By Pastor Steven Furtick – Sunday, December 12, 2021
If you read the Christmas story and only see objects, you’ve missed the message of Christmas. The message of Christmas is meant to go beyond history, to giving you a perspective about issues of life.
Matthew 2:1, 15, 23. (CEV)
1. When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem
15. where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”
23. and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
You must not miss the significance of Jesus being born in Bethlehem, call out of Egypt, and called a Nazarene.
There are blessings on the backroads and in obscurity that you don’t get in popularity. There are blessings in Bethlehem that you don’t get in Jerusalem. There are enormous messages on the dark days of your life.
Don’t give credit to the devil of the downside of your life. Something good is coming from this. I’m not leaving Egypt until God tells me what He wants me to know. What if it works out for your good? What if He takes what the enemy meant for evil, and turn it for good?
Sometimes we get so close to the place that we thought was the place, yet we realize that we have to go five more miles. When the wise men from the East went to Jerusalem thinking they’ve got to where the King should be born, little did they know that they had five more miles to Bethlehem, where the King was actually laying in the manger.
God is not waiting for stuff to change, or things to get better before He speaks with you, No!
That is not going to happen. God is going to speak to you right at that backside of life in Egypt. Out of Egypt, God called out Jesus His son, by speaking to Jesus.
Matthew 2:15.
…where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”
When you say “Something Good will come from this,” you are still thinking, “Maybe God will do something about this.” But you need to put that aside now, and embrace the fact that, “Something Good is Coming from this.”
Jesus was born in an unexpected place at Bethlehem. Even the pregnancy was unplanned. Sometimes the greatness of your life is born unplanned in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Sometimes gifts are built out of Egypt.
Something good is coming from this. Not that.
When Joseph left Egypt, he didn’t go back to Bethlehem. The Christmas story is about people taking direction in the back-road of life they never planned for.
Matthew 2:23
and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
He left Egypt and went back to Nazareth, where Joseph was born. Nazareth was a very small place. That was where Jesus grew up. It’s not really on the map, even in the Old Testament. Your growth may occur in that little unknown place.
John 1:45-46 (NIV)
45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
Something good came from Nazareth. The Son of God of came from Nazareth. Something good is coming out your life. Something good is coming out of your mess. Something good is coming from your situation. Something good is coming from this. Before the end of the year, expect something good.
God designs good. So we are living God to decide what He calls ‘good’ in our lives. We are living with flexibility of faith for God to operate is goodness in our lives.
Jesus was a beautiful baby, but He was despised and rejected of men. He was born in Bethlehem, He escaped to Egypt, and was called a Nazarene. Stop calling it what people call it. Start calling it what God calls it. Jesus is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father…
God makes all things beautiful is His time. Something is coming from this.
