The Favor Of God Part 11 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 11 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 11 from Pastors Lawson & Barbara Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, we’ll dive into the story of Esther and learn how you can have favor with God because the king loves us.

The Favor Of God Part 11 Transcript

[Pastor Lawson] Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I have my beautiful wife, Barbara, with me. I’m so excited to have her. We’re actually teaching all of this week on favor in the life of Esther, and there’s so many principles that we find, and today we’re gonna find out about the first testimony of the favor of God, and that is that the King loves us. You don’t want to miss this. So stay tuned and open your heart and receive God’s good Word. Blessings.

Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today, and I’m so honored to have my wife, Barbara. And we’re talking about favor, continuing to talk about favor this week. We’ve been talking about favor. We began really talking about favor in the life of Joseph. And Joseph was a slave who became a prime minister. And then we talked about favor in the life of Daniel. And we talked about how Daniel, you know, really was a foreign exchange student who became a major world leader, had amazing favor, reigned under four different kings in three different world systems. So it was really amazing. Today and this week we’re gonna be sharing on favor in the life of Esther, and she was a orphan who became a queen. And there’s so many things from the Book of Esther that really fit the time that we live in. She was an orphan. She was there. She got chosen to become queen, and there was a wicked governor who tried to exterminate the Jewish people. You know, Haman, not unlike Putin and what he’s doing, not unlike Hitler and what he’s doing and former world leaders, Mussolini, the same spirit in them, the spirit of anti-Christ was in Haman, but God protected Esther. God protected his people, and God used her tremendously. And what we’re gonna talk about, probably not in today’s program, but she found out there was a kingdom purpose for her life. And did you know what? There is a kingdom purpose for your life. God has a kingdom purpose for you. So you want to learn. We’ll see so many things as we go through this. This happens, the Book of Esther, in about 482 to 473 years before Christ. It’s during the reign of Xerxes I, or Ahasuerus. And it says here in Esther 1:1, “It came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia,” so from India clear to Northern Africa, “over 127 provinces.” So this was amazing, the largest empire in the world, the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the same territory covered.

And when you say how large it is, isn’t it amazing who God picks to use to do extraordinary things? And whenever God has a purpose, and this is for all of us, God doesn’t have any bench warmers or pew warmers. God has a special plan and purpose for all of us. And when God is involved, and we allow him to work through us, it always has an amazing way to affect many other people.

Yes, and you know, we’ve been talking about this some, but in Timothy 2:1, the scripture says that He called us according to His own purpose, God.

[Laura] Yes, amen.

And grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That’s amazing. So Esther found out what her God-given purpose was, and it’s really an amazing kind of story. But Ahasuerus was the king. His throne was in Shushan, the palace. In the third year of his reign, it says in verse three, “He made a feast to all his princes and servants being before him where he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and honor and excess for many days.” 180 days he had been kind of showing off his kingdom to all these different leaders over these 127 different nations really, that were part of it. And when this 180 days got done, he had a seven day great feast in his palace where he had all these world leaders, and he invited his wife. He had a beautiful wife, Vashti, and he wanted to show her off to all these leaders, and she rebelled, and she wouldn’t come. And the other leaders in the kingdom got upset, and they said, listen, if this happens in the king’s house, we’re gonna have rebellion in the entire kingdom. There’s not gonna be a husband and wife have a good relationship in the whole kingdom. And so they said in verse 19, “If it pleased the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and Medes that it not be altered that Vashiti come no more before King Ahasuerus, let the king give her royal estate to another that is better than she.” You know, they did not like rebellion. That’s one thing, I don’t believe God likes rebellion. I think, you know, now, people aren’t God, but at the same point in time, rebellion’s not a good thing. And “When the king’s decree be made, it’ll be published through his empire, then all of the wives will give honor to their husbands, great and small.” And I believe both husbands and wives need to honor each other, and we need to respect each other. And the saying pleased the king, and he did, according to the Word of this Memukan, and he sent letters to all the king’s provinces and to every province according to the, right there, to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house. You know, the Bible actually talks about this in the Book of Timothy that a man is to be the leader of his own house, not somebody else’s house, but his own house.

[Laura] That’s right.

And it should be published in the language of every people. So they put this throughout the whole kingdom. And after these things, when the wrath of the king was so mad, you know, you don’t wanna get mad at your wife. It’s not a good thing. And the wives, you don’t want to get mad at your husband. That’s not a good thing. But when his wrath was appeased, he remembered Vashiti, what she had done, and what was decreed against her. And so the king’s servants that served him said in 2:2, “Let there be a fair young virgin sought for the king, and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces.” So they had really a beauty contest in 127 nations that they would bring together all the beautiful young virgins to Sushan the palace, and “Let the maiden that pleases him,” this is in verse four of Esther, chapter two, “be queen in the place of Vashiti.” You know, I don’t want somebody to take my place. I believe, you know what, God has a purpose. He has a place for us all.

He has a purpose and a place, but I wanted to remind everybody, a lot of times, people will see a Word for themselves, maybe through scripture, or maybe they’ve had a prophecy over them, and a lot of times, people get frustrated if that prophecy or that Word or that unction they feel doesn’t come to pass in five minutes or five weeks. And sometimes, it’s really a lifetime. God has a time of teaching and for us to grow. And then what I’ve noticed throughout the Bible, honey, a lot of times it’s very unique circumstances that we couldn’t even make up or devise, but God, I like how the Bible says, “All things work out for our good.” A lot of times you may think things are really going in the negative or going totally opposite, and God sets things up and sets us up for that special time and place to use our gifting and anointings really for his purpose, but it’s usually in a way we didn’t even think of.

And sometimes it’s in a different time.

Correct.

You know, there’s a scripture that says in the Book of of Psalms that “My times are in his hand.” And a lot of times, God’s timescale doesn’t work like our timescale.

That’s right.

And so, for instance, Andrew Womack, who’s my personal mentor and friend, and I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, called to preach in his ministry in 1978, over 40 years ago. And Andrew’s a very accurate in the Word of wisdom, Word of knowledge, and Andrew has given me about 20 Words of wisdom over the last 40 years, 40 plus years now, getting closer to 45. In all that, one of these Words of wisdom that he’s given me has not come to pass, and I believe it will come to pass. And he even gave a Word this year when he was at our anniversary service, and it really is confirming that. And and this is eight years after he gave that Word, the first one, and I had another person had a dream and wrote the dream down, and it was exactly the same Word. So it was confirmed that Andrew gave me, years and years ago, and I said, this is a Word from God. This man and his wife were driving here, coming every other weekend, driving about 900 miles to come to church every other weekend and was really amazing for a period of time. And now that time’s passed, but you know, so we know these things. They’re in the mind of God because he keeps revealing it, and it’s not, but God has to bring that to pass. And we aren’t the one who makes it happen. God makes it happen. I know you’ve recently been sharing about that. How?

I did. I’m so excited. I recently shared on Zechariah 4:6, “It’s not by power, it’s not by might, but it’s by my Spirit, says the Lord.” And that was a Word for Zerubbabel, who was building the wall back up in the city of Judah. Do I have all those things correct?

[Pastor Lawson] Yes.

And what’s amazing about that, the Lord is really forbidding a man to get the glory. In other words, God’s like, I’m gonna bring this to pass. I’m gonna do this, and yes, I need you, but not a man, not an army will get the glory. I will get the glory. And so it was really exciting to study that out.

They were building the temple, and Ezra was the prophet of the temple. And they had been given a decree by a worldly king that they were to stop. And then the prophet of God came and said, listen, the same hands that that laid the, you know, foundation are gonna lay the capstone. They’re gonna finish this thing off. And it’s good to have that encouragement from God. And He said, this mountain will be removed by crying grace, grace. See, a lot of times I think people really fail to see the grace of God on their own life, and sometimes they’re blind to it. And I’m very aware of that there’s areas that I’m gifted, there’s areas that I’m not as gifted. I think it’s good to know that.

[Laura] that’s right.

To know your gifts and callings, to know what God’s called you, appointed you to do. And I believe in knowing that there’s great strength. And I believe people are actually stronger when they can tell you what their greatest weaknesses are. Some people really don’t know their own weaknesses, and I believe that makes you weaker, but I believe when you know where your greatest weaknesses are, that can help you move into your strengths. And so that’s just something from the Lord that I believe is good in fulfilling His plan of purpose. But so this happens, He points these officers, and they’re going throughout the kingdom. They’re having a beauty contest, and right there living in Shushan was a Jewish man by the name of Mordecai. And he had his niece, Esther, living with him, and her parents had been killed. She was an orphan, and she was a very beautiful young lady. And he said, Hey, her name was Hadassah. We know her as Esther. And he, he said, you’re a beautiful young lady. We ought to put you in this place. And so they were looking to put her in this contest. And so they brought her to the keeper of the king’s women, Hegai, in verse eight. And it says, “The maiden pleased him, and she obtained his kindness,” right, this favor. If you can’t get favor working at a small level, at a lower level, Esther had favor, first of all, with her Uncle Mordecai. And she placed him- I believe she had the favor of God on her, right. And then they brought her to the keeper of the king’s women, and she pleased him. She had found favor. But if you can’t get favor in a small level and working in a lower level, it’s gonna be hard to get it working in a higher level.

That’s a good point.

And she did things, like she was very respectful. She did what Mordecai told her, right. She did what Hegai told her. She didn’t just go in when they showed her all the clothing and all the jewelry. She just didn’t do what she wanted. They said, this is what the king wants. And, you know, in our own lives, we shouldn’t just be thinking about what we want. We should be thinking about what King Jesus wants. And I believe when you do that, when you live your life to please the Lord, ultimately, I believe that leads to a lot of good things.

In other words, what you’re saying is don’t just live for yourself.

[Pastor Lawson] Yeah.

And listen to the Lord. And then, you know, we talk a lot about too, listening to wise counselors. You know, she listened. A lot of times, people don’t want to take the time to listen to God or listen to wise counselors, and that’s a really big mistake.

Yes. You know, the Bible says a lot in the Book of Proverbs. “In the multitude of counselors, there’s safety.” “With good advice make war.” “He that companies with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” All these principles are laid out through the scripture. And, you know, I believe in really finding the will, the plan, the purpose of God, having godly counsel in your life is a huge thing. And we need to have people that we respect and people really that know God.

People that know God, people that have already done it and experienced it, but I like what you’re saying, people that know God, people of like-minded faith. In other words, I’m going to want to seek counsel with people who are spirit-filled, who spend time with the Lord and pray in tongues, in other words, people who are on fire.

Yeah, and so it’s important that the people you set up around you with counsel, that that they know God, that they have a proven track record themselves. Andrew Womack been one of my major mentors. Lester Sumrall was before he went home to be with the Lord. And I have other people that speak into my life, and I listen to what they have to say.

Isn’t it something when sometimes people, if you disagree with them, they just get so bent out of shape, and then they cut off relationship with you? But I like it when you put yourself in a place, like you’re talking about Esther, how she really listened to Mordecai, which is amazing. And as you just mentioned, even as she entered this beauty contest, she listened to the person who was over the keeper of the home or was watching over all these women. She was very wise in the fact that she would listen to other people.

Yeah, and do what they say. And I’ve done that, and God’s helped me. I’ve had a lot of good counsel. One of the directors of Charis Bible College in years past said it’s kind of amazing. You watch these students come in here, and somebody kind of touts themself to do, you know, be big and whatever, and they’ll go listen to ’em. And he said, if you really look at that person’s life, they haven’t accomplished anything. They haven’t done much. And yet somebody that’s really done stuff and accomplished a lot, sometimes people won’t listen to it. Well, you want to look at what those people personally have done and what they personally have accomplished. What is their personal track record?

Right.

And you want to listen to people. And God, I believe will give everybody people in their life that will speak into their life, that will help them move into the plan and purposes of God.

I agree.

We need to take a break, and we’ll be back in just a few seconds. And so stay tuned, we’ll be right back. We got a lot more to say about moving into the favor of God on your life. Blessings. Friends, I want to 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, you know, 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. Well, I’m glad you stayed with us. We’ve been talking from the life of Esther and the Book of Esther, and we’ve been talking about how Esther obtained favor, and she got favor with her uncle. She was an orphan who later became queen, but then she got favor with the keeper of the king’s wisdom.

And I did something earlier this morning, and maybe you’ve already talked about it. You can give the biblical description of favor, but I looked it up, and one of the things that said about favor, ’cause we keep talking about favor, but somebody, this might be your first time watching. So when I looked up the word favor, it means excessive kindness, unfair partiality.

Oh wow. I love that.

So again, excessive kindness and unfair partiality. Have you ever had someone jealous about someone else or jealous of you, and it’s just like, life isn’t fair? We have favor with God Almighty.

Amen. You know, and I say that ’cause a lot of, you know, the world will kind of give you a victim mentality about how life isn’t fair and kind of whining and crying in their beer, you know, but that’s not us. We say life’s not fair.

Because we have favor.

We have favor. We have excessive kindness and-

Unfair partiality.

Unfair partiality. Life’s not fair, guys. We have favor. That’s great. Amen. Praise God. And, you know, when God’s for you, if God be for you, who can be against you?

Amen. I like that.

And, you know, if God’s favor is on you, it will give you favor with people. In fact, in my book, “Uncommon Favor,” I wrote it a few years ago, it’s a our life story.

I’m gonna be honest, it’s one of my favorite books that you’ve written.

And I have a lot of people read it, and they say, this really encourages me, because, you know, if God did this for you, what will he do for you? And you know, God is no respecter of persons. He’s a respecter of faith. And by faith we enter into grace or favor, the favor of God that God has for us. And so, you know, they were preparing all these different women who had won these beauty contests in each of these kingdoms, I’m sure, to come and be with the king for a day, so on and so forth. And they purified them with six months with oil and six months with sweet-

In the Persian culture, you would take an entire year to get ready for a date.

Wow.

So I think some people need to be a little more patient with their wives and give them time to comb their hair and brush their teeth because again, in the Persian culture, you would take a year to get ready for one date.

Yeah. Yeah, wow. You’re so beautiful, by the way.

Sea law, think about that.

Hallelujah.

But thank you for the compliment. I receive that. You’re good to me, I know.

And so Jesus is so good to us. And when every maid came to the king, whatever she desired was given to her to go out of the house and the women to the king’s house. In the evening she went, and on the morning she returned in the second house, the women in the custody of Shaashgaz and the king’s chamberlain went to concubines. And she came into the king no more, except the king delighted it. So man, they got one shot, and if they didn’t get that right, they were out. So you want to get it right. So it says here in verse 15, and we talked about this a little bit already, but “When the turn of Esther,” this is Esther 2:15, the daughter of Abihail the uncle Mordecai who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in before the king, she required nothing.

Or requested nothing.

Yeah.

Except what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the person was over these women, was appointed, and Esther obtained favor in the sight of all of those who looked upon her.

Isn’t that amazing?

So first she got favor with her uncle, then she got favor with Hegai, the keeper of the women, and now, because she was so gracious. You know, if you want to receive favor, if you want to receive grace, be gracious. And now she obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked upon her. And she was taken to King Ahasuerus in his house in the 10th month in the seventh year of his reign. And the king, let’s look at this. This is where we’ve been getting all day. This is the first testimony. And I found about nine testimonies of the favor of God in the Book of Esther. And by the grace of God, we’ll get through ’em all this week, but this is the very first one. The king loves me. How many of you are glad the king Jesus loves you?

That’s good news.

And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen in the place of the Vashiti. And the king, boy, he had a party. He was so excited to have this beautiful, young, he didn’t know it at this point in time, but this beautiful, young Hebrew, this is beautiful, young Jewish bride.

But you know, again, you talked about being gracious, and it’s her attitude, her attitude and relationship with her family, but also her attitude and relationship with the Lord.

Right.

And that really affects how you respond and get along with others. You know, it’s just, to me, it’s been interesting when you see people really have a downfall, and the Bible talks about when they’re just so arrogant.

Yes, pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

And so God wants-

We’ve seen this happen.

Yes, God wants to use us, but again, it’s an attitude in being gracious, being kind, and really your relationship with the Lord and how you treat others.

Yeah. And so when this happened, Esther didn’t show who her family was, what her heritage was because she was instructed by Mordecai. He was a wise man. Do you know what? Good understanding will give you a favor. That’s what Proverbs says.

And she listened to wise counsel. There was a reason and a purpose, and again, we’re talking about things that you’re called to, and there’s a timing element in there involved as well.

And you know, she was put, and this is the beginning where we move into the next point that we’ll talk about tomorrow where there’s a kingdom purpose for our life. But Mordecai was in the king’s gate, and there are two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, this is in verse 21 of chapter two, who actually had a conspiracy to kill the king. And Mordecai found out about it, so he told Esther, and she was getting set up. It was a little bit scary in some aspects.

[Laura] Yes.

And sometimes faith will put you out there, right? And she had to live by faith to move into this grace on her life. But she went and told the king what Mordecai told her, and it took a little bit for that to happen. And when it was found out, they found out this is true. They asked around and checked it out. And so they went and hanged those guys. They didn’t have a very mercy system working. And you’re going to kill the king? We’ll just take you out.

Well, that was a very serious charge, and this is something that really Mordecai stopped, which is amazing, and we’ll bring that out more probably in-

In the broadcast tomorrow.

In the broadcast.

And I want to say a very great thank you for being with us today, being on the broadcast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this broadcast, and if you’re not a partner with Charis Christian Center, “Grace For Today,” I encourage you, I believe this ministry has a tremendous amount of grace on it. I believe we have a tremendous amount of grace in the area of finances and increase.

That’s correct.

And I believe, if you connect with us, I believe you’ll see increase. I believe you’ll see that seed come back to you many times over. So I want to encourage you to do that because I believe that we’re good ground. And you know what? We invest in a lot of ministries, over 60 ministries a year. We give, right now, over $500,000 a year to other ministries and missions, and, you know, I believe that’s gonna greatly increase in the future. But I want to encourage you to become a partner because I believe that there’s a blessing in that for you and remind you that we’re sharing from my series on favor, and I have this book on “Uncommon Favor.” It’s one of my best. Listen, if you need prayer, give us a call today. My prayer ministers are here, and they’re waiting for your call. Thank you so much for being with us. God bless you.

[Announcer] 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 charischristiancenter.com.

Hi, ladies. I am so excited to invite you to our Rejoice Women’s Conference, February 9th through the 11th. This is an event for women 13 and up. It’s time to rejoice!

Not only are you gonna have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, you are also gonna experience the power of God when you see signs, wonders, and miracles.

[Laura] Amen. We’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming. So make plans and register today.

[Announcer] 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 charischristiancenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on “Grace For Today.”