Greetings and it is our joy to be able to come to you today and spend these few moments in God’s word. This week, leading up to Christmas, we are asking a simple question, do we still need Christmas today? It’s been 2000 years since that first Christmas day when the Lord Jesus was born into the earth and here, we are 2000 years later still celebrating his birth and what it means to us. Are we doing it just as a tradition, cultural/ nice thing to do or something we do out of habit, year after year or is there meaning to it? I want us to understand that there is so much significance in us celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we still need Christmas? Do we still need God? Because when Isaiah foretold this and when the New Testament recounts the birth of Jesus, we point back to what Isaiah said in Mathew chapter 1, verse 23, the angel speaks and says, ‘"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which is translated, "God with us.”’ Pointing back to what Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, ‘the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel, meaning God with us.’ So, when we celebrate Christmas, we are not just celebrating the birth of Christ 2000 years ago, we are recognizing Immanuel, that God came to dwell with us and He is with us today. We are saying Jesus is Immanuel, He is God with us. Do we need God in our world today? Some people would try to rule out that thought saying we don’t need God, we’ve done so much, we are in control of everything, so, why even think about God? Why even consider the thought of God? Do we need God? Without God, our lives are empty, they are meaningless, purposeless and the world would have been in so great a depth of darkness and depravity and evil and wickedness but for the influence of godly people and godliness in our world, the salt and the light that preserves and gives direction; but for that influence, we would have been in a much worse state. Do we need God, purpose, meaning, direction, purpose, something that anchors our lives, gives us a sense of morality which tells us what is right and wrong, do we need God? Yes! So, this is what Christmas is all about, recognizing that Jesus is Immanuel God and so we learn to walk with God and acknowledge His presence, guidance, counsel, His rule in our lives. Immanuel, God with us, we need you. Lord, we thank you for this time of the year that we could pause and reflect and celebrate who Jesus is to us, that He is indeed Immanuel, God with us and we need you in our lives, in Jesus’s name, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.