WITH (Week One)

It's that time of year again!  I am personally not much of a fan of Christmas - I'm just not into all the commercialism, but I do absolutely LOVE Christmas movies.  I don't know what it is - something about the "sentimental-families-getting-together-warm-coziness".  I could watch some of these movies over and over and never get sick of them!

One of my favorites (even though I thought someday I would surely get sick of it!) is Elf. If you haven't seen the movie, I'll give you a little background:

One Christmas as Santa is making his rounds, a baby boy from an orphanage sneaks into his bag and lands himself at the North Pole.  He is named "Buddy" and is adopted by one of Santa's toy-making elves and raised to believe he is also an elf.  One day, grown-up Buddy overhears a conversation revealing he is not actually an elf. He is devastated, of course, and leaves the North Pole to go to New York City in search of his biological father, Walter Hobbs.  It turns out that Walter doesn't even know Buddy exists and even after DNA testing, still refuses to truly accept and love him as his son.

The scene we are going to see is about Buddy and his new-found half-brother Michael:

Christmas in our culture is about a lot of things.  It's about shopping and getting good deals - and buying lots of fairly useless gifts for each other.  For kids, it's about waiting all year to get that list of gifts they've been dreaming of and trying to stay on the "good list" for.  Christmas in the movies is all about "the time of year when miracles happen" and families always learn that they really do love each other.  Christmas is about decorating your house with lights and lawn blow-ups and going nuts every single one of the 317 times you hear your favorite Christmas Carol on B101.

But in reality, Christmas is all about one word: WITH

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, her fiancé, was a good 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 his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’" Matthew 1:18-23

At Christmas we celebrate this one simple but ridiculously amazing truth: God is WITH us.  Christmas is a huge birthday party for a baby who was born 2,000 years ago and who was anything but a normal baby.  This baby was the God of the universe, the most powerful force to ever exist, huger than our brains could ever comprehend a single ounce of.  The God who created humans actually became one of those humans so that He could show us that He is WITH us.

If you look up the definition of the word "WITH" in a dictionary, you'll be quickly overwhelmed because it has so many meanings.  Of course, the main definition is the idea of two things coming together.  For example: "I like to eat my Oreos with milk."  Milk and Oreos come together.  Or "I am in this room with you".  You and I are together.  

But the "WITH" I'm talking about is more like this: Imagine two guys were talking and one of them was saying something that the other agreed with or the second guy just wanted to support him in some way, he might say something like, "Dude, I'm WITH you, bro!"

"I'm WITH you" in this situation means more than just physically being in the same room or space as that person, it goes deeper because it means that you are on the side of that person or that you are FOR them.

The Almighty God becoming an itty bitty baby was not just Him saying, "I am physically with you", it was the fleshing out of the much greater idea that God is FOR us.  That He is not just sitting on His throne high up in Heaven doing "more important things".  He is not just watching us screw things up and then striking lightning bolts down, laughing and saying "I told you so".  No, He is FOR us.  He wants what is best for us and He was willing to go to great lengths - even as far as becoming a helpless baby, completely dependent on the care of imperfect human beings - to show us that He is FOR us.  He did it so that He could say, "I'm with you, bro!"

Have you ever stayed overnight in your house alone?  We talked about fear a few weeks ago and I have to say that this is probably one of my greatest fears.  I'm spoiled because we live with Tim's parents, but I absolutely hate it when Tim is away and it just happens that they are going to be away, too.  I have trouble sleeping and I hear every little noise.  EVERY little noise.  But if even one of them is there, I'm totally fine!  Just the PRESENCE of another person changes everything.

The funny thing is that if someone was really going to break into our house with the intentions of hurting us (which is what I'm so afraid of) they would probably be large and armed and so - no offense to my husband (he's amazing!) - but what in the world do I think Tim is going to do?

I don't know if he could beat up the bad guy, but what I do know is that Tim is FOR me, that he absolutely wants what is best for me and that he would do everything in his power to keep me and our girls safe.

The reason I chose this video clip is this: Michael and Buddy are walking through the park and the snowball-throwing bullies come out in full-on attack.  From what you know of Buddy, you might think, "This is not going to end well! What in the world is HE going to do?"  But then while Michael is making his one measly little snowball you see that in that time Buddy has made this entire PILE and he just starts chucking them like a machine gun.  The bullies had absolutely NO chance!  Even the biggest and best of them were no match for Buddy's "out of this world" magical powers.  Michael had some really great power on his side!

The verse we just read in Matthew actually comes from a book written about 700 years before Jesus was born.  It's called Isaiah and the verse is Isaiah 7:14 - "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel which means ‘God is with us’."  700 years before it actually happened, God was preparing His people for what was to come.

Later on in the same book, God says this:

"Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and humiliated. Anyone who opposes you will die and come to nothing. You will look in vain for those who tried to conquer you. Those who attack you will come to nothing. For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.'" Isaiah 41:10-13

When God was saying this it was during a time where His people were involved in lots of physical, life-threatening conflict over their land and their freedom.  What we just read was Him reminding them that they would never do battle alone because His power was not far away or just intervening every once in a while, His power was with them.  And that's because He was WITH them - He was FOR them. He wanted what was best for them and He was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.

Most of us will never be involved in the kind of battles the people God was talking to in this passage were involved in.  But we all have battles in our lives.  Sometimes our enemies are actual people who just seem to have it out for us.  Sometimes our biggest enemy is actually inside our own minds - which means we struggle with an enemy who never seems to go away.  You might even feel at times that God Himself is your enemy because the circumstances and situations in your life don't seem to be working out the way you hoped for them to.

But no matter what it looks like or feels like, God truly is FOR you and He wants all of His power to be very real in your life!

This second clip from Elf is toward the end of the movie.  Santa's sleigh has crashed in Central Park in New York City and Buddy is trying to help Santa fix the sleigh. Buddy's girlfriend, Jovie, Michael, Walter, and Walter's wife, Emily are all gathered with a crowd at the edge of the park.  The problem at hand is that Santa's sleigh needs more "Christmas spirit" to fly again - the "Spirit Clausometer" not quite at 100%.  Jovie remembers Buddy saying that "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear", so she leads the crowd in a song.

Walter, Buddy's dad has been really resistant to all of this Christmas cheer, but he's starting to warm up to the idea.  So watch Walter in this scene:

(Watch 2:39-4:00)

"You're not singing, your just moving your lips!"  When God says He is with us, He's not just moving His lips. And He's not just half-hearted, doing His obligatory 'job' as God to help His people out 'every once in a while'.  He is FOR you.  He has a deep interest in YOUR life, He wants what is best for you and He's willing to go to great lengths to make His power real in your life!

Before that first Christmas, God had promised to be with His people and He had been with His people.  But when God came to earth as a human He was putting His actions where His mouth was and saying, "This is real. I AM WITH you."

The question is: Are you doing battle alone?  Or is God's amazing, out of this world power WITH you?  We kind of have this idea in our culture that God is just with everyone, but there is only one way to guarantee and know for sure that God is truly with you.  God's promise to be WITH His people only applies to His children.  And John 1:12 says, "To those who received Him (Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."  

He came as a baby that first Christmas so that YOU could have the opportunity to receive Him into your life and become one of His children.  So that you could believe in Him and then know that He is WITH you every second of every hour of every day!

But like Walter in the movie, are you just moving your lips?  Or are you really WITH God?  Have you had a time in your life where you declared, "This is what I believe and Jesus, I want to receive you into my life"?  If you haven't done that, why not do it right now.  All you have to do is talk to Him and make it official.  Do it now!  Don't go another minute without being sure that God is WITH you.

Jesus, I know I need Your power in my life.  I believe you came to this earth to live, die and rise again.  Please forgive all of my sin and come into my life right now.  I need You to be WITH me.  Amen.

Make It Real For You 

What are your three biggest life-battles?

How do you most need God to be WITH you?

Have you "made it official" with Jesus that you believe in Him and want Him to be with you?