God With Us by Pastor Ed Young

Not only did you have to be a stud to be a carpenter, but four weeks ago I was in Israel, and we traced the steps that He walked over a 24-hour period.  I am in pretty good shape, and I couldn’t do it.  So don’t think that Jesus is some kind of figure out there—pale, frail, and blond-haired, who is not in touch with reality.  Man, don’t bring that weak stuff to God.  That is someone else’s image, not the image of the Bible.  Do your homework.  Study the text.  We serve a God who has been there.  Emmanuel, God With Us.

So Jesus connected relationally.  He connected corporately.  He also connected emotionally.  He identified with us emotionally.  We are emotional creatures.  Just think about the last seven days.  We have gone through this emotion, that emotion, this emotion, that emotion, especially during the holiday season.  They are very emotional times.

I remember when I went down to Florida State University my freshman year to play basketball.  I thought it would be a pretty easy deal.  I did well in high school.  I could pretty much score at will.  But suddenly, I was playing against guys who were 6’11”, 7’, guys who were All-Americans.  And I felt rejected.  Not only did they reject my shot every day, the team rejected me.  I was the new guy.  I was this Christ-follower.  And I remember day after day praying in my dorm room, “God, I feel rejected.  I feel horrible.”

And God began to point me to scripture after scripture after scripture that led me to see how Jesus felt the same feelings, the same emotions that we do when we go through difficult times.