FOUND FAVOR_WEEK 2

WALKING IN THE FOG

Pastor Steven Furtick

Video:

What exactly is God's favor? What does it look like? How can you experience it in
your life?

God's favor looks different to different people. There are many ways God's favor
shows up in our lives; in our relationships and in our health, in our finances and
in our work, through our security, our influence and our life circumstances. And
when we have found favor with God, we begin to fully understand what it means to
walk in the power of His presence.

Craig Groeschel:

Hey everybody, last week you guys were going crazy about hearing one of the most
powerful messages of all time about 'Found Favor'. I've got great news for you, you
get to hear another week of one of my best friends in the world; you get to hear
from Pastor Steven Furtick, the founding and lead pastor of Elevation Church, one
of the fastest growing churches in America. I want you to show him honor today,
would you welcome back for week number two of 'Found Favor', Pastor Steven Furtick.

Steven Furtick:

Hey, let's put our hands together and give God some praise for how good He's been
to us in all of our lives. At every location, if God has been good to you, why
don't you clap your hands a little louder? Come on, if God has blessed you, if He's
made a way for you, if He's been by your side; you know you ought to give Him
praise!

We've been talking about finding favor and sometimes the best way to increase God's
favor in your life, is to increase your awareness of the favor you already have.
I've found that gratitude is the access code to favor. The Bible says:

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

Before I ask God for anything, I should thank Him for everything. You should never
start your prayer with a please, until you've started saying thank you.

And so, I just wanted to give thanks today for the awesome opportunity to be with
the LifeChurch.tv family. You guys are phenomenal, I shared a little bit last week
how much Pastor Craig means to me on a personal level, but I think every single one
of you on some level who are a part of this church would like just about seven or
eight seconds to thank God for your pastor and the leaders of your church and this
incredible movement. Would you clap your hands and thank God for Pastor Craig and
Amy Groeschel and the team here at LifeChurch?

I said last week that God doesn't give us His favor, everybody say, "Favor". That's
what we're talking about, we're talking about finding God's favor and God doesn't
give us His favor for our convenience, but for His purpose. It's a critical
distinction. One thing that I've noticed about Pastor Craig that I hope to emulate,
he's a couple of years ahead of me in the ministry, and many years ahead of me in
wisdom. And I notice how every time God blesses him and every time God blesses this
church, you have this uncanny ability not to use God's blessing to make your life
easier, but to give God that blessing back so that He can impact even more people
through it. It's probably one of the greatest things I've learned from your pastor.
I'll see God bless the church and I'll think, "Well, now he's going to take it easy
a little bit!" You know, the church has 45,000 people coming; 45,000 people, that
doesn't even include all of the other people that are coming from Network Churches
and Church Online! That makes it like the biggest church in American history, so
like now he can chill a little bit, right? I talked to him:

"Yeah, I've got three more campuses I think we're going to be able to open this
year! You know, I've got to reach more people for Jesus Christ!"

And what I want to encourage you to know is that as a church, when God gives you
favor, He expects you to have even more faith. And God has given this church
tremendous favor, but you need to know that the Bible says:

To him who much has given, much more will be required.

My prayer is that this teaching that I lay down today, I have three points, will
help you to learn how to walk in the favor of God. It's one thing to find God's
favor, it's another thing to walk and live and flow in it. I want to know, are
there any favor-finders in the house this week? Anybody been looking for God's
favor?

It's crazy how favor is everywhere. You know how when you are looking for something
you're more prone to see it and you think there's more of it, but it's actually
just that you're looking for it now? That's how it is with favor, God's favor is
always present in our lives but it's when we open our eyes to look for it that we
begin to see it and then God can increase on it in our lives.

It's kind of like, when you're in the market for a new car and you've got a certain
kind of car you want in your mind and now all of a sudden, all you see if you want
a Honda Accord is Honda Accords everywhere! Or if you want a Jeep, all you see is
Jeeps everywhere, because you're in the market, now your eyes are opened to see
that car everywhere.

I want to encourage you to get in the market for favor, the favor of God during
this series. And today, I'm going to help us to train our eyes to see God's favor,
to discover the pockets of favor that already exist and to thank God for them. And
then, to realize the greatest way to thank God for His favor, because we could
never pay Him back, you understand that right? You don't respond to God's favor by
owing Him a favor, it doesn't work that way.

One famous preacher said, "Favor ain't fair!"

There's nothing fair about God's favor. There was nothing fair about the cross, He
took your place. And so, our response to God's favor is to say, "God, show me how I
can take the favor you've given me, the blessing you've given me, the influence
you've given me, the money you've given me, the skills you've given me; and now, be
a channel of Your favor for others, because God doesn't give you His favor for you,
He gives you His favor for your purpose so it can flow through you, not just to
you.

I'm already preaching good, you ought to clap your hands!

We said last week that the favor of God is the guarantee of His presence and the
provision of His power to accomplish His special purpose in and through our lives.
The guarantee of His presence, knowing that God is with me and the provision of His
power, knowing He's for me. It's great to know God is with you, but when you
realize He's for you, that takes it to a whole different level, and it's in order
to accomplish His special purpose in and through my life.
We also said last week that there are some favor fallacies out there. I had our
team put together a little video that I want to show you. It's just real short and
it's designed to be funny, so you can laugh out of politeness and basic human
kindness! They wanted to show just how sometimes we pray for God's favor and He
answers in an unexpected way, if you're looking for it. Check out this video:

"God, you know I've been looking for favor a lot this week, so I would love to find
favor now. I'm asking for a great parking spot, a favored parking spot, maybe even
right up front next to the entrance. Lord, I'm a favor finder."

You know if we're going to find God's favor, first we've got to know what we're
looking for. I want to encourage you to note today that God's favor can be found
even in your most difficult circumstance; even in the worst doctor's report you
could ever receive, even when the marriage is not only falling apart, but has
fallen apart and it feels like your life is over. Even when you're so lonely that
you don't even feel like God is with you, let alone that He likes you and is for
you. If you'll learn how to perceive God's favor, I believe you can receive God's
favor no matter what you're going through in your life.

The first of three points I want you to write down, please take these down, you're
going to need them. Some of you are like, "Well I don't need this, I'm doing pretty
good, I'm blessed, I've got God's favor, I don't need to know what this kid thinks
about God's favor!" You're going to need it in about three days, four days. You're
going to hit something where you need this message, so write it down.

The first factor to increase God's favor, flow in God's favor, not to earn it,
because we learned last week it can't be earned. Not achieved, only received! But
how do you respond to it, flow in it and go with it? Number one, I want you to
write down the word:

1. Expect.

How do I walk in the favor of God? That's great, God's favor, I'm excited! How do I
walk in it, how do I live in it, how do I tune my life to it? The first thing
you've got to do is expect. And right underneath the word 'expect' I want you to
write this phrase, 'frame your world with favor'. Frame you're world with favor.

Last week, I mentioned two Bible characters, Moses and Mary, who found favor with
God. One of them went on to lead a couple million people through a very dry land,
forty years of wilderness wandering, and one of them went on to have a baby in
inhumane conditions and face ridicule. But they both fulfilled God's purpose, and
that was bigger than their convenience.
That's what favor is all about. I'm not getting any amens! I bet you if I told you,
"I'm Oprah, I've got a car for everybody at church today!" you'll all start
shouting! But see, God doesn't just offer to give you stuff, He offers to be
something to you, to do something in you, to work something through you, and that's
called favor. And it's better than anything that you could get from anybody in this
world, because it can't be taken away. It's the special something of God. You might
even call it the 'it factor'. We could write a book called, 'It' about the favor of
God, I bet it would be a best-seller!

Frame your world with favor. And I could have talked about a lot of different Bible
characters. Abraham found favor in God's sight, even though it meant launching out
into the unknown and all God told him was, 'Go to the land I'll show you.'

'Where we going?
'I'll show you when we get there. All you need to know is that I will be your
shield and your exceeding great reward because you found favor.'

We talked about Moses, but we could have talked about Nehemiah. We could have
talked about any number of characters who found favor. Gideon wanted to know he
found favor. The women get favor too in the Bible, Esther found favor and she saved
a nation because of it. And then we have Ruth, who found favor with Boaz and went
from picking up scraps in the field to drinking from the water jug of the servants,
to sitting with the man himself. Favor will just do stuff in your life where you're
like, "Really God, really? Are you really going to bless me this much?"

And you're like, "I don't believe all of that!"

Well you don't have to! I'll just take your favor too! I'll take yours and mine!
I'll reach over and eat the favor off of your plate too okay? Because I have
decided to frame my world with favor. I've decided that even when bad things
happen, I'm going to choose to believe that God works all things to the good of
those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

So, let me give you five Scriptures. I'm going to just read them real briefly,
they're just quick Scriptures. You can study them later, talk about them at home,
talk about them in your LifeGroup, talk about them in different conversations with
people who don't go to church, tell them what God is teaching you. But all through
the Bible, and this is just a few of them. I'm calling it, 'The Favor Five'. Here
are some Scriptures where God promises favor to His people. In Leviticus 26:9, God
says:

I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers and I
will keep my covenant with you.

Psalm 5:12 says:

Surely Lord, you've blessed the righteous; you surround them with your favor as
with a shield.

I love to know that God's favor is not only behind me, what He did in the past,
it's in front of me, anything I'm going through in the future, and it's beside me
and walking with me every step of the way. I thank God for His favor. Any favor
finders with me? All in favor say, "I". You like that? You get it? A play on words,
all in favor! I hope some of the campuses got it!

Psalm 84:11:

For the Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor...

I love those two words together, favor and honor.

...and no good things does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

You say, "Well my walk isn't blameless, it doesn't apply to me."

You want to know what I said to my kids trying to get ready for church this
morning? I'm not blameless, but see Jesus was and He lived the life you couldn't
live, died the death you should have died and now He offers His free favor to
anyone who will believe Him enough just to say, "Lord, I receive Your favor!".

Proverbs 3:4 says, 'Then you will win favor':

If you obey the commands of the Lord you will win favor and a good name in the
sight of God and man.

And then there's this verse I love in Acts. You're all are like, "That's the Old
Testament!" Well, here's the New Testament! Acts 2:47; there's always a skeptic out
there like, "Well I don't know, that's the Old Testament!" Well, here it is in the
New Testament:

They were praising God...

The early church:

...they enjoyed the favor of all of the people and the Lord added to their number
daily, those who were being saved.

And oh by the way, the Bible says about Jesus that He grew in wisdom and stature,
in favor with God and with men. And I want to be like Jesus and I want to grow in
God's favor and I want to flow in God's favor, and I want to know that He's guiding
me and directing me. And so, the first thing I have to do is expect it, expect it.
And I can tell talking to people sometimes that they don't expect God's favor. And
it's not that God's a genie in a bottle, He's God in heaven, He's not a genie in a
bottle, I hope you know that. It's not like you can manipulate a miracle out of
God. But I'm just telling you that when you're in the market for it and you're
looking for it, when you expect it, there's a different vocabulary that you use and
people that don't have God's favor in their heart, there's a different vocabulary
you use when you wake up in the morning. You don't talk about, "I wonder what's
going to go wrong today!" You start talking about, "I wonder how God's going to be
good to me today! I wonder how God's going to take that challenge that I'm facing
and use it to show how great He is today, because I've got that favor of God! I'm
walking in the favor of God today!"

I hear people say stuff like this, you know, something bad will happen to him,
they'll get fired or they'll go back to buy the thing at the store and the last one
is gone and they'll say, "It's the story of my life!" Some of you all say that, you
need to quit saying that! Something bad happens, "It's the story of my life!" If
that's the story of your life, that bad things always happen to you and you're
always disappointed and you're always frustrated and you're always intimidated and
you never expect God to be good to you; if that's the story of your life, you need
to get a new director for your story! You've got the wrong writer if that's the
story of your life!

My Bible says that God, in the beginning create man and He said, "It is good". And
then I flip to the back of the book and I find out that we win. So, everything that
happens in the middle is just really just God setting a stage so He can show
Himself strong. And even when I face a battle, it's just so the world can see that
God is strong and fighting for me. How will they know how strong He is fighting for
me if I never have to face an opponent? The next time you see Goliath in your life
David, and you walk up to the battle lines, don't see him through the framework of
the rest of the world, this is the one whose come to take us down, this is the one
who is keeping us from the blessings. Stop seeing it that way! Start looking at it
like this, this is an opportunity where if I'll trust God, He can use me to do
something that the world will know that it was Him because it couldn't have been me
and I can be a showcase for His favor!

Favor should be the primary frame of reference for the child of God. Just like for
my kids, they don't ask for my permission to eat anything in my house, it's just
what they do, it's part of the package. The Scripture says that you should forget
not all of the benefits of the Lord.
I meet a lot of Christians who just don't really understand how incredible God's
favor is.

You know, when I first got a real job and they told me they were going to pay my
insurance, I was so excited about it I went and told all of my friends. I was like,
"Not only are they going to give me a salary, they are going to give me like a
benefits package!" I thought that was like amazing! I never had that; I was paying
my own insurance. A self-employed, a little travel around and preach for $75.00 at
different little youth rallies in the church gym where it smelled like Doritos and
feet; a mixture of those two things you know! I wasn't used to having somebody pay
my insurance, so I was telling all of my friends and they were like not that
impressed, because they all had jobs and they had jobs for a while. So they were
like, "Yeah, it's a pretty standard part of the package."

I've got an analogy out of that for how when we first come to Christ there's this
innocent sense of expectation, "I'm really God's child, He really forgives me!" You
open the Bible and it's fresh to you and it's like, "Wow! I can't believe God's
speaking to me through His Word! That's the first time I've read the Bible and I'm
just like...and I can't believe that really God put me into that position to tell
someone about Christ, or to invite somebody to church!"

When some of you first started serving at LifeChurch, it was like, "I can't believe
I get to touch a life for the Lord, I can't believe!" When you first came to church
it was like, "I can't believe I get to come to a church where they're reaching
people! I mean, look at this, four-hundred people give their lives to Christ on a
bad week at LifeChurch, I can't believe there's a church like this in my
community!" But then over time, the blessings and benefits of God seem to seem
like, they start to seem like just part of the package. And so, we start to take it
for granted, but God sent me to remind somebody today, that if you will begin to
expect again the favor of God, there are opportunities all around you. You don't
need another opportunity; you need to open your eyes to the opportunity that God
has already put in front of you. And then, out of that He'll give you a greater
opportunity. If you're faithful in a little He'll make you faithful over much more.
So, you flow in favor when you first of all expect and frame your world with favor.

Number two, I want you to write down the word recognize.

2. Recognize

Somebody who listened to rap in the 90's, turn to your neighbor and say, "You
better recognize!" You better recognize. And underneath that, just right this
phrase down; he said I was a white preacher, but I don't feel like I'm all white
when I preach, I really don't, I don't accept that designation, I'm going to prove
that wrong! I want you to write down:

Open your eyes to opportunity.

Write that down; open your eyes to opportunity.

The other day, I guess it's been several months now, I took my kids, my five-year
old, I think Elijah was five and Grand was three, I took them to an NBA game, their
first NBA game. For those of you watching in other countries around the world, it
was actually a Charlotte Bobcat's game, which is technically maybe not an NBA game,
but it was kind of an NBA game, a National Basketball Association.

Okay, so the owner of the Bobcats is Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player
of all time. Somebody had gotten us these really sick tickets and gave them to us,
because that's what you do when you're a good church member, you show favor toward
your pastor! Can I get an amen Pastor Craig? Amen! That's what good church members
do!

So, they gave us this VIP thing, we went in this special entrance and we were
standing there. Just before the game started, Michael Jordan walks by. I don't get
star struck a lot and I'm not a huge basketball fan, but it's Michael Jordan! He's
like inarguably, the greatest basketball player of all time. You can argue if you
want but it is inarguable, really it is! He walks by and I just had one of these
moments like, "Dang, that's Michael Jordan!" And so, my kids were there, and I got
down on my knee, me and Holly were kind of like, "What a cool moment for our kids!"
We were like, "Hey Elijah, Graham, you're never going to believe this, the greatest
basketball player of all time, maybe the greatest athlete of the last hundred
years, Michael Jordan just walked by you!"

And Elijah looks back at me with these big eyes and he goes, "Daddy, can we go get
some popcorn?"

He didn't care! He didn't care about Michael Jordan! He wants some popcorn! It goes
to show, something so great can be right in front of your face, but you don't even
care because you're focused on something that doesn't matter at all, because you're
not mature enough to open your eyes to see the favor that's right in front of you.
You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying you know, that you should have led Michael
Jordan in a prayer and maybe he will start tithing to the church! I don't know, the
fact is though; greatness is right in front of you every day.

You look at somebody else's marriage and you're like, "Oh man, they've just got
favor on their marriage!" No, they're just recognizing the opportunity for favor
and when they open their eyes to it, then God is able to open their heart and pour
more in and God can pour more into you when your eyes are open to His favor.

I want to encourage you to open your eyes to the opportunities God has already
placed around you. And here's another little thing to write down before I give you
my closing point, it's so important:

God will give you the favor you need for the season you're in to do what He's
called you to do.

You're like, "Man, I don't have God's favor in my life right now, I'm single."

You might have the favor you need to have while you're single to build the
character you need and have the time you need to devote to the things you need so
you'll be prepared when God brings the next season of favor into your life, because
God will give you the favor you need for the season you're in.

When I first started traveling and preaching, I didn't have a lot of money. And so,
if I was in the airport going to preach somewhere, the groups I would preach to
were so small that if they went on the loud speaker, I don't know if you've ever
done this before, but if they came on and if they were like, "We have overbooked
this flight and we need some volunteers to give up their seat." I'd be like the
first one to respond every time because they would give you a travel voucher for
like two or three hundred dollars, sometimes a five-hundred dollar travel voucher
to give up your seat.

So, I would call up the person that was doing the event and be like, "Hey man, is
it cool if we just start tonight at nine o'clock instead of seven, because I can
get two or three hundred dollars! Now, that was God's favor, I bet I got about four
or five travel vouchers that way! It was amazing, I was getting favor!

Wouldn't it be stupid though, I mean, I'm preaching right now at LifeChurch.tv, I

get the opportunity to minister through Church Online. I don't know if you know
this, hundreds of thousands of people are a part of this ministry weekly. Wouldn't
it be stupid if I called Pastor Craig and I'm like, "Hey, I'm in the airport man,
they will give me this two hundred dollar travel voucher, I don't know if I can
minister to 150,000 people, we might need to do something! Because listen, that was
the favor I needed for that season, but God has different favor for you in every
season.

And what you have to do in your life is learn to see, "God, what is the favor you
want to give me in this season?" See, now it's not a problem for me to get a plane
ticket, we have more resources. But it's a little bit harder for me to find time,
because we've got a lot to do. So sometimes I have to use the favor of resources to
buy a more expensive plane ticket in order to have time. It's amazing to look back
over my life and say, "You know, God was there for me every step along the way,
giving me the favor that according to His wisdom, He knew I needed in that season."
And when I look for God's favor in the season I'm in, I realize that He's been
there every step along the way, if you'll open your eyes to the favor of God.

Number three, and I'll close with this; it does no good to find the favor of God if
you expect it and frame your world with it, recognize it, open your eyes to
opportunities around you, it does no good to see it if you don't number three,
write this word down:

3. Respond.

And underneath that I want you to write this phrase:

Give yourself to obedience.

Give yourself to obedience. Now, I told you this message was called, 'Walking in
the Fog'. If you look back on your outline, if you were obedient and wrote
everything down I told you to, those little phrases I told you to put under those
three words, if you look back at the first letter of each of those phrases, on
number one I said:

1. Frame your world with favor.

On number two I said:

2. Open your eyes to opportunity.

On number three I said:

3. Give yourself to obedience.

The first letter of those words, if you just track with me real quick is, F..O..G.
I worked hard on that, I wish you would clap or something! Just be like, "Wow!" Act
surprised, act like it was cool! It's like the best trick I've got! Man, I don't
know, I ain't got no follow-up for that!

You know, although you can't produce or achieve God's favor, you can position
yourself to receive it. And favor isn't just a matter of luck, it isn't just a
matter of chance or looking on the sunny side; you know like, "I've got God's favor
and I'm never expecting anything to change, but I'm going to be a little more
grateful."

That's not the message I came to preach to you, that's not the favor of God. I'm
talking about, will you leave this series and commit to be a favor-finder, not just
for three days while you've got inspiration, but ask God right now in your heart to
say, "God, make me a favor-finder who doesn't just feel the favor of God every once
in a while, but walks in it constantly, following hard after you. And if I will
follow hard after you, the Bible says, 'Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life.'" And so, when I'm following Jesus, favor follows me.

In baseball, they teach you when you're a pitcher; don't try to place your pitch.
Meaning, you don't sit there and try to get it to the right spot. You actually just
get so comfortable in your form and you throw the ball so many times, that when you
rock back and throw it, the ball goes where it's supposed to go because you did
what you were supposed to do. God's favor is like that, you don't leave trying to
manipulate circumstances, you leave believing God for miracles and positioning
yourself to receive those miracles through being where He's called you to be,
becoming who He's called you to become, and doing what He's called you to do. Clap
your hands if that's good teaching!

So, the commitment to favor isn't just, "God, send me Your favor", it's "God, I'm
making a commitment to be in the place where your favor is falling. I commit myself
to obeying you, to positioning myself; Your favor has provided me with
opportunities and now I will position myself to cease them through obedience."

I'm looking back over my life real quick as I stand up here and thinking how I
obeyed in something that didn't seem to be a big deal, and it led into something
that changed my life. I'm thinking how I went to a Christian college just because I
felt like I'd only been saved for a little time and maybe I would get in trouble
where I went to school where there were a lot of parties and I was just trying to
obey the Lord.

When I got there, I met this man who sent me out preaching on the road on the
weekend. I don't know why he did it, he would call his friends and say, "You need
to have this young guy, he's raw and he's rough, but he's got a gift and you should
have him." And I started preaching for that and that's where I started to build
some of my ministry stuff. They called me to be the music leader for this little
group of 50 people at the college. And so, I just did that man; I just did it with
all of my heart. There weren't a lot of people coming but man, we went for it! We
pretended like it was a stadium full of people! I acted like Bono for the Lord on
that stage, just giving it all I had every week! And you know that thing grew to
over 600 people by the time I left the college that had only had 1,200 people in
it!

And then, it was out of that that I met a man who invited me to move to a little
town called Shelby, North Carolina. Have you heard of Shelby? No, you haven't heard
of Shelby, you don't study about Shelby. I hadn't prayed for Shelby, I didn't want
to go to Shelby, I wasn't thinking of Shelby! But I felt like I needed to go to
Shelby to travel and preach for this guy and I just took the speaking engagements
that he didn't have and I did what he didn't want to do, just because in that
season that was obedience. It was out of that that I met the families that would go
to start a church with me. And then, it was out of that decision to sell our houses
and quit our jobs that we ended up in Charlotte, North Carolina. And it was that
first day where we stood up and had church with 121 people and now we've seen
thousands come to the Lord. And here I am today preaching at the largest church in
America, telling you about God's favor! And I just look and I say, "God, how did I
get here?" And it was just through obedient steps.

There is somebody here today that God is calling to take a simple step of
obedience. It doesn't seem like much right now, it's not some huge favor story that
you could tell in front of 100,000 people, it's just not that exciting. But maybe
there's something that God wants to do. Maybe there's a blessing, an impact, a
change locked in your obedience that is bigger than anything your eyes could see. I
made a decision to walk in the favor of God, I'm not going to walk around any more
days just circling around wandering. I've made a decision, "God, wherever Your
favor is, that's where I want to be no matter what it costs me."

Father, I pray for each and every man, woman, boy and girl everywhere in the world
to obey you simply now to find Your favor. In Jesus' name.