Favor Over Fear

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 twenty twenty year end offering. I'm calling it our favor Offering Favor twenty twenty. You can go to Elevation Church dot 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 consume the Gospel. It advances when people can tribute. If God God has been good to you, if God has made a way for you. I want to encourage you between now and December thirteenth 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 twenty twenty. 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 No God has already spoken. If you know, He has the final word in your life, and that

word is favor. Father, declare that you are good God. 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 what 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, 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. Somebody put in the chat I got name. Come on, let's look up the loudest praise we can till the neighbors can hear it, till the devil get here. All right, So we're praying for you, everybody who's giving online Elevation church dot 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, 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 alone. 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 and you go to start your car, all right,

all right, micaeh five Verse two. 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 would 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. So, 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 shirt, your rooted shirt Shantana. So one of the things that can be rooted in God and 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 from me. I mean in 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 for a baby, but for my heart. My forty year

old check up. 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 ten years ago. To see Abbey 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, put some gel and some pads. I mean, you know, I have to get license and all that. I'm not just gonna 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 cardiologists were saying, you look healthy and this, and that. He was complimenting that I looked like I worked out.

I felt great here in that. But then he said, we got to check beneath the surface now, see what's going on. I thought, I need that. When I preach. I need one of these machines to see, you know, 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 us eighth centuries after Micah spoke this. What a great thing to remember that God does not see our lives from where we are. It's said that he spoke these things from old. So as we talk about finish with favor, did you'll hear

the message last week? Finished with favor sounds so sexy, right, But 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, 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 does that he has that sonogram mismine machine to see Jesus inside of her. She's caught off guard. Look in verse twenty eight, the angel went to her lukewan 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 and 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 is what I'm

trying to say. 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 Angel said, I want you to choose favor over fear. That felt chatworthy. Put it in a chat Favor over fear. Say it out loud, Favor over fear. That's the choice. That's the choice. That's the choice. That's

the choice. Us a choice because he said in verse thirty one, the Angel said, you will concede 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 descendant y'all about to find out why I'm lasting. Right in the middle of my sermon, go to Genesis

thirty five. He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. Now, if you can get any staff members of a backdoor link to the sermon Balded Elevation Church. There was a series we did on Jacob years ago, but it's not currently available for 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 this past Friday, is when I first saw in Genesis thirty five, verse sixteen. 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 them trade to birthright for the boll of beans and all this stuff that you do when you don't really know that you have your own favor from God.

And 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 the marrying of his uncle's daughter. His uncle Laban had had two daughters. One was called Rachel, who was pretty. The

other was called Leah, who had a good personality. I'm gonna 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 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 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 work for something,

and work for something, and work 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 is 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 Marion, Leah and Rachel, and Rachel's his favorite wife, but Leah's the one who can have kids. And 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 baron on the inside. There's something about the favor of God. Rachel couldn't have a baby until finally, one day series of events, she gave birth to a son, Joseph, and she prayed for one more. And 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. So go with me to Genesis thirty five sixteen for a moment, and let's follow Jacob's caravan he set out. Now he's got many sons. God was using all the strife and competition between these two wives to birth the 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 is 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 and 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 Ephrath, 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 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. But watch this. As she breathed her last for she was dying, she named her son Ben and I. But his father named him Benjamin. Now this is going to require a little bit of explanation to to translate ben Oni, which means

child or son of my trouble. Ben is the park that means son Ohnai is the park 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 been or I,

but his father named him Benjamin. But his father, who just lost the only woman he really ever loved, who just lost the thing that he worked fourteen 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 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 waste 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 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 you know, in that a 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're ready, Christian. It says that over her tomb, Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb. But back up to verse nineteen, because I think this is powerful. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. So I read how Rachel, the woman

that Jacob love, 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 Bethlamine. Remember we sing o little town of Bethlehem like it's cute. Bethlehem was not where Mary's obg yn 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 lives, and we think everything

just has to be just right for God to do it. No, no, no, no no, they were only in Bethlehem because Joseph's family was from there, and maybe they had some 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 oh, I 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 does it 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, 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 ben On. I your facts are trying to name your your life right now. Thank you. 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 one, when the Bible says that the angel called her highly favored and on a one to ten, I want you to know you're a level ten 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. You remember when you prophesied to that girl before we wrote that song in February, and then God gave us a song that 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, because you're looking at me like, I don't feel I don't feel very highly favored. I don't feel pregnant. I feel I feel fat, but I don't feel pregnant. You know. It's like, let me tell you

something right now. Out of Bethlehem, King Jacob's greatest pain. Out of Bethlehem in 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 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 that. 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. Because how many struggle to believe that. Sometimes Mary experienced favor and fear favor and fear favor over fear. And then look at verse thirty four. 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 this purpose, and

so is the fruit of the Spirit. And when Mary said, since I am a virgin, I realized that all we have to do to really understand the power of choosing favor over fear, favor over facts, is to put 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 you know, 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, since 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. Yeah, if we experience 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, one too many times into disappointment, we begin to we begin to call our lives whatever we buried. Oh, Bethlehem, that's the place where oh, twenty twenty, y'all, twenty twenty 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've There might be a better job on the

other side of this for you. 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 gonna change the name of this thing that was born in pain, but it was born on purpose. Don't bury your blessing. You shut 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, said, Son of my right hand, I'm naming my I'm naming my I'm naming my season according to what God is bringing out of it. So I want to say about twenty twenty, 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 princing up here in the pulpit talking about these little you know,

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, twenty twenty. I appreciate you. You gave me my sight back. You taught me how to seek the kingdom Lord. Yeah, 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 one, and 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, 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 thirty eight, 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 away for us to get that building. It was

a great memory for me. It's a favor 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 you know, 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 this 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, and 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 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 Molly mccrawl 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. And 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 that. Any remembers it, Chunks remembers that. Eric remembers it. He said, I know who I am. You know I am a child. This is the bridge. I am a child of my Father most High. I'm a part of his plan. I will not fall for the enemies lies because I am who God says I am. Remember it. He'll be is good. Mulley 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 and Mully said. Mulley 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, Molly, let's let's let's collaborate it. Let's correct what you got. Molly's not a musician, Molly's a carpenter, but he goes, hey, Jesus 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 who's I am? And he walks off, like drops the mic on me. He just walks off and goes to the Chinese buffet. Molly just drops the mic and walks off. And I'm like, Lord, this is weird. I'm thinking about Molly and Shelby and Bethlehem and 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 Molly. If you ever watched me preach on YouTube, thank you Molly, because Mary said in verse thirty four, I am a virgin, and that's who she was according to her experience. But in verse thirty eight she said, I am the Lord's that's whose she was. So we need to remember this year that the world can call you binone, and your emotions can call this year a waste yea. 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 phrase that you gave him since December thirty. First, let's let's do this, and then they're gonna sing the blessing and we're gonna we're gonna worship God. But let's look at let's look at Micah five to two one more time. But you, Bethlehem, but you small place, but

you painful place. But you where Rachel will die. Though you are small among the clans of Judah, though the womb is a virgin womb, though Bethlehem is not even the place you intended to give birth. Out of you will call 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 to consist in giving the tithes and offerings of God's people. You can find all the ways to give it Elevation Church dot 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, and see you so 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 dot 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, in 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 EFAM 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 and in through your life right where you are