The Favor Of God Part 2 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 2 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 2 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you will learn from the life of Joseph that Favor isn’t about position amongst many things but about your relationship with God.

The Favor Of God Part 2 Transcript

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re gonna be talking about the favor of God. We’re gonna actually be studying the life of Joseph, a man of tremendous favor. Favor is not about your position. It’s not about your title. It’s not about your surroundings. Favor is about your relationship with God. It’s about your spiritual condition. So open your heart and receive the word of God today.

It’s great to have everyone with us today. And we’re sharing on the favor of God. And the favor of God will do amazing things for you. And I thank God for the favor of God on our life. You know, I don’t believe we would be where we are with what we have, doing what we’re doing, except for the favor of God.

It’d be impossible without the favor of God.

Yeah. So thank God for the grace of God, the favor of God. Grace is another word for favor. Aaron, I’m going to ask you to share a scripture in Psalm 44:3, so go ahead and jump into that and we’ll get right into the Word.

Yeah. It says here in Psalm 44:3, it says, “For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arms save them. But it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance because you favored them.”

Praise God.

I love that. So that Psalm, that’s speaking about the Israelites when they came into the Promised Land. There were a lot of enemies, a lot of giants, a lot of, you know, but God, God helped them. You read through Joshua about Joshua leading Israel into the Promised Land. Joshua had tremendous favor, tremendous favor on his life, but also the whole people of Israel did. And God wanted to bring them into that Promised Land, that land flowing with milk and honey, that land of more than enough.

Hallelujah.

And it wasn’t by their own strength, it was just because God loved them.

Amen. And you know what? I believe that God is a good God. I believe that He has a land of more than enough for all of us. In fact, there was a study done years ago that if they divided up all the wealth in the world, there’d be over $12 million for every person. So there’s more than enough provision on the earth for every person on the earth. And I, praise God, decide I don’t wanna leave Earth, amen, Without my share. Now, I’m not gonna take any of it with me. You know what? I’ve never seen a hearse pull a U-Haul truck. But at the same point in time, it’s nice to have some of that blessing, that favor, while we are here on the earth. Now, yesterday we began talking about favor in the life of Joseph. I want to continue to talk about that. But the first area that Joseph had favor was he had favor in his father’s house, and his father, it says in Genesis 37:4, verse 3, “Israel, his father or Jacob loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a coat of many colors. You know what? If you can’t get favor at a lower level, it’s gonna be hard for you to move into favor at a higher level. But if you can begin to operate in favor at a lower level, I believe you can move into favor at a greater level. So Joseph had favor in his father’s house, right? We had favor when we started our church in Kit Carson. God helped us and blessed us, and we built that and paid for that church debt-free. And we had a lot of favor. God helped us there. But then we moved here to Colorado Springs and it took us several years. In fact, we were here for nine years before we moved into our first building. And we had a little bit of debt on that, not near what it cost, but when we moved into it, we had a little bit of debt on it. The Lord Jesus told me to pay it off and then save money, which we did. And then we moved into this building supernaturally. And so, praise God, God has helped us and blessed us, but there’s different levels of God’s favor. And you know, our first church would fit about inside of our nursery over here, or our children’s ministries at the church we’re in now. So, in Kit Carson, we built a church 5,400 square feet. And now we have a church that’s over 120,000 square feet. And it’s all paid for by the grace, by the favor, by the blessing of God. We thank God.

I love something that you said about Joseph, that he had favor in his father’s house. We all have favor with our heavenly Father.

Amen.

And I love this song. There’s a song called, “Who You Say I Am”

[Pastor] Oh, I love that.

and there’s a lyric in it that says, “In my Father’s house, there’s a place for me. I’m a child of God. Yes, I am.” You know, in our Father’s house, there’s a place for you. So you have favor with your heavenly Father.

Amen. And you know, because we have favor with God that leads us into favor with man. I have a saying that I’ve said for years, and I took it actually from a missionary, Trina Hankins’ sister, Patsy Cameneti, when she was a missionary in Italy. Her daughter was in the kindergarten there, in the school, and she was having a hard time with the school, you know, different language, different things. So the teacher called Patsy in, and Patsy said, told Patsy, “Hey, your daughter’s at the bottom of the class.” So Patsy took her daughter just five years old and said, “I had her confess the favor of God. I have favor with God, I have favor with man, and I have a good understanding.” And she had her saying that morning, noon when she got outta kindergarten, night, she had her say that every time she thought of it. And in about 30 days, the teacher called Patsy and said, “I don’t know what’s happened, but your daughter has went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class by this confession of the favor of God.” And, I’ve preached that here in Colorado Springs. We’ve seen it work in kids’ lives here. I preached that in Chicago. I had a beautiful African American grandma come to me, say, “All my grandkids are making Cs and Ds and Fs, I’m gonna get them to confess the favor of God.” I came back a year later, she said, “I got my grandkids confessing that, and they’re all making A’s and B’s now.” So by confession, the favor of God. It worked in your brother Peter’s life. He was struggling in eighth grade when he went into geometry. And I had him speak that word. And within two weeks he went to the top of the class by speaking, “I have favor with God. I have favor with man. And I have a good understanding.” In fact, we put it on a mug. We have a man in this church. He’s 83 years old as we teach this broadcast, he’s a very blessed man, hallelujah. But he said, “Pastor, I confess this every day. I have favor with God. I have favor with man, and I have a good understanding, hallelujah.” And he added to it another thing that I say, “And I have supernatural increase.” And he told me the other day, “Hey, we had so much increase, we had to count up what we made this week three times,” hallelujah, because we’d never given that big, hallelujah. More productive than he’s ever been in his life. 83 years old, not looking for a rocking chair, but being a blessing. Praise God. Hallelujah. And you know what? If you’ll speak the Word of God and believe the Word of God and confess the favor of God, it will work for you because God is no respecter of persons. Now, when we look at this, not only that, Joseph saw the favor of God with his father, but then God gave him a dream. And when he shared the dream, his brothers, it says, “envied him,” but his father observed the saying, and his brothers took him and sold him, right? To their Ishmaelite cousins, and then the Ishmaelits sold him, right? To Potiphar, the officer of Pharaohs. This is Genesis 37:36, and the captain of the guard. But read this in Genesis 39:1, do you know what? The favor of God is not about your position. It’s not about your condition. So they sold Joseph to Potiphar. So he was a slave, an officer of favor. This is Genesis 39:1, “Captain the guard and Egyptian bought him off the hands of the Ishmaelites, which brought him down to Egypt. And the Lord was with Joseph. And he was prosperous man.” Hallelujah. He was not prosperous because of his position. He was a slave, but the Lord was with him. And he was prosperous because God was with him. And if God is with you, I want you to know that you can prosper no matter what your position is. “And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.”

Wow.

Hallelujah. Now look at this in verse 3 “His master saw the Lord was with him. And the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.” Praise God. God prospered Joseph as a slave. God made everything he did to prosper. I believe that God can make everything you do to prosper no matter where you at. And that will lead to promotion, that will lead to honor, that will lead to different things. And it says, “Joseph found grace.” Again, grace, this is Genesis 39:4, “or favor in the sight of his master.” Grace and favor can be used interchangeably. “And he served him, and he made him overseer of his whole house, over all that he had, he put into his hand.”

It’s kind of interesting that in verse 3 here, in Genesis 39:3, it says that the master saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and that the Lord’s hand was upon Joseph. Potiphar wasn’t even a believer. He wasn’t Jewish, he didn’t have a covenant with God. He didn’t have a covenant with the one true living God. But he saw that there was something different about Joseph, that there was favor upon his life. That’s happened to me before too, where people who aren’t even believers know that there’s something different about me. There’s a certain peace about me, a certain blessing upon me, that certain favor that’s upon you. And it’s actually, it actually draws people closer to God. We’re to be the salt here on the earth. We’re to be the light here on the earth. And one way that God makes us the light here on this earth, he makes us the city on a hill that can’t be hidden, is with his favor. And that favor, that light of favor shining on you, that light of his countenance shining upon you actually draws people closer to God.

Amen. Now, when we look at this, it says in Genesis 39:4, “Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him overseer of his house and all that he had, he put into his hand, ” just like you were saying, “and it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house,” Look at this in verse 5. “And over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. Did you know God will bless your employers? God will bless different people for your sake. Hallelujah. And he said, “and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, all that Potiphar had in his house and in the field,” God blessed him because of Joseph. If you’ll be good to the people that serve you, that have the hand of God on them, it will lead to blessing on your house. And he said, “all that he had in the house and in the field, and he left everything he had in Joseph’s hand. And he didn’t know what he had, except the bread which he ate. And Joseph was a good person and well favored.” Hallelujah. He was good. Well-favored, hallelujah. Isn’t that marvelous? Now, as as he did that, it says, “It came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And she said, “Lie with me’.” She was trying to get him in sin. I said, she was looking at him cross-eyed. Sometimes people have ulterior motives, they’re coming after you for the wrong thing, but you keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t let that get into you. Praise the Lord.

Yeah, and I love what the scripture’s kind of drawn out here about Potiphar, you know. Joseph had favor with Potiphar, just like you had said you have favor with God, you have favor with man, you have a good understanding. Here, some believers are actually kind of scared to go into secular environments. Maybe it’s a secular school or a secular work environment, or a secular community. But God can give you favor even amongst unbelievers. Just like Joseph was in a very contrary situation. He was actually a slave. He was in Egypt. He was working for Potiphar, but God gave him favor even with Potiphar and-

Amen.

Later on, 400 years later, when the Israelites are leaving, God told Moses to tell the Israelites, Hey, ask your masters to have their clothing and their jewels and that God would give them favor with the Egyptians.

Whoo!

And God gave them favor. So these are all the Egyptian masters. This favor, it goes back to this time with Joseph that 400 years later, there’s an inheritance of favor. But it started here with Joseph. Joseph was a slave,

Man.

and he had supernatural favor. And even 400 years later, when all the Israelites are enslaved, they still had supernatural favor

So this-

when they were leaving, so they entered with favor and they left with favor.

Praise God. And they had blessing from generation to generation. Right? 400 years later, 10 generations later. Praise God. I’ve had tremendous favor on my life. God has helped me. But you, all three of you boys have favor on your lives. And God has promoted you and blessed you through the favor. Your brother Andrew, your brother Peter, you, all of you have favor. Thank God for the favor of God.

I love thinking about, yeah, Joseph, he was the first Israelite slave in Egypt.

Amen.

You know, 400 years later there was million plus slaves. But, you know, he had favor when he entered that situation. And they had favor when they left that situation.

Praise God, and, you know, Joseph was sharp. He told his father when he came and brought the families of Israel, right, with him, the 12 tribes, the 12 families of Israel. He said, tell them that you’re shepherds because shepherds are despised in the eyes of the Egyptians. And so,

Tell them you work with cattle.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pharaoh ended up putting him in the best land, praise God. So they had so much favor, not only favor on Joseph, but this favor on Joseph led to favor on his whole family and provision for them. And so we thank God today for the favor of God. And just like we’ve been talking about the favor of God, speaking the favor of God, you need to learn to believe and speak the favor of God because do you know what? God is no respecter of persons. He’s a respecter of faith.

Amen.

And by faith, you enter into grace, grace and favor are interchangeable. Amen. And so when you begin to believe and speak the favor of God, you can see the favor of God on your life. This isn’t just something that’s for Pastor Lawson. This isn’t just something that’s for my three sons, Aaron, Andrew, and Peter. This isn’t just something for Andrew Womack or Jesse Duplantis or some other preacher. The favor of God will work for you. And I like what you said, it’ll work in worldly situations. Sometimes it even works better, hallelujah. ‘Cause they don’t know certain things and praise God. But God is so good. Amen. We’re gonna be back in just a short break. We’ll be back and we’ll be continuing to share about the favor of God in the life of Joseph. You don’t wanna miss the rest of this broadcast. Friends, I wanna tell you about some products that we have available, that I believe will help you move into God’s plan, to God’s destiny for your life. The first one is my book, “Uncommon Favor.” This is my life story. And there are a lot of just really simple stories, things that have happened in my life for the last 30 years, and really how God has blessed us and helped us move into what He has for us. And I believe that God is no respecter of persons. What God has done for me, He will do for you. I have so many people read this book. It’s a very simple read. And they’ll tell me, Pastor, I was so encouraged. That really helped me and gave me hope for my life. And so you don’t want to miss getting this book, “Uncommon Favor” and we package it together with my teaching on the favor of God. And this is a three CD teaching on the favor of God. You can get this by calling our office, or you can check us out on the web at CharisChristianCenter.com

Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We are right here in Genesis 39. We’re talking about favor in the life of Joseph. We saw that Joseph had favor in Potiphar’s house, and God prospered Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. And God promoted Joseph in Potiphar’s house. And then we saw after this promotion, and we just began to get into this, and then we moved forward. But, Aaron, I want you to begin to read in Genesis 39:7 – 12, and talking about this aspect of, you know, sometimes people see the favor of God on you and they want to take it the wrong direction.

So yeah, here in Genesis 39:7, it says, “And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph. And she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house. And he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So it was as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her to lie with her or be with her. And it happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside that she caught him by his garment saying, “Lie with me,” but he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside.”

So when you look at this, you know, some people blame other people for their sin, right? But what did Joseph say?

He just took off and ran.

Yeah. Number one. And so, hey, if somebody’s trying to get you in sin, if you gotta run, run, baby run, don’t you stay around there and flirt with it and play with it, you run from it. And he said this, he said, “How can I do this great wickedness in sin against God?” When people get involved in sin, it’s because there’s something not quite right about their relationship with God. It’s a relationship with God that keeps you outta sin. Praise God.

I love what Joseph said too, just speaking about like working for someone. He said, you know, Potiphar trusted him so much that Potiphar didn’t even know what was going on in the house. Potiphar didn’t care, didn’t know how many rolls there are, how many towels, Potiphar didn’t know. He just completely trusted Joseph.

Wow.

That’s how, you know, that’s really incredible that he had gained that level of trust with Potiphar.

[Pastor] Right.

Potiphar didn’t micromanage him at all because Joseph earned that trust.

You don’t want to betray someone’s trust, and trust has to be earned. And when you look at this, Joseph number one did it because of his relationship with God. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? But number two, he didn’t do it because he didn’t want to betray his master. And you know, there’s a lot of betrayal that goes on, and I’m very careful about relationships and my word, keeping my word. I just had a situation that came up where one of the people that work here at the church had given someone else a word and said, this is what you need to compensate another person, right? For an outside job that works for us. And then that person came back and said, no, I want more. And so what I did, I paid that person. And even though I had blessed this family and not charged them anything for the use of the building, for different things, because they’re servants here in the church and they’re good people. And we told them something so, “man, you honor your word. You don’t go away from your word. And if we would’ve done that, we would’ve betrayed their trust. And trust has to be earned. And you don’t want to betray trust. A lot of times people, their word is not very good. And we’ve seen this over and over with different people, and I don’t hold it against them, but at the same point in time, if you say you’re gonna do something, you need to do what you say. It’s just not right.

In Proverbs, there’s a lot of proverbs that kind of talk about your name and your word, your reputation. It’s more valuable than even silver or gold.

Yeah, yeah, and we’ve seen people, they say one thing and do another, and listen, if I can’t keep my word to someone, I’m gonna go tell them why. And so I do my best to keep my word, you know why? God keeps His word to me. And to be godly is to be God-like. And so if I say I’m gonna do something, I do my level best to do it. If I can’t, I go to them and talk about it, explain it. And, you know, it’s just, that just always is best. Now, the devil will try to make accusations. He’s called the accuser of the brethren, you know, and I had somebody making accusations against me. Now, if you’re gonna make accusations against an Elder, you need to do that in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So sometimes you just letting the devil rent space in your head. And demons, people deal with demons. But, I’m not gonna let the devil rent space in my head and I’m not gonna let the devil, you know, I’ve got relationships with people that are great leaders, and sometimes they’ve told me something and not followed through on it because literally they’re so busy. I think they forgot about it. But I didn’t get mad, you know what I did? I just said, Hey, they’re busy, whatever, this has went on. And sometimes they said negative things about me, and I just thought, well, they don’t understand where God’s taken me or what God’s done. And because I’ve dealt with that in grace towards other leaders, I’ve been gracious towards them, ultimately God’s brought that thing back around and they’ve done much more for me than what they said in the beginning. And, you know, but you keep a good attitude and it’ll help you. I don’t think there’s enough to be said about keeping a good attitude.

Yeah. That’s true.

We’ll talk about Daniel and we’re gonna teach next week, I believe, on Daniel or Esther, your mom will be teaching with me. But Daniel had a good attitude. The Bible says he had an excellent spirit, and because of that, he was promoted under four different world leaders in three different, Babylon, in Media Persia, and then, in Media an then in Persia, praise God. So he was promoted under four different world leaders in Babylon, in Media, and in Persia. That’s amazing, amazing favor that he got.

Yeah, I like that you talked about attitude. Attitude, I believe it’s part of your soul. It’s part of your heart. the Bible says to guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. And I see that Joseph is someone who really guarded his heart.

[Pastor] Right.

He could have gotten offended and bitter multiple times throughout his story. He could have gotten offended at his brothers for selling him into slavery. He could have gotten really offended at Potiphar, at Potiphar’s wife, at his situation there. He just kept trusting God. You really have to guard your attitude that really, it’s part of your heart, part of your soul, and that-

yeah.

that affects the direction you go in life.

Yeah. So, you know, Joseph, when he was tempted, if you look at this, I mean, she just kept at it, but he didn’t give in. Now when she saw, this Potiphar’s wife, that Joseph left his garment in her hand and ran, then she called them in and said, this Hebrew servant- there was probably some jealousy going on there too, right? Because Joseph, who was an outsider, was promoted beyond them. And she used prejudice against him. And it came to pass she falsely accused him and said there was nobody here. and so she laid up his garment. And when his dad, when Potiphar came home, then she, again, she used this thing, this Hebrew servant, this prejudice that she had against him. And more than likely, Potiphar knew that his wife had some problems, right? But he didn’t really stick up for Joseph. And ultimately this was God. And when Joseph then went into the prison, it came to pass. It says in verse 19, this is Genesis 39:19, “When his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke after this manner did the servant to me, his wrath was kindled. And they took Joseph and they put him in the prison.” But you know what? God was with him when he was in the prison. It says in verse 21, “The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Did you know, favor is not about your surroundings. Favor is not about your position. Favor is about your relationship with God. Amen. It’s about your spiritual condition. And so the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord caused him to prosper as a slave. And then the Lord caused him to prosper in the prison. Amazing favor on the life of Joseph. But all this time, he kept a good attitude and he kept moving into his destiny. And if you’ll keep a good attitude, no matter what your surroundings, no matter what your position, God can promote you and bring you to great favor and great honor.

Yeah, I like something that you said before about just grace really being almost synonymous with favor. Here in Genesis 39:21, it says, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy.” The Hebrew word for mercy is, which is the Hebrew word for grace.

Amen.

So God just kept showing grace upon grace to Joseph. No matter what was happening to him, no matter what people were trying to do to him, lie to him, throw him in prison, God kept showing him grace.

Amen. God gives favor. Don’t ever forget it. Dr. Lester Sumrall told me that, and I’ve never forgot it. And thank God my life is a testimony of the favor of God. In fact, we’re making a special offer this week on my book, “Uncommon Favor” and you need to get this. It will encourage you. I get so many testimonies about it. If you want that book, if you need prayer, give us a call today. Thanks so much. Blessings.

[Narrator] The favor of the Lord has the power to change your life. In this Favor package, you’ll learn how you already have more than enough favor, because God loves and cares for you. Get the Favor CD series, along with the book entitled “Uncommon Favor” for $24 when you call 719-418-4000 or visit www.CharisChristianCenter.com.

Praise the Lord, friends, I want to invite you to church this coming Sunday morning, whether you’re in Colorado Springs or whether you’re wherever you’re at, if you’re in Colorado Springs, you can see us Sunday morning at 8:30 or 10:30 am live. But you can also watch us with our livestream congregation at 8:30 or 10:30 am, or you can go to our website and get it anytime at www.CharisChristianCenter.com.

[Narrator] Thanks for watching Grace For Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to www.CharisChristianCenter.com/Give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace For Today.