The Favor Of God Part 12 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 12 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 12 from Pastors Lawson & Barbara Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you have a divine purpose for your life and you can learn key principles from the life of Esther to move into those things.

The Favor Of God Part 12 Transcript

Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’re talking about favor in the life of Esther. And I have my wife, Barbara, with me and we’re talking today specifically about finding favor and moving into the purpose of God for your life. There is a divine purpose for your life. I believe that God has a divine destiny for every person, but if you’re gonna move into it, you need God’s favor. Stay tuned.

Friends, I’m so glad that you are with us today. And Barbara’s here. We’re talking all of this week about favor in the life of Esther.

Beautiful story. It’s amazing.

It really is an amazing story of God’s grace and favor on Esther, a beautiful young Jewish orphan who became queen of the largest empire in the world.

Isn’t it amazing when God takes the most unlikely, probably someone who wasn’t voted most likely to succeed when he was younger, but God sees our heart. He recognizes the attitude and our relationship with Him, and He’s like, “I can use that one.”

Amen. You know, the Bible actually says this. He chose David, you know, when he was among the sheepfolds because He saw the integrity of his heart. God saw his heart.

Wow.

And the scripture also says that when he picked David, in Samuel, when the prophet Samuel was there, or Jesse, Jesse was David’s father, but Samuel came and all these other sons of Jesse passed before Samuel and the Lord said, “No, no, no, no, no.” And finally, you know, Samuel told Jesse, “Do you have any more sons?” They said, “Oh, yeah. We left little David out with the sheep,” and they said, “Well, go get him,” and he said, “Stand up and wait.”

Wow.

And boy, when he came in, the Lord said, “Arise,” and anointed him. And He said, “For the Lord does not see as a man sees.”

That’s amazing.

God sees the heart condition. And you may be fooling a few people. You know what? It’s been said, you can fool most of the people, you know, some of the time and some of the people most of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. And you can’t ever fool God.

That’s right. I think, yeah, I think we’ve all seen where people, you’re like, “How long is this gonna last?” and it usually doesn’t last long. But again, we’re so excited to be sharing on favor and what this means in the Bible, how this affects you and God sees your heart. And God has a special anointing and calling on your life. But we wanna keep our relationship with the Lord and have the right attitude and that how we worship Him, and that really affects how we treat others. And God is watching, and usually it’s the most unlikely person with the unlikely circumstances. I believe we all have had a word over us, and a lot of times, it doesn’t come to pass or happen how we would design it.

In our timing.

And, you know what, we’re talking about Esther and how this came to pass, how she got to that place and how her uncle reminded her about the circumstances that got her there. And we, each one of us need to remember what God has done for us and how really it is to affect and really bring life to others.

Yeah, and that’s what we see begin to happen. Once Esther became the queen, right, she obtained the favor. The first testimony of the favor of God is that “The king loves me.”

That’s awesome.

What a marvelous testimony that we’re accepted in the presence of the King, that King Jesus loves us.

We’re accepted, and I also like something you’ve shared before too, where the Bible tells us that He has demonstrated, God has demonstrated His love towards us. There’s so many people running around acting like orphans, and God, the Heavenly Father, has demonstrated His love for us,

Hallelujah.

but does it really on a daily basis. I just get up and thank God all day long for how good He is to me.

Amen. You know, and we’re aware of His goodness. Now, once she becomes queen, Mordecai, her uncle, finds out there’s a conspiracy, we talked about this yesterday, against the king, and two people we’re gonna, you know, looking to kill the king. So Mordecai tells Esther. Esther tells the people the powers that be, and they check it out, find out it’s true, so they hang him. And then Haman, who was this wicked governor, you know, really, the king promoted Haman. He didn’t really know. And sometimes people get promoted and they’re like, they really don’t know what’s going down there. But eventually, these things come out. But Mordecai knew Haman wasn’t right, and so he would not show respect to Haman. And Haman was angry and he hated Mordecai because he was a Jew. It says this in verse 4. “He told them he was a Jew, so when Haman saw Mordecai did not bow or give him reverence, then Haman was full of wrath.”

You know, I wanna bring something out, and I actually ministered on a Wednesday night about this warning people. The same thing that we see happening here in the Old Testament and what we’ve seen now is to hate somebody just because they’re a different culture or a different color or a different gender or a different class is just crazy. And we have to really be careful. We can learn a lot from this, like you’re talking about, really, the wickedness of Haman. And trying to build division and wrath against other people is just terrible. And we need to make sure we don’t fall for these same devices that the devil tries to bring in our culture today, dividing and division, because that is just pure wickedness.

It’s a spirit of anti-Christ. And you know what? We really see the same spirit that was working in Haman, we saw that working in Hitler.

[Barbara] That’s right.

We saw that working in Mussolini.

Stalin.

We see it working in Putin today against the Ukraine.

Just to hate somebody. And they-

It’s just terrible and it’s a

And to have war on someone who-

terrible thing and killing all these innocent people. “So Haman became the governor. He was full of pride, arrogance, hatred of the Jews. And so he came in before the king and he said, ‘King,'” this is in verse 8 of chapter 3, “‘There’s a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people of your kingdom and their laws are different.'” You know, diversity sometimes causes this type of hatred. “‘And neither did they keep the king’s laws and why do we suffer them? It’s not for your benefit to let them live.'” You know, there’s been a lot of hatred

Isn’t that sad to say

of the Jewish people?

it’s not for your benefit to let somebody live? Who decides who should live and who should die? Again, that is just an attitude of pure, absolute wickedness. It is not an attitude of the kingdom of life, the godly kingdom, God’s kingdom.

Let’s talk about something going on right now in America.

Well, abortion.

It’s called abortion. And all these lying liberals.

I tell you what, I know as-

A child is not a choice.

I tell you, I know as a woman, I have rights. I have a right to keep my job, to keep my business open. I have a right… Since I have been here in this country, I was always told that the government, there’s a law to protect my health records, that it’s nobody’s business, not even yours, if I don’t wanna share it with my own husband, that as a woman, I have a right, that my health records are protected and kept private. And to say that you have to do something the government says or you’re gonna lose your job or can’t go to a restaurant, that is private information. I should not have to carry my medical information around my neck or have a chip put in my wrist to tell people that private information. But I will tell you, as a woman, as a mother, I have rights, but that right does not include killing a child out of inconvenience. Children have a right to live, and I as a woman do not have a right to kill my children. Again, that’s wickedness. You are not thinking straight. And it’s wrong for people to abuse a mother, a young mother or any mother at that stage, and coerce and encourage and talk her into something that, as a woman, there is something in you to protect and fight for your child. And to have people coerce and influence you, to just call it a blob and to kill it, that is, to me, the same. They are just as guilty as murder to encourage someone to get rid of a child.

You know, we just watched last night a liberal person get on the stage of a very large, large church, and the pastor encouraged them to vote for this woman, basically, who is against everything that’s right and true and godly.

Yeah, we need to uphold

And that is completely wrong. We need to stand up for biblical values and listen-

People for life.

You know me. It’s not about race. I don’t care whether people are Black or Brown, whether they’re African American, whether they’re Hispanic, whether they’re Asian, whether they’re English.

That’s right.

That doesn’t make, Caucasian, that doesn’t make any difference to me. I stand up for people who stand for the right values.

Who have godly values and who have the qualifications and the ability to do the job.

Yeah, we have to have that.

Like how about have people in political offices that know how to balance a checkbook for starters.

Yeah.

Anyway, we better go on.

Well, yeah, we better move on. But anyway, this wicked governor, you know, and there’s some wickedness. I was appalled in the elections about how many lies were coming across the television, these people trying to get elected, and they were absolute pure lies that were coming from our government because they were trying to get reelected and they were not true. And people that know the truth know it and it just makes you angry that people can get by with this kind of lying and not be held accountable. And they’ll be held accountable in eternity. But anyway, “Haman offered to pay the king,” in verse 9, “10,000 talents of silver.” And that’s, in today’s value, between, depending on how you weigh a talent, between 180 and $220 million.

That’s crazy, but again, there’s nothing, Ecclesiastes says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” We see this today where people bribe and buy off people in high places. And a lot of times just, even in this instance, it’s conniving, it’s dishonesty, and sometimes, other people don’t even really realize what’s behind it till maybe after the fact, which we’ll find out as we go on this week. But again, where people bribe and connive and use money to maneuver their way

To manipulate people.

to manipulate people. Correct.

And it’s completely wrong. And anyway, in this situation, the king didn’t realize what was going on and gave his ring, which was a sign of authority of that kingdom, the largest kingdom on the earth, the largest empire in world history, to that wicked Haman. And he signed this letter to have all the Jews, it says in verse 13, “Letters were sent by post to all the king’s provinces to destroy and kill and cause to perish all the Jews, both young and old and children and women, in one day,” which was to be, you know, in the future. “And a copy of this writing was to be given in every province and published to all the people that they would be ready against this day. The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace.” This is verse 15 of chapter 3. “And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan.” You know what? You might fool some of the people some of the time, but you don’t fool all the people all the time.

No, you don’t.

They were perplexed that this was out of character

Right.

for this king to operate this way, because he was

He’s really tricked.

deceived.

Tricked and deceived.

And so when this went out, “Mordecai,” it says in chapter 4, “perceived all that was done and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and cried aloud with a bitter cry. And it came before the king’s gate, for none might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province where the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was a great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.” And you know, we’ve talked about some of these world leaders. Hitler was one. But we just watched a documentary that in the early 1900s, Great Britain had control over 25% of the population of the world. But they did not stand with Israel and they’ve lost their preeminence in world affairs. You can study history. And anybody who stands against Israel long term, it doesn’t work out well for. And you can go from Egypt to Syria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, Rome to current societies, Venezuela, different ones. And so I believe it’s very important here in the United States of America that we stand with the nation of Israel.

I agree.

And God has protected them supernaturally. And you can study history and figure this out.

And find that out.

Now we’re gonna take a short break and we’ll be back right after this. And we’re gonna talk about moving into God’s purpose, the kingdom purpose for your life. You don’t want to miss it so stay tuned. 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, 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. Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’re right here in Esther 4. And we found out this wicked governor, Haman, had got the king to decree that all the Jews in every province in this largest empire that ever ruled the earth, 127 kingdoms, to destroy all of these people.

You know, we’re reading it for ourselves, we’re reading it together, and as you read it, I’m just, you’re just baffled. Like, how can this happen? How can things like this happen? And I just wanna, you know, we brought it out. We wanna remind you, this is just pure wickedness. And you don’t wanna fall for it. You don’t ever wanna get caught up in that trap because it’s a trap of the devil to divide people. And to hate someone because they look different or even think different, that is just wickedness

No, it’s wrong.

to hate someone because they’re not exactly like you.

We might disagree with somebody on a policy, so on and so forth, but God loves everybody.

[Barbara] That’s right.

And you know what? We’re made in the image of God, and if we understand how much God loves us, we should love others.

Correct.

Now, Esther hears about this and it begins in verse four. Esther 4:4: “Her maids and chamberlains came and told it to her and the queen was exceedingly grieved. And she sent clothes to clothe Mordecai and take away the sackcloth, but he did not receive it. Then Esther called for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains who he appointed to attend on her and gave him a commandment to Mordecai to know what it was and why it was. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai to the street before the kings gate. And Mordecai told him of all that happened to him and the sum of money.” You know, this gift blinded the eyes of the king that Haman had promised to pay the king’s treasury something like $200 million in today’s terms to destroy the Jewish people.

You know, you and I have seen some of it, and I believe a lot of people have too unfortunately in our culture where we have seen where people use money again to manipulate and to maneuver

And it’s wrong.

to get where they want. And it is wrong at every level.

Yep. “And so he gave him a copy of this writing, the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy the Jews, to show it to Esther and declare it to her and charge her that she should go in to the king to make intercession or supplication before him and make requests before her people. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai, and Esther spoke to Hatach and gave him commandment to Mordecai. And all the king’s servants and people of the king’s provinces do know that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come in to the king in the inner court who is not called there is one law of his to put him to death.” So you didn’t just go marching into that king’s palace without-

An invitation.

Yes. It caused you a lot of trouble. They put you to death. They take off your head “except such to whom the king would hold out his golden scepter that he may live. But she said, ‘I’ve not been called to come in to the king for 30 days.’ So they told Mordecai Esther’s words, and Mordecai,” listen to Mordecai’s answer in verse 13. “‘Think not with yourself that you will escape in the king’s house, more than all of the Jews. For if you altogether hold your peace at this time, then there will be an enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. And who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'” Who knows? Are you gonna stand up for what’s right? And he said, “If you don’t, you’re not gonna escape.”

What is the saying that evil prevails when good man-

Do nothing.

Do nothing.

And so, you know, there’s a time to hold your peace, but there’s also a time to speak. And so, you know, Mordecai just basically said, “Hey, Esther, if you don’t say anything, you’re gonna lose your life.” But God is gonna spare His people.

Right.

And he’s very bold and Esther told them to return to Mordecai. ‘Gather the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me for three days, night and day, and I and my maidens will fast likewise, and then I’ll go to the king.'”

Now this reminds me, I like how she took time aside to pray. The Bible tells us in James 1, praise God, that if you need wisdom, you can ask and the Lord will give it to you liberally. We all need wisdom to do what God has called us to do. And I like how she took that time aside to really to pray to fast and to hear from the Lord.

And to get ready to go in before the king.

And to know to go at the right time

Right.

and to say the right things. And as we get on into this story, it’s really amazing how she got this information to the king. She just didn’t go boldly to him or in a disrespectful way, but she took her time. She was calm when she communicated with him. And she had more than one meeting, and we’ll get into that. I’m kind of getting ahead.

Yeah, but you know, she prepared herself spiritually,

Yes.

Right, and then she also prepared herself physically. I’m sure when she went over there and stood, you know, at the side, very respectfully.

Right.

I’m sure she wore what she knew the king liked best.

Yes.

You know? And she prepared herself spiritually, and she prepared herself physically, not unlike Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He was there and Nehemiah was working, right. And he went in before the king. He was the cupbearer to the king. It was a very high political position. And he went in sad, and you couldn’t go into the king sad. You endangered your own life.

That’s interesting.

But Nehemiah heard of the people of God and he heard of Jerusalem and what had been done to the city and the walls and the gates, so on and so forth, and it affected him at a heart level. And so he went in to the king and he said, “Well, how can I be happy with what’s going on with my people?” And so later, he had a meeting with the king and he desired… He prayed to God. And he said, “God, give me favor in the sight of this man.” And this is something that a lot of people don’t really understand. We’re talking about the favor of God in our life. But not only do we have favor with God, but we have favor with man. And he says, “Give me favor in the sight of this man.”

That’s good.

And so he got favor before God, but he also got favor before man. And when he went in, you know, there he had a plan, and he said, “You give me these things, you give me these goods, you give me these letters to these people to get these goods, you give me this much time, and I’ll get the job done.” He was well prepared. And before Esther went into the king, she prepared herself. She prepared herself spiritually. She prepared herself emotionally. She prepared herself physically. She got ready. And, you know, if we wanna move in and accomplish great things for God, we need to be prepared spiritually, emotionally, and physically in all areas. We’re a whole man. And a lot of times, Christians, you know, they focus on the spiritual man. But we forget to think about, you know, our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We need to take care of our body physically. They forget to think about finances. And so we’re spirit, soul, and body, all these different areas. If we’re gonna move into the God-given purpose in our life, we need certain things to do that.

That’s right.

And, you know, we taught our children, right? And we teach about children. We’re gonna have a, you’re writing a book right now on imparting success to the next generation. It’ll be just, you know, out pretty quick actually, coming up. But in that we’re getting that book ready, and we’ve taught these things for years and it really has helped our children. But we teach people because, in the church, a lot of times we talk about the spiritual aspects, but we fail to talk about the physical aspects, the educational aspects, the emotional aspects. And we trained our kids in different areas.

And how to work, how to tithe, how to save,

Right.

how to give, and really, just very simple principles. So as you mentioned in this book, it’s just very practical, simple teaching that anybody can start no matter where you’re at, whether you’re single, whether you’re a teenager, whether you’re married, whether you’re not. I mean, it’s a practical, really wisdom in the Bible for everybody, that you can start at any time in your life and it will work. The Bible works. Hallelujah.

So thank God it’s working. It’s working on our behalf. So, you know, we’re nearly out of time today, but if you need prayer, I want to encourage you to call. I have trained prayer ministers that are here to receive your call and to pray for you. And we see lots of miracles.

That’s right.

I had a lady come to me last Sunday, and she said just like a week and a half before on Wednesday, she fell, she’s probably 70. She went in and got x-rayed and they said she broke her arm and her elbow.

Wow.

And the doctor put her in a sling and told her to go see the surgeon on Monday, made an appointment for her. So that was Wednesday when it happened. Thursday she came in, had our girl that answers the phone, Lydia, many of you if you call in, talk to Lydia, pray for her, had another one of our prayer ministers, Ms. Kim, pray for her. She got much better.

Praise the Lord.

She came Sunday. She received prayer Sunday at church, and then she went Monday to this appointment with her arm in a sling and so the surgeon took x-rays and he said, “Why? You know, you don’t really need surgery. You don’t need anything done. Take the sling off. You’re healed.” That was miraculous. You know what, our God,

That is tremendous. iss a miracle working God. And this is just my prayer ladies that pray for you when you call in.

Amen. You are not alone.

If you need prayer, if you want a partner, if you wanna receive my book on “Uncommon Favor” or this “Favor” package, all of these teachings, just give us a call today. We would love to hear from you. Thanks so much and blessings.

[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.

Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I want to say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.

[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.”