The world was a sinful and wicked place, and it grieved God so much that He regretted ever creating mankind. Yet Noah found favor in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:5-7). In this three-part series, Dr. Stanley uses both the story of Noah’s obedience to God and examples from his own life to help us discover how we can listen, trust, and obey the Lord. God may not be calling you to build an Ark, but He is most certainly calling you to fulfill His will. When we make wise decisions that honor and bring glory to Him, we will find His favor in our own lives.
the bible says then the lord saw
that the wickedness of man was great on
the earth and that every intent
and thought of his heart was only evil
continually
the lord was sorry that he had made man
on the earth
and he was grieved in his heart the lord
said i will blot out man whom i have
created from the face of the earth
from man to animals to creeping things
the birds of the sky
for i am sorry that i have made them but
noah found favor in the eyes of the lord
and that’s what i want to talk about in
this message and that is
walking in the favor of god and this is
the first
of three messages on this title walking
in the favor of god and when i think
about that
i think first of all what do we mean by
the favor of god
we mean first of all of god’s approval
and his acceptance of us
and his support his provision his divine
energy his joy
all of that and all of these are
expressions of the faith of god
so ask yourself the question do you feel
like you’re walking in the favor of god
do you sense his presence and power in
your life
do you see evidence that god is guiding
what you say
what you do where you look are all of
these evidence of the favor of god
the scripture says that noah found favor
in the eyes of the lord and also you
remember
that mary the mother of jesus also found
favor
before the lord and the truth is it
should be
every one of us should have the desire
to find favor with god in our life
and so i would ask you do you feel like
you have god’s favor
do you sense god’s presence and favor
goodness and kindness and love and joy
and forgiveness
and his presence and power and
enablement in your life or do you feel
like you just saw it out there alone
working your way through life and hoping
things will get better
he said he found favor in the eyes of
the lord
that is he sensed
god’s presence in his life in a very
special way
and when you were saved the holy spirit
came into your life to seal you as a
child of god
and the process of doing so i am certain
that he intended
for every one of us to sense his favor
to feel his favor
to experience his favor and to know that
the love of god had been poured out upon
us to save us from our sin
so then i’ll ask you simply this does
your lifestyle
and the habits that you live in every
day indicate to people around you
that you have the favor of god is there
anything in your life that cause
would cause people to think well maybe
they’re a christian maybe they’re not
do you have the favor of god is the
favor of god
evident by the lifestyle you live
and so when i think about that i think
about three things
that’s evident by our conversation
by our character by our conduct all
three of those which we live out every
day in front of everybody
they indicate whether we have the favor
of god or if we’re not
or if god has favored us in our
salvation
in the fullness of the holy spirit is he
evident
by the life that we live and so i ask
you do you worry about things do you
fret over them do you wonder where god
is do you sense his presence
do you know that he’s answering your
prayer do you know he’s in your life
in your conversation conduct and the way
you live it all out
what is one of the evidences of the
favor of god in your life
the first indication is simply this
that you’re listening to him that you’re
listening to god that you’ve learned how
to listen to god
until you learn how to listen to god in
your life you’ll never have his favor
because you’ll be living outside of his
will justifying what you’re doing
declaring everything is all right and
that you’re a christian but it takes
more than that
so when i think about that
uh learning to
live in his favor these verses are very
important
turn if you will to psalm 32 verse
8 and 9. psalm 32 verse 8 and 9.
listen to what he says i will instruct
you and teach you in the way which you
should go
so i’ve got to be listening i will
counsel with you with my eye upon you
do not be as the horse or as the mew
which have no understanding
whose trappings include bitten bridal to
hold them in check or otherwise
they’ll not come to you so if we’re
going to be
listeners listen i will instruct you and
teach you in the way which you should go
in order for me to know the will of god
and the way of god
the first lesson is i’ve got to learn to
listen to him
how do you listen to god have you
thought about that in your own life do
you listen to him
when you go down to pray do you take
time to listen or do you do all the
talking
this is why the holy spirit came into
our life
the moment we were saved to be our
internal
guide and director he’s the one who
points us in the right direction he’s
the one who gives us
awareness of what’s happening he’s the
one who shows us on the other side of
the question
that you and i couldn’t figure out
without his good counsel
so learning to listen to god is the
basic
lesson of being a godly person
so in order to listen to god we must
learn how to identify his voice
so let me ask you a question don’t raise
your hand naturally
now think about this soberly and
seriously
if you had to answer this to god do
you know how to listen to god
do you know are you aware when god
is trying to speak to you do you know
in your heart when you may say well my
conscience said this and my conscience
said that
do you do you think about the fact that
the holy spirit is speaking to you
he’s trying to say something to you
sometimes it won’t make any sense to you
at all
but that’s not the issue the issue is
that he is omniscient
i’m the president omnipotent he knows
exactly what we need
when we need it and how we need it and
he knows how to say it to us in a way
that we can understand it all of us
every single day
should want to listen to god from the
moment we wake up till the time we lose
consciousness
going to sleep at night so in order to
listen to god we got to learn how
first of all god’s voice will be
consistent
with scripture the one thing that you
always have to remember
god is not going to tell you something
that is a violation of the word of god
never i may not understand it but he’ll
never ask us to violate the word of god
so it’s going to be consistent with
scripture
and secondly oftentimes it’s going to be
in conflict with human reason
somebody says well this is the
reasonable thing to do if you
obey god it will not always be the
reasonable thing to do
if you listen to god it won’t be all
sometimes the reasonable thing to do
because
he knows past present future he knows
your abilities talents skills
and he knows his will for your life a
third thing is
it’s going to clash with fleshly desires
sinful desires that crop up in a
person’s life
we all have to be sensitive to that and
listening to god
what you hear is going to clash there’ll
be conflict you’ll sense the conflict
this is what happens when you are
tempted in some particular area of life
you you feel this conflict on the inside
that’s the spirit
versus the flesh trying to give you
direction for what to do
oftentimes it’ll challenge your faith
when you listen to him
you listen to what god is trying to say
to you it’ll challenge your faith to do
what you probably don’t think you’re
capable of doing
sometimes it calls for courage in your
life and that is
god are you sure you want me to do this
yes because listen when god gives the
command
he also accompanies that command with
his power
strength energy know-how in order to
help you to be able to do
what he called you do so when somebody
says well i know god’s calling me to do
this and so but i don’t think i can
remember this god does not call you
without giving whatever is necessary to
help you
and they enable you to do it he speaks
quietly
every time somebody says i never heard
god speak well you expect him to shout
he’s not going to shout because he has
the holy spirit living inside of you
and the spirit of god the holy spirit
god the father god’s son
all three persons of the trinity they
whisper to us quietly this is my will
this is the way walking in it one thing
about
it he speaks very clearly i can’t ever
remember god saying
figure this out he always speaks clearly
somebody says well god’s never spoken to
me yes he has
you may not have been listening it may
be a shock to you that he spoke to you
he may have spoken to you in a way that
you didn’t expect you didn’t anticipate
but to say that you’ve been saved by the
grace of god and god didn’t speak to you
surely he did
that’s the reason you got saved he
convicted you of your sin somebody was
preaching or you read something
and you felt convicted of your sin that
was the spirit of god speaking to your
heart
he told you that you needed to be saved
that spirit of god
yielded your life to christ that’s the
spirit of god
god doesn’t stop talking to you when
you’re saved that’s the beginning of the
voice of god in your life
to not only bring you to conviction and
salvation but to bring you
to live a daily life of obedience and
surrender to him
he speaks personally watch this god will
never say
you all he speaks to you and to you and
to you and to me
never you all he may say to all of us as
a fellowship
i want you to do lessons so but he’s
speaking to each of us
individually that’s our god’s awesome
personal loving individual care for you
that he loves you enough to speak to you
about your situation
it may be about your marriage by your
children about somebody you’re going to
marry
or your finances or whatever it might be
watch this carefully
god speaks clearly and individually to
us
about every single concern that we have
all things that we’re not concerned
about that we ought to be concerned
about
convictions of sin he’s always speaking
for example have you not said to your
children
listen to me have you ever said to them
if you don’t listen to me who are you
going to listen to and they have an
answer
if you don’t listen to god who are you
listening to you listen to somebody who
doesn’t really know you
there are lots of people who know you
who want to tell you how to live your
life and
what you should do and what you
shouldn’t do and and they can
influence you in different ways but
here’s the important thing
god who created you who indwelt you with
the holy spirit the moment you were
saved
he is the one whom we are to listen to
above everybody else in the world no
matter who they are
he’s the only one who is infinite in his
wisdom
he’s the only one who knows everything
about you he knows your potential he
knows his will his purpose his plan
he knows who best suits you he knows
where you ought to live what you ought
to drive
he knows everything about us we should
consult him about everything in life
name me one thing you should not ask god
about
so ask yourself this question would you
say
that you’re a listener among god’s
children would you say
count man is a listener to god i pray to
him and listen
i listen to the messages i listen to the
voice
of those speaking the truth i listen to
the words in the songs
i’m listening to god it is a sacred duty
and absolutely essential in our
relationship to god to listen to him
so how does god get our attention well
he gets our attention in different ways
and probably if we had you just stand
and say well here’s the way god gets my
attention
be different different people’s lives
one of the ways he gets our attention
is to feel restless you can’t quite put
your finger on it
but you have this restless feeling
inside you don’t know what’s happening
you look around you can’t put your
finger on it it’s not that
somebody’s wronged you or that you’ve
made some bad mistake or that you’ve
sinned against god in some awesome way
but you have a restlessness and think
about this think about how busy you are
from the time you wake up
you start thinking about what you’re
going to do and your plans and so forth
the things that you were in fred about
and so god has to get in on all of that
and so
the way he begins to get our attention
is make us restless
so you think about all these things and
none of them seem to be the issue and
finally
what does he do it’s like he just pulls
the sheet
by sheet by sheet by sheet by sheet off
of our mind and our thinking
and we get into this restless feeling
well god’s trying to say something to me
and that doesn’t come automatically that
comes by experience
and so you get out to pray and you don’t
feel like you’re getting through
or you kneel to pray and you think well
god what are you trying to say to me
and sometimes he has to get us very
restless about our life in order
to drive us to finally say oh god you
must be saying something to me
because watch this it’s natural and
normal
for us to look at the first thing that
we think could be the issue and think
well
god you must be saying this or not even
include god in it this must be happening
my kids this my husband this my wife
this our relationship
on and on we go the things about our
debt and so
god gets us restless enough to get us
quiet enough to say well lord
what are you trying to say to me and so
it’s very important
that he get our attention sometime it’s
a message from somebody else
sometimes god may say something to you
through someone else
because god has spoken to them about you
because he cares about you watch this
god isn’t
he’s not tattling on you that’s not the
issue god wants to get your attention
and sometimes somebody else
has to be the avenue through which god
speaks
so i learned a long time ago when
somebody says well here’s what god told
me to tell you
i have two thoughts first of all who is
this
what kind of life are they living before
they start telling me what god’s saying
because sometimes i’ve heard the most
bizarre things
that god absolutely could not would not
should not
can’t say and then sometimes somebody
would say something i think well god
yeah i needed to hear that thank you
very much
so we have to be careful that the
messages that we receive from somebody
else
and likewise be careful the message you
give somebody else
if you tell somebody else well here’s
what god told me to tell you
you better be sure about what you’re
saying or you mislead somebody
and then before you say that you need to
ask
the lord and lord is this right in my
life
before i start giving somebody else
direction lord
is this right in my life so we have to
be careful
about a message we give to somebody else
and so one of the ways he gets our
attention is to bless us
and what does that usually do we usually
say well lord i surely didn’t expect
this i don’t deserve this thank you very
much we can’t thank him enough
that would be our choice way of god
getting our attention
but it’s not his usual way because
usually he has to get
to something deeper than that but that
is one way he gets our attention
to remind us how good he is do you ever
think about how good god is to you
one of the ways god gets our attention
is when we stop
to think how good you are to meet god
then of course his unanswered prayer
will get our attention
now is that bad no it’s not bad because
i can think about sometimes in my life
when god was making a major change and
direction in my life
that came to me first of all as a little
sense of restlessness
i didn’t know what was going on and i
would pray and
and um when i got through praying i was
just as dissatisfied as when i started
and the day went by a week went by and
the month went by
and two or three months went by and i’m
still talking to god about the same
thing of which i do not have any idea
what it’s about
and so god knows how to get our
attention
and he knows how to get us intense
and um when i think of it a few times
i’ve made big moves
in my life have usually been times
when i’ve been through a season of
asking and searching and seeking and
usually those times uh introspection
looking in my life to be sure everything
is right between god and myself
and is there anything i can correct or
change or whatever
and so unanswered prayer is one of his
methods
of getting our attention till he gets to
the root of the issue
until we’re able and willing to say okay
god i want to do it
when when they came to me to talk to me
about coming to atlanta i said no
i have no interest in coming to atlanta
georgia never had been to atlanta but
one time remember flying over it and and
just looking a little bit of that
skyline which was not very big at that
time
i said no week after week after week and
they’d come to see me and i said no no
no
one night got down to pray
and before i got up from praying i knew
that i had to be obedient to god against
my will against my wishes against
everything in me
and my wife would have told you i
complained all the way to atlanta
i didn’t want to come i finally had to
say yes lord i’ll come sometimes he gets
our attention by disappointments
everything’s just going along fine and
we have a big disappointment in life
and so we think well what did i do how
could i vote how could i have avoided
this disappointment
sometimes that’s the way god gets their
attention so when we get disappointed
what do we do we back off and say okay
god
what are you trying to say to me and
then sometimes there’s failure
failure gets their attention all failure
is not bad
if failure in any given area of your
life
gets your attention gets you on your
knees before god
once that happens it’s not all bad
because
failure what does it do it drives us to
god
sometimes it’s financial problems that
oftentimes gets people’s attention
especially if they can lose their house
especially if for example
they can lose their job
lose their opportunities and so people
instead of turning to god
they go borrow some money and so instead
of listening to god
obeying god they try to avoid
this uneasy feeling and that uneasy
feeling is god’s goodness
it’s god’s grace getting the person to
realize
maybe you made the wrong decision
maybe you aren’t listening and god can
correct any decision we make
if our hearts are genuinely committed to
him and sincere in the process
sometime is sickness sickness or injury
gets our attention
and i’ve met people down through the
years who said
you know i was heading in the wrong
direction god’s laid me out here i am
and here i have been and i can remember
the last time i i fell and was laid out
for a little while
and i thought well what’s what’s going
on
it took me about six weeks
of praying and listening to god but when
he got my attention
i said yes lord thank you thank you
thank you
if this is what it took to stop me this
is what it took to get my attention
i want to thank you thank you thank you
for it
so sometimes that’s what he uses
so to walk in the favor of god whatever
it takes
it’s worth it and when the scripture
says that amidst
all the sin and wickedness in the world
that noah found favor in the eyes of god
look what god did with him when he found
favor in him
so ask yourself this question am i
walking in the favor of god in my life
be honest am i walking according to my
pattern or what i want
am i walking in his favor
is that the witness of the spirit to my
spirit that god and i
on the same track we on the same time
table
we want the same things i i desire the
same objectives in my life
i desire the same goals in my life as
god wants
am i walking in his spirit
by his spirit do i want the same things
that god wants for my life are my
desires the desires of god ask yourself
the question is this what god wants
sometimes watch this god will want more
for you than you want for yourself
sometimes he’ll want something better
for you you’ll say i don’t deserve it
that’s not what god says sometimes you
think well
i couldn’t i could never deserve it that
may be exactly what god wants
watch this god is not a taskmaster
god is an awesome wonderful exciting
beloved heavenly father who wants the
best for us
in every area of our life he wants us to
do what
he wants us to walk in his favor
but to walk in his favor i must learn
to listen to him that’s the first step
what does that mean it means i want to
walk
with his approval i want to walk
with his acceptance his support
his provision his divine energy
and his joy
learning to listen to god is lesson
number one amen
father we thank you for loving us thank
you for reminding us that
as we want to teach our children
very early in life to listen to us
when we are saved first lesson
listen to you i pray for people seated
here this morning
who are not listening they’re making up
their own mind i pray that you’ll bring
great conviction upon them which will be
an act of love on your part to stop them
dead in their tracks
this morning from heading in that
relationship which should not be
bind that which they should not do going
there living that
doing this doing that without asking for
your direction and guidance i pray that
you’ll stop them dead in their tracks to
remind them
that you are willing to give clear
direction
with that direction comes your blessing
and i pray the holy spirit will speak to
somebody here that today who’s never
trusted jesus as their savior
they’ve been living on their own doing
pretty good they think
but lord what they don’t know is what’s
coming
i pray that they’ll be willing to stop
right now
ask you to forgive them of their sin
repent of their sin right where they sit
lord be willing to be honest with
themselves and acknowledge
that you’ve been trying to speak to them
for a long time and they’ve been
ignoring you but today
they’re listening they’re surrendering
their life to you
i pray the spirit of god will be heavy
heavy heavy heavy god on every upon
every heart that’s living in sin
living in disobedience have plans to
send
plans to disobey you make them so heavy
dear god
they have to repent right here and now
sitting right where they
are in order to get right with you
before they walk out of the service
today
thank you for your awesome love for us
lord
god we surrender ourselves to you today
and we praise you for your forgiveness
your love and your goodness to us
in jesus name amen