At A Dead End Pastor Steven Furtick

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 do everything that you can do 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 money.

I put everything on every credit card. I stole a

credit card. I lied to get another credit card. I

put that balance on this balance, and I can't balance

anything else anymore.

I'm at an end. I don't know.

I think this is it, because I really think I've

run out of room to run.

I'm at a dead end. Religion can leave you at

a dead end.

When you have made so many commitments to change, but

you never do. When you have said so many times,

you know, I'm gonna do better now.

You know, I'm really gonna, I'm gonna really kick that.

You know, that's the last time I'm gonna do that.

That's really the last time. This time is 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 The dead ends are the perfect place for

new beginnings in Jesus Christ. This is the message that

I came to preach this Christmas, not about a doll

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 and say, this is not the end.

New beginnings often start when you find yourself at a

dead end.

I admire Joseph. I admire Joseph.

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 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 with 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 because I

have crazy dreams. This might have been just a crazy dream,

but he did what the angel had commanded him. 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 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 Brey

with some good penmanship.

Who knows?

I give him the benefit of the doubt, though, that

Billy Graham really signed the Bible. And in this Bible,

I was struggling because I couldn't find. Anybody else got

a Bible? I just want to cross-reference this because my

Bible must be messed up. Because in my Bible, let's

see your Bible. Your Bible might be better than mine.

It's a smaller Bible. Just pointing that out. Oh, this

is the good one. This might be the King James

Version or something like that.

Yeah, this one will have it. See, I'm looking. Nope.

Your Bible's missing it too.

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 our Bibles are missing stuff.

It's disappointing. I know they got new translations. Surely it'll

be in this Bible.

What color do you call that, babe?

Huh?

What color is this Bible? Surely it'll be in your

pink Bible. She's got tabs on her Bible. Surely it'll be. Well, see,

this one's problematic too. It's pretty, but it's problematic. Because

now I'm looking for the part where it tells me

how Joseph felt.

I 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 reveal 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.

He couldn't 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.

Christiansingles.com Christianpalestinians.com He didn't swipe for Mary. That's the way

it worked back then. You just 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 Rafika.

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 hugged 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.

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