Let us worship the King of kings, let’s worship our Maker, the Almighty God, the King of glory, let’s worship Him, let’s honor Him, let’s adore Him. He’s the reason why we are alive, oh, let’s praise His holy name, He’s the Alpha and the Omega, He’s the only wise God, it is by His mercy that you and I are alive today, let’s worship Him, Lord.
We worship You, we honor You, we adore You, let’s exalt His holy name, He’s wonderful, He’s merciful, He’s kind, He’s faithful, but for Him you and I will not be here this morning, Father, we glorify Your name, we honor and we adore You, we thank You for Your mercy, we thank You for Your help, we thank You for Your provisions, we thank You for Your preservation, we thank You for keeping us even to see another Christmas period.
Thank You for taking us through all the dangers of this year, thank You that we are alive, we are hale and hearty, we can stand and sing and dance and worship before You this morning, blessed be Your name Father. Lord, we love You, we honor, we adore You, please accept our worship in the name of Jesus. Accept our thanks, oh God, in the name of Jesus.
Lord, we confess all our sins and shortcomings, Father, because You’re a merciful God, thank You Father for looking beyond our sins, Father, have mercy upon us this morning, wash us clean with the precious blood of our Redeemer in the name of Jesus.
Lord, even as we share Your word this morning, speak to us as only You can and let Your name be glorified. No matter the situation that we are in right now, Father show up for us, oh God Almighty, prove that You are near us and You are with us in the name of Jesus. Thank You precious Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
I want to thank God for this privilege; I want to also thank my father in the Lord, daddy, thank you sir for the privilege to be here this morning to share this word of God. Church, you are welcome once again this morning, I say welcome to church this morning, God bless you.
Now this morning, in the mood of awaiting the day of Christmas, we want to look into some of the significant messages of the season to prepare us for the great day itself. Praise God! And so this morning we want to share on the topic ‘He is Always with Us,’ Jesus is Always With Us; our text is taken from Matthew 1: 18-23. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: when as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily (that’s privately).
20But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Praise the living Jesus!
The season of Christmas is a time of celebration, we celebrate particularly the fact that God was so merciful, He sent His only begotten Son to come and show us how to live to become God in man to come and show us the example of how to live to please God. We celebrate because His coming gave us hope of salvation and redemption, and so this is a time where in our vocabulary we have so many words like joy, rejoicing, celebration and all that.
But one of the key moments, one of the high points of Christmas that we need to take note of is the name by which Christ was christened, Emmanuel, God with us. God has so many names which symbolize who He is to us and what He can do, but this name is particularly important for what it represents because Jesus Christ came as an embodiment of that promise to show conclusive to us that indeed God is always with us.
Because God is far away in heaven above the stars, sometimes we believe or we think that oh He’s unreachable, He’s too far away and nobody wants a God that’s so far away that we cannot reach in moments of need, but God kept assuring us even right from the Garden of Eden that He is always with us. But to put that question beyond any doubt, He had to send His Son to come as man and be with us to show us that He is with us.
The point that is important is that God is not only with us on Christmas day, God being with us is not only when Christ was born, God is with us always. He was with us before we were born, before we were conceived, He’s with us now and He shall be with us forever more in the name of Jesus.
So God with us means that God is always with us, and from the scriptures we find that God is always with us. Sometimes because of our troubles, because of our own sins, we might not feel His presence, we might not notice that He’s there because His silent He doesn’t shout, we think where is this God? And because we are desperate and we cannot hear or see Him, we rush to take decisions that are ungodly. But if we understand how God works and that He never leaves us alone, that He’s always with us, we’ll always wait for Him to lead us and to act in our situations. Praise the living Jesus!
And so this morning, we want to just look at a few instances, a few ways that God shows that He’s always with us, that we can be assured that God is with us, not only now but He will continue to be with us if we let Him be with us.
Number one, God is with us always when we serve Him or do His will, when you serve Him or you do His will, God will always be with you. In Exodus 3:12, when He sent Moses to Egypt to go and confront Pharaoh and Moses was hesitant, he was giving excuses, ‘oh, I can’t speak well, oh, I’m afraid he will kill me,’ God told him, I will be with you. Praise the living Jesus!
When He commissioned Joshua to take over from Moses to lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land, He told him in Joshua 1: 9, He said, “Be of good courage, I will be with you.” It may be in our secular work or in ministry, whatever we do that we do to glorify God, to serve Him, to portray His glory and image to the world, God is sure to stand by us. Praise the living Jesus!
It doesn’t matter what opposition you may face, it doesn’t matter what challenges you may face, as long as God is in it, God cannot be in your business and you go bankrupt, God cannot be in your marriage and it will break. Whatever may be your situation, there will be challenges so let’s not make a mistake about it; the fact that God is with us does not mean that everything will just go smoothly, there will always be ups and downs but God is a God of both the mountain and the God of the valley.
In our happy moments, in our good moments God is there, in our moments of sorrow God is there, in our moments of disappointment God is there. Praise the living Jesus! And so Jesus Christ came to show to us, to live with us, to experience all the things that we experienced; the frailities of man, disappointments of man, treachery, disloyality, all kind of things that we experience in the world, Christ came to experience them to show us that He understands our feelings and our pains and our troubles, but yet in all these He remains with us.
So no matter what you are going through now either in your work, in your career, in ministry or in whatever area of your life, as long as God is glorified, as long as you’re doing what God has called you to do or you do it to please God because whatever you do is your own ministry, not everybody will be on the stage holding microphone to preach.
If you are a trader, that’s part of your ministry, you serve God through that trading; if you’re a banker, you serve God with a Godly heart; if you’re a lawyer, you serve God with a Godly heart, so, no matter what we do, that is where God has called you to serve Him and to show forth His glory that men will see us and glorify His name, so that no matter what opposition we face, because we do it to God’s glory, He will always be with us.
When God called Nehemiah to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, we see that he was opposed, it was God that sent him to go and do the work but some people gathered, Sambalat and Tobias, to oppose the work of God, but because it was God that called him to do it, God stood by him. Whatever you’re doing right now that people are opposing you in your place of work, because you’re doing the righteousness to glorify God, God will stand by you and you will overcome in the name of Jesus.
So when we serve God or we do His will or whatever we do that glorifies His name, God will always be with us, He’s not like man that will abandon us, He’s not a man that will be tired, He’s not a man that’s only there for good times, God is there especially for the bad times. Hallelujah.
You will see that from the scriptures, most times that we see God looming large, doing incredible things, there are times when His children are in trouble, there are times when there are challenges, that’s when God shows up. When everybody has gone away, when all your friends desert you, God always shows up, so God is always with us when we are in His will. Whether He’s silent or He’s speaking, we see Him, we don’t see Him. He’s never far away from us, He’s always there.
Number two, God is always with us when we need Him. Anytime we need Him as long as we are connected with Him, as long as God knows you, anytime you need Him He’s always there. The fact that He’s silent or invisible physically does not mean that He’s not there, sometimes you say, “God, but where are You? Where is Your face? Why can’t I see You? Speak to me,” we can’t dictate to God how He acts.
Even when He’s silent when we pray, in that silence He’s working out something in that situation. He promised us in Isaiah 41:10, He says, “Fear not, for I am with you: be not dismayed for I am your God: I will strengthen you and uphold you with my right hand of righteousness.” Praise the living Jesus. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our present help in trouble,” He may be in heaven but He’s present, distance is not a barrier, infrastructure is not a barrier, nothing is a barrier to God.
He says He’s our present help in trouble, in other words, any time that we need Him and we call upon Him, God is present. He’s not man that will say, “Oh, I have traveled to the village, when I come back in January I will attend to your situation,” if you put your hope in man and the man has traveled, what can he do? But God never travels, God never sleeps, God is never held up by traffic. Hallelujah.
God has no other authority to report to or to take permission from; if you want to do something you ask the governor to – even if you know the governor and is beyond his power, he may say sorry, I have to take the permission, I have to see the Mr. President, but God has no superior authority, God is the only authority in heaven and on earth who can say and who can do without question. He cannot be questioned, there’s no condition, there’s no protocol, so anytime we are in trouble, He says, I am the present help in trouble; even when it appears as if it’s taking time, God is still present. When Jesus was called that Lazarus was dead and He didn’t go there immediately for four days, they thought oh, it was too late, but because He’s ever present, anytime He shows up is the best time.
No matter how long you have been going through that situation, when God shows up, that is your best time, that is your set time, that is the time for your testimony to change. No matter what you’re going through today, God will show up on your behalf in the name of Jesus. Time is no barrier to God, He says a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years, the moment God shows up He wipes away your tears, it’s like it never happened before. No matter how long the sickness may be, the sickness of the woman with the issue of blood took 12 years but the moment Jesus showed up on her case, 12 years of sorrow, of dejection was wiped off.
No matter what you’re going through today as you are seated there and you’re hearing me, God will show up for you this morning, He will wipe away your tears and He will give you everlasting joy in the name of Jesus.
In Hebrews 13: 5-6, Jesus Himself says I will never leave you nor forsake you; He never leaves us nor forsakes us; He says in Isaiah 43:2, even if you go through the waters, He says they will not swallow you: when you go through the fire, it will not burn you, I will be there with you. How many friends or even parents can go through the fire with us? There are situations we go through that even our parents will say well we tried our best, doctors will say we tried our best, spouses will say we tried our best, even children will say look daddy, mommy, we have tried our best. Hallelujah.
But the best of man is sometimes never enough; men may give up on you, God never gives up, He never loses hope. When the three Hebrew boys – Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the furnace of fire in Daniel 3, the king thought that oh they will quickly come back and say we will serve you, but because they knew the God that they served which is most of our problem today, many of our problems arise from the fact that we don’t trust our God enough, we don’t believe our God enough and that’s why our problem started even in the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden.
God had given a word of instruction to man but a serpent came and tried to confuse man, but because man did not trust God enough, he didn’t believe God enough, he listened to another voice, and through disobedience man lost paradise and so began our trouble. So all this while that Christ came, all that God has been trying to do is to rebuild that trust to make us have faith in Him, to make us trust Him, if you don’t trust God, you can’t get the best from Him.
So all the time that Christ was born, God was trying to say trust me, I am with you, if not for the lack of trust, God didn’t have to send Jesus. If man believed God at His word, Jesus didn’t have to come, He came because we didn’t trust God and God needed to show that I am with you, look, I’ve even come as a man, but even since He came as a man, many still didn’t trust God.
Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted God, they knew the God they served and so when they were going to be put in the fire, they said we trust our God, in that fire He will be with us, if He wishes He will save us, if He wishes He may not save us, it doesn’t matter to us. The point is whether in life or in death, what matters most is that our God is with us. Hallelujah.
If God is with you alive and He’s not with you in death, you have lost it. Our prayer and our hope as believers is that God will not only be with us when you are alive but also in death, because what is more paramount is that He should be with us in death. Hallelujah. So our assurance that we have by the birth and eventual death and resurrection of Christ is that God is with us all through life, even beyond this physical life, even when we die we have hope because God is with us even when we die.
So that’s why sometimes as believers when we die in Christ there’s no cause for sorrow or weeping because we know that we are still in the arm and the bosom of our Maker. Hallelujah. When Daniel was in the lion’s den in Daniel 6, God was with him there because He says I will always be with you wherever you may be.
So no matter what hole you are in now, it may be a hole of indebtedness, it may be a hole of marital trouble, no matter what you are going through now, no matter how fierce it may be, by remembering Christ at this time, God is saying to you, I kept you alive to see this day to show you that that problem will not consume you, that Christ who we are celebrating now will be with you in that trouble and will bring you out of that hole. And that will be your portion in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
God is always with us even when we mess up, even when we misbehave, even when we commit sin. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that God approves of our sin or approves when we mess up, He doesn’t approve it, but God hates it when we mess up, He hates our sin but He still loves us. That’s why in spite of our sin He’s eager that we change, that’s why God does not want the sinner to die quickly because even though He hates the sin, He’s there hoping and wishing that we will change so that God can redeem us.
He says in 1st John 1:9, it says if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; even when we are misbehaving, even when Apostle Paul was still Saul and was killing and persecuting Christians, God was there watching, He was watching all over, waiting for the right moment until He decided that look, it doesn’t look like this man is going to by himself change so, I’ve got to change him by force.
Because of the love of God for us, even when we misbehave and we do so many things that we’re supposed to have even died, God won’t let us die, He’s watching, He’s wishing and hoping, so even if you are here today and you know that you have not given your life to Jesus, that you are still living in sin, there’s still hope for you, the birth of Jesus today shows that there’s hope for you provided you have a change of mind.
In the Bible in Luke 15, we know the story of the prodigal son; prodigal son is a metaphor for those of us who are still living in sin or who decide to disobey or decided to take matter into our own hands; this guy went to his father, he took his birthright and went into the world and began to do all manner of things that did not please God.
But God didn’t abandon him just as He will not abandon you, because even in those moments, God is with us. If He’s not with you in those days of sin or misbehavior or messing up, the devil would have destroyed you; if He had not been with me, I wouldn’t be here today, I would have been consumed even in those days when my life was upside down but it’s because of the mercy of God that even when I was far away from Him, God was with me that He decided to bring me back from the miry clay to a place where today I can by His grace and mercy stand before you. Hallelujah.
So God looked at the prodigal son and after a while He caused him to make a U-turn and brought him back to the place of righteousness, a place of repentance, a place of remorse, a place of a new beginning. So for you and I today as we look forward to Christ, if you know that you are not in alignment with Him, you know your life is not something that you can be proud of or that when God examines you, He cannot approve, your highlight of this Christmas, your best decision for this Christmas, your best way to celebrate this Christmas is this morning to say Father, even when I was messing up You didn’t let me die, You didn’t let me be destroyed, in all those crazy things I’ve done You were with me, that means You have purpose in my life, now I will surrender to You.
God is with us when we mess up, when we are not living according to His will because He’s waiting for us to change because if we do not change we are going to end up in pardition and that will not be our portion in Jesus name. He waited for the thief at the cross; there were two thieves at the cross of Calvary with Christ, God had been waiting for them for all their years of sin but they didn’t change, it got to the last minute when they were going to go to hell, one had a change of mind.
It occurred to him that I can’t go like this, if I go like this a step further I’m going to hell and he repented and went to Jesus. It doesn’t matter for how long you have been messing up, the day you have the opportunity to change your life, to change your situation and you take that chance, all the misbehavior of the past is written off, all the troubles of the past are written off.
That’s why Jesus told us the parable of a man and employer who employed people, some at 8:00 a.m., some at 12 and was bargaining with each of them, how much am I going to pay you? I’m going to pay you X amount, X amount, and at the end of the day he paid each one what he promised them, and some who started at 8 said but we came earlier and he said no, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been there, what matters is coming in contact with me.
Somebody may have been born again for 30, 50 years, if you are just born again today, God will celebrate you and welcome you and there’s no seniority in the kingdom of God. Hallelujah. There’s no senior believer, there’s no junior believer, there’s no senior born again, if you’re born again today you have the same rights in the kingdom of God as somebody who was born again 50 years ago. So that’s why you must not let this opportunity pass you by and it will not pass you by in the name of Jesus.
In 2 Samuel 11, David had messed up, he committed adultery, committed murder, all up to that time, God was watching him, God was still with him but didn’t approve of his sin. And when God now called him through the prophet and said look, this and this happened, he said ah, I didn’t know You were watching, I didn’t know You are with me, I didn’t know You saw it.
Look, with all the armored doors that we put, no matter how expensive that security door is, no matter all the things we use to barricade ourselves, no matter how far we go, God is not far away, God sees what we do because He’s always there. And so God punished the sin in David but when he repented genuinely, God restored him. Hallelujah.
The blessing of Christmas for you today if you are still living in sin is to take this opportunity to change your life around to come to Him so that God can redeem you, wash you with His precious blood and give you a new beginning and that will be your portion in Jesus name.
Number four, God is with us when the world rejects us. In fact, God is working for those that the world will reject particularly for His sake. Many of us today, because people disapprove, people reject us, families reject us, people say you are a bad person, everybody runs away from you, you don’t know what to do, you keep yourself or you go into drugs or some even commit suicide, that’s a lie of the devil.
The fact that your family has rejected you, that friends have rejected you, that nobody’s looking your way is what makes you a prime candidate for God. If you look at the Bible, God is always looking for those that the world has rejected, those that the world has run away from. The world ran away from the woman with the issue of blood, look at those lepers, God was always looking for the reject in the society, those that society have rejected or cast away or abandoned.
He said in Isaiah 49: 15 & 16, is it possible for a woman to forget her own sucking child. He said no. He said, but even then, even if a mother is so wicked and so bad as to forget her own child, I will not forget you, I will not forsake you. You know the story of Zacchaeus in the scriptures, people hated him and called him a sinner and called him all manner of names and everything, but Jesus went, called him and went to dine in his house.
It doesn’t mean that Jesus or God loves to be with sinful people but He’s with them, He’s with you because He’s eager that you change. Especially if people have rejected you or castigated you or exorcised you because of righteousness, maybe in your place of work, because you stick to the right thing, people reject you, they speak all manner of things against you and you are alone, you are never alone because God is with you.
Those who are of God never walk alone, your family may reject you, your friends may reject you but even if you were bad but you decide to repent and walk the righteous path, God will not reject. So today I don’t know what your situation is, you may be feeling lonely, everybody hates me, everybody has discarded me, God is saying I am with you and I will show up for you in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
Number five and finally before we begin to round up, God is with us, He’s always with us to save us so that one day we can also be with Him. Hallelujah! God is always with us, He’s always around us, even when we are not yet born again and particularly when we are born again, God is with us always, shephering us, teaching us, guiding us, ordering our steps because He has a purpose, He has an end in mind so that one day we can also be with Him,
He says in John 14: 1 – 3, let not your heart be troubled, in my Father’s house there are many mansions. I am going away from you now to go and prepare a place and then I’ll come out to come and take you that you will now be with me in the end, we shall be together in heaven.
So the essence of the birth of Christ and the fact that God is with us, that understanding is to make us know that there’s a purpose to God being with us, He’s with us so that at the end we can end up with Him, and I pray that as many of us that have walked with Him now, God will be with him in the end in the name of Jesus.
Now what are the things that we need to do? Number one, we need to depart from sin. The fact that God is waiting to be with us does not mean that our sin must be endless, we must make up our mind to depart because listen brothers and sisters, a time comes when grace lapses, grace is not everlasting.
There are many that Jesus called, some came, some did not come, but we never heard or read in the scriptures that they came back again, grace can lapse. I pray that your grace will not lapse in Jesus name. This period is a special period of unique grace for those who want to be born again, for those who want to grow in the Lord, for those who want to do many things that they want God, it’s a special time of grace but we must depart from sin. We cannot be in sin and expect that grace will increase.
Number two, we must invite Him into our lives or accept His invitation. Jesus does not gate crash, no matter how much He wants to be with you and dine with you, He says in the scriptures, Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock,” right now He’s standing at the door and He’s knocking, only those who open to Him will He enter into because He won’t gate crash into your life.
You must open the door of your heart and accept Him, or when He invites you, you listen to His invitation and you accept it. If you don’t invite Him and you don’t accept His invitation, He’s going to leave you alone. Praise the living Jesus.
Number three, what must we do? We must obey Him, we must live in obedience. He says those who obey me are my sheep, it is those who listen to Him, our love for Christ is manifested in obedience; He says if you love me, obey my commandments, John 14:15; He says if you abide with me and I abide with you, no matter what you ask of me you will get it, John 15:5-7.
So the way to appreciate and to reciprocate and to ensure that God remains with us always is to live a life of obedience. Obedience is key to our walk with God. Number three, we must abide by His instructions, God works with His children by instructions.
Number four, we must trust Him completely. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and then lean not onto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him.” We must trust God, and as I said earlier on, the genesis of our problem was because we didn’t trust God enough, now Christ has come as a man, He has reason with us and He even died physically to show us the example, so there’s no reason why we should distrust God anymore, why we should disbelieve Him. We must trust Him completely, if you don’t have faith in God and trust Him, you can’t commit to His hands.
Number five, we must ensure that God’s presence remains with us all the time, we must constantly pray. He says call upon me in the day of trouble, I will answer you, He never forsakes those who call upon Him; no matter how deep you may be, no matter how far, no matter the distance, He says call upon me I will answer you. He’s not a man that you will call and will say I’m busy or whatever, we must pray.
Pray without ceasing, prayer is the key that unlocks so many things that we need to pray consistently. Even when it looks as if God is not answering, He’s answering in some other way, His silence also is an answer to prayer.
So, on our part these are things that we need to do so that we can ensure that the presence of God continues to be with us forever in the name of Jesus.
Let’s rise on our feet even as we pray very quickly, as we bow our heads and we please shut our eyes…
[Altar call]
The rest of us please let us pray, say, Father, I thank You for the assurance of Your everlasting presence in my life, please let me not do anything that will make You to forsake me in the name of Jesus. Pray that prayer for yourself.
Say Father, for the rest of my life, let me and my family remain permanently in Your presence in the name of Jesus.
The last prayer point, Romans 8:31, it says if God is for you, who can be against you? Say Father, from today, because I know that You are with me, let no power, oppressing, or authority ever prevail over me in the name of Jesus.
Pray that prayer for yourself. Lord Jesus, because I know and I’m sure that You will ever be with me from today, let no man or power or authority ever prevail over me or situation or circumstance ever prevail over me in the name of Jesus. Thank You everlasting Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
