Tim Timberlake - The Power of Beholding (01/03/2026)
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Summary:
In this opening message of «The Night Before» series from Luke 1:26–38, the preacher urges believers to live with daily faith and anticipation like the night before Christmas, trusting God’s plan even when life is disrupted. Drawing from Mary’s encounter with Gabriel, he highlights how she moved from fear to faith by «beholding» God’s word, declaring «Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.» The core encouragement is that divine disruptions have purpose, problems carry greater meaning, and God can trust us with trouble if we behold His promises, confess faith, and surrender fully—leading to powerful testimonies.
The Night Before Series
When a series kicks off today entitled «The Night Before,» and as God gave me this series, it’s not just a Christmas series. So I don’t want us to look at it through that lens; it’s a series to stir our faith and our anticipation for what we are believing God to do.
How many of you know the night before Christmas? Particularly if you have kids, there’s a level of anticipation and expectation that’s in the house that’s a little bit different than every other day of the year. There’s a level of expectation that what they had hoped for will actually be delivered. There’s a sense that tomorrow will be a great day because of what I’ve been believing for.
My prayer for us is that we would spend each and every day with the anticipation, faith, and expectation that tomorrow will be better than today, and the day after that will be better than the day before. If you’re not living your life through the lens of faith, then you’re not living; you’re existing. And God has called so much more for you to do than just to exist. He’s called you to live, and He’s called you to live life more abundantly. How many of you believe that?
Scripture: Luke 1:26–38
So I want us to go to Luke chapter 1, verse 26. We’ll see how much of this we get through before all heaven breaks loose in this place. Luke chapter 1, verse 26 says: «In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one! The Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'»
Someone say, «I have found favor.» And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Someone just shout his name! He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, «How will this be, since I am still a virgin?» And the angel answered her, «The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. Behold, your relative in her old age also conceived a son in this sixth month when she was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.» And Mary said, «Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be unto me according to your word.» The angel departed from her.
The Power of Beholding
I want to share with you for a moment the power of beholding. Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for opening our eyes to see what you see and opening our ears to hear what you hear. And so, God, we ask that you would fill us with your word so that when we open our mouths, people only hear you, because when they hear you, they see the power that you carry. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Somebody shout, «There’s power in beholding!» Come on, if you’re watching me at home right now, just say that to yourself: «There’s power in beholding.»
Planning Saturdays
How many of you have ever made plans for your week, plans for your day, plans for your schedule? For the most part, there are things outside of what I desire and would want to do throughout the week that I can’t plan. Until the one day that I can plan is my Saturdays. I try to plan those. I try to spend Friday night thinking about my Saturdays.
Have you ever been so tired that you plan a nap before you go to sleep the night before? You think to yourself, «My nap tomorrow is going to be amazing! It’s going to be ridiculous!» You ever been so tired you woke up and thought you were in another day? Just tired? You wake up thinking you’re late for work—it’s Saturday! You get up, getting your kids ready for school—it’s Sunday! Trying to plan! Like, my Friday nights, man, are dedicated to planning out my Saturdays. But my Saturdays never go according to my plan.
If I had it my way, I would wake up late on Saturdays; I would spend time with the Lord. The Lord would spend time whispering right in my ear, «Hey son, how are you? I love you. Good to see you. You’re doing well. Good to see you. Hey, today’s going to be an awesome day.» I turn and look at the Holy Spirit and say, «It is, isn’t it?»
I go downstairs, make some coffee, sit at the table, open my Bible, read some scripture, write some notes, go wake up my family, bring them downstairs. We sit around the table, and we sing, «O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.» And Max was just sitting there like a good boy, «Yes, Father. La-da-sadorium.» And Jen is sitting there mesmerized, a sparkle in her eye. We go to the fridge, we pour breakfast out, we sit at the table, and we have a joyful Saturday together.
But it never goes as planned. 6:30 Saturday morning, I hear my son screaming in the other room, «Dad, Dad, I’m ready!» I go in his room; he’s at the edge of his bed kicking his legs. Every morning starts off the same. «Hey, Dad.» «Yes, Max?» «Can we talk a little?» I said, «Yeah, what do you want to talk about?» «Let’s talk about dinosaurs.» Oh my God, my brain isn’t even functioning at 6:30 in the morning! He is rifling off scientific names of dinosaurs: the Triceratops, the Stegosaurus—all these names I’ve never heard of before. And I’m sitting here like, «Dude, you’re three! Where are you learning this stuff from? I don’t know this; Mom doesn’t know this. Where are you learning this stuff from?»
Then he goes, «Let’s go bother Mom.» I say, «Let’s not. Let’s let her rest. Let’s go downstairs.» «Okay, can you make me some oatmeal and put berries in it?» It’s very descriptive! I’m like, «Okay, anything else you need, little guy?» He’s like, «Yes, turn the TV on for me. Put on dinosaur cartoons.» I’m like, «Well, can we watch some of Daddy’s TV?» «No, I want to watch my TV.»
Then we get into this whole dialogue of how much money I spent on this TV, because I recall purchasing this TV. And he’s like, «No, it’s my TV!» And I find myself having a conversation with a three-year-old like I’m having a conversation with an adult. And then it dawns on me: he’s three! I’m planning out all these different things. This is the truth: today’s his birthday; he’s four. Last night he was all excited; he was all giddy and geeked up. So his mom is trying to show me, «Okay, which one of these do you want to give for his birthday and which one of these do you want to save for Christmas?» And so I’m like, «Hey, let’s do it a little bit later. He’s still up; he’s going to find us; he’s going to ruin everything.»
No sooner than I can say that, I turn behind me, and he’s peeking through the door, and he’s like, «Ninja Turtles!» I’m like, «Ah!» And Jen is like, «No, it’s not for you.» He’s like, «What?» She’s like, «It’s not for you!» A complete nuclear meltdown! And so I have to take him back into the kitchen and tell him, «Son, the Ninja Turtle that you saw was not for you today. If you’re a good boy, it will be for you tomorrow.» He’s like, «No, I want it now!» And I said, «Well, Jen, you’re going to have to explain this.»
It didn’t go the way we planned!
Divine Disruption
How often do we find ourselves in seasons and in days that don’t go the way we planned? Mary is in a position where she’s having a conversation with Gabriel, the angel, and he’s telling her, «You are going to be pregnant.» And Mary is understanding this is not what I planned; this isn’t the life that I had planned to live. Sometimes God will disrupt your life so that His plan can unfold and manifest. How many of you would be honest and say this year has been disruptive? I can’t believe we’re in December already! We’re in December of 2020; it’s crazy. Most of the year we spent in our homes—disruptive! If I would have told you January 1, 2020, «Get ready! Seven months out of this year you won’t go to work. Your kids are going to have school in your bedroom, and you’re going to be on so many Zoom calls you will lose your mind! And guess what? Worst of all, church will look different; you’ll see your friends and your families through a screen! You’ll hear some crazy men screaming at you every Sunday through your TV shouting, 'This is not the end! ' " Never could imagine that January 1. This year has been disruptive!
But sometimes there’s such a thing as a divine disruption that God implements to reset and restore His perfect plan, not just for your life but for all of our lives. This is what I’m trying to tell you: every disruption is not a distraction! If you’re taking notes, I want you to write that down: every disruption is not a distraction. Your plans may be made, but guess what? God has his own set of plans that He desires to implement in your life! And if you continue with the plans you have, guess what He will do? He’ll divinely disrupt the plans that you have made, and He’ll implement His plans by any means necessary.
Mary finds herself in a season where she’s talking to an angel about a plan that she didn’t have on her calendar, nor did she have in her notes on her phone. This angel is telling her, «You are going to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.» Women, just follow me for a second: can you imagine telling your husband, «The Holy Spirit got me pregnant»? Come on! Because sometimes we read this in the Bible, and we forget these were real people living a real life, experiencing real situations, tests, and trials. And you are in the middle of a relationship, and the conversation is, «I’m pregnant. It’s not yours; it belongs to a person you nor I have ever met before. His name is the Holy Spirit.» If I’m Joseph, I am like, «What in the world is going on? Who is this Holy Spirit, and where can I find him? We need to have a conversation!»
From Fear to Faith
But look at what happens: Mary starts off the conversation in fear and ends the conversation in faith. There’s something that happens in this conversation where she transitions from being fearful to being faithful. And I believe that it boils down to one word, and that one word is «behold.» See, to behold means to see, to marvel, to gaze; it means to stand in awe of the wonder and majesty of something else. And there’s something that happens supernaturally in this scripture for Mary when she stops and begins to behold.
See, some of us are so focused on what we see that we forget what Jesus said, and it takes our eyes off of beholding His majesty and splendor, and we’re limited by our reality, and we allow Him to be limited too. But in order for us to be who God has called us to be, we have to stand in faith and behold. There is no pleasing God without faith. As a matter of fact, He said, «It is impossible to please me without faith.» This is what I’ve come to learn: it doesn’t take a lot of faith; it just takes faith being present for you to see the hand of God move on your behalf. He said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can speak to a mountain, and the mountain can be removed.
That scripture boggled my mind for a long time: how can a mountain be moved by what I say? And then God asked me the question: «How did the mountain get there in the first place?» It got there by what He said! See, everything you see was shaped and formed through His words. Everything that you see; every day you enter into. Every single time you see the sun rise and the sunset and the moon rise every single night, it takes shape because of His words. And if He has the ability and the authority to speak into existence what it is that you see through His words—"Let me make man and woman in my image; let me give them dominion and authority over the earth"—you have the same authority that He had to speak to the mountain and cast it into the sea through your faith.
Confession Activates Faith
Mary finds herself beholding because she realizes who she is. There’s something powerful that happens in you when you realize who you are. There’s something supernatural that happens when you realize, «I’m a king’s kid! I’m a child of God!» I know the circumstance I may be in; I know what it looks like, but I know what He said. And if I can hold on to the word of God, then I can behold. There’s power in your beholding! The scripture says that Mary said, «Behold.» It’s important because sometimes you’re not activated in your belief until you say it. Sometimes it doesn’t move in the direction that God desires for it to move until you say it.
She confessed, «I behold.» And guess what happened? She began to behold because she confessed it! This is what I’ve learned: faith moves at the pace of your confession. Faith always moves at the pace of your confession! That’s why God, knowing what you have need of, always asks you to ask so that your faith can be activated and ignited, and you can go on the journey with God to see your breakthrough, your blessing, and your miracle. Because God is not going to move if your faith doesn’t!
Have you ever noticed in the Bible, the need was not what moved God? The tears weren’t what moved Him; the circumstance, the test, the situation, was it? Would move God, time and time again it says, «Thy faith made thee whole. Thy faith brought upon the blessing. Thy faith did it!» It’s your faith that allows you to walk in a season and out of a season. It’s because of your faith. How is your faith activated? Through your confession!
Mary finds herself in a season where she can’t see how this is going to play out. She doesn’t feel pregnant; she doesn’t see the pregnancy taking place. But what does she do? She begins to say, «I behold.» And because I behold, guess what happens? I will see! Sometimes you have to confess what it is that God has told you that you’re going to see before you see it! Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! It does not take faith to see what you already see; it takes faith to believe that what God said you will see! And you confess it until it manifests!
Purpose in Problems
Mary finds herself in a season where she has to confess what she cannot see until she begins to see it. It’s not the ideal situation; it’s not what the earth would consider a glamorous situation; it’s not the plan that she had. What I’ve come to learn is sometimes what we as humans see as a problem, heaven sees as an opportunity. You know the story: she, in fact, is pregnant; she, in fact, carries Jesus. And it says that they went to a manger, and Jesus was born in a barn. The King of Kings was born in a lowly manger. By no means would the earth consider that a prestigious arrival of the King above all, but heaven looked over with bated breath, understanding that the King was entering into situations and circumstances. And because He was born, things would change! Because He arrived, things would change!
See, sometimes we spend so much focus on things that don’t matter that we miss things that really do. I can’t tell you how many times people ask me, «What day was Jesus born?» He wasn’t born on December 25th! Where can you find it in the Bible? Does it really matter? The fact is He was born. It means a lot to me because I am the descendant of a slave. My grandfather—we celebrated his birthday on June 3rd. That wasn’t his birthday; he couldn’t find his birth certificate; he didn’t have one. We weren’t celebrating the day that he was born; we were celebrating the fact that he was born. And because he was born, my father was born, and because my father was born, I was born.
Don’t get hung up on the things that don’t really matter when there are things that really do matter that we scathe over and look past. The fact of the matter is He was born. Jesus wasn’t concerned about where He was born; He wasn’t putting up a fit because He was born in a barn rather than a palace. His only agenda was, «I’m coming, and I will be born.» Mary’s only agenda was, «I need to get to a place where He can be born.» She wasn’t thinking about, «I’m in a barn and these animals are around me, and it stinks in here.» The only thing she could think about was, «The King of Kings is at work on the inside of me, and I have to get Him out to the world so that history can be made for all mankind!»
Is there anybody grateful in here that the Jesus that you know is the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forevermore? And it doesn’t matter how you see Him; He’s still good! In James it says that He is faithful when you are faithless. He didn’t find Mary because she had faith; He found Mary because she had the ability to behold! He’s not going to change your situation because you’re perfect; it will change your situation because you have the ability to behold! And if you can bring yourself to the place where you behold His majesty and His splendor, even when you don’t see how it will work out, that’s when you see the hand of God move on your behalf.
So point number one again is this: not every disruption is a distraction. Point number two is this: I want you to write this down: there’s a purpose in your problem! The fact that Mary was pregnant was a problem. Historically speaking, at this age, being unmarried and pregnant meant that she would no longer be considered for marriage and would be known as an outcast. It’s a big problem. But the fact of the matter is God had plans for the problem that she would encounter! I want you to understand this: God has plans from the problems you’ve encountered! 2020 has not surprised God; it has not taken Him by surprise. He didn’t come to 2020 and say, «Oh wow, I was not anticipating this; I don’t know what to do!» No, because for every problem, there’s a purpose!
Mary finds herself in a position where she has a problem, but God has a purpose. And I want you to know, listening to me right now, there’s a purpose to your problem! Because the problem you’re in has ramifications as you come out that are bigger than you! Mary switched her tune from «I’m fearful» to «I’m faithful» because I believe that this problem has a purpose.
Can God Trust You with Trouble?
As I was studying for this message, God asked me this question, and this is where we’re landing, and this is what I want to leave you with. Point number three: Can God trust you with trouble? Can He trust you with trouble? Can He trust you with the hard things that many people would run away from? Can He trust that the faith that you have can be implemented in a time of trouble? Mary finds herself in trouble, but she trusts God. She finds herself in a season of trouble, but she trusts God. She says, «God, do unto me as you desire to do unto me. You can trust me with trouble! I know how it looks; I know many people won’t believe it; I know I may have to walk through this with very few people surrounding me, but you can trust me with trouble! I’ll be faithful to carry out the assignment you’ve called me to carry out.»
Can God trust you with trouble? Can He trust you in a marriage that’s confusing, that many people are telling you to walk away from? Can He trust you in trouble? Can He trust you not to give up on those kids that are 25, 26, and you’ve been trying and trying and trying? No matter how long you run after them, it seems like they continue to run away. Can God trust you with trouble, when you’re at the table and you’ve got your bills and you know you’ve got more bills and more days left than money? Can God trust you?
Can He trust you with trouble? Because if God can trust you with trouble, then He can trust you with a testimony. If God can trust you with trouble, then He can trust you with the testimony! So when you come out of the trouble that you’re in, you won’t take credit for it! Joseph couldn’t take credit for what happened to Mary; Mary couldn’t take credit for what happened to Mary. Only God could take credit for what happened to Mary! But He had to be able to trust her with trouble!
Can God trust you with trouble? Can you bring yourself to the place where you say, «God, with the faith that I have, I believe you can perform a miracle with it! I don’t have much, but with what I have, God, I give it to you. You can trust me with trouble!» Can He trust you to believe when you’re in trouble? Can He trust you to behold when you’re in trouble? Can He trust you to have your faith anchored in His word when you are in trouble? Can He trust you to always say what it is that He showed you when what everyone else is saying is the exact opposite?
Can you believe that what God desires to do in and through you is bigger than what you see right now? Can He trust you with trouble? Can He trust you to believe that in the season of pandemic and chaos and quarantine and people going crazy, and your marriage seems like you’re being strained and pulled apart, can He still trust you to say, «God, I still believe you! You can trust me! I don’t know how; I don’t know when; I don’t know where, but you can trust me, God! I still believe that you are able! I still believe you’re able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or think, according to the power—listen to this—not that rests on you, God, but the power that’s in me!»
You mean to tell me, God, that I have in me what it takes to move Your hand? You mean to tell me, God, that you’re waiting on me to activate your hand? You mean to tell me there’s faith that’s in me that you desire to use so that I can see you move on my behalf? The power is at work in you! Can He trust you with trouble? Can you see the more He desires for you to see when you’re looking at reality?
Listen to me, church: there’s so much more we have to do! I don’t see a room that’s empty; I see a room that’s packed again with God’s children, desperate and hungry for more of His presence and power! I see people climbing into homes all over the world, leaning in to what Celebration Church is doing so that they can experience what God is doing in this expression! I see thousands of people flocking to the house of God again, experiencing power, revival, miracles, breakthroughs, and manifestations!
Can God trust us with trouble? Can He trust us with trouble? Can He trust us to see what we can’t see, so we can see it? Can he trust us to stay faithful over the few things so that we can see the many? Can He trust us? He trusted Mary; Mary trusted Him. She says, «God, I can’t see, but I’m willing to behold.» And because I behold, I believe. And if this year has tried to do anything to you, it’s tried to take your belief, tried to poke holes in your faith!
I came to tell you today, if you can just behold, you can believe! Ah! If you can just behold what God is doing in our midst, you can believe! You can just bring yourself to the place of expectation again and anticipation again; you can believe! He can use the faith that you have now for the faith that you need next! He can use what it is that you have! If He just can behold!
Can he trust you with trouble? Come on, stand to your feet! I know that some of you watching me, some of you in this room right now, you say, «Pastor, I’m in trouble! I’m in real trouble! I don’t know how I’m gonna make it!» And I came to tell you: God can trust you with trouble because He can trust you with the testimony. He’s forming, framing, and shaping in you! If that’s you right now, you’re hearing me, you say, «I’m in trouble, Pastor!» I just want you to throw your hands up right now! Come on, lift those hands! He can trust you with the trouble! He can trust you with the pain! He can trust you with the unknown and the unseen! He can trust you with the trouble because He desires to utilize what it is that you’re going through and what it is that you’re up against for His testimony.
Keep those hands lifted for a moment! I just want to read this to you for a moment: «For unto us a child is born. Unto us, a son is given, and the government will rest on His shoulders, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.» The point that I want you to walk away with here in that scripture is the beginning of it: «For unto us, He’s given to us!» He’s given to us! He is yours! And because He is yours, there is no one or nothing that can take Him away from you! «For unto us a son will be given,» and His name shall be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!
So right now, wherever you are, whatever the trouble you may be in, whatever the test you may be up against, whatever it is you may be facing right now, I want you to lift up your hands! And I want you to say, «God, here I am! God, you can have it all! God, here I am!»