Pastor Steven Furtick Sermon Stop Focusing On Negative Emotions: When you’re living in it, you don’t even know what you’re looking at, that’s why we really have to be careful not to wish away stages of our lives, because that was in your backyard. It took 2020 to get some of us to see that showing up early to get a seat at Ballantine at 9:30 on a Sunday morning was a privilege, back when we could all do it without fear. We had the favor of God. We still do, but some of it, it was our backyard.
Jesus was there. He had been brought up there, He was in Nazareth. That’s where he grew up, Is familiarity the enemy of favor? I think it is sometimes. I really do. I think we choose what is familiar even at the expense of God’s favor sometimes.
Why is it that in the place where Jesus should have been able to do the most he was able to do the least? That should have been the place for the greatest favor of God. Now, I need to say this to you. This might sound rough. Some of the places where God should be working the most in your life you’re letting him do the least, and the reason is you’re choosing what is familiar, and you are chasing away God’s favor.
For many of us, we’re waiting on the vengeance, we think we know so much, when he rolls up the scroll and sits down, we think, “Well, it must be over, because God didn’t do what I wanted him to do.” It’s finished when he says it’s finished. He is who he says he is, not who you think he is. And you are who he says you are, not what they say you are. Whether they is your thoughts, your addictions, your insecurities, your secret stuff, you are not what that says you are, or your life. That’s not what we mean by favor. We don’t mean the facts. We mean the Father.
So, when they were looking at him, there’s a Greek word they use, and it’s used 10 times in the book of Acts, only twice in Luke, It says when he said what he said… He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Faith comes by hearing, but not with physical ear but with spiritual ears. It’s a terrible thing to have sight but be blind.
And he sat down, and they spoke well, but they were so familiar. “That’s Joseph’s son. Wow, he talks good, but we know him.” Familiar. Favor. Familiarity. Is familiarity keeping you from God’s favor? Are you addicted to feeling miserable? It feels familiar. If fear is your natural habitat for long enough, you’ll seek it out. You’ll find something to be afraid about. and I don’t think I’m dying. I just needed something to be worried about.
He said God had to go to a woman at Zarephath, had to go to a Syrian commander named Naaman to show what he could do, because the people who should have received his power couldn’t recognize what was right in front of them. Can you?
Pastor Steven Furtick wants us to know that, God has given you some great opportunities this year. He has done some amazing things in your life this year. He has shown you some ugly stuff that if he didn’t show it to you would have killed you. Can you receive that? Is this the acceptable year of the Lord? He’s talking about his salvation, his deliverance, his ministry. I wonder if we have accepted this for what it really is yet, because that’s the key. Will you accept the favor of God or are you pushing it away because it feels weird?
