, this nagging sin that keeps creeping up and you keep stumbling over it every time it comes up in temptation, confusion with different decisions that you have to make and you're just not sure and you don't understand where the Lord might be leading you.

[51:34] Maybe there's troubles with certain friendships. Maybe there's pressures of juggling some schedules. Maybe there's just feelings of shame weighing you down, financial difficulties.

[51:52] God is with us. God is with you. Take time to pray.

[52:05] Remind yourself. Preach to your own heart this truth every day. Wake up thinking about this reality. God is with us.

[52:16] personally and intimately attending to us. Calling us to himself so that we would be more like him. Every thought, every word, every action, every trial, every circumstance, that we would know that the God of heaven and earth who knows all things perfectly and knows you personally, promises to be with you, lead you and guide you to strengthen faith in every circumstance until you see him face to face.

[52:42] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what human words can we now say?

[53:01] What do we have that we can offer you? You. You came down to us in the midst of chaos, in the midst of our sin, in the midst of our weakness and our inability to conform to anything you call us to.

[53:20] And that you still rejoice over us with singing. You still call us to yourself. Call us your own. Call us children. You make your home and you're dwelling with us.

[53:33] Father, would you personally attend each heart and each soul that is here in this moment and you know exactly where they need this truth.

[53:52] Lord, would you comfort, encourage, humble, convict wherever these truths need to saturate our mind, heart, soul, and faith.

[54:03] Help us to be reminded and know of these truths, Lord. You are the God of 25.

[54:13] You are the God of 26 and beyond. You are the God of history and you are the God of the present and you are the God of the future. You are the Alpha and Omega. So help us, Lord, to trust you because you are with us.

[54:32]  We ask all of this in the name of your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.