The Benefit Of The Doubt | Pastor Steven Furtick

welcome to Elevation Church today's message is called the benefit of the doubt we hope this special Christmas Eve message encourages you thank you for joining us in Matthew chapter 1 the record goes this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph but before they came together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to Public Disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly but after he had considered this because sometimes your first instinct is not God's will after he had considered this after he did the math and after he calculated his next move God spoke it is often contrary to our logic when God speaks it often violates what we see when God calls us to walk by faith but after he had considered this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus everybody say that name you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins I know you're confused I know you're bewildered and I know that you're hurt but verse 22 all this took place to fulfill I know you're you're you're having a hard time making sense of the situation right now but all this took place to fulfill it's not random there's a reason all this took place to fulfill I hear the Apostle Paul all the way over from Romans a he wants to get in on this all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose all this the parts you like the parts you don't the parts you get and the parts that keep you awake at night the parts that feel good and the parts that leave you with tears on your pillow oh this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the Prophet the Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means God with us when Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife but he had no union with her just to make it clear he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name Jesus I want to speak for just a few moments today on the benefit of the doubt Christmas is rightly celebrated as the story of new beginnings but the story begins at a dead end by the time you get to Matthew chapter 1 heaven has been seemingly silent since the time of Malachi the prophet for several centuries and I did not read you the whole of Matthew chapter 1 if I had started with verse 1 you might have been asleep by the time that I got to the part I wanted to read because it's just a genealogy of how Jesus came into the earth from a human perspective and Matthew gives us 14 generations between Abraham and David 14 more between David and the Babylonian exile of the people of Israel 14 more from the Exile to the birth of Jesus Christ that's all in Matthew chapter 1 it's a list of names really but it signifies how at this point in God's redemptive story as told in the pages of Holy Scripture heaven has hit a dead end God has sent the law to his people but they broke it literally when Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments showing the people how to live to be a people by the time he could get the rules down to them they were dancing naked around another God that they made because they got tired of waiting on the one they couldn't see and so Moses in his frustration broke the tablets had to go up and carve out some new ones not only was there hope of keeping the law broken like it is every time we try to do God's will in our own strength but the profits that God had sent to his people were each turned away despised rejected many of them died at the hands of the very people that they came with the word to deliver and so now they broken the law disobeyed the prophets and by the time you get to matthew chapter one heaven has hit a dead end and as man after man after man after man comes into the earth none of them being the Messiah who was able to rescue and redeem it seems that we're at an impasse because the true character of God cannot break through the frailty of humanity to deliver this love message that has existed before time began the beginning was a word in the Word was with God and the Word was God and the full pre-incarnate word of God was existent in Jesus Christ before he was ever made flesh on Christmas Day but it has not yet found its way into the earth not by the time we have read Matthew chapter 1 so what we get is forty two generations of frustration and suddenly Christ is born heaven has hit a dead end and humanity feels the same way no matter how they tried to follow God there seems to be something in their hearts prone to wander no matter what commitment they make they seem unable to keep it so now you have heaven at a dead end because God is perfectly holy and cannot violate his standard to relate to unholy people and humans who are unholy have no way to God and all of a sudden here comes a ladder named Jesus not from the earth to the sky but from the heavens to the earth and as the throne of the rule and reign of a sovereign God is lowered into the everyday affairs of humanity we see Joseph is also at a dead end maybe he really looked forward to having Mary as his wife but he gets some bad news when it comes to his attention that she's claiming that she got pregnant by God now I want to say something about that real quick because in church we just skip right over this stuff but a lot of people come to church on Christmas that don't come any other time of the year and they said and listened politely to stuff like this but when we say that she had a baby but there was always no X they get kind of confused about this because you know this stuff doesn't just happen every day and what we're shouting about they're kind of skeptical about so let me talk about this for a minute because it must have been hard for Joseph to take the angel at his word when he saw no way forward I mean he wants to marry her he's looking for a way to go through with it but the law requires him to put her away so he's going to do it in the most dignified way possible he's not going to humiliate her he's going to do it in a righteous way but he sees no road forward no route past this indiscretion and so the scripture says that he had in mind to put her away but sometimes what you have in mind is not what God has in store it's just that he can't see a way forward he's added that in I I was looking forward to Mary Mary you know Mary is a is a is a wonderful person we find out very content not a wife who's hard to please she was gonna be such a good wife and I already put a deposit down on the venue for the wedding and it's non-refundable but I don't see any way to go through with this because she's got a baby and it's not mine and she says it belongs to the Lord I don't see a way forward heaven is that a dead end humanity is at a dead end Joseph is at a dead end and I just wonder are you I wonder is there anybody in this room watching online or on television who has found yourself at a dead end this day in a relationship you can find yourself having done all that you know to do for someone that you love and thinking to yourself well if they don't love me back by now you can find yourself at a dead end with your children you can you can do everything that you can do for the very for the very person that you would do anything for but it is not enough and you find yourself before God saying I don't know what else to do you can find yourself at a dead end in your resources I'm out of I'm out of money I put everything on every credit card I stole a credit card I alive to get another credit card I put that balance on this balance and I can't balance anything else anymore I'm adding in I I don't know I think this is it cuz I really think I've run out of room to run I'm I'm at a dead end you know religion can leave you at a dead end when you have made so many commitments to change but you never do when when you have said so many times you know I'm gonna do better now you know I'm really gonna I'm a really kicked that you know that's the last time I'm gonna do that that's really the last time this time it's the last time I won't do it no more and then you do it again and every time you do you feel a little more hopeless that you're ever going to be capable of real change I wonder are you at a dead end and I wonder did you know that dead ends are the perfect place for new beginnings in Jesus Christ this is the message that I came to preach this Chris not about a tall baby lying in a bassinet I came to preach about new beginnings the Lord has come let earth receive her King let every heart prepare his room he is with us and anything is possible this is not the end it seems to be the announcement of heaven that this is not the end touch somebody say this is not the end new beginnings often start when you find yourself at a dead end I admired Joseph I admire Joseph maybe it's maybe it's more appropriate to say you admire Mary maybe that's sexist for me to preach about Joseph on Christmas because Mary did all the hard work you understand I'm not trying to be that way I really I really just think that I wouldn't have had the faith to give Mary the benefit of the doubt on this one on this one and so it says he had a dream and he woke up and he was like cool see I wouldn't be cool for just a dream unless the angel was Maury Povich with a paternity test like no I promise you can show this then I'm good if we got some DNA on this divine baby in your belly fine but I'm not so sure cuz I have crazy dreams this this might have been just a crazy dream but he did what the angel had commanded him that the angel said something that is simple on the surface but there's great depth to it I'd like you to consider it in verse 20 what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit simplify what's in her is from me sometimes God wants you to know that what is packaged as disappointment is really destiny do you see it what's in her is from me and sometimes when people cause you pain and when life lets you down it looks on the surface like God has left you but what's in her what's happening in your life is from me and he goes with it and I must have like a really bad version of the Bible this this is a little older Bible that I preached from it's a great Bible it has Billy Graham's signature in it this Bible he signed this Bible they told me he signed it I wasn't there I never met him but could have been Larry Bry with some good penmanship who knows now give him the benefit of the doubt oh that Billy Graham really signed the Bible and in this Bible I was struggling because I couldn't find anybody else got a Bible that's want to cross-reference this cuz my Bible must be messed up because in in my Bible let's see your Bible your Bible might be better than mine smaller Bible it's pointing that out oh this is the good one this this might be the King James Version or something like that yeah this one will have it I see I'm looking 22 version we've seen you give birth to a son and just being racially no your Bibles your Bibles missing it - I was looking for the part of the story where the angel gave Joseph proof and I couldn't find it in my Bible or yours anybody else got a Bible because this our Bibles are our missing stuff it's disappointing I know they got new translations surely it'll be in a in this Bible what color do you call that babe this uh-huh what color is his Bible surely it'll be in your pink Bible she's got tabs on her Bible surely it'll be [Music] I'll see this one this one's problematic too it's pretty but it's this problematic cuz now I'm looking for the part where it tells me how Joseph felt I [Music] can't find it all it says is that God said to Joseph it's me go forward and he did it I can't find the part where they wrote in the clouds no really this is God's baby you know at their gender-reveal party because they also needed to have a divinity revealed party I can't find the clouds I can't find the sign it was just the voice of God saying to Joseph it's me go through and I feel like that might be the Lord for someone today I know you don't have the proof I know you don't have the feeling and I know all signs point to stopping but it's me go through he must have really trusted Mary trust Mary now could he this is an arranged marriage they didn't date three years he didn't get to choose her pick her based on her profile Christian singles dot-com Christian Palestinians calm he didn't swipe for Mary he just he just that's the way it worked back then you got her he doesn't know her like that he must have really trusted God enough to give him the benefit of the doubt what is the benefit of the doubt I asked God how we should define that term and he told me to ask Wikipedia wikipedia says that the benefit of the doubt is a favorable judgment in the absence of full evidence the benefit of the doubt it means that when it doesn't add up the variable is God for me and so it means that when I don't have evidence to support my conclusion that God is good that he is with me and that he is for me let's say those three things God is good he is with me he is for me I want you to say it again and I'm looking all the way to the back to the people with that little Christmas attitude say it say God is good he is with me he is for me now I have reached that verdict not by the process of deduction and looking at my life to see if it lines up with that assertion I reached that conclusion by revelation and once I came to believe that God is good he is with me and he is for me I now live by that verdict and I collect the evidence to support the verdict that I have already come to this is not how you reach a conclusion in a court of law but in the realm of faith it works like this verdict first evidence second what does that mean I don't look to my bank account or my doctor's report to see if God is a provider or a healer I've already come to the conclusion that he is Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah refika he is my provider and my healer that's the verdict so now no matter what the evidence says I can find greater evidence in the death of Jesus Christ see when he humped for me that settled it out of court I don't need to take it before a judge or a jury I already know he loves me this much I [Applause] believe that we'll always see it but I believe it I doubt it sometimes but I believe it you can't say both you can't say both you're not allowed to say both in church you can't say that in church you can't talk about doubt in church cuz James chapter 1 says let him not doubt let believe in this heart each tabloid say if he dives like way to see tossed river with with let not that man think he sieve anything from Lord instead I know that Bible verse Pro but I think it's confusing for people who think that faith is the absence of doubt the Bible doesn't say that Joseph didn't doubt it just said that he did what he had to do even with the doubt in his heart Beansie didn't let the doubt stop him don't let us stop you of course you'll have doubts just don't let them be dead ends and a lot of people stand at the dead end of a destiny that God is bringing them into because they will not walk through the doubt to get to the promise I meet these people and they say things to me because of my profession I guess they make assumptions about me because there's a reven front of my name they make assumptions about me that I don't have real doubts what one gentleman that I was doing business with he put it this way he was like I envy you because I would love to have faith I always wanted to believe in God but I just always am the kind of person that doubts a lot and I envy you that you don't have those doubts now here's what I should have said back to him it only took me four months to come up with this because he is assuming that faith is the absence of doubt for me faith has never been the absence of doubt faith that's not the absence of doubt it is the means to overcome it do you hear what I'm saying cuz we get in church and we just all go into this walking dead willing suspension of disbelief and we just believe things that have no impact on our everyday life just like we're binge watching Netflix like I'm just gonna watch this for a little while and here this little comforting word but then we go out into the world and we weed out the stuff but we can't say weed out the stuff cuz doubt is bad because isn't doubt bad one time I even had a campus pastor who was giving an invitation like we will give in a moment for people who want to place their faith in Christ and when we do it at our church we have people repeat a prayer it's just a means of allowing them to express their heart to God so that they can have a moment that they look back on and say I place my trust in Christ and to me that prayer is a very sacred moment it's not a time for people to get their person get out and beat the parking and it's not a time for someone who's preaching to start sharing their opinions that is a time to present the gospel and get out of the way cuz only God can save a person and now well I believe this campus pastor meant well but what he said I had to correct him on later and I'm not a mean guy and I make mistakes up here too but to me he made a really big mistake when he was praying the prayer because he was inviting the people to pray and he said if you want to give your heart to Christ today and know for sure that you have a relationship with him pray this you know Lord Jesus I believe that I'm a sinner in need of a savior and I believe without a doubt that's the party should have left out I believe without a doubt that Jesus Christ the Son of God and the savior of the world did I give you my life all of was good all of it was appropriate and there is no other way to be saved but to confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord believe in your heart god raised him from the dead you shall be saved but that one parenthetical insert without a doubt I told him never again when you stand in the pulpit at elevation do I want you to put people in a position where you're telling them to pray something that they can't honestly pray as a matter of fact don't put them in a position to pray something that you can't honestly pray because there is not one of you in the room even with tabs in your pink Bible that can honestly say without a doubt not a one of you and if you can hang on you hadn't had teenagers yet somebody took my backside back me up on this the trial of my faith is not the absence of doubt the triumph of my faith is the ability for the light to shine in the deepest darkest recesses of my heart I got doubts but I trust him anyway so my faith can say even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and the shadow of doubt and the shadow of dysfunction I will fear no evil it's not that I don't go through valleys I don't die there even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death this is Christmas preacher people even though throw us in the fire our God is able to deliver us but even if he does him we will not bow our knee to you O king Nebuchadnezzar I know Lazarus is dead but if Jesus is on the scene every tenant is a destiny waiting to begin even now [Applause] I have my doubts I don't believe this because I don't doubt it if you don't doubt it you're not reading it or you're reading it with no intent to live in my doubt is the evidence of my growth is the closer I get the more questions I have I struggled to believe it then I'm forgiven that he forgives me not only for what I did before I accepted him but for what I still do Oh y'all are gonna look at me like that on Christmas that's what you brought me that face maybe he could forgive the past stuff but what about the present stuff what about that yeah I I have my doubts I have my faith well I have my doubts my man thought he couldn't come to Christ cuz he had the house he thought that belief was the absence of doubt he didn't have the revelation that real belief is the willingness to stand on it even when you can't see it feel it or explain it I have my doubts I read that if any man is in Christ he's a new creation and the old is gone in the newest come but that verse is still in progress in my life there's still some old stuff in me comes out in traffic hello I have my doubts I have my doubts I have my doubts I read that whom the Sun sets free is free indeed but sometimes I feel bound by stuff I have my doubts is that Alright do you need to find another church now that you know that the dude with the I cast some doubts I have my doubts I [Applause] have my doubts and Abbey is already doing the thing that you all we all do at some point in our life if we try to be religious where she's going well she said the other day where did God come from and I'm like you're six can he just have always been there at age six do we really have to start this now but that was about the same time I did it and she said it so funny it was like she had me on a witness stand or something she said I bet she was waiting for me to get home from work because she asked Holly and Holly said you gonna ask your dad about that he'll be home in a couple hours and she said I he's got a question for you and Abby said where did God come from and who made him and don't just say he's always been there and I'm going already yeah already this is the first gift of mystery that heaven is giving to my daughter it is the beginning of a lifetime of learning the art of faith which Richard Rohr suggests is patience with mystery not the absence of it patience with it to take Mary home even when you don't know where this is headed so I did not give her a cookie cutter answer partially because she's smarter than me and would have seen right through it and said I welcome the mystery and I said I used to lay awake in my bed to thinking about that when I was a little boy I was probably seven or eight because boys are two years behind but I had that same thing I just could never make sense of it and I still haven't I have my doubts but I believe it I believe that while I was watching my dad died and I had to preach my stuff back to myself and I didn't have the protective insulation of this to stand behind or this to hold yes sir it's a real it's a real problem because a lot of people are waiting for the doubt to disappear let's take the next step the faith if the absence of doubt was a prerequisite for being used by God Mary could not have been the mother of Jesus over here the angel is talking to Joseph but before he came to Joseph he spoke to Mary he spoke to them separately because you have to experience faith for yourself you have to make your own decision as to who God is and what he means to you so while he was speaking to Joseph who had to endure the embarrassment of walking through this next season he was speaking to Mary and you're familiar with the story but just put it on the screens real quick this is Luke 1 where he said to Mary greetings you who are highly favored the Lord is with you that's the verdict before I give you the particulars of the situation I want to bring you back to the thing that you can always know in every season of your life if you choose to believe it your verdict should you choose to accept it God is with me God is for me you are highly favored God is for you and he is with you in this moment now I got something I got to tell you the angel starts off by reminding Mary of his presence and it says that Mary was greatly troubled at his words now what's there to be troubled about all he said was hello God likes you seem like Giada high-fived and fist-pump but she wondered what this greeting might be often the first impulse when God really shows up in your life is fear and it is only in pushing through the fear that you find the love of God on the other side of your fear what's this all about but the angel said to her don't be afraid Mary you have found favor with God you have found favor with God and I got an assignment for you because if I'm favored with God you will be with child and give birth to a son and 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 the house of Jacob forever his kingdom will never end now watch Mary's response well praise the Lord and glory to God in the highest and peace on earth and goodwill to men on whom his favor rests and your words to me are like drops of gold assurance in a heart for though Mary said first thing out of her mouth was how I know how pregnancy works how am i pregnant I promised God me and Joseph been keeping it clean I promised God we have not been in the backseat of a camel akai promise how her first instinct is not yes it's how that is always the response when God really knocks how how can i really be forgiven by someone who died on a cross before I was ever born in somebody else's death really affect my life how that's a good starting place how can you really use me look at me I'm nobody I'm nothing how how how can I move forward after this how can I believe that I still will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living how how how see the greatest gifts that God ever gives are on the other side of your how on the other side of your question on the other side of your I don't get it on the other side of your I don't understand on the other side of who me on the other side of what now on the other side of why this that's where the gift is and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger God wrapped his son in something that looks so common that you would walk by it if you weren't looking for it because the greatest gifts that God gives are wrapped in doubt [Applause] when the promise is wrapped in doubt for a reason because if he gave you proof you wouldn't need faith so he hides it he hides his promise in the darkness to protect you this will not make sense in an Instagram generation but sometimes God needs to work on the big picture of your life in the dark room to let it develop doubt is where faith develops doubt is where faith matures doubt is where faith gets hardened past Christian cliches that fit on a bumper sticker or a Pinterest let it develop let patience have it's perfect work in you that you may be perfectly complete lacking nothing it's the dark room in fact Isaiah who was quoted to Joseph also said in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 1 nevertheless there will be no more gloom I want to write a song when they called nevertheless it's one of my favorite Bible Wars it means it looks one way but it's really another it means give it time let it unfold God is up to something it means that the that the that the verdict is already submitted just give the evidence time you will see it nevertheless no matter what you see right now it means that the ruling on the field can be overturned at anytime it means that there is a review booth called heaven y'all didn't come to have Church today y'all come to just check it off the list and stock a stuffing with some cute little stuff nevertheless there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress in the past he humbled the land of Zebulun in the land of Naphtali but in the future he will honor galilee of the gentiles by the way of the sea along the Jordan now I need to insert this because Galilee means valley of shade now watch what happens in the darkest Valley the Prophet says the people walking in darkness have seen a great light and I was confused at this point because I thought he was talking about something that would happen 700 years later the prophet Isaiah prophesied 700 years before the birth of Christ but now he is speaking about something that has yet to be as if it already happened this is called the prophetic perfect you see it often in Scripture it's when God who stands outside of time knows exactly what you're going through how long you're gonna go through it and what he's going to do on the other side is the God who spoke let there be light and molecules and particles rearrange themselves to spread out into the universe to talk in every corner of this flow my faith gives me the ability to stand in the darkest Valley believing that the light has already come if I let it develop faint this developed in doubt faint always develops in doubt if faith learns to depend on God because of doubt if you never doubted God you would be him before long you would start worshipping yourself and singing How Great Thou art and your full-length mirror and God is not gonna allow you to become so arrogant that you never have doubts if he removed the doubt he would remove the need for him for you to know that he is God and you are not that's why you doubt there are benefits to the doubt there's a benefit to having to wrestle with God and wrestle with where you are and wrestle with yourself and wrestle like Jacob did that's where you find the revelation of the goodness of God not in your self-confidence but in yourself down Mary said how will this be I am a virgin the angel said the power of the most high will overshadow you but you must make the decision to believe God in the face of evidence that seems to contradict his promised to believe God that every dead-end is a doorway if you decide to go through it and there is someone here who is standing at a doorway today called out and if you will walk through it and make the decision to trust God in this situation you will find on the other side a greater glory revealed to you than you have ever known but if you stop here if you stop with how and why and when and what if you wait till you have all the evidence to trust God you will never take Mary home and you will never see the promise of God come to Mass all of the greatest faith is on the other side of your deepest out I want to ask with no one leaving please don't leave in this moment this is that invitation moment that I spoke about earlier that is so sacred to us and I want to ask it every campus that you would stand to your feet right now because this is a moment of decision for many for those who say what one man said to Jesus who needed the gift of healing I want to believe help my unbelief I want to believe but I feel unworthy I want to believe but I have my doubts God has a grace that is greater than every doubt and all he requires is the next step in the light that you do have I believe there are many here today who need to receive the gift of salvation but you can't receive it up here you can't receive it with these and you can't receive it with your own effort it is by grace you are saved through faith I know you have your doubts when Peter walked toward Jesus on the water he had faith but it flipped so quick the next thing you know he was sinking and Jesus asked him a question why did you doubt and when he asked him that question he didn't push him back under the water to teach him a lesson he reached out his hand to bring him back to the boat and to show him who he was all along so this message is for the doubters we often sing at Christmas o come all ye faithful today the invitation is come all you doubtful with questions and dysfunctions and conflicts to place your faith in the God who is the great I am with you bow your head and close your eyes at every location I want to pray a prayer right now for those who want to come into a relationship with Christ receive forgiveness by faith because of his finished work on the cross and live a new life in his name because of his resurrection from the dead and make a decision of faith today to put your hope in we're going to pray a prayer right now out loud our whole church family will pray it for the benefit of those who are coming to God for the first time or are coming back to God and if this is the prayer of your heart God will hear you from heaven and will save you from your sin let's pray together right now repeat after me Heavenly Father I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of the world and today I make Jesus the Lord of my life I believe he died for me to forgive my sin I believe he rose again to give me life I receive this new life I will follow you from this day forward I received your grace this is my new beginning heads still bowed eyes still closed if you just prayed that prayer shoot your hand up in the air on the count of three one two three no hesitation all over this room and all of our campuses god bless you god bless you god bless you what a wonderful thing come on I think we can celebrate better than that what a wonderful thing to win Souls being reborn come on church can we celebrate [Music] I think we ought to sing with the Angels a little while if the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents let twice this horns this day [Music] thank you for joining us for today's message if god is impacting your life through this ministry join us in reaching others by investing today at elevation church org /give or by downloading our app and selecting give and don't forget to email us at Amen at elevation church org to let us know how God has been moving in your life

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 515,370

Keywords: Elevation Church, Pastor, Steven Furtick, Christmas, Doubt, Direction, How to make decisions, How to overcome doubt, How to deal with doubt, Faith, Believe, Destiny, Develop, Opportunity, Proof, No evidence, Dead end, New beginning, Promise, Trust, Fear

Id: L5m2YSQLgbA

Length: 44min 23sec (2663 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 25 2017