Welcome to a new episode of the Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast.
In this episode, titled "Unexpected Favor - Embracing Divine Assignments," Charlie explores the intriguing story of Mary in Luke 1:26-38, providing insights into how we can embrace unexpected favor and assignments from God.
Episode Overview:
1. Introduction to the Concept of Unexpected Favor: - Charlie introduces the topic by delving into the story of Mary, emphasizing the surprising and often challenging nature of God's favor.
2. Breaking Down the Story of Mary: - The episode unpacks Luke 1:26-38, highlighting Mary's encounter with the angel Gabriel and her unexpected divine assignment. - Charlie emphasizes the normalcy of Mary's life juxtaposed with the extraordinary favor she received.
3. Understanding True Biblical Favor: - Exploring the meaning of favor as 'demonstrated delight,' Charlie challenges common misconceptions about favor as merely personal success or blessing.
4. Favor Accompanied by Labor: - Charlie illustrates that true favor from God often comes with responsibilities, sacrifices, and labor, using examples from the Bible, including Noah, Abraham, and others.
5. The Favor Framework: Revelation, Orientation, Declaration: - Revelation: Encountering unexpected messages or situations from God. - Orientation: Adjusting our will and agenda to align with God's revelation. - Declaration: Announcing our trust in God's word over our circumstances.
6. Practical Application: - Charlie provides a practical framework for listeners to apply the concept of unexpected favor in their own lives, encouraging them to embrace God’s plans even when they diverge from personal expectations.
Key Takeaways: - Embrace God's favor as an invitation to participate in His divine plans, even when it involves challenges and labor. - Trust in God's presence and delight in us, regardless of our circumstances. - Be willing to reorient and declare our commitment to God's will, moving from fear to faith.
Relevant Scripture: - Luke 1:26-38: The story of Mary's encounter with the angel Gabriel and her response to the unexpected news.
Conclusion - Charlie closes with a prayer, seeking God's guidance for listeners to practice embracing unexpected favors and divine assignments with faith and commitment.
Welcome to a new episode of the Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast.
In this episode, titled "Unexpected Favor - Embracing Divine Assignments," Charlie explores the intriguing story of Mary in Luke 1:26-38, providing insights into how we can embrace unexpected favor and assignments from God.
Episode Overview:
1. Introduction to the Concept of Unexpected Favor: - Charlie introduces the topic by delving into the story of Mary, emphasizing the surprising and often challenging nature of God's favor.
2. Breaking Down the Story of Mary: - The episode unpacks Luke 1:26-38, highlighting Mary's encounter with the angel Gabriel and her unexpected divine assignment. - Charlie emphasizes the normalcy of Mary's life juxtaposed with the extraordinary favor she received.
3. Understanding True Biblical Favor: - Exploring the meaning of favor as 'demonstrated delight,' Charlie challenges common misconceptions about favor as merely personal success or blessing.
4. Favor Accompanied by Labor: - Charlie illustrates that true favor from God often comes with responsibilities, sacrifices, and labor, using examples from the Bible, including Noah, Abraham, and others.
5. The Favor Framework: Revelation, Orientation, Declaration: - Revelation: Encountering unexpected messages or situations from God. - Orientation: Adjusting our will and agenda to align with God's revelation. - Declaration: Announcing our trust in God's word over our circumstances.
6. Practical Application: - Charlie provides a practical framework for listeners to apply the concept of unexpected favor in their own lives, encouraging them to embrace God’s plans even when they diverge from personal expectations.
Key Takeaways: - Embrace God's favor as an invitation to participate in His divine plans, even when it involves challenges and labor. - Trust in God's presence and delight in us, regardless of our circumstances. - Be willing to reorient and declare our commitment to God's will, moving from fear to faith.
Relevant Scripture: - Luke 1:26-38: The story of Mary's encounter with the angel Gabriel and her response to the unexpected news.
Conclusion - Charlie closes with a prayer, seeking God's guidance for listeners to practice embracing unexpected favors and divine assignments with faith and commitment.
Welcome to the Charlie Mitchell teaching and audio experience. So let's turn in our Bible to Luke chapter 1. And we gonna be looking at verses 26 to 38. And it's very interesting because we're gonna step into the story of Mary. And when we step into the story of Mary, there's a few points that step out, and we're gonna unpack those a little bit. And my goal is to give you some or a bit of a tool or a framework to help you to navigate situations that you may find yourself in. Now watch this. Here's what it says. Luke chapter one, verse 26, all the way to 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph. house of David. The Virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. She was deeply troubled by this statement wondering what kind of greeting This could be. Then the angel told her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now, listen, you will conceive the son of the most high and the Lord. God will give him the throne of his father, David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Mary asked the angel, how can this be? Since I have not had sexual relations with a man. The angel replied to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth. Even she has conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God. See, I am the Lord's servant, said Mary. May it happen to me as you have said, then the angel left her. Man, this is an interesting story. And many of y'all just reverted back to, you know, storybook Bible phase. And y'all were just like, yeah, this is just normal occurrence. Mary talks to an angel. Things happen. You know, you have a conversation and then boom, you're going with your life. No, I need you to kind of reverse a little bit and just take in for a moment. If you've been a Christian for a while, you're going to church your whole life. Fine. Put that aside for a second and just get into this moment with me. The craziness of what just happened. Cause so many of us get Bible brain. Oh yeah. Yeah. You talk to angels, you talk to donkeys, you know, there's fire and there's all kinds of, all right, that's what you do. And then I got three principles. I'm gonna go on with my life. No, I need you to say so. Okay. Now, first off, first off, I'm gonna just run this back through the Charlie style. Okay. First off, we went to this town that nobody really knows about. Okay. Then there's this girl who's a version who's about to get engaged. This is all normal, regular, regular stuff. We've, some of y'all been engaged. Did it work out? Didn't work out. Whatever. Then an angel comes to her greeting favored woman. All right. how did she get this favor? What did she do? We don't know nothing about her. She ain't got no background. She ain't got no nothing. She comes from a small town. What? How do I get that kind of greeting? And what happens is this. He tells us why she has this favor. The Lord is with you. This should be a good thing for some of us. Because she ain't earned nothing. She ain't done nothing. She's not that special. Don't sound like the me. She sounds like many of us comes from a town, grew up, got some things going on in her life. But just because the presence of God is in her life, she has access to the favor of God. So if you feel unseen, do not do not misinterpret that feeling for the favor of God. Cause you actually have favor on your life because you have access. To the God of the universe now, she might've been taken aback. Just like many of us would have been taken aback. I'm deeply troubled by this because this thing just showed up. And if you know what an angel looks like, I know y'all thinking little baby with the wings on the back and then it comes in. It's got a little loin cloth on and then all this. No, no, no, no, no, no. They just did a study. where, they created a picture of what an angel actually looks like. If you pay attention to when angels show up in the Bible, every time they say the same thing when they meet people, Yo, be not afraid. Now most of us, most of us are like, Hey, I got a guardian angel and I, Y'all hear this on the street? Yeah, I got a guardian angel and I got, you know, angels protecting me. I actually don't ever want to see an angel if every time they come into the room, you get scared. So here's this girl. She might be anywhere from 12 to 16 years old sitting in a room, not scrolling Instagram, not on Facebook, not on Tik TOK. She's just chilling. I don't even know what you do without no phone at this point. Then this thing that probably had a bunch of eyes, wings, lights, all kinds of weirdness shows up in her house, talking to her. Then it tells her this fantastic, crazy thing. You are going to have a baby. Even though you've never been with a man, I know you're engaged, but it ain't going to be his baby. And so, yeah, which I respect Mary because she asked a simple question. Hey, it takes two to tango. I don't know much. Back in the day, we didn't have science class. We just kind of tell you what happens. How is that going to work? The angel tells her very, Hey, you're going to be overshadowed and the Holy spirit and all this stuff. Okay. All right. I'll take your word for it. And then. What I love is Mary's response. She goes, you know what? You're right. I am the Lord's servant. What he says goes and I'm with it. Let's go. That's a different posture than many of us would have in light of these circumstances. So I want to unpack that a little bit. So the title of our sermon is unexpected favor. But my main point is this. Unexpected favor is accompanied by labor. Unexpected favor is typically accompanied by labor. Now for Mary, it's going to be actual labor pains. For many of us, it's going to be labor in the sign of service and care and sacrifice on behalf of others. So let's, let's unpack this a little bit. Favor is accompanied by labor. You don't have to do anything to earn God's favor because God already. Smiles on you but what is favor? What the heck is favor? Cause I hear pastors talking about it. I see people hashtag and they got God's favor. And what I've realized is many of us have taken American culture and biblicized it and then put favor on top of it. Here's what I mean. Here's what one author says, every day I come across Christians who are quite certain that they have hashtag God's favor or hashtag blessed. Y'all seen that? Yeah. There's that hashtag blessed. And they boldly declared the fact that anyone with an ear shot in their timeline. So they want everybody to know, I got for God's favor, I'm the head and not the tail. I'm blessed and what? Highly favored, but typically it's connected to something. Not surprisingly, though, this declaration nearly always immediately follows reports of their success, advancement, or some perceived external blessing. Not unlike a rapper giving praise for a Grammy. Hey, want to give all honor to God. You know who's the head of my life. But on the record, it says murder, murder, murder, kill, kill, kill. But I just want to give God praise for giving me this blessing. So typically we see it as, when good things are going on in my life, that means God is blessing me. These folks look at the nice run that they're currently experiencing with health, career, relationships, or some other tangible measuring stick, and then simply assume that this means that they are God's favorite kids. Now, that's the Americanized version of favor, but that's not biblical favor. In other words, they're saying, and many of us have come to believe, favor is connected to our personal preferences being met. Now I'm favored because my circumstances are working out the way I want them to. My prayers are being answered in the time and the fashion that I want them to. But as much as I would love for that to be the case, that just ain't the case with what true biblical favor is. The best definition for the word favor is this. And if you're taking notes, capture this. The best definition for what the word favor means is demonstrated delight, demonstrated delight. Now watch this. The favor of God can be described as tangible evidence that, that a person has the approval of the Lord. Now, when, when we favor someone, we want to be with him or her. We delight in them. We connect with her in a way that we don't connect with everyone out there. So what does that mean? We have access to the favor of God. What does the scripture say? Come boldly, therefore, into the throne room of God, where you can receive grace. You have the actual presence of God, but because it don't seem like your circumstance is working out right now, you don't think that's favor. So we'll cheapen the most valuable thing. Do you remember in Genesis what God wanted with Adam and Eve? He just wanted to walk through the garden with them. And we said, no, I don't want that. We want something else. And so what we have is access to the favor of God because God delights in bringing us his presence and being in time and space with us. So Mary had the favor of God, not because she was super special, not because she had it all together, not because she had earned something unique or done something great. It was because the Lord was with her. So I've got good news for somebody in here. I don't know what your life circumstances is looking like right now. I don't know what your feelings in your mind might be telling you that God has forsaken me. He don't want nothing to do with me. My stuff ain't working out the way it's supposed to. But I need you to know that if you are in Christ, you already have the favor of God on your life. As a matter of fact, the Bible says he smiles and he delights in us. Just the very fact that you woke up this morning with breath in your lungs and you could come in here and praise God. You might not even be walking with God right now. But the fact that you get to hear this message again shows me that you have the favor of God on you. So don't take that for granted. Because your circumstances might not look like what you want them to look like. Why? Because God actually delights in you. Not you, the one that earned it. Not you, the one that's working on it. Not you, that's figured it all out. You just being you, He delights. You see a mother or a father with a new baby or something, they just look at the baby. Now the baby, all it does is poop, cry. Scream, yell, it don't do nothing. It ain't earn nothing, it ain't got no job, it's just taking resources, I ain't slept. Nothing, but just you being you, you flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. You know what I'm saying? You raising that little baby up like this, like he's Mufasa and the Lion King or something. And what I would love for you to do is reframe your vision of what God thinks of you. He's not sitting here, oh man, when they gonna get their life together? Goodness gracious. No, he goes, ah, look at him, I created that. I gave them that personality. I gave them that little bit of swag. I know they don't like this or that, but man, that's, that's the only one, they the only one of one. So man, that is the favor of God, but let me not, I'm going to move past this. God's favor is accompanied by. Labor God's favor. Cause we'll get there and go like, Oh yeah, I want the warm fuzzies. Pastor Charlie. Yeah. Just keep telling me about how great I am. God's smiling on me. Yes, I can feel it. Warm fuzzy feelings and all this and that. Let's see who else had the favor of God on their life. Let's go down this list real quick. Watch this. Noah had the favor of God on his life. He was rejected by everybody on earth. Let's look at Abraham, had to leave his family, start a new line, start a whole new people group, but he had the favor of God on his life. Joseph had the favor of God on his life, but almost lost his life on behalf of his brothers in the nation. Moses had the favor of God on his life, raised in Pharaoh's palace. but also had to go through much sacrifice. Gideon, Samuel, David, Esther, Daniel, Jesus. All of these people were people who had the favor of God on their life, but on the back end, the favor always equated to labor. All these people had incredible odds against them, and they had to make great sacrifices because they were the favored of God. And it is the same for us. It's the same for you. A lot of times we want to go, okay, if I got the favor of God, then I'm good. Then, then my life should, yo, I mean, how do we make this thing work? I got some plans. I got some dreams. I got some goals. I got some answers. All right. So if I got the favor of God, how do I work this out? And I need you to understand it doesn't necessarily work like that. The favor of God was been given to you. The smile of God on your life has been given to you for the good of somebody else. And so what happens is when our agenda doesn't align with what we see as the will of God, we do not stand in the favor. We move out of the way of that favor. We go, man, it's unexpected. I didn't expect to have the favor of God on my life. I didn't expect to hear this word. I didn't expect to go through this, but man, I want to encourage you to stand in that favor. If God actually delights in us and uncertainty confronts us, I need you to then stand in the favor and the position you've been given. Like Mary did. Don't run from it. You're going to go through things in your life because you've been given the favor of God. And I want to help you to do it. So here's what we're going to do with the rest of our time together. Watch this. Mary gives us a bit of a framework or a blueprint as to how to handle the favor of God on our life. How to navigate it and apply it to different circumstances and situations. If you're with that, I'm going to try to help you real quick in three simple and easy steps. Money back guarantee okay, but I call this the favor paradigm because many of us will go through a situation and we'll go, no, this isn't like what I thought. So therefore I don't have the favor of God. No, I want you to go, Oh, because I have the favor of God, I now stand in that position. No matter what confronts me. So there's three parts to this framework, the favor framework. Here's what it is. There's a revelation, there's an orientation, and then there's a declaration. The first one is there's a revelation. Mary is sitting in her room, minding her business, going about life, and an angel shows up in her room talking all kinds of crazy stuff. This is a revelation from God. I don't know what it is, I don't know where this is coming from, I don't know what to do with this, so what do you do with these revelations? Typically, there's three responses, but I want to add a response. The first response, when we get some type of revelation, some new word, some new situation or something that confronts us, we will fight. How many, how many fighters we got in here when we get this word? Ah, I don't know, God, I don't know about all that. Whoa, whoa. Now, because see what I was planning on doing was, and so my, my whole 2023 is mapped out like this, like this, like this first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter. Then I'm going to do this. And then in three years, then we're going to do it like this. And then they'll hear you come with all these new revelations. I'm not with the new revelation. There's fight. There's flight. I'm out of here. Nah, God, I'm gonna ghost you for this one. I'm not gonna pray for a little bit. I'm not gonna go to church. Listen, listen, listen, listen. I'm gonna, I'm gonna just ghost you. Anybody, you've been in a small group of people, they just go, disappear. It was like last week, I thought we had a breakthrough. I thought we were growing. Nah, I heard a word I didn't want to hear. I'm out of here. Right? There's flight, there's freeze, analysis, paralysis. Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? How is this going to work? Wadadadadada, I don't know. I need to talk to this one. I need to get counsel on that one. Well, Beth Moore said this. And then on the radio it said this. And then I'm wondering about this. And then you never move. Fight, flight, freeze, or faith. That's a response to this declaration. Okay. And what I love is, is she didn't go, man, what? Hold up. I don't understand. She had to reorient herself around what was being said to her. If you compare Zachariah's response last week in chapter one to her response, it's two different worlds. Well, wait a second. Listen, do you see how old I am? Angel? Do you see, my wife, she older than me. We don't even what, like you telling me all kinds of stuff. I'm here at work. You disrupted my whole flow. I got stuff going on, man. I ain't got time for all of this. I'm just here to do my thing. Then what happened? Gabriel slapped him in the mouth, You know what? Shut up. You're not even going to talk for the next nine months because we're going to do what we want to do. Go back and read the Bible. That's the"Charlieized" version. They don't sell that one, but you can come see me. I'll hook you up with it. She goes, listen, there's a simple question I do have because it doesn't make sense to me. There will be revelations that come to you that do not make sense in the moment. But there is a way to orient yourself around it. In other words, I have to take my will and my agenda and adjust it to the word that's being spoken to me. Some of you will get a bad report from the doctor. That's a revelation. Then what will you do? I'm going to deny him. No, it ain't me. I don't got, I don't know. Nope. I don't want to do with it. No, there's a way in which you can orient your soul, your heart, your mind to say, you know what, Lord, I don't know what is going on here, but I'm going to stand right here because you haven't left me. You're not denying me and you haven't forgotten me. So I need to stand here. And that leads us to the third one declaration. And what does Mary do? Mary says, you know what? I asked my question, got that out of the way. So now, here's what I need to tell you. I am the Lord's servant, and this is going to work itself out, because God has always been faithful to me. So many of us get stuck in the orientation phase. We never reorient our will to the will of God. But then we'll come up and sing songs like build my life. And I want to know your love and all this kind of stuff. But then when he confronts you, when he pushes on you, when he makes you uncomfortable, you go, no, no, no, no. I don't want nothing to do with that. But the goodness of God is the one that will invite you into the growth process together. So here's what it is. The favor framework says, I get a revelation. I orient my life and my soul around, this ain't the road I wanted to take. But it's the road we are on right now. And because I am the Lord's servant, I will believe the promises of God, not the report. And so many of us get anxious, overwhelmed, depressed. We are blown and tossed like the sea and we're going, man, why can't I ever? Because you will not submit your will to the will of God. So orientation, God will always confront our expectations in order to deepen your faith. God will always confront your expectations. What's the posture we are supposed to come with? Lord, this is my life that you've given me. I want to be a good steward of it. But wherever you go, that's where I'm going. The scriptures will tell us there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death. Many of us are led by our gut, by our instincts, by our family of origin. We're more motivated by American culture, by Western culture, by whatever we want. And we go, man, God, but I'm with you. Which will it be? Choose today who you gonna serve. Today's culture, the world, or will you go you know what, lord, wherever you go. In the wilderness, in the desert, in the dry place, in the abundant place, in the mountaintop and in the valley. But if you with me, psst, I'm good to go. And then that leads us to our declaration. Announcing trust in the word and not our gut or our instinct. I love the way Mary responded. 12, year old girl. She just leans in and she says what? I am the Lord's servant. I'll do whatever he calls me to do. Even if that means putting my body on the line. Now what does that look like for Mary? Did it look like she walked up a crystal staircase from here on out? No. She was misunderstood. She was talked about. Looked like her son went crazy for a season. Then she had to stand there and watch her son be murdered. She went through a hard life, but she never lost the favor of God on her life. For many of you, you will go through difficult things in the days, months, years to come. Many of you are looking at Hopeville going, man, this is not what I wanted. All this church stuff, I was comfortable. I liked it the way it was. Why we got to mix things up? And God says, nope, I know your expectations, but I want to grow you in your faith. I don't know if Jesus was paying attention, but he's going to echo his own mother many moons later. What did Jesus say when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is similar to what Mary has just said, not my will, but yours be done. This season. Let's take the reigns off of our control. You've got unexpected favor all over your life. You being in this room tells me you've got unexpected favor. And that means, there's great labor for you. I ain't worried about the labor. We gonna put you to work later on. Don't worry about that. But many of you will miss out on the promises and the blessings of God because you will not relinquish control from the Father. Because I have the favor of God on my life, labor. Is the outpouring of his favor. Oh, God, if that's what you called me to do, that's where I'm going. God, if that's what you asked me to do, that's where I'm going. If that's who you called me to sit next to, that's who I'm sitting next to. And listen, I know you're probably going, well, Pastor Charlie. Some stuff. I do have a list of non negotiables. Okay. I know some of y'all, y'all are control freaks, non negotiables, whether you said them or not, you have non negotiables. Do not, Jesus, do not cross this line. Do not cross this line. Don't touch my kids. Don't touch me. Don't touch my job. Don't touch my money. Oh, for sure. Do not touch my money. I need you to know Jesus out of love. will look at every one of those non negotiables and say, if you want to walk with me. Take up your cross and follow me. And I'm telling you, what is so good about the character of God is at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. See, this is the trick that y'all get, we fall into. I was going to say y'all, but it's me too. Alright, this is the trick we fall into. God, my plan was so great. Our plans are good. What if his plans are better? And the route to get me to that, he's got to take me a different route. He's got to take me a different route. So put your non negotiables to the side and say, Jesus, if you with me, I'll go with you no matter what, because I have your delight on me. Unexpected favor is accompanied by labor. You're going to get a revelation. I don't know when it's going to come. Some of y'all are walking with it right now. That's fine. Orient yourself towards the will of God. Just reorient yourself. It takes a little work. It takes practice. You're not going to get it every time. You're going to buck sometimes. You're going to lurch sometimes. That's fine. But then, at some point, I want you to flip through the promises of God and say, You are my fortress. I will build my life on your love. You will never leave me or forsake me. By your stripes, I am healed. You have promises for every situation and you've never failed one time. And if that's the case, follow him wherever he leads you to go. Lord, I just pray a blessing over all these saints. The saints, the ain'ts, the ones that's on their way. Lord, many of us wrestle. With your will and your ways. And we look at our, we look at Mary and we go, man, I don't know how you were able to just maneuver, take this word at face value and just roll with it. Lord, there was something you did in her heart. And I pray that you do that same thing to us. May we be the same type of saints that would just make that declaration. You see, I am the servant of the Lord. And if that's what he says, that's where I'm going. Lord, enlarge our heart, enlarge our capacity to love. Enlarge our capacity to see others. Enlarge our capacity to just stop seeing what you call us to as drudgery and misery and sacrifice. And see it as an opportunity to be your hands and your feet to somebody who feels unseen bless our efforts. I pray help us to practice these things, not just to just do it one time and check that off the bar. Lord, I pray that you will grow and deepen these muscles that when you reveal something new to us, we quickly orient and we declare your promise. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.