The Favor Of God - Use It Or Lose It Series

The Favor of God

Use it or Lose it!

Part 1 of a Series

TEXT: Jeremiah 1:4-8 KJV, “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

Intro: Today I am beginning a series of messages dealing with the topic: The favor of God. I believe we all want to experience the favor of God. Some of us even want to experience the extreme favor of God.

The good news is that every one of us are eligible to live under the covering of God’s favor is. It is a place of tremendous blessing but also extreme responsibility. Nonetheless, the favor of God will radically and profoundly change your life and the life of everyone around you in ways you can only imagine.

According to Jeremiah, and I could also show you other biblical examples, each of us are divinely designed and individually created for a particular purpose and destiny.

The reality is that not everyone discovers their purpose and destiny. But for those who seek out their purpose, they find that their obedience to their purpose discover themselves completely blessed and highly favored of God in a way that can never be experienced otherwise.

So, as we begin this study, we must begin by understanding the “Kingdom Law of Usage.”

To understand this law and the Favor of God, we are going to base our teaching over the next few weeks on the Book of Ester and the biblical story of who she was, why and how she became queen and the things she had to overcome.

Now guys, I know some of you are going to say, this is like a “Chick Flick” or a woman’s bible story. But I am telling you that even though it is a story about a woman and from a woman’s perspective, we can absolutely relate to the principles of favor we will discover in this story.

The story begins with the king and his first wife Queen Vashti who lost her place in the Kingdom. It is a lengthy reading but we must read it all to get the picture.

Ester 1:1-22 (New Living Translation), “These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. 2 At that time Xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the fortress of Susa. 3 In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. He invited all the military officers of Persia and Media as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. 4 The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.

5 When it was all over, the king gave a banquet for all the people, from the greatest to the least, who were in the fortress of Susa. It lasted for seven days and was held in the courtyard of the palace garden. 6 The courtyard was beautifully decorated with white cotton curtains and blue hangings, which were fastened with white linen cords and purple ribbons to silver rings embedded in marble pillars. Gold and silver couches stood on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

7 Drinks were served in gold goblets of many designs, and there was an abundance of royal wine, reflecting the king's generosity. 8 By edict of the king, no limits were placed on the drinking, for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted.

9 At the same time, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes. 10 On the seventh day of the feast, when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas— 11 to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. 12 But when they conveyed the king's order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the king furious, and he burned with anger.