The Favor of the Father

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Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads. You're with us this week, and we feel like we're your favorite show, so you tune in. We thank you for that. We'd love to hear from you, though. Reach out to us on Facebook. You can go to any of our names that you hear. Just add at masculinejourney.org, and you got our e-mails. All right, so if you want to reply to something Andy says today, like, wow, good point, Andy, which probably may happen. And, you know, if they would reply to that, they could just send it to Andy at masculinejourney.org, right? I think, yeah, the only exception is we had to distinguish our gym, so we got gym and big gym, so. Yeah, which the only one they hear right now is big gym. Right.

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masculinejourney.org, you can register there. And, Andy, this is your topic this week, and I know I pick on you a lot, but this is actually your topic this week. It is, and you sit there, and it looks like you have great joy in pointing towards me with that. So, yeah, I was actually on vacation last week, but I had gotten this word probably about a month ago. I was reading in Nehemiah and Ezra, finishing my two-and-a-half-year Bible read-through, and it was kind of to the end of it, and it just kind of spoke to me. I've always heard about the favor of God, and usually, you know, you know it when it's there, and you know it when it's not there. And, you know, I just felt like that God impressed me, to me, that this would be a good topic for us to discuss, because I think a lot of times, you know, we try to do so much outside of him. And I don't, the text of the guys were, you know, I don't think anything is going to remain unless we have the favor of God on it. You know, whether it's our ministry and what we do for the kingdom, our relationships, our families, or simply our relationship with him, you know, we need that favor.

We need to have that sense that God's good towards me, and he's going to bless all my endeavors, which it continually says in the Bible, if I put him first, that he would do that. Yeah, bless is a relative term. Right. Right, bless in God's eyes. Right, yeah.

Right, how he chooses to bless us. Yes. So that actually brings us to our first clip, which is provided by you, Rodney. Would you like to tell us a little bit about it? Well, sure, Sam. Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. We've got a clip from Last Man Standing, and if anybody's seen it, it's Tim Allen, and it's kind of like Home Improvement. It's comedy, you know, genius stuff. And it's, this family is just always really funny. And when I first started looking for a clip from it, because I was like, oh, I know this one would be great, because Eve's the favorite, because Eve's his personal favorite in the family, because he's a man's man who's got all daughters.

So the one that acts most like a man and wants to hunt, wants to go be in the military, is a big staunch conservative. She even politically aligns with his views, and those two see eye to eye on about every single thing. So that's why, you know, he'll always say on the show, she's my favorite. So in this clip is when they have been fighting in the family a little bit, and everybody thinks that somebody else is getting favoritism. So there's this jealousy that starts brewing in the family, and of course, mom's going to try to bring everybody back together by sitting around the table and having a great dinner.

And what follows here in this clip is what ensues after that. Oh, and you got my favorite dressing. Of course, favorite for the favorite. Still a little second guessing our parenting, huh? Oh, didn't know, not surprised.

Continue. Well, you guys think it's not fair the way we divvy things up, so we have decided to even things out a little. Are we all getting cars? Oh my God, we're all getting cars!

We've decided we're going to pay for the recording equipment. Nice! Kind of a wash for me, but thanks. Yeah, it's typical. I hate to ask, but what do you mean, typical? Well, as usual, little Evie gets everything. Well, I get everything. You're the one who gets everything. Oh, whoa, so you think Mandy's the favorite too? Me? That's a joke.

I'm the least favorite. That's what I keep saying. Like, I asked you for $800 for a new sewing machine. You were like, no, go to college. The fact that you're so grateful makes up for that.

But not with Eve. It's like, no, yeah, skip college. Go play hippie music, whatever you want. Well, you're one to talk.

Yes, I am one to talk. I don't know what that means. It means that you have all benefited from being our kids. Right, so we do things differently for each one of you. You know what?

Let's say grace. Yeah, like how you get to live here rent-free with your husband. Mom gets to live here rent-free with her husband.

You know, she's got you there, honey. Rent-free? Believe me, I pay. Oh, and you lived here rent-free with a guy for years. A guy? Do you mean my baby?

He's still a guy. He's got you there, honey. Mandy, they had to help Kristen. She completely screwed up her life. Thanks. I'm doing great now.

Yeah, because Dad handed you a cushy job. Let's say grace. Go ahead, Andy. So, I love that. That's my favorite show.

Thanks, Rodney. But, yeah, I love that. I mean, and I think the aspects of that are, you know, as children of God, we sometimes look at others and say, oh, God's really putting favor on them, and what about me? I really believe that's part of the maturity process, because God treats us all well. You know, a lot of us, we don't all have the same lot in life, but we were talking about this earlier. A big part of our growth in God has to be that we realize that he gives us what we need. My difficulties that I had handed to me probably weren't as bad as what somebody else's are.

They seem like they tore up my life, but yet it depends on how you respond to them and allow him to show favor in it, to lead you through it, and, you know, grow out of that. But one of the things I wanted to throw out there before, too, is we are talking specifically about the favor of the Father. And, you know, I wanted to give a quick story. Back in the day, my dad, I went to work with him on a construction job.

He was over, he was a superintendent, and so everybody worked for him. And I'm this little guy, didn't know anything about construction, and I go down there to help him on the summers, and these guys are all looking at me like, oh, yeah, that's the Father's, you know, the soup son or whatever. So I'm down there to help him, and I mean, you know, I'm not really helping him. But they all keep coming up, and I was trying to be kind because I didn't want to, you know, offend anybody or whatever. And that guy kept coming up to me and saying, I don't care what your dad says about you, you're an all right guy.

So I was about as gullible as they come at 17 or 18. I was like, Dad, what do you keep saying to these guys? I mean, they all like me, but you must not. And he just laughed, you know, it was all an end joke.

They were all, it was all in good fun. But what was, you know, that was an example of how we get favor from the Father and the fact that, you know, there may be some that may not like you that much, but, you know, the goodness of God can, I've had situations where people didn't really like me in work situations or whatever, and you continue to allow God to move, he gives you that favor. Or there are other people that, you know, truly like your dad, and they like you because of that, you know. So there was a favor that I felt and experienced because who my dad was, so. I'm going to ask you a question that I didn't ask you before.

Okay. All right, so, and anybody can answer this, right? But, you know, when you look scripturally, you can't deny that there is God's favor. I mean, it literally says that in Scripture, right? And so you have Cain and Abel, you have all sorts of things.

You have Joseph and his brothers, David and his brothers, his family, right? You have God's favor that is definitely there. Right. Right, but isn't he called to love us all equally? Sure, absolutely. Right, so, you know, it gets back to, well, how's that work if he gives somebody favor over me? Isn't he loving them more?

Right, yeah. And that's, again, where we, I don't think you can actually look at it that way. I mean, I only have one child, but I know you guys have multiple children. And each one of you, I know every one of you love your child equally, but you love each child differently because that's a unique individual, but it can be sometimes perceived. And maybe one child needs one thing at a particular time and the other one doesn't.

That was the example of the clip is that, you know, there's different times that you give kids different things or whatever. But I think it goes back to what Robby was saying a few weeks ago about iniquity. There's something in our heart that always is looking to be, hey, that's not fair, that's not right, I'm getting gypped. And, you know, the thing is, is I think a true maturity in God is to really get beyond that and say, I'm going to shoot for whatever he has for me and not worry about the rest. I have a favorite expression that I think relates to that.

All men are created equal, however, some are more equal than others. Danny, we got time to get your clip in. It's a short clip, so if you want to go ahead and tell us a little bit about it, we'll play it. Yeah, it's from the movie A River Runs Through It, and the scene is the father and the two sons are fishing, they're fly fishing out in the river, which I admire.

But I'm learning with some great instruction from Robby. But anyway, they put their fish out that they have caught, and the father says, God has been good to us today, but he's been especially good to me. His fish is a little bigger and a little different, but he's expressing that his favor was better than theirs. It's just a neat clip. I then saw something remarkable.

For the first time, Paul broke free of our father's instruction into a rhythm all his own. Okay. Okay.

They're both marvels. I'd say the Lord has blessed us all today. It's just that he's been particularly good to me. So what was it about that clip, Danny, that really kind of spoke to you on this topic? Well, there's a couple of things in that clip. The narrator is saying he saw something different, the guy broke into his own rhythm, and I think that our lives are based upon the rhythm of God. And if we get in that rhythm, that's where our favor falls.

I have a friend who says, favor isn't fair, because the world screams for fairness. Why didn't they all catch the pretty fish? Somebody had to catch the bigger fish. Somebody had to catch the bigger, prettier fish.

And it was a brown trout I would just add. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. We'll talk to you after the break. What if one weekend wasn't up to you that you could go and God would orchestrate it all? Masculine Journey boot camp, basic training designed to give men permission to be how God made them, passionate warriors for the kingdom. Based on John Eldridge's Wild at Heart, experience four days' purpose for God to come after and perhaps reawaken dreams and desires he uniquely placed in your masculine heart. Fall boot camp coming up November 18th through the 21st. Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. Hi, this is Sam with Masculine Journey.

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Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. Music Welcome back to Masculine Journey. And Andy, talk a little bit about the topic, you know, we're talking about God's favor, right? And so when we left that clip, I want to go back to it because I know that, you know, you helped Danny with the clip, right? So you really love that clip. It's one of your favorites. It's obviously one of Robby's favorites because he's used it, I think, at just about every boot camp when he's done a particular talk, right? And so what is it about that clip? You know, all of you that love that clip, what is it about that clip that really just kind of speaks to your heart and makes you laugh? To me, just, you know, the favor of the Father, his humor, you know, and kind of pointing out, hey, God favors us all, but he favored me a little bit more today. But, you know, just the fellowship, I think we use it in the boot camps to talk about the Trinity and the fellowship. And it's just a really awesome clip about what you would expect in a family, you know, a community, and just – but you see that favor on, you know, the Father but his kids and how that – the favor on the family as a whole.

And for us that have been fortunate to have a Father in your life or some of us have not maybe had the Father but had the Father figure, what does the Father do with you? He picks. He's always goading. He's always trying to get a laugh or get a response out of you.

And that's what was going on here. He's like, ah, you know, yep, things are good for you, but yet they're better for me. It was just like – he's just like, no, what are you going to say?

Are you going to come back to me with something or what are you doing here, you know? It's like God's always working in us in that way, and I think it's just such a great clip of the love of men, especially their father and sons. Yeah, which sets up kind of, you know, the clip that we're coming at, Sam, I think, to an extent for me because, you know, when I think about the word favor, I naturally think of the word grace. And the neat thing about that is Jesus is full of it, right? According to John chapter 1.

And so I think of Jesus as like the ultimate in treating me like I'm his favorite. And then when you look back in the Bible, you see this clearly in Noah because he's the first person that saw grace in the Father's eyes. And it actually says the first place you find the word in the Bible is in Genesis when Noah found favor in his father's eyes. He found grace in his father's eyes. Well, Noah spelled backward as grace, in case you didn't know that in Hebrew. So the spell forward, it has everything to do with the fact that Noah clearly, since he was the only one that got to live, got to point it out that he was the favorite.

He was the favorite. And so here we have the next clip is from the movie The Ten Commandments. And I know there's a lot of theatrical license that's used in this, but the story is biblically accurate to some extent that you have Ramses, who was the pharaoh, and you have Moses. And you have this interaction between the two, and they were raised as brothers. And Moses was a prince of Egypt. And so as we begin the clip, we can see the two princes, and they both have the father, which is Ramses the first. And, you know, the brother Ramses is trying to set Moses up as a traitor, and he's convinced his father that this may be going on. And so you see the interaction between Ramses the first and Moses and Ramses the second. And then you see after that, move 70 years later, and we hear an interchange between the two brothers, essentially, at the end of, you know, pretty close to the end of Ramses the second's life, as he now is blaming Moses for everything that's happened in his life. And so let's just listen, and we'll talk about it. Sixteen of these lions of Pharaoh will guard its gates, and it shall be the city of Seti's glory.

Hmm. Are these slaves loyal to Seti's glory, or to you, Moses? Slaves worship their god, and I serve only you. Let your own image proclaim my loyalty for a thousand years.

Superb! Ramses, and this you call treason. Who would take a throne by force that is earned by deeds? For this and Ethiopia, your name shall be carved beside mine on every pilot. Yours, Ramses, will be nowhere, but in my judgment book you have accused your brother falsely.

Come. Great Pharaoh, he is the son of your body. I need no help, Moses, to hold what is mine.

I decide what is yours. Come with me, Moses. You have conquered, Moses.

The foot of a slave is on the neck of Egypt. You were saved from the Nile to be a curse upon. Your shadow fell between me and my father, between me and my fame, between me and my queen.

Your shadow now fills all things with death. Go out from among us, you and your people. I set you free. It is not by your word nor by my hand that we are free, Pharaoh. The power of God has freed us. Enough of your words. Take your people, your cattle, your God, and your pestilence.

Take what spoils for Egypt you will, but go. So as I look at that clip, it reminds me of something I learned recently as I was studying actually Genesis 10. It has to do with the curse of the firstborn, but it also has to do with Noah. And it says Noah found favor in the father's eyes. Well, how do you find it unless you're looking for it, right?

How do you find grace unless you're looking for it? And so as you look at what would be biblically, according to Genesis chapter 10 and other places, what they call the curse of the firstborn. In other words, Cain, as Sam talked about, you know, Esau, you know, David's brother, Elib. The first will be last and the last will be first actually comes out of this idea of David being the last son. And he was first.

But why? And it's not that any of those people earned the favor that they got, but they did do one thing. And it was clear in that clip, I think, that Moses was seeking to serve his father. Whether that was his God or Pharaoh at one point in time in his life.

And so, you know, that's the difference between anav and anon. In other words, what John Kennedy said was ask not, you know, what you can do for your country, but ask, or what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. So it's almost like ask not, you know, why this isn't fair, so to speak, or why I'm not getting what I'm supposed to be getting. Ask what you can do, you know, to serve God, whatever that may be.

And in doing that, you could see Moses found favor and clearly gave God the glory for that. And I think that in that gives me some idea of how I can go about finding, not that I have to earn it, but you do gotta find it. Yeah, and you have to believe that it's available for you, and you have to seek Him in the midst of it. So Andy, we've got just a few minutes left in this segment before we go to after hours. What's some other stuff you'd like to cover in this segment?

Well, just an open question to the guys. Feel free to jump in, but, you know, my thought was, is I've got examples, I have an example, really, of God's favor. You know, I've talked recently about, you know, how I found God's Father in a much deeper way. And in doing so, I just believe that He's, I think Harold mentioned it a few weeks back, you know, if you really believe in God, you see Him everywhere. If you don't really believe in God, you see Him nowhere. And I feel like I see Him everywhere.

I feel like I sense Him, and I go after Him, and I think that's what we're talking about. On this trip, this vacation, you know, Ransom Hart, we talked a few weeks back about your recovery plan and all. Well, I had to change up pace on vacations and ended up going to Western North Carolina and then the beach this week.

And I really looked for an opportunity. I've talked to you guys some about just following my heritage. I have family from Western North Carolina. And I went with a relative to kind of go through all this. And, you know, just in that endeavor, you know, of finding out what my history was about and who the people were and what God's plan was for my family as we were going along. I mean, we went to this old house that a fourth great-grandfather removed of mine was in, you know, Western North Carolina. And we go there. There's a guy that's just recently bought the house. He's standing in the front yard, and he lets us in and shows us the house around, around the house.

And it's still the old – part of it's still the old cabin frame and all that. Really cool stuff. It was just one of those timing things. And that whole day was blessed like that. And it was just one of those things where I sensed the favor of God on my life. And it was something that I didn't really plan for and say, God, you got to do this.

It just happened. Yeah. I mean, you found out lots of things.

You found out that you may be related to someone else, you know. Yeah, I did. Yeah. And there's lots of things that came from that, you know. And like you said, you didn't go with expectation. You know, you just went on an adventure with God. I won't say that I didn't go with expectation for a particular outcome, but I did go with expectancy of realizing that it's going to be good. Yeah.

No, that's a fair enough point. Next. You know, I know we do the favor in the after hours, but mine's such a short one. I'll go ahead and throw it out there. You guys give me such a hard time of being Teflon, right? And I think that that's God's favor on me a lot, is just a lot doesn't stick to me. You know, I can say some things that other people can't seem to say and get away with it and, you know, people laugh about it, you know. And I feel like that's at times God giving me His favor, saying, okay, I got your back, even when you're not the smartest, you know, there. Not that I haven't messed up. Not that it hasn't been times that I've said the wrong thing or been in bad situations.

I've got enough of those stories. But I really do believe that He does give me favor in those situations, especially, you know, when it comes to, you know, the enemy wanting to drive wedges in our team, you know, I think I feel as though you guys trust my heart, right? And I could be wrong.

Rodney's giving me a funny look. But I feel like you guys trust my heart, which allows me to feel very open and free with you guys. And I think that that's something that God gives me as a blessing, was to know that I have people around me that love me well, that understand that, you know, I am joking when I say things, you know, and lets me get away with things I probably shouldn't get away with when I say them. But I am very grateful for that. I know that sounds like such a silly thing to be grateful for, but it is because that's my personality.

You know, God lets me live in my personality and doesn't make me pay a lot of consequences for it. So I'm pretty grateful for that. But go to masculinejourney.org. We've got the boot camp coming up 18th through 21st of November, the weekend before Thanksgiving. We'd love to have you there. I know God would love to have you there. There's some amazing things He wants to do for you there. Go register right now and then come back and listen to After Hours.