The Favor Of God Part 15 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 15 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 15 from Pastors Lawson & Barbara Perdue. In this final episode of Grace For Today on the Favor of God, you’ll learn how to rejoice and rest in God’s favor. Specifically, you will learn how to rest in the provision of God.

The Favor Of God Part 15 Transcript

Praise the Lord, friends, today we are concluding our series on favor. I’m gonna be teaching from the life of Esther. I have my beautiful wife, Barbara, with me. We’re gonna talk about rejoicing and resting in what God has given you and living in the provision of God. So open your heart, receive the good Word of God, enjoy the broadcast, and God bless you, we appreciate you, thanks.

Welcome friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today, and I have Barbara with me, and we’re sharing here from the Book of Esther, and we’ve been talking about favor in the life of Esther. What a marvelous story.

We’ve been talking about excessive kindness and unfair partiality is what the word favor means.

And Esther had a tremendous amount of favor, tremendous amount of grace, and you know, I used to teach a class at Charis Bible College called The Favor of God, and one of my longtime friends, Paul Stewart, said, “Lawson, that ought to be your life message, you got favor all over you,” and you know, Lester Sumrall came after we built our first church in Kit Carson, years and years ago, 1989, he came to dedicate it, and when he got done, he said, “You’ve done a lot and you’ve done it quick, how’d you do it?” I said, “I had a lot of favor.” He said, “God gives favor, don’t you ever forget it,” I’ve never forgotten it, praise God. But God gives us favor, and we’ve been talking about the testimony and the favor of God, the kings loves me, there’s a kingdom purpose for my life, I’m accepted in his presence, he, you know, he’s granted my request, I’m redeemed from the curse, I’m protected from the enemy, and now we’re gonna move forward in this and talk about how they got victory over their enemies. There, a lot of enemies of the Jewish people and God used Esther to deliver them.

And what we’ve been talking about, we all have an anointing and calling on our life, and God has shown grace through his son Jesus Christ for all of us, and when we really move and operate in the things that the Lord has for us, it will affect someone else, it isn’t just about us, it’s about caring for others, and really, again, when we move and operate through the power of the Holy Spirit, it will affect others, and it usually brings life to a situation where there was death.

And in this case it did, and the favor on Esther’s life, right? brought life to nations and generations. It was, because there were people, joined themselves to the Jews, and she became queen of the largest empire of the world, ruled over 127 different nations, nations and generations, many generations were spared. So praise God, I believe that God has an anointing on different people’s life that will affect nations and generation, and when we look at this in Esther 9:1, “In the 12th month, that is, the month of Adar, the 13th day of the same, when the king’s commandment and decree drew near to put in execution in the day, the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, though it was turned to the contrary, the Jews had rule over them that hated them,” they ruled over them, “And the Jews gathered together in their cities throughout,” the Jews. So there’s great strength when we come together in unity, and many times we don’t understand the power of unity, but they came together throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus to lay hands on such that sought their hurt, and no man could withstand them for the fear of them fell on all the people,” this thing was completely turned around, this hatred of the Jews became now a fear of the people of God.

And we talked about how really there’s nothing new under the sun, the devil’s devices are always wicked and always about dividing, and so we want to always be aware and walk in wisdom, and don’t fall for the wickedness and devices of the devil, don’t fall for this, “I hate other people, I hate ’em for whatever reason,” that is just pure wickedness, the devil, the deceiver tries to stir people.

[Lawson] God loves people.

God loves people, and like you just brought out, there’s more we can do together than just falling for that crazy division nonsense.

Yes. “And all the rulers of the provinces, and lieutenants and deputies and officers of the king,” this is in Esther 9:3, “helped the Jews because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.” So now Mordecai became the governor, Haman, this wicked man, tried to kill him, now he became governor in his place, and Haman’s property was all given to Esther, that thing was completely reversed. “And Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went throughout all the provinces.” You know, some people grow in favor and some people lose favor, Haman started out with favor and lost it, Mordecai started out, and even though he probably had some favor, but he grew in favor, he grew in influence. We wanna, Jesus grew, he increased, right? In favor with God, in favor with men, and in stature, and just like Jesus increased, I believe we can increase in favor. And this man, Mordecai, waxed, he grew greater and greater.

Isn’t it in the Bible, I believe, is it Psalm 112 where it says, “For the righteous, for your descendants,” or it says it in another place, that the Lord will increase you and your children more and more.

That’s in Psalm 115:9-16, praise God, I like to speak it, it’s a great promise-

That’s great.

That we can speak and maybe we’ll share it before the end of the broadcast. But he says, “The Jews smote all their enemies with a stroke of the sword in slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto those who hated them.” So these people that came against the Jews ultimately lost their life. You better watch who you come against, you better watch, I would not fight the Jews, I would not fight somebody that I know is born of God, keep my hands off of them. “Vengeance is mine,” said The Lord, “I’ll repay.” So I would never fight a child of God, or I would never fight a covenant person of God, period.

When we talked about how the king was deceived by someone so wicked, by a payoff, by a bribe, really, and so there was a law that could not be reversed, but hallelujah. You know, Esther spoke up and so they made it so that the Jews could arm themselves and protect themselves. So light always overcomes darkness, the truth will always prevail, and that’s what we’re seeing here.

Now, we read on down the Jews smote all their enemies, this is verse five, “With the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them. In Shushan, the palace, the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men.” So right there where the king lived and Mordecai governed, they killed 500, “And all these different people, Parshandatha, and Dalphon, Asaf, Asphata, all these different names. Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, Vajezatha, the 10 sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews,” they killed all 10 of his kids. So he, you know, just like we talked about this yesterday in the broadcast, that there was a wicked, Nabal was a good man, and-

And King Ahab, and-

King Ahab was a wicked man, and his wife was a wicked woman, just like Zeresh and Haman were wicked people, and they ultimately lost their, you know-

Yeah.

Haman lost his life, but his 10 sons lost their lives, and all of Ahab’s sons, God said, “I’m gonna destroy every male child at this house.”

That’s right.

You don’t come against the people of God and win. And so they killed them all, and those that were slain, they brought the number that were slain to Shushan, the palace, before the king, and the king said to Esther, “The Jews have slain 500 men in Shushan, the palace, and the 10 sons of Haman, what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces?” So they went out and they asked about it and then said, “Esther, if it please the king, let it be granted the Jews that are in Shushan tomorrow, under this decree, and let Haman’s 10 sons be hanged on the gallows.” So not only did Haman get hanged on this gallows, but his 10 sons, he lost everything. And you know, if you’re stupid, you get stupid results, so repent, don’t be stupid. God’s a God of mercy, he’s a God of grace, but you know, you don’t wanna keep being stupid, stupid doesn’t win long term.

That’s right.

“And the king commanded it to be done, the decree was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s 10 sons, and the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and they killed 300 men at Shushan, that they did not lay their hands on the prey, but the other Jews that were in the king provinces gathered themselves together and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their enemies 75,000, but they did not lay their hands on the prey.” So they killed 75,000 people. “On the 13th day of the month of Adar, the 14th day they rested and made a day of feasting and gladness.” So they actually started this, the Jews actually still celebrate this, and I’ve had different people in my congregation who were Jewish people, and sometimes they even say something, I said something the other day at Bible school I didn’t even realize, and she said, “You shouldn’t say that,” so she said, “It didn’t offend me, but it could offend,” so I said, “Okay, I’ll try to do better.” But anyway, they had a day of feasting and gladness, they had victory over their enemies, the Feast of Purim. And so on the Feast of Purim they actually, Jews today celebrate it, and they read this book, and when they say the name of Haman, they shout and holler, and scream and laugh, and beat pans, and they-

They make noise, so you-

You can’t hear his name-

Yeah.

His name be wiped off the face of the planet.

Be wiped out. Amen.

But “The Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the 13th day and the 14th day.” In the 15th day they had this big party-

And made it

So I have a question-

A day of feasting-

For you.

And gladness. They celebrated the victory.

So I have a question for you, you just talked about here, this celebration, and how they read all these passages, but when they say that person’s name, and I’m not gonna say it because I like how the Jews, they don’t give any recognition to that name, they make all this noise, you can’t be heard because it’s representing how something was wiped out, but just think, what did Jesus, when he came, what did he wipe out for us?

The works of the devil. “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8.

And the works of the devil are poverty-

[Both] Sickness.

Disease, anxiety, all those are the works of the devil.

They have been wiped out.

Yes, and you know what? You don’t have to live in it. Man, I thank God that, you know, 44 years ago I heard the full gospel preached, glory to God, and I found out you don’t have to be sick and poor, and defeated by the devil. You can live in the victory Jesus won, and I’ve been living that out, my life gets better and better.

Well, I like, I love, that is my favorite testimony that you share, how you heard the gospel and how you made the decision to receive it with gladness-

Yes, just like they did.

And to believe it, but you made a decision that you weren’t gonna live like that anymore, that you were gonna believe God’s promises.

You know what we’ve been talking about, favor or grace. And my good friend Andrew Wommack says this about, you just talked about making a decision, he says faith is a decision. He said, “You can look into the mirror of circumstances or you can look into the mirror of the Word, and then you make a decision that you’re gonna believe the Word instead of believe circumstances,” and you know what? If you’ll make a decision to believe God, the Bible says in James 1, “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways, let not that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord.” So you’re not gonna get much from God being double-minded, you gotta make up your mind, “I’m gonna believe the promise of God, I’m gonna believe the Word of God, I’m gonna believe what God says over my circumstances, over my situation,” you know, when I first heard Andrew Wommack preaching this full gospel, my parents lived in a trailer house, they drove cars with hundreds of thousands of miles, my dad had an addiction to alcohol and nicotine. You know, poverty ruled, my parents were about to get a divorce, but Jesus came and the gospel came, and reversed the curse on our life.

Amen.

And you know what? I don’t live with any of that garbage, glory to God, because I believe the Word of God, it’s not where you came from that counts, it’s where you’re going. So start believing the promise of God, make a decision to believe God.

So what’s happened since you decided all those years ago, you were a teenager when you heard the gospel, and you made a decision, what has happened over the years? It might not have happened within 30 seconds.

Oh, I’ve been blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and blessed. You say, “I’m tired of hearing that.” Well, it’s the truth, I’m blessed in my body, blessed in my mind, blessed in my spirit, blessed in my home, blessed in my family. You know, I had somebody tell me, “Your children are an anomaly.” All of our children are blessed, they’re all serving Jesus. So much, so many good things have come to me through believing the gospel, through believing the promise of God, I’m so glad that all the promises of God in Jesus Christ are yes and amen. When God sent Jesus, he said yes, and when we believe it, we say amen. Hallelujah.

And hallelujah, we wake up every day and just thank God for his goodness, and for his grace-

Amen.

And for all that he’s done, we recognize and acknowledge what we have is ultimately from the Lord.

You know, people don’t forget to thank God. You know, I go to the gym in the morning in a beautiful place. I thank God for the beauty that surrounds us, of creation, but I thank God for my tennis shoes. Man, I was thanking God the other day for my tennis shoes. You say, “That’s such a little thing.” Yeah, but don’t forget, some people don’t have any.

Mm-hmm.

You know what? We have so much to be thankful for. So thankfulness, I believe, will lead you into the blessing of God.

Amen.

I believe that’s, you know, it’s really a thankfulness, and faith and joy, they all go together. Amen.

And I, like, you’ve been sharing here today in Esther 9, and I like how it shows with things being reversed and how the Lord does protect us, but they’ve win these battles and it says it more than once how he brings them into a place of rest. You know, the Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God.” That means, “Be still and know that he is ultimately the one who is fighting and winning your battles for you.”

Amen.

That we can enter into that rest knowing that it is done.

Praise God. We’ll talk more about that right after the break, so we got a short ad, we’ll be right back, stay tuned. Amen, we’ve got a lot more good things to share. Thank you. 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 wanna miss getting this book “Uncommon Favor.” And we’ve packaged 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 that you stayed tuned with us, don’t forget to call in today and get on the website, check out our product. We have a lot of free things on the website, so don’t forget about that, and you can get literally hundreds of hours of our teaching on the website, free of charge. He says, “Therefore, the Jews of the villages that dwelled in unwalled towns, made the 14th day of month Adar gladness and feasting, a good day, they sent portions to one another.” Verse 20, Esther 9:20, “Mordecai wrote all these things, sent letters to all the Jews that were in the provinces to establish among them that they would keep the 14th day of the month of Adar, the 15th day yearly,” this is the feast of Purim, the Jews still celebrate it, “And the days when the Jews rested from their enemies,” this is what you were just talking about before the break, “And the month was turned from sorrow to joy, from mourning into a good day.” You know, God will turn your sorrow into joy, he’ll turn your mourning into dancing, he’ll give you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. “That they should make days of feasting and joy, and send portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.” So they rested and they rejoiced.

Mm-hmm.

I believe we can rest, and you know, and some of the hardest work we’ll ever do as a believer, it says in Hebrews 4:11, “Let us labor to enter into that rest.” Enter into the finished work of Jesus, rejoice in the work that he has done, they rested and they rejoiced, “And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and Mordecai wrote to them because Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy devised against the Jews not to destroy them and cast pur, which is a lot, and consume them, and destroy them, but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, would return on his own head, that his sons would be hanged.” I mean, what he wanted for others he got, you better watch out what you want for other people, you better watch out what you plan to do to other people, it might come back to you. You know, the golden rule still applies, do unto others what you want done unto you. Amen. Husbands and wives, tell ’em your favorite scripture, Barbara.

“Husbands, go all out in your love for your wife.” Hallelujah, that’s Ephesians 5:25 in a different translation. But you know what? We need to love one another, we need to do unto others what we want done unto us. Since we’re talking about husband and wives a little bit. You know, I think the number one thing that destroys marriages is selfishness, and both the Hebrew and Greek words for marriage in the Old Testament, New Testament, mean to give yourself to the other and I often say, “When the giving stops, the marriage stops.” So keep giving to your wife, husbands. Wives, keep giving to your husbands, keep loving one another. There has been an onslaught of the devil against homes, and I believe the devil’s trying to find Christian marriages and homes, but you don’t need to give in to the devil-

When we-

You know, the Bible says, “Don’t give place to the devil.”

Yeah, and we’re talking about, you brought this up about husbands and wives, and you know, a husband is told how to love his wife, love like Jesus, like Jesus loves-

Unconditionally.

Gave his life.

As Christ loved the church. Jesus loved the church when the church was making all the wrong choices, doing all the wrong things, as your own body. Husbands, you care for your wife as your own body, you care for her, you provide for her, you be kind to her, right? And then as yourself, husband and wives, you need to learn how to become best friends and share emotionally with one another.

And it says to submit to one another.

Right, just respect one another. You know, you’re not gonna submit to somebody you don’t respect. So we need to have a godly, healthy respect for our mate, for our husbands, for our wives. It goes on and it tells us, “Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha,” in verse 24 of chapter 9 of Esther, “The enemy of the Jews devised against the Jews to destroy them, they cast pur, the lot, to consume them, destroy them, but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that this wicked device of Haman, which he devised against the Jews, would return upon his own head.”

Hmm.

He got what he wanted for other people. “He and his sons would be hanged on the gallows. When they called the days of Purim after the name of Pur, therefore all the words of this letter which they’d seen concerning this matter which had come to them, the Jews ordained and took upon them and their seed, and upon all who joined themselves,” again, this was inclusive, “to them. “So as it would not fail that they would keep these two days according to the writing, according to their appointed time every year,” and verse 28 of Esther chapter nine, “that these days would be remembered and kept throughout every generation and every family.”

And I wanna bring out something that I love, what the Jewish people do, what we need to remember to do is take time to celebrate the victories.

Amen.

Take time to celebrate what God has done, the answered prayers, the victories he’s has, a lot of times people forget and then they go back into just falling, you know, pretending or feeling like they’re victims, but celebrate the victories, celebrate the goodness of God.

Amen, we need to continually do that. You know, that he said, “I want these days to remember, every family, every province, every city, that these days of Purim would not fail among the Jews, nor a memorial of them perish from their seed.” Remember the goodness of God.

Remember to be thankful, it’s interesting, it’s in the Book of Timothy where it says in the end times people will be unthankful.

I see so many people, they’ve been given so much and they’re so ungrateful,

And we don’t wanna-

It is really a tragedy.

We don’t wanna be like that.

And so Esther, the Queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, confirmed the second letter of Purim, and he sent letters to all the Jews, the 127 provinces, to the kingdom of Ahasuerus with words of peace and truth.” He, you know, they gave words of peace and words of truth, “to confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed according to Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen that had joined to them, and they decreed for themselves and for their seed the matters of fastings and their cry, and the decree of Esther was confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.” And so not only this, you know, they lived in peace and truth, so they remembered the goodness of God, they celebrated the victory, they rested and rejoiced, they had victory over their enemies, but they lived, God wants us to live in peace and truth. Now finally we come to the very last chapter, and this is a book of redemption, just like the Bible is a book of redemption.

Amen.

The Bible begins with man in the garden with God, and it ends with man at the river of God, at the throne of God with the tree of life, it’s a book of redemption, but it says, “King Ahasuerus laid tribute on the land and all the isles of the sea,” this is Esther 10:1, verse two says, “And all the acts of his power and his mind, and declaration of the greatness of Mordecai.” You know, Haman was, you know, destroyed because he wanted to destroy God’s people, but Mordecai, his greatness was declared and remembered. “Whereunto the king advanced him, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of the Medes and Persia?” Medo-Persia, the greatest kingdom, the largest kingdom in the world’s history. “For Mordecai the Jew was next under the king Ahasuerus and the great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all of his seed.” So finally, this is the last testimony of the favor of God. Their friends were exalted and we have his promises, we live in his provision. You know, some people don’t believe in the blessing of God, they just haven’t read the Bible.

That’s right.

You know, you need to get back. I was preaching yesterday in the Bible school, and I said, “Sam,” I said, “The problem with some people is they just don’t believe the scriptures,” and I’d said this thing and the people laughed, and then I said, “The problem with some people,” and they laughed when I said they just don’t believe the scriptures. And this lady came up and she said, “I was really having a problem with what you’re saying, and I realized it’s the scripture.” It’s amazing how some people just don’t believe the Bible, but we need to get back to believing the Word of God, and because it’s the Word of God and every Word of God is pure, he is a shield to those who put their trust in him-

Amen.

That’s Proverbs 30:5. God never changes from his Word. His Word goes into eternity and produces a harvest. Friends, if you would like to become a partner with us, if you need prayer, if you’d like to have product, I’d love to have you call in, I just wanna encourage you, you know, we have the privilege at our church with partnering with many ministries, we see a lot of blessing as a result, I believe our ministry has a, you know, an anointing of increase and I believe that you could enjoy some of that if you join with us-

We’d love-

And sharing this gospel around the nation.

Yes. We’d love to have you join with us and we wanna remind everybody about the amazing products. We couldn’t share everything regarding this series, but you can get this CD series. Then of course, this is my favorite book that you’ve written, “Uncommon Favor.” You know, if it will work for me and you, or you and I, we know it will work for you. God’s favor is all over our lives.

Amen, thank God for the favor of God. So many people read that book and they tell me, “Pastor, that book just encouraged me.” You can read it in an hour, hour and a half.

That’s nice.

But it’s just testimonies of God’s grace in our life, and we’d like to share it with you. Thank you so much for tuning in, we’d love to hear from you. You can get on the website and get a lot of different things free, and if you need prayer, give us a call. God bless you, and we appreciate you. Thanks so much.

[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.

Amen, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming, so make plans and register today. ♪ Eh ♪

[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 P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace for today.