Never Leave Your Field of Favour: Seven Decisions That Make It Flow

Sermon outline

Favour is the divine current that carries you from your present season to your future dream, and it flows when you make seven decisions only you can make.

1. The Lord was with Joseph: favour is the divine current

   The Lord was with Joseph and gave him favour with the prison warden, and He surrounds the righteous with favour as with a shield. That does not mean we are exempt from mountains and challenges, but God is with you as He was with Joseph. There is a gap between where you are and the dream in your heart, and only one ingredient takes you across it: favour. Favour is not simply granted: you must make decisions for it to flow.

   “Favour is the divine current that takes you from your present season until your future dream.”

   • Genesis 39:21
   • Psalm 5:12
   • Hebrews 13:5

2. Wisdom to handle prosperity

   It is better to get wisdom than gold. God wants not only to prosper you but to make you able to handle prosperity, because it is easy to fast, pray and read the Word when you are in need and easy to let the things of God slip when you are successful. Wisdom and understanding keep you in the midst of success.

   “It's very easy to serve God when you have nothing.”

   • Proverbs 16:16

3. 1. Walk in the fear of the Lord

   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: obeying His voice, keeping Sunday as the day to worship, hear the Word, rest and bring tithes and offerings, and pursuing God through His Word and faithful attendance. It means leaving vengeance to God, remembering that He loves you whatever other voices say, and depending on His grace, mercy and the cleansing blood of Jesus. The modern charismatic church has lost the fear of the Lord, but there should be things you will not do, because the goal is to please God and make heaven. God's law does not suppress the righteous: it keeps us on course.

   Illustration: How sad it would be to preach to multitudes and influence many lives, and then miss heaven.

   “There should be a fear in your heart that there's some things that I will not do.”

   • Proverbs 9:10
   • Romans 12:19
   • 2 Corinthians 6:17

4. 2. Stay in your field of favour

   Ask yourself when God really began to bless you, because that answer is the gateway to your field of favour. Ruth refused to leave Naomi, followed her to Bethlehem, the house of bread, took her counsel and gleaned in Boaz's field until Boaz noticed her and married her. Your field may be your church, your job, your boss, your company or your education: do not exit it until God says so, and once He prospers you there, sow back into it. Staying requires adaptation: learn the rules, etiquette and culture of the field rather than bringing your own, and do not let offence or the flesh push you out.

   Illustration: From gleaning leftover grain with nothing, Ruth became the wealthiest woman, and the day it began was the day she stepped into her field of favour. He applies it to himself: he cannot backslide, because he searched for many years in his young life and found no God like Jesus Christ.

   “Work it till you make it.”

   • Ruth 1-3

5. 3. Honour the chain of authority

   Wives with husbands, children with parents, and congregations with their pastors and leaders: the blessing flows from the top down. Submitting to authority is not being subservient but wise, because God promotes you and causes favour to keep coming. Joseph, a foreigner who did not fit the culture, rose from prisoner to ruler, and God will promote you in spite of your education, gender, culture, colour or background.

   Illustration: You start something small and it grows, while others wonder where you got the education and who made you so smart.

   “It's very unwise not to submit to spiritual authority.”

   • Psalm 133
   • Genesis 39-41

6. 4. Decide to solve problems

   Solve your boss's problems and you are up for promotion, but solve them accurately, effectively, quickly and memorably, and do not create four new problems while solving one. Problem solvers and problem creators are both remembered, but everyone avoids the second while companies headhunt the first. David solved Saul's problem by killing Goliath and was promoted, married the king's daughter and later became king.

   “You'll only be remembered for the problems that you solve, not the ones you create.”

   • 1 Samuel 17

7. 5. Decide to sow favour

   You can never reap favour if you do not sow it. Make something happen for somebody so that God can make it happen for you, open doors for others, and celebrate when someone gets a new house, car or job. Jealousy and envy shut the doors of favour.

   “Make something happen for somebody so God can make it happen for you.”

8. 6. Decide to reward favour

   Appreciate the people who do things for you and open the door for others as it was opened for you. Have a reward system: a small gift or card for the person over you sows favour and opens doors. Start small, at the level you are at, and never receive favour without a response.

   Illustration: On his travels he saw young people sitting on trams and trains while elderly people were bumped around holding the rails. He admits he used to be an obnoxious driver who cut into traffic, but when he began to yield to others, people began doing the same for him.

   “If you receive favour, react so that you can give favour out.”

   • Proverbs 18:16

9. 7. Honour the command to tithe

   We are in the kingdom of God, so he must speak about the tithe. Tithe not because you are pressured but to honour God, and He will open the windows of heaven and promote you. The tithe is not payment of a debt, because we owe God everything, but an acknowledgement of our debt, and it is for your future.

   Illustration: His late mother, who had little formal education, gave a small amount from her pension every month in an envelope marked 'TIDE' for the church. Each visit they found her with a new DVD player, microwave, TV or bedding from people who blessed her, and she still gave her children money on their birthdays. 'Oh, God blesses me,' she said.

   “The tithe is not a payment of a debt, because we owe God everything. The tithe is an acknowledgement of our debt.”

   • Malachi 3:10