God Delights in You: 3 Keys to Unleashing the Force of Favour

Sermon outline

Like Jesus, you will keep on advancing in wisdom, stature and favour with God and man, so raise your expectations, believe favour is for you and confess it every day.

1. Jesus kept on advancing, and so will you

   Samson grew and the Lord blessed him, and a born-again, Spirit-filled believer is growing too, so don't give up or feel you haven't arrived. Jesus grew in four areas. First in wisdom, the ability to judge correctly and follow the best course of action based on knowledge and understanding, which is why we come to church and study the Word. Then in stature: as the boy grew into youth and the young man into manhood, we grow from babes in Christ into maturity.

   “God is empowering you daily to prosper.”

   • Luke 2:40
   • Judges 13:24
   • Luke 2:52
   • Hosea 4:6

2. Favour with God is demonstrated delight

   We often picture God as angry with us, but favour is God expressing His delight in you because you are His son or daughter. When you rebuke devils, heal the sick, stand up in faith and take a leap of faith, God looks at you and takes delight in you.

   Illustration: Two of his five-year-old grandchildren jumped off a five-metre diving board without fear while ten- and twelve-year-olds held back. He says he would have been nervous if he had been there, but his heart leapt for joy, and God feels the same when He sees you walking in faith: 'Wow, that's my boy. Wow, that's my girl.'

   “Favour is demonstrated delight.”

3. Favour with man

   Some people will show you favour even though they don't particularly like you, because God is behind the scenes propelling favour in your life. Favour is tangible evidence that a person has the approval of God. Seek God's favour more than man's, and He will give you favour with the very people you were trying to please. Stop counting your enemies: there are more people for your success than against it.

   Illustration: The old song 'Count your blessings, name them one by one'.

   “There are more people for you than against you.”

   • 2 Chronicles 16:9
   • Psalm 5:12

4. Meditate on the grace and favour of God

   Having taught on the blessing of the Lord in the latter part of 2014, he feels the church should meditate on the favour of the Lord for the next one or two months and set it as a compass and a thermostat. God forgives, heals, redeems, crowns you with love and compassion and satisfies your desires; He is not mad at you and gets no glory from putting you down. What we give our thought and attention to is what we attract, so stop meditating on the wrong things.

   Illustration: He models a morning meditation: God's grace is upon my family, my finances, my workplace and my business; it is opening doors, helping me pass my exams and causing me to meet the right people at the right time. Even if you are not yet driving the car or living in the house you want, God is working a series of actions to bring you there.

   “If you will meditate on God's grace, it will hurtle towards you.”

   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Psalm 103:2-6
   • Psalm 103:17-18

5. Number one: begin to raise your expectations

   Even when challenges hit like an avalanche, God is bigger than your desires, your wants, your needs and that bill. Looking back at where God has brought the church from its beginnings, he says it was God's grace, kindness and mercy, not his own doing.

   “God's grace is bigger than your mistakes.”

6. Number two: believe that favour is for you

   Reset your thermostat, pick your head up and smile. The media feeds people negativity because fear-based living sells, but God has not given us a spirit of fear. We are in this world but not of it: ambassadors of Christ, citizens of heaven, with the mind of Christ, who saw a boy's lunch and saw God multiplying the bread and the fish. Fear-based living saps the energy of faith, but you are children of light.

   Illustration: Going from doctor to doctor, each with another report, can leave you in a ball of confusion and fear; he says he respects doctors, but fear brings us to a lower level.

   “Fear-based living saps energy of faith out of our lives.”

   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • John 17:16
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20
   • Ephesians 2:19
   • 1 Peter 2:11
   • Philippians 2:5
   • John 6:9-11
   • Philippians 4:7
   • Ephesians 5:8
   • 1 Corinthians 2:16

7. Number three: begin to confess favour

   Walk around your house saying the favour of the Lord is upon you, your finances and your child, and that it is bigger than the bill, the report and your enemies. Favour means being treated with high regard and approval: a gift bestowed out of goodwill rather than earned or bought, preferential treatment with special advantages and privileges. When justice cried out, mercy said it is paid for.

   Illustration: Of all the religions he studied, he says, Jesus is a merciful Messiah who reserves judgment for eternity.

   “When you acknowledge God's favour, it motivates God to give you more favour.”