MidTree Church

What If The Sign You Need Is The God Who Comes Near | Pastor Will Hawk | December 7th, 2025

• MidTree Church

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Fear has a way of sounding wise. It tells us to buy safety, to rush a fix, to make peace with shaky alliances because at least they feel stable. We open Isaiah 7 and meet Ahaz standing in that pressure—two enemies at the gate and a glittering empire promising protection at a price. Into that noise, God speaks a surprising order: be careful, be quiet, do not fear. Then He offers something even more startling—ask for a sign as high as heaven or as low as the grave.

We walk through the tension with Ahaz, the warning against fueling our own fires, and the curious presence of Isaiah’s son, Shear-Jashub, whose name means “a remnant shall return.” That remnant image reframes discipline and hope: sin divides, but God refuses to reduce His people to zero. The message sharpens around a single line—if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. From there, we explore why Ahaz declines God’s invitation, how polite unbelief hides behind pious words, and what it costs us when we avoid clarity because clarity might require change.

The turning point arrives in mercy. God gives the sign anyway: a virgin will conceive, and the child will be called Emmanuel—God with us. We connect the promise to Matthew’s eyewitness account of Jesus, a living portrait of divine nearness: walking neighborhoods, welcoming the overlooked, confronting darkness, and embodying peace in chaos. Along the way, we offer practical handles for anxious seasons—choose your inputs carefully, stop stoking panic, and ask God for the faith you cannot manufacture. Whether your struggle is money, relationships, decisions, or grief, Emmanuel is the presence you can’t buy and the security you can’t engineer.

Listen for a grounded path from fear to faith, from hurry to quiet strength, and from self-reliance to the God who keeps His promises and gives second chances.

If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, everybody, if you could turn to page 807 in your Bibles, we're gonna be reading Matthew chapter 1. Please follow along as I read God's word. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and willing to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared and to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen. Thank you, Natalie. I feel like my Christmas season officially kicks off as soon as the kids walk off the stage. I don't know what y'all's like marker is, like where Christmas begins. I have like three of them, and all of them are happening within about three days of one another. Let me tell you uh what Advent is gonna look like here at Midtree in the weeks ahead. Uh so first we are going to be in the book of Isaiah for the next three weeks, uh, where uh we just read from. But if you guys want to go ahead and start flipping to Isaiah chapter seven, go ahead and do that. Now, let me do a little bit of a connecting piece for you. We've been walking through the book of Joshua. We finished that up. How do we get from Joshua to Isaiah? Well, the simple way to get there is this Joshua is where God invites his people into the promised land. He says, This is how I want you to live and operate. If you do so, you will be blessed. But in very short order, all of a sudden, it seems like they, much like us in our own lives, begin to fall apart. God's people drift, their kings fall, their worship begins to go astray, and exile and slavery begins to loom over them. And into that world walks Isaiah. Now, let me get your eyes for just a minute. I am gonna need from you, not yet, but I'm gonna need from you about three minutes of legitimate brain power, because what I want you to do is understand who Isaiah is and why God has called him and how that actually attaches to your life today. So just know I'm gonna ask you for three minutes of like legit brain power, but first, uh a quick question. By show of hands, when you see this verse, Isaiah 7, 14, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. When you see this verse by show of hands, how many of you think about Christmas? Okay? Almost unanimously. Now keep in mind, this was written something like 732 years before there was a baby in a manger. 700 years before the wise men go on their walk, before the shepherds see the angels. 700 years before that is when this is written. Now, you and I think of this as a Christmas verse. And it is, but it is not only a Christmas verse. And if you understand the context of why it is that Isaiah is saying this, I honestly think it will help you appreciate the Christmas that you have right in front of you. Now, three minutes of legit brain power as we talk about the sociopolitical situation that's going on in Israel in Isaiah 7. Is everybody good with this? Okay, my wife came up to me, she always gives me feedback. She said, Well, it was a little heady on the front end. That's all right, we're gonna push through, so I'm giving you guys the warning. Here's the context. Get ready to see some names. All right, I'll do the reading, you guys follow along. In the day of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, so Ahaz is the king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekka, the son of Remelia, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it. So Syria and Israel are coming to make war against King Ahaz, who is over the nation of Judah. Judah would be where David was king, the throne that will never end. Judah cannot fall because God has given a promise. The promise we find here in Psalm 89. He writes, and God says, I've made a covenant, a promise that I will not break with my chosen one. I've sworn to David of the house of Judah, I'm gonna establish you forever. I will build your throne for all generations. So, pause, eyes on me. Ahaz is a new ruler over Judah. And what he sees are these two people coming to war against him. Now you may say, why? Why are they wanting to go to war against him? And Will, you just circled Israel and called them the bad guy. That's not how it's supposed to play out. In Isaiah 7, it is. This kingdom is going against Judah. And when God looks at it, he says, These two people, Syria and Israel, they have lost their way. But I want to keep reading. Verse 2. When the house of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz, this new young leader, and the heart of his people shook as trees of the forest shake before the wind. Here's what's happening. And then we'll move out of sort of like socio-political war making in like 700 BC. Ahaz is a new leader. He's trying to lead God's people. God has given these incredible promises that my throne is always going to be established for all generations. And Ahaz looks out and he is caught in the middle of two incredibly big storms. On the one hand, he has these two people who want to come to war against him. But I didn't tell you why. The reason is he's looking at the Assyrians, this up-and-coming power, who seems like they are going to own the world. And he is tempted to take money out of the temple and pay this horrible pagan nation so that he can be in league with them. And Ahaz is basically standing in a place many of you can appreciate. Life looks like it's about to get really difficult. I don't think I'm going to be able to stand. I can just spend some money to make my life more secure, or I can bow the knee to maybe an unhealthy relationship, but at least it will be stable. And in the midst of that, Isaiah comes with this gift saying, you don't actually have to pick a bad thing. Don't go try to find security just by spending money. There is better security in the Lord your God who has made a promise over you. Don't go and try to find security in hanging on to relationships that are not good for you and are not for your good. God will be near you and with you. He will be the relationship that you need to make it through the storms of this life. I live on a little bit of property and we have a number of trees. The majority of our trees are deciduous trees. Bonus points to the camp store if anybody can tell me what deciduous means. Thank you, Shane. What is the opposite of a deciduous? Evergreen or starts with a C? Conifers. Okay. That's all the brain power I'm gonna ask of y'all, and way to go. I'm so impressed. I didn't, not in the notes. I love it when the leaves fall out of trees, and I will tell you why. Because I don't worry about storms anymore knocking over the trees, and I have to get out there with a chainsaw and try to figure this out. I get a break for the next four weeks because almost every storm we have, a tree goes down and it blocks something or it hits something. I told y'all my deer stand got crashed last time we had a storm. I love it when the leaves fall out of the trees. Here's what God is inviting Ahaz to be, and He's inviting all of you. Do you want to be the kind of person that when the winds of difficulties in this world blow, you don't move at all? Do you want to be that? Because long before we see a Christmas verse, God says, Hey, world, who is in the midst of incredible turmoil, who thinks you can find security by spending money or saving money, who thinks you can find security by making alliances with unhealthy relationships. What if you just cling to me? What if you hold firm to me instead and the winds of difficulty blow and you don't move? But that's not where Ahaz has his people. His heart is literally shook. And so are his people. And to his fear, God says, I'm gonna send the prophet Isaiah. I'm gonna send one of my best guys with an incredible message to you. And here is what Isaiah would say. And the Lord said to Isaiah, I want you to go out and meet Ahaz. You and Shear Jeshub your son. And I want you to say to him, Ahaz, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, do not let your heart faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Ramaliah. They may say, Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and instead set up a different king than Ahaz. But I'm telling you, you have nothing to fear if you will draw near to me. Now, I want to point out just a couple of things in this verse. The first thing that I want to point out is God looks at these two nations coming against his people and he calls them something. He calls them smoldering stumps of fire brands. My children love playing with fire and with matches. You guys missed out in the first service, although it might happen in the second. About five minutes from now, somebody pulled the fire alarm in one of the kids' rooms, and sirens are going off. Apparently, we have a telecom speaker system that says it's an emergency. Leave the building. And I'm like, don't leave. I could go to jail for this, but we're fine. I promise you, we're good. There is something about fire that is just amazing to kids, and I think adults will like if we're honest with ourselves. My kids love starting the fire in our fireplace. Any of you guys have been doing fires lately because it's been cold a couple. Here's the thing. My kids always want to start it with a match. They want, not a little lighter, they want the right, except for Tiggy, my youngest. She's like, Daddy, you like the match, and then you hand it to me, and then I'll play with fire. I'm like, that's good. As long as we're all playing with fire together, this is a very good thing. Here's what they hate. What they hate is when we've had a fire in the fireplace the night before, and there are still smoldering stumps of fire brands in it. Because I look at them and I say, You don't need a match. All you need to do is stoke the coals, blow a little air into it, throw a piece of paper on it, and that fire that looks dead, it's gonna burst into life. God is looking at Ahaz and He says, Listen to me. Your enemies are in the midst of being extinguished. Their power is going out. Do not breathe life into this situation. Christians, when life gets difficult, I want you to just notice this verse. God looks at Ahaz and He says, There's a wrong way to find security by just going after money. There's a wrong way to find security by being in bad relationships. When you are in a mess, be careful. When you don't know which way to go and you feel stretched, be quiet. Do not fear. Do you know what God is saying? Do not blow oxygen into the problem. Be quiet. Be still. Watch me. Christian, silence and strength become roommates in the Christian life. When I get frustrated, when I get irritated, when something goes wrong in my family, in my life, at work, or whatever else, I do not want to be careful. Here is my personality. I want to go and fix it immediately. I don't want to be thoughtful. I don't want to think about the consequences of the ramifications. I want the pain to stop. I want the difficulty to go away. I do not want to be quiet. I want to step in and say, here's what we need to do to fix this problem. Da da da da da da da da da da. Some of us are not fight people. We are flight people. And to that, God would say, stand still for a minute. When life gets difficult, two lessons from this, from the drop. Don't try to find security in things of the world. Don't try to find security in bad relationships. And don't try to fix it yourself. Isaiah 7 is God saying, chill out for a minute when life gets difficult. And then he looks at Isaiah, look at the very top verse, and he says, You're gonna go meet Ahaz in what is probably going to be a weird, contentious meeting, as you are telling him not to do what he wants to do and not to do plan B either. And when you go, I want it to be bring your kid to work day. Now look, this is the kind of stuff you miss if you read your Bible without studying your Bible, but you should freeze on this. God goes to if you've ever brought your kid to work before, there are good days to bring your kid to work, and there are bad days to bring your kid to work. When I brought my kids up here, it is a good day if somebody cancels a meeting, if I don't have something difficult going on with the staff, we grab lunch, get Chick-fil-A, we're throwing a frisbee outside, I'm doing phone calls. There are other times when my kids are up here and we're on our way to go do something on this incredible church property that the Lord has provided, and somebody pulls in and they walk in with a problem, and my kids see it and they're like, this is not a good come to work with dad day. They have they have already gone through a box of tissues, I can tell. We're not gonna see them for 90 minutes. That's how this is. It's fine. I love my job generally. And like, please come. The whole point of this is God inviting you to bring your problems and your questions to him. But what I will tell you is this this had to be a different meeting for Sheer Jezub to be brought to. Had to be weird. Isaiah is going before the king, all of the power in all of the nations, and Isaiah is going to deliver this message, and he's got his kid with him. What's really fascinating is he knew God was going to do this at some point. In chapter eight, Isaiah says, Behold, I and the children the Lord has given me are signs in Israel. He knew his kid was one day going to be a sign. So, one other little asterisk. I know that we talk about kids as sanctification bombs in the life of a Christian. They are also an incredible gift and intended by God to be leveraged for ministry in your life. You need to look at your kids not only as things to be disciplined, but things to be discipled, so that their ministry would far supersede your own and you get to follow them one day. Isaiah got to see this play out. And his son, Sher Jeshub, shows up and his name means remnant. This would be you somebody coming with financial troubles to meet with me and talk, and me bringing a child whose name was Price, or bringing a child whose name was Budget, which would be a horrible name. But you would be like, why is budget sitting in the corner during our meeting? Why do you think budget is sitting in the corner during our meeting? Why do you think price is over there just awkwardly staring at you while we're having this conversation? This is the name of Isaiah's son who shows up on Bring Your Kid to Work Day. Now I told you I was only gonna use your brains for a minute, so I'm gonna give you a very easy one. Do y'all remember long division? I'm not gonna make it very long. Alright, you ready? How many times does two go into five? It goes in two times. Bonus points, way to go. Two times two is five minus four is. And every teacher that you ever had at math said, don't leave that number down there. Where's it supposed to go? Do y'all not know this? Where's that number supposed to go? I'm watching the kids, and is there supposed to be a letter that accompanies it? What is it? This, that's Isaiah's kid. That's Isaiah's kid. Now let me explain why this matters. God is look- what, did I do something wrong? That math is correct, okay? Alright. Jamie? Thank you. All right. That little R1 is Isaiah's kid. And let me tell you why this is amazing. God is looking at the people of Israel and He is saying, if you sin, I'm going to divide you. If you sin, here's what you should expect. You should expect to be divided from your happiness. If you sin in your life, you should expect to be divided from family. If you sin, you should expect to be divided and separated out because I am a just God, and the kindest thing I can do is bring discipline when you are sinning. If you want to, Ahaz, go and spend money to find your security, expect money to be divided off from you. If you want to go into unhealthy relationships, expect happiness to be divided from you. But Ahaz, listen to me. I will never divide you to zero because I've made a promise. People of God, listen to me. You may walk away, you may turn your back temporarily, but if you are trusting in me, there will always be a remainder. There will always be a remnant. Hope will continue. That's what Isaiah's kid, standing in the corner of the meeting, is explaining to Ahaz without ever saying a word. You decide. Do you need God to divide your life in half to appreciate who He is, or can you not choose that? And if you have chosen that in the past, do you see the remainder of hope and faith that God has left? Because if you don't, you're about to see it in this text. He turns, and this is what God says to Ahaz. Thus says the Lord God, here is your future. It shall not stand and it shall not come to pass. When it comes to the head of Syria, when it comes to Damascus, when it comes to Ephraim, these, by the way, are the two armies that are coming against him. He says, Here's the deal. They've got 65 years. That's it. That smoldering ember is on its way out. Be still, be quiet, don't move, cling to me. When difficulty comes, don't run, don't run, don't fight, don't flight. Have faith in me, and I'll prove it to you because it's the last thing that is said here. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Another way to put it is if you are not firm in faith, don't expect anything in your life to go well. The Lord is trying to put on display that faith in Him is the primary reality that will influence the rest of your life. Faith more than anything else is going to influence the rest of your life. Not money, not relationships, not the decisions you make, not where you live, where you Have your job, how many children you do or do not have. None of that is going to influence your life anywhere near what faith does. Because if you're not firm in faith, you're not going to be firm in anything. Everything is going to fall. Now, the reflexive is assumed. Therefore, if I have faith, I will be firm in all things. Let the winds blow, let difficulty come. I know what I am clinging to, and it is a God who makes promises, gives second chances, and never gives up on his people, always leaves a remnant. Even when I deserve to be divided to zero, he refuses to do it because of the promise he has made to his son. This is what God is wanting them to see. Now, if I'm sitting where you're sitting and I'm looking at the season I'm looking at, I would tell you this of all the responsibilities and expectations that come with Christmas, if your faith is not firmly number one priority, you should expect division and chaos. But if it is, you can find a season of joyful expectation, even when there are arguments over money, even when there's depression that looms, even when there is separation that you're navigating, even when there is fear or a burn turkey or forgotten people or last-minute musts that want to stress you out. Now, let me tell you a really good piece of advice I get from my wife every Christmas, and I rarely take, so I'm about to try it with you guys. She says, Will, you should never talk about Christmas expectations. None of the women in the room are going to respect you because they realize you have never bought a gift, you have never cooked a thing, you have never done any of that. And I'm like, Yeah, but I like help pay for it. And she said, that is not gonna count, it is not gonna matter. So don't give examples like that. So here is what I'm gonna do instead. I don't know what stresses you out, I know what stresses me out. And what I want you to realize is none of you are more stressed out than Ahaz was. And what you think was a Christmas verse was never in, sorry, was not a Christmas verse for 732 years. For 732 years, what we call a Christmas verse was God saying, When life gets hard, what are you gonna cling to? You decide. I'd prefer not to divide your happiness and your joy. I would prefer not for you to have a remnant, but the whole thing. The question is, is your faith gonna be firm or are you gonna try to find what only I can provide? I tell you that because we should not be surprised that right before the Christmas verse, this is the reality that we get. Now, just hit pause for a moment, and I only want you to think about this verse in your Christian life. I just want you to look at this. I want you to think, for some of you, you're believers, some in this room may not be. You're just checking out the claims of Christ. Some of you may have like tons of church history and background, and for some of you, you may have been coming to church for the past six weeks. Wonderful. With all of those different eyes, expectations, and hearts, I want you to look at this verse. I want you to tell me what your next thought is. If God's word is telling me, if I'm not firm in faith, I'm not gonna be firm at all, what do I want more than anything else in the world? What do I want? Starts with an F, ends with an eighth. I want faith. Thank you. Bonus points to the camp store. God, I want faith. And then here comes this problem. What am I supposed to do about that? If I want to get better at prayer, what do I do? If I don't understand God's word, what do I do? If I want to get better at evangelism, what do I do? If I want to have more discipline, what do I do? You tell me what button to press to get faith. Because you've all been there. You've all been praying. Well, I hope we've been to a place where you've been praying, we've been wanting, we've been desiring, and it's just like, God, how do I squeeze faith? Where does this even come from? I want it. And then God does something absolutely unique and fantastic and amazing in Isaiah 3. Something all of us probably wish God would do for us. Here is what God does. The Lord spoke to Ahaz. I want you to have faith, Ahaz. So ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. God looks at him and he says, Hey, if you want to have faith, just ask me for a sign. How many of you at some point in your life wish God had given you this verse? Like he literally says, make whatever the sign is as low as hell or as high as heaven. You can ask for anything. You want a light bulb to flicker? Ask. You need a certain song to come on? Do it. You need that random person to call you and ask for forgiveness? Just ask. Give me whatever sign you want. You need your seven-year-old to float three feet off the ground for just a minute? Just ask. You need somebody to come back from the dead? I can do that too. Ask me for whatever you want. True or false? Have we not all wanted God to give us this opportunity? Come on. Now I want you to watch. Thank you. I want you to watch what Ahaz does because I've never wanted to throw my proverbial spiritual shoe at a guy's forehead more than Ahaz in this moment. Ahaz said, I will not ask. I'm already unlacing and ready to launch this thing. But what really causes me to let it loose is what he says next. I will not put the Lord to the test. That is garbage. That is absolute garbage. You're literally testing God. You're testing God by throwing money at the Assyrians. You're testing God by getting in these busted up relationships. And now God's like, just ask for any sign so that you can have the faith I want you to have. And he's like, far be it from me to ask the Lord of the universe for, I am so mad about that because I want that verse in my life. I want God to say, Will ask for anything. High as heaven, low as hell, and I will provide it for you. I want that and don't get it. Why would Ahaz not ask for a sign? There's only one reason I can come up with. Ahaz doesn't want God's answer. He doesn't want clarity from God. This is what it looks like when you struggle with infertility and you're scared to pray the prayer, God, are we ever going to have children? Because you're too nervous about what the answer is going to be. This in our life is us being afraid to ask God to change this, that, or them. Because what we're afraid of is God's going to say, I'm not actually interested in changing this, that, or them. I'm interested in changing you. And we don't want to hear that. This is the fear and the anxiety that enters in when we think, if I ask God for clarity here, what if he's going to ask more from me than I want to give? That's why Ahaz would give a garbage answer because he doesn't want to be held accountable for God actually caring. Think about this. These would have been the four questions on his mind. His future, understanding his past, upcoming decisions, ongoing hopeless situations. And God says, by the way, I didn't just make that list up. I looked at Ahaz's life. I thought about our lives, and I said, what would be the overlay in the two? You telling me you don't have questions about your future? Are we going to honestly say we don't want to better understand our past? Why was my dad like this? Why did I grow up in a world like that? Why did that one thing happen that completely threw my life off kilter? These upcoming decisions, do I buy it, do I not buy it, do I move, do I not move? Do I say yes to a circle, yes or no? Ongoing hopeless situations that I see every Thanksgiving and Christmas? And God says, Don't you want to have faith? You won't be firm without it. Just ask me for it. And Ahaz says, I'll take a pass. Why? Because he didn't want the answer. He didn't want the clarity. And here's the deal: there is no point in you making a show of spirituality. That's what he's doing. I don't want to bother the Lord. No, you're already bothering the Lord. Don't make a show of your faith. There's no point pretending you have faith to God when you don't. He, God knows absolutely, even if nobody else does. And so we get to the bottom of this verse, verse 13, and he says, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you, Ahaz, to weary men that you're wearying my God also? Ahaz, you're a lot, is what this per passage is saying. You're a bit much, you're kind of difficult to deal with. You are trying everyone's patience, which is why they're bending against difficulty, and you're trying God's patience as well. But fortunately, the God of the Bible has always been a God of second chances. And if we look at this verse, I will tell you what would follow the therefore if I was the dad. Son, I've told you not to do this and not to do that. I've told you to trust me. I've even said, ask me for a sign and I'll give you anything you want. And you're giving me this holy bubble of like, I don't really need anything. You're great, and I know that's not what you actually believe. Therefore, give me your phone. Therefore, give me your keys. Therefore, nobody's coming over to spend the light, the night. Therefore, you're doing extra chores. That is what would follow wills, therefore. Do you know what follows God? The second chance is God, the God who leaves a remnant God, therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Do you realize? See, we read this verse, the Lord will give you a sign, behold, the virgin shall conceive, and we immediately think of Christmas, but that's not actually how it began. It began by God saying, I want to comfort you more than any, more than anything else ever could. I want to help you. And when you don't even have enough faith to ask for faith, I'm gonna give it to you anyway. That is who God is. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. You're too nervous to ask, so I'm gonna give it to you anyway. A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When we read Isaiah 7 long before we see it as a Christmas verse, here is what we find. We find a guy named Ahaz who is terrified, and a guy named Isaiah, who is faithful. And we find ourselves standing in the midst of the two. And the question is, who are you going to be? We look at a world much like ours that's steeped in darkness and hopelessness, with an enemy that is far too great, difficulties that are far beyond their capacity. Can you feel that? And to that world, God says, have faith. And then that world looks back and it says, I don't even know how to have faith. And God says, then I'm gonna give it to you anyway. That's one of the most fascinating realities about scripture. We can't even have faith without God's help. The very thing He wants us to have, we have to ask Him for. So, pause on everything else. If you need faith in God, if you need faith in God today, ask. I have faith I'm not about to fall off this stage. If you need faith in that relationship, ask. If you need faith because you're finding security in the wrong stuff, ask God. He desires to give it. And even when we can't, God says, I'm gonna give it to you anyway. You're too scared to ask, but I'm gonna provide a way. I've given you the ability to ask for a sign. You're too nervous to do so. You're nervous about what my response is gonna be. But he still looks at the world which he's created and he says, I'm gonna give you a sign anyway. And here is gonna be the sign. I'm coming. I myself am going to come. And my son's name is not gonna be remnant. My son is going to come and be the light of the world that vanquishes darkness. My son is gonna come and bring your son to work day. And when he shows up to the office that is this broken world, he's gonna be a king that is not fearful but rules in justice. My son is going to come, and when he shows up to the office, he will be the Prince of Peace that steps into the chaos that you have created. My own beloved child is gonna give you hope when you're too nervous even to ask. That's love. That's patience, that's kindness, that's perfection, and that's who God is. The Lord himself will give you a sign. And his name is not gonna be remnant, his name is gonna be Emmanuel. And when Matthew decides to write about this, if y'all are wondering, they're just going to get the communion stuff. All right, everything's good. When Matthew writes about this, I want you to notice what he includes that Isaiah didn't. It's the exact same. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. They shall call his name Emmanuel. And then Matthew goes, and I walked with him. He really is God with us. I I walked through neighborhoods and saw how God would walk through a neighborhood. I sat down at a table and saw how God himself in the flesh was grateful for the world he created, even in its brokenness. I watched him deal with hard people in hard situations and love them anyway. I saw him give hope to people who were steeped in darkness and demonic possession. I saw him give love to women who thought they would never be loved again. I'm telling you, I can tell you what God is like. Because he came and he was with us. This is why Matthew includes the parentheses. He really was with us. You think God doesn't know what you're dealing with? He absolutely knows. He wrote every one of your days before one of them came to be. And his question is not, hey, would it be easier for you to find security and things of the world or busted relationships? His question is, do you want to have faith and hold near to me? I'll give it to you. Just ask. Bring me your problems instead of trying to fix them. Be still, be quiet, and come to me. This verse does refer to Jesus and it does refer to a Savior, but also and perhaps in an even larger way, this verse was written to people who knew they needed help. This verse is written to people who know they're in over their heads. Is that you? It's written to people who want to be firm in faith, but they struggle. It's written to people who doubt and are overwhelmed by life and people who have been too afraid to ask for help. That is who this is written to. And yes, it is pointing to Jesus. And it's to those people that God says, just watch how near I'm going to come. And if you need help, just ask. And I say that to you because that's ultimately what God is saying to you. How do you need God's help today? And it isn't me asking, it's the word of God and the Spirit of God that is constantly asking. Draw near, find faith, regardless of what it is that you would ask Him for. As we get ready to receive communion, I would just encourage your heart in a couple of ways. If things are going well with you and you're looking at this and you're like, ah, God has been so good to me. Praise God that you have been firm in the faith that He supplied so that you can be firm in all things. And you need to celebrate by holding these elements and singing at the top of your lungs what a good and incredible God you have. Secondly, you may be struggling. And when I said, Do you need God's help today? Inside your heart mind, you're like, I absolutely need God's help today. Let me tell you a couple of things you can do. Number one, you can come and meet on the other side of this wall. We'll have a couple of people praying. We're gonna pray anyway. If you want to join us, just come and join us. The other way would be what many of us are gonna do, which is responding in communion. Taking a piece of bread pointing to the actual flesh and juice, the actual blood of a God who actually came and actually put on flesh so you could actually know Him as He knows you. And hold those things and remember what God has done, even as you have all of these questions about your own life. Let's have a faith that is firm because it is the God of the Bible who came to us to deliver it. And if you are wandering or wavering, don't leave today that way. Talk with me, talk with somebody, respond in communion and find that strength and find that faith. Let's respond together.