Elevation with Steven Furtick - Favor Over Fear

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

In a year that has been overrun with fear, what if we focused on God’s favor instead? Pastor Steven Furtick shares in “Favor Over Fear” that you get to choose how you define this year. Are you only going to focus on the disappointments or can you recognize how God’s favor has been with you through it all?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Well, the word is coming your way in just a moment, but I want to let you know that this is the year of God's favor. I haven't heard many people call 2020 the year of God's favor, but Jesus said in Luke 419 that he came to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And in so many ways this year, I've seen God be faithful to this ministry like never before.

Every year we end our year by giving to God. giving to expand the gospel through the work of the local church. Well, this year God has made us a global ministry in ways that we could have never imagined. And now you have the opportunity to sow into the good ground of this ministry through our 2020 year-end offering. I'm calling it our favor offering, favor 2020. You can go to elevationchurch.org and find out more about that and give or set up your giving, your tithing online.

I want to encourage you. The kingdom of God does not advance when people can see. assume the gospel, it advances when people contribute. If God has been good to you, if God has made a way for you, I want to encourage you between now and December 13th to make your best gift or your recurring gift into this ministry so we can continue to take the gospel and the favor of God forward together. Yeah, by God's grace, we've grown more this year than ever before. And we are going to continue to reach people.

And we're able to do that because of generous people like you. Like you. It's on you. It's on me. Our mission is to see what God can do through us. See what God can do through you. That's the vision statement. This is the opportunity.

Favor 2020. Let's see what God has in front of us. Come on. Let's all stand wherever you are. I want us to pray. In just a moment, we're going to go into the Word of God. But how many know God has already stopped? If you know he has the final word in your life and that word is favor, Father, we decree

and declare that you what you started you will finish. What you spoke, you will bring it to pass. We declare it over every family, every life, every business, every community, every nation. We thank you, Lord, that your word never returns void but accomplishes the purpose for which you sent it. And we stand in that purpose today, remembering the bigger picture and remembering that we have a part. Lord, I thank you for everybody today who will be giving, who has given, those who want to give but can't right now. We all join our faith together, moving forward in the face of tremendous uncertainty, confident of your favor.

Everybody say it with your own mouth, say favor. May the favor of the Lord be upon you. A thousand generations in your family, your children, their children, and their children. May His presence go before you, behind you, beside you, all around you. I see the angel armies of God lining up to fight for the people of God right now. And I thank you for the Holy Spirit within us. in our coming, and our going, moments of sadness, weeping and mourning, and in our rejoicing. You've been there this year, and you'll be there tomorrow.

We give you glory, and we thank you that if you are for us, you're greater than anything against us. And the gates of hell will not prevail. Cannot prevail. No weapon formed against your people will prosper. We stand as a testimony and we give you praise. Come on, clap your hands. Favor 2020. Somebody put in the chat.

I got it. Come on, let's lift up the loudest praise we can till the neighbors can hear it. So we're praying for you, everybody who's giving online, elevationchurch.org slash favor. And we're excited to see how God uses your generosity. He already has. Thank you for being faithful. You're the best church in the world.

I don't even care if that's bragging to say it. Lord, forgive me for bragging. Thank you for letting me pastor the best church in the world. That's how I feel about it. Praise the Lord. So we're believing for you. One scripture for today that God drew my attention to and stand for the word. If you're not standing right now, then your transmission is going to be blown when you go to start your car.

All right. All right. Micah 5, verse 2, but you, Bethlehem, Ephra. though you are small among the clans of judo. Out of you will come for me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. But you, Bethlehem, but you, Bethlehem. The title of this message is, but God said.

Let's pray. Thank you for what you've spoken, Lord. We agree with it and all your people said together and all your people said together Amen, you may be seated but you Bethlehem but God said so it's kind of a Christmas sermon that I'm preaching today but you know probably be good if you if you're watching it another time of the year I don't think it's limited to the Christmas season But what drew me to the text was the idea that the prophet who lived eight centuries before Christ prophesied about him in this text.

In a time, and I want to point this out, of spiritual declension and compromise, Micah prophesied a message across the span of three kings about justice and mercy and humility. And it was amazing what he said. What he said was amazing, who he said it to the rebellious nation, especially the Northern Kingdom. They were such a mess. And so Micah came preaching to that, and he spoke about a future promise. And this is one of the things that keeps me rooted in God.

I just saw your rooted shirt, Shantana. So one of the things that keeps me rooted in God in every season of my life is to know that Christ was born to take away our sin, but he was born in the least likely place. But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me. I mean, and what the Christmas story is all about anyway, about God bringing the greatest gift out of an impossible situation. So if ever we needed the Christmas story, we need it right now.

If ever we needed to believe that where you start doesn't have to be where you finish, we need it this year. If ever we needed a message that helped us to believe that what you see is no match for what God has spoken, we need it right now. So I went to get a sonogram the other day, not for a baby, but for my 40-year-old checkup. Chunks made me go for some insurance thing or something. I don't know what, but they were showing me all the places that I might be blocked. I was thinking, man, this is great because they did it.

The last time I went in for a sonogram was like 10 years ago to see Abby and to watch her moving around and all of that was cool. But I thought, man, they're using this to see about my cholesterol and they're checking my arteries. And I thought, this would be great if I had one of these for your soul as a preacher. If I could hook up some gel and some pads, I have to get licensed and all that. I'm not just going to run around and start doing it. But if they made a machine for that where I could see the different things, because the

man was saying, the cardiologist was saying, you look healthy and this and that. He was complimenting that I looked like I worked out. I felt great hearing that. But then he said, we got to check beneath the surface now, see what's going on. And I thought, I need that when I preach. I need one of these machines to see what pissed you off this week that's keeping you from hearing me while I'm preaching. I need one of these machines so I can see whether you're still hung up on the fact that

I said pissed off in the pulpit that you can't hear the next thing I say. I need a machine to see where's the block, and I thought that would be so helpful if I could get one of these machines. Also, if I could use it to see what God has put inside of you that is growing. that you don't know about yet. So I thought what we would have for the Christmas story is a spiritual sonogram. So we can see what little baby thing is growing inside of you. What little small thing God is doing inside of you right now?

And so we can see what's blocking it at the same time. In order to do this, we need to go to Luke chapter one for a moment. Because eight centuries after Micah spoke this, What a great thing to remember that God does not see our lives from where we are. It said that he spoke these things from old. So as we talk about finish with favor, did you hear the message last week? Finish with favor. Sounds so sexy, right?

Unless you understand that your life started in the mind of God, you will not have the confidence to know that it is going to finish with the favor of God. So Micah takes us all the way back, eight centuries before Christ, he prophesies it. Now, Mary, this is the Christmas scripture that you're more familiar with, at least the one I'm more familiar with, where the angel came to her. Do you remember this? And he has that sonogram machine to see Jesus inside of her. She's caught off guard. Look in verse 28, the angel went to her, Luke one, and said,

greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Now, Mary was greatly troubled at his words. So let me talk for a moment about what favor feels like. What favor really feels like. Let me give you a few words. Inconvenience, interruption. And in Mary's case, I think I see a trace of insecurity. Because when the angel called her highly favored, it didn't really match what she felt. This is maybe gets left out a lot of the Christmas story, right? Because it says she wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. Now look at that. Fear and favor in the same sentence from the mouth of the same angel. The relationship between fear and favor cannot be overstated.

Because to really follow the favor of God in your life and to step out of what's familiar in your thoughts, your pursuits, your objectives, your goals, to really be a part of the bigger picture of what God is doing and not be so seized and sabotaged by what has been and What the world says is, to really know that favor showed up, you have to look around and see if fear is there too. Because until you feel fear, you really haven't found favor. The angels said, I want you to choose favor over fear. That felt chat worthy.

Put it in the chat. Favor over fear. Say it out loud. Favor over fear. That's the choice. That's the choice. That's the choice. Because he said in verse 31, the angel said, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and

you are to call him Jesus. You are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over. Thank you, Lord. Jacob's descendants. Y'all about to find out why I'm laughing right in the middle of my sermon. Go to Genesis 35.

He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. Now, if you can get any staff members that have a backdoor link to the sermon-in-vaal Elevation Church, there was a series we did on Jacob years ago, but it's not currently available to public consumption because there's statute of limitations on everything I say from this pulpit. But some of that Jacob's stuff, it was so good when we were preaching it that it never really left me. One of the things I will never forget I was telling my friend just says,

past Friday is when I first saw in Genesis 35, verse 16, remember when they speak of God, they would call him the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And remember that what people called Jacob wasn't necessarily what God called Jacob, because there's the name his parents gave him Jacob, trickster, heel grabber is the literal translation, because he was literally trying to beat his brother out the wound, but it didn't work, but he was so sneaky about it. He cooked him a bowl of beans and got him to trade the birthright for the bowl of beans. All this stuff that you do when you don't really know that you have your own favor from God.

I think part of the reason that he was so, I guess you could say, twisted in his motivations was that his brother Esau was his father's favorite. His father got along better with Esau. And it created a lot of complications for him, and we can't go into all of it because it involves so many different things, not just the stealing of a birthright, but actually I'm The marrying of his uncle's daughter, his uncle Lavin, had two daughters. One was called Rachel, who was pretty. The other was called Leah, who had a good personality.

I'm going to let you do all the translation of what I just said and didn't say. And Leah wasn't the one Jacob loved, but he's the one that Jacob labored for. And so Jacob labored for Leah. This was always a cool thing to me about this passage. He labored to get Rachel in marriage. and his uncle Laban slipped Leah, the older sister in, and Jacob, the Bible says something so funny. It said that when he woke up the next morning after his wedding night, there was Leah. And I always thought about that how when...

Have you ever gone to bed with Rachel and woke up with Leah? I don't mean physically. I'm not asking that much of your business. We do not know each other like that. So you can keep that for your therapist. But I mean, like, you worked for something and worked for something and worked for something. He worked seven years for Rachel and woke up and it was Leah. And some of the things that we chase after and we strive after and we go after and we set our hearts on and whoops, it's Leah.

And now it's too late because you got Leah. You got Leah. and then he worked seven more years and he gets Rachel. But there was a contrast because he actually, now listen to this, this is so cool. He worked seven years and he got Leah. Then Laban gave him Rachel and he worked seven more. It's the difference between working for versus working from. The law gets you to work for.

Grace gets you to work from. So we don't just finish with favor like we're fighting for it, we start with favor like we're fighting from it. And so many things happen in his life that he eventually ends up not only marrying Leah and Rachel and Rachel's his favorite wife, but Leah's the one who can have kids. There's something about loving Leah too, that God saw that she was unloved and he opened her womb and she was more productive than her sister who was beautiful on the outside but barren on the inside.

There's something about the favor of God. couldn't have a baby until finally one day, a series of events. She gave birth to a son, Joseph, and she prayed for one more. This is what the Lord told me to give you, and what triggered it for me was seeing that Jesus will reign over the throne of Jacob. Go with me to Genesis 35, 16 for a moment. And let's follow Jacob's caravan. He's set out now, he's got many sons. God was using all the strife and competition. between these two wives to birth a nation, those same children that were born out of the frustration of these two women would end up becoming the nation of Israel. You know God's using everything in your life, don't you?

But this incident is important, and it's what I wanted to ask you about today as we talk about finishing the year with God's favor. It says that after building an altar to God in Bethel and remembering everything that God did, Jacob and his crew moved on from Bethel, the house of God, the place where God met with him. And while they were still some distance from Ephra, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, which I think is a little bit redundant, because I watched this happen three times. And I think those two, I think every time there's a birthing, there's also a breaking. But that's just me. As somebody who started a church, as somebody who's trying to bear fruit in every season of

my life. But this is extreme now. This is not just a normal difficulty. This is actually a matter of life and death. And in the middle of this, the midwife said to Rachel, don't despair for you have another son. Watch this. As she breathed her last, for she was dying, she named her son Ben Oni, but his father named him Benjamin. Now, this is going to require a little bit of explanation

to translate Ben-on-I, which means child or son of my trouble. Ben is the part that means son, Onei is the part that means trouble. Or some translators put it, sorrow. But either way you put it is pain. And as she's breathing her last breath, understandably, she names the child that she is birthing out of the pain that she's experiencing. Her perspective is, this is costing me my life. And in a very poetic record, the writer tells us the writer of Genesis,

that as she was breathing her last breath, this baby was breathing its first breath. And we see here the confluence of the origin of Benjamin, who would actually represent the kingly tribe of Israel. But he wasn't called Benjamin because his mother named him out of her pain, Benonai. But his father named him Benjamin. Benjamin. But his father, who just lost the only woman he really ever loved, who just lost the thing that he worked 14 years to obtain. That in the middle of his loss, watch this, because this is what God is challenging us to do right now, he decides to label not according to what he's about to bury, but about what he's was birthed out of what he buried.

Now many of us, this is not a cotton candy Christmas message, have had to bury a lot of things this year. Even as a ministry, we had to bury every plan that we had for opening new campuses, for the ways that we thought we would reach people, for every elevation worship tour that we booked in NBA arenas, for everything that we planned this year, there, there's a lot of the There were funerals that we had to have, and you did too. You did too. What inspired me about the text was found not in the fact that it was his favorite wife that he buried.

Because in that is a sermon. In that is a sermon. But what got me about it that I never saw when I preached it five years ago, you ready, Christian? It says that over her tomb, Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar, that pillar Marks Rachel's tomb. But back up to verse 19, because I think this is powerful. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephraith, that is Bethlehem. So I read how Rachel, the woman that Jacob loved, was buried just outside of Bethlehem. And then I read how Micah said that out of Bethlehem, will be born a ruler who will dash the princess of men into pieces and whose kingdom will know no end.

And then I read about Mary, who was highly favored, who gave birth through a virgin womb to the world's greatest salvation. And it brought to me this question. Do we know Bethlehem better by what was buried there? or what was born there. So I want to ask this question. I want to ask this question about your Bethlehem. Remember, we sing, oh, little town of Bethlehem, like it's cute. Bethlehem was not where Mary's OBGYN was located.

Did you know that they weren't supposed to be in Bethlehem when Jesus was born? I know this sounds weird. Jesus picked a bad time to come into the world. He picked the worst time to come into the world. And we think everything has to be just right for God to do something in our life. And we think everything just has to be just right for God to do it. No, no, no, no. They were only in Bethlehem because Joseph's family was from there, and maybe they had still some land there.

The Bible doesn't say, but they had to go back under Caesar Augustus because there was a census happening, and everybody had to go back to their hometown. And while they were on the way just trying to get their business done, here comes Jesus. And I found out God is a lot like that. Just like at the worst possible moment, he will give you the greatest possible opportunity. And it's almost like this year we're being presented as a question. Are we going to label this year by what we buried or by what was born? Because I promise you, I should have done it.

I messed up. But I should have said at the beginning of the sermon, what is Bethlehem? And I guarantee you none of you would have said the place where Rachel died. That's how Jacob would have remembered it, because he buried her on the way to Bethlehem. And he renamed his son. Oh, by the way, he named his son Benjamin, which doesn't mean son of my trouble. It's a play on words, because Onei can either mean trouble or wealth. So, instead of naming the child after what he lost in that moment,

He named his son Benjamin. Benjamin doesn't mean son of my trouble or son of my wealth. It means son of my right hand. The right hand is the hand of blessing. The right hand is the hand of authority. So the word God gave me for you today is don't bury your blessing. What happens to us is, as we journey along the way, we lose a lot of things. And the temptation is for us to identify with what we lost.

And then we start labeling our lives according to those losses. Well, that limits us to what we can receive. But if you can make a decision at this point in the year to call his name, Jesus. See, Jesus came from Bethlehem. Jesus was born in the place where Rachel was buried. Don't you see it? That's the same place David came. from, from Bethlehem. That little boy with a little rock who took down a big giant. That's why Micah said,

Out of you, Bethlehem will come the salvation of the world. The salvation of the world came out of a small, impossible place. And that's why I called it the year of the Lord's favor. Because God said it was. But God said. The father said. She named him Benonai. Your facts are trying to name your life right now. Favor over facts.

Favor over facts. Let me break this down. Rachel had a baby. She died giving birth to him. Mary had a baby, and she never even had the experience of sexual intercourse. But God saw potential in Mary that was greater than her experience. In Luke chapter 1, when the Bible says that the angel called her highly favored, and on a 1 to 10, I want you to know you're a level 10 favored by your father in heaven.

You don't have to clap for it. I still believe it about you. I still believe it about you. In fact, look at somebody and say, I see favor in your future. I see favor in your future. I like that kind of stuff. I like saying that kind of stuff to people. I see favor in your future.

Do you remember when you prophesied to that girl before we wrote that song in February? And then God gave us a song. Yeah, I'm telling you, I like to believe things that my eyes can't see right now. That's why I need one of those machines like that cardiologist had. Because you're looking at me like, uh-uh, I don't feel. I don't feel very highly favored. I don't feel pregnant. I feel fat, but I don't feel pregnant.

Let me tell you something right now. Out of Bethlehem came Jacob's greatest pain. Out of Bethlehem came God's greatest purpose. So what are you going to get out of it? This is not only a year for us to decide what we're going to give to this ministry. Yeah, we're giving an offering this weekend. God's going to use that to take it. take the gospel all over the world and it's a privilege to do it. But what are you going to get out

of it? He said, out of Bethlehem will come for me, a great king, a great king. And Mary had to believe that. And I think this is the tension. I think this is why we struggle to believe it. I think this is what blocks us from believing that the favor of God is on our lives and that The purpose of God is working in our lives. How many struggle to believe that sometimes? Mary experienced favor and fear, favor and fear, favor over fear. And then look at verse 34. I didn't read you this verse.

How will this be since I am a virgin? And as I read that verse, I realized that we don't give birth to Christ in the same way Mary did. All right, this has only happened once. All right, so like, if your girl tries to pull this Bible verse on you, you probably shouldn't marry her, because this is just a one-time thing. But Christ is being birth in all of us, and so is his purpose. And so is the fruit of the Spirit. And when Mary said, since I am a virgin, I realize that all we have to do to really understand the power of choosing favor over fear, favor over facts is to put what Whatever limits us right there where she said a virgin.

Put the verse back up. Since I am an addict, since I am divorced, since I am an orphan, since I am little things that we get caught up on like how much money we have in the bank, because they call that our net worth. It's not really your worth, but since they call it that, you start to believe that. Since I am broke. And then you put an event and make it an identity. I am a failure. That's what happens when you focus too much on what you bury to see what

is being born. And I was telling my oldest the other day, I said, isn't it interesting how she's limited to her experience, but God speaks according to her potential? If we experienced this year so much pain, so much fear, so much loss, so much uncertainty, so many times where we bumped our head right up against the thing that we thought wasn't going to happen, and it did happen, we thought it was going to happen. When we bump our heads too many times, went too many times into disappointment, we begin to call our lives whatever we buried. Oh, Bethlehem, that's the place where, oh, 2020.

Y'all, 2020 got a bad rap, because all we can focus on right now is what we buried this year. But we don't yet know what is going to be born from what we buried. There might be a better job on the other side of this for you. You hear me? There might be more peace on the other side of this. So God shut down some systems and some things to get you focused on your father. I love Jacob. Jacob's like, God changed my name, and I'm going to change the name of this thing that was born in pain, but it was born on purpose.

Don't bury your blessing. You shove it down and you force it down and you got disappointed. So now you just bury that, but the problem is you are burying the blessing along with it. You said, son of my right hand, I'm naming my, I'm naming my season according to what God is bringing out of it. So I want to say about 2020, not only did I have to bury a lot, but I got a lot out of it. I got a lot out of it. I learned some things about myself that I didn't like. Then I had to confront them.

And guess what happened when I confront them? God gave me grace for them, and he showed me that he loves me, even through all that, even some of the stuff that I don't like. That's what he wants to use. I got a lot out of it. I know that sounds funny to say that because we did lose a lot, and maybe you lost more than me. And I'm not saying this in some little pretty preacher way, prancing up here in the pulpit talking about these little things that preachers say.

But if you have faith to know that what is being born is greater than what you're burying, then say it right now, I got a lot out of it. Hey, 2020, I appreciate you. You gave me my sight back. You taught me how to seek the kingdom. You taught me how to walk by faith. I got a lot out of it. I got a lot out of it.

Bethlehem isn't the place where I buried Rachel. It's the place where my Savior was born. And with this bold faith, I want us to do what Mary did. And in just a moment, our worship team is going to sing the blessing over you, because I think that's what we need to sing as we focus on the favor of God this year. But my wife's favorite Bible verse comes from Luke chapter 1. He says that after the objection rises up in Mary, and she said, how will this be? Because that's the part we don't know.

Since I am a virgin, the angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you. Now I want you to notice here that Mary asks how. and the angel answers who. But God said, it's a blessing. Mary said how? The angel said who? If nothing else this year, maybe I'm not going to get some promotion, or maybe it's been the hardest year ever to try to lead people,

and yes, it's been challenging. But I found out who I was this year. I found out he was enough. I found out who I was this year. I found out I don't preach for crowds this year. I got a lot out of it. I found out a lot of things that were just keeping me busy. A lot of the things that were cluttering up my schedule weren't making me fruitful.

I got to reorder some things. Oh, don't think I'm not praying for you if you lost something significant this year. We pray for you all the time. That's why I come up here and preach so that you can have some air to breathe as you try to navigate what it's like to live without your Rachel. I don't take that for granted, but I know that something greater is always born in the painful place where something that you love was buried. So now I hear Mary saying in verse 38, Holly's favorite Bible verse, where she said, I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled. She said the first time,

I am a virgin. That's the facts. She said the second time, I am the Lord's servant. That's the favor. A church, the facts are bad, right? The facts are bad, but the favor is greater. The favor is greater. When I was getting my offering ready, I went over to one of our campuses where I used to preach live,

over there at the Blatney campus. I went over there and I went in my old green room and I remembered how God made a way for us to get that building. It was a great memory for me. It was a favorite flashback, you know, for what's out ahead of me. Because I've really been struggling in this season. What is church even going to look like on the other side of this? And yet God keeps making ways and we reach more people than ever and I'm grateful for that. But the thing about it is, you're always having a funeral at the same time that you're

receiving favor. Rachel is dying while Benjamin is being born. And I started thinking about a lot of things. I flashed back so many things through my life when I was writing my offering check and preparing to speak to you

today. Because I wanted to tell you to finish with favor, but I don't want to tell you that and then not go back to the beginning and realize how far God has brought us. And for some reason I ended up in weird mental space where in my mind I just closed my eyes and I was flashing back and

God was bringing all these different things to my mind. Some of them were really big moments in my life and all of that. And then this one little weird thing came in to this song that I wrote in Shelby, North Carolina, of all places that I wrote called I Am the Rural. righteousness of God, made holy by his sacrifice, perfected by his blood. I'm a brand new creation, remade by his hand, and I know who I am. Now, when I tell you that song was Twangy, it was Twangy, because it was Shelby. It was twangy. But the flashback I got was when Mully McCraw came up to me after I finished singing it one Sunday. The first Sunday I taught it to the church.

I wrote it, I sang it same day. This song was never nominated for a Grammy, but I sang it and I was proud of it. And the song said, I know who I am. Holly remembers it, Amy remembers it, Chunks remembers it, Eric remembers it. It said, I know who I am. This is the bridge. I am a child of my father most high. I am a part of his plan.

I will not fall for the enemies lies because I am who God says I am. Remember it, LV? It was good. Mully comes charging the stage after I finished the service. I say the little invitation song, you know, whatever, and we're singing it. And he comes up to the stage. Mully always had something to tell me after church, and usually it was positive. But he said, I like that new song, but I got a suggestion.

I was like, all right, Mully, let's collaborate, let's co-write. What you got? Mully's not a musician. Mully's a carpenter. But he goes, hey, Jesus. This was a carpenter, but Mully goes, when you say it the last time, you know, you say, I know who I am, and he says this. He looks at me so serious.

He goes, last time, say, I know whose I am. And he walks off, like drops the mic on me. He just walks off and goes to the Chinese buffet. Mully just drops the mic and walks off. And I'm like, Lord, this is weird. I'm thinking about Mully and Shelby and Bethlehem and Mellie. Mary and Mary and Mully in favor and this weird year we've had. Why am I thinking about this?

And so then I saw the verses, and I wanted to thank Mully if you ever watch me preach on YouTube. Thank you, Molly. Because Mary said in verse 34, I am a virgin. And that's who she was, according to her experience. But in verse 38, she said, I am the Lord's. whose she was. So we need to remember this year that the world can call you Benoni and your emotions can call this year a waste, but his father named him, son of my right hand.

Now, if you receive this word, I want you to stand up on your feet, clap your hands, and give God the greatest praise that you guys. gave him since December 31st. Let's do this and then they're going to sing the blessing and we're going to worship God. But let's look at Micah 5-2 one more time. But you, Bethlehem, but you small place, but you painful place, but you where Rachel died. Though you are small among the clans of Judah, though the womb of the womb is a virgin womb, though Bethlehem is not even the place you intended to give birth, out of you will

come for me. Thank you for your glory, Lord. And we confess that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in your people. We are your servants, your people, your sons, your daughters. May His favor be upon you, wherever you are in the world, whatever you're going through. Out of Bethlehem came the Savior of the world, and I believe God's going to bring some of the greatest blessings out of the most unexpected places. We believe God is working in your life. And I want to thank all of you who give to this ministry. This is, as you know, our year-end offering for expansion and outreach.

We help a lot of people. And this offering is one way that we do it, as well as the consistent giving, the tides and offerings of God's people. You can find all the ways to give it, Elevationchurch.org slash favor. And there you can also put your word that you're believing God for in the coming year, but mostly we just want to be a blessing because God has blessed us. And thank you for helping us grow this ministry. every time you share a message, every time you give, every time you invest, you need to know that this ministry is good ground, bearing fruit all over the world. May His favor be upon you. May God's presence go before you. And may God's spirit inside of you be greater than anything that is against you. We bless you. We love you. We'll see you soon.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today for this message. We trust that God has spoken to you right. where you are. If you'd like to begin partnering with us financially or give to the year-end favor offering, I'd invite you to head over to elevationchurch.org slash favor. There you'll see a couple options to be able to partner with us or give to the year-end offering. You can see the first option is to begin tithing. If you haven't done that, we would certainly encourage you to start there. Begin by placing God first in the era of your finances and trusting what it is that he's given to you back to him. Start with tithing. If you already tithe and are consistent in that we'd encourage you to join us in the year-end offering, going above and beyond to see what God

can do in and through you. You can click on that option, select the campus that you attend, or if you don't attend one of our physical locations, select online as a part of our extended family, our e-fam community. We're excited to see how God works in and through you as you open up your life and say, God, use me right where I am. Thanks for being a part of Elevation Church. We're excited to see what God does in and through your life right where you are. Heart Podcast. Guaranteed human.