WEBVTT - Finish With Favor 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.160 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.520 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.560 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.840 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:22.560 Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, Peace 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:27.480 and goodwill toward men and women on whom his favor rest. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.479 Somebody put in the chat he's talking about me. That's me, 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.440 that's me. His favorite rests on me. I used to 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:37.879 let you touch your neighbor, but I'm scared they'll lock 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.360 us up in jail if I have you touch your 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.199 neighbor right now. So just look at somebody, wink at 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.320 him and say I got the favor of God. Say 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.680 it like that, say it kind of yeah, like that 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.080 with a little bit of swag. I got the favor 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.800 of God. Anybody who knows that, just put it in 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.279 the chat. I have the favor of God. I have 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.160 the faith of God. No, no, no, no no, no, not 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.640 a fancy favor. Oh Lord, I thank you for my 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.960 parking space. Thou hast given me a parking space. So 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.360 very convenience. I'm not clapping for convenience. No, no, no no, no, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:22.039 that's fancy favor. I'm clapping cook. I could have been bed, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.919 I could have lost my mind. I could have gone crazy. Buddy, 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:31.880 got me? I shot faith or got it now? I'm 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:42.640 not thank you, Lauren. How many are excited about the 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:48.600 favor of God? I love y'all. It's a delayed reaction. 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.880 You're like, I gotta think about that. And that's exactly 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.600 what we're gonna do today. We are going to consider 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:56.960 as this year ends. I wonder how many of you 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:58.840 are new to our ministry. By that, I mean you've 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:00.760 been a part of this ministry for less than a year. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.920 Put it in the chat say I'm a nube, now 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:11.720 use it right. So sorry, my kids just cringe every 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.360 time I try to say something that's remotely relevant. You 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:21.440 can't say that, so it's weird. But this message is 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.000 for those of you, whether you're brand new to the ministry, 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.560 have been here a long time, because we end each 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.280 year kind of wrapping a word from God around the year, 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:32.959 and you are not going to believe what God told 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.959 me to call this year in Because I had to 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.520 get this one from the spirit. I could not do 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.239 this with my mind because I would have tried to 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.880 figure out what to call twenty twenty. If you are 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:44.959 on planet Earth and watching this in a future year 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.400 and everything looks weird, I can just imagine if you 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.360 watch Elevation in twenty nineteen and then turned it on 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.120 in twenty twenty, you could be like what happened to 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.919 the people if you didn't know, if it was much 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.400 later and you didn't have the historical context, that'd be 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.360 kind of crazy. But I want to give you some 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.680 context that every year we finish the year with one 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.800 word from God, and this year the Lord told me 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.480 that we were going to you're ready, Finish with favor. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:18.240 That's my message today. Finish with favor. Go ahead and 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.960 put it in the chat. I mean as big as 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.079 you can. I wish you could do a size twenty 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:28.320 four o'clock for every hour of the day. Finish with favor. 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.519 Put it right there. Finish with favor, and you may 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.200 be seated. Let's get this sermons started. Finish with favor, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.640 I said Lord. I can't say favor is the word 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.600 for twenty twenty in good conscience. They'll think I'm crazy. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:49.280 And it was as if the Lord said to me, 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:54.080 not out loud. They already know that. The people that 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.200 are still there figured that out a long time ago, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:02.320 and they like it. The right kind of crazy. I'm 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.360 the right kind of crazy. I'm the I'm the right 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.080 kind of crazy. I'm the right kind of crazy, at 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.920 least I want to be. I've been all kinds of crazy, 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.320 I really am. It isn't it weird to call this 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:21.720 the year a favor? I've heard a lot of people 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.960 use a lot of words to describe twenty twenty, and 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.640 some of them even started with the letter F. But 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:37.200 they they didn't. They didn't, they didn't say it was 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.480 the year of favor. I went through a lot of options. 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.440 I was thinking, well, Lord, you know, we should call 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.919 it the year. We should call it what people have experienced. 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.240 And the first thing that came to my mind, and 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:50.719 I don't know where your mind went when I said 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:52.880 the letter F but I thought the year of fear 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:58.279 would be an appropriate thing to call it. So show 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.960 them on the wide shot, on the white shot. Yeah, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.520 the year of fear. But it didn't look right. When 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.320 I saw it in print, I was like, well, that's 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:13.360 not really too terribly inspiring. We're giving an offering next week, 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:15.279 and how many of you are excited to give to God? 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.720 How many of you have been excited to keep giving 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.479 to God? And then we go above and beyond. I 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.400 made my check out this week. I'll tell you I 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.360 fought God like never before writing my check this year, 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.240 because there's more fear. There's more fear, and I thought 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.400 it was hard to give in previous years because we 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.280 always try to stretch. But this year, I was like 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.680 and I had to practice writing the number down a 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.360 few times before I put it on the check because 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:41.680 I knew what he was speaking. But there was so 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:47.000 much fear, And I think the Year of Fear would 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.400 be a good thing to call twenty twenty. If we're 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.800 gonna if we're gonna keep it one hundred, as the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:06:01.320 kids say, oh yeah, we have found things to be 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:02.920 afraid of that we didn't even know we were supposed 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:08.039 to be afraid of. I was never afraid of a 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.839 handshake until this year. Put it back on the screen, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.360 the Year of Fear. I thought we could call it 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:19.200 the Fear Offering. That didn't sound right then, sundvery biblical, 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.080 So I thought about that, and then I thought no, 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:26.200 we should call it. If you really want to be 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.400 accurate about it, we should label it the Year of frustration, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:32.760 because that starts with an F, and you can say 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:40.960 it in church. The year of frustration, the frustration of 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:46.800 trying to figure out what in God's name you are 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.359 going to do not next month. Now I have to 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.599 check my phone every five minutes to see if it's 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.080 safe for me to go outside of my door. I 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:02.440 feel like so it's frustrating me because I'm a rule follower. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.479 And that surprises you because some people say that this 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.600 church breaks all the rules. But I really like people 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:08.200 to tell me what I'm supposed to do. And what 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.120 I can't figure out is I live in North Carolina, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.360 but sometimes I go to South Carolina, and even between 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.840 two states, I can't figure out what the freaking rules are. 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:19.480 You see what I'm saying. The frustrating you feel it, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.680 You feel my frustration. I am terrified to go on 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.680 a plane, not because it might crash, but because I 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:31.560 don't want to have to deal with the deal. It 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.360 was already bad enough before the year A frustration set in, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:39.880 telling me I have to pull up my mask in 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.240 between SIPs. I just don't think I can do it yet, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.120 I'm not ready for it yet, and I don't want 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.400 to end up on the news, so I'm standing away 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.240 from planes until further notice. I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated right 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.720 now because the truck is supposed to be full and 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.440 there's like three hundred people and they're all spaced out 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.480 and there's empty rolls, and it stresses me because it's 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.920 bad out dynamics and I don't like it. But I 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:10.560 got the write three hundred in a row favor. But 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:17.160 I'm frustrated. It has certainly been If we just want 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.960 to label this year according to the facts, everybody say facts, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:30.080 as the kids say facts. Oh, Graham's gonna kill me 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:34.079 after this one. He's gonna hate this. If you want 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:35.600 to label it by the facts, I think we could 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:40.720 call it the Year of fighting all things that start 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:45.960 with the letter F. We have found places and spaces 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.800 to fight. We fight over syllables, we fight over punctuation 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.360 marks on Facebook. In this year the Year of fighting. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.920 You can get canceled when you use a comma instead 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.520 of a semicolon. In the year twenty twenty, somebody will 0:08:57.559 --> 0:08:59.960 pick you apart. I'm telling you for everything you say. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.160 It's different from people who have a microphone or a 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.600 platform or something, but I think everybody's experienced it at 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.120 some level. Everything is controversial, everything you do. It's some 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.840 big epic message and we're all supposed to figure it out. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:12.600 I thought of calling it the year of Fuci, but 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.640 that felt a little bit limiting what we could say. 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.520 And the Lord said, you can call it any of that, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.880 or you can call it what Luke four nineteen says, 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.840 and tell my people, proclaim this over my people. It's 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:31.000 the year of favor. Somebody shall favor the year. Put 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.080 it on the screen. It's supposed to come up. The year. Yeah, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.240 that's the one. The year. We had to wait for 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.360 it for a minute. We had to get to the 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:42.760 end to figure it out. But it's the year of favor. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.600 The spirit of the the Lord is on me. That's what 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:53.920 Jesus said. Favor. Put that word in the chat. Favor favor. 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:59.040 Put it in the chat. Say it with your mouth, favor, favor, favor. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.720 Are you famil with that word? The kids don't say 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:07.560 favor much anymore. This is a word. See my kids 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.400 introduce me to new words that I'm unfamiliar with. But 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.679 I want to introduce some people who are spiritually just 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.959 growing into your faith to a word that you may 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.640 not have heard, and the word is favor. Now I 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:24.240 can't figure out. This is why I've been trying to 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.080 figure out. Going over to Luke Iour in your Bible, 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.079 because we're going to study this today. We're going to 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.280 talk about the year of the Lord's Favor and how 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.800 to finish with favor. What's going to require you to 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.240 do is maybe forget how the first eleven months went. 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.960 Paul said, this one thing I do forgetting what's ahead 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.199 behind and straining toward what's ahead, I press toward the mark. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.160 And I'm like, that's two things, forgetting and straining. He's like, no, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.280 you got to do them both. In order to move forward. 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.559 You got to forget. So let's just make a deal 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.920 right now. I won't bring it up if you don't 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.439 all the little temper tantrums, pity parties that you had 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.760 this year, all that other stuff that is not appropriate 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.320 for us to talk about in a big group like this. 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.120 Uh huh did you hear it? Did you hear the 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.920 whole crowd go south? The stuff this year that the 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:19.040 other stuff that was fear based frustration, based fighting against 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.600 people that you're supposed to be fighting for. I won't 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:30.600 mention it if you don't. Today we'll talk about favor specifically. 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.280 The Lord said, we are going to and I want 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:42.400 a personally says you are going to finish with favor. Now, 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.480 nothing in me wanted to tell you that, because I 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:49.960 cannot prove it by the percentages of COVID cases. And 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.960 I certainly cannot tell you that a flip of the 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:54.640 calendar is going to wave a magic wand and all 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:56.360 of a sudden make all of the conflict disappear. And 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.880 now I can't say any of that. But I think 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.520 the word favor, although it's unfamiliar to some, it's overly 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.960 familiar to others. And I can't figure out which One's 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.920 harder to get somebody who is overly familiar with the 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:17.520 concept to unfamiliarize themselves. Sometimes I think I'd rather teach 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.200 somebody who had never heard of Moses, or, as the 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.160 country preacher said, somebody who doesn't know the Book of 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:30.480 Ruth from a baby Ruth. Amen. I'm telling you, I 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.280 think it's harder sometimes to get someone who has heard 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:39.640 the word favor. I went to the store and I 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.720 got some shoes and they were twenty percent off. It 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.079 was favor. No, it was Black Friday, that's all it was. 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.520 It wasn't favor. It was marketing because we cheapen it. 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.400 Or we will think favor is like is like fame. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.760 It's a false equivalent. So we'll say, oh, look at 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.800 how I heard somebody say about a person one time 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.360 that was getting very popular. They said, they're blowing up. 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.880 And see, I knew the person personally, and I knew 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.640 they are blowing up. They're blowing up their marriage, they're 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.800 blowing up their physical health, they're blowing up their emotions. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.520 So while one person saw the climb of their fame, 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:22.440 I didn't really think it was favor. But see, we 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:26.520 have a hard time knowing what the word means. Did 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.400 I use that right? Did I say that right? And 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.320 I'll be honest. The last time I preached on favor 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:39.840 at elevation was twenty eleven. I thought maybe the word 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:45.800 needed to be retired, but then I realized it just 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:51.480 needs to be reclaimed. So today you came on the 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.080 right day, you clicked at the right time. We are 0:13:55.120 --> 0:14:00.920 reclaiming the favor of God in our life. I am 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:10.520 reclaiming God's favor for my family, for my perspective, for 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.800 my business, for my church, for my ministry, for my emotions. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:21.600 I am reclaiming the favor of God. So what is 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.400 the favor of God? Is kind of hard to give 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.600 you a definition because I don't know that we have 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.600 like a worldly equivalent. You know, if I'm trying to 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:34.080 explain to you the favor of God, it's easier for 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.640 me to show you than to tell you. Remember when 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.240 we used to say that all the time, I can 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.120 show you better than I can tell you. She said 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:43.600 that a lot, and it was never a good thing. 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.040 But in this case, it's a good thing. I could 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.000 show you. I could give you a picture better than 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.000 I could show you a definition. Now, what some of 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.320 you need to do, and you don't know this yet, 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.760 is you need to take a selfie and look at 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.760 it and the fact that you're still here with light 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.280 in your eyes and a smile on your face. It is. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.640 It is a picture of the faith. I wish I 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:06.720 could see. I wish I could see a selfie right 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.280 now on Instagram and tag me and say and say 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.800 and say in the in the tag, this is my 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.000 definition now now what you're doing. When you do that, 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.800 you are defining to the devil that the proof of 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:19.720 the favor of God on your life is not the 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.160 absence of attack or ambiguity in your life. This year, 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.480 it's a picture of God's favor. It's a picture of 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.360 God's favor. And sometimes a picture is better than a definition. 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.640 So we're going to see a picture of God's favor 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.760 from Jesus, and he gave it to us in Luke 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:46.480 for thirteen all the way through verse thirty. This is 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:51.800 so good, This is so good. Are you familiar with 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.560 the favor of God? Have you heard about it? Have you? 0:15:55.640 --> 0:16:00.600 Have you? Yeah? Well, I mean even if not familiar, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.400 it's probably better because again I can't really explain. It's 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:09.680 not like luck. It's different than luck. It's something different 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:14.760 than that because luck is validated and proven externally. So 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.200 it's different. And I knew when I said it's the 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.160 year of the Lord's favor that it would make some 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.920 people just think, what are you in an alternate reality? No, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:29.280 but I am in an alternate kingdom, and I do 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.200 have a different spirit than the spirit of the world. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:39.560 I have the favor of God. So when I heard 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.160 Elijah's friends the other day and they were calling one 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:43.960 of the kids a simp. I didn't know what a 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.800 simp was, and I said, I'm not familiar with this 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:55.360 term simp. What meaneth this? They said, Uh, it's kind 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.000 of hard to describe. And they said it's have you 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.440 heard this term simp? Your kid's not old enough. When 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.880 when Joel gets a little older, he'll start saying, crap, 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:05.520 you won't have a clue what it means. So what 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.480 you'll do, you'll try to correlate the word to things 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.240 we used to say when we were growing up, and 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.159 sometimes there is no equivalent. So he said, it's a 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.120 it's a guy that'll do anything for a girl. Uh, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.879 and just doesn't care how it looks. And he said, 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.480 and they named somebody and they said he's he's a simp. 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:24.639 And I was like, okay, I got it now. I 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.880 got it now. And I thought, wow, it was easier 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.560 for you to give me a picture of it than 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.720 a definition of it, because we don't I don't I 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:32.720 don't know what what did we call it? A guy 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.040 that was? I mean, some of the things I'm thinking 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.640 of you can't say like that. But but I don't 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:39.560 think we had an exact word, and I don't think 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.920 we have, Like y'all stay with me. It's been it's 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.240 been a it's been a weird year. So it requires 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.360 some some different kind of preaching. So I was saying, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:50.040 I don't think I could put it in a word 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:52.720 for you. Let me give you a picture. And I 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.919 thought about Moses, how he found favor with God. I 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.679 thought about Noah, how he found favor with God in 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.000 a flood. I thought about Ruth how she found favor 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.880 with bo Ass. God can give you favor with the person. Yeah, 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.360 bo Ass. A lot of single people like that bo Ass. 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.040 I don't want broke Ass or Boas or any of those. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.080 What I want bow Ass. So you could you could 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.800 get a picture from We can edit this and we 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.760 gotta take the life. But you're good. I can't tell 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:29.720 if you're smiling behind the mask. It's all right now. 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.800 So I thought we would skip right to the one 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.040 who not only spoke of the favor of God, but 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:45.160 showed the favor of God, Who was the favor of God, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.399 Who is the favor of God. Now get ready, this 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:51.680 is why I can tell you it's the year of 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.720 the Lord's favor, and I hadn't looked at your bank balance. 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:55.119 This is why I tell you the your Lord's favor, 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.320 and I hadn't looked at your medical report. This is 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.320 how I can tell you your Lord's favor. And you 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:00.960 don't even like the go home right now because you 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:02.840 can't stand who you're living with. This is how I 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.120 can tell you it's the year of the Lord's favor. 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:13.840 Luke for thirteen. When the devil had finished all this tempting, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.800 he left him. How many of you want to get 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.240 to that part? Let me read that again. Doesn't that 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:25.720 sound good? When the devil had finished all this tempting 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:31.160 he left Jesus. I thought about calling this sermon, are 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:36.800 you done yet? Devil? Because Jesus has been out there 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:42.560 fasting forty days and forty nights, and he's doing this 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.800 not only for preparation for his own ministry, which is 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.679 about to really really take center stage. In the passage 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:51.840 I'm going to read you and I can't wait to 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:53.960 show you. But I had to put verse thirteen, and 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:59.399 it seemed important because if you don't realize that the 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.600 announce of God's favor came after a season of testing 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:09.440 for Jesus, you might not recognize God's favor in your life. 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:11.480 Now I want to read it again so we don't 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.360 misunderstand it. When the devil had finished all this tempting, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:22.959 he left him until an opportune time. So it doesn't 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.720 mean it's over. It just means that, see this one 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.960 thing you can know about every battle in your life. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.159 It won't last forever. This is what you can know 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.040 about every blessing in your life. It won't last forever. 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.520 So if you're in a blessing right now, enjoy it 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.359 because there will be another battle. If you're in a 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.320 battle right now, endure it because there will be another blessing. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:46.360 Now I need you to put it in the chat. 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.760 By faith, there will be another one. There will be 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.119 another one. And every time I say put it in 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.040 the chat, y'all say it with your mouth in the 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.840 room so we can join our faith. Right, whether by 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:58.800 thumbs or by tongues, we're going to confess the word 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.879 of God. Got it, Say it out loud. There will 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:07.600 be another one, another one. So there was a temptation. 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.800 It was forty days and forty there will be another one. 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.480 And I kept reading that over and over again. How 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.000 the enemy tempted Jesus in the wilderness. And then the 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.080 part I'm about to read you shows Jesus in the synagogue, 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:23.960 which was kind of like church. So he's in the 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.960 wilderness all alone, and he's in the church with people 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.480 that he knew and that knew him. And God showed 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.600 me that it was the same favor in both places. 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.080 So I saw that the same favor that we're about 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.199 to encounter working through Jesus in the worship service was 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.679 with him in the wilderness. And that's what let me 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.320 know that the favor of God is not contingent on 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:55.200 a place. You can find favor anywhere, And that's why 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.960 I don't know what to compare it to, because I 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.880 can't say that about anything else in life. You can 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.120 find great pizza anywhere. No, there are some places where 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.080 the pizza is better than others. You know, you can 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.200 find a good man anywhere. You can find mate anywhere. 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.360 How many want to put it on the petition, Tiffany 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.959 should make mat change his name his last name to Hammer, 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:18.960 and her name can change to Hudson. She just got married. 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:20.919 But I think they need to do a reverse because 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.240 Hammer is way cooler than Hudson, so you'll put it 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:25.800 in the petition, put it in the chatts. But see, 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.240 I can't just say you can find a good man anywhere. 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:30.879 I can't just say that there are some places. But 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.280 the favor of God can be found anywhere you want 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:41.719 to look for it. It was the same favor that 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.639 enabled him to endure the isolation and testing of the wilderness, 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.680 that enabled him to proclaim the truth in the synagogue. 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:59.640 You can find favor anywhere, or maybe a better way 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:09.760 to say it is favor can find you anywhere. Because 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.720 can I be honest, there were sometimes I wasn't looking 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:17.520 for God's favor at all. I was looking for other stuff. 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:25.200 And just about the time I thought I couldn't make it, 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:30.280 the angels of God came to minister to my spirit. 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:33.880 When my flesh was weak, when my tears were falling, 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:38.120 when my hope was kind of foggy and faded and fuzzy. 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:42.120 Here came favor. Here came favor. Here came favor. Here 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:46.080 came favor, Here came favor. Here came grace, Here came love, 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.800 Here came mercy, Here came favor. Wasn't looking for it, 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.320 but it came wasn't praying about it, but it came. 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:57.840 Didn't even think it was possible at this point. But here, Hey, 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:03.200 how many have that testimony that favor found me. Oh 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:08.320 that's a good one. Favor found me. Thank you, Lord. 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:13.000 I'm sorry, y'all give me twenty seconds, because all this year, 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:16.280 all this year, the goodness and the mercy of the 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:19.800 Lord were following me. I saw a table, and I 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:22.919 saw enemies. And I sat at the table in the 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:26.560