Sunday sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 6 September 2020

The calibre of a person is known by the storms that they go through in their lives.

∙ We are going to rehearse a few things that the Holy Spirit has been teaching us over the past 2-3 months about the Favour of God.

∙ There is a holiday type of teaching but when school starts there is a need for daily attention. All these months we learnt about favour but in these days we will rehearse some of the things again and strengthen the foundation of our understanding of the FAVOUR of God.

∙ May the grace of God abound towards you to help you walk in that Favour. ∙ Through this Word, I wish to help you understand How widespread is GOD’s favour is in His eyes.

HOW IMPORTANT AND CRUCIAL IS FAVOUR IN THE EYES OF GOD?Genesis 6: 8- But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord

∙ The scripture here, even when read in several different Bible Versions, talks about Favour in the eyes of God and NOT in the eyes of men or in the perspective of man. Noah found favour in the EYES OF THE LORD

∙ The word ‘favour’ appears here for the first time in the BIBLE. Noah is being introduced to us all in this given verse.

∙ Some persons say that Noah was saved in the flood because he was a righteous man. But when we read the Bible, the foundation was that he found favour in the eyes of the Lord. What was seen outwardly was the fact that he was righteous and he walked with God. But there is an unseen foundation which is reflected in this scripture and that is ---HE found favour in the eyes or in the presence of God.

It is impossible to lead a righteous life without the favour of God.

∙ We have all tried to walk righteous. But that is not the foundation. The foundation is the power or the source that will enable you to walk with God. Without the grace of God and favour of God you cannot walk holy or walk with God. Just your decision one fine morning will not help you. But you need the Favour to receive that Grace.

Today onwards you will experience a supernatural grace to walk with God.First FAVOUR and then righteousness

∙ Have you been surprised at yourself? Are you surprised at the ways in which God as changed things about you over the years?

∙ The ability to let go of our old lives and overcome challenging times is only by God’s favour.

∙ How can you young people walk in victory? I also never imagined I will walk around with a Bible. My own friends were shocked. It is not black magic, or our own strength or our own capacity, it is HIS favour.

There is a secret ingredient and that is the favour of God

∙ No matter how strong the pull of the world is, there is a favour that will enable you! THE HIDDEN SECRET OR THE POWER WORKING BEHIND YOUR LIFE IS FAVOUR! ∙ It is the favour of God that comes before everything!

Genesis 18: 1-3- 18 Then the Lord appeared to him by [a]the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.

Three persons who were at the plains of Mamre. Abraham is saying this—If I found favour in your eyes, please do not pass me by! He meant to say, ‘please abide with me for some more time.’ He made a request.

Pastor: “I always had a fear whether I would backslide from the Lord or whether God would leave me. Till I found this secret- favour!

A man of God told me that just like a shepherd walks with his sheep, God’s presence will walk with me just as if another person is with me all through my days. Not just when I am ministering but even when I am at home, when I am going about your regular life too! I was so excited at this!

No matter where you are, God’s presence will be with you, as if another person is walking with you. It will be so real as if people can actually see it on you! There is an aura, the Shekinah, Glory, Presence all around you! May you enter into that level of Favour…GET READY!

What does Abraham mean when he says -Favour in Your eyes? It refers to the way that God looks at you!

How does God look at you?

COMPASSIONATELY MERCIFULLY WITH KIND EYES WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION Abraham is saying that there are two things:

1) When favour comes, there is clarity on the time frame for your Promise to come to pass. He waited for 25 years and after this visitation and encounter with God’s favour, he understood that this would be the last year of that waiting—A prophetic understanding.

2) When favour comes there is a manifestation of the promise.

GOD is touching an healing somebody’s kidneys

Genesis 18:10-10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time oflife, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

∙ Until then there was no clarity.

Genesis 19:19-19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

∙ Lot and Lot’s wife were to be rescued by the angels. Lot is saying, ‘Lord thanks that I found favour in your eyes.’

∙ There is a favour that saves you from impending dangers.

Beirut blasts- There is a testimony of how God saved a church in the blast area of Beirut. The pastor felt an unction to send everybody home early that day for reasons even he did not know! But it was the Holy Spirit. Not even one child from that church was hurt. The Lord saved them.

If God’s favour is upon you, God will rescue you from every impending danger. Great kindness, great favour and great mercy – these words are all written in this scripture. Today our lives will change!

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

We have this favour but we don’t know it.

1) You need to know that you have favour

2) You also need to know how much favour is there

∙ Only then you will have courage and confidence. Even if a tsunami comes, your will know that it cannot destroy you. God has deposited favour in your life, in your bank. Your confidence in the Lord will raise up.

Lamentations 3:23- Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

∙ Let the fear of all kinds of fear for your future leave you!

∙ Sorrow is only for a time. Favour is for life! Difficult times are OK. They will pass. There is a foundation of favour even in the midst of difficult times.

∙ If you are praying for angelic visitation or to be able to hear God’s voice, it is all fine and good; but the foundation of it all is the favour of God.

Genesis 39:4-4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put [a]under his authority.

JOSEPH is the “FAVOUR-MAN”. There is Spiderman, He-man, Super-man but they are all fictional characters. But Joseph is the real favour man.

YOU are a Favour man! YOU are a Favour woman!

First it is favour. Once Joseph received that favour, he went up to the next level.

Genesis 39:21- 22: 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave[a] him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of theprison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whateverthey did there, it was his doing.

∙ Joseph found favour in the prison. In verse 22, the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph all the prisoners that were in the prison.

∙ First it is favour and then he received two promotions, the level changed.

Favour is the foundation. Finding the unmerited favour in the eyes of the lord is our foundation! God saved us by grace to show us more grace!

Esther 2:17-17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

∙ If you have understood favour and have surrendered to it, God will ensure that there your will be lifted and elected in your work places

∙ Esther found favour and acceptance. We are accepted in the beloved. We always look around to see if we are approved or disapproved by people.

May your eyes tell the story of favour; of God’s love and compassion.

∙ The way you look at your wife, your children, your parents—may you look at them through the eyes of God’s love, favour and compassion.

Exodus 33:17-17 So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

Our petitions are answered because of God’s favour.

∙ Moses went up the mountain for 40 days to pray and God gave Him the Commandments. While this was happening on the mountain top, the children of Israel were committing idolatry down, below the mountain. The Lord was angry and said He would destroy them all.

∙ Moses began to cry before the Lord to have mercy. He says, “Lord even if you destroy me, don’t destroy these people!” What a pastor’s heart he had! He cried out to God to show them mercy.

Exodus 33:13-17- 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your

people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” If I have found favour in thy sight, show my your ways

∙ This was Moses’s request- show these people mercy that you have shown me, Lord. ∙ In verse 16, Moses asks the Lord’s presence to go with them. He says, how else will the others know that we are separate and different from them?

∙ What distinguishes us from others is not our titles, not our clothes, our qualification, not the cars we drive in, not the houses we live in. The only thing that distinguishes us is the Presence of Jesus with us.

∙ Lord, it is not enough if you just forgive us and show us mercy but we need your presence going with us.

We are a distinctive people, we are different.

∙ If you find favour with God, even this He will make it happen.

∙ We are special, in the eyes of God. We might not feel that way, but we are! His presence, His favour and mercy is upon us.

∙ In God’s presence, God has a special liking towards you. I sense the presence of God like a rain falling upon you in your homes.

WHAT IS THE PROOF OF GOD’S FAVOUR UPON YOUR LIFE?

1) The proof of favour is that you are special in God’s eyes

∙ For 40 years, people walked in the wilderness without snakes or scorpions biting them, with the sun not scorching them and the manna reaching them every single day.

∙ Even during COVID -19 situation, God will send you provisions and His manna to your door step.

∙ Others may not think we are special. In fact, you also might not think there is anything special about you.

2) The second proof is that creation itself shows us that we are favoured ∙ We think that our parents decided to bring us into the world. And some of us have been told that we were actually a mistake and that even our parents hadn’t planned for our birth. But we are not a mistake, we are not an accident. Even if parents brought us into the world, it is God who gave us life.

∙ Just that truth is a reflection of God’s favour upon our life.

∙ If your heart is still beating and you are still breathing, that is evidence that God’s favour is upon you.

Jeremiah 1:5- Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were bornI sanctified[a] you; I[b]ordained you a prophet to the nations.

∙ This was the Word that was given to me by my spiritual father.

∙ There is a term used by the society- ‘unwanted babies’.

∙ In India we have a law that forbids sex determination during pregnancy. Many people if they found out that the baby in the womb is a girl, then they would either kill or abandon the child.

∙ In Oct 2011, there was a ceremony called the Name Changing ceremony in Mumbai. 275 children were named either Nakusha or Nakushi meaning unwanted child in Hindi. An NGO group arranged for a name changing ceremony where the children were able to choose their own new Names and get out of this past of being unwanted. Some chose names that meant resilient and some beautiful, strong etc. They were all given a certificate after their names were changed.

You need to know that you are not unwanted. You are not nakusha or nakushi. You are wanted! God wanted you on planet earth. God doesn’t have any unwanted children!

3) The other proof is that He not only created you, but He made you in His likeness

Genesis 1:26-26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

∙ He not only created you but he made you like Himself; not like a cat or a wild buffalo. God did not breathe His breathe into any other animal.

∙ I am created in the image and likeness of God.

∙ You will subdue and dominate- we carry the breath of God. Humans have more brain power.

∙ There is a new teaching going around that tries to make people believe that are only a better version of animals and that we have evolved from an animal and that we are basically an animal! Children are being taught that.

∙ But the Bible says that God made us in His image and likeness. He made us like Him. ∙ In a zoo in London, human species were also put inside confinement just like animals. This was done to put some type of thinking into people. Often under the garb of advanced thinking and evolved teaching!

∙ But God’s Word doesn’t say that. He put inside of us His breath.

This day God is changing your very identify. You are not created in the image and likeness of animals but that of God.

∙ There is a knowledge perversion going on in the world.

Mathew 10:29-30-29 Are not two sparrows sold for a [a]copper coin? And not one ofthem falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

∙ You are very different than the sparrows.

Mathew 12:11-12- Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of

how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

∙ Man is so much more valued. We understand that from these scriptures ∙ Psalmist says that God kept us a little lower than Himself and has crowned us with glory and honour.

∙ We are not animals! We are crowned with glory and honour. God has called us honourable!

4) Proof of His favour is that God has created each of us uniquely ∙ There is no Xerox machine in heaven. There are no two Marias on earth! Each of our finger prints are different.

5) The plan of Redemption is another proof.

∙ If you understand this, you will know how highly favoured you are by the Lord. ∙ The fastest space craft moves at a speed of 2.5 lakh kilometres per hour and light travels at 3 lakh kilometre per second!

∙ If man’s created space craft moves at that speed, God created light is far beyond. ∙ The planet earth is in the solar system and the solar system is found in a galaxy called the Milky Way Galaxy – For light to travel the distance from one end of the Milky Way to the other, 100,000 years are needed.

∙ But Milky Way Galaxy is only one of the billions of other galaxies.

∙ Voyager, a space craft went on a one way mission in 1977. It travelled for 13 years and went into space. It clicked a picture of the earth before it moved into space upon being configured to do so. The picture is the famous capture of earth called the pale blue dot. It looks like a speck.

This is the click of

planet earth by

THE VOYAGER

that is famously

called the

Pale Blue Dot

∙ You are insignificant. Many people argue how you can call yourself special. You are only a tiny piece in this Universe. Just a speck!

∙ The pale blue dot, in that insignificant speck, the Lord sent His own Son 2000 years ago, He purchased us, He redeemed us and called us into an everlasting salvation. He

has made our lives significant in this insignificant speck like pale blue dot. Jesus came down into this pale blue dot.

The creator of all these galaxies, He came down to us

John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave us His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life!

If you receive Jesus as your God, you will enjoy the status of being called the Child of God. YOU ARE FAVOURED IN THE EYES OF THE LORD!