Speaker 1: Well, the Word is coming your way in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But I want to let you know that this is
Speaker 1: the year of God's favor. I haven't heard many people
Speaker 1: call twenty twenty the year of God's favor, but Jesus
Speaker 1: said in Luke four nineteen that he came to proclaim
Speaker 1: the year of the Lord's favor. And in so many
Speaker 1: ways this year I've seen God be faithful to this
Speaker 1: ministry like never before. Every year we end our year
Speaker 1: by giving to God, giving to expand the Gospel through
Speaker 1: the work of the local church. Well, this year, God
Speaker 1: has made us a global ministry in ways that we
Speaker 1: could have never imagined. And now you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to sow into the good ground of this ministry through
Speaker 1: our twenty twenty year end offering. I'm calling it our
Speaker 1: favor Offering Favor twenty twenty. You can go to Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org and find out more about that and
Speaker 1: give or set up your giving your tithing online. I
Speaker 1: want to encourage you. The Kingdom of God does not
Speaker 1: advance when people consume the Gospel. It advances when people
Speaker 1: can tribute. If God God has been good to you,
Speaker 1: if God has made a way for you. I want
Speaker 1: to encourage you between now and December thirteenth to make
Speaker 1: your best gift or your recurring gift into this ministry
Speaker 1: so we can continue to take the gospel and the
Speaker 1: favor of God forward together. Yeah, by God's grace, we've
Speaker 1: grown more this year than ever before, and we are
Speaker 1: going to continue to reach people. And we're able to
Speaker 1: do that because of generous people like you. Like you,
Speaker 1: it's on you, it's on me. Our mission is to
Speaker 1: see what God can do through us, see what God
Speaker 1: can do through you. That's the vision statement. This is
Speaker 1: the opportunity Favor twenty twenty. Let's see what God has
Speaker 1: in front of us. Come on, let's all stand wherever
Speaker 1: you are. I want us to pray. In just a moment,
Speaker 1: we're going to go into the word of God. But
Speaker 1: how many No God has already spoken. If you know,
Speaker 1: He has the final word in your life, and that
Speaker 1: word is favor. Father, declare that you are good God.
Speaker 1: What you started, you will finish what you spoke, You
Speaker 1: will bring it to pass. We declare it over every family,
Speaker 1: every life, every business, every community, every nation. We thank
Speaker 1: you Lord that your word never returns void but accomplishes
Speaker 1: the purpose for what you sent it. And we stand
Speaker 1: in that purpose today, remembering the bigger picture and remembering
Speaker 1: that we have a part Lord. I thank you for
Speaker 1: everybody today who will be giving, who has given, those
Speaker 1: who want to give but can't. Right now, we all
Speaker 1: join our faith together, moving forward in the face of
Speaker 1: tremendous uncertainty, confident of your favor. Everybody, say it with
Speaker 1: your own mouth, say favor. May the favor of the
Speaker 1: Lord be upon you a thousand generations in your family,
Speaker 1: your children, their children, and their children. May His presence
Speaker 1: go before you, behind you, beside you, all around you.
Speaker 1: I see the angel armies of God lining up to
Speaker 1: fight for the people of God right now. And I
Speaker 1: thank you for the Holy Spirit within us. In our
Speaker 1: coming and our going moments of sadness, weeping and mourning,
Speaker 1: and in our rejoicing. You've been there this year, You'll
Speaker 1: be there tomorrow. We give you glory, and we thank
Speaker 1: you that if you are for us, you're greater than
Speaker 1: anything against us. And the gates of hell will not prevail,
Speaker 1: cannot prevail. No weapon formed against your people will prosper.
Speaker 1: We stand as a testimony and we give you praise.
Speaker 1: Come on, clap your hands. Somebody put in the chat
Speaker 1: I got name. Come on, let's look up the loudest
Speaker 1: praise we can till the neighbors can hear it, till
Speaker 1: the devil get here. All right, So we're praying for you,
Speaker 1: everybody who's giving online Elevation church dot org slash favor,
Speaker 1: and we're excited to see how God uses your generosity
Speaker 1: He already has. Thank you for being faithful. You're the
Speaker 1: best church in the world. I don't even care if
Speaker 1: that's bragging to say, Lord, forgive me for bragging. Thank
Speaker 1: you for letting me pastor the best church in the world.
Speaker 1: That's how I feel about it. Praise alone. So we're
Speaker 1: believing for you. One scripture for today that God drew
Speaker 1: my attention to and stand for the word. If you're
Speaker 1: not standing right now, then your transmission is going to
Speaker 1: be blown and you go to start your car, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, micaeh five Verse two. But you, Bethlehem Ephra,
Speaker 1: though you are small among the clans of Judo, out
Speaker 1: of you will come for me one who will be
Speaker 1: ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old from ancient times.
Speaker 1: But you, Bethlehem, but you Bethlehem. The title of this
Speaker 1: message is but God said, let's pray thank you for
Speaker 1: what you've spoken. Lord, We agree with it. And all
Speaker 1: your people said together, and all your people said together, Amen,
Speaker 1: you may be seated, but you Bethlehem. But God said,
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a Christmas sermon that I'm preaching today,
Speaker 1: but you know, probably would be good if you if
Speaker 1: you're watching it another time of the year. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's limited to the Christmas season. So, but what
Speaker 1: drew me to the text was the idea that the
Speaker 1: prophet who lived eight centuries before Christ prophesied about him
Speaker 1: in this text. In a time and I want to
Speaker 1: point this out of spiritual declension and compromise, Micah prophesied
Speaker 1: a message across the span of three kings about justice
Speaker 1: and mercy and humility, and it was amazing what he said.
Speaker 1: What he said was amazing. Who he said it to
Speaker 1: the rebellious nation, especially the Northern Kingdom. They were such
Speaker 1: a mess. And so Micah came preaching to that and
Speaker 1: he spoke about a future promise. And this is one
Speaker 1: of the things that keeps me rooted in God. I
Speaker 1: just saw your shirt, your rooted shirt Shantana. So one
Speaker 1: of the things that can be rooted in God and
Speaker 1: every season of my life is to know that Christ
Speaker 1: was born to take away our sin. But he was
Speaker 1: born in the least likely place. But you, Bethlehem, though
Speaker 1: you are small among the clans of Judah, out of
Speaker 1: you will come from me. I mean in what the
Speaker 1: Christmas story is all about anyway, about God bringing the
Speaker 1: greatest gift out of an impossible situation. So if ever
Speaker 1: we needed the Christmas Story, we need it right now.
Speaker 1: If ever we needed to believe that where you start
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be where you finish, we need it
Speaker 1: this year. If ever we needed a message that helped
Speaker 1: us to believe that what you see is no match
Speaker 1: for what God has spoken, we need it right now.
Speaker 1: So I went to get a sonogram the other day
Speaker 1: for a baby, but for my heart. My forty year
Speaker 1: old check up. Chunks made me go for some insurance
Speaker 1: thing or something, I don't know what, but they were
Speaker 1: showing me all the places that I might be blocked.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, man, this is great, because they did it.
Speaker 1: The last time I went in for a sonogram was
Speaker 1: like ten years ago. To see Abbey and to watch
Speaker 1: her moving around and all of that was cool. But
Speaker 1: I thought, man, they're using this to see about my
Speaker 1: cholesterol and they're checking my arteries, and I thought, this
Speaker 1: would be great. If I had one of these for
Speaker 1: your soul as a preacher, if I could hook up
Speaker 1: some gel, put some gel and some pads. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I have to get license and all that.
Speaker 1: I'm not just gonna run around and start doing it.
Speaker 1: But if they made a machine for that where I
Speaker 1: could see the different things. Because the man was saying
Speaker 1: the cardiologists were saying, you look healthy and this, and that.
Speaker 1: He was complimenting that I looked like I worked out.
Speaker 1: I felt great here in that. But then he said,
Speaker 1: we got to check beneath the surface now, see what's
Speaker 1: going on. I thought, I need that. When I preach.
Speaker 1: I need one of these machines to see, you know,
Speaker 1: what pissed you off this week that's keeping you from
Speaker 1: hearing me while I'm preaching. I need one of these
Speaker 1: machines so I can see whether you're still hung up
Speaker 1: on the fact that I said pissed off in the
Speaker 1: pulpit that you can't hear the next thing. I say,
Speaker 1: I need a machine to see where's the block? And
Speaker 1: I thought that would be so helpful if I could
Speaker 1: get one of these machines. Also if I could use
Speaker 1: it to see what God has put inside of you
Speaker 1: that is growing that you don't know about yet. So
Speaker 1: I thought, what we would have for the Christmas story
Speaker 1: is a spiritual sonogram, so we can see what little
Speaker 1: baby thing is growing inside of you, what little small
Speaker 1: thing God is doing inside of you right now, and
Speaker 1: so we can see what's blocking it at the same time.
Speaker 1: In order to do this, we need to go to
Speaker 1: Luke chapter one for a moment, because us eighth centuries
Speaker 1: after Micah spoke this. What a great thing to remember
Speaker 1: that God does not see our lives from where we are.
Speaker 1: It's said that he spoke these things from old. So
Speaker 1: as we talk about finish with favor, did you'll hear
Speaker 1: the message last week? Finished with favor sounds so sexy, right,
Speaker 1: But unless you understand that your life started in the
Speaker 1: mind of God, you will not have the confidence to
Speaker 1: know that it is going to finish with the favor
Speaker 1: of God. So Micah takes us all the way back
Speaker 1: eight centuries before Christ. He prophesies, Now, Mary, this is
Speaker 1: the Christmas scripture that you're more familiar with, at least
Speaker 1: the one I'm more familiar with. Where the angel came
Speaker 1: to her. Do you remember this? And he does that
Speaker 1: he has that sonogram mismine machine to see Jesus inside
Speaker 1: of her. She's caught off guard. Look in verse twenty eight,
Speaker 1: the angel went to her lukewan and said, greetings, you
Speaker 1: who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Now.
Speaker 1: Mary was greatly troubled at his words. So let me
Speaker 1: talk for a moment about what favor feels like, what
Speaker 1: favor really feels like. Let me give you a few
Speaker 1: words inconvenience interruption. And in Mary's case, I think I
Speaker 1: see a trace of insecurity because when the angel called
Speaker 1: her highly favored, it didn't really match what she felt
Speaker 1: and maybe gets left out a lot of the Christmas
Speaker 1: story right because it says she wondered what kind of
Speaker 1: greeting this might be. But the Angel said to her,
Speaker 1: do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
Speaker 1: Now look at that fear and favor in the same
Speaker 1: sentence from the mouth of the same angel. The relationship
Speaker 1: between fear and favor cannot be overstated because to really
Speaker 1: follow the favor of God in your life, and to
Speaker 1: step out of what's familiar in your thoughts, your pursuits,
Speaker 1: your objectives, your goals, to really be a part of
Speaker 1: the bigger picture of what God is doing and not
Speaker 1: be so seized and sabotaged by what has been and
Speaker 1: what the world says is to really is what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say. To really know that favor showed up,
Speaker 1: you have to look around and see if fear is
Speaker 1: there too, because until you feel fear, you really haven't
Speaker 1: found favor. The Angel said, I want you to choose
Speaker 1: favor over fear. That felt chatworthy. Put it in a
Speaker 1: chat Favor over fear. Say it out loud, Favor over fear.
Speaker 1: That's the choice. That's the choice. That's the choice. That's
Speaker 1: the choice. Us a choice because he said in verse
Speaker 1: thirty one, the Angel said, you will concede and give
Speaker 1: birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
Speaker 1: You are to give him the name Jesus. He will
Speaker 1: be great and will be called the son of the
Speaker 1: Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne
Speaker 1: of his father David, and he will reign over Thank you. Lord.
Speaker 1: Jacob's descendant y'all about to find out why I'm lasting.
Speaker 1: Right in the middle of my sermon, go to Genesis
Speaker 1: thirty five. He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. Now,
Speaker 1: if you can get any staff members of a backdoor
Speaker 1: link to the sermon Balded Elevation Church. There was a
Speaker 1: series we did on Jacob years ago, but it's not
Speaker 1: currently available for public consumption because there's statute of limitations
Speaker 1: on everything I say from this pulpit. But some of
Speaker 1: that Jacob's stuff, it was so good when we were
Speaker 1: preaching it that it never really left me. One of
Speaker 1: the things I will never forget, I was telling my
Speaker 1: friend just this past Friday, is when I first saw
Speaker 1: in Genesis thirty five, verse sixteen. Remember when they speak
Speaker 1: of God, they would call him the God of Abraham, Isaac,
Speaker 1: and Jacob. And remember that what people called Jacob wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily what God called Jacob, because there's the name his
Speaker 1: parents gave him, Jacob trickster heel grabber is the literal translation,
Speaker 1: because he was literally trying to beat his brother out
Speaker 1: the wound, but it didn't work, but he was so
Speaker 1: sneaky about it. He cooked him a bowl of beans
Speaker 1: and got them trade to birthright for the boll of
Speaker 1: beans and all this stuff that you do when you
Speaker 1: don't really know that you have your own favor from God.
Speaker 1: And I think part of the reason that he was
Speaker 1: so I guess you could say twisted in his motivations
Speaker 1: was that his brother Esau, was his father's favorite. His
Speaker 1: father got along better with Esau, and it created a
Speaker 1: lot of complications for him. And we can't go into
Speaker 1: all of it because it involves so many different things,
Speaker 1: not just the stealing of a birthright, but actually the
Speaker 1: marrying of his uncle's daughter. His uncle Laban had had
Speaker 1: two daughters. One was called Rachel, who was pretty. The
Speaker 1: other was called Leah, who had a good personality. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you do all the translation of what I
Speaker 1: just said and didn't say. And Leah wasn't the one
Speaker 1: Jacob loved, but he's the one that Jacob labored for.
Speaker 1: And so Jacob labored for Leah. This was always a
Speaker 1: cool thing to me about this passage. He labored to
Speaker 1: get to get Rachel in marriage, and his uncle Laban
Speaker 1: slipped Leah, the older sister in and Jacob. The Bible
Speaker 1: says something so funny it said that when he woke
Speaker 1: up the next morning after his wedding night, there was Leah.
Speaker 1: And I always thought about that. How when have you
Speaker 1: ever have you ever gone to bed with Rachel and
Speaker 1: woke up with Leah. I don't mean physically, I'm not
Speaker 1: asking that much of your business. We do not know
Speaker 1: each other like that, so you can keep that for
Speaker 1: your therapist. But I mean, like you work for something,
Speaker 1: and work for something, and work for something. He worked
Speaker 1: seven years for Rachel and woke up and it was
Speaker 1: Leah and some of the things that we chase after
Speaker 1: and we strive after, and we go after and we
Speaker 1: set our hearts on and whoops, it's Leah. And now
Speaker 1: it is too late because you got Leah. You got Leah.
Speaker 1: And then he worked seven more years and he gets Rachel.
Speaker 1: But there was a contrast because he actually now listen
Speaker 1: to this, this is so cool. He worked seven years
Speaker 1: and he got Leah. Then Laban gave him Rachel and
Speaker 1: he worked seven more It's the difference between working for
Speaker 1: versus working from the law gets you to work for,
Speaker 1: Grace gets you to work from. So we don't just
Speaker 1: finish with favor like we're fighting for it. We start
Speaker 1: with favor, like we're fighting from it, and so many
Speaker 1: things happen in his life that he eventually ends up
Speaker 1: not only Marion, Leah and Rachel, and Rachel's his favorite wife,
Speaker 1: but Leah's the one who can have kids. And there's
Speaker 1: something about loving Leah too. That God saw that she
Speaker 1: was unloved and he opened her womb, and she was
Speaker 1: more productive than her sister, who was beautiful on the outside,
Speaker 1: but baron on the inside. There's something about the favor
Speaker 1: of God. Rachel couldn't have a baby until finally, one
Speaker 1: day series of events, she gave birth to a son, Joseph,
Speaker 1: and she prayed for one more. And this is what
Speaker 1: the Lord told me to give you. And what triggered
Speaker 1: it for me was seeing that Jesus will reign over
Speaker 1: the throne of Jacob. So go with me to Genesis
Speaker 1: thirty five sixteen for a moment, and let's follow Jacob's
Speaker 1: caravan he set out. Now he's got many sons. God
Speaker 1: was using all the strife and competition between these two
Speaker 1: wives to birth the nation. Those same children that were
Speaker 1: born out of the frustration of these two women would
Speaker 1: end up becoming the nation of Israel. You know God's
Speaker 1: using everything in your life, don't you. But this incident
Speaker 1: is important and is what I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about today as we talk about finishing the year with
Speaker 1: God's favor. It says that after building an altar to
Speaker 1: God and Bethel and remembering everything that God did, Jacob
Speaker 1: and his crew moved on from Bethel, the house of God,
Speaker 1: the place where God met with him. And while they
Speaker 1: were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give
Speaker 1: birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having
Speaker 1: great difficulty in childbirth, which I think is a little
Speaker 1: bit redundant, because I watched this happen three times, and
Speaker 1: I think those two. I think every time there's a birthing,
Speaker 1: there's also a breaking. But that's just me as somebody
Speaker 1: who started a church, as somebody who's trying to bear
Speaker 1: fruit in every season of my life. But this is extreme. Now,
Speaker 1: this is not just this is not just a normal difficulty.
Speaker 1: This is actually a matter of life and death. And
Speaker 1: in the middle of this, the midwife said to Rachel,
Speaker 1: don't despair, for you have another son. But watch this.
Speaker 1: As she breathed her last for she was dying, she
Speaker 1: named her son Ben and I. But his father named
Speaker 1: him Benjamin. Now this is going to require a little
Speaker 1: bit of explanation to to translate ben Oni, which means
Speaker 1: child or son of my trouble. Ben is the park
Speaker 1: that means son Ohnai is the park that means trouble,
Speaker 1: or some translators put it sorrow, but either way you
Speaker 1: put it is pain. And as she's breathing her last breath,
Speaker 1: understandably she names the child that she is birthing out
Speaker 1: of the pain that she's experiencing. Her perspective is this
Speaker 1: is costing me my life. And in a very poetic record,
Speaker 1: the writer tells us, the writer of Genesis, that as
Speaker 1: she was breathing her last breath, this baby was breathing
Speaker 1: its first breath. And we see here the confluence of
Speaker 1: the origin of Benjamin, who would actually represent the kingly
Speaker 1: tribe of Israel. But he wasn't called Benjamin because his
Speaker 1: mother named him out of her pain been or I,
Speaker 1: but his father named him Benjamin. But his father, who
Speaker 1: just lost the only woman he really ever loved, who
Speaker 1: just lost the thing that he worked fourteen years to obtain,
Speaker 1: that in the middle of his loss, watch this, because
Speaker 1: this is what God is challenging us to do right now,
Speaker 1: he decides to label not according to what he's about
Speaker 1: to bury, but about what was birthed out of what
Speaker 1: he buried. Now, many of us, this is not a
Speaker 1: cotton candy Christmas message. Have had to bury a lot
Speaker 1: of things this year, even as a ministry. We had
Speaker 1: to bury every plan that we had for opening new campuses,
Speaker 1: for the waste that we thought we would reach people,
Speaker 1: for every elevation worship tour that we booked in NBA Arenas,
Speaker 1: for everything that we planned this year. There were funerals
Speaker 1: that we had to have and you did too. You
Speaker 1: did too. What inspired me about the text was found
Speaker 1: not in the fact that it was his favorite wife
Speaker 1: that he buried, because you know, in that a is
Speaker 1: a sermon. In that is a sermon. But what got
Speaker 1: me about it that I never saw when I preached
Speaker 1: it five years ago. You're ready, Christian. It says that
Speaker 1: over her tomb, Jacob set up a pillar, and to
Speaker 1: this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb. But back up
Speaker 1: to verse nineteen, because I think this is powerful. So
Speaker 1: Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath,
Speaker 1: that is Bethlehem. So I read how Rachel, the woman
Speaker 1: that Jacob love, was buried just outside of Bethlehem. And
Speaker 1: then I read how Micah said that out of Bethlehem
Speaker 1: will be born a ruler who will dash the princess
Speaker 1: of men into pieces, and whose kingdom will know no end.
Speaker 1: And then I read about Mary, who was highly favored,
Speaker 1: who gave birth through a virgin womb, to the world's
Speaker 1: greatest salvation, and it brought to me this question, do
Speaker 1: we know Bethlehem better by what was buried there or
Speaker 1: what was born there? So I want to ask this question.
Speaker 1: I want to ask this question about your Bethlamine. Remember
Speaker 1: we sing o little town of Bethlehem like it's cute.
Speaker 1: Bethlehem was not where Mary's obg yn was located. Did
Speaker 1: you know that they weren't supposed to be in Bethlehem
Speaker 1: when Jesus was born. I know this sounds weird. Jesus
Speaker 1: picked a bad time to come into the world. He
Speaker 1: picked the worst time to come into the world. And
Speaker 1: we think everything has to be just right for God
Speaker 1: to do something in our lives, and we think everything
Speaker 1: just has to be just right for God to do it. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, they were only in Bethlehem because Joseph's family
Speaker 1: was from there, and maybe they had some still some
Speaker 1: land there. The Bible doesn't say, but they had to
Speaker 1: go back under Caesar Augustus because there was a census
Speaker 1: happening and everybody had to go back to their hometown.
Speaker 1: And while they were on the way, just trying to
Speaker 1: get their business done, here comes Jesus. And I found
Speaker 1: out God is a lot like that, just like at
Speaker 1: the worst possible moment, he will give you the greatest
Speaker 1: possible opportunity. And it's almost like this year we're being
Speaker 1: presented as a question, are we going to label this
Speaker 1: year by what we buried or by what was born?
Speaker 1: Because I promise you I should have done it. I
Speaker 1: messed up, but I should have said at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the sermon, what is Bethlehem? And I guarantee you
Speaker 1: none of you would have said the place where Rachel died.
Speaker 1: That's how Jacob would have remembered it, because he buried
Speaker 1: her on the way to Bethlehem, and he renamed his son. Oh.
Speaker 1: By the way, he named his son Benjamin, which doesn't
Speaker 1: mean son of my trouble. It's a play on words,
Speaker 1: because oh, I can either mean trouble or wealth. So
Speaker 1: instead of naming the child after what he lost in
Speaker 1: that moment, he named his son Benjamin. Benjamin does it
Speaker 1: mean son of my trouble or son of my wealth.
Speaker 1: It means son of my right hand. The right hand
Speaker 1: is the hand of blessing. The right hand is the
Speaker 1: hand of authority. So the word God gave me for
Speaker 1: you today is don't bury your blessing. What happens to
Speaker 1: us is as we journey along the way, we lose
Speaker 1: a lot of things, and the temptation is for us
Speaker 1: to identify with what we lost, and then we start
Speaker 1: labeling our lives according to those losses. Well, that limits
Speaker 1: us to what we can receive. But if you can
Speaker 1: make a decision at this point in the year to
Speaker 1: call his name Jesus. See, Jesus came from Bethlehem. Jesus
Speaker 1: was born in the place where Rachel was buried. Don't
Speaker 1: you see it. That's the same place David came from.
Speaker 1: From Bethlehem, little boy with a little rock who took
Speaker 1: down a big giant. That's why Micah said, out of
Speaker 1: you Bethlehem will come the salvation of the world. The
Speaker 1: salvation of the world came out of a small, impossible place.
Speaker 1: And that's why I called it the Year of the
Speaker 1: Lord's favor, because God said it was. But God said,
Speaker 1: the Father said, she named him ben On. I your
Speaker 1: facts are trying to name your your life right now.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Favor over facts, favor over facts. Let me
Speaker 1: break this down. Rachel had a baby, she died giving
Speaker 1: birth to him. Mary had a baby, and she never
Speaker 1: even had the experience of sexual intercourse. But God saw
Speaker 1: potential in Mary that was greater than her experience. In
Speaker 1: Luke chapter one, when the Bible says that the angel
Speaker 1: called her highly favored and on a one to ten,
Speaker 1: I want you to know you're a level ten favored
Speaker 1: by your Father in heaven. You don't have to clap
Speaker 1: for it. I still believe it about you. I still
Speaker 1: believe it about you. In fact, look at somebody and say,
Speaker 1: I see favor in your future. I see favor in
Speaker 1: your future. I like that kind of stuff. I like
Speaker 1: saying that kind of stuff to people. I see favor
Speaker 1: in your future. You remember when you prophesied to that
Speaker 1: girl before we wrote that song in February, and then
Speaker 1: God gave us a song that Yeah, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I like to believe things that my eyes can't see
Speaker 1: right now, That's why I need one of those machines
Speaker 1: like that cardiologist, because you're looking at me like, I
Speaker 1: don't feel I don't feel very highly favored. I don't
Speaker 1: feel pregnant. I feel I feel fat, but I don't
Speaker 1: feel pregnant. You know. It's like, let me tell you
Speaker 1: something right now. Out of Bethlehem, King Jacob's greatest pain.
Speaker 1: Out of Bethlehem in God's greatest purpose. So what are
Speaker 1: you going to get out of it? This is not
Speaker 1: only a year for us to decide what we're going
Speaker 1: to give to this ministry. Yeah, we're giving an offering
Speaker 1: this weekend. God's going to use that to take the
Speaker 1: gospel all over the world. And it's a privilege to
Speaker 1: do it. But what are you going to get out
Speaker 1: of it? He said, out of Bethlehem will come for
Speaker 1: me a great king, a great king. And Mary had
Speaker 1: to believe that. And I think this is the tension.
Speaker 1: I think this is why we struggle to believe that.
Speaker 1: I think this is what blocks us from believing that
Speaker 1: the favor of God is on our lives and that
Speaker 1: the purpose of God is working in our lives. Because
Speaker 1: how many struggle to believe that. Sometimes Mary experienced favor
Speaker 1: and fear favor and fear favor over fear. And then
Speaker 1: look at verse thirty four. I didn't read you this verse.
Speaker 1: How will this be? Since I am a virgin? And
Speaker 1: as I read that verse, I realized that we don't
Speaker 1: give birth to Christ in the same way Mary did.
Speaker 1: All right, this has only happened once. All right, So
Speaker 1: like if your girl tries to pull this Bible verse
Speaker 1: on you, you probably shouldn't marry her because this is
Speaker 1: just a one time thing. But Christ is being birth
Speaker 1: in all of us, and so is this purpose, and
Speaker 1: so is the fruit of the Spirit. And when Mary said,
Speaker 1: since I am a virgin, I realized that all we
Speaker 1: have to do to really understand the power of choosing
Speaker 1: favor over fear, favor over facts, is to put whatever
Speaker 1: limits us right there where she said a virgin put
Speaker 1: the verse back up. Since I am an addict, since
Speaker 1: I am divorced, since I am an orphan, since I
Speaker 1: am you know, little things that we get caught up on,
Speaker 1: like how much money we have in the bank, because
Speaker 1: they call that our net worth, it's not really your worth.
Speaker 1: But since they call it that you start to believe
Speaker 1: that since I am broke, and then you put an
Speaker 1: event and make it an identity, since I am a failure.
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you focus too much on what
Speaker 1: you bury to see what is being born. And I
Speaker 1: was telling my oldest the other day, I said, isn't
Speaker 1: it interesting how she's limited to her experience, but God
Speaker 1: speaks according to her potential. Yeah, if we experience this
Speaker 1: year so much pain, so much fear, so much loss,
Speaker 1: so much uncertainty, so many times where we bumped our
Speaker 1: head right up against the thing that we thought wasn't
Speaker 1: going to happen, and it did happen. We thought it
Speaker 1: was going to happen. When we bump our heads too
Speaker 1: many times, one too many times into disappointment, we begin
Speaker 1: to we begin to call our lives whatever we buried. Oh, Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: that's the place where oh, twenty twenty, y'all, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: got a bad rap, because all we can focus on
Speaker 1: right now is what we buried this year. But we
Speaker 1: don't yet know what is going to be born from
Speaker 1: what we've There might be a better job on the
Speaker 1: other side of this for you. You You hear me, There
Speaker 1: might be more peace on the other side of this.
Speaker 1: So God shut down some systems and some things to
Speaker 1: get you focused on your father. I love Jacob. Jacob's
Speaker 1: like God changed my name, and I'm gonna change the
Speaker 1: name of this thing that was born in pain, but
Speaker 1: it was born on purpose. Don't bury your blessing. You
Speaker 1: shut it down, and you force it down and you
Speaker 1: got disappointed. So now you just bury that. But the
Speaker 1: problem is you are burying the blessing along with it, said,
Speaker 1: Son of my right hand, I'm naming my I'm naming
Speaker 1: my I'm naming my season according to what God is
Speaker 1: bringing out of it. So I want to say about
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, not only did I have to bury a lot,
Speaker 1: but I got a lot out of it. I got
Speaker 1: a lot out of it. I learned some things about
Speaker 1: myself that I didn't like. Then I had to confront them.
Speaker 1: And guess what happened when I confront them. God gave
Speaker 1: me grace for them, and he showed me that He
Speaker 1: loves me even through all that, even some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I don't like, that's what he wants to use.
Speaker 1: I got a lot out of it. I know that
Speaker 1: sounds funny, to say that, because we did lose a lot,
Speaker 1: and maybe you lost more than me. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying this in some little pretty preacher way princing up
Speaker 1: here in the pulpit talking about these little you know,
Speaker 1: these little things that preachers say. But if you have
Speaker 1: faith to know that what is being born is greater
Speaker 1: than what you're burying, then say it right now. I
Speaker 1: got a lot out of it, Hey, twenty twenty. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you. You gave me my sight back. You taught
Speaker 1: me how to seek the kingdom Lord. Yeah, you taught
Speaker 1: me how to walk by faith. I got a lot
Speaker 1: out of it. I got a lot out of it.
Speaker 1: Bethlehem isn't the place where I buried Rachel. It's the
Speaker 1: place where my Savior was born. And with this bold faith,
Speaker 1: I want us to do what Mary did. And in
Speaker 1: just a moment, our worship team is going to sing
Speaker 1: the blessing over you, because I think that's what we
Speaker 1: need to sing as we focus on the favor of
Speaker 1: God this year. But my wife's favorite Bible verse comes
Speaker 1: from Luke chapter one, and he says that after the
Speaker 1: objection rises up in Mary, and she said, how will
Speaker 1: this be? Because that's the part we don't know, since
Speaker 1: I am a virgin. The Angel answered, the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: will come on you now. I want you to notice
Speaker 1: here that Mary asks how, and the Angel answers who.
Speaker 1: But God said, it's a blessing. Mary said how, The
Speaker 1: Angel said who. If nothing else this year, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get some promotion, or maybe it's been
Speaker 1: the hardest year ever to try to lead people. And yes,
Speaker 1: it's been challenging. But I found out who I was
Speaker 1: this year. I found out he was enough. I found
Speaker 1: out who I was this year, found out I don't
Speaker 1: preach for crowds. This year, I got a lot out
Speaker 1: of it. I found out a lot of things that
Speaker 1: were just keeping me busy. A lot of the things
Speaker 1: that were cluttering up my schedule weren't making me fruitful.
Speaker 1: I got to reorder some things. Oh don't think I'm
Speaker 1: not praying for you. If you lost something significant this year,
Speaker 1: we pray for you all the time. That's why I
Speaker 1: come up here and preach, so that you can have
Speaker 1: some air to breathe as you try to navigate what
Speaker 1: it's like to live without your Rachel. I don't take
Speaker 1: that for granted, but I know that something greater is
Speaker 1: always born in the painful place where something that you
Speaker 1: love was buried. So now I hear Mary saying in
Speaker 1: verse thirty eight, Holly's favorite Bible verse, where she said,
Speaker 1: I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me
Speaker 1: be fulfilled. She said. The first time, I am a virgin.
Speaker 1: That's the facts, she said, the second time, I am
Speaker 1: the Lord's servant. That's the favor a church. The facts
Speaker 1: are bad, right, the facts are bad, But the favor
Speaker 1: is greater. The favor is greater. When I was getting
Speaker 1: my offering ready, I went over to one of our
Speaker 1: campuses where I used to preach live over there at
Speaker 1: the Blatney Campus. I went over there and I went
Speaker 1: in my old green room, and I remembered how God
Speaker 1: made away for us to get that building. It was
Speaker 1: a great memory for me. It's a favor flashback, you know,
Speaker 1: for what's out ahead of me, because I've really been
Speaker 1: struggling in this season. What is church even going to
Speaker 1: look like on the other side of this. And yet
Speaker 1: God keeps making ways and we reach more people than ever,
Speaker 1: and I'm grateful for that. But the thing about it
Speaker 1: is you're always having a funeral at the same time
Speaker 1: that you're receiving favor, Rachel is dying while Benjamin is
Speaker 1: being born. And you know, I started thinking about a
Speaker 1: lot of things. I flashed back so many things through
Speaker 1: my life when I was writing my offering check and
Speaker 1: preparing to speak to you today, because I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you to finish with favor, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to tell you that and then not go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning and realize how far God has brought us.
Speaker 1: And for some reason I ended up in this weird
Speaker 1: mental space where in my mind I just closed my
Speaker 1: eyes and I was flashing back and God was bringing
Speaker 1: all these different things to my mind, and some of
Speaker 1: them were really big moments in my life and all
Speaker 1: of that, and then this one little weird thing came
Speaker 1: in to this song that I wrote in Shelby, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: of all places, that I wrote called I am the
Speaker 1: Righteousness of God, made holy by his sacrifice, perfected by
Speaker 1: his blood. I'm a brand new creation, remade by His hand.
Speaker 1: And I know who I am now When I tell
Speaker 1: you that song was twangy. It was twangy because it
Speaker 1: was Shelby. It was twangy. But the flashback I got
Speaker 1: was when Molly mccrawl came up to me after I
Speaker 1: finished singing it one Sunday, the first Sunday I taught
Speaker 1: it to the church. I wrote it, I sang it
Speaker 1: same day. And this song was never nominated for a Grammy,
Speaker 1: but I sang it and I was proud of it.
Speaker 1: And the song said I know who I am. Holly
Speaker 1: remembers that. Any remembers it, Chunks remembers that. Eric remembers it.
Speaker 1: He said, I know who I am. You know I
Speaker 1: am a child. This is the bridge. I am a
Speaker 1: child of my Father most High. I'm a part of
Speaker 1: his plan. I will not fall for the enemies lies
Speaker 1: because I am who God says I am. Remember it.
Speaker 1: He'll be is good. Mulley comes charging the stage after
Speaker 1: I finished the service. I say, the little invitation song,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, and we're singing it, and he comes
Speaker 1: up to the stage and Mully said. Mulley always had
Speaker 1: something to tell me after church, and usually it was positive.
Speaker 1: But he said, I like that new song. But I
Speaker 1: got a suggestion. I was like, all right, Molly, let's
Speaker 1: let's let's collaborate it. Let's correct what you got. Molly's
Speaker 1: not a musician, Molly's a carpenter, but he goes, hey,
Speaker 1: Jesus was a carpenter. But Mully goes, when you say
Speaker 1: it the last time, you know, you say I know
Speaker 1: who I am? And he says this, He looks at
Speaker 1: me so serious. He goes, last time say I know
Speaker 1: who's I am? And he walks off, like drops the
Speaker 1: mic on me. He just walks off and goes to
Speaker 1: the Chinese buffet. Molly just drops the mic and walks off.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Lord, this is weird. I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: Molly and Shelby and Bethlehem and Mary and Mary and
Speaker 1: Mully in favor and this weird year we've had. Why
Speaker 1: am I thinking about this? And so then I saw
Speaker 1: the verses and I wanted to thank Molly. If you
Speaker 1: ever watched me preach on YouTube, thank you Molly, because
Speaker 1: Mary said in verse thirty four, I am a virgin,
Speaker 1: and that's who she was according to her experience. But
Speaker 1: in verse thirty eight she said, I am the Lord's
Speaker 1: that's whose she was. So we need to remember this
Speaker 1: year that the world can call you binone, and your
Speaker 1: emotions can call this year a waste yea. But his
Speaker 1: father named him son of my right hand. Now, if
Speaker 1: you receive this word, I want you to stand up
Speaker 1: on your feet, clap your hands, and give God the
Speaker 1: greatest phrase that you gave him since December thirty. First,
Speaker 1: let's let's do this, and then they're gonna sing the
Speaker 1: blessing and we're gonna we're gonna worship God. But let's
Speaker 1: look at let's look at Micah five to two one
Speaker 1: more time. But you, Bethlehem, but you small place, but
Speaker 1: you painful place. But you where Rachel will die. Though
Speaker 1: you are small among the clans of Judah, though the
Speaker 1: womb is a virgin womb, though Bethlehem is not even
Speaker 1: the place you intended to give birth. Out of you
Speaker 1: will call for me, Thank you for your glory, Lord,
Speaker 1: And we confess that the sufferings of this present time
Speaker 1: are not even worthy to be compared with the glory
Speaker 1: that will be revealed in your people. We are your servants,
Speaker 1: your people, your sons, your daughters. May His favor be
Speaker 1: upon you, wherever you are in the world, whatever you're
Speaker 1: going through. Out of Bethlehem, came the Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: And I believe God's going to bring some of the
Speaker 1: greatest blessings out of the most unexpected places. We believe
Speaker 1: God is working in your life, and I want to
Speaker 1: thank all of you who give to this ministry. This is,
Speaker 1: as you know, our year end offering for expansion and outreach.
Speaker 1: We help a lot of people and this offering is
Speaker 1: one way that we do it as well as to
Speaker 1: consist in giving the tithes and offerings of God's people.
Speaker 1: You can find all the ways to give it Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash favor and there you can also
Speaker 1: put your word that you're believing God for in the
Speaker 1: coming year. But mostly we just want to be a
Speaker 1: blessing because God has blessed us. And thank you for
Speaker 1: helping us grow this ministry. Every time you share a message,
Speaker 1: every time you give, every time you invest, you need
Speaker 1: to know that this ministry is good ground bearing fruit
Speaker 1: all over the world. May His favor be upon you,
Speaker 1: May God's presence go before you, and may God's spirit
Speaker 1: inside of you be greater than anything that is against you.
Speaker 1: We bless you, we love you, and see you so well.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today for this message.
Speaker 1: We trust that God has spoken to you right where
Speaker 1: you are. If you'd like to begin partnering with us financially,
Speaker 1: or give to the Year End Favor Offering. I'd invite
Speaker 1: you to head over to Elevationchurch dot org slash favor.
Speaker 1: There you'll see a couple options to be able to
Speaker 1: partner with us or give to the year end offering.
Speaker 1: You can see the first option is to begin tithing.
Speaker 1: If you haven't done that, we would certainly encourage you
Speaker 1: to start there. Begin by placing God first in the
Speaker 1: era of your finances, in trusting what it is that
Speaker 1: He's given to you back to Him. Start with tithing.
Speaker 1: If you already tithe and are consistent in that, we'd
Speaker 1: encourage you to join us in the Year end offering
Speaker 1: going above and beyond to see what God can do
Speaker 1: in and through you. You can click on that option,
Speaker 1: select the campus that you attend, or if you don't
Speaker 1: attend one of our physical locations, select online. As a
Speaker 1: part of our extended family, our EFAM community, We're excited
Speaker 1: to see how God works in and through you as
Speaker 1: you open up your life and say God, use me
Speaker 1: right where I am. Thanks for being a part of
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. We're excited to see what God does and
Speaker 1: in through your life right where you are