[Applause]
We want to welcome our online congregation and those of you who are visiting us online. God bless you! If we can do anything for you, please make sure you send us a text at 9400 or type in the remarks comment section what you need. We want to make sure that we don't overlook your needs or neglect what you need. We want to serve you as well. Amen? Amen!
Well, good morning! How are you? How's your fast going? It's going well? Don't give up! Just get right back in there. How many of you forgot you were fasting and you drank something or ate something? You were like, "Oh!" Anybody experience that? Just say, "God help me," and keep on going, okay? Don't let yourself get into condemnation.
Well, God bless you guys today! I'm not Pastor Corey. For those of you who came and were wondering who the senior pastor was, I am his wife, but I'm also one of the teaching pastors here. So it's my honor to stand before you all. You all are a great group of people. God is with you. You look good, you smell good, your face looks good. You slept in because that cold got you at 8:00, didn't it? Didn't it? Be honest! It's okay to be honest. I got you.
Well, God bless you! We're going to pray, and then we're going to jump right into the word of God. Are y'all with me?
Father, we thank you this morning for what you're going to do in the midst of our congregation, in the midst of our body. We just honor you and we praise you. We thank you for lives that are going to be absolutely changed, the direction you're going to give, the things you're going to say to us from the word of God that fits us. And God, we are already ready to obey what you tell us to do because we are not only hearers, but we are doers of your word. So we thank you now for the doing that we get to do and participate in, to fellowship with you and others. In Jesus' name, amen.
I have a lot of scriptures this morning, so get ready! Make sure you have something to write with. This morning, the title of my message is "Cultivating the Favor of God and Her Friends."
How many of you know favor has friends? Or you didn't know that? Well, hopefully, I can help convince you today that favor has friends. This morning, we're going to be coming from Luke, the 2nd chapter, verses 41-52.
You know, when I was a young believer, I had just started my relationship with Christ. I can remember I was very naive, and I used to believe that the favor of God was me trying to get God to like me. How many of you have ever been there? Like, "I'm going to do everything God asked me to do so maybe, perhaps, God would like me." And then when I ask Him for a blessing, He'll give it to me. How many of you are in that struggle now? You don't have to raise your hand, but if you want to, you can. I struggled with that belief system for years until I grew in my knowledge about who God was and how He viewed me.
If you will go with me to Luke, chapter 2, verses 41-52, and it reads:
"Every year Jesus's parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, how old is he? I want you to keep that number in mind. They went up to the festival according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him amongst their relatives and friends. And when they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, uh-oh, they were astonished. His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.'
'Why were you searching for me?' This is Jesus's response. 'Did you not know I had to be in my Father's house?' Like, duh! He was about to get his little butt whooped! Don't play this morning, just stay focused, okay? But they didn't understand what he was saying.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. That's the heart of a mom. Mama will take things and ponder over it and chew over it. I'm not saying dads don't do that, but I know that's true of a mother.
And then it reads here, what does it say in verse 52? "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature."
Are y'all with me? Oh, somebody say, "That's good!" It is good!
When we look at the term wisdom, wisdom in the Greek is the word "Sophia." Say that with me: "Sophia." I just like it because it's so pretty.
That Greek word for wisdom is "Sophia," and it means this: it is wisdom or skills that are human and divine. It is insight, it is intelligence, it is understanding, it is judgment, it is acuity, it's sharpness, it's cleverness, it's keenness. It's a very knowledge of things human and divine which are acquired by acuteness and experience.
And sometimes we sum up wisdom through proverbial sayings such as "the early bird gets the worm." Somehow or another, you've heard that before, right? There's wisdom, some type of human wisdom to that saying, which means if you get up early, you get better opportunities. Can I get a witness?
There's another wisdom, or "Sophia," that is acquired by the art of science and learning. We see this play out in Acts 7:22 when it says, "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom, or the Sophia, of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds." This kind of wisdom is acquired from being around certain environments. He was able to handle what was going on in Egypt because he had been trained. He had gotten the skill, he had gotten the intelligence of how to handle himself in an Egyptian culture.
There's another wisdom that's involved in the act of interpreting dreams and always giving sound, solid advice, like Joseph, as in Acts 7:9-10. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph what? Wisdom! He gave him "Sophia" and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him what? Ruler over all of Egypt and his palace. Why? Because he demonstrated he had a level of wisdom, he had a level of skill of management.
Are y'all with me? This wisdom is just not off-the-head wisdom. Wisdom knows how to handle responsibilities. It is a wisdom that knows how to deal with people, a wisdom that deals with skill management of affairs, such as in Acts 6:3 when it says, "Choose seven men who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will then turn the responsibility over to them."
God will give you more responsibilities when you prove you know how to handle them with wisdom.
There is another kind of wisdom that is known as prudence. Prudence is the ability to govern oneself and to discipline oneself. This wisdom is how we should govern ourselves around those who don't know Christ. The Bible calls them or describes them as outsiders, as in the book of Colossians 4:5.
Read it with me: "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity."
So in other words, you cannot act like people who don't know Christ. There's no wisdom in that. You may have a level of understanding of what they have gone through, been through, because we've been on the dark side before, but I am not to rock with you the same way you do. I don't handle my husband the way that you do. I don't handle my finances the way that you do. There is a wisdom to how I handle myself around unbelievers.
Can you say this with me? "Don't kill your witness!"
Don't kill your witness! Don't kill your witness! There is a wisdom to how you handle yourselves around unbelievers.
There is another kind of wisdom that comes with what I'm doing today. It's called "Christian truths." That kind of wisdom is called for you and I to walk godly and upright. There is a wisdom to Christian living.
But there is also another kind of wisdom found in James 3:13. If we look at it, James 3:13 actually describes two kinds of wisdom. Will you get there with me? If you all can pull that up on the screen, thank you.
This is James 3:13, describing those two kinds of wisdom. It says here, "Do you want to be counted wise? To build a reputation for wisdom, who wants to be wise? Who wants to have a reputation? Yeah, I do! I don't want to be known as a fool; I want to be known as wise."
Okay, so what does it say here we have to do? "We live well, live wisely, live humbly."
It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Keep reading. "Mean-spirited ambition is not wisdom. I'm going to get ahead of you; I'm going to step on your neck to get ahead of you." People in the world do that. That is a wisdom of human nature.
"Boasting that you're wise is not wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourself sound wise is not."
Keep going. "It's the furthest thing from wisdom."
Here's that kind of wisdom described as "animal cunning, devilish and conniving wisdom." Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart, and everyone ends up at each other's throats.
But here's the wisdom we want: real wisdom, God's wisdom. Are y'all reading?
"Begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings. It's not hot one day and cold the next."
It describes me at night. It's not two-faced. That is the wisdom of God. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoys its results only if we do the hard work—the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. There is a wisdom to that.
So we see that James offers us two kinds of wisdom: the one that the world offers—cutthroat, talk about you—and then the one that God offers.
And we see that Jesus grew in wisdom. Are y'all with me?
It also says in Luke 2:52 that not only did he grow in wisdom, in his skill, his intellect, his ability to give good advice, he also grew in stature. Are y'all with me?
The word "stature" in Greek is "hēlikia." It means to become full-aged, the end stage of a full lifespan, the term of life. But it also means to grow in height.
Now, I'm not going to grow in height anymore unless I get some four-inch heels, which I won't. However, this growth that is talking about when Jesus was 12, he did grow in stature because he became full age at 33. But he also grew in the fullness of who God wanted him to be, and we are all on that growth track together.
Stature! So Christ himself in Ephesians 4:11 says, "So Christ gave us the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to do what? To equip his people for the works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature."
That's that word "stature," to come to full age, to come in full knowledge, to get mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
That word "stature" also means suitable age, even in our thinking. Somebody say, "Jesus not only grew in wisdom, but he grew in his thinking."
God would not have given him the assignment that he had to make it to the cross if he lacked any kind of deficiencies in his thinking.
So we got to grow like Jesus grew. If we're going to grow to become all that God wants us to be, not only must we do it with wisdom, we got to do it in stature. We got to grow in our knowledge of who he is, grow in the grace of God and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
Give God a praise! Growing in stature, a suitable age, even in our thinking.
The age we are fitted to receive the fullness. You wonder why God hasn't released certain things in your life? You have not grown to the full age.
"Well, I'm 40." "Well, I'm 70." You still must grow in stature.
"Well, how will I grow?" You will grow in knowing who God is and who he wants you to become. We are ever going to grow until he comes back for us. We are ever going to develop. We are ever going to be coming to full age until we all reach the unity of the faith.
Give God a praise!
Woo! That stature means full development, complete attainment of entire belief, full acceptance.
You know, when you and I grow in our relationship with Christ, let me say this: the responsibility of you growing in Christ is your responsibility. It is not your husband, it is not your best friend. God gives us assistance by sending pastors and teachers and prophets and all of those biblical scholars to assist us in our acquirement of the knowledge of who he is. But ultimately, that responsibility, sis, the responsibility, bro, it's on you.
You are responsible for growing and feeding yourself. [Applause]
Woo! When we grow in our relationship with Christ, do you know you enrich the entire body? When you grow in your personal relationship with Christ, the entire body that you are connected to gets full.
The entire body! When you're reading those devotions and you're listening to the word, and then you make up in your mind to do what the word says to do, because we're not hearers only, we are doers. And there we grow by that doing.
When you take on that responsibility, you, me, her, him, we all grow. Did you know that? Did you know that we all grow and we get full?
So my question to you is: what are you willing to let go of in order to grow? Write that down. What am I willing to let go of in order for me to grow?
Is it the way I think about things? Is it my mindset? What do I need to let go of in order to grow?
Colossians 2:9-10 declares that the fullness of the Godhead body dwells in Christ, and in Christ, we have been brought to fullness.
So my friends, look at your neighbor and say, "You are not empty! You are not empty! But you are full! You are full! You have the fullness of who God says you are already on the inside of you."
But somebody say, "I don't look like it, and I don't act like it." That's because you got to grow into it! You got to what? Grow into it! Just like Jesus grew, you and I must what? Grow!
So you're not empty; you are actually full, but you got to grow into it.
Friends, what are you willing to let go of? What do you got to empty yourself out of? Full people don't eat! They just don't eat!
What are you going to empty yourself out of this year? It's a challenge for all of us. What am I willing to let go of? What am I willing to let go of to see this body become full?
Woo! What are we going to empty ourselves out of?
Now we must continue on. Luke said that Jesus not only grew in wisdom, he not only grew in stature, but he grew in favor with who? And all.
Right? This word "favor" is the Greek or the Hebrew word "rāṣāh," and it gives us the idea of the word favor in this way: favor is God's approval, God's acceptance, God's support, God's provision, God's divine energy, God's joy—the idea that God is pleased with me.
Can you say that with me? "God is pleased with me!"
God takes delight in me! When God looks at me, he finds pleasure. Come on and give God a praise!
Somebody say, "God takes pleasure in me!" When he looks down at me, he doesn't see mistakes; he sees favor. He says, "That's my girl! That's my boy! That's my man! That's my woman!" He takes pleasure in me.
This word "favor," this "rāṣāh," also means you can make amends with one another. When somebody forgives you, that's the favor of God working well with man, because we need it both to work here and here.
Woo! Favor also restores things. Like Cain and Abel, Abel found favor with God. Noah found favor in the eyesight of the Lord when the earth was filled up with water, and God saved him and his family. He found what? Favor!
David found favor with God when Samuel came to his house with a flask of oil and asked, "Where are your sons?" And he brings them all. He said, "Somebody's missing! One more is missing! Who is he?" He said, "He's out there with the sheep." He said, "Bring him here." He said, "He's the one!"
Favor! Ruth found favor with God when she was still less than working on a little job that didn't pay her much, but she was giving it all she got, picking up that stuff. She found favor with the owner of the field, who then became her husband.
Somebody said, "Favor is over my life! Favor! Favor!"
When we look at the life of Joseph, he received favor with Pharaoh after having gone through trial after trial after trial. He found favor.
Let me say this to you, Hope City: the Lord is going to favor us this year! The Lord is going to delight in us this year! We only need to be humble. We only need to stay dependent on God. We only need to grow in wisdom—more people, more wisdom, more people, more stature.
That means we got to grow in our knowledge and our execution of the word. We cannot neglect the word of God, the truth that will be dispensed amongst the people of God here or here.
Doer or doer! We got to grow in wisdom. We got to grow in our knowledge of who God is. People that you are connected to are dependent on you knowing who you say you know. Therefore, you got to grow!
We got to grow in this thing! Somebody say, "I'm getting fat! I'm getting fat in my spirit!"
Somebody say, "I'm getting full! Full! I'm growing in the measure of God! I know more about God this year than I did last year!"
Where are my growth people? I'm growing! I'm getting more dependent!
When we look at how favor works in someone's life, I can't help but go to the Book of Esther. In the Book of Esther, there is this young woman. She is a cousin to this guy named Mordecai. He raises her because her parents are deceased.
Both! And in this story, they are living in Babylon. You know Babylon—the one that Daniel was in? Babylon—the one Jeremiah said, "Y'all are going to Babylon. Y'all are going to do about 70 years there, and God is not going to let up till the 70 years are done." That Babylon!
And when they get to Babylon, she's part of this crew. She's a young girl, beautiful, and she's growing up in Babylon. And Esther, in the Book of Esther, it says Mordecai taught her the things that she needed to know. She was growing in her stature. She was growing in her Jewish belief system. She was growing in the customs. She was growing in a foreign land.
You can't tell me you could be on the job with secular people and you still not show up as the light. Grow! Grow! Grow in that thing!
The Bible tells us that he is the light, and if we walk in the light, we'll have fellowship with one another. I can't see you, boo, 'cause you in darkness. Come out of that darkness!
Esther is there. She's there, beautiful, growing, and then something happens. Vashti is the queen of Xerxes, and he calls her to come in, and he's drunk and all of this stuff, and he wants her to show off. He wants her to put on her crown and kind of come and toot around all his male friends.
And I like her because she says no! She doesn't go in. She defies the king, which is a big no-no because he is the king. And so when he comes to himself and realizes, "Oh, she defied me, and this may get out amongst the other queens," he said, "Oh, sis, you got to go! You got to go!"
Favor!
He then brings in a whole group of women. They get them from all over. They're virgins, and what they're supposed to do is kind of put your mindset in that of the Miss America Pageant, right? All these beautiful women, and they prepare themselves to see who's going to wear the crown.
Well, he kind of gathers all these women, and it says in Esther 2:8 that when Esther goes, she finds favor. She finds favor with the person who's over all the women, and he gives her sweets, he gives her delight, he gives her everything she needs because favor will assist you when you're on assignment.
You will have the favor of God that shows up when you are tied to an assignment. Favor! This does not come for favor's sake; it comes with an assignment.
So the favor that you are getting with people, it is an assignment. Pay attention! Pay attention!
Esther gets this favor. He moves her from out of all the places where the other women are and puts her in a special place in the palace. Favor!
Now listen, favor sometimes comes with trouble. Favor sometimes comes with what?
You ever got liked by your boss? You didn't do anything to get the favor; you were just doing a good job and working hard, and your boss liked you. Then everybody else is looking at you sideways, "Brown-noser!" And then you get talked about.
Favor comes with trouble!
Esther is in this kingdom now, and she's being looked at. And when the king sees her, when Xerxes sees Esther, it says she found favor in the eyesight of the king. He was like, "Oh, bring me her! She is the queen!"
I like it! He liked her above any of the other women, and he brought her in, but she did not reveal she was Jewish. Favor!
And it goes on to say that Esther is living her best life. She's living a good life, but there's trouble that's getting ready to come. Haman is a servant in Babylon too. He's Babylonian. He's high and mighty, and the king kind of is okay with him.
And what happens is Mordecai, who is Jewish, he doesn't bow down. He doesn't play into Haman's mind and his pride. So every time he passes Mordecai, Mordecai is like, "Bro, please!" And Haman's like, "Yo, I'm Haman! I'm like King Xerxes' right-hand man!"
He's like, "Big deal! You ain't God!" And so it makes him mad. No, I'm talking about like big mad! He gets really upset.
And so at this time, Esther has been positioned as queen, and it says that Haman begins to plot against the Jews. He finds out that Mordecai is Jewish. He said, "We're getting ready to get rid of them!"
He goes to the king and he says, "There's a group of people in the land that actually doesn't honor you, and we need to get rid of them." And because Xerxes trusts Haman, he says, "Okay, go ahead and put a plan together. It's okay; I'll give you my signature on it."
Favor!
When it gets in trouble, Mordecai hears of the situation, and he goes and rips his clothes. He gets in sackcloth and ashes. He responds the same way that Job responded. Remember last week when we were talking about Job? He responds the same way. That was a cultural thing. He rips his clothes.
Listen, when you get in trouble, no matter where you are, respond the same way. Respond to trouble knowing you have the favor of God, knowing that God is going to go with you in the battle.
Mordecai was miles away from home, but home was in him. He had to grow in stature. He knew how to respond to God.
So he tears his clothes, he sits in sackcloth and ashes, and it comes back to Esther that he's sitting there. She said, "What's going on?" And they send messages back and forth. They said, "Haman wants to kill the Jews, and Mordecai wants you to do something about it."
She's like, "What am I going to do about it? I can't just walk in the king's palace! I know I'm his wife, but there's a different order to this thing."
Mordecai's like, "Listen, Esther, listen, Linda! We are in trouble, and it's probably, it could be possible, it might just be the case that you have been put in position to help do something about this. But if you don't, your help and favor are going to come from somewhere else."
Can I tell you something? Don't be upset with people when they could have helped you, but they chose not to. Your favor is going to come from somewhere else.
Let people go! You walking around here mad with people? You can't grow in Christ when you mad with people.
"They could have helped me! They could have, but they didn't!"
She could have given me a ride. She could have, but she didn't. "My mama could have co-signed on my car." Well, I don't know about that now. No wisdom in that!
And you mad with everybody? That's going to stop your favor!
Let people go! Help shall arise from somewhere else!
And Esther says, "I got to do something." She says, "I can't just walk up to the king. I'm going to go on a fast like we are right now."
And she goes on a fast for three days with no food and no water. We used to call them hard fasts. Y'all drinking juice and all kinds of stuff back in the day when I used to fast. Me and my friends, see, when we was after God for real, for real, we used to do what we called peppermint fasts, and all you would eat is a peppermint because we was after growing in the stature of God. We wanted something from God!
Now, y'all got all this stuff going on—juicing and all this. I'm not bothering nobody, and I won't bring you under my own convictions, okay?
But Esther fasts for three days, for three nights. All of this can be found in Esther 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7—those chapters.
And it says that after she fasts, she goes into action. She was walking by the king's area where he sits on the throne, and he saw her. It said she caught his eye, and he said, "Come here!"
That's called favor!
You have caught the eye of God, Hope City! Can I prophesy to this entire body? Can I prophesy to you in the internet land? We have caught the eye of God, and God is getting ready to favor us in ways we have never seen!
Listen, Esther goes. The king puts out the golden scepter. It was permission to come forth. And when he puts that out, she goes into him. She says, "Hey, I'm going to make a banquet for you and Haman, and I want you to come."
He said, "Of course!"
Oh, when you got favor, you can ask God almost just about anything that's in alignment with his will.
When you got the favor of God, you can ask God to stop the sun if you need him to stop the sun!
When you have the favor of God, you can say, "Open a door that no man can open! Close a door no man can close!"
Young people, you got the favor of God on your life! Go into life knowing your favor of God is going with you!
The favor of God!
Esther says, "You know, I want to give you this feast." And Haman's like, "You know, he goes home, he tells his wife, 'Hey, it can't get no better! The king likes me! The queen likes me! And I'mma kill Mordecai and these Jews!'" Not knowing that the queen was Jewish herself.
After this, here goes on. One night, the king cannot sleep. Somebody say, "Favor!"
When God is in something with you, some of y'all are worried right now about something you've been tossing your thumbs and your hands, and it's been keeping you up at night. Go to sleep! God's got it! Favor is over you!
Let favor work!
Listen, I got to hasten to close. The king gets up; he can't sleep one night. Restless, he said, "Bring me the book of the chronicles."
And he's looking through the book, and he finds that Mordecai was never paid back for the good deed he did in exposing a plot that was against his life.
Some of y'all are going to be paid back for helping people when they needed help the most.
Some of you all are going to be paid back. You didn't tell nobody, but you're going to be paid back for the kind words you put out for somebody and they opened a door for them.
You're going to be paid back for the good deeds you do. You're going to be paid back for all the things you do in the community. God's going to pay you back because no good deed that God—he says he's not mocked. Whatever we sow, that's what we reap.
You're going to be paid back!
That's why operate in secrets sometimes. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Don't go blasting it out like Haman, "Look what I did! Look what I'm doing!"
No! The king goes back and remembers. He said, "Was Mordecai ever paid for this?" They said, "We don't think we ever gave him retribution."
He said, "Let's do it!"
He said, "Who's in the courtyard?" It just so happens Haman is in the courtyard—Mordecai's arch-enemy.
He goes, and he said, "Mordecai, what would you do for somebody who has been a blessing to me in such a way?" Haman thinks it's him.
He said, "Roll the red carpet out! Why don't you, man? Let's pimp this thing out!" Not for real, for real. I'm just joking with that, but you get my point.
He said, "Man, lay the red carpet out! Give him—throw in the bells and the whistles!"
And the king said, "I like your thinking! Let's do it!"
He thought it was him. He said, "Go get Mordecai!"
Favor!
Somebody say, "My time is coming! I'm going to just wait! I'mma just grow! I'mma keep growing in stature! I'mma get the wisdom of God, and I'mma wait!"
And when he does, Mordecai's arch-enemy walks him around the city announcing, "Mordecai is here!"
I mean, come on, somebody!
And you know what? The pole he was going to hang Mordecai on, he had erected a pole. The ditch he had dug for Mordecai became his own ditch that he will bury himself!
Don't you worry about your enemies! Don't you worry about getting nobody back!
Grow on them! Grow on them!
Stand to your feet! Grow on them! Grow on them!
Yeah! You trying to put out fires with your mouth and you're on Instagram, and you popping off? No, baby! Grow on them!
on Jan 15, 2024
