When God’s Favor Doesn’t Look Like Favor
About this sermon
In “When God’s Favor Doesn’t Look Like Favor,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about family discipleship, the condition of the heart, prayer. Drawing especially from Luke 1, Matthew 1, Genesis 6, Genesis 12, the teaching emphasizes that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that the inner life must be healed, guarded, and brought under the truth of God’s word.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on angelic messengers while working through Luke 1. The message argues that angelic activity is examined within the biblical passage and its prophetic sequence. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on marriage and covenant while working through Matthew 1, Genesis 6. The message argues that marriage is treated as a covenant requiring faithfulness, sacrifice, truth, and biblical order. It connects this with the conviction that the creation account is defended as foundational to biblical authority and the meaning of the created order. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on family discipleship while working through Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 37. The message argues that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. It connects this with the conviction that marriage is treated as a covenant requiring faithfulness, sacrifice, truth, and biblical order. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on family discipleship while working through Genesis 39, Numbers 11, Exodus 33. The message argues that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. It connects this with the conviction that the believer must answer fear with trust in God, sober judgment, and faithful action. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through Judges 6, Judges 7, Isaiah 55. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Job 1, Job 42. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that Saul’s decline illustrates the danger of insecurity, partial obedience, and resistance to correction. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on biblical love while working through Hebrews 11, Deuteronomy 8. The message argues that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. It connects this with the conviction that the inner life must be healed, guarded, and brought under the truth of God’s word. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on the condition of the heart while working through Psalm 24, Psalm 51, Psalm 139. The message argues that the inner life must be healed, guarded, and brought under the truth of God’s word. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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[Music] just bless his name honor him for a few minutes lord we bless you this morning we honor you lord we love you lord god your word says that if we love you we would keep your commandments lord and truly god you know the ones that love you and father we just thank you we thank you god for your grace your mercy your revelation everything about you lord we just love you this morning lord there are some people in the world they just hate you they speak against you they don't understand why uh there's evil in the world and why stuff is happening there i want to bring all these accusations against you lord but you're the only thing good in the whole universe and the whole world and they don't even know it lord and lord we just worship you and we pray god that you will anoint us and that you will use us to be a light to people in the world that they may see the truth hear the truth and believe the truth through our lives as we love and obey you father thank you for this in jesus name we pray amen and amen praise god good worship time good worship time well baby are you ready okay well it's all yours and you're gonna have to for him to get a good recording you have to hold this up here oh well praise god this is a kind of a last-minute thing yesterday whenever i was sitting on the sofa reading my bible innocently as you know unsuspecting um i was i took out my notebook and as soon as i did the lord spoke to me and said when dean comes down from upstairs pray and he's gonna he's gonna ask you to preach tomorrow and i was like wait a minute i'm just innocently studying you know i don't have a sermon and so the lord started showing me that there were some things that he wanted me to share and one of the things was starting with if you'll turn to luke if you remember a couple of weeks ago i shared something that the lord had um fresh freshly revealed to me and he wanted me to go back and revisit it but go into more depth so if you go to luke 1 it sounds like i'm going to bring to you this morning a nice sweet christmas story because we're going to read about jesus's birth and and the angel come to mary but it's not actually going to go there so don't get too comfortable with it um all right luke you know the first first part of the chapter talks about zacharias and
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john the baptist you know the angel coming to him and saying that but we're going to start in verse 26 verse 26 of luke 1. now in the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent from god to a city in galilee called nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was joseph of the descendants of david and the virgin's name was mary and coming in he said to her hail favored one the lord is with you but she was greatly troubled in this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be then the angel said to her do not be afraid mary for you have found favor with god and behold you will conceive in your room and bear a son and you shall name him jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the lord god will give him the throne of his father david and he will reign over the house of jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end and mary said to the angel how can this be since i am a virgin and the angel answered and said to her the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will ever shadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the son of god and behold even your relative elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month for nothing would be impossible with god and mary said behold the bond slave of the lord be it done to me according to your word and the angel departed from her we're going to go ahead and continue a little ways verse 39 now at this time mary arose and went with haste to the hill country to a city of judah and entered the house of zacharias and greeted elizabeth and it came about when elizabeth heard mary's greeting the baby leaped in her womb and elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit and she cried out with a loud voice and and keep in mind this is not elizabeth just saying these things she was filled with the holy spirit and just like later on in the chapter it talks about zacharias being filled with the holy spirit and prophesy and that's what's going on here it's not elizabeth just saying wonderful things it's the holy spirit speaking through her and she cried out with a loud voice and said blessed among women are you and blessed is blessed is the fruit of your womb and how it has it happened to me that the mother of my lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby leaped in my womb for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the lord and a couple of weeks ago the lord just you know showed me the the word fulfillment right there um you know it's
- 0:06:03
it's that mary believed that it was already done the word fulfillment is in the greek and i won't probably pronounce it correctly but talios teleosis e l t-e-l-e-i-o-s-i-s i o s i s and it's the fulfillment of a promise it refers to the completeness as an attainment already reached versus um another greek word teliotus which t-e-l-e-i-o-t-e-s which refers to the attainment to be reached so it wasn't that mary was saying you know this will happen when the lord spoke it to her she received it as as the truth that it was it was done it was complete it was it was fulfilled and she was also very willing to she immediately um you know said be it let's see in verse 38 behold the bond slave of the lord and be it done to me according to your word so she didn't question it she didn't she just accepted it as the truth um that's all good but that's not exactly what i'm going to focus on this morning we need to we need to look at mary and how she accepted the word of the lord um and and how she took it as truth but then also look at what happened to her afterwards okay what were some of the things that that were spoken over mary i know we all have things that are spoken over us a lot of times we've had prophecies or the lord has shown us things in his word or given us you know things directly from him or other people have spoken it over us and so some of the things that that that the lord spoke of her was that she was a favored one she was richly blessed the lord is with you you found favor with god um the that to us sounds all wonderful i mean the promise the things that were spoken over her child i mean what a glorious thing she received from the lord i mean she must have been just walking on the clouds from from having this experience and these words spoken over but then take a step back and look what happened to her immediately after that okay if you go on turn to matthew 1 and you'll have to excuse me three weeks coming up on due date of little faith marie sometimes i get out of breath so as i talk so if i'm huffing and puffing it's because i have a baby in my belly and i have three weeks to go so [Laughter] um oh my husband brings me a chair thank you um matthew 1 we go into more of this story and it talks about joseph's side of this
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matthew 1 18. now the birth of jesus christ was as follows when his mother mary had been betrothed to joseph before they came together she was found to be with child by the holy spirit and joseph her husband being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her desire to put her away secretly and what we need to understand here is when in jewish culture and their laws being betrothed to someone was as good as being married um it was a binding contract so it's not like today when you just get a ring and give it back and get a ring and give it back and it's not a big deal betrothal was a big deal and it usually happened about usually about a year before you got married and the woman was considered to be his his wife he was considered to be her husband it just wasn't that they went on to the physical it was a time where he would prepare a home and and they were committed to each other through a bonding contract so betrothal she she was basically married to joseph and came up pregnant and it wasn't by him so this was a serious situation um unlike today when you know people do these things all all the time and don't think anything of it it wasn't done like that back then and of course that's the way it's supposed to be is the committed relationship and then marriage but so and when it refers to in verse 19 desire to put her away secretly that was a divorce that's how you had to get out of a betrothal was you actually had to divorce the woman if she had been unfaithful or if he was found to not be able to pro you know provide a home and the things that he was supposed to be preparing you had to actually go through this process so god speaks this wonderful word to mary and then all of a sudden what happens next she's in danger of losing her husband she's in danger of being um embarrassed and put to shame of actually being stoned you know for adultery because she had supposedly had these you know relationships and turned up pregnant so it was it wasn't a favorable thing the lord spoke you know you are a favored one well sometimes god's favor doesn't look like our favor and most of the time favor with god does not equal favor with man i mean i mean it just doesn't that's if it does you're you're really in an odd circumstance so she she faced embarrassment false accusations i mean how many of us when we speak out for the lord end up having that happen um her husband almost divorced her but praise god you know god had chosen them for a reason he was a godly man and he listened to the angel and he followed the lord then i mean even after that after all of that got cleared up she didn't have a an
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