Is God’s Favor Free or Earned? A Review of ‘Morning Sermon’

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] It will draw God closer to us and therefore his favor will follow us. So what is favor? Favor is kindness, approval, support, especially from someone in a higher position. God's favor is relational, nearness, divine approval. You know we all want people's favor and to be honest we do everything we can to
[00:00:31] achieve it we want people to like us whether we admit it or not we really do we see it in relationships we see it on our jobs and we see it in even our friends that we hang out with and
[00:00:49] yet the only favor that really matters is that of God and we that's the least one that we try to please and he's the least thing that we want to try to achieve his favor but hear me clearly
[00:01:06] salvation is free there's not a cost salvation is free it's already been paid for there's not a cost to it but if you want the favor of god on your life then you must seek him you must be
[00:01:20] obedient you must live for him in psalms 5 and 12 the scripture tells us psalms 5 and 12 For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous with favor, wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
[00:01:44] What is that scripture telling us?
[00:01:47] The righteous, the ones that are obedient, those that live according to his laws, his guidelines, his path that he's laid out for us, those who are covered by the blood of Jesus.
[00:01:58] he will give you favor and it is going to be so much it is going to go around you like a shield to guard you to protect you we've seen the favor of God produce supernatural increase
[00:02:14] and promotion in the life of Joseph as we've talked about Joseph we have seen where the favor of God produced restoration of what the enemy had stolen from the Israelite as in the life of Moses
[00:02:29] Today I want to continue talking about Moses just a little bit.
[00:02:35] And I want to talk to us about how the favor of God will produce honor in the presence of your adversaries or your enemies.
[00:02:46] Adversaries is whether you like it or not, you're going to always have somebody that don't like you.
[00:02:53] I'm so sorry about that.
[00:02:56] One who will have conflict with you.
[00:02:59] Someone will find fault with you.
[00:03:01] They won't like you.
[00:03:03] They won't like your hair.
[00:03:04] They won't like your clothes.
[00:03:06] They won't like what you stand for.
[00:03:08] There's always going to be somebody that don't like you, period.
[00:03:13] It won't matter how nice you are to them.
[00:03:16] It won't matter what you've done for them.
[00:03:19] It's one of those things.
[00:03:21] And either they are a sinner and they hate what you're doing for the Lord, or they're a Christian who's jealous of what you're doing for the Lord.
[00:03:30] No matter what you do, for there's one thing for sure, that you're going to have people that don't like you.
[00:03:38] Stop trying to please people.
[00:03:44] People will let you down.
[00:03:48] People will become your enemy just because of who you are.
[00:03:52] The color of your skin, your religious beliefs, and right now your political party.
[00:03:58] It's the craziest thing I think I've ever seen.
[00:04:02] How people are so bigoted in their own opinions and ideas.
[00:04:08] And they hate you for what you stand for.
[00:04:11] Yet they're mad because you don't agree with them.
[00:04:13] It's crazy.
[00:04:15] But everyone has an opinion.
[00:04:20] And I won't finish what goes without.
[00:04:22] And we say that it doesn't matter to us what people say.
[00:04:28] And we said that.
[00:04:29] And it's fine as long as they just leave me alone.
[00:04:34] But sadly, when a person doesn't like you, it does bother you to an extent.
[00:04:39] Especially when you don't know what you've done to them to make you dislike you.
[00:04:46] But it should not bother us like it does.
[00:04:53] It should not bother us that people are not going to like us.
[00:04:58] because the Lord told us in this world we're going to have troubles and we're going to have problems.
[00:05:05] Why do you think that peer pressure is such an issue today?
[00:05:09] Well, that only affects school-age kids.
[00:05:11] No, it does not.
[00:05:12] It affects adults too.
[00:05:16] But the one we should want to please is God.
[00:05:21] Some people will allow jealousy to creep up in their lives and the next thing you know, they get jealous over you And what are they doing?
[00:05:31] They're working against you.
[00:05:34] They lie on you and they purposely fight your reputation.
[00:05:39] Another thing is that if you are trying to live close to Jesus, people will fight against you because of who you stand for.
[00:05:49] If you say, I believe in Jesus Christ, that's going to make them madder at you.
[00:05:55] Well, pastor, it shouldn't be that way.
[00:05:57] You're right.
[00:05:58] It shouldn't be that way.
[00:06:00] But that is the world in which we are living in.
[00:06:04] That's why I'm telling you, church family, that we need to seek the favor of God and not the favor of man.
[00:06:13] It does not matter what people think about you.
[00:06:16] It matters what God knows about you.
[00:06:21] To be honest, it does hurt to have somebody fight against you, especially when you don't understand what you've done to them.
[00:06:30] if I had asked you today how many of you has had somebody fight against you sometime during your Christian walk I'm sure that 99% of us would say yes at some point I've had people fight against me
[00:06:45] we often face opposition from the world around us because why we live in a fallen world sadly we often face issues from people who are supposed to be our brothers and sisters in Christ but there is one thing for sure
[00:07:01] that God said that he is always with us regardless of the trials regardless of who likes us and who doesn't like us the Lord is right there by your side see he also sees how the enemy uses people
[00:07:17] to hurt us you know I've often heard and we've prayed about it for a long time people that's been church hurt have you heard that explanation church hurt that's when another person that says their Christian hurt somebody else.
[00:07:33] Let me tell you something.
[00:07:35] Jesus Christ did not hurt you.
[00:07:38] People hurt you.
[00:07:39] And they will let you down.
[00:07:41] And I'm afraid when you stand before God, that's not going to be an excuse, but we won't go there today.
[00:07:48] If you want God's favor on your life, you have to live obedient to Him.
[00:07:54] You have to put Him first in your life. Well, Pastor Tammy, I've got this, this, and this. No, God says I need to be first in your life if he is first in your life
[00:08:04] then you will see his favor we have someone that will fight our battles for us we don't have to fight them we can let him fight them when our enemies surround us with lies and deceit
[00:08:19] when they fight against us and do all manner of evil towards us God sees it say it God sees it our faith needs to kick in. We're in the middle of a storm. We're in the middle of a battle. When you don't understand
[00:08:38] why somebody's fighting you so hard, you've got to keep your faith. We need to be strong and have courage that in what? Due season, as we studied last week. If we don't give up, we will overcome.
[00:08:53] Why? Because the favor of God is on our lives and it's going to be seen. Do you realize that God sees and hears everything everything we do in the darkness comes to light always he knows what the
[00:09:09] enemy has said sent someone to tear you down he knows when the enemy has whispered in your ear to give up he heard when the enemy tried to bring things up from your past but listen we must be
[00:09:23] We must stand strong and tall and put our armor on and not let the enemy bring us down spiritually or physically.
[00:09:35] Because sometimes when the enemy tries to fight us and people comes against us, our enemy, sometimes we want to defend ourselves.
[00:09:45] Sometimes we want to fight our own battle.
[00:09:49] But we cannot afford to lose our witness.
[00:09:52] that is so important people watch your life and so the enemy may send somebody to come against you and fight you but you've got to be strong don't give in, don't fight back let God fight your battles
[00:10:06] in Psalms 34 and 19 and we'll read it together please Psalms 34 and 19 many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of Somebody needs to get the hold of that
[00:10:30] It doesn't say he'll deliver you out of part of them It doesn't say he's going to deliver you out of a few of them That gets to his throne He says I'm going to deliver you out of all of them
[00:10:42] Everything you go through He's going to get you out of it He's going to make a way of escape We talked last week How the Egyptians wanted the Israelites gone so badly that they were giving them everything they needed.
[00:10:58] All the gold and silver and all the material, anything they needed, they wanted them out of Israel.
[00:11:05] I mean, out of Egypt, they wanted the Israelites out and gone.
[00:11:10] God was causing the Egyptians to give them favor to the Israelites.
[00:11:15] And you know, they really don't know why they was doing it other than they wanted to give them stuff to get rid of them.
[00:11:22] all these hundreds of years that the Egyptians hated the Israelites.
[00:11:29] And they probably didn't even know why they hated them.
[00:11:32] But today I'm continuing talking about Moses as an example, but yet different from last week.
[00:11:39] God will cause our enemies to find favor in us and set us in a place of honor.
[00:11:46] In Exodus 11-3, Exodus 11-3, the scripture reads like this.
[00:11:56] And the Lord gave the people what?
[00:12:00] Favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
[00:12:04] Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
[00:12:16] If you'll study chapter 3, you'll see that in this chapter that we'll find that 9 of the 10 plagues has already happened.
[00:12:23] They've been complete.
[00:12:24] Pharaoh was fed up with Moses and the Israelites was at a breaking point remember we talked about that how they were at their breaking point they didn't know how much more they could handle and
[00:12:36] he had enough and he was ready for them to be gone but not yet he wouldn't let go in the chapters before we really see that Egypt was dependent on the Israelites they were their slaves of Egypt and
[00:12:54] They were the workers, the backbone of whatever needed to be done in Egypt.
[00:12:58] They did it.
[00:12:59] So honestly, the Egyptians needed the Israelites to do the work.
[00:13:05] Pharaoh, even though he had seen the nine plagues, is not quite ready to give them up.
[00:13:11] But God changes things.
[00:13:14] Say that with me.
[00:13:15] God changes things.
[00:13:18] In his timing, God will take care of his own.
[00:13:22] Say, I'm one of his own.
[00:13:25] There's an old hymn, an old song goes, He may not come when you want Him, but He will always come on time.
[00:13:34] What's so amazing is the very ones that has given us grief and heartache, God can change their minds.
[00:13:42] And they can look at us and say, I don't know what I had against them.
[00:13:47] I don't know why, but there's something I do like about them.
[00:13:50] They can look on us and have favor.
[00:13:53] what that means is they're doing something good for us and we have no reason why because god changed them the lord will give the people favor in the sight of their enemies you know they were at the point their breaking point they didn't know how much more they could handle
[00:14:16] but you know what they did they didn't give up they held on they remained faithful and they knew that God heard their prayers.
[00:14:27] God hears our prayers.
[00:14:29] There comes a time when God does step in. There comes a time when God will cause your enemies to do good things for you and they won't even know why they're doing it.
[00:14:39] Instead of their jealousy towards you, there will be or even hate. They will see how they were wrong and either leave you alone, get away from you, or they'll make things right.
[00:14:52] God can soften a hard heart.
[00:14:54] don't you agree and he can make a hard heart a heart of flesh in verse 3 God started doing his thing it says that God gave them favor through the Egyptians see now you think about this this
[00:15:09] was their slave their slaves they could have made it so much harder on them the Egyptians could say okay this is what your God did to you this is what I'm going to do to you I'm going to make it 10
[00:15:21] times harder on you and you're going to have to do this and this and this they could have been angered at their god and said you know what you've caused this on us we're just going to give up
[00:15:33] but no the egyptians said wow look what their god can do and the egyptians said oh they must be hearing from the true and living god see the egyptians could have gotten revenge against the
[00:15:50] Israelites. But yet God tells Moses, hey, I'm going to give you favor in their sight.
[00:15:56] They're going to like you. They're going to want to do good for you. Listen, if you have an enemy, if you don't now, you will. And when they come along, just think, you know what? God can change
[00:16:08] your attitude towards me. God can make you my friend. I'm not going to even get upset with your stupidity. See, it would be easier for the Egyptians to have the attitude. You know what?
[00:16:20] I'm going to make this so hard on you, but God did something amazing. God steps in and makes the Egyptians look at them differently and not only give them favor, which is kindness and approval
[00:16:34] and support, but it came from Pharaoh himself. He started seeing things differently, but he was still holding on. He was still holding on. I would like to have been a fly on the wall when Pharaoh woke
[00:16:52] up and said, what in the world have I done? And he did. And he came after them, but he still didn't win. But that's another story. But at that moment, they needed Pharaoh's approval. God caused him to
[00:17:09] give it to them and they quickly started preparing for the transition out. This clearly shows us that God is always working on our problems. He's working on every situation that you face and even though sometimes we don't see him working, he's taking care of his own. His favor will cause
[00:17:32] your enemies to provide for you. Here we see that they were not sent away empty-handed but they had more than enough. Listen, our God is the God of more than enough. And when he does it, he does it
[00:17:46] right. Just like Joseph had gone through the years of problems one after another, so did the Israelites after all those years that they spent in slavery and being taken advantage of. The beatings they went through, the extreme workload, and they was never paid for all their hard work. God had not
[00:18:09] forgotten them 400 years of hardship he had not forgotten how they've been treated but here when God had had enough he made sure that the enemy gave back more than enough for them to start a
[00:18:24] new life they didn't understand why why they was giving them so much they didn't understand why do we want them gone so bad they just knew they had to get rid of them not only did they have enough
[00:18:39] to get started with a new life but they had enough to build a tabernacle a church that they could finally worship God of their fathers who was more than enough but here is something else
[00:18:51] not only did they give the Israelites favor and give them all them things the Bible said they've seen that the Bible says that all the enemies of the Israelites and Moses saw them differently and they saw Moses
[00:19:09] as a great man. Their opinion of him somehow changed. He wasn't the pest they thought he was.
[00:19:17] He was a man that God used. He had warned them about the plagues before God sent them. So Moses was no longer the rebel, the adopted child that was unappreciative and left the family that raised
[00:19:32] him. Rather, Moses was a man that spoke from God. This was proven many times when Moses warned them before each of the plagues happened, and God caused the Egyptians to change how they viewed Moses.
[00:19:47] This shows you that God was showing his mercy towards Moses by causing Egyptians to see him in a different way. Listen very carefully. God will take care of you and your enemies.
[00:20:01] I need you to grasp a hold of this.
[00:20:04] God will defend his people and even cause your enemies to give you favor.
[00:20:12] They don't know why, but God will cause it to happen.
[00:20:15] Why? God will turn around what the devil meant for evil against you and make it good.
[00:20:24] Isaiah 54 and 17, I quote it almost every day.
[00:20:28] And you should quote it as well.
[00:20:30] Isaiah 54 17 matter of fact read it with me this morning no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment shall thou condemn this is the heritage of
[00:20:49] the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord say I'm one of his what is so amazing about this God don't change he has no respecter of people he calls Moses and the Israelites to have favor
[00:21:08] in the sight of the Egyptians guess what he'll cause our enemies to give us favor as well you know that co-worker that gives you grief keep showing the love of God in your life and watch God
[00:21:21] change it you know that family member that wants to argue with you all the time keep showing them the love of God and he'll change their heart. You know what? God can even give them a better job,
[00:21:35] move them to a different city. He can move them out of your pathway if that's how he needs to give you favor. Proverbs 16 and 7 says, when a man's ways pleases the Lord, he maketh even his
[00:21:51] enemies to be at peace with him. What's the key word? When a man's ways, when you're obedient, when you live and put him first in your life, when you make him your priority, when you read
[00:22:05] his word, when you pray, when you do what he's asked you to do, when you walk in the favor of God, you will see it. Look what it says when your ways pleases the Lord. Lord, I want my ways to
[00:22:20] please you we should be looking at our lives having made God our priority we should be obedient to his will and his ways and are we talking with him and studying his word if so then his word
[00:22:35] tells us he will make our enemies at peace with us and look at another biblical example tambourine won't ring here let's look at another biblical example Daniel was taken captive by the Babylonians Do you remember that story?
[00:22:50] We had, we'd done that several months ago and he was supposed to eat of the royal food.
[00:22:57] Remember that story?
[00:22:59] And what did Daniel say?
[00:23:01] I can't do that.
[00:23:03] That's against what I believe.
[00:23:05] That's against what God has commanded.
[00:23:08] I can't break the laws of God.
[00:23:10] So he goes to the king's official and he tells him, hey man, I can't eat that.
[00:23:16] Can you please let me eat my own food?
[00:23:18] And we know the story and how it goes.
[00:23:21] And Daniel took a stand for what he believed in.
[00:23:24] He took a stand of what God says.
[00:23:27] Listen, the world wants you to fail.
[00:23:30] The world wants you to give in.
[00:23:32] The world wants you to go along with them.
[00:23:35] But we've got to take a stand in what God says.
[00:23:38] And what happened?
[00:23:40] God gave Daniel favor in the sight of the king's official.
[00:23:45] And he was allowed to eat his own food.
[00:23:47] And by that, he was what?
[00:23:51] How was that?
[00:23:54] He became stronger than the other ones.
[00:23:58] But here's what I like.
[00:24:00] You know, God loves our enemies too.
[00:24:03] Just because they're our enemies don't mean he don't love them and he don't care about them.
[00:24:07] And just because he's going to take care of them and put them in their place don't mean he don't want to show them mercy.
[00:24:13] God will warn our enemies because he is full of mercy.
[00:24:17] That's what we find here in the rest of chapter 3.
[00:24:21] God clearly tells Pharaoh and his people through Moses exactly what's going to happen next.
[00:24:30] With this warning, God gives specific details of what's going to happen.
[00:24:34] He says, I'm going to go out in the midst of Egypt.
[00:24:37] And what's the last plague?
[00:24:39] Anybody know?
[00:24:40] All the firstborn is going to die, including the firstborn of the royalty to the lowest servant.
[00:24:46] On top of that, all the firstborn of the animals was going to die as well.
[00:24:52] Moses goes back to Pharaoh.
[00:24:53] Pharaoh, you know, he's seeing Moses in a different light.
[00:24:57] But he still wants to hold on to him.
[00:25:01] And Moses goes and he says, listen, man, God's saying there's something bad coming.
[00:25:06] You've got to let us go.
[00:25:11] We don't know exactly what day it happened, but we know that God gave Pharaoh plenty of notice.
[00:25:17] God tells him it's going to happen at midnight he don't say what day it's going to happen but he says at midnight this is going to come we can't say for sure what day it happened
[00:25:28] but it was probably a few days just so the 300,000 Israelites could get ready and get moving and know that they was getting ready to leave they had to prepare for their Passover meal but God gives the instructions in the next chapter
[00:25:43] and after this the warning so think about this god in his mercy warned pharaoh just let him go let him go i'm telling you that god will warn your enemies those that come against you he's going to tell them just
[00:26:01] let them go quit worrying don't don't mess with them but sometimes they don't stop it's when they don't stop god's judgment's going to fall now think about this god in his mercy warned the Egyptians and gave them even time to repent. I think if Pharaoh had said, okay guys, I'm sorry
[00:26:23] I'm going against your God. Y'all can pack up and leave and we're not going to stop you. I don't believe that final plague would have happened. But Pharaoh's heart was hard. And even though God
[00:26:36] gave him time to make it right, we can go all the way back to Genesis 15 and see that God told Abraham your descendants will be afflicted for 400 years but I will bring judgment on the nation
[00:26:49] that they serve God said it way back then that he was going to take care of their enemies and those that knew the scripture could say you know God we've been in captivity all these years and we
[00:27:02] know that one day you're going to deliver us out of this listen you may have enemies coming against you, but you can stand and say, someday, God, you're going to take care of this. But until you
[00:27:15] do, I'm going to stand for you. I'm going to do what's right. Long before this day come, God said he was going to judge the nation that opposed his people. It's not like God suddenly decided to kill
[00:27:31] egypt's firstborn no this was announcement they had time to prepare god had sent his warning and the egyptians either didn't believe it or they chose to ignore it let me tell you when the favor
[00:27:48] of god is on your life god's going to take care of you the bible tells us that his word tells us Don't doubt God's word.
[00:27:59] But what about today?
[00:28:01] Does God continue to warn his enemies, our enemies?
[00:28:05] Yes, he's merciful.
[00:28:06] He gives them an opportunity to make it right.
[00:28:10] He says that in his scripture and in his long suffering, not willing that anyone should perish, but all should come to repentance and have what?
[00:28:22] Everlasting life.
[00:28:24] This is evident all through the Bible.
[00:28:26] as God sent His servants throughout the world to point His people back to Him.
[00:28:31] But there's a day coming that God's going to say there's enough.
[00:28:36] And they will be held accountable for their rejection of God's people.
[00:28:42] They're going to be held accountable how they rejected God.
[00:28:47] Pharaoh and his people had a choice to make.
[00:28:49] And God gave them just a little bit more time to make it right.
[00:28:53] They could repent.
[00:28:55] They could leave God's people alone.
[00:28:57] They had to make a choice.
[00:28:59] He was giving them time.
[00:29:01] God loves your enemies.
[00:29:04] He's given them time to repent.
[00:29:07] Unfortunately, we know how the story goes on.
[00:29:09] Pharaoh continues to be stubborn.
[00:29:12] He's pulled.
[00:29:13] Even though his people, his people are seeing the Israelites in a different view.
[00:29:18] They're seeing the people as people of God.
[00:29:21] They're not seeing Moses as a rebellious, ungrateful, adoptive person in the royal family.
[00:29:27] They're seeing him as a man of God.
[00:29:30] Their view has begun to change.
[00:29:33] Pharaoh would not change.
[00:29:36] Moses, the Bible tells us, nine plagues have come and gone.
[00:29:41] And just as Moses told Pharaoh it would happen, it happened.
[00:29:47] Not because Moses said it, but because God said it would.
[00:29:51] The last plague is going to break the hearts of thousands of Egyptians as every home will be affected by the death of the firstborn, of their sons and their animals.
[00:30:03] I think the Scripture tells us that Moses was angered, but I think it was because he had righteous anger.
[00:30:09] He knew the pain that Pharaoh's stubbornness was going to bring upon their country.
[00:30:15] He knew the pain that the people was going to suffer.
[00:30:20] Guys, we've got to have compassion for our enemies because they're going to pay.
[00:30:26] Someday they will pay if they don't repent and make things right.
[00:30:31] The Scripture says that Moses couldn't twist Pharaoh's arm.
[00:30:36] He couldn't make him change his mind.
[00:30:38] And at that moment, the last time Moses goes and talks, when Pharaoh gets so angry and mad because that stubbornness and pride rose up in him, It's the same way for you and I.
[00:30:52] Guys, we can't twist anyone's arm to make them believe in Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:57] We can't force anybody to believe the way we believe.
[00:31:01] But we can tell them about Jesus.
[00:31:04] We can live it, Jesus, before them.
[00:31:09] And if they are your enemy, God can change their hearts.
[00:31:13] You know, as much as we want our family to be saved, we can't make them.
[00:31:18] as much as we want our enemies to be our friends we can't make them it's up to them but all we can do is warn them and pray that they find Jesus and live a godly life in front of them and even
[00:31:34] though some people might be our enemies you and I need to have that attitude where would we be without Jesus Christ all we can do is pray for those who use us and say all manner of evil things
[00:31:48] against us and live our life as an example of Jesus Christ and allow God's favor to flow over us because he's not going to let us go through what we can't handle because he's going to be
[00:32:01] there. Remember in 1 Samuel chapter 24 how Saul fought against David. Saul put David through some junk if you'll read that he was mean to David and he was so jealous over David and Saul done
[00:32:20] everything he could against David but David had opportunity to kill him and what did he do he cut a piece of his robe instead he didn't take advantage of the time he could have killed him
[00:32:32] and David said it wasn't his place to take care of Saul because even as Saul was ungodly and corrupt he is still god's child he also said in this chapter if it wasn't the right time david
[00:32:47] said the lord himself will strike him even either his time will come or he will die or he will go into battle or perish but the lord forbid that i should lay a hand on one of the lord's anointed
[00:33:01] church i want to tell you something even though you face enemies even though you have hardship Don't try to fix it yourself.
[00:33:09] Don't take revenge.
[00:33:11] It's not your job to be revengeful.
[00:33:14] Let God handle your enemies.
[00:33:17] We can sit back and knowing that people have lied on us and they have used us and they have said everything they can against us.
[00:33:26] But aren't you glad God knows the truth?
[00:33:29] That should bring you peace.
[00:33:31] He sees how you reacted.
[00:33:34] He knows what you did.
[00:33:35] He knows what they did.
[00:33:37] let God bring favor from our enemies to us we cannot be sure what's considered the right time of judgment God may let them get by years but I'm going to tell you if they don't make it right
[00:33:50] God's going to settle the score sooner or later you don't want them to get revengeful you don't pray hell and brimstone down on them you pray that God will save them and cause them to repent
[00:34:04] open their eyes and let them see where they failed God and failed their friends and family.
[00:34:10] But listen, God don't want us to take revenge.
[00:34:13] God wants to take care of our problems for us.
[00:34:17] He will make our enemies end up honoring us and seeing us as the children of God that we are if we allow God to fight our battles.
[00:34:26] And what do I mean by that?
[00:34:27] You can't get an attitude and fight people when they're fighting you.
[00:34:32] You've got to learn God's grace and mercy and walk away.
[00:34:36] Listen, God is the one that will defend you.
[00:34:40] God's favor will flow upon you, but you've got to know how you're going to react.
[00:34:44] We know the story of David, and he did let God fight his battles.
[00:34:48] And you know what happened?
[00:34:50] Saul died.
[00:34:52] The kingdom was taken away from him.
[00:34:55] And David was honored and is still being honored to this day.
[00:35:00] If you and I will make a choice to put God in the right place, build a relationship with him study his word talk to him put him in his priority we will be amazed at the very times
[00:35:14] our enemies seem to be overtaking us that God will cause them to be good to us and bring us favor no weapon formed against us will prosper remember that I don't care if it's a God
[00:35:30] you know I'll say this I'm going to say two things here I had one time we had a superintendent that nobody in the district liked.
[00:35:38] He was awful.
[00:35:39] You know, and everybody kept talking bad about him and junk about him.
[00:35:43] And one day, and I said, you know what?
[00:35:45] I'm going to pray God gives him a promotion and move him out.
[00:35:49] The next thing I know, about three months later, God gave him a promotion and moved him three states over.
[00:35:56] See, that's how you do.
[00:35:59] You pray that God promote them and get them out of your direction if they're in your way.
[00:36:05] There's ways that God can work.
[00:36:08] I had a co-worker one time.
[00:36:11] She didn't like me.
[00:36:12] I still don't know why she didn't like me.
[00:36:15] And caused me grief.
[00:36:17] Caused me aggravation.
[00:36:20] One day I just said, Lord, you've got to turn this thing around.
[00:36:23] And God moved her.
[00:36:24] And you know what?
[00:36:25] She became a prayer partner of mine.
[00:36:27] And we ended up praying together.
[00:36:29] I'm telling you, I've seen it time and time again.
[00:36:33] And just because people don't like you Don't mean God don't You don't need people's opinion You need God's opinion Remember no weapon formed against you Is going to prosper Live your life fully Surrender to God
[00:36:47] His favor on your life Will do more to your enemies Than anything else We need to live our lives For God In the presence of our enemies Let's bow our head Heavenly Father I thank you
[00:37:07] that I know that you are pouring your favor out upon your people and you are pouring your favor out upon the wave church and the wave christian academy lord everywhere we look we see your
[00:37:21] goodness I just pray father that you will help us because we know enemies are going to be there enemies are going to fight against us we know that we know your word has told us to expect it
[00:37:33] Help us to maintain a godly attitude when that happens.
[00:37:38] Lord, it's so hard.
[00:37:40] It's so hard when we know that people are hurting us and they're saying things that's not true.
[00:37:45] Lord, sometimes it's just overwhelming.
[00:37:49] But help us in this fleshly body.
[00:37:51] Remember that you fight our battles and that you're going to take care of our enemies, whatever that may mean.
[00:37:58] Lord, I don't want to do it because I don't want anybody's blood on my hand.
[00:38:01] but I know when you do it, you'll do it right.
[00:38:03] You'll cause our enemies to give us favor.
[00:38:07] There's no doubt in my mind, Lord, that you are more than enough to take care of the needs we have, the enemies we face on a daily basis.
[00:38:16] Lord, I pray that our hearts would not get defensive and aggravated and mean and hateful like they are, but Lord, we'll say that our hearts would be pure and say, Lord, you're going to work it out.
[00:38:27] You said no weapons formed against me was going to prosper, and I stand on that, and I still stand on it today. Lord, you see our hearts.
[00:38:38] Lord, we're asking you for favor in the presence of our enemies, and we give you praise, and we give you glory in Jesus' name. Lord, we want to pray for all the families. Three families has
[00:38:50] texted and said we couldn't be there today because of sickness. I pray right now that you'll go to their home, bring healing to their bodies. I pray for those that's not been able to catch us on
[00:39:01] Facebook Live that you'll work that situation out too and that they'll be able to watch it again.
[00:39:06] And Lord, you know the family that needed help coming in from another state. Lord, you see that family as well. You know our hearts and we ask God that you do a work in us that only you can do
[00:39:19] in Jesus name anybody need prayer