God Favors My Response!

Dictionary of Bible Themes 5859 favour

Looking kindly upon someone or treating someone with special regard. Scripture stresses the kindness and graciousness of God and Jesus Christ, which is not the result of human merit or achievement.

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Prayer, Answers To

Two Christian men lived near each other. The first was a farmer. Since there had not been any rain for several weeks, the farmer got up one morning and prayed for rain, but there was no rain that day.

His next-door neighbor was also up early, but he was praying that it would not rain, because he was taking an unsaved friend fishing that morning. There was no rain that day.

God hears both requests, but he can’t answer both. He will do that which glorifies him the most.

Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, said this:

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church God’s Grace Knows No Bound

God’s Grace Knows No Bound

Ephesians 1:7; 3:8

Preaching Themes: Grace of God

This is the nature of God’s grace. It has no end, it knows no bound, but evermore is on the advance to greater things, which in human things is not the case.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

“This is the nature of God’s grace. It has no end, it knows no bound, but evermore is on the advance to greater things, which in human things is not the case.”

Favour is defined as:

Looking kindly upon someone or treating someone with special regard. Scripture stresses the kindness and graciousness of God and Jesus Christ, which is not the result of human merit or achievement.

The higher people are in the favor of God, the more tender they are.

God's Favor toward Us

God's Favor toward Us

There are many reasons God saves you:

to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice,

to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while…. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart. He's crazy about you!

What is it about me that God favors me. There is no merit in ourselves that deserves God special treatment. It has nothing to do with how we look, How we dress, what Kind of car we drive, or the shoes we wear. It has nothing to do with how big your home is, or how large your bank account is, or the bling on your wrist or what seat you have in the church, or whether your the pastor.....Favor has to do with God loving on you through His Son through the Gospel and not just showing us through the work of the cross , but in every event in your life.

God has , Is, and will demonstrate favor in your life not for status amongst mankind, but to strengthen your faith in Himself. We can believe God this morning, we can trust God this morning. You can trust God with whatever in this life and watch Him respond by showing his approval, His kindness, His special regard for us in a land that is filled with lies, and deceit. We live in a time that we need God’s favor. When the world don’t think your special, God does! When your family think less of you than they ought, God favored you; When you are labelled by leaders in politics as not human; “ ( 'No human being would want to live there') Since I live in Baltimore, then according to this garbage mouth fool, I’m not human. The devil is a liar....The word tells me, “ (NASB) 26  Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

if we are created in the image of God and live in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have status....purpose.....significance......value. (NASB) 13 "The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, 14  and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

God can favor you no matter what side of the tracks you came from, no matter the pain, the abuse , the failure of your past, God can elevate anybody who place their faith and trust in Him.

When God favors us, we ought to respond to Him appropriately: Today, we will examine briefly those responses according to psalm 138. Some see this Psalm and strictly attributes it to David thus suggesting messianic overtones from the Kings rule. Others interpret the psalm to be attributed to David, but could be set in the period when the nation was in either in exile or post exile. This pastor tends to lean toward a period after the reign of David, but the Psalmist attributes the Psalm in honor of the Davidic reign of David. gives us three responses to the Favor of God: Let us examine them together:

Point#1- Personal Praise verses 1-3

The word personal is descriptive word which means: Affecting, or belonging to a particular person rather than to anyone else. These verses remind us of the great commercial from Under Armor which involves the invocation of the “I Will” statements. These statements demonstrate an outward response to God. Most people in churches today have a inward response to God. My Car, My House, My Money; We make excuses why our commitments to God are not whole hearted........Greedy Pastors not going to get my money. I don’t like that church because so and so.....but that’s not the way our response should be to the favor of God.

Why did the psalmist invoke these “I Will” statements of thanks (v1) with a whole heart; sing praises ( v1) before foreign gods; I will bow down v2 toward the temple and give thanks to the name of God (v2)

1. of, affecting, or belonging to a particular person rather than to anyone else.

Worship and praise is the responses of the receiver to the favor of God! In verse #3, the Psalmist lets us know why he acting like this! Based on the ending of verse #2 Which speaks to the promises of God and the reputation of God ( God’s name) the psalmist makes a call to Jesus and Jesus picks up the phone. The Psalmist calls in weakness, but because of the favor of God, the soul of the Psalmist becomes strong.....

Illustration: Ravens football concession stand......

Preach point- When God answers your prayers according to His word......that should make you break out in a personal praise.....When your soul is strengthened by the favor of God....You should sound like the under armour commercial......I Will thank Him, I will praise Him, I will sing, I will bow down and worship Jesus.....It has nothing with how you feel, when God favors You, He answers your prayers......

(NASB) 16  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

— Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

When you worship God, He hears you. Thats why the Psalmist is tripping out....You and I need to know that God hears us in the midst of a foreign land......v2 read ( I will bow down toward ) thats mean he was not in the temple....but had to turn in direction of the temple and worship. You can receive God favor in the land of the wicked…you can sing praise to God in the midst of false gods....

Point #2- Prophetic Praise verses 4-6

Others will see The Favor of God on You!

— And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

(NASB) 52  And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

138:4–6 The psalmist widens his view to the international stage, and he seems to imply that Yahweh will gain fame because He helped him. He implies that Yahweh’s personal help for the psalmist will eventually translate into a more prominent place for Israel among the nations, which other kings will notice.

They will see the Favor of God on your life and they will respond as well. The Psalmist makes a prediction that based on how Jesus has responded to Him in truth and loving kindness by showing the psalmist favor, that the Favor of God towards him will expand to a higher stage. this means that when they, “the Kings of the earth” See God move in your life, they will begin to know that God is real ..... When they hear the word from the mouth of God, they will sing......The individual response of praise will multiply into international praise......LOOK AT THE END OF V#5 FOR GREAT IS THE GLORY OF THE LORD… The Psalmist uses the superlative GREAT to describe the glory of God....

When God is moving in your life no matter what it is, it is for His Glory…We need to speak, and ask God that to repsond to our prayers which cannot be for us , but for His great Glory......its all about the Glory of God from a broken vessel, from a no good place like Baltimore..... God can get great glory starting with somebody like you and me! Just like Jesus when they talked about His hometown of Nazareth....God can raise up greatness from nothing .....v6 He reguards the Lowly but the prideful He knows from afar.....Does Jesus know your name ? Though Jesus is exaulted, He knows you, Though He is lofty, He knows your name, Though His glory is set above the heavens, He knows you, and because He knows you, He hears you, and answers you..... Not based on your title, or anything else; Itrs based on who He Is. Other Kings, supervisors , managers , politicians, leaders in public or private will rezsind to the favor of God prophetically.

We can move from personal praise to the prophetic to :

Point #3- Petition of Purpose verses 8

Read verse #8.....

(NASB) 8  The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

— I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

— Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Illustration from Tony Evans:

EVERYBODY has in their homes manufactured products. Appliances such as a toaster, refrigerator, stove, microwave, or an electric can opener are commonly found in people's homes and each of those has a different workmanship. They are designed differently. They have different parts that make them operate. Each one has its own unique reason for being. Now, if that appliance operates outside of its reason for being there, we have a problem. If you want to cook things in the refrigerator and freeze things in the stove, you are going to have a difficult situation in the home because that's not what the workmanship is for. The workmanship is used for whatever the creator designed it to do. The toaster does not tell the creator what it's going to do today. The stove does not tell the creator what it's going to do today. It is the creator that dictates to the appliance the reason why the appliance exists. The appliance does whatever it's been designed to do. In the same way, we are God's creation and He dictates to us why we exist and can tell us what we are designed to do. He gives us our purpose. If we operate outside of our reason for being, that's when we experience problems. Walking in the purpose God designed for us is how we fulfill our unique reason for being.

— I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

— Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Some of us is living in verse #7 .......Read v7

The higher people are in the favor of God, the more tender they are.

Though we fell like were dead some times due to manifold trouble, the favor of God can bring us out.....WE need to ask Jesus to just stretch out Hand before we raise ours.....Its ok to ask God to take vengeance on our enemies....Why? because His enemies are our enemies…- I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY......

Lord deal with my fake friends, fake president, show me your favor that I may walk in your purpose for me! You said you will finish it....Your favor, your grace and your mercy will bring me through.......Jesus said it is finished in the Cross, and Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith who for the Joy before Him .......celebrate Calvery in Light of God’s favor........my response Personal Praise, Prophetic Praise, and Petition of Purpose

Looking kindly upon someone or treating someone with special regard. Scripture stresses the kindness and graciousness of God and Jesus Christ, which is not the result of human merit or achievement.