The mystery and the miracle of the birth of Christ was the fulfillment of the promise that God would be with his people.

The very name Emmanuel means God with us, and Jesus Christ is our Emmanuel.

In this study, Scott Pauley reminds us of our ever-present Savior, God with us.

As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not have to ask for God's presence.

You simply have to acknowledge it.

Do you really think you have to beg God to do what God already promised he was going to do?

He said he would never leave you.

He said he would never forsake you.

So if that is true, then all God's people must do is by faith acknowledge that God is true

and that indeed the Lord is with us.

We return today to Joshua chapter 1 to this amazing passage of scripture where Joshua has to get this truth in his heart.

And don't we all have to get this truth in our hearts?

Oh, Lord, etch this on our souls. Holy Spirit, stamped this on our hearts so we won't soon forget it.

To recognize God's presence in our life. Joshua chapter one, twice, it says it. In verse five,

the Lord says to Joshua, I will be with thee. And again in verse number nine, for the Lord thy God

is with thee. Let me give you an observation or two today. First of all, we learn from this passage

that we have to recognize God's presence in every place. Now remember where Joshua's standing in Joshua 1, they have been in the wilderness for

40 years.

Frankly, that wilderness has become very familiar to them, very familiar.

They've crisscrossed that same desert.

You should look at a map sometime of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel

that's been charted. I mean, they're backtracking and crossing over previous paths. It was a 40-year death

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