You are Not Alone; God is with Us!

“He is going to ghost me,” she thought. “There is no way he will talk to me after he finds out. I would not want to talk to me. When everyone else finds out what happened they will not want to risk their reputation helping me. I will be alone. I will have to raise this child by myself when he finds out he is not the father.”

The term “ghosting” means to cut off communication with someone. Often the term is used with people in a relationship, but it has grown in its use to include any time one person abruptly stops replying to any form a communication from another. Examples include not responding to the texts, messages or phone calls from the other person after an awkward blind date. Or you not getting a response from a coworker or classmate when asking for help on a project. Ghosting has to do with communication and relationships. When a relationship is not that important to you ghosting may not seem like a big deal, but when the relationship is a big deal to you, ghosting can be life changing.

Even worse than one person ghosting another is ghosting God. In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 7, we hear an example of one of the Kings of Judah attempting to ghost God. Ahaz was king of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, in the last part of the 8^th century BC. We get a brief description of the kind of man he was in 2 Chronicles 28, 3 He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. For those not familiar with the Old Testament, this verse revealed Ahaz turned away from worshipping the one true God to worship idols or false gods in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which later became a reference when someone wanted to paint a picture of Hell. He also sacrificed his own children as part of the worship of Molech, one of the false gods of the heathen, wicked nations God drove out of the land of Canaan that he gave to Israelites. When we pick up with wicked Ahaz in Isaiah 7, the Lord had sent the prophet Isaiah to confront Ahaz about his fear over the impending war he faced against the nation of Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah shared God’s promise with Ahaz that these two nations would not defeat him and Judah. And to make it clear the Lord continued in Isaiah 7,

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?

Isaiah 7:10-13

God gave Ahaz a clear chance to trust in him, to get rid of his fear and enjoy peace, and even ask for a sign to guarantee God’s power and faithfulness, but Ahaz stubbornly refused. Instead, he turned to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria as we hear in 2 Kings 16, 7 … “Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” Assyria provided more troubles than solutions, and Ahaz eventually died a wicked man who had ghosted God and suffered the eternal consequences.

We give God every reason to ghost us. Ahaz was wicked, he led God’s people into wickedness and he refused to listen to God’s Word when it would have saved him. The people of Jesus’ time refused to believe in him despite his miracles and authoritative teaching, and even his resurrection from the dead. You have loved money more than God prioritizing work over worship, and entertainment over giving to others in need. You have hated others by judging them by their appearance, orientation, political party and past sins leaving them in arrogance or ignorance of the message of God’s grace through Jesus’ forgiveness and your own patient, kind, gentle and forgiving heart. You have been given the opportunity to read or listen to the Word of God in many formats, on many devices, from many people and books, in worship and Bible study, but you choose to read or listen to any other genre from the fictional to the factual. You have ghosted God on so many occasions giving him every reason to ghost you back, and without him you face eternal consequences. You and I cannot be saved by avoiding communication with God. Communication with God happens through his Word which points us to our Savior Jesus as we hear in Acts 4, 12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

God does not ghost us. When Ahaz refused to listen to God, he looked to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria to “save” him. The Hebrew word used for “save” is from the same word where we get the name in our Gospel reading from Matthew 1, 25 … “And he gave him the name Jesus.” Jesus means “God saves”. Ahaz had given God every reason to ghost him, but God did not. God had sent the prophet Isaiah to him with the news he would save him. When Ahaz refused, God did not ghost him, but gave this message through Isaiah, 13… “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” God was going to give a sign specific to Ahaz who was a descendent of King David who ruled over a united Israel in the past. The kingdom of Israel would be preserved and united through one ruler who would give them eternal victory. This ruler would not come through the will of an earthly man, but through God’s miraculous power to allow a woman to conceive a child who would be God and man. The name Immanuel means “God with us”. God announced his promise to save us by becoming one of us to a man who had abandoned God. So often, when mankind has severely ghosted God, God cries out with his gracious promise to save us. We were saved through Immanuel as we heard in our New Testament reading from Romans 1,

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 1:1-4

Through Paul, Jesus revealed himself as “God with us” being the Son of Man descended from David and the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ our Lord, Immanuel, was no ghost, but real flesh and blood. He saved us through his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead. You were not left alone; God came to save you.

When you feel alone, God is with you. When you feel alone and tempted to think God has ghosted you, God has many messages he wants you to hear. First, when you wonder if he wanted to save you and forgive all your sins, we read in 1 Timothy 2, 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. God wanted to save you and wanted you to hear everything he did to save you. Second, when you feel like God does not understand your struggles, we hear in Hebrews 4,

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16

God knows your temptations, gives you strength to resist and has saved you from your sins. Third, when you are suffering, mourning, depressed and hopeless, we hear in Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Fourth, God is specifically with you, he knows you and cares for you as we hear in John 10, 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” Fifth, today Jesus comes to be with us in the Lord’s Supper with his body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins as we read in Matthew 26,

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28

And one more, although many more could be listed, God is with us as we go out into the world for his purpose and with his power as members of his kingdom, Matthew 28,

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

God is surely with you as you share the gospel of Jesus’ coming to save us, Immanuel. He is with you until you breath your last when he will take you to heaven or until he returns to take us all to heaven.

“He is going to ghost me when he finds out the child is not his,” Mary thought. The Bible does not say that Joseph planned to ghost Mary. Instead, we read in our Gospel reading from Matthew 1,

19 he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:19-21

God clearly communicated his plan to Joseph, who was a descendent of David and Ahaz. Mary’s child was from the Holy Spirit, a miraculous virgin birth, as we read in Matthew 1, 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Through the prophet Isaiah, God announced his plan to be with us. Jesus was born to save you. When you have ghosted God to chase after sin or when you feel God has ghosted you because of your sins, his response is you are not alone; God is with us. Amen.