Stop Worrying About How | Steven Furtick

See, I want you to understand that when God speaks a word, he does not consult circumstances. When God speaks a word, he does not consult circumstances. I'm going to say it again for the lady in the back of the room. When God speaks a word over your life, when God speaks a word over your destiny, when God speaks a word over your future, when God speaks a word over your relationship, when God speaks a word over your baby, when God speaks a word over your lifespan, when God speaks a word over your generational impact, when God says, Gabriel, go… Gabriel doesn't get to say to God, I'm not going to Galilee. That's only humans that do that. We disobey. We get stubborn. We don't want to forgive because we've been hurt. Gabriel goes where God says go. So, what I'm trying to get you to see is that the miracle of Christmas is that I could not get to God. My sin was great. Christmas is not just sentimental for me. It is salvation to me. My life is on the line. I cannot walk straight. I cannot be clean. I cannot come close. I cannot take credit, for my righteousness was as filthy rags. So, you cannot get to God. You say, how is that good news that I can't get to God? You don't have to. That's what makes it good news. The more you realize that, you're going to start praying faster when you mess up, because I don't have to get it right to come to God. I don't have to be clean. He was clean. I don't have to be clean to come close. He was clean. He came close. He gets the glory, and I feel like giving him 24 seconds of Christmas praise. It's a symbol with the organ. I'll give you 10 more seconds to praise him. All right. Let's practice. Ten more seconds to praise him. Eight seconds to give him credit. Five seconds to let the stress go. Three, two, one. High-five your neighbor and say, Yeah, yeah. Gabriel's coming. God is going to give you clarity about that thing in your darkness. God is going to give you perspective about that thing in your darkness. God is going to give you provision for that thing in your darkness. Gabriel came to Galilee. Aren't you glad about that? It makes me think if I get a little depressed, I can call on Jesus. I can call on heaven. I can call on the angels. I can call on the light, even in the darkest place. This is it. Gabriel came to Galilee, and he came to Galilee to get it ready for somebody greater. Y'all don't like good preaching anymore? Oh, that's delicious right there. He came to Galilee to get it ready for something greater. Yet, isn't it amazing of God to start something so great as the salvation of the world? Think of all the great things that would happen in Galilee. Think of all the great things that would happen at the cross. Think of all the great things that would happen on the other side of the empty tomb. Yet, he started something so great in something so small as a baby. It makes me think that God wanted me to know that he can hold me too. I mean, think about it. I'm going to give it to you like the Lord gave it to me this morning. Think about the fact that the angel told Mary not that God would descend from the skies like Thor but would wrap himself in little baby flesh and all of the attendant idiosyncrasies of a baby. He came like a baby, which means that he had to be held by humans. Sometimes we need a practical sermon. Sometimes we just need to revel and marvel in the glory of God. Watch this. Heaven was held by humanity. That's amazing. He didn't have to do it. Jesus was fully God and fully man, so the choice that he made to be held by human hands was not of necessity. It was of love. The heavenly king, the most high God held by human hands… Oh, I wish you could see it like I see it. I see that the reason heaven had to be held by humans was so that humans could be held by heaven. The Lord wanted you to remember that you are held this season, that you are held. You're like, yeah, I've been held. Hell has been all up in my life. I have been held. No, no. I'm saying held by the hand of God. When I look back, I see it so clearly. Satan came for my soul, but the Lord said no. I've been held by the hand of God. I've been hidden by the hand of God. This is what we call the invitation of incarnation. In theological terms, it's that heaven was held by humanity so that humanity could be held by heaven. Just remember as you walk through your life that you are being carried. Give him the credit for carrying you. Thank you. Thank you. Every step, an arrival. Every step, an announcement that God is not through with me yet. This Mary would hold heaven in her arms. She held heaven. I think that the secret to Mary… I thought about calling this a sermon. I make Mary moves. It was so dumb I shouldn't have told you that I thought about calling it that. Might as well just let that out. One thing she said that I thought was so powerful… I know, Holly, my favorite verse is Luke 1.34. Let me show you her favorite verse first. Verse 38. I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled. Here's my favorite one. Verse 34. How? That's my verse. How? Don't act like you're not living with some hows in your house. How am I going to make it through this whole month without cussing somebody out in Japanese? I might learn Japanese just to cuss somebody out in Japanese acting like this. How am I going to pay for all of this crap? Go back to my earlier point. Credit. How am I ever going to catch up if I keep on consuming like this? How… Now, Mary isn't asking that. She's not spending money at the mall. She's trying to give birth to the Son of God, but I thought we could have some common ground with Mary. How? Let me ask you a question. How many of you are living in a how right now? Anybody online honest? I think the purpose of the Christmas story is not just in being held, but it is in being humbled. Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Philippians 2, 5-10. He emptied himself. He humbled himself, taking on the form of flesh of a servant. Jesus humbled himself, and so did Mary, and so must you and I. How will this be? How am I going to do it without drinking again? How am I going to do it without having a nervous breakdown? How am I going to do it when I wasn't raised and taught? How am I going to do it when nobody in my family ever did? How am I going to do it at this age and stage of life? How am I going to do it when I can't even feel God when I'm in church? How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? Valid question. Powerful answer. Verse 35. The angel answered. How many of you would like to have an appointment with an angel so you could get some answers for your how today? Come on. Say, I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me how I'm supposed to put up with this mess. I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me how I'm supposed to fix this mess. I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me whether I should stay or go. I want an appointment with Gabriel so I can ask him what to do about this trauma that happened a long time ago, and it stayed in my life even though the trial is over. I want an appointment with that angel. I thought it was crazy that when the angel answered, verse 35, he didn't really say how. He just said who. Thank you, Jesus. The answer to how is a who. Put the verse on the screen and let me preach us home now. The angel answered. The Holy Spirit will come. Now we have something better than Gabriel. Now we have something better than an angel, because I don't have an angel standing next to me today. Touch your neighbor and say, You're not an angel, but I do have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is my answer to the question called how. The Holy Spirit speaks up when the lies are raging in my mind, and the angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. I'll read it again. The Holy Spirit will come on you. This promise is for you, baby. This promise is for you, man. This promise is for you. The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, I hear you saying, I don't know how, and I hear God saying, You don't have to. See, you do not have to know how if you can get a glimpse of who. Everybody say it like an owl. Say, That's what I know. That's what I hope in. That's what I stand on. That's what I rejoice in. Help me preach, and I'll get you home in time for lunch. That's what I know. That's what I'm talking about. That's why I'm worshiping. That's why my hands are lifted. Not because I know how. Because I know. The Lord is bringing it back to my mind, everything I studied to preach to you this week. He was telling me how sometimes in your life you get so caught up in how that you miss the power of who, and you get hung up on how, and you're going to end up like Zachariah, old bad knees Zachariah, incense burning, stay in the bathroom, temple too long, Zachariah. Talking about I should have kept my mouth shut because God knows how, and you don't have to. Wouldn't that be wonderful news? Let's put ourselves in Mary's shoes for a moment. Can we just for one moment pretend that this has happened to us? We are not expecting an angelic visitation. We haven't even got our wedding registry set up yet, and God is talking about a baby. The Lord says, you're pregnant, and you're going to give birth to the Son of God. No pressure. Mary is like, I got to? No, I get to. Oh, I get to. I appreciate you giving me these kids to raise. God, I appreciate you giving me this church. I appreciate you giving me this business. I appreciate you giving me this department. I appreciate you giving me this opportunity, but what do I do with the pressure? This is so powerful, man. It's so powerful to me. Going through her mind are a million questions because she's already engaged to Joseph. How do you tell your fiancé? Yeah, I met this guy named Gabriel, but he's an angel. Don't worry. He's an angel named Gabriel. How do you tell your husband that you're pregnant and he knows it wasn't him? How am I going to tell him? Well, look over in Matthew, chapter 1, when you get home, because Mary… I know you can't figure out how you're going to tell Joseph, but you don't have to. A little bit after Gabriel got done telling Mary she was going to have a baby, another angel popped up and told Joseph, hey, believe her. You don't have to convince anybody. You don't have to prove anything to anybody. You don't have to. Stop trying to defend yourself to people who aren't even paying attention. Stop having imaginary arguments with hypothetical opponents. You keep your heart right with God in this season. You don't have to tell them anything about red states, blue states, none of that. That doesn't even have to come up. Let me tell you something about the arguments that are going to happen around your table this holiday season, all right, this hell of a day holiday season around your house. Let me tell you about the arguments that you want to win. You don't have to. You don't have to win an argument. All you have to do is complete your assignment. Man, I was so stressed out one day having a bunch of people over, and my friend said, what do you think they're expecting when they come over to the house? I said, I don't know. They said, you have one job. Nobody drowns in the pool. I said, it's that simple? They said, yeah. You don't have to create some magical moment. But you know what it was? I figured out what it was. I feel pressure to perform because in my job, in my line of work, you expect me to have something to say. It needs to kind of make sense. It needs to be something that you probably couldn't have thought of on your own or else why did you get the ice off the windshield to come hear this stuff? But wouldn't it be prideful of me to think that a good God who has angels like Gabriel would need a messenger like me to be perfect to speak his word to you? Wouldn't it be stupid? Wouldn't it be wrong? Wouldn't it be crushing for you to live under the debilitating weight of how when it's never been about how? It's always been about who. Here's what God has been doing in our lives. Some of us in this season, we have been humbled by how. That's it. We've been humbled by how because we thought it was going to turn out one way, and it's going a completely different way. It doesn't mean God isn't doing what he's going to do. He's just not doing it how you want it, and you are being humbled by how. You need another example? Think about the nation of Israel who was standing before a giant named Goliath with swords and spears. When it came time for God to take out Goliath, he did not use a sword or a spear. He used a slingshot. Why? So that the army would know it is not by sword or spear that God saves. He used a shepherd with a slingshot to bring down a giant because God will use the how to humble you. God will put you up in front of a Red Sea. He will put a stick in your hand. You will be looking at a sea, hearing the clatter of chariot wheels behind you, wondering like Mary wondered, How? How am I going to make it across? God will speak to the insignificant thing in your hand, and he will cause you to stretch the thing in your hand over the thing you can't go through because he wants to humble you in the how. Jesus could have come to the earth any way he wanted. Jesus could have come to the earth like Simba. Jesus could have come to the earth in a supernatural way. But the hands that hung the stars in space were held in a virgin womb, were held by Mary's hands, were held by the nails of the cross. Why? God humbles you by how, so that when he does it, there will be no confusion about who's doing it. If you do it, you have to keep doing it. But if he began a good work in you… Help me preach now, because I feel somebody's help coming. God said, I'm using the how to humble you. That is why he came as a baby, so that you would be humbled by the how. When you are humbled by the how, now you can be helped. I feel like help is going to come to you this Christmas season, help that you didn't count on, help that you forgot about. I don't know how you don't have to. Some of you have been saying, I can't do this alone, and God is saying, you don't have to.