Joseph Prince - Immanuel: What It Means To Have The Lord With You?

Hallelujah. Look at the stage. What a beautiful stage, don't you think so? You feel like a someone with a mask might come out, you know? Matthew chapter 1, "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins". You will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Jesus means salvation. Jesus means healing. Jesus means wholeness. Jesus means deliverance. Call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. What does that mean? What does that mean? He will save his people from their sins. It was a good tiding of great joy to everyone who heard it. All right, and here in this context it was spoken specifically to Mary, amen. It was spoken to Mary, then to Joseph, then to the shepherds. "I bring you good tidings of great joy".

Now keeping that context of great joy in mind, what does it mean he will save his people from their sins? Does it mean that he will save you from never, never sinning again? If he did that, all right, he saves you from never sinning again, then it's a tiding of terrible, terrible predicament, all right, woe be tides. It's not a good tiding of joy because all of us have sinned. Even after we are saved, we have sinned. When Jesus saves us from our sins, it's to save us from the penalty, the judgment, and the condemnation of sin, the penalty, the judgment, and condemnation of sin.

It is not to take away your ability to sin. Now we don't want to sin but that's not what this birth is all about. He will save his people from their sins condemning them, sending them to hell, destroying their lives. He will save his people from their sins. Now that's good tidings of great joy, y'all, amen? Good tidings of great joy, amen? Are you with me? And then next verse says, "And all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God with us.' Imman, "im," with us is God, hallelujah.

Now, in the '90s I remember one time I was reading this verse and I was thinking, yeah, what is it? You know, I always hear people say, "God be with you. Go with God. Vaya con Dios," you know, God be with you. God be with you. But how does that bless me? How does that help me, God is with me? So, in the '90s, and this is the premise for my book "Unmerited Favor," all right, the story of Joseph was what God brought to me. I remember reading this and, what does it mean God is with me? And the Lord brought the story of Joseph to me and that became the premise for the book "Unmerited Favor". Okay, look at Genesis 39. "Joseph was brought down," he was sold by his brothers, "And brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there". Next, and the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph".

So, he was sold. How are they sold in those days? I found out that they were sold, all right, naked, completely naked because no householder, all right, anyone want to buy a slave, they don't want to see any disease or any trace, so they have to strip the poor slave and then the beating starts, the beating starts. That's how Joseph was sold to Potiphar. But it's amazing just after it says he was sold, the Bible says, "The Lord was with Joseph". So, he didn't have a savings account. He had no investments. He had no one with him. He had no supporters. He had no family. He had no wife. He had no children. He had nothing, naked, no clothes on his back, no bow tie, nothing. "And the Lord was with Joseph". And watch this, and he was a prosperous man. This is God's definition of prosperity. If the Lord is with you, Immanuel, you are prosperous. I said if the Lord is with you, Immanuel, you are prosperous.

So, for the Jewish year, when they heard the prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled right now, at least in this case, was Mary. When she heard that, it brought great joy to her because they all knew what it means for God to be with you. When God is with you, you, before God blesses the things in your life, and your family, and your possessions, you are a prosperous man. The person becomes prosperous first. You, you are a prosperous man, amen. Before the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 comes on you, God blesses you. The very first blessing of Deuteronomy 28 is that God set you on high and that's where we are today, all right? We are set on high at the Father's right hand in Christ Jesus. And now all the blessings come on us and overtake us. Blessed wherever we are, we are blessed, whether in the city or in the country. Some people say, "It's location, location, location". God says, "No, it's you, you, you. If my blessing on you, you go to a location, location is blessed. You go to a city, city is blessed. You go to a country, country is blessed," amen?

Amen, I believe that. I believe that if I'm here in Singapore, Singapore is blessed. I believe if I'm in U.S., the U.S. is blessed. I believe that. I really believe that. I believe that wherever you go, all right, the place is blessed. I've always said our ladies walk in a boutique, the boutique is blessed. And then it goes on to say about Joseph and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian so he wasn't the CEO, all right? He wasn't the guy running things at first. He was just a slave and he was in the house. He was a prosperous man, but he was in the house with his master the Egyptian. You know, we always think that, "unless I'm a CEO, all right, unless I'm the senior pastor, unless I'm the president, then I'm not successful". Well, the true success are people, all right, not associating their esteem and their worth with their job, but tying their worth in Christ. Can I have a good amen?

The blessing is on you. Be secure, okay? If your boss sacks you, he's sacking the blessing. If your girlfriend leaves you or your boyfriend leaves you, right, they're leaving a great blessing. They're right... "If you leave me now, you take away the biggest part of me" Amen? It's a big part, the blessing. I used to be naughty with that song, but I won't anymore. "And his master saw that the Lord was with him". Stop there for a while. "His master saw," can you imagine people of the world looking at you and it's one thing to see that you're prosperous. It's another thing to see that the Lord is with you. They can see. I mean, this is not spiritual eyes, y'all. This is Orchard Road, Las Vegas eyeballs, all right, looking at you in the natural and can see that the Lord is with you, number one.

And another thing he saw, "and" means he also saw, that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. People think a prosperous man is a man who has a lot of money in the bank, all right, accolades to his name, no. He was a prosperous man and he was in his master's house as a slave, but he was a prosperous man, why? The reason given, not because he was handsome, not because he was young, not because he was diligent, nothing do with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph. I said, the Lord was with Joseph. In fact, I venture to tell you this, a few verses later it says, "He was handsome". It never says he was handsome before he left his father's house when his name was first introduced. Even when he was with his brothers, it never said he was handsome. It talk about his dreaming and all that. Handsome came later after the Lord was with him. Are you listening? All right, turn to your neighbor and say, "There's hope for you, bro. Come on, there's hope for you".

So, I just throw that out to you. "Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had, he put into Joseph's hand," all right? "And it came to pass from the time that he made Joseph overseer in his house over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field". The blessing of the Lord was in all that he had in the house and in the field. If you are sick, he touches you. What does it mean? God prospered his hand. God prospered whatever Jesus touched. The sick is healed. If it's a leper, he touches the leper, prosperity means what? The leprosy is gone, amen. He blessed a child, all right, the child's life is destined to reign, amen. He touches loaves, he touches just little and little becomes much to feed more than 5,000 people with 12 basketful left over.

That's the kind of blessing you want. You don't want the blessing to be in your job because if you leave your job, where is your blessing? You don't want your blessing to be in somebody else who's a sponsor. No, if the person starts, you know, being offended at you and all that, where is your blessing? You want the blessing to be on you. You want the blessing to be in your hands. Church, the Lord is with you and if it's with us, all his powers are at our disposal. Our main problem is this, "But I've got sins. Will he do it for me," okay? That's what it means. Jesus means he will save his people from their sins.

He's not here to look at you and say, "You know why you're in this condition? You know why you're in this condition"? He's not here to find fault with you. He's here to tell you in the Old Testament, all right, it's like that. They want you to go and search and search and find out the reason why because it got to do with the law, but Jesus has not come to give us the law. He came to give us grace. He just says receive. Whatever needs changing will be changed when you receive, all right? The sinner fisherman, I mean he was a sinner there, right? When Jesus stepped into his boat, all right, Jesus gave him the prosperity, the abundance of fishes. Come on, there's no two ways to look at it. It's abundance. All right, before he became an apostle, Peter or before or after, which one? Before, right? Did he have sins? Yeah, he said, "Depart from me, I'm a sinful man". Did it stop the abundance from coming? No.

If only we know the truth of Christmas, he will save his people. It's not a matter of like "Oh, God is merciful. You don't need Jesus". No, Jesus must be in your boat. Jesus gotta be with you. Are you listening? Hebrews 13, real quick, all right? Let your life be free from the love of money. "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' All right, what does that mean? Never leave you, never is ou me, strong negation, never, certainly not. I like the Amplified. It says, "Never, never, not for one moment will I release my grasp". In other words, even when you sin, the Lord will never leave you. It was true. If someone quote from the Old Testament and say, "Pastor Prince, did so and so happen and all? The Holy Spirit left David". David actually had to pray, "Take not your Holy Spirit from me". We don't have to pray that because Jesus died on the cross and he paid for all our sins.

So, today even when we fail, when we sin, the Lord is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us, that's how we know he loves us. We need to know that. We're not sanctioning sin because it is because of a lack of preaching like this, people think that "the Lord leaves when I sin, the Lord will come back when I'm obedient". That makes them feel angry towards God. In fact, not I like but I like to call your attention to what Martin Luther said. Before he knew grace, all right, he said actually he hated God. He felt like God will only bless him if he obeys. Whenever he disobey, God will not, you know? He say that he cannot understand a God like that. But now he says he's passionately in love with the Lord. So, there are good friends when you do wrong, others leave, they are still with you. They will never leave you.

How much more the Lord? Will you love a God like that? Of course. It is for the lack of preaching this. Many preachers are afraid to preach this, "I will never leave you. like no matter what, I will never leave you". The Bible says, "Where sin increased, grace superabounded". The word there is grace, in Greek, huperperisseuo. Huper is where you get the English word "hyper". Grace is hyper increased. Thank God, "Hyper my life, Lord, with grace," amen. Grace has to be hyper. Grace has to be super. Grace has to be extraordinary, amen? So, it is fascinating to see the differences in people's opinion in regards to things like this, but let me just tell you this, all right, if you don't have the assurance that the Lord is with you even when you sin, you will never have that strong robust faith in him, nor will you love him. But I'm here to tell you this verse in all its entirety, "I will never leave you". Once upon a time God did leave from his sin, why? He was dealing with us based on the law and that's another message altogether.

You say, "Pastor Prince, then why did God give the law"? Read the book "Destined To Reign," okay? So, the thing is this, God was dealing with man based on the law so man was always seeing God's back part because God was always leaving. Like God told Moses, "You cannot see my face, you can only see my back parts. It was not for your dispensation". And that's why the woman with the issue of blood took Jesus's healing. Jesus stopped and turned and made her look at his face because he didn't want to give her a blessing based on his back. She can only be transformed to see his love. Are you with me, people, all right? So here Immanuel, there was a time. God says, "I will leave you if you disobey. If you keep my commandments, I will not fail to be with you," all right? Those days are no more.

Today God says, "I will never leave you. Look at me," God says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you". And if we can tell our children, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," amen? I was gonna say to your spouse as well but some of you are getting worried already. "What if she? What if she? What if he? What if he"? All right, but you can tell your spouse that "I will never leave you nor forsake you," it will be amazing. You're loving her as Christ loves the church. So, he's holding you and saying, "I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you". What does it mean if the Lord says, "I will never leave you"? His presence is what? It will rub off on us. His prosperity will rub off on us and then people will see the Lord is with us, amen? And the Lord will cause everything we touch to prosper. In conflict, God will cause people who try to be conflict to be conflicted themselves, amen? Try to bring strife, they will be in strife themselves. Their life will never be peaceful, amen?

We just walk into the place and just carry all the blessings. Are you with me? So, that's the story of Christmas. Aren't you glad for Immanuel? Give him praise. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place. Friend, if you don't have this promise... now I did not say if you study long enough, hard enough, all right, if you do this, do that, then, you know, you will prosper. No, friend, I'm talking about prosperity that's not based on human effort, human learning, human smartness. I'm talking about prosperity that God causes you to touch and things prosper, amen? God causes you to touch and things prosper, that's what Immanuel means.

Joseph knew it, the Lord was with him, and that's why he was able to say to Potiphar's wife, "How can I do this wickedness and sin against God"? He was conscious of the Lord's presence and that's why God prospered Joseph. He was always conscious the Lord is with him, the Lord is with him. But you cannot claim that promise... if you don't claim the promise before that, he will save his people from their sins. Unless you know that he has done it, unless you know that he has accomplished it, you will always be in a place where you're not sure that God is not dealing with you based on your sin. And as long as you're to the point that you're uncertain, to that point you have doubt and doubt is a different currency in the kingdom of God. It belongs to the realm of darkness.

To doubt God is to say in essence, "You're a liar. I cannot trust you. I can trust the pilot who flies the plane without even looking at his face. I can trust that the bank will honor my check without even knowing who's honoring it, but I cannot trust you, God. I cannot trust your Word". That's the problem with man, doubt. So friend, here comes the good news, God love you. God sent his Son. His name is Jesus. He will save his people from their sins. He died on the cross for all your sins. He was raised from the dead for your righteousness. It's all paid. Justice is satisfied. God has been glorified as to sin. I repeat, God has been glorified as to the subject of sin. In the very place our sin was, Christ has glorified God. Thank God for the cross.

Today God stands with open arms and saying, "Come home, come home to my loving arms. Come home to abundance. Come home to anointing. Come home to wisdom. Come home to favor. Come home to life more abundant and life eternal". If that is you wherever you are under the sound of my voice you say, "Pastor Prince, pray for me, I want Jesus Christ to be my Savior, my Lord". Wherever you're watching this right now, if that is you, you say, "Pastor Prince, pray for me," I want you right now wherever you are to say this after me. I'm gonna help you talk to God. You're taking baby steps but listen, friend, you take one little step, God will run to you.

Say, "Heavenly Father, Father God, Abba, thank you for loving me, a love so great that you gave me favor, even before I was a believer. You protected me. You kept me and you watched over me to bring me to this time where I'll get to know you in all your glory, in all your beauty. Thank you for sending Jesus. Abba, he is the greatest gift in my life. He died on that cross for my sins. He had no sins to die for. It was my sins he carried, for my sins he was judged. And because of his finished work, you raised him from the dead and set him at your own right hand. You sent your spirit to fill me. I receive your Holy Spirit now and he will never leave me. Christ is always with me and whatever I do prospers. I'm a prosperous man. In Jesus's name, Jesus is my Lord, amen. Hallelujah, from this day forth, if you prayed that prayer, you are a prosperous man, a prosperous woman, amen?