Highly Favored

“Highly Favored”

In sports this phrase means absolutely nothing…you may by highly favored and go into the game and find yourself the object of an incredible defeat. When you are favored and you get defeated they call that an upset.

In God, being favored is part of the package, and you never fear an upset for you stay favored.

Last week we left off with Zach, going through the worlds longest “time out”…nine months and then getting his voice back as his son John was about to be born. In the 6th month of Liz’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent out on his 4th mission, the last one we know about to a town called Nazareth. There he would find a young woman named Mary, engaged to a man named Joseph who was a descendent of David.

Last week in our msg “Torched by an Angel”, we saw what could happen in our lives if we argue with God’s plan rather than agree. We witnessed the value of being positive and the difference between saying “Could it Happen?” and “It Could Happen!”

Today Gabe has arrived in the presence of Mary and says:

, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

The story goes on to tell us…

29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be

One translation says,”confused and disturbed” Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.(same alarm as Zach had)

Now before we go further in the story, let’s look at this. Basically God just said, “Congrats Mary-you are very special in God’s eyes!” Rather than take that at face value, Mary wanted to analyze this…where did that come from…ok what do you want from me.

Many times things will happen that we never expected

The Flat Tire

It seems Jerry was driving home from work one afternoon when he got a flat tire. He happened to pull over in front of the city’s largest mental institution. Jerry noticed one of the patients watching him from behind the fence as he grabbed the jack out of his trunk.

One by one, Jerry loosened each of the four lug nuts on the wheel and placed them inside the hubcap he had put on the ground. Off came the flat tire and on went the spare. But as he turned to grab the lug nuts, he kicked the hubcap and caused them all to roll into a sewer opening a few feet away.

Jerry jumped up and screamed: "Oh No! Now what am I gonna do. I’m done for. There’s no way I can go anywhere now!"

A voice came from behind the mental institution fence. "You still have four lug nuts on each of the other three wheels. Why not take one nut off of each one and put those three on the tire you’re changing. That should at least get you to a gas station or auto parts store, where you can get more lug nuts."

Jerry was relieved and impressed. "Wow," he said, "that’s amazing. How did you think of that?"

The patient replied: "I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid."

Consider today that we too may be more interested in what happens to us that we cannot receive what’s said about us. We may be crazy but we’re not stupid! God wants each of us to realize that we have been blessed in advance because of our connection with Him. As believers we are highly favored by God…just like Mary.

What does it mean to be highly favored?

Ps 5:12

12For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous;

you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

We have this “shield” of protection around us known as God’s favor. We are untouchable…unphased by things that send others reeling. Because of that shield we need not be afraid…we operate with total confidence in our maker. Let me illustrate…

Play Movie clip:”Independence Day”

The only way that the enemy could be destroyed, the only way to penetrate the shield is to give the mother ship a virus….a cold

Once you impact the mother ship, you impact the fleet.

You see the devil knows that you are “favored”. He knows that the only way to bring down your “favor shield” is to bring a virus into your relationship with God. Weak relationship: weak shield, no relationship, no shield. Some viruses last a day…others can hang on for quite a while

If he penetrates your hotline to heaven and breaks the connection, interrupts the call, then you lose the “Teflon coating”. Things that used to slide off of your “no stick” surface now begin to stick.

You and I need to believe in our shield. We’re favored and that enables us to pass on favor to others. Look at your neighbor and say, “Do me a favor!”