Immanuel | Ps Jon Eaton

Hey, welcome to the city Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us Every day is an opportunity to take hold

of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith that it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

Do you want to start with an? Interesting story.

Not just a story, it was actually an event that occurred

in 2016. Whole stack of newspaper

articles about it caught my eye because it's so intriguing.

There was this Filipino. Filipinos.

Yeah. But it was this Filipino

fisherman. And he's doing his, you know,

his thing. He's swimming around and he

finds this big, dirty old rock that was weird looking.

And he thought this is a weird looking ugly rock, Must be

lucky. So he gets this big ugly rock

and he puts it under his bed for good luck.

He had it under his bed for 10 years, 10 years, lucky rock,

ugly rock. At the end of 10 years, he

thought to himself, I should check to see if this rock is

actually worth anything. It's ugly.

We're looking, maybe someone will like it.

So he took it into the the local, like, you know, where

they get evaluated on what it is because it wasn't gold.

It was a 34 kilogram Pearl. It's currently in a museum.

It was valued at the time, so 2016 at $100 million.

Ugly rock, 10 years. I know that kind of rock is a

you can look it up. They've got it in a museum now

in a glass case. I should have had a picture, but

you can look it up because that was a life changing, super

valuable, one-of-a-kind discovery, which is why it was

valued so highly. And in life, the more rare

something is, the more valuable it is.

Say for example, dirt, not so valuable.

It does have some value, but it's not as valuable because it

is everywhere. It is common, but dirt is part

of life. To even leave the house, you

walk on the dirt, you travel on the dirt, your car gets dirty,

your house gets dirty. There's this constant

interaction between dirt and your own life.

So that's OK because interaction and management of dirt, even

though dirt's common, it is, still has value, you know,

because you want to walk places, you want to do things, you know?

So dirt, yeah, annoying, but it's there.

Gold, more valuable because it's more rare and more useful than

just dirt. Diamonds are worth more.

And these days we have what's called rare earth materials.

Have you heard of them? Rare earth materials.

Super valuable gets like massive amount of uses, very hard to

find. If you were to dig up rare earth

materials in your backyard it would be a life changing super

valuable discovery for you and your family.

That's just true. So too, in scripture we have

what's called imperative themes. It's combinements that are kind

of the same. You know, it's like, you know,

don't sleep with a bunch of people you shouldn't, don't have

sexual immorality. It's a theme, all right?

Imperative theme commands. And there are some imperative

themes that are repeated over and over and over again, not to

make them of little value, but because they're meant to be so

common that you interact with them daily and have a lifestyle

of it. OK, so there's some imperative

themes that happen over and over and over again.

If, however, there is an imperative theme of command or

something that's only mentioned, you know, you know, a few times

or even only once, it's because that word, that imperative theme

has even more value. It doesn't actually diminish.

It doesn't. Oh, God.

And he mentions it once or twice.

It mustn't be that important. It's well, actually it's more

rare. It's more like a gold or it's

more like a diamond. And there is this one word in

the Bible, one word. It's OK, it's technically twice,

once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament.

But the New Testament is just referring back to the only one

time it's mentioned in Scripture.

So if technically once there is this one word in the Bible, the

whole Bible that is meant to be super valuable, super life

changing, incredibly dynamic for your life, we're talking an

amazing experience. When you get this one word in

your life, it should change your whole experience.

And it's the title of today's message Emmanuel God with us in

menu means with us L God mention once it must be important.

No, it's super rare earth material.

Get this into your heart. It will change your entire life.

God with us. It's found in Isaiah 7 verse 14

Isaiah 7:14

and then in Isaiah 9 verse 6 we have the Christmas theme which

Isaiah 9:6

incorporates Emmanuel. In Isaiah 9, verse 6, it says

Isaiah 9:6

for unto us a child is born, unto us, with us a son is given,

and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will

be called wonderful counselor. The word counselor then means to

guide. OK, so he's going to be

wonderful, but he's going to also guide mighty God,

everlasting father. And one of the most remarkable

parts of this verse, Prince of Peace, one of the most

incredible qualities of this God, this wonderful counselor

God who wants to be with us. Oh man, you know, not on my

nose. Sorry, but the song that bugs me

the most is that song that goes God is watching from a distance.

I'm like what a load of tripe. Sorry just popped into my head.

I'm like gosh, I hate that song as I'm as I'm reading this with

us. God is with us anyway, this

mighty or eternal being. Not only is he mighty, eternal

Father, he brings peace. And if you look at the majority

of the other religions, their lowercase G gods demand

obedience without fatherhood, without atonement, no

redemption. The other gods will bring law

and subjection with love, what they call love, but they enforce

their so-called love through fear.

And it is our God, the God of the Bible who comes with peace.

First point of today is No Fear because with the one true God

there is No Fear. Yeah, praise Jesus, You know,

Speaking of Jesus when Jesus was born, OK, just the day that the

moment that Jesus was born, basically there's a whole stack

of shepherds down the fields and this Angel appears to them.

The very first word spoken to humanity at the birth of Christ

was fear not. The first words spoken to

humanity. Fear not, fear not.

That's Luke 2, verse 10. He says, fear not for behold, I

Luke 2:10

bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all

people. Verse 14 glory to God in the

highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

And I think this is my personal opinion, but I, I have some

anecdotal evidence about our case.

Things that I've, I've noticed that the majority of the world,

not just Christians, but the majority of the world would

think that if Jesus showed up right now on this platform, he

would look you all straight in the eye and say you should do

better. That's, that's what we think our

first experience with the revelation of Jesus is going to

be like. It's like, man, if Jesus showed

up, I mean, he's the first thing he's going to do is point out

everything I've done wrong this week.

It's like, you better do better. I'm going to beat you.

But first words fear not fear not because I bring peace now I

sure do better, but out of a loving relationship, not out of

fear, but out of peace out of peace.

Now, I don't understand that Scripture does say to fear God,

but you have to remember in Second Timothy one verse 7, it

says for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and

of love and a sound mind. This verse has kept me since I

was about 17. Honestly, I'm like, wow, OK,

sound mind. That's a tough one being a crazy

teenager. It's just like not so sure if

this one's accurate. God.

And God was like, just trust me, because he's not giving us a

spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

And Scripture does say to actually fear God.

That's in Ecclesiastes 12/13. It says let us hear the

conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his

commandments, for this is the whole duty of men.

It's like, wait, which one is it?

Is it fear not or fear me? Contradictions.

No, not contradictions. Do not fear, but fear God

because the fear of God in the context of the whole Bible, not

just, you know, a little verse, a little chapter, the context of

fear in God, the whole Bible is a healthy, respectful fear.

Let me explain a little bit further.

It's like fire. Now, I've mentioned before that

I'm, you know, somewhat in the fire industry.

I know to your surprise, I am not in the calendar, right?

Yeah. Why are you laughing for isn't

the, isn't the calendar a personality calendar

personality. Anyway, they never asked me to

be on them. All right, we're moving on.

Where's my notes here? OK, so fire.

I, I have done fire training and without even setting fire to

anything as the demonstration, before I even got to set fire to

something, I've had people have mental breakdowns on me.

Like, legitimately, that's actually true.

It's happened twice because people have had terrible

traumatic experiences with fire and they are super fearful of

fire. Get this.

Please understand this. If you are terrified of

something, you do not approach it.

You do not get near it. So God does not want you to fear

because if you fear you are never going to draw close to

him. And then he says, but fear me.

It's like, well, which one is a God?

So this with fire, if you approach fire correctly, if you

have a healthy, right relationship with fire, then it

can bring life. You cook food on it, gets rid of

the bacteria, warms a house. We use it for sterilization of

wounds. Fire has amazing health

benefits. So you choose what fear you

have. Have you got the fear that's

responsive and rejectful or have you got a fear of I approach it

with respect? Because if I approach fire with

respect, then I'm going to reap all the benefits.

And it's the same with God. We approach God with that

respectful fear. We get all of the benefits, but

stop fearing. God is constantly wanting us to

draw close to him, but we have do not fear the imperative

theme. The command to not fear actually

occurs 113 times in the Bible. It's the number one thing in the

whole Bible. Do not fear or do not be afraid

or fear not imperative theme 113 times.

Stop being afraid. It's actually very well

connected to be at peace. So peace, it occurs 22 times in

the Bible between those that the the whole emphasis of the Bible,

if you want to look at imperative themes is just stop

being afraid and find peace. Interestingly, the second

highest imperative theme in the Bible is to listen.

That occurs 78 times. Why?

Because guys like, will you just listen to me and stop fearing

and peace? OK, So yeah, the third highest

one is to look, look and see what God's doing.

That occurs 62 times. See God.

See God the next one's go and come that's 58 times because God

wants to move with you, God with us and 51 times go command, go

into the world, go and do this, but it's always with you.

I'll always be with you, never leave you.

So none of these are the imperatives, you know, like

listen, look, go and tell will happen in your life if you're

afraid of drawing close to God, if there is fear in your life,

which is why you've got to get rid of fear.

If you suffer from fear and anxiety, here's the good news.

Here's the absolutely honestly best news.

I'm not just going to say this to encourage you.

I'm going to tell you very clearly how you how this

transforms, OK, so that you can see some light at the end of the

tunnel, because I think there's people that really suffer from

fear and anxiety. I've been there in my life and

my childhood. I was so crippled by it that I

would stop breathing. So, and I think Pastor Graham's

already mentioned the fact that he would hate to be up speaking

in front of people. It's like, how do you transform

from fearful and anxiety to the power of God?

How does this work? Well, that's because fear and

anxiety is actually a dis formed gift.

All right, so let me explain people who have a persuasion for

ungodly experiences. So for example, people like, you

know, I'm a psychic. I'm like, all right, it's, I

find it remarkable that when they become born again

Christians, the gift doesn't leave them because the gifts of

God are without repentance. But now they operate fully in

the correct spiritual realm. So they're not hearing from

demons anymore. They're hearing from the power

of God. They've become prophets or

discerners. Amazing.

Same gift, just in godliness, you know, and with actual true

health and power. People that have a deformed gift

of healing, you know, they've heard Reiki.

They're like, oh, I run my hands over you, it's going to heal

you. It's like, don't touch me, mate.

You might. That doesn't already matter.

But after a transformational change through the power of the

Holy Spirit, all of a sudden the gift arises of healing in their

life. Gifts of God without repentance.

That's Romans 11/29. Get this.

If you feel like you suffer depression, guess what?

You're the kind of person who will know the weight that God

feels about sin. If you have an addictive

personality, then you're the person who's going to wake up

every day when the God hit. We have to stop thinking that

the problem's a problem. The problem is an opportunity

for the Kingdom. And so if you're prone to fear,

prone from suffering fear and anxiety, and honestly, there's

some research about the addiction to fear, but instead

of being prone to anxiety, get this, this is where your

transformation is going to occur.

If you are the one who is prone to anxiety, then you are

actually also prone to faith. Yeah, you can.

You can actually build a moment of lifestyle of faith because to

be honest, as someone, and Pastor Gray will testify this to

step down and faith can be quite terrifying sometimes.

Yeah, But because fear can be addictive, then so can faith

because you like the same buzz, the same hormones, like, Oh my

gosh, this is so terrifying. And then you go, yes, I'm going

to step out of faith and tell this lady to step out of a

wheelchair. It's just like, because I'm

addicted to the buzz. The difference between a

distorted gift and a wholly powerful godly gift is to simply

know God, that he is with us. Let go of the fear.

Move into your God-given gifts. Alright .2 No God no peace.

No God, no peace. It's a classic, yeah.

God deeply wants us to know him. You know, to know God is the

beginning of wisdom. That's in Proverbs 910.

But to really know God and to move into a relationship with

him, you will always find peace as well, not just wisdom.

It's the beginning of wisdom, but there's a whole world of

peace. And God does want us to deeply

know him. Even if you have personally

rejected God your entire life, He wants you to know Him.

Now. We recently know of somebody who

passed away. They were 90 years old, and they

rejected God their whole life. We're talking their last, like

their last moments in bed. You know what's it called?

A palliative care for the last six months, right?

Reject God. Reject God 90 years palliative

care rah rah. Gave their life to the Lord,

right? And then it was just like, huh,

he he'll probably die now. He did three days later because

God was like, you know, I'm going to have to keep you alive

just long enough for you to accept me as your king.

Oh, and you think you think, wait, God, he rejected you for

his entire life. And I think back and I go, are

you OK, God? Because that's a little bit

obsessive compulsive. I genuinely think a bit worried

about him sometimes because I wouldn't have to be honest.

I love you guys. 90 years, a whole life of rejection.

God's like, Oh no, no, I'm holding him because I want him

home. Bam.

Because God is so forgiving, so merciful.

And to know that God is so forgiving and so merciful, you

know, that brings peace. No more condemnation in Christ.

None of this rubbish way you think.

It's just like, you know, God loves me, God, God would wait to

my dying breath to save me. Why would that not bring you

peace? You know, Paul says, it's not

even my eyes. Paul says I am convinced that

absolutely nothing can stop us from the love of God.

But principalities, not powers. He's so forgiving.

Praise God. So how do we get there as well?

Actually, Pastor Rachel did it today.

No, she hasn't seen my notes, but Psalms 4610 Be still and

know that I am God. There is a time just to sit and

go. I'm going to try and control my

thoughts. If you're a little bit like me,

like a little bit of ADHD actually, I went to the doctor,

he said I have HD and apparently I have 80 of them.

That's AI said that's a terrible joke.

But if you get ADHD, you will definitely understand that.

So controlling my mind can sometimes be really hard.

So I'll be sitting there and next thing I realize, I've spent

some, you know, like the last 10 minutes thinking about something

completely different than God. So that's OK.

You know, sometimes that's actually OK because there's no

condemnation. God's just like, I just love the

fact that you're trying to spend time with me.

Yeah. Remember.

And your gift will become your purpose.

So just chill out. Oh my gosh.

Anyway, so be still and know that I'm God.

Psalms 4611, the Lord of Hostess with us, God, with us.

Emmanuel, I'm telling you, if you can get that word into your

brain, then into your heart and into every DNA of your body, it

will change your life. Because every time you encounter

situations, every time you encounter temptations or trials,

you just think, oh, God, what's with me?

So why would I fear it? I'm not saying it's going to

stop bad things from happening, but it removes the fear.

This wonderful, wonderful counsellor.

Yes. It be still and know that I'm

God, I love this word. So that word still is hapu in

Hebrew, right? Hapu.

Think of shampoo. Yeah.

And just like shampoo won't happen overnight, but it will

happen if you know what that is. You're as old as I am.

Some of you was like, what is that off as an ad?

Sorry, kids. All right back way before you're

all born anyway. But hapu, Hapu means let it go.

Yeah. It's like, oh, how do I be

still? How do I be still?

How do I still OK, Hapu let it go.

And it's. And it's where you let it go so

much that you just go. You actually perhaps you fall

because you've let everything go.

Let it go. What's that song?

Oh, that's your generation is a frozen.

That's it. Yeah.

Let it go. I'm not going to sing it.

Oh, yeah. Because they can't.

Guys, let it go. It really does actually mean let

it go. And and you know why we can let

it go? Because Emmanuel, God with us,

let it go. We can know God.

We can know peace. Let me tell you right now, God

does not in his infinite eternity toss night and day

worrying about tomorrow. Yeah, think of that.

It's like, well, we're like, oh, no, God's like, I'm, I'm, I'm

good. You should be good too, because

I'm with you because God is peace.

And some people like, oh, I thought God was a wrath for God.

Well, sure, God will pour out wrath on weakness, but get this,

He is definitely at peace with that because he sees as justice.

God is at peace with how much he loves you.

God is at peace. This part's brutal, but he's at

peace placing all of your sin and all of your judgments on his

own Son. He's at peace brutalizing his

own son so that he could save us.

He's at peace with that all your wrongdoings on his own son.

Now, the absence of fear does not mean peace.

It's it's about knowing God so you can remove fear from your

life. Well done.

Congratulations. That's like removing a drug.

Good getting off drugs, very healthy thing to do.

Removing fear really healthy to do that still does not bring

peace. True peace actually comes from

knowing God. You've got Judges sixth story

about a guy named Gideon right now, Gideon.

Gideon was basically hiding from the Midianite army.

Like there's a Midianite army, they're all around and they want

to kill the Israelites pretty bad.

And Gideon is hiding. All right, So he's hiding, He's

doing work, but he's still hiding technically.

And it says that an Angel appears to him and the first

thing he says to Gideon is peace be unto you.

Fear not. Good theme, right?

And then, you know, so Gideon's like, whoa, I've just seen God,

rah, rah. I'm hearing from God.

And he builds this altar and then judges 624, he says, so

Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and he called it the

Lord is peace. If you like King James Version,

it's Jehovah Shalom. Yeah, that's for the king.

That's for the KGB is here. All right, Jehovah Shalom.

So how do we know God? How do we find peace?

It's by getting to know who he is in his word, get to know his

likes, his dislikes, get to know his ways.

I, as somebody who studies scholarly, you know, I'm doing

the studies and I've done a bunch of other stuff.

My #1 difficulty in Christianity is how much we argue over what

the Bible does and doesn't say when I just think maybe it's

just we should do all of it, you know, And the context of grace,

I've had people say, well, John, if you think we should do all of

it and that's stone these people and stone them.

I'm like, you are the context of the Bible is grace and love and

redemption. So do that first.

OK? Also, do not fear.

Yeah, that's why out there. So how do we get to know, get to

know God, get to know his ways and people then say, oh John,

you do. I do tend to say it to people.

Get to know God's ways, get read the Bible, get into it, get

stuck into it, love it. So why, why John, you're trying

to tell people you know, control them.

No, it's because in Psalms 119 it says this Psalms one 19165

great peace. Great peace have those who love

your law and nothing causes them to stumble.

Great peace, that word, their law.

At the Hebrew where there's Torah, it doesn't.

It gets that's pretty dodgy translation in general.

It's not just laws, not rules, not God in love with the rules.

Now the word Torah then means instruction and direction.

Yeah. And because laws are part of

instruction and direction, it gets translated as law.

But if you read this correctly, it says great peace are those

who love God's ways, want his direction, they want his

instruction. It is those things that will

bring great peace into your life because you get to know God.

I'm spinning here. No God, no peace.

If I can get this through your heads, no God, no peace, no his

ways, no God. It's this wonderful circle of

life. Just get to know God.

It's really not rocket science. Actually, true peace does not

come from following or adoring some spiritual leader.

It's not in the dedication of study.

Peace is not found with escapism in drugs, alcohol, or sexual

pleasures. Peace is not found in religion.

In fact, I'm not saying that any of these are really bad.

I'm just saying peace doesn't come from this and it's not

found by rebuking the devil constantly.

You know, people like it's the devil.

Rachel, I were talking about this this morning.

I love what Rachel said. She said this.

Whatever you blame, you empower. It's so weird and it's true.

I've seen this people who are absolutely obsessed with others,

demons everywhere, invited into their life.

You know why? Because Satan loves the

attention. I don't give him credit for

anything. I have dealt with more spiritual

matters than some of you will ever see in your life.

I've seen some crazy stuff. I don't even care about it.

You know why? Because I don't want to give any

kind of glory to Satan. Because who you blame, you

empower. And when you take

responsibility, you are blaming yourself.

Then you are empowering yourself.

Oh, my marriage is terrible because of demons.

No, you need to work on yourself.

Satan loves it. He loves getting credit for

things he's never done in his life.

Oh my gosh, you know what it's like?

Sorry, I'm going to finish up. It's like germaphobes.

We know that in your body you've got germs and you've got

bacteria. If you spend your whole life

getting freaked out about that and you focus on the germs and

the bacteria in your body, you will end up like a germaphobe.

And then what you would do is you'll wash your hands 100 times

a day. That's like trying to cast out

100 demons a day. But if you have a real view of

germs and you think, you know, it's part of life, I can

overcome them. How do you overcome them, John?

I wash my hands once before meals, that's handy as well.

I do not get obsessed about germs, but they're real.

But I do not obsess them because peace, fear gone.

Don't fear these things. Don't give them power guys.

Just find peace. And true peace is found in the

Prince of Peace. His name is Jesus by loving his

guidance and just loving his ways.

Sorry if I come across too much in love with Jesus.

Actually, I'm not sorry about that at all.

I feel sorry for you because the love of God I just one word,

Emmanuel. I'm thinking, I think often I

think, God, why? Why do you want to be with us?

Like what's the benefit for you? I don't think we'll actually

really know. But the benefit to him is so, so

high. He sees you as so important.

He sees you as so, so high value to him that he was willing to

crucify his own Son just to make redemption.

I'm like God with us, Emmanuel. Let's pray.

Let's pray guys, if you would like to bow your heads, oh

musicians. Sorry guys.

I got really carried away with what I was doing because I just

love telling people how God much God loves you guys.

Wonderful revelation.