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“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
One of the most important things I want to remind you of is this: you don’t have to wait for something external to happen before you connect with God. You don’t need a song, a moment, or someone else’s spiritual breakthrough to feel Him. “You can turn your heart, your mind, your attention to Him at any moment.” You can minister to your own heart, renew your mind, and experience intimacy with the Father that is often deeper than anything someone else could lead you into.
That’s always been my hope for you—not just that you’d enjoy church, but that you’d learn how to behold Christ for yourself.
This is why we’re in this Christmas series I’ve called Behold the Majesty of Christ. I want to make Him bigger in our thinking. I want to magnify Him, elevate Him, and lift Him up so that every area of our lives is tempered and influenced by who He is, what He’s done for us, and what He’s leading us into. When you see Jesus clearly, everything else begins to fall into place.
At the heart of this message is a single, profound truth: God wants to be with us.
You Were Not Created to Work for God—You Were Created to Be His Child
One of the most subtle distortions in Christianity is the idea that our primary purpose is to fulfill assignments for God. I want to challenge that. God did not create you to do a job for Him. “The reason that we’re here is to be God’s child.” He created you to enjoy His presence.
Parents don’t have children so they can work for them. We have children because love naturally wants expression. You love your kids before they’re even here. And when they arrive, your heart expands. Then another child comes along, and you wonder how it’s possible to love again the same way—yet you do. “And that—that’s God.”
God reveals Himself as Father. Yes, He is righteous judge. Yes, He is the Most High God. Yes, He is the One to whom all accountability belongs. But the way He frames His relationship with us is as Father to children, and even as Bridegroom to a bride, intimately joined to Him. Why? Because He wants to be with us. Emmanuel.
Emmanuel: God With Us Was Always the Plan
Hebrews 12:2 tells us to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That joy was you.
Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Immanuel means God with us. Say it plainly: God wants to be with me.
And next week we’ll go deeper into Isaiah 9, where this child is called the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, and—shockingly to some—the Everlasting Father. “There’s such a unity in their identities and who they are that it calls Jesus the everlasting father.” That’s why any theology that tries to reduce Jesus to a created being falls apart the moment you take Scripture seriously.
This is why one of the core missions of our church is simple: change the way you see God.
Misconceptions About God Create Distance
A lot of people didn’t grow up with a clear picture of God. I certainly didn’t. I didn’t grow up in church. My background was criminal, New Age, substance abuse. “I looked to Nostradamus, not Isaiah. Edgar Cayce, not Ezekiel.” Jesus didn’t come into my life through tradition—He found me.
Because of that, I often have to listen carefully to people who grew up in religious systems in order to understand what they’re detoxing from—legalism, control, fear-based theology. And what I’ve learned is this: the issue is rarely a specific doctrine. The issue is who people believe God is and how they think He relates to them.
I’m not interested in emotionalism or shallow interpretation. “I want to rightly divide the word.” I’m more of a practitioner than a theologian, but I care deeply about getting God right—because when you get Him wrong, intimacy suffers.
From the very beginning, God’s desire was clear: “Bring my children out… so that I can dwell among them and be with them.” He told Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to all nations. And ultimately, Galatians shows us that the promise was made to Christ—and fulfilled in Him. Those who put their faith in Christ now carry that priestly identity. We are meant to bless, not condemn. To bring hope, not fear.
This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17–21 that we are ambassadors for Christ, speaking in Christ’s stead, telling people that God is not holding their sins against them. And the proper response to that message isn’t striving—it’s gratitude. “Thank you should almost come before I believe.”
The Real Problem Began in the Garden
To understand why people struggle to trust God, we have to go all the way back to the garden. Adam and Eve didn’t just eat a piece of fruit. “It wasn’t just a step of disobedience—it was a way of thinking.” It was humanity deciding to define good and evil apart from God.
Every time we decide what is right or wrong without consulting God’s heart, we’re eating from the same tree. Whether it’s finances, relationships, sexuality, or culture, this is the root issue. “Rather than calling it politics, we should call it eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The good news is that under the New Covenant, God doesn’t just give us rules—He gives us a new heart. “We have the mind of Christ.” His law is written within us. Obedience is no longer external pressure; it’s internal transformation.
Abraham, the Lamb, and God Meeting People Where They Are
When God called Abraham, He met him in a culture shaped by idolatry and even child sacrifice. Abraham’s father worshiped in the temple of Nimrod. God didn’t demand instant theological perfection—He drew Abraham out and revealed His heart over time.
When Abraham was asked to offer his son, God provided a lamb. That moment wasn’t about cruelty—it was about revelation. God was showing humanity what He would one day do Himself. “God provides a lamb and the child is saved.” That lamb pointed directly to Christ.
Galatians tells us that Christ is the fulfillment of that promise—and those in Christ are now the blessing promised to the nations.
Fear of God vs. Fear of Hell
Some people say, “There’s no fear of God anymore.” But what they often mean is fear of punishment. “You should be afraid of hell,” I’ll say that plainly. But don’t be afraid of God.
Why? Because He went to extraordinary lengths to rescue you from sin and death. He sent His Son because He loves you. “He wants to be with you.”
Sinai: When Israel Chose Instruction Over Encounter
This is where everything comes into focus.
After Israel was delivered from Egypt—after the Red Sea parted, after Pharaoh’s army was destroyed—God invited the entire nation to meet Him at Mount Sinai. His plan was intimacy. Encounter. Relationship.
But when God spoke, they drew back.
Exodus 20:18–19 says the people trembled at the thunder, lightning, trumpet, and smoking mountain, and said, “Speak with us… but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
They were wrong—but their fear felt real.
Deuteronomy 5:22–27 tells us they later realized, “We have heard the voice of the living God… and survived.” Where did the idea that God would kill them come from? “Their pagan gods… their Egyptian gods.”
And we still do the same thing today.
When shame rises, we pull back. We stop praying. We stop reading. We assume God is disappointed. “We do it too.” And yet God’s heart has never changed.
This is the turning point: Israel chose instruction over encounter. They asked Moses to mediate because they were afraid of God’s nearness. The law system that followed was not God’s ultimate desire—it was a temporary arrangement for people who couldn’t yet live unveiled before Him.
God says it plainly throughout Scripture: “I desire mercy over sacrifice.”
Melchizedek and the Priesthood of Blessing
Before the law ever existed, Abraham encountered Melchizedek—a priest with no lineage, no beginning, no end—king of righteousness and peace. What did he do? He blessed Abraham. No commands. No sacrifices. Just blessing.
That priesthood pointed directly to Christ.
Jesus is not a priest under the Mosaic Law. He isn’t even qualified to be one. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. “God first and foremost wants to bless you, and then deal with your behavior.”
Before you ever obeyed Him, He blessed you.
Does that lead to sin? No. “The more clearly you see God and how He sees you, the less you want to sin.” Identity always produces behavior.
Sinai vs. Zion: What You’ve Really Come To
Hebrews 12:18–21 reminds us what Sinai was like—fear, darkness, fire, trembling, even Moses afraid.
But Hebrews 12:22–24 says you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to joyful assembly, “to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” Say it plainly: “That’s me.”
Perfect doesn’t mean flawless—it means whole. You are whole with God because of what Christ has done. And if you actually believe that, sin loses its power.
Hebrews 12:28 concludes, “Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
Your Reasonable Response
Romans 12:1–2 tells us to present ourselves as living sacrifices—not animals, not offerings, but ourselves—holy and acceptable because Christ has made us that way. Then we renew our minds and live out God’s will.
This is what Christmas means.
God didn’t send Jesus to scare us into obedience. He sent Him so He could be with us.
So behold Him. Make Him bigger. Take Him at His word. Let gratitude rise.
God is with you.
And He always has been.
