giving the best praise you brought with you this morning.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord, for your blessings.
Yes, yes, yes.
Well, hallelujah.
So good to see you in the house of the Lord this morning.
If you have your Bibles with you,
turn with me to Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28.
It is good to see you.
If you're visiting with us, I hope and trust
you've already experienced the presence of the Lord,
for that's our main goal this morning,
is that we together enter into the presence of the Lord,
and that we leave here touched by his grace, amen,
and empowered through his word that tomorrow,
tomorrow's gonna be a good day, amen.
As you're turning to Deuteronomy 28,
our covenant group, the group of ministers that I meet with,
we are actually going up,
some of us leaving this afternoon,
others in the morning were going to,
and we barbecues our thing.
So we're pulling up a 250 gallon smoker,
a barbecue trailer,
and we're gonna feed lunch to the workers tomorrow, amen.
So we ask that you would pray, amen.
Pray for us.
Half of our team will be going into one of the homes,
and they'll be putting the sheetrock back up,
insulation sheetrock, installing a shower.
So we're just gonna go do a little ministry.
I'll get some feet on the ground,
and do a little observation,
and see what we may be able to continue to do in the future.
Amen, because this is a disaster,
it's not going away this week.
It's gonna be quite some time.
And then with Milton devastating Florida again,
we need to be in prayer that the hand of the Lord
would just calm those disturbances, amen, calm the storm.
I was watching one of the reports,
and they were talking about how lucky they were
that this storm surge that was coming in
wasn't as devastating as they thought it was gonna be,
it should have been.
I said, well, you can call it luck if you want.
I'm just saying thank you, Lord, for your blessings, amen.
He's in charge, isn't he, amen.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, looking at verse one,
we're gonna read down through about verse eight.
And it shall come to pass,
thou shalt hearken diligently
into the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe and to do all his commandments,
which I command thee this day,
that the Lord thy God will set thee
on high above all nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come on thee
and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city,
blessed shalt thou be in the field,
blessed shalt thou be in the fruit of thy body
and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle
and the increase of thine kind and the flocks of thy sheep.
Blessed shalt be thy basket and thy store.
Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in
and blessed shalt you be when you go out.
The Lord shall cause your enemies
that rise up against you to be smitten before your face.
They shall come out against thee one way,
but they shall flee before these seven ways.
The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee
in thy storehouses and in all that thou
set us thine hand unto.
And he shall bless thee in the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
With the help of the Lord for a little while this morning,
I wanna just preach a little bit about the favor of God
and living on the good side.
Living on the good side.
Amen, I'll pray for you if you pray for me
and the Lord will help us
and we'll be out of here before 1.30.
Lord, we love you, we thank you for your goodness
and your mercy and the abundance of your grace.
Lord, I ask that you'd have your way
in our hearts and lives today.
Lord, truly we are blessed today as we sing of your goodness
and of your glory and of your honor
and of your greatness this morning.
Now, I ask God today that you'd strengthen each of us
through the power of your word.
It's your word that gives us life
and strengthens our daily going.
And Lord, let your anointing rest upon us
and we that have ears to hear,
may we hear what the Spirit would say into the church
and the church say it.
Amen, amen.
Let me sit for a little bit.
The thing about this, the book of Deuteronomy,
it's the giving again.
It means second law.
It means a rehearsal of all of God's goodness.
Moses is recounting to the children of Israel
before his departure,
before God's about to take him out.
He's rehearsing in the ear of Israel again
of all the goodness of God and the promise of God,
the blessings of God, but also the consequences
of disobeying God.
As we've read in 28, the blessings and how we'll be blessed
if you back up into 27, you'll see that the Lord says,
if you don't do these things,
then you're gonna bring some cursing onto your life.
And he begins to list all of those things
that will cause disadvantage to be in our lives
or the favor of God to be lifted off of our lives.
When we think about living on the good side,
I think about living not just in the grace of God,
but in the favor of God.
Now, the favor of God can be described
as a divine kindness or act of God himself.
True compassion on the part of God toward needy
and undeserving humanity.
It's the blessings of God that enter into our life.
One man put it this way,
the favor of God will bring unexpected blessings
from unexpected places and unexpected people.
That's the favor of God.
When things come into our life that we're not expecting,
we're not looking for,
I think we can just say, thank you, Lord.
It's not just his grace, but it's his favor
that is added into and upon our lives.
It's a divine gift from God, amen?
When he begins to pour out of his blessings into our life.
As we've been looking at this year, breaking limitations
and going beyond boundaries and barriers
that we set upon ourselves
because of fear and lack of faith,
we set boundaries and we don't proceed after God
in a way that we could or that we even should
or that he's even asking for us to come for him.
There are limitations and boundaries
that the enemy places before us
and we come up to those
and we don't exercise the authority and the power of God,
the word of God over those limits
that the enemy's trying to bring into our lives.
And so therefore we forfeit some of the blessing
and some of the favor of God in our life.
But I think we are able by God's grace, amen,
to encounter and to experience his favor on our lives.
Those unexpected blessings from unexpected places
like I received yesterday at H&R Block,
that was unexpected and I'm thanking the Lord
for that unexpected blessing from unexpected places, amen.
And you've had similar things in different ways.
God has extended his hand over your life.
And sometimes we need a rehearsing of God's goodness.
We need to hear again of God's faithfulness.
And that's what Moses is giving to the people of Israel.
He rehearsed their history.
He rehearsed to them God's good hand
and God's favor on their life
as he brought them out of Egypt, amen.
And his goodness and his faithfulness
of taking care of the enemy Pharaoh
and every other enemy that had stood against them,
God had been faithful
and his favor had been upon their life.
And I want us to look,
I want you to take a look in your own mind.
It won't take you just a minute to close your eyes
and let your mind go back through the archives
of your memory and see how God's faithfulness
and God's favor has been extended on your life.
Unexpected places, unexpected blessings
from unexpected people.
And God has had his hand over our life.
But there's a way to live,
there's a way that you and I can live,
live out our lives, amen,
to ensure that that favor of God
is extended on and over our life.
We hear that blessed are those who do these things.
There's a whole listing there, amen, following after God.
And we can apply in our own hearts and our own lives daily
to ensure that that unexpected thing will arise in our lives.
Not only that God's daily grace is added
and daily grace is gifted, but his favor.
Aren't you glad you're the favorite child?
I've told you that God loves me more than he loves you all.
How so, pastor?
Yesterday, come on.
I told you he loves me.
I believe that, I'm his favorite son, amen.
You've got to believe you're his favorite son
or his favorite daughter.
Why?
Because he extends his grace
and by virtue of that grace extended in your life,
his favor is offered under your life.
We know that God is no respecter of person.
It's not about being respected above others.
It's about being faithful
because God will let his favor shine upon all those
who walk in faithfulness in accordance to his word
and the abundance of his will.
He won't only just bless me, he'll bless you too, amen.
He'll allow his favor.
So when we begin to proclaim the expectations of God's grace
and we begin to walk out and live out,
I have an expectation of God's favor in my life.
I think it goes this way, amen.
It leans this way when it comes to me and God
and other issues of life.
I'm telling you, it comes this way.
And I tell people that.
I told a man, I told the fellow that sandblasted
and done my truck.
I was over talking with him
and he was telling me since that truck had gotten there
how all this work had come upon him.
I said, well, I'm sorry,
but anywhere I show up, God's blessings follow.
He just kindly looked at me funny.
He just kind of looked at me like, really?
And he just didn't have time to do something.
He said, it's just been, since you've got here,
since you dropped it all, things have been that way.
I said, well, it kindly works that way with me.
Since the Catholic night, I can pull into a parking lot
of a gas station with not a car to pump.
And before we get gas pumped and a Sprite bought,
there's people everywhere.
I'm telling you, God's favor and blessing follows me around.
Can I get a witness?
Do you, does God's blessing and favor follow you around?
And it's because we have expectations of the favor
of God in our lives.
And we can access the favor of God, number one,
through total surrender.
Do you hear me?
It's not popular.
It's not a pleasant thing.
It's something that you have to relegate yourself to do
that you totally surrender every part of your life to him.
It's not easy, but I'm telling you, when you get it down,
the favor of God begins to shower upon your life.
You will be like a John who declared,
I must decrease so that he may increase.
Amen.
It's about decreasing.
It's about getting ourselves in right position
so that the favor of God can be extended on
and over our lives.
Secondly, there has to be a death to ourself.
We have to learn that we lose our identities
and magnify God through his son, Jesus Christ,
and allow the work of the Holy Spirit
to be the foremost thing of our life.
And here to, let me tell you this morning,
hear this very well.
That is gonna be one of the greatest struggles
that you have, that you have self-denial.
But know what Jesus said.
If any man come after me, he must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
You've gotta get yourself out of your way.
I'm about to preach right now.
If you don't surrender to the goodness of the grace of God
and repentance through Jesus Christ,
shed blood over your life,
you'll never encounter the favor of God.
And until you look yourself in the mirror and say,
look, you are not in charge, but God is in charge.
Christ sits upon the throne of your heart.
You are led and directed by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And the sooner you do that,
the sooner you too will declare,
I must decrease so that he may increase.
And we will say with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20,
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
Aren't you so glad?
Nevertheless, you live.
I'm crucified.
I've got my cross upon my back.
I'm following, I'm denying.
But nevertheless, he lets you live in spite of yourself.
Nevertheless, I live.
Yet not I, but it's Christ that live within me.
If you want the favor of God in your life,
you must allow Christ to live out through your life.
Hallelujah.
It comes from surrender and it comes from self denial.
You must deny yourself.
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
That's how I make it every day.
I don't go in my own grace.
I don't go in my own strength.
I don't go in my own power.
But I have learned through surrender
and through self denial and through self sacrifice,
putting myself on the cross and denying myself daily
that I can live.
And by living in his grace
and allowing Christ to live through me,
his favor is extended to me.
Why?
For God so loved the world that he gave.
He's only begotten Son.
And if that Son is living through and out of me,
God's favor follows well.
God's favor follows his Son.
I live, Paul said, but not I,
but it's Christ that lives in me.
The life that I now live in the flesh,
it's not just a spiritual blessing.
It's not just a spiritual favor,
but this favor will be manifested
in and through your flesh.
Well, hallelujah.
Because if you stop and think about it,
it's not about a, if you will so much,
a spiritual self getting on a cross.
It's your flesh that gives you trouble.
It's my flesh that gives me trouble.
It's my flesh that has to crawl back up on that cross.
It's my flesh, those old earthly desires
have to remain in self denial.
Come on somebody, I have to surrender daily.
That's the reason the apostle Paul said,
I don't fight against shadows.
I'm not shadow boxing,
but I fight myself daily to bring myself under subjection.
Subjection to what?
To the law of Christ.
Hallelujah.
If I want to live in his favor,
I've got to bring myself under the subjection
of the law of Christ.
Well, hallelujah.
We've got the number two, there's only 10 of these.
Moving on to number three.
To access the favor of God.
Total surrender, self denial.
Thirdly, a respect and a revere
for that which is sacred and holy.
Well, somebody say don't stay there long pastor.
Don't preach too long right there.
Because there's some good preaching in that right there.
To access the favor of God,
you have to remember what is holy,
revere what is reverent,
and respect the righteousness of God.
Oh, let me just keep my head down.
When we come to worship,
it's not like going out to Walmart.
Hey, can I get a witness?
You wasn't making your way to Walmart,
you wasn't coming to Denny's this morning,
and I hope you didn't bring your hearties in with you.
Because that's not what we've done today.
That's not what you decided to get up
and come to this morning.
You decided through surrender, through self denial,
I'm going to the house of a holy God,
and I'm gonna enter into the presence of a sacred room.
This is a sacred place, this is the sanctuary of God.
This is the place that houses his glory.
Oh, I know he lives in us,
but there is also a physical house
and a physical place of worship.
And we gotta respect him, hallelujah.
We gotta revere it, why?
Because this is where we come to come in his presence.
And if we want the favor of God, we'll respect him.
If you want another invite to someone's home for supper,
you'll respect their home, right?
You'll offer to take your plate to the sink.
Hello?
You'll offer to, why?
Because you have respect for your host.
When, oh, when did we forget to respect our host?
Where have we lost the respect of the host of God's house?
His spirit is here, hallelujah.
But here we'll wanna come, can I just get a little personal
with you this morning?
Here we'll wanna come and drag in everything
that we had dragged to the ball field.
We look like we're going to the ball field.
We'll take our coffee, we'll bring our everything.
You know that's a pet peeve of mine.
You know how I feel about the house of the Lord
and the sanctuary of God.
We have to return to reverence one more time.
Mama, we didn't have much when we was growing up,
but when you went to church, you had to come
and you went to church, you had on the best of nothing
that you had.
Hello?
The blue jeans that didn't have the hole.
Them shoes that you were made to take off
when you got home.
You're not playing in those.
Those are your school shoes.
Back in my day, anybody got a converse on today?
Them high tops, the white or black, stick that foot up.
Don't put it on my chair, just stick it up where I can see it.
There you go.
When I was their age, that was the worst thing
you could go to school in.
Why?
Because the dollar store sold them.
Come on.
Yeah, so when you showed up in a pair of converse,
that means you couldn't afford a pair of Nike's.
Oh, yeah.
Now, see how the role reverses?
Back in the day, those champion sweatshirts,
that wasn't popper.
It was under armor, it was Nike, Reebok.
If you rolled in there in that sweatshirt,
they knew your folks was broke.
You would double broke if you come in with a champion
t-shirt and a converse tennis shoe on.
Oh, I'm preaching better than you're shouting right now.
Because that's the honest truth.
That's the way we had to come.
So we have to, how I got on the converse tennis shoe
out of the reverence of God,
I need to work on some things myself.
We are entering into a place of worship,
and we must conduct ourselves with the utmost humility
and respect for the divine.
Are you hearing me?
I'm calling us back to a respect and a revere for the divine.
What has happened?
We are in a culture that has lost its fear
of a holy righteous God.
Oh, I didn't think we're supposed to be in fear.
Yes, honey, we are.
We are to be in awe and revere,
because he is a God who can either let us live
or he can take us out.
Isn't that what the Bible says?
Don't be afraid of man who can only harm your body
and take your life,
but yet we should be in awe and revere
of he who can take both the body and the life,
because it's his good pleasure.
I'm reminding us today,
we've come into the house of a holy God
to worship him and to respect him
and to revere him and to honor him.
And if we want his favor on our lives,
if you do those things...
I mean, the next time you invite those people over
that offer to do the dishes and stuff,
you might grill them a steak instead of spaghetti.
Oh, they were nice.
Wasn't that a nice video?
Well, next time, let's grill some pork chops
and work our way to a steak.
See if they still offer to do the dishes.
Second Chronicles 7, 1 says,
Now when Solomon had made an end to praying,
the fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices,
and the glory of the Lord filled the house.
I don't know about you,
but that's my desire every time
we come through the front doors,
is that the glory of the Lord will fill the house.
And the more we revere,
the more we seek the Lord,
and the more we revere, the more we stand in awe,
and the more we respect him,
and the more we come into his presence,
knowing that he is God and God alone,
we come in and we lift our hands,
we lift our voices, and we sing and do his good.
It doesn't matter if you can carry a tune in a bucket or not.
What matters is that your heart is opened up
and you're worshiping him.
Why? Because you are aware of where you are.
Hallelujah.
Because we come in knowing
that we're going to encounter God.
Now, we can go back and look at some Old Testament worship.
The priest, when it come time for sacrifice,
couldn't even walk up steps.
Why? Because God didn't want to see the calves.
They had to walk up a ramp
so that none of themselves would be exposed before him.
Moving right along to number four.
Understanding that God is not common.
He is divine.
Purity.
We want to encounter the favor of God.
We try and endeavor to live as pure a life before God as we can.
Well, how do we do that?
By surrender, by self denial, by respecting his divinity
and who he is and doing our utmost to live a pure life before him.
Holiness still matters.
Holiness is not as simple as it was preached when I was young.
When I was young, holiness was preached
at the end of a clothesline clip.
That's all we got of it.
Them that passed the clothesline test
wouldn't realize that they were failing the tongue test.
Hello.
I've seen hair and hemlines drag the ground,
but the tongue was so long it wrapped it all up coming down the road.
Hello.
We have to endeavor to live pure lives.
You and I have control of our speech.
Take a hold of the wheel.
Hello.
Hebrews 12, 14 tells us that without holiness,
no man will see the Lord.
It's not absent of the clothesline,
but it will be reflected of the heart.
What are you saying pastor?
I say we will dress and look like the intent of our heart.
We were never told that.
We were always told you get that part right,
then the heart will come in check.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Right?
Some of you are not going to believe this,
but I was 41 years old before I wore shorts outside the house.
We weren't even allowed to play in the yard with them on.
And you know, I've told you, we lived at the end of snuff hollering.
Who's coming down there?
If they came and turned around in front of our house,
they were there by accident.
And we weren't allowed much to play out front anyway.
So who was going to see my knobby knees?
It did not matter.
Didn't matter.
They were covered so anybody could have come.
Y'all laughing, but I'm telling you it is the truth.
41 and still felt like somebody was watching me.
Looked for mama anyway.
Still afraid she'd take a limb.
I have never worn them around her for fear of that very thing.
You're 58 years old.
Yes, and she's 80 and still quite capable.
I'm not going to risk it.
So why would we risk it with God?
Well, all right, moving on past purity.
Somebody say amen.
Here's another one that really if we want to live in God's favor
and have his favor upon our lives,
then we will live lives of consistent prayer with fasting.
You can tell I've not been on that second part much
but have been convicted of a late.
Get back to some principle times of fasting.
Why? Because if you remember the father that brought his son
to the disciples who were unable to deliver him.
Remember when that evil spirit would take a hold of that young boy
and would toss him and tear him and try to drown him
or try to burn him in the fire and the father was beyond himself
and he brings the two disciples, his son Jesus,
and they couldn't do anything for him.
But Jesus come to town and they said,
Master, why can we not do this?
How come we couldn't do it?
He said, look, some things go with not but by prayer and fasting.
Some of the issues you're going to have to get down and pray over
and push a plate back.
They're not going away until we have self-denial.
Oh, come on.
Now, how many will live in God's favor?
How many will live in those unexpected moments,
unexpected places from unexpected people in unexpected times?
If we want to live in that favor and allow to ensure that
that is coming in our lives, then we will have committed lives
of prayer and fasting.
I'll have to give an altar call if I keep preaching there.
So let's go to number six to which I'd be the first to go down
and convicted.
We want to see this glory come in.
There's some things that we can do to assure that his presence is
ever so near.
Corporately, we pray and corporately we fast.
That means all of us together.
You pray for me.
I'm asking the Lord to help me for 2025, which is just a few
weeks away.
Matter of factly, Christmas is 10 weeks away.
And then we're looking at January.
We need clarity.
I need clarity for direction for us in 2025 as we've been seeking
to break the limits and the limiter off of our lives so that
we may live in this favor of God's blessings.
I want to know God, what's the next step for Hopewell Church
of God?
What is our next step?
What do we need to endeavor?
How do we need to discipline and disciple ourselves as we follow
after you?
What do we need to do to ensure your favor and your blessing on
our church and families and those who are connected to this
place?
How do we ensure your favor?
2025 its expectations of breaking the limits, but it's also
living the way that God asked us to number six is a tough one as
well to ensure God's favor.
Then we must live a life of obedience.
Do you realize I could go through the list of things that of our
spiritual armament to say and ask you what do you think is the
is the very one thing that the devil is the most afraid of in
our lives.
Some of us would say prayer right off the bat, but the devil
is not so afraid of your prayer life.
Because like I said before he knows that we're going to pray
and get done before we pray and get through.
He's not terrified by your praise and worship.
Why?
Because he knows you have limits as to where you'll go.
We sing that song sometimes.
My praise is my weapon, right?
Some of our praise in him sharp enough to cut butter.
You think I just but I don't.
So you think he's afraid of your dull praise?
You know the thing that you can do that the devil fears and
trembles you.
I say what's faith?
No, he's got faith.
The demons have faith.
You need to get in your book.
Read it, but what the devil fears and trembles at is when
you and I are obedient.
When you become obedient to the word and the will of God, the
devil starts to shake in his boots because when you become
obedient your praise gets a honed edge to it.
When you become obedient to God's will and God's word, your
prayer takes on another level because you're in obedience and
the word now has authority when you speak it.
And the devil begins to fear and tremble.
But only when we are living in lives of obedience, he will not
honor disobedience and favor never accompanies disobedience.
For those of you that may have multiple children, the one that
obeyed got the ice cream, the other two the belt.
Speaking out of our own experience, I'm sorry.
God has never blessed disobedience.
I'll just give you the text and you can go read it.
It's first Samuel 15 about about King Saul and what happened to
him in his arrogance and disobedience to which the
prophet Samuel would say to him, do you think God reveres burnt
offerings and sacrifice more than he does obedience?
No, to obey is better than sacrifice to obey.
You see now you can come in and we can do all this stuff in the
place you can't obey in the flesh.
You've got to have self-denial.
You've got to have surrender.
You've got to have a revere and respect and all of God.
You got to be living a life that is dedicated to purity and
trying to live the utmost your best to be holy before God so
that you'll obey him.
Why?
Because you obey.
You obey your mama because of the fear of a limb in her right hand.
My mother wasn't that big of a lady.
At about 14, I could have had my way with my mother, but behind
mother was dad.
So I obey.
And if he was a devil, he could care less how much you sing and
clap.
But when you're in obedience singing and clapping, he shakes
in his shoes.
He don't care how much you pray because you're not living a life
in alignment that will usher in favor over you.
But if you're in obedience and you pray, he's looking for a
place to go.
7
Humility
acts 2019
Serving the Lord with all humility of mine
First Peter 5 & 6 humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may
Exalt you in due time
That he may display favor on you
When the time is right and for you and I that's an unexpected moment
When God so to pay they they've been obeying
They've been under attack. It doesn't mean you won't be under attack. Hello
But it means you're equipped for the attack
He said you know what?
I'm just gonna bless them today from nowhere
You're gonna live by faith anyway
Because as I'm going to give them just a little bit extra
When he goes to the H&R block I'm gonna give him a surprise tomorrow
You're saying you just can't get over that candy now
That don't normally happen to us
I'm just gonna bless him. Whoo. I can't wait to give some time on that. Hallelujah
So we humble ourselves
What's that mean you you
That means you get off your own high horse
You don't wait till you're till you're like a saw
and you get knocked off
And eventually become a paw
You climb on down now that cannot can I help somebody in here you're not what you think you are
You're not doing as well as you think you're doing
And if you think you're in control of it all that means number one you haven't surrendered number two
You're not in self-denial. So no no favors coming your way, but he will knock you off your horse
The high one, you know, I'm done
Your high horse
You don't think you need him who do you think you are? I
Mean how many of us have lived that and finally figured out we need him
Are you go ask these folks? Well, how come because they got knocked off
They'll tell you how
He humbled them instead of them humbling themselves
Anybody ever been humbled?
It's a bitter pie
Somebody say hurry up pastor. Okay
So
Okay, you
Tell somebody
The next time I come in groups around any of you and they go to talking about how long-winded your pastor is you tell
Him say you won't believe it. He preached a ten-point sermon and got us out before 12. I
Got ten minutes
You're through shouting anyway, so now it's just I'm going through the semantics. I'm just giving you the good stuff now
Testimonial praise
We're made overcomers according to the revelator by the blood of the lamb and
the words of our testimony that
Means you've been tested
That means you've been tried
That means you've walked through the fire somewhere. You've been in and out of the wilderness on multiple occasions and
You can still stand up because of the blood of the lamb and say
Let me tell you how good the Lord's been to me
You can say that when you're even face something worse than you've even been through because you're surrendered
Because you're humbled and you're in self-denial
right because you're doing your utmost to live before God in accordance to his commands and his word and you're trying your
best to live the blessed life over on the good side and
In spite of it all you can look at anybody who would try to question your condition and circumstance
And you can say let me tell you how good God has been to me
His favor has been on my life and they're gonna say well this is going on and that's going on and this is happening
But you can still say I've not finished the test yet
When I finish the test it'll be my
Testimony when I make my way through it. Hallelujah. I'm gonna tell you it was by the blood of the lamb
Because I stand before you and I will praise him
I'm not gonna read it. You write it down go home and read it at Psalm 145 that goes with this particular point
You go read that Psalm this afternoon when you get a little bit of quiet time
See the testimony of the psalmist
And equate your experience with him
And favor comes your way
Number nine say we're almost there
There's an atmosphere of expectancy
When you know God's favor is upon your life
I
Expect those unexpected things. I know that that doesn't hardly make sense when you say it, but
What I'm saying is I wasn't really surprised yesterday I was amused
It's like really I asked her three times really. Yes right there on your screen
Huh?
You know
Well, the Lord is good
Amen
If I if I had to pay the amount that's coming I would have shouted
Thinking well, hallelujah, that's all it is
Come on, I'm gonna say it's good. I'm gonna say it's good
Hallelujah, that's all it is
Come on
So it's sort of like Stan Wyman I'm gonna do number 10 and we'll let you go
It's like
It's like these coaches
Who coach players who are not accustomed to being on winning teams?
They score touchdown they look like there is a soul train or so
Coach gives him by the face my son act like you've been there before
When you've been blessed
It's not that you take them nonchalantly. It's like oh well I don't surprise me
When you live in favor
It doesn't surprise you
Doesn't mean you doesn't appreciate it
It means that now you're living in a line of expectation. I
Expect God's blessings on my life in unexpected times
unexpected seasons
from unexpected places
from definitely unexpected people
And so when it
When it happens people look say well you're a little more excited than that and I'm just grinning
Well, you don't know I'm accustomed to this sort of thing
Wow, because I'm God's favorite
He loves us I don't know about y'all he loves us
He loves us
And so I testify of it
We got a test we're going through now that we're gonna test
Somehow some way all things
Work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose
That's our purpose
Surrender not an issue
Self-denial I know who and what I am and what he called me from and I'm still that same person
But only redeemed by grace and cleansed by his blood
Still that boy from snuff holler
Knowing that I wouldn't be anything
Without him
But because of him we're everything
It's what I'm saying
We're everything it's what I'm trying to get across to you this morning
He knows you
And I want you living under the umbrella of his favor, but I can't I can't make you do this stuff
But until we get an alignment as
Moses is giving again and rehearsing in the hearing of the people of Israel again
You can either have cursing or blessings. Here's what you do to be blessed
You say is it that simple yes
If it was much more difficult, I wouldn't be able to accomplish it. It has to be simple
You
Say is a byproduct of God's favor
The more of his favor that is extended into your life
The more you believe from him
The more you believe of him the more you trust in him
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God
And hearing by the Word of God, how many of you want to live on the good side?