Merry Christmas from all of us here at Life Church where we are one church meeting in multiple

locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at church online.

If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church you can always

check us out online simply by going to life.church. We love you to stay connected throughout your week and

everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from.

Well right now let's join up with our senior pastor Craig Rochelle for his message called God With Us.

And in our waiting we are never alone. God is with us.

Merry Christmas to you all I can just kind of tell that there are some people a little bit excited to worship our God to celebrate

that a Savior has been born. It's amazing to have you with us at all 27 Life Church locations our open network churches we love you guys.

And on the other side of computer screens all over the world at church online we love you. You're a part of our family no matter what country you're from.

Welcome and Merry Christmas to you. Perhaps you're just joining us or you're new. We've been in the middle of a message series called God With Us.

And today is a message that is very very very personal to me and I pray will be very personal to you as well.

What I want to do is talk about something that is a cornerstone belief for those of us who are Jesus followers. Now I recognize that a lot of you would say you're not religious people some of you might say I come from a different faith background no matter what your beliefs or background you're absolutely

welcome here and what I want to do is be as clear as I can to explain this very important principle in a way that will minister to those of you who are Jesus followers and who knows it might draw some interest from others in a very special way.

And I want to talk about what theologians call the incarnation the incarnation what do we believe when we talk about the incarnation what I would love if you would do it all of our different churches would you mind to show honor to the reading of God's word would you mind just standing to your feet at every location and I want to read to you from Matthew chapter one.

Some very powerful verses of scripture that will introduce the idea of the incarnation Matthew chapter one verse 18.

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born his mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph but before the marriage took place while she was still a virgin she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph to whom she was engaged was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly so he decided to break the engagement quietly as he considered this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.

Joseph son of David the angel said do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit and she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through the prophet look the virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to a son and they will call him a man you well which means let's say it allowed all of our different churches they will call him a man you well which means God with us God with us today I want to talk to you about the presence of God through the birth of the Holy Spirit.

God of God through the birth of the son Jesus Christ he manual God is with you he will never leave you he will never forsake you why don't you meet some friends today show some love find about five people around you high five them and say God is with you God is with you make some friends around the church high five a few people before you're seated and say God is with you God is with you God is with you.

God have a seat if you will give you a little background to this message occasionally people will say how long does it take you to write a message how long does it take you to write a sermon and what I always tell them is the answer is always as long as it takes sometimes it might be 10 hours 12 hours 15 hours sometimes 22 hours 25 hours how long does it take is long time.

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