Amen, amen, amen. Okay, you may be seated.

John Chapter 2. I want to read to you out of this scripture, John Chapter 2. This is the first miracle of Jesus. He was in a space where nobody really saw him as a miracle worker yet. And that’s why some of the verbiage that we’re going to share is here between him and his mom and why he resists her encouragement to work a miracle.

## John 2:1-10 – The Wedding at Cana

So here we go, verse one, John 2:

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

Jesus says back to her, ‘Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.’

His mother, as recorded, doesn’t even respond to that. It’s as if to say, ‘Don’t talk to me that way,’ without saying, ‘Don’t talk to me that way.’ She just goes on about moving things along here whether he likes it or not. Good moms do that.

She says to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

And then nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. And Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them up to the brim. And then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. And then he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you are different. This is unique. This is exceptional,’ he’s saying. ‘You have saved the best wine until now.'”

## Three Observations from This Story

I want to just use this story to share some observations that today I think will be beneficial and helpful.

### 1. Mary Turns Crisis Into Opportunity

The first thing is that Mary sees a crisis unfolding at the wedding and instead of focusing on the shortage and going into panic, she turns her mind towards the opportunity. She starts to consider the possibility.

Her comment was not just her observing the current situation. Her comment was based on a growing expectation that she had in that moment that Jesus was going to change the circumstances and that Jesus was going to flip the script and that Jesus was going to turn some things around.

I want to remind you today that **nothing increases favor in our lives like being favor-minded. Nothing increases favor in our lives like thinking favor and expecting favor.**

As we enter the new year, I sense that God has good things in mind for us individually and as his church. He has good things in mind for our nation, good things in mind for the world. And I believe with all my heart that God’s looking for people who will expect his favor and proclaim his favor—people who will not only observe circumstances as they are, but people who will see things as they could be.

You see, people who are trouble-minded see trouble everywhere. People who are problem-minded will see problems in every idea. You ever talk to somebody about, you know, they’re in an issue, they got a problem, and everything you bring up as a suggestion they shut it down, tell you why it won’t work? Problem-minded people, they see problems in every idea, every possibility. They see problems. They expect problems. They talk about problems. They tell you why that would be a problem. They see problems. And so they attract problems. They’re what I would call problem-minded people.

Don’t look to the left or the right right now. Just straight ahead.

But people who are favor-minded, they see favor in their life. Even if their first thought is problem, they shift the gear. Even if Mary thought like for a moment, “Oh boy, we got a problem here,” she shifted the gears in her mind and she moved over to the potential. She moved over to the possibility.

You see, God is at his best when we are at our worst. There’s no better time for a miracle than when you are in a crisis.

When people who are favor-minded shift gears like that and they move over to favor, it’s like heaven says, “Okay, now we can do something. Now we got a chance. Now we got a possibility brewing.”

People who are favor-minded, they see favor in their life even when it’s not evident in the circumstances. They see it. They’re looking for favor. They’re thinking favor. They talk about what could happen in the middle of this crisis. They pray for favor. They proclaim favor.

And I’m saying to you through this series that God is looking for some people in 2025 who will not dwell on what’s wrong, who will not focus on the struggle, the trouble, the problem. I’m telling you that as we start a new year on a calendar—when Jesus said, “I came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” he wasn’t talking about a 12-month year. He was talking about a season, an opportunity, a possibility, something that he was—come on—he was going to proclaim it.

And God’s looking for people who will be like that right now in your school, young people who will be like that in the high school where you go, men and women in the job where you’re at who will not just see the problem that is there, but they will know that God put me here for such a time as this and they will see the possibility.

Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” As a man thinks in his heart.

Think of a search engine. Like a search engine is a software program on your computer that is constantly looking for what we tell it to look for, right? Think about that as an example. Your mind is a search engine that is constantly searching for what you’re telling it to look for, consciously or unconsciously.

By the way, most people—we don’t realize that we’re telling our search engine to look for the things that are bad or problems or issues. We might have just been in a habit right now of noticing all the negative. But what happens is that you have this mechanism in your brain that God gave you to use for the good so that you could become repetitious in good thoughts. Yes, you could notice good things and you could celebrate goodness. It’s there for the right reason. But if it’s not used properly, it does the opposite.

You notice what’s wrong with your wife. You notice all the things wrong with your husband. You get hyperfocused on the things that your children are doing that are not what you want them to do. And then you start reminding them, “There you go again. See, that’s you. You’re doing that again. See that? That’s what’s wrong with you. That’s what—” And people get all caught up because they’re noticing things that are negative in nature.

And my point is that this year in your life, you can change that by thinking more about favor. Like make favor a keyword this year. Key it into the search engine. Everybody shout “favor.” Favor. Everybody say “get ready.” Get ready.

Now when you’re saying that, I want you—like you’re talking to yourself—say, “Get ready, self. Get ready.” Come on, say, “Get ready, self. Get ready, self. Get ready for favor. Get ready for favor.”

You can change what’s happening in your habit of what you’re noticing and what you’re looking at and what you tend to be drawn to if you’ll be intentional. You can change it away from the negative nature of everything that’s wrong and even like, “Why God doesn’t do this and I wish God would do that and I wish God—”

I was having a conversation with a guy that I ran into in a restaurant and he didn’t know me. He didn’t know who I was. And so I felt really free to, you know, to just go at him a little bit. And as I started to do that, he got really, you know, he got a little bit annoyed with me. And I could tell it. And I said, “Listen, how do you know—like you’re getting upset at me—how do you know that I’m not here by accident or that this is not an accident that I’m here? How do you know that? Like what if—just what if—I’m here to talk straight to you so that you could hear from somebody who’s going to tell you that your thoughts are not right. You are taking yourself down a road that you’re going to repeat in your own life the same kind of stuff that you’ve been repeating. And on one hand you tell me that life is sucky, life works this way for you, it’s been working this way for you, and if God is real, why doesn’t God—why isn’t God—and I’m like, you’re writing your own script. Like you’re creating your own story.”

It felt fun that he wouldn’t know that I was Pastor Kevin. He could go tell somebody, “Pastor Kevin’s mean” or something. I just felt like a free reign, you know, like I’m just—I’m going to walk out of this restaurant in a minute, so I’m going to give him the what-for. And he’s not going to forget what I’m saying.

But my point is that there’s a cycle that he’s in and I was just trying to interrupt. And I honestly felt like God put me there in that seat. I was by myself, which is not very often that I’m by myself in a restaurant. And so it was like a one-on-one conversation. And I felt like I was meant to be there in that moment. And my goal was, “I got to invade. I got to invade this habit. And I got to just hope that I can say something that’ll cause him to think about that.” As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. He is creating his life right now by the way he’s thinking.

Am I helping anybody?

### 2. Get Ready for Favor by Getting in Alignment with God

Second thought for you today out of this story, the miracle story, is **get ready for favor by getting in alignment with God.** Mary said to the servants, “Do what he tells you to do. Obey him.” Somebody shout “obey.” Oh, come on, say it again. Say “obey.” Obey.

You know, most people don’t see the part they play in the outcomes of their life. I said most people don’t see the part they play in the outcomes of their life. They think of themselves as being in the stands and just watching their life unfold. And this one does that and this one does that and somebody else—and they don’t see the part they play.

The Bible says in Isaiah 1:19, “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.”

Remember, not everybody got to the promised land. The complainers didn’t get there. The grouchy people didn’t get there. The negative people didn’t get there. You hear me today? Go to the story of the Exodus and you’ll find out that those people stayed and got stuck in the wilderness, not because that’s what God wanted for them, but because of their own complaints, the words of their own mouth.

And this scripture says, “If you are willing and you are obedient”—that’s so good. Somebody shout “obey.” Come on, get ready. Get ready. Get ready. I’m talking about getting ready for favor. And part of getting ready for favor is be obedient. Whatever he tells you to do, do it.

I’m not telling you that if you walk with God that you won’t have any problems. That’s not my point today. But I am telling you that obedience to God produces a harvest of blessings. Obedience to God produces a harvest of favors in your life that you will not experience otherwise.

Yes, you will experience—when you’re obedient, you will experience divine protection. He will give his angels charge over you. If you’re obedient, you will experience financial blessings, financial comebacks, financial restoration, financial provision in your life. Why? Because he is Jehovah Jireh. He is the Lord God our provider.

Anybody needs some restoration this year? See, things that are lost get restored in the Year of Jubilee. They get replaced in the Year of Jubilee. May not be the exact thing, but something replaces it. Good. The void that you have, the brokenness that you went through, the things that you suffered from—when the year of the Lord’s favor is present in your life, God restores things that are lost.

He sees back there in your life that you didn’t have a natural father, but he’s got somebody ready for you. I’ve watched young men come into the house here and their natural father was not present in their life. And I’ve watched it over and over again. Men start to surround them. They’re not their natural father, but it’s not long until they find men and brothers and family that they are connected to who will coach them, who will help them, who will support them, who will lead them. I’m talking about restoration.

If you’re obedient, relationships—God will bring right people into your life. I’m going to talk about that. God will bring right people into your life and he’ll move the wrong people out of your life if you’ll just obey him.

## Five Decisions of Alignment with God

I want to give you five decisions of alignment with God. I’m going to say these quickly so that you don’t wonder what I’m talking about. Five things that just get the whole process started of alignment that I recommend this year for 2025.

**First of all, repentance.** Let God know: “God, I am a sinner in need of a savior and I look to you for grace, forgiveness. I trust in you to bring me into right standing with you.”

**Baptism.** Thank God for everybody being baptized today. There’s no reason to not get baptized. If you’re in the house right now and you weren’t baptized today, you haven’t been—it’s time for baptism in your life. What are you waiting for? What’s hindering you? I’m talking about coming into alignment, being obedient. Some people are like, “Well, you know, God hasn’t really talked to me about that yet.” Yes, he has. Yes, he has. It’s very clear in his word.

And people want—there’s a lot of people who want to have an audible conversation with God. They, you know, what? Let me get this right. You are more likely to have a personal audible conversation with God where God the Holy Spirit speaks directly to you if you are already willing and obedient to what he’s already told you in his word.

**Thirdly, be planted in the church.** “I don’t know if I belong in—” Be planted in the house of the Lord. Psalm 92:13 says, “Those that are planted in the house of the Lord are going to flourish in the courts of God. They will bring forth fruit in their old age.” I could go down a long, long list. If you want to stay till midnight, I can tell you about all the men and the women and the families and generationally who got planted in the house of the Lord and they’re flourishing and their family is flourishing and their children are flourishing. Get planted in the house of the Lord. Get in alignment with God.

**Another one is honor him with your tithe.** Don’t argue with him about the tithe. Honor him with your tithe. Bring him the first of all your increase. If you receive $10, give him one. And then just keep that up all your life. Start tithing right now. If you’re a teenager, you just get an allowance—tithe on your allowance. You have your first job, you’re trying to save money, get a car—tithe first. Honor him with your tithe.

**Obey his commands.** Obey his commands. I’m talking about get ready for favor. Get yourself in a position for God’s favor to be on your life by being obedient and getting in alignment with what God’s word teaches you to do.

And then it goes on from there. Like you get that down and then after that it’s like stay humble, be a learner, listen to wisdom, start some good habits. Don’t ever stop being obedient to God. Keep on being obedient. Keep on doing what God tells you to do.

Somebody shout “get ready.” Come on, say “I’m getting ready.” Ready. Say it again: “I’m getting ready for favor in 2025.”

### 3. God’s Favor Will Cause You to Have Favor with People

Lastly, in this story that I read to you, **God’s favor will cause you to have favor with people.**

Now, we don’t know for sure what relationship Jesus had with the bride and the groom, but listen to this. I think this is an interesting observation of the story that I actually never saw before just this past week.

So I don’t know the relationship. We know that Jesus and the disciples were invited. Obviously his mother was there. They were family friends. We don’t know the relationship that he had with the bride and groom. But we know that he told the servants to make sure that the person in charge of the banquet received a fresh serving of the wine.

Hear me out on this. The only value that this had was that it made the groom look good to the man in charge of the wedding and I’m sure to the other people in the room.

Think about what I’m telling you because I do believe that when God does good things in our life, we should give him the glory. Does anybody else believe that?

What I’m telling you is Jesus was incognito. They did not know who he was. Somebody didn’t scoot over next to him. The bride didn’t go, “Hey, thanks. You helped me out big time today.” They didn’t know. Yeah, he liked it that way.

So while you and I know that he’s a giver of all good things and we give him glory for it, I want you to understand the heart of God toward you. And I think this symbolizes it really, really well—that he simply saved—Jesus simply saved the embarrassment of running out of wine. He saved the bride and the groom from being embarrassed that there was no more wine.

And on top of that, it wasn’t just that they weren’t embarrassed. It was that people were whispering or applauding that “Wow, this is pretty cool. What have you gone to where this happens? Best stuff is saved for the last? This is amazing. This is exceptional.” People celebrating, lauding, applauding, speaking well of the bride and the groom while Jesus somehow finds and eases his way out the door going, “I like that. I made my mom happy and those people, my friends, are not embarrassed and they’re looking good today in front of the boss.”

See, the master of the banquet—he’s basically the master servant. So the master servant of the banquet, the one that said, “Man, this is unbelievable,” when he talks to the groom, he’s like, “This is pretty cool what you did. You pulled that off today really well.” And the groom’s like, “Yeah, thank you, man. Thank you. Thanks for noticing.” “Cool, cool.”

My point is that God’s favor on your life will cause you to have favor from other people. That’s right. And when you have it, don’t push it away. Just thank God for it.

Don’t do something silly. Like sometimes people, you know, people give compliments. Like I’ll say to some of our worship team, “Man, you guys are amazing today.” “Well, personally what I don’t like is when they go, ‘You know, give Jesus the glory.'” I’m like, “I will, but right now I’m telling you, I’m high-fiving you.”

So my point is we can get into a pseudo-weird kind of Christian dynamic of, you know, fearful of any recognition or anybody speaking well of us. And I’m just saying that’s weird. Like stop it. You’ve taken a truth way too far.

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Say thank you. Just say thank you.

There’s people that I thank for who they are in the church. I thank givers in the church. I thank people who are faithful in the church. And the weirdest thing is if they reject it, push it off. “Not me, not really.” No, it is you. You’re the one that made it every weekend. You’re the one who wrote out the check. Let me just tell you thank you. And when I thank you, just say thank you back. Just receive it because God wants you to have favor.

He wants your good works to be seen of men. Your good works, when they are seen of others, give him glory. Do you understand what I’m saying?

See, Jesus himself increased in wisdom, stature, and in favor with who? God and man.

I’ve watched this all my ministry. I do feel like that there’s a lot of you here—God wants to use you more, but you always shrink. You always just make yourself so small and you think there’s some sort of holiness in that. You think there’s some sort of like, you know, “This is what God really wants.” No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t want us to disappear and hide and, you know, be afraid of any sort of positioning that he would want to give us, any sort of opportunity he would want to give us, any, you know, to use our talents in a way that are impacting and helpful on the job or with the people around us.

That’s what I meant a while ago when I said a weird sort of thing that’s got into, you know, in today’s Christian culture. And I hope I’m helping some of you today because God wants to elevate some of you and bless some of you and put you in a place where men will turn with favor toward you. And I’m just saying, allow God to do that. Come on, allow him to do that. Allow him to turn water into wine and you get some credit from people.

## The Right Relationships

Well, I want to say a couple of things real quick here. Young people, you don’t just need friends in your life. You need the right friends. Friends are an important part of your life, but it has to be the right friends. And some of you are in need right now of an upgrade in your relationships. You need to go from the back of the seat of the plane to first class. Like you are in need of an upgrade.

Everyone who is good to you is not good for you.

Some of you men, you’ve had the same buddy since high school and that’s your buddy, your bosom buddy. And you know in your heart he’s not good for you. It’s time for an upgrade. It’s time to obey God. It’s time to say, “No, you don’t help my marriage get better. You don’t help me be a better man. It’s better for me to be alone or separated from you.”

Now, you don’t have to tell him that. You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. You know, just like do it. But do it. Open up a space where God can bring the right people into your life.

And God’s favor will open doors for you with the right people because not everyone who is supposed to be in your life has meant even to be a friend, right? Some people are there for a reason. Let that reason happen and thank God for it. Some people are there for a season. Don’t get upset when the season ends or should end. And some people are there for a lifetime.

You receive what I’m saying to you today?

Your favor will cause people to notice you, to see something different about you. It will cause people sometimes—complete strangers—to want to do something for you. It’s what favor will do.

Be at peace. You don’t have to manufacture. You don’t have to force. You don’t have to push doors open. You don’t have to be opportunistic. You just talk about the favor of God every day. Pray the favor of God over your life every day. Proclaim it. Get the keyword keyed in. And watch what God will do with people—people that will notice and observe and see. And you didn’t even know they were watching. Door openers. People who can do things for you that you can’t do for yourself.

## The Lost Wallet Story

Not long ago I lost my wallet while I was traveling. And when I realized that it happened, I reported it, you know, to the airlines and the lost and founds at the airport and so forth. And I felt so frustrated with myself. I prayed that somebody would find it, return it. Sure enough, about a week later my wallet showed up in the mail. A man from Texas had found it in an airport restroom and he sent it to me.

And when I saw my wallet—yeah, that’s great. That’s pretty cool, huh? But I’m not done. Hang on.

When I saw my wallet, I thought, “God, you’re so good to me. Thank you for looking after me like you do.” I sure do need that because, you know, I don’t know about you, but I hate to lose things, things that are valuable, especially. And I travel the world. I’ve traveled the world for many years. I never lost my wallet. And so I was like, “Boom, boom, boom, boom.” I was clubbing myself and all the self-talk was bad.

But then let me just tell you, only a couple weeks later, while traveling, I lost my wallet again.

Some of y’all who are feeling—you’re feeling bad for me now. You’re like, “Well, wait a minute, two times?” Like, well, that’s how I felt about myself. I’m like, “I couldn’t believe it.” I felt so foolish. I felt ashamed. And here I am losing it twice in one month.

And then I remembered, after losing it the first time, my team had put an Apple tag in my wallet. They try to look after me as best they can. And so they put that Apple tag. I got excited again. I’m like, “Well, I’m going to find out where my wallet’s at.” My wallet was at an airport in Anchorage, Alaska.

I was so encouraged and thought, “Okay, this is going to—here we go. Thank you, God, that this happened with the tag being there and all that.” And I’m encouraged. But then I started to realize that even though I knew it was there, I needed someone who was willing to look for it. Wasn’t in the lost and found. I tried that. It wasn’t turned into the airlines. I could see it at the airport, but the police—even like they didn’t have it. And several days went by. Nobody had seen it.

And then a supervisor for the airlines offered to stay after work and come in early to look for my wallet. And sure enough, she found my wallet and nothing was lost. Everything was there.

The voice in my head, the voice in my head was telling me, “You are so incompetent. You don’t deserve to have your wallet back. You know, just tell God how bad you are, how foolish you are. You don’t expect any blessing any second time around kind of thing.” I felt so much shame. I felt so undeserving of anybody’s help.

But God caused someone that I had never met to want to go the extra mile on my behalf. And I got my wallet back. All the money was in it. All the cards were in it. Nothing was lost.

Somebody shout “get ready.”

I’m just telling you today that, you know, some people like, “Oh, come on, Kevin, God’s operating the cosmos. He don’t have time to mess with your wallet being lost.” Let me just tell you today, like if the very hairs of my head are numbered, which is what the Bible says, if he sees every sparrow that falls, if he hears every prayer that is prayed, don’t try to tell me that God is not aware of what I’m dealing with and the life that I’m living of faith and confidence and obedience toward him, that he won’t allow in a moment like that an angel to go down at an Anchorage airport and turn somebody’s heart toward me in a way that they don’t know who I am, they don’t have any idea, but a complete stranger would go out of their way.

And I’m telling you, God will do the same thing for every single one of you who walk in—come on—who walk in the faith. Do you receive it today? Come on, do you receive it today?

Somebody shout “favor.”

## Prayer

Stand to your feet if you would at every location today. Just raise your hands if you receive the word.

I just proclaim favor, favor over you today. I want to make this declaration that I believe as I pray it, it’ll take root in you.

I pray favor over you, over your family, over your marriage, favor over your finances, favor at work, favor at school, favor with your boss, favor with your colleagues, your coworkers, your clients.

I declare today that favor is opening up doors of blessing and doors of opportunity, doors of promotion. I declare that you have favor with people, that you are increasing in favor with God and with man. The right favor, the right people, the right moments are being brought into your life.

Favor over your health, favor of energy and wholeness, freedom from sickness and illness and chronic illness in the name of Jesus that would otherwise try to stop you.

I pray favor that your naturopath, your doctor, the people who you’re seeing right now, they’re going to have words of wisdom and guidance to direct you. Your chiropractor is going to know exactly how to help you. Your financial advisor, they’re going to know exactly what to tell you and to say to you.

I pray the wisdom of God over your life in 2025. And I declare, get ready, man of God. Get ready, woman of God. Get ready, young person. Get ready, mom. Get ready, dad. Get ready for God’s favor in a new, fresh, uncommon way, in Jesus’ name.

If you believe it, celebrate it with me today. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Come on, do you believe that today? Favor on top of favor. Favor on top of favor.

Every head bowed, every eye closed. If you’re here today and you need a new beginning in your life, relationship with God, why don’t you just receive this moment as a gift, an opportunity that God’s giving to you so that you can pray a simple, heartfelt prayer, receive grace, receive the forgiveness that you need in your life, get the burden of sin lifted off of you, and come into right standing with God?

If that’s you today, I’m going to ask you to raise your hand at every location—Yakima, DuPont, Bellevue, online, right here in Tacoma—just raise your hand up in the air if that’s you and you say, “I want a new beginning, Pastor Kevin. My life, my relationship with God, I want to be in right standing with God.” Come on, just raise your hand. Good, good, good, good. God bless you. God bless you. Raise your hand high.

I’m just going to ask you to pray a prayer of new beginnings today. So with your hand held high, we’ll all support you. Just say this out loud. Say:

“Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Welcome to my world. Forgive me of all my sin. Forgive me. Come into my life and make me a new person. I receive your grace today. I receive you. You cover me. You cover me. You forgive me. You forgive me. And right now, right now, I am a new creation. I am a new creation starting today. Starting today, by your word, I receive the promise. I receive the promise of being a son, being a son, being a daughter, being a person who is in right standing with you. And I boldly declare, I’ll never be the same again. I’m a child of God. Come on, I’m a child of God, a child of God.”

Let’s say a little bit more: “God’s favor is on my life. God’s favor is on my life. As I go out, as I come in, I am increasing in favor with God and man, in Jesus’ name.”

Let’s celebrate new beginnings in the house. Can we?