God is with us, and once we really believe that, we can trust Him enough to go wherever He asks — even when the path is scary.
Matthew opens the story of Jesus with the good news that God did not just watch us from a distance — He joined us as Emmanuel, God with us. Because He got in the game with us as wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, we can trust Him even when His plans feel scary or make no sense, and simply believe Him.
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Point 1 of 7
Matthew's opening genealogy sets up who Jesus is: the sovereign king in David's line and the sacrificial son in Abraham's line.
Pastor Bill walks through Matthew 1:1, noting that calling Jesus a descendant of David points to Him as the promised king of kings, while descendant of Abraham points back to Isaac, the son offered as a sacrifice, foreshadowing God offering His own Son for all people. The order of the book mirrors this: the first twelve chapters emphasize the king, the Lion of Judah, and the later chapters move toward the cross, the Lamb of God.
“He got on the field with us during the game”
— Pastor Bill Bush
“There is nothing that we've experienced that God in through Jesus did not experience as well. So”
— Pastor Bill Bush
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Point 2 of 7
Joseph's story shows that Jesus's birth was the fulfillment of Emmanuel, God with us.
Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant and plans to quietly divorce her, but an angel tells him to trust God, quoting Isaiah 7:14 that a virgin will conceive and call Him Emmanuel. Pastor Bill explains this means God did not just stay with us from a distance in the Old Testament, He joined us by taking on humanity.
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Point 3 of 7
Jesus is the everlasting Father, the God who has always existed and who sees us.
Pastor Bill explains that Jesus did not begin to exist at His birth but is the originator of eternity, showing up throughout the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. He tells the story of Hagar in Genesis 16, mistreated and running away, whom the angel of the Lord meets in the wilderness and who names God 'the God who sees me.'
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 4 of 7
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but the peace He brings is peace with God before it is peace in our circumstances.
Pastor Bill clarifies that the peace we usually want is the absence of problems, but the peace Jesus offers is the presence of harmony that comes from being reconciled to God first. Only after we make peace with God, he says, can we experience the peace that surpasses understanding even while walking through hard valleys.
“He still loves you. He's still with you”
— Pastor Bill Bush
“it's not the absence of conflict that is peace, it's the presence of harmony”
— Pastor Bill Bush
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 5 of 7
Jesus is the wonderful counselor, meaning His counsel often looks beyond our comprehension before it looks good.
Pastor Bill reworks the common reading of 'wonderful' and 'counselor,' explaining that counselor means a king's directive, not optional advice, and wonderful means beyond human comprehension, not simply pleasant. He points to Job, who never got an explanation from God but was satisfied just seeing who God was, and applies this to trusting God with money and with scary decisions like sending people out to plant a church.
Related passage
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Point 6 of 7
Jesus is the mighty God who shows up with power once we trust His counsel, even after we reach the end of ourselves.
Returning to Hagar's story in Genesis 21, Pastor Bill describes her being sent away again, running out of water, and collapsing in despair, only to have the angel of the Lord open her eyes to a well of water right there. He draws the lesson that reaching the end of yourself is actually the beginning of God showing up in might.
“when you get to the end of yourself, you've now just got to the beginning of God”
— Pastor Bill Bush
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Point 7 of 7
God is present with us on the field of life, like a patient father coaching a nervous child through a game he doesn't yet understand.
Pastor Bill tells the story of his four-year-old grandson Phoenix's first tee-ball game, melting down repeatedly because the game didn't go the way he wanted, while his dad stayed on the field patiently coaching him. He applies it directly: God is with us in the game He created, not to harm us but to help us, and we simply need to believe Him.
“God is right there. Jesus, God with us, means he got in the game that he created”
— Pastor Bill Bush
A story from life
The preacher recounts his four-year-old grandson Phoenix's first tee ball game and his father David's patient presence on the field with him
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Take it into your week
Don't just believe in God — believe Him, and go where He's going because He's with you.
Application
Pray about going with the church plant
Consider whether God is calling you to join Echoes Church as part of the sending team, even though it may feel scary or costly to Rock Point.
Step into the gap if you stay
If you're not called to go, engage practically by serving and giving where others have stepped back, growing your own trust in God in the process.
Trust God's counsel even when it makes no sense
Especially with time and money, obey what God's word directs before you fully understand it, rather than waiting until it seems safe or logical.
Make peace with God first
Stop waiting for painless circumstances to trust Him; settle your relationship with God so you can receive the deeper peace that holds even in hard valleys.
Keep trusting when you reach the end of yourself
Like Hagar in the wilderness, don't quit when God's promise seems impossible — that's often the place right before He shows up with His might.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI