Favour Is a Current: It Shortens the Distance to Your Destiny

Sermon outline

Favour is the seed of greatness in you and a divine current that carries you from your present season into your future, so expect it, stay humble and grateful, solve problems for others, and it will accelerate your destiny.

1. Never look down on small people

   Jesus spoke in parables, so he tells one: a hotel owner and architect in New York planned to cut through every floor to fit a new lift, closing the hotel and losing its income, until the man mopping the floor asked why they did not put the lift on the outside. Never look down on small people; we are lifters of people. Whatever categories the world puts us in, in Christ we have a new identity, a royal priesthood and a new race.

   Illustration: The cleaner who solved the hotel's lift problem when the experts could not.

   “Never look down at small people. Always look up, because you are a lifter of people.”

   • 1 Peter 2:9

2. Be careful whom you let in

   In a cold winter a snake family sheltered in a burrow and kindly let a porcupine family rest near them. Soon the baby snakes were being pricked every time the porcupines moved, but when the father snake complained, the porcupine said they were quite comfortable, thank you.

   Illustration: The snake and the porcupine.

   “Be careful who you allow in your environment.”

3. Remember, and be grateful

   Paul said it was no trouble to write the same things again, because people caught up in life forget. Jesus promised a hundredfold in houses, family and lands in this life, but with persecutions: not everyone will enjoy your prosperity with you. Always be grateful for what God has brought you through, and remember that His remembrance is to all generations.

   “We must always be thankful for where God has taken us through.”

   • Philippians 3:1
   • Mark 10:28-30
   • Psalm 102:12

4. What grace and favour are

   Grace is God's empowerment to be what we should be. Favour is the seed of greatness in you, whatever the world dictates, and the divine current that takes you from your present season into your future dreams, so keep dreaming. Whatever you are going through now is not your permanent station; God is the lifter of His people, but never become self-sufficient: lean on Him.

   Illustration: He grew up in poverty without a father; at high school his future wife used her spending money to buy him a pie or a Coke. Even as a boy he knew poverty was not his portion, and God made them parents to the thousands they have touched.

   “Favor is the divine current that takes you from your present season into your future dreams.”

   • 2 Corinthians 3:5

5. Favour is when someone wants to solve a problem for you

   We all rely on others: he knows little about plumbing or banking, but people in his church solve problems for him with a phone call. Recognise the person God sends to you, and keep expecting. When he was growing up they had very little but were happy, because material things cannot make you happy.

   “The greatest power on earth is not money. The greatest power on earth is prayer.”

6. Favour is not an accident

   Millions struggle, but favour is a gift from God, not normal and not an accident, so expect great things, refuse to be morbid and have a mindset of favour. Favour is necessary for uncommon success and causes giant leaps into a new season; focus on the many who speak well of you, not the backbiters. People out there are hungry for encouragement, and the business flourishes because you are in it, but stay humble, because you may meet on the way down the people you passed on the way up.

   “Favor will cause you to take giant leaps into the future.”

7. Favour begins when you solve a problem, and it accelerates your destiny

   Joseph solved Pharaoh's problem by interpreting his dream, and one audience took him from the pit to the palace: two years in prison, then prime minister within 24 hours. Jonah, after repenting, covered in one day a journey of three. Celebrate other ministers and pray for other churches, and your turn will come. Favour is not stagnant but a current that keeps increasing, so expect it and respect it, because God is looking for someone to receive.

   Illustration: Holding the dedicated baby, he says you never know what God will do with your children: you may be holding a future president.

   “Favor accelerates your destiny. It shortens the distance of your journey.”

   • Genesis 41:14-41
   • Jonah 3:3-4
   • 2 Chronicles 16:9