The Favor Of God Part 2

This is Sam from the Masking Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Today, we're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and challenging men to take their God-assigned role.

Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Praise the Lord, radio audience, listener. We love you. Thank God for you. We're back again, and we would just thank God for you.

Yes, we do. It is amazing, Roy, how fast a week go by, especially in radio time. But we thank God for you, listener. We are excited because last week we were talking about favor, God's favor, God-giving favor.

There's nothing you have to do to earn favor. God gives it to you because once you get into the body of Christ, once you're in there and you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and leader and guider and lawyer and doctor and tax preparer, all of these things that Jesus can do for you, if you are in his body, God will bestow favor upon you. And as Roy was saying last week, that if you sit down, you get a piece of paper and a pen and you start writing down the things that God has shown favor to you, you might even run out of paper and ink in that pen because we don't think about it, Roy. We just don't think about how God has shown favor to us, and so if we never write things down, then we just don't know.

That's so true with everything, isn't it, Will? Especially in the age of so much information coming at us, we fail to stop and reflect. I was reading something the other day, and it was an old book from Norman Vincent Peale, and it was one of the things it says that we need to do is take an hour of just quiet time to allow our minds to get clear, and this is pre-internet, pre-computers, pre-phones, all that stuff. So if an hour of quiet time was important those years ago, think about how much more important it is to us today to literally do that, to stop and think, and part of that observation and reflection is to give thanks to the Lord for all those things that you recognize as favor.

Too often we go to prayer, Will, as you know, and we're merely petitioning for the things that are wrong or that need improving rather than giving adoration and thanksgiving for all that He has done in the midst of all the challenges we have. And when we were talking about on last week how Moses, he didn't think that God was being favorable to him when he put him in the leadership position to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, but yet God had shown favor to him. And that's sort of like come in line in the book of Esther in chapter five and verse number two. When Queen Esther, when she came, the law of the rulers during that time was that you had to be summoned by the king in order to speak to him or in order to see him.

He has to summon you. And if you remember, Queen Esther, she just showed up. She said, look, I'm just going to go out here. And because she knew this plot was going on, she wanted to foil this plot with Haman. And so she said, if I perish, let me perish. So she said, I'm willing to go out here, risk my life, stand before the king, even though I wasn't summoned because you could just be killed right away, just showing up and not being summoned.

But God had favor with her. And look what in Esther chapter number two in verse 17, no, excuse me, Esther chapter five and verse number two. It says, so it was when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court that she found favor in his sight and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. And Esther went, touched the top of the scepter. And that was the acknowledgment that you can now present whatever your matter is to the to the king. So she was risking her life, even though she was queen, she was risking her life doing that. So God granted her favor by the king and not taking her life, even though she was the queen, but she found favor in the sight of God.

That's beautiful. So Will, if a person's listening today and they say, I don't feel like I have any favor with God, even though I've been walking this journey out for many years and I constantly seem to have turmoil, how does a person go and begin to settle their soul and to find peace and to really start to do a reflection? What's your advice to that person that's sitting there and that's not at that point in their life where they're recognizing the favor that God has put in their life? Well, you know, when you said when they don't feel like it, I think that in and of itself says that if we go by feeling rather than faith, then we're going to look at things from the natural perspective. So our feelings can be deceptive to us, but faith is absolute. So when we exercise that faith and we set aside our feelings, because as long as we let our feelings dominate, then that's how we're going to be led.

We're going to be led by our feelings rather than our faith. So I think I think a person needs to do when they sit down and they start feeling that way, that they need to do an inventory of their life. And when they do that inventory of their life and they ask themselves the question, where am I sitting in Christ right now? And if I am in the kingdom, if you're born again, you're in there, then what am I doing in the day to day life to keep me experiencing the joy of my salvation? And so I think during that time, Roy, is when they that person get into the reflective moment and they start they start thinking about not that I'm feeling low, but look what God blessed me to do.

For example, you might be listener, you might be a person who have in your in your past life experienced drugs, alcohol, abusing your body. And now God has got you off of that. And now you're in his kingdom as his son or daughter and you have you have put your faith and trust in him. And now he's taken you from that.

From that lifestyle. And I think Roy's the same way when that person starts feeling that way. That's the attention that Satan wants to put in our mind and in our heart that he wants to keep us feeling instead of exercising that faith. Amen. Yeah. And that's a good point, because we've talked about that. I believe on a previous show that love is an attitude and a choice. It's not a feeling or an emotion.

That's right. And I think the same holds true here. We have to be looking and seeking and being faithful and trust that all this is where it's supposed to be. And you're in the journey as long as you're following Christ. Let me be clear that the journey you're in is where he wants you in that moment in time.

No matter how painful or uncomfortable you are or may be, that's back to our earlier conversation last week. It's strengthening you and preparing you for what he's going to use you for in the future. And you know, it's funny, when we're younger, I guess we think it's going to be perfect and so many different things are going to look different as we get older. And then reality sets in. Experience sets in. Wisdom sets in. And I know, Will, you're still saying I don't have any wisdom, but that's okay.

But all those things start to register and hold true the things we learned earlier and we've heard about earlier. And we just want to encourage our listeners that in this day and time of constant battering and negativity, stay on the high road. Rejoice in the fact that your Lord Jesus Christ died for you because he loved you so much. That's probably the greatest show of favor that we could ever illustrate to you is that he loved you so much. He favored you so much that he died for you.

Amen. And that's probably the greatest favor that could ever be shown to anyone. And the Bible even talks about no greater love than a man lay down his life for a friend or a brother. And Jesus did that very thing for each of us. What an amazing, amazing show of favor.

Absolutely. And if you can go through what Job went through in Job chapter 10 and verse 12. Everything that Job went through, he said, You granted my life and favor and your care has preserved my spirit. So all of that, which he lost all of his children, lost all of his cattle, lost everything he had.

And yet he still said, God favored me. And see, this is where we get our strength, Roy. We get our strength by looking in the word of God. Amen.

And we see how God has brought a person from a point in their life of temptation or struggling with something in their life, some addiction that they may have had. But here's Job. He didn't do anything. He was given sacrifices. And all of a sudden, God and Satan was having this conversation about Job.

Wham! All of a sudden he was touched. He lost everything. And he's trying to figure this whole thing out.

Why? Why is it that I'm going through this when I've been so obedient to God in doing the things that God has called me to do? So listen, if you're doing the things that God has called you to do and you're still experiencing rough and hard times, just remember that it's temporary. We've got about 10 seconds left, and so we're going to come back from the break and continue talking about favor. It's seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free.

Join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to his name.

When you don't think listener, you got favor. God gives you favor. Listen to the word of the God and draw strength from Psalms chapter number five and verse 12.

For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous with favor. You will surround him as a shield. This is why Satan could not touch Job at first, because Job had that hedge, which was a shield around him. He couldn't touch him, so he had to go to God and say, look, if you take away all of his stuff, he'll just curse you to your face.

He'll abandon you, et cetera, et cetera. God already knew what the end would be. This is why Satan, see, he can't predict the future. He don't know where he knows his future, but he can't predict the future on what's going to happen when a person is introduced to a temptation that he may present in that person's life. He don't know the outcome, but God knows the outcome.

So God knew that Job would endure, and then once he did, he blessed him with everything that he had and then some. So, and I think that goes back, Roy, to what you said about how we as God's people, we need to make sure that we're rooted and we're grounded in the word of God, because that's where we draw strength from. It is, Will, and it's great you jumped into Proverbs, because that's got quite a few references to favor. That was actually Psalms. Oh, I'm sorry, I was thinking Proverbs. Oh, that's okay.

They go back to back, right? Amen. But in Proverbs, there's quite a few verses there, Will, and I think it goes back to the relationship, and Proverbs 8.35 says, For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. So right there, if you found Jesus and God in your life, then you, as just a simple inheritance, get favor from the Lord.

That's amazing, isn't it? Amen. And, you know, to go along with that, if you go down to Proverbs 14 and 9, it talks about how a fool mocks at sin, but among the upright, there is favor. So, again, speaking about how we, being in the body of Christ, we're being granted all of the rights and privileges that all of the patriarchs before us had, you know, all of what David had, all of what Abraham had, all of what Solomon had.

All of that God had blessed us being engrafted into the body of Christ as the church. And, you know, I hear people a lot of times, you know, Roy, talk about, and Israel was God's chosen people, but you know what, Roy? We are chosen, too.

Yes, we are. So when a person says that, I have to remind them, look, Israel was God's first chosen people, but we are also chosen. What did Jesus tell the disciples? He said, look, you didn't, I think it's John 14, 15, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. See, these men, they were going on with their daily task, and Jesus said, look, you want to become fishers of men?

Drop the nets. Just put them aside, and I'll show you how to fish for men, because fish, they can't get eternal life, but men is what you want to concentrate on. And when you start fishing for men, and you get the men right, then that household will be in line with God and with God's plan for his life and all of the people who are dwelling in that household.

Yes, it will. Well, you know, we were talking about earlier about staying on the high road, keep a positive attitude, do the right things, and there's several verses in Proverbs that find right in line with that line of thinking. In Proverbs 11, 1, the Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him, speaking to integrity. And men, we always talk about the need for integrity in our society, and you as a man of God need to be a man of integrity. In 11, 27, Proverbs says, whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it.

Stay on the high road, don't be in the middle of pornography, don't be in the middle of deception, don't be in the middle of dishonesty and lies. That's what took key back to Will's stressing earlier, be in the Word and study, and Proverbs should be something that you're in every day. Bishop Jackson talks about that quite often, reads a psalm in Proverbs every day, and in 11, 27, whoever seeks good, back to taking the high road, Proverbs 11, 27, whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. Again, I want you to understand that if you're seeking good, you're going to find favor, but if you're looking for evil and you may not call it evil, back to the things we just said, the perverse ways, the pornography, the evilness.

It will find you out much quicker than you will find it out. Right, Will? Amen. And if you go down a little further, Roy, to Proverbs 12 and verse 2, a good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions will be condemned. So, again, if you men are steadfast in the Word of God, rooted and grounded, there is nothing that can move you, because God had promised that if you are walking by faith, not by sight, if you're walking in truth, if you're walking in love, if you're giving yourself over to him on a daily basis, that God will show himself real to you and all of your family.

And I think this is the thing that I like about when we talk about favor, Roy, is that sometimes we don't know we have it. And when we're put in situations, just like Moses, when we don't think God is granting us favor because God has put us in a certain situation and we're looking at the sight rather than the faith behind how God is going to bring me through this situation and relying on him, then we find ourselves faltering because, again, we're looking at things by sight and not by faith. I am always absolutely amazed at what God has done and how far God has brought me in my walk with Christ all of these years. And when I look back and like the song says, count your blessings, name them one by one.

I can do that. But I need about fifteen hundred books, empty pages, Roy, to write down all the things that God has done for me. But I can look back on my life and even as a boy growing up in the inner city, I can see the hand of God, how he brought me through certain situations, and I shouldn't have been here. You know, some of the things that I had encountered growing up, I should not have been here, but see, it was the favor of God. God's favor kept me. God's favor brought me to this point in our life, just like he kept you.

Oh yes, I didn't have quite the story you had, Will, but certainly there are many, and you and I have talked about that, many opportunities where I knew that God kept me safe and out of harm's way and certainly could have been on a different track at this point in my life had he not had his hand on me early on and watching over me. One thing we just want to stress to you, listening audience, back to what Will has shared, is God has given him a great ability to memorize verses and bring them up in times of need, and you too can be one of those people that God will bless if you just read and study. I just want to challenge you today, if you have a smartphone, ask yourself, how much time am I spending on the phone applications, whether it may be social media or sports or news, versus how much time you're spending each day in the Word.

And that's a question to all of us. If one is greater than the other, then it's either a really good thing or it's a really bad thing. And if you're spending more time on your phone than you are in the Word, then that means you've got time to spend in the Word that you shouldn't be spending on your phone. So we just want to encourage you to shift that focus over to the Word of God.

Will and I are firm believers in using a hard copy of the Bible whenever possible because then you don't get distracted with a message notification or an email drop or whatever else pops in on your phone that can easily get you distracted. And we know the source of those distractions. So we just want to encourage you and listen to Will and the things he's shared and learn from him constantly that we need to be in the Word more.

Even as much as we're in it, it's still not enough. And that should tell you something, especially when you're seeking God's favor and trying to find it. He's giving you favor, but that will help you identify it through your study of the Scriptures.

And that's the key, Roy, is identification, knowing when the favor of God is on you. And it's not when you can't see the favor of God. See, because if you can't see the favor of God when you want to see it, don't give up because God is still working.

Amen. Let God work. Let patience, the Book of James says, let patience have its perfect work. In other words, when you let, allow, so you have to allow patience to work for in your behalf.

You can't be anxious in everything because if you do, then you'll be looking for things on your timetable and God has his timetable in which he wants to administer to you the things that he knows you can handle at that point. Because if we ask God for something and we say, Lord, I don't see it, I don't see it, I don't see it, could it be that you're not at a point to receive what God has for you at that moment? So just wait and let God bless. May very well be, Will.

Great question. Will, you know, you went to James a couple times there in 4.6, it says, but he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. And as I read through that, it just, it brought to the front of what our society is about today. And you and I have talked about this many times. And many people that have played sports in the past as well, you know, it used to be that it was about the team. These days it's about me and so many team sports. It's about me and it's not about the team.

And that speaks to humility. Everything these days feeds into me. How can I be better? How can I do better?

How can I be the top of the class? I, I, I, I, as opposed to we, we, we. Amen.

So grab somebody's hand listener and pray with them, encourage them and treat them with the word of God. You know, as we end this broadcast of Man Talk, Roy and I just again want to thank all of you who have given us such great feedback on the show, on the programs that we're giving. We love you.

We love to hear feedback, whatever it is that you give us, we're open to it. And so we're going to be coming back on next time with more of Man Talk Radio. God bless you.

We love you. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.