Joseph Prince - Are You Frustrating The Favor of God?

Praise God. Hallelujah. Why don't you all stand to your feet? All right? Greet at least three or four persons around you because you all know whenever I come back I got a few messages boiling in my heart. So at least you all can encourage each other for the next 3 hours. All right, you may be seated. Maybe the next 4 hours. So don't forget to encourage each other. All right? So one more hour to go. Well, praise the Lord. I just came back just a few days ago. Still jet-lagged. If you don't like the message, just blame it on the jet lag. We had an exciting time. Church, let me announce to you the grace revolution is on. Everywhere I go, pastors are preaching this message. Some of the best-selling books right now by pastors on Amazon, and you know, in the bookstores and all that are books on grace, books that talk about the Lord Jesus Christ being the center place. And I just rejoice over this. Amen.

It's like at one time, you know, grace was almost like taught in one corner, but now it is so prevalent, it is so widespread. Literally, it's a grace revolution. And everywhere I go, you know, everywhere I go, I meet and encounter people that have been impacted by the gospel of grace, and I rejoice to meet all of them. But more than anything else, I rejoice to see how the gospel is taking root, all right, in the lives of many of the pastors and leaders. Plus, I said this to the pastors that were with me, our pastors. I say that, just watch this. There'll be people who know about me because I'm on Christian television, all right, and they have watched or they have seen me before but they don't really follow the teachings, and many of them will be impacted.

And true enough, all right, one by one they come to me and that's what they say. They say that, "I've seen you on TV". All right? "I know about you. I've seen you here and there, but I've never heard you preach until today. And from now on I'm going to follow every teaching that you have". Amen? So this is what causes my heart to rejoice. You see, it's not about my teaching, it's about the fact that God is restoring the gospel of grace; amen? Remember what the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 1? He says to the Galatians, "I am surprised, I am shocked that you are so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel". What does that mean? That means the grace of Christ is the true gospel. But the Galatians have been removed from the true gospel, which is the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.

So what is a different gospel? Anything that's not the grace of Christ, amen. Anything that compromises on the grace of Christ. So actually when we say the grace message or we say the grace revolution, right, we are talking about God restoring the true, original gospel; the gospel that Paul preached, that Paul was criticized for, that he was persecuted for. That's the gospel that saves. That's the gospel that heals. That's the gospel that turns water into wine. And in the case of the guy you just heard, it turned wine into water. Amen? It's a gospel that transforms life from the inside out. It's not about behavior modification, it's about heart transformation. Can I have a good amen?

So I'm so glad. You know, for example, I was at the LA airport, LAX with the pastors, Pastor Lawrence and Pastor Joe, and we were just checking in and things like that. And, you know, the Lord Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice and I'll know them". So I didn't say much. And usually when we are traveling or flying even internally in the US, I would wear a cap, all right, and wear a jersey. Usually I'm just, I don't look like a minister at all. Okay? And I love that comfortable feeling. But the moment I say something, someone nearby says, "Are you Joseph Prince"? So my sheep hear my voice so they'll say, you know, and then one testament of another. Then also in Dallas airport. Also at the airport, again, I was flying out this time and wearing my cap and all that and, again, when I say something, a lady came out, say, "Are you Joseph Prince"? And it's like, "Oh, your teaching have blessed me and my life been changed".

And there are people, especially people whose lives have been saved from suicide. I don't know how many of them. Plus, I think there was a testimony just now, right? Plus many of them who have come and shared how their lives have been saved, all right, at the right time just when they were contemplating, like, sometimes even hours away or even a few days away from taking their own lives and they are giving God one more chance. And how the gospel of grace came in just at the right time to rescue such people. Amen? These precious people. Church, there is a grace revolution. And grace is not a subject; grace is the person of Jesus Christ.

When the Bible says grace and truth in our English Bible, actually the Jewish people in the Old Testament, they are well aware of this phrase chesed ve'emet. Chesed is grace, ve is and, emet is truth. Emet, chesed ve'emet, grace and truth. And the Bible says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1 says that Jesus is full of grace and truth. And when John wrote, he also had the Jewish people in mind. Even though Matthew is more of a Jewish Gospel. John has all the features of the tabernacle in the Gospel of John. For example, he says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word dwell is literally in the Greek Jesus became flesh and tabernacle among us. The idea of the tabernacle. All right? So here it says Jesus full of chesed ve'emet, full of grace and truth. Amen.

So God is really restoring the gospel of grace. When I say restore, it's never back to the same original pattern. It's always back to something greater. When God restores, there's always something greater. When God restores things in your life or persons in your life, it's either greater in quantity or quality. If you have lost a loved one, okay, let's say it's a spouse, you won't get ten spouses for sure; all right? You can't handle one already, but God will give you a tenfold quality, a quality; or even possessions. Yes, possessions, money, and things like that. God can restore a hundredfold more, 120% according to the law of restitution in the Book of Leviticus.

So here we have a beautiful picture of what is happening in our day and age. We are looking at all the crime, the terror, darkness that's covering the earth in these last days, but the news will never tell you what God is doing. And God is doing a great thing, people, all over the world. In Great Britain alone, recently there was a gospel rally held and it went on for a few days and thousands upon thousands, not hundreds, thousands upon thousands gave their lives to Christ in the United Kingdom. We are talking about the day and age we are living in. Amen?

So when baby Moses was born, he was appointed and anointed to be the deliverer for Israel when Israel was in slavery, in bondage. But who would have thought that a champion was born? When you look at that time Pharaoh was throwing babies into the River Nile, all right, letting crocodiles eat them. You have thought it's the worst time to have babies. Right? But that was the time the champion baby was born. Same thing for Jesus. When King Herod killed all the babies under 2 years old, Christ was born, the Savior of the world. Amen? And Christ is the Savior of the world, people. Hallelujah. And no one did so much as our Lord did in a very short time. Okay?

I praise God for the cross; and I praise God that you and I, we are blessed we have heard the gospel. So what if you are the richest man in all Singapore or in all Southeast Asia or even in all Asia? Many of you envy people like this. You envy yourself. You have joy unspeakable. You have the assurance of your sins forgiven. You have the blessings of this life and of the life to come, amen, which is forever. So do not misplace your priorities and start rejoicing over things that have no value and start to really thank God for all that we have. Thank God your names are written in the lamb's book of life. And all the people said, "Amen". So praise God.

Let's go right into the Word. Today I want to share with you and, like I said, and I said time and time before, and I please understand where I'm coming from. Even though I'm on television, let me just say this. There are people attempting to be on television, but somehow they have to shut down because no one is watching or people don't respond. But the thing is this. Only God can give you favor. If God doesn't give you favor... many of you are aware of seasons, season one, season two, you know, dramas and shows that shut down because they cannot go for another season. So it doesn't mean you're in TV means automatically people are going to respond; all right? It's really the favor of God, all right, the fact that people tune in. Even for me, I'm humbled by the fact. But I want to share that part with you so that you can be encouraged to listen to what I have to share in telling you how favor can be increased in your life.

God can increase favor. You don't have to be a minister. Amen? Doesn't mean a pastor means you are successful. Doesn't mean that you are a businessman means you are successful. We all know businessmen who fail and pastors who are looking for results and they are struggling. I feel for them. And I'm here to tell you, church, that God has favor in your life, but that favor can be increased. It can be enhanced. God can, in fact, there are things that we do that frustrate the favor of God. So first and foremost let's define the favor of God. Are you ready? All right. Now, I use the word favor of God because the word grace has been so religionized that sometimes it's good for us just to step back, all right, and look at the word favor because they are both the same. Grace is undeserved favor. Amen. In fact, if you read the Amplified Bible, it says unmerited favor in many places.

So grace is favor. They are the same word. Grace is God's favor. Amen. When God put favor in your life, your enemies cannot overcome it, your critics cannot overturn it, amen. Your competitors cannot push you out of the game. Amen. When God puts favor on you, people are drawn to you, people respond to you, people want to do business with you. Even they feel like your product or whatever is not, you know, as economical or more expensive than somebody else, they want to do business with you. They feel like you are honest. There's an integrity. But honesty, again, doesn't bring favor; all right? Honesty does help you open doors because when people know you're honest they do business with you. But, again, the favor element is something that, they're honest people who don't have favor, but they are honest people.

So what you want is the favor of God increased in your life, and the Bible says that we can increase favor in our life, whether you're a businessman or you're a homemaker. And homemakers have some of the greatest, shall we say, assignments that God has given them of any career. Don't think for one moment homemaker means they do nothing. In fact, what they do is sometimes more significant and more eternal in its consequence than what we do as business people or, you know, as an agent or whatever. Let me just tell you this, okay? Mothers deal with precious lives, molding them not just for time but for eternity at a time when they really need the mother. Amen. That is not to make mothers who work feel guilty. All right? But it is to tell you that the first area of favor that we need more than any other area is in our families. We need favor with our spouse.

Have you ever asked God for favor with your spouse? Or it's always favor with a client, favor with your company colleagues, with your fellow students, with your friends or whatever. How about favor with your family, favor with your children, favor with your teenagers? Have you asked God for that? Have you asked God for an increased favor in those areas? Amen? Sometimes I see families for, you know, no rhyme or reason you find that there's like a wedge being driven between the teenage daughter and her mom, and it seems that whatever she says she just, the daughter is just frustrated, doesn't like it at all. And they are trying to find the reason why. Maybe it's communication style, maybe it's this, maybe it's... but I can tell you this. What that relationship needs is favor, increased favor. But what is very remarkable is that people don't realize sometimes that they are frustrating the favor of God in their lives.

Paul says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God". If you ask an average Christian what frustrates, what voids, what nullifies the favor of God in your life they'll say sin. All right? It's a very natural answer in the church world, but actually that's not the answer. We are all against sin. In fact, the Bible says where sin increase favor super abounds, grace super abounds. So that cannot be the answer. Right? Can I submit to you sometimes it's because we are trying to do too much. When you are performing and you are looking and you're performing with anxiety especially, our children resist that. They can sense that you are worried over them and they don't like it. But all this is not on the surface. They do not know why they are angry or they are frustrated, and you don't know what you're doing that's wrong that's frustrating them. But actually it is a favor situation. Favor is being frustrated, and we need to get back to that place of favor. Can I have a good amen, people?

How favor can be increased? Amen. Praise the Lord. Okay. First and foremost, there is a misunderstanding, I would say, all right; a misunderstanding that people have that only if there is sin then grace can super abound. Let me establish that truth first because I don't want to divert away from that truth. It is true where... location. Where sin increase grace super abounds. Amen. But that's not the only way. Because if that's the only way, then you start thinking, "Only when I sin, then grace will super abound". No, no, no. All right? It doesn't say when you sin grace super abound, it says where sin increased grace super abounds. That's why they misunderstood the apostle Paul's saying. So what you're saying is that let us sin more that grace may abound. Paul says, "No, I did not say that". All right? But they're accusing Paul of that.

So this is what they accuse Paul of. Romans 6, verse 1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound"? And many people like to quote this. Those who oppose grace; they like to quote this verse, but they never follow up with the answer that Paul gave. The answer says, "Certainly not. How shall we who died", past tense. In other words, it's an impossibility for us to live in sin. It's an impossibility for us to continue in sin. Now, it's possible for us to sin, it's possible for us to fall here and there, but it's impossible, according to this verse, for us to continue in sin once you are saved. And don't let that, you know, what I'm trying to say is that if you're truly born again you don't live in sin. You may fall into sin, but you don't live in sin. Okay? Are you with me so far?

Now, how long a person live in sin is not for you to say, it's not for me to say. A person can live in sin who's truly born again and he's living in sin, he's living in adultery or living a dual life or whatever it is and people say, "Look at that person". If you say that once you're saved you're always saved, I think that person is taking advantage of God's grace. Our problem in the world today is not that people are taking advantage of God's grace. It's that not more people are taking advantage of God's grace because if they receive God's grace their lives will be changed. So I challenge that thought, that people are taking advantage of God's grace. I submit that people are not taking advantage of God's grace. Amen?

So I see the problem that people face when they look at other people and they judge them naturally. For God, God never says that if they live in sin for 1 week they are not truly born again, if they live in sin for 1 year they are not truly born again. We cannot tell. There could be a girl who falls in love with a boy or whatever and the boy is not a believer, refuse to be one and she lives with him for 1 year, 2 years and the parents are always praying for her. But she's truly born again. If she's truly born again, in her heart there is a turmoil, there's a restlessness. She's not enjoying herself fully as she should, and one day she'll come home.

So it's not for us to judge. It's not for us to say when. The Bible doesn't put a time span on how long the prodigal son was away, neither should we. But all I know is this. When the Bible talks to people who are not saved, all right, there are people who profess Christ. They don't possess Christ. All right? There are those who say they're Christians but never born again. So I'm talking about true believers. They cannot live in sin. Can I have a good amen?

So that's Paul's way of saying, "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it"? Now, why did they accuse Paul of this? Okay, we go back to the context. The previous chapter, verses 20 to 21. And then chapter 6, verse 1 comes in here. Can you see, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound"? The context is this. Paul actually taught, Paul taught this. "Moreover the law entered", the law is the Ten Commandments. The law entered. When the law entered, this word entered is actually not coming as a main agenda but coming on the side, on the side. Para. All right? The word para is used in the Greek. Come alongside. So it's not God's main agenda. God's main agenda is always grace. Amen? All right? But the law came along.

What's the reason? "The law entered that the offense might abound". Not that holiness might abound but offense might abound. So people have this misconception that God gave the law to make people holy. It's the opposite. To make them sin more. Now, God doesn't want them to sin more, but they don't see, it's like, you know, when you were young. Do you remember that little injection you have before you get the big one? They want to test whether you have the antibodies or you know, the means by which you can resist that disease. So they give you a little injection and they check by the response. Right? I don't know what they do actually to your skin. We are all praying that we have a response.

So the law is like this. The law comes in and brings out the sin that's already inside you. Amen. So as long there's no law you might think you have no sin. All right? It's not that the law created the sin. The law is like if I have a transparent glass here and there are a lot of like residue, okay, little muddy residues, whatever, but there's water in the glass. You can't see the residue as long as it's there. You might think it's the color of the base of the glass. But here comes the law of the silver spoon. If I put the law in, guess what? And I stir it even a bit, I stir it even a bit, guess what? All the particles goes up. So all the worst sin is in us, but once you put the law it comes out.

So it's not that the law created, it's not the spoon created the residue. The spoon didn't create the residue, but it stirred up. So the purpose of the law is that the offense might abound so that people will see their need for Christ as Savior or else they don't know how important he is in their lives. They think they are okay outwardly. You see, if you have a disease in your body, you want to know that you have a disease. At least you can get the cure. But the worst are those who don't know they have the disease. Okay? Now, having said that, don't worry. Rest easy. God is working in your body, in your life in Jesus's name; and by his stripes, you are healed. There's always somebody, "Oh no," you know.

All right. Look at this. "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more". And you've heard me teach on this before. Where sin abounded is a different Greek word. It's the word pleonazo. But it is something you can quantify. Where sin increased, you can quantify increased. Grace abounded much more is one word, huperperisseuo. And huper is the word hyper. Hyper, over the top. Perisseuo is abundance already. So we put them together, huperperisseuo. For the word abounded much more, grace, actually, super abundant, which means it went over and above and on top of that more on top of that. It's like beyond the banks and then beyond beyond the banks. All right? So it is something you can't quantify. It's something that you cannot count. All right? Where sin increased, grace super abounds. Can I have a good amen?

So Paul must have preached strongly like that for people to say in verse 1 of chapter 6, "Are you saying let us continue in sin that grace may abound"? Which Paul never said. But the conclusion came because they see him teaching strongly that where sin increased grace super abounds. So I'm here to tell you where sin increased in your life, if you can reach out by faith and receive the super-abounding grace, there's a super-abounding grace in your life. That man that was having a problem with alcohol, if he's a believer there's super-abounding grace in that area right now if only he can receive it. But most people they respond with shame, and shame does not receive grace. Shame is the opposite of grace. Amen. So they respond with condemnation. They respond with guilt. They respond with self-occupation instead of, "Lord, I thank you". Where sin increase, grace super abounds.

Now, this is not to encourage you to sin, amen, but it's to tell you that you're not hopeless when there's sin even in your family, in your life. It gives all of us hope. We look at nations and all that where sin increase. We look at our young people where sin increase. Where? Location. Singaporeans, you understand location? When you want to buy a house or apartment or a flat, what do you do? You look for location. You look for the school that you want your child to be in and you try to buy a flat, apartment near to the location. The location must be near to the school, right? When you want to invest your money in real estate or apartment, you look for location. And what you can afford, the best location. Right? Am I right? So where? Location. Where sin increase, grace super abounds.

So for many years I asked the Lord, you know, to help me understand this, and he opened my eyes. Like, real quick I saw, for example, of all the 12 disciples, okay, Judas has hung himself the night before. So Jesus died and rose again from the dead. And what is the first thing that Jesus did? He made sure there was an angel to greet the approaching disciples to the empty tomb. And the angel says, "Go tell his disciples that he is risen, and go tell Peter". All right? Of all the disciples, who failed him the most? Peter. And whose name was mentioned specifically? Peter. Where sin increase, grace super abounds.

When Jesus rose from the dead, remember the breakfast they had by the shores of Galilee and Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me"? Remember the one? What did Jesus say to Peter three times? "Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Shepherd my flock. Feed my sheep". Of all the disciples that were there, and they were all present, he gave this awesome honor of feeding the flock, a position of leadership, a position of authority even. To whom? The one who failed the most. So it's not natural. Grace is not natural. If you think naturally, you cannot appreciate grace. Amen? I want to define grace first in Romans 11, verse 6. "And if by grace, then it's no longer of works". Sometime one of the best ways to define anything is to just talk like this. People understand. Even a child understands. "If it's by grace, then it's no longer of works," or performance. "Otherwise grace is no longer grace. If it's of works, then it's no longer grace. Otherwise works is no more works".

So works is performance, okay? So can you see it's the opposite of grace? Amen? So what is grace? Based on this, grace is unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor. If you'll work for it, you frustrate it. How do people who are sincere, they want to go to heaven when they die, they want to live forever with God, all right? But what's the biggest problem in their lives? It's not their sins. Everyone has sin, right? So does that mean that nobody goes to heaven? So people know people are going to heaven, and everyone have sinned. So how do you make that happen? The biggest hindrance is their performance, it's not their sin. Their sin qualifies for the Savior. If you're not a sinner, you don't need a Savior. Your sinner-ship is your qualification, your title to himself as Savior, right? It is our performance. Can I have a good amen?

So there was a time that, you know, people don't preach grace a lot, amen. People preached grace, of course, you know, salvation and all that, but not the way it's preached today. When I first started preaching this because of God's assignment in my life, all right, I remember that it was like on a small scale, then it started spreading. I told the people at Hillsong Church. I remember that God brought me down under to Australia. God brought me down under to go all over, you know, from Singapore, to down under, then all over. You know what I'm saying? And now the gospel of grace is being preached by everybody. I say that generally. A lot of people are preaching it. It's no more a side message, it's now the mainstream. Songs are written about grace. Amen.

And I hear people sharing even word for word what I preach, okay? They don't mention me, of course. Doesn't matter. God didn't give it to me to stay with me. God meant to be shared. Like my wife says, it's grace revolution. How do you expect the revolution if people don't, you know, preach grace, right? Amen? I only have a problem with a few that says, "I never heard this preached before". I got a problem with that when they got it from my tape, okay? So anyway, all right? Just don't say that. Praise God. Anyway, the thing is this, all right, I'm so glad for what I'm seeing happen all over the world, but then there comes people who want to redefine grace because they want their message to be received.

What they do is that they package like a sandwich. They package by talking about grace as if they understand grace, then they try to close it with grace. And then people say, "Hey, have you heard so and so? He's now so much into, you know? He's a grace preacher". But when I listen, it's still the same message but camouflage. And then some of these are redefining grace. Like, for example, they will say grace is not unmerited favor, it is empowerment. Now, whoever says that, if you hear that defined, let me tell you this. They're confusing definition with the result. Definition is unmerited favor according to Romans 11, verse 6. That is definition. Result, when you experience God's undeserved favor, it empowers you. It's an empowerment, but the empowerment is not the definition of grace. Can I have a good amen?

You must experience grace on your life as something you don't deserve, something you don't merit, and then it empowers you. Like the woman who was caught in adultery, Jesus gave her grace first, unmerited favor, and then that empowered her to go and sin no more. Can you see that? Also when I was much younger, I used to be confused. For example, I read, you know, I want to read the New Testament. I start with Matthew chapter 1. And then I start reading Matthew chapter 1 it is Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat, all begat, begat, begat, begat, I say, "And why did God spend so much time talking about begat"? When the scales fell off my eyes and I started learning about grace, I see grace everywhere. So this is a portion of my Bible, the King James Bible. And notice that God mentioned the women here. "Abraham begat Isaac..." But how did Abraham begat Isaac? Through Sarah. Sarah is not mentioned. "And Isaac begat Jacob".

How did Isaac begat Jacob? Through Rebecca. Rebecca is not mentioned. This illustrious women of the Bible is not mentioned. But it came right to verse 3, "And Judah," or Judas here, but Judah, "begat Phares and Zara of Thamar". Tamar slept with her father-in-law. There's a whole chapter on Tamar in Genesis 38 where she actually committed adultery, all right? There's no other way to whitewash this. Amen? She posed herself as a harlot, and then she slept with her father-in-law. Now, her name is mentioned here. Whoa. Let's go on. "And Phares begat Esrom". And so on. And look at this. Verse 4, "Naasson begat Salmon". Now, this is Salmon, nothing fishy here. Not salmon. "And Salmon begat Boaz of Rehab". You remember the story of Boaz? "And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth".

So first of all, Naasson, Naasson begat his son called Salmon who married Rehab. Rehab is the prostitute of Jericho. Her house was the only one standing when God shook Jericho the city. You can still see the ruins, by the way, if you go to the city of Jericho, all right, although it's an area that is quite... shall we say quite seedy. You know, you don't want to go, just go there. Make sure you have security. Now, it's not a place that we encourage our first timers to go. But I still go there at times here and there. You can still see the heap of Jericho's ruins, all right? There was a time there was a little ruin that was standing that they believe is Rehab's house where she let down the golden, sorry. The golden.

See, I start thinking of Chinese Wayang, Chinese movies, the golden pitcher, the golden bull. Scarlet cord, scarlet rope, which represents the blood of Jesus. And guess what? She believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all right, and she and her household were saved. Guess what happened to this once upon a time prostitute. Where sin increased, grace super abound. She married the son Salmon, the son of Naasson. Now, Naasson is very interesting. Naasson is the captain of the tribe of Judah. Of all the 12 tribes, Judah is the one that is always called upon to go first. In battle, Judah would go first. And guess who was right in front on the horse? Naasson.

According to rabbinical tradition, I read this from the rabbinical books, and I agree with this tradition because it bears witness with my spirit. Listen to this. They say that when God opened up the Red Sea, God didn't open up the Red Sea until the first person would step foot into the Red Sea. Now, that's very much like the River Jordan, which is recorded in the Bible. It was the priests when they stepped in, God split the waters open. Amen? Only after they stepped in. God expects faith, and then the results. Amen? You walk by faith, then you will see. You never see first, and then you walk by faith. Anyone can do that. Okay, so the rabbinical tradition says that Naasson rode his horse right into the Red Sea. After Moses prayed to God, all right, he walked, he rode all the way until the water was at the bridle of the horse, right, and then God split the Red Sea open.

Now, that Naasson, his son Salmon married the once upon a time prostitute of Jericho. Where sin increase, grace super abounds. Of all the tribes and of all the women, of all the illustrious women, women repeated with great faith like by faith Sarah, Sarah is not even mentioned, all right, but Tamar is mentioned. Okay, we have Rehab mentioned. And they had a son called Boaz. "And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth". Remember the story of Ruth? Now, Ruth is the only woman that the Bible says is a virtuous woman. You know, the Bible says that, "Who can find a virtuous woman"? Proverbs 31. And the only one who is mentioned as a virtuous woman by name is Ruth. Boaz says of her, "All my city knows that you are a virtuous woman". The only problem with Ruth is that she was not Jewess. She came from the land of Moab, present day Jordan, and she is a Moabitess. And under the law in Deuteronomy, you can read about it, no Moabite will enter the congregation of the Lord.

There's a curse on the Moabites. And that's not a message altogether. And she is a Moabitess. So the Lord disqualified her. Her name is mentioned. And then who else? "Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David". So the former prostitute became the great, great, great grandmother of David, the first king appointed by God. I know the first king is Saul, but the appointed by God is David. Interesting, huh? Okay? I can tell you the story of how that house became the little inn...not the little inn. Became a big inn where people would come the caravans arrived, they call it, where people would come and park their donkeys and all that, and that's where they had no room for Jesus in the inn, even though he was a rightful heir. He came from the line. All this happened in Bethlehem, right? "Now, David the king," verse 6, "begat Solomon".

Ah, wait a minute. David had 18 sons, some say 19. He had 18 sons from different wives, plus he has porcupines, I mean, concubines. Whenever you have concubine, is a porcupine. Guys, remember that. I just want that image to stick, to stick. And all the wives said? Are they saying amen or ow? Okay, David had 18 sons, 1 daughter. Of all the sons, God chose Solomon. And who is Solomon's mother? Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah, of her that had been the wife of Uriah. And what's the problem with Bathsheba? Well, her first part of her name tells us B-A-T-H. It all happened when she took a bath. And you know the story. David committed adultery with her, all right, and later on she became one of his wives, but of all the wives, of all the sons of the wives, God chose, where sin increase, grace super abounds. So what God is saying to us is that your sin is not your final destiny. It will not locate you. It will not mark you, all right? It will not define you. Grace, super abounding favor will define your life. Can I have a good amen?

So can you see when Paul preached like this it's easy for people to conclude what he's saying? He's telling people you can sin as much as you want, all right, grace will super abound. No, I'm not saying that, neither is apostle Paul, but we are saying just because you fell into sin, all right, doesn't mean it's the end. If you'll learn, there's the place where grace super abounds. You can reach out and receive the super abounding grace. And all the people said? Amen. Okay, now, let's go to this, how to increase favor in our life. So we have established this, right? Some peoples, there was a challenge that was given to me one time saying that, "Well, the Bible says Jesus is full of grace. So if you're saying where sin increase and that's the only way that grace can super abound in our lives, how about Jesus? He was sinless".

Number one, Pastor Prince never said that that's the only way grace super abounds, but I did say the way the apostle Paul had said it, where sin increase, grace super abounds, but I didn't say that this is the only way. I've never said this only way. So when it comes to Jesus who's full of grace and how come he's full of grace and truth when he didn't know sin, number one, he is full of grace to give. We need to receive the grace. Who is the giver of grace? You can't give what you don't have, right? So Jesus is full of grace to give. We, on the other hand, need to receive all the grace that he can give. Amen. But even if that is not enough to satisfy them, let's just suppose that Jesus is full of grace to receive. And I believe he has a lot of grace that he received from the Father as well. He increased in wisdom and favor, all right? He increased in favor.

So how come he had no sin, but he increased in favor? Now, here's the secret you can learn. Doesn't mean that you must sin, then grace will super abound, all right? But it's so encouraging to know, right, that if there's sin, grace super abounds, where sin increase, right? Does that encourage you? Okay, let's have a little less dishonesty in the house. Does that encourage you? Can I prophesy to you? It sure will happen 101%. If you live long enough, somewhere in the future you will sin. I'm not giving you lies. I'm just telling you. And this prophecy will sure come to pass.

And I'm not a prophet. Somewhere along the way, even you don't sin in the major way, we call that the outward way, you will sin on the inside in unbelief, doubting God, fear, worry. All these are sins. Or whatever is not of faith, the Bible says, is sin. So I'll tell you, you will sin, right? But aren't you glad that this message gives us hope? That because of Jesus, sin doesn't define us finally, grace does, and super abounding one. Amen? But how do you increase favor? How did Jesus increase favor in his life? Well, the Bible, it goes back to this. Something that Jesus practiced in his life and I say "practice". Actually, grace doesn't come by doing more. Grace comes or grace is increased by seeing more. Are you with me so far?

Now, let me just share this with you. Many years ago, I asked the Lord to help me understand grace better, and at the time he was teaching me about the law of first mention. There's a principle of Bible interpretation where whenever a subject in the Bible is mentioned the first time, there's something significant. So I quickly went to the word "grace," all right, and the first time it is mentioned is this: "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord". This is the first time grace is mentioned in the Bible. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord". And then I said, "Okay, if it's the law of first mention there might be something here to the name 'Noah.'" But when I studied the name "Noah," it is from the Hebrew "Nuakh," it's from the word "Nuakh," which is rest. So, "rest found grace in the eyes of the Lord".

So, how can you increase grace in your life? By resting more. Resting in the Lord. Are you listening, people? Resting in the Lord. The more you rest, the more grace abounds. Now what does that mean? That means the devil says, "You must handle this situation," and you say, "No, I let go," inwardly, it's all inward. "I let go of the worry, I let go of the care. Lord, you're in charge". That resting posture increases favor. And that's why the Bible says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". And again, somebody else asked me also one time, "You say there's no qualification to grace"? I say, "Yes, no qualification". "How do you explain 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble'"? Exactly, it's not a qualification. Humility is not a qualification. Humility is realizing you can do nothing. Proud people says they can do everything.

In fact, the word "pride" there is "huperéphanos," in Greek, which means esteeming yourself better than other people, despising other people. That's pride. "I can do it. I don't need anyone. I can do it". Like Batman, the latest Lego movie, all right, the one in the nine-pack, you know? "I don't need anyone," until you realize, finally, even bats need people, other people, to help, all right? So, I don't know why that came but praise God. You know, when you... it's a long flight home and you watch some things, you know what I'm saying? Or maybe I should tell you in a low voice about that. Now where was I? Anyway, rest.

Look at Jesus in John 5. Just after he healed a man who was impotent in his feet, he cannot walk, for 38 years. Then in the Pool of Bethesda, which is beautiful, Beth Chesed in Hebrew, house of hesed, house of grace. He healed the man who was impotent in his feet for 38 years and he leapt at once and walk. And then the Pharisees came on Jesus and said, "You heal a man on the Sabbath day," right? Then Jesus said this. He explained his modus operandi. Jesus says this: "Most assuredly," or in the original, "amen, amen, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself," whoa. "The Son can do nothing of Himself". Even though he is God incarnate. Even though he's the second person of the triune Godhead, even though he is the Savior of the world. If anyone could do anything, it's him. But he came as a man. He never tap into his deity to accomplish anything, all right, or to perform any miracle in his life. He just depended on the Father.

So if that is Jesus, how much more you and I. And yet, we are so dependent on ourself. We are so worried as if we are in charge. And so the thing is that we need to let go and, just like Jesus, he let go. "The Son can do nothing of Himself," is a posture of rest. "I can do nothing of myself but what I see the Father do; for whatever the Father does, the Son also does in like manner. And the Father loves the Son, and He will show the Son what He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel". So Jesus's life is a posture of rest. So the more he rested, the more favor flowed. Have you had this experience before? Someone came to you and said, "Can you pray for me? I've got this condition or this condition". If it's just a headache, you pray in Jesus's name, you've got faith. They say, "It's cancer," oh, you pray like this: "Father, in Jesus's name we bind this spirit". It's like your intensity increase.

Now, I'm not against people who are loud, okay? And when you see people praying out loud, please don't think of this illustration. But sometimes we get loud because we think that carries more power. Our pastors, our healing room, counselors, leaders, and ministers, they will tell you. We've all experienced this. There are times we feel... feel, feel. We feel faith, "C'mon, man, yeah, I think, I've got faith to believe God for your healing. Come here, come here, let's pray. Let's pray," all right? Nothing happens. And then there are times we don't feel like it. We just had a quarrel with the dog or our wife or something like that. We don't feel up to it.

And then at the same time someone recognizes you and say, "Aren't you the deacon from the church and all that? I recognize you. And aren't you the one with the healing room, that lady I was there, and all that? Can you pray for me? I'm about to see the doctor and all that. Can you pray for me"? Sure you don't wanna say, "I'm not in the flow, don't you know that? Hello! I see your problem. You think you have a problem. I got big", you know? You wanna say that, so you smile. You smile your Pastor Mark smile. I don't know how he smiles but he's adorable, okay? And you don't feel the faith. I said, "Feel" again. You don't feel like it's the right time to pray but you cannot tell the person that because the person just asked you to pray, all right?

And you, "Okay, sure, sure, sure," you know? You pray a general prayer, all right? Not, "Father, in Jesus's name, touch this person, heal this person as they see the doctor and all that. And grant the doctor wisdom, Lord, to diagnose the case and all that. And I pray in Jesus's", but in your heart you're saying, "God, mercy. Be merciful to this person. I don't even have faith," you know? So, how many know sometimes you're praying and your thoughts all go awry, you know, like, you know, you're feeling down, you don't feel like, you know, "I pity him for asking me to pray for him. Ha-ha-ha", you know? "I feel like I need prayer myself," you know? But you don't say all this because you're a pastor or you're a deacon or you're a leader, you know what I'm saying? So you just pray and then later on the person has a real bona fide case, a tumor or a lump, whatever.

And next week, the person calls you or meets you in church. Say, "Great news, I went to the doctor. The whole lump disappeared". You say, "Yay, of course, praise God," you know? "Praise God". Praise God, yeah, of course, you know? I say, "Friend, let me explain to you, see? You've got to understand the principles of faith, you know, faith? Number one, you've got to trust God. Number two, listen to the Word. Number three", actually, you didn't do anything like that. You were, just quarrel with the dog or your wife or you had a problem at work. You're not happy with your boss, and this person intercept you. You're not actually at your most deserving posture, but grace flowed. That should be a lesson for us not to be full of pride. But to stop and say, "Wow, it's really not about me. It's not how loud I pray or how soft. It is really Jesus who does the work".

If we can maintain that and step back for a while and know who is healing, doesn't really matter how big or how small the problem is. But many a times, nature takes over, we start thinking naturally, we start feeling naturally, and we operate naturally. So we get natural results. We are frustrating the grace of God because we have come in. We don't really believe, but belief is not emotional. Okay, let me just say this also. Water, when it flows, it always finds the lowest places, right? It's natural. You cannot say, "Oh, that, you must, this is the lowest place. Learn to be a lowest place. There are seven steps to the low place. There are three steps to the low place. The low place know how to be a low place. That's why the water can go to him".

So the low place is humility. God resists the proud, but he's... Actually, the low place is just a position of rest, a person, I cannot depend on myself, I cannot, I can do nothing of myself. I really believe without Jesus, without the vine, I as a branch can struggle all I want, I cannot produce one tiny grape, amen? I squeeze and squeeze and squeeze the rock, no water will come from the rock. In fact, I squeeze too hard, blood come out, you know? Natural result. But only God can speak and, out of the flinty rock will flow rivers of living water, amen? But many a times we don't believe that so we struggle, we strain, we strive. We don't really believe grace. So what we are doing, in essence, is that we are frustrating the grace of God without realizing it.

So when you rest, grace flows. So rest is the... God resist the proud, those who say, "I can do it. I know how to do this". Sometimes we do things that we pray over things that we are not gifted for, but we don't pray over things that we think we are talented for. Do you know I pray desperately before I preach? Sometime I feel like I must be on my knees to ask God because it's not my natural thing. Some of you look at me like... I was a stammerer, a stutterer, not in kindergarten but in pre-university. And there was a teacher that always comes and asks me to read, just for the sheer pleasure of seeing me blush in front of the girls, all right? That teacher is still alive and if you're in this church, God bless you, hallelujah.

I bumped into him one time in the street but he was a bit of a distance for me to greet him, but he's still alive, at least I know he's alive. For some reason, I cannot forget him. He always make me stand and read and I would just stutter, stutter. He would start laughing. And next time, when he comes again, he will ask me to read again, all right? So, this is not my gift. I'm very nervous talking in front of people, let alone even like talking to a few people, I'm so nervous, right? So that's where grace superabounds. Where it's most undeserving, it's most unmerited, grace superabounds.

And so I know I cannot be proud. If God uses my words, my simple words, to reach millions, it's not me. I know where I come from. Likewise for you. And that's another message that I wanna preach in future because this will be a series, I believe, all right? But we'll not rush into that. So, when you rest, grace superabounds. It's a place of humility, and water will, grace will always find the lowest places. So when others push themself forward, you just say, "Lord, I rest in you," all right? Don't win the race to become the number one rat in the rat race. Rest and you'll still go ahead. I'm not saying, "Rest, and you know what? Be patient when you see other people achieve and all that". I'm saying, "Rest, and you will achieve".

Many years ago, when I was a young boy, I think about, when I say "young boy," it's about 7, 8 years old, I was still in primary school, someone gave me, one of my aunts or cousins, gave me a New Testament. I still remember the cover and all that, it's all white in color. So I started reading the Gospels. I wasn't a believer yet. I started reading the Gospels. And for some reason, one of the things that impacted me about Jesus in all the Gospels that I read, no one to guide me and all that. It was Old King James. Not easy to read in the natural, but God was there. One of the things that struck me is that how relaxed Jesus was. Even as a young boy when I read one miracle after another, "Then he preached, then he answered the questions, he was opposed, he answered the questions," I find that he's very restful. He always has time. But there was never a man who accomplished much more in 3½ years than our Lord did. In 6 hours of being crucified, he saved the whole world.

And when I say, "Saved the whole world," I don't mean universal salvation, everyone is saved. I mean, you've still got to receive it but everybody is forgiven, though, there are people in hell who are forgiven sinners because they don't accept the forgiveness. Hope you understand that. That's enough explanation for that, but literally he saved the whole world. In fact, one of the days the pastors had with me after we finished everything, it was a gruesome schedule. This time was the heaviest for me because we touched the ground running. A few days of rest and then we started ministering, right? It was really fun, though very tiring. Finally, I really had to rest.

So we had one day of rest and guess what? We did something very spiritual, the pastors and I. We watched "Spiderman". So yeah, it's the new "Spiderman". So spoiler alert, okay? Spoiler alert, I'm gonna tell you something right now, real quick, so you don't wanna hear, don't hear, all right? But it's not the end of the story, it's just a in-between part. There was one part, I turned to Pastor Daniel who was beside me in the cinema and I turned to him and I said to him, "Okay, watch it, watch it. I think he's gonna save this whole ship, all right, by the posture of the cross". So for those who have watched the movie, you know what I'm talking about. So the ship was breaking apart, right? And then it's going this way, all right? Going apart.

And then, you know what happened, right? Pstttt, psttt! And look, it's the first time I watched the movie, but I turned to Pastor Daniel. I said, "Watch it. He's gonna do the cross, because it's the cross that saves". So he did, psttt, psttt. And guess what? He held the whole ship like this. Copy. We've got the real thing. And he doesn't even have to cover his face. Unveiled face, you all. You know, the superheroes and all that, Green Lantern, Superman, Iron Man, Rubber Man, Altar Man... no Altar Man. Ultra Man. All of them save a situation here and there. Our Lord saved the entire world in the greatest act of all, all right? In the 6 hours on the cross, he finished with "It is finished," all right? He saved the whole world like this: stuck. He was stuck and saved the whole world. He sat down at the well because he was tired, and saved a woman.

The Lord is the real superhero and, best of all, he exists. Doesn't need any Marvel comic, in fact, they have to copy our gospel. They can make fun of you. They can make fun of you as a Christian, they can make fun of Jesus and all that, but at the end, they are watching things that they copy from us. Think about it. Superman, the storyline: the father, the beginning of the story, Superman, right? The father send the son to Earth. The son has special powers, amen? But he lived like a common man, amen. But at times, you will see the uncommonness of him in the midst of the vicissitudes of life. And then, best of all, you know how they ended the comic series, the original Superman? He died. He died, saving the world. Hey, very familiar. Wait, wait, it's not finished yet. Then, a few years after that, guess what? The resurrection of Superman. Hey, copy! It's the gospel story. It's our gospel. And ours is the real King of kings, Lord of lords, Superman of supermen, say, "Amen". And he's real. He's real, hallelujah!

So the Lord lived 3 1/2 years in a cadence, in a rhythm of grace. He always have time. You know, he had a whole busy day of healing, cleansing, went about doing good, casting out demons, unstopping deaf ears, opening the eyes to the blind; and then he was tired and he told his disciples, "Let's go to the other side". He had a purpose to go to the other side because in Israel the mountains on the other side, you can hear, if someone screams, you can hear the waters carry the sound to this side and there was a demoniac man whom the Bible calls Legion. Actually, Legion is not his name, Legion is the name of all the demons inside. If you go by the legion, depending on legionnaire of which army you're talking about, French legionnaire or British or whatever, usually it's Roman, it can come to about 2,000 or 6,000, okay, depending on which army they are using.

So there's a lot of demons in one man. And the Bible says he would cut himself crying across the lake. If you're cutting yourself and the only way you can relieve your pain emotionally or whatever is to cut yourself, it's demonic activity. It's not you. Jesus is coming for you. He's going to love you into wholeness. So Jesus says, "Let's go to the other side". But a day of...and don't forget he was fully man as well. Completely God, completely man. Then he slept. The devil caused a storm to rise. The devil didn't want him to go to the other side. Remember the story? When the man got delivered, he became an evangelist. He went to ten cities, Decapolis, to share what great things the Lord has done for him. The devil tried to bring a storm to stop Jesus, and then the disciples woke Jesus up.

Notice Jesus didn't wake up because of the storm. He woke up because of the cry of his own asking for help, then he got up and he says, "Peace. Be still". Interrupted sleep, all right, but yet there was a rhythm of rest. When he got out of the boat outside of Gadara, he stepped up, the disciples stepped or they stayed in. And the most demonic man in the Bible came rushing down, and the Bible says he had chains that no man could tame him. He had chains that he always broke. To me, the chains are hanging around him. It's broken. And he came to Jesus and all Jesus said was this: "What is your name"? He says, "It's Legion for we are many". Jesus looked at him and just one word. In Hebrew it is one word, se. All the demons left. In English, go.

Today, you and I must use four words. Go in Jesus's name. And all the thousands of demons, whether it's 2,000 or 6,000, they all left that man and the result was that the man was cutting himself, he was naked, and he was barely clothed and he lived among tombs. So if you have a tendency towards dead things, you like to put skull here, skull there, skull everywhere, I don't want to impose on your lifestyle, you're saying, "Pastor, it's my life". But if you have a propensity towards death, it's demonic activity. The man was naked. If you have a tendency to drop your clothes, wear lesser and lesser and lesser and lesser, it's demonic activity. And the result, by the way, he had superhuman strength. He could break things. When the Holy Spirit is in you, you also can have superhuman strength at times. Remember Elijah outran the chariot of King Ahab? He had superhuman strength.

So demon-possessed people, they have superhuman strength. I've seen them push people. A lady who was demon-possessed, small-sized, petite lady, all right, throw away men who are muscular trying to hold her. Right? And he could break chains. So these are three activities that is indicative of demons. But when he was delivered, one word, go, and all the demons left. In fact, it's a beautiful picture demons begging Jesus. I love it. "Are you come here to torment us before the time"? Many voices, "Are you here to come torment us before the time"? You all watch comic and you watch that kind of movies. You must do that. All right? Any resemblance is just purely coincidental. "Are you, are you, are you here come to torment us, us, us before the time, before the time? We beg you. We beg you, beg you. Please don't, don't, don't destroy us before, before, before the time, the time, the time, the time, the time. Send us to the pigs, the pigs, the pigs, the pigs, pork, the pork, the pork, the pork, the bacon, the bacon, the bacon. Send us to the pigs".

All right? Wow. When I'm like Jesus, I illustrate, y'all don't clap. I forgive you, I forgive you in Jesus's name. I forgive Pastor Gabriel in front here. So when he was delivered, he was seated at Jesus's feet. First result of Jesus's activity now in your life, you are restful. He was seated at Jesus's feet. I see a generation that's restless. You know, they got to be doing something. All the time, they got to be doing something. They got to have noise. They got to have this and that. Now, some of it, of course, don't think everything is a demon, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that we got to learn to be restful. There's a new generation God is raising, the young and restful. Not the young and restless, the young and restful. Amen? He was seated. Number two, he was clothed.

So Jesus might have given him his outer garment. Whenever you feel like clothing yourself up, his activity. He gives you his robe of righteousness. And the third result, he was in his right mind. We need more of that in this world today. The funny part is this. When the people in that region saw him clothed in his right mind, restful, they told Jesus, "Go away". When he was there demonized, for years he was in their neighborhood, they never told Jesus to come and help. They could live with demons, but they cannot live with deliverance. There's something about our world is upside down, that right seems wrong and wrong seems right. Nonetheless, Jesus told the man, the man wanted to be with Jesus and Jesus says, "Go home and tell your friends how great things the Lord has done for you". And he did go and become evangelist to Decapolis, ten cities. Deca-polis, ten cities. Wow. Testimonies like you heard just now, Jesus set them free.

Now, I want to tell you something else, how grace can be increased; the number one way, number one way. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 2, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord". Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, grace is undeserved, unmerited favor. It is multiplied not by doing more. A lot of people think, "If I do more for God..." You know, when people get saved and all that and they say, "I want to do more for God. I want to do more for God". No. First of all, sit. God wants you to sit. God wants you to rest. It's natural tendency to want to do more. The way you increase grace, in fact, when you do more, you frustrate the grace of God. You'll have the opposite result. Learn to rest more. It's not according to nature, it's according to heaven. It's according to God. We got to learn God's ways. Amen?

So grace, unmerited favor, can be multiplied in your life. And peace can be multiplied how? In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, in the Greek grammatical structure, Kenneth Wuest, who wrote the expanded translation of the New Testament. He's a Greek scholar and he says that this word here, grace and peace be multiplied in the knowledge, so in other words, the more revelation we have of Jesus, the more grace and the more peace will be multiplied in our lives. Right? Now, Kenneth Wuest says that this word here, the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, is actually one word referring to Jesus. He is our God and our Lord. In his own translation, this is how he puts it of this verse. "By the grace and peace is multiplied by the experiential knowledge, which the believer has of God," comma, "even Jesus our Lord".

It is not the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord, like God the Father and God the Son. Actually, the more you know God the Son, the more you know Jesus, you will know God the Father. "For he that has seen me," Jesus said, "has seen the Father". So it's actually Jesus, increasing in the knowledge of Jesus. Do you remember when Jesus rose from the dead, the same day he rose from the dead there were two disciples walking home to Emmaus, the a village called Emmaus? It is 7-mile journey from Jerusalem. And they were depressed. They were downcast. They were sad, right, as they walked. And then Jesus approached them. Then the Bible says Jesus asked them, "Why are you sad? Why are you looking sad and discussing with one another? What is this"? And they said, "Are you a stranger? You don't know what's been happening these past few days and all that"? And they start telling him what happened and all that, and the Bible says that Jesus restrained their eyes from seeing who he was.

For many years that bothered me. You know, I'm bothered by things that other people are not bothered. I ask questions of God about the Bible that no one asks. Then later on I found out the answer that God gave me becomes sermons that bless many people; okay? So one of the questions I asked, "Why do you restrain their eyes? Isn't it wonderful for them to see you in your resurrected form"? But then what Jesus did, he opened up the Scriptures in the first five books of Moses to them, things in them concerning himself. He must have brought them to the tree of life in Genesis. "The tree of life is me". He touched on the Passover lamb. "That's me". Amen? So he didn't say me, he says, "It's the Messiah. It's Messiah".

They didn't know it was him. That's how he brought them out of depression; and that's how you can be brought out of discouragement, despair, and depression; by occupation with Christ, not occupation with self or telling one another, you know, all the bad news. Another problem they had was this. Jesus was a side issue, a means to an end. Some of us we use Jesus for salvation and then we forget him, or we use Jesus to prosper our career or whatever, or we use Jesus for our family relation. No. He's not the main issue, our family is, our career is, our ministry is. But how do I know that they have Jesus on the side and they were concerned about the nation of Israel? They were jealous for the nation of Israel. They were very patriotic. They said that, "We thought..." They told Jesus without knowing it was him, "We thought that it was he who should redeem Israel".

So Israel is a centerpiece of their hearts. And Jesus by expounding from the five books of Moses the things concerning himself brought them back to perspective himself. And whenever you hear preaching or teaching that brings you back to the person of Jesus, everything in your life will be blessed. Everything in your life will start to prosper because grace and peace is increased not by doing more but seeing more. Have you ever had the time when your heart was like, you were excited about seeing more and more of Jesus, you went to church wanting to see more of Jesus, you got hold of Pastor Prince's, I mention myself, okay, as a conflict of interest. I understand. But I know what I'm preaching so I recommend myself. I don't mind recommending myself. It's okay. Okay? 'Cause I know what I preach. All right?

So you look forward to listen to see more of Jesus. Not Pastor Prince, Jesus. But where are those days? Where is that longing? You find yourself getting cold, remember this. Something else has become centerpiece. Maybe your child, maybe your spouse, maybe your career, maybe something else. Maybe some challenge has come into your life. And Jesus is still there, but he's a side issue. He's a means to an end and you wonder, life becomes hard when there's no grace. And I love the Amplified translation because at least the Amplified translators are not afraid of evangelicals who will say, "Well, you're the prosperity bunch," you know.

Number one, there's no such thing as a prosperity gospel. There's only gospel of grace, but it produces prosperity. You don't like the word prosperity? Okay. It produces abundance. Wherever the gospel has gone, it brought abundance. It brought a new level of life. It brought civilization, if you want to call it that way. Those are the results. Not the gospel, but the results of the gospel. Not the gospel itself; okay? I love the Amplified. Amplified this verse says, "May grace, God's favor," you see, "and peace which is perfect well-being..." Does that include your body? Peace. How many think that you can have more perfect well-being? How many want more well-being in your life? Okay, mark the hands, Lord. How many want well-being in your life?

You don't want, he won't give it to you, you know. "Oh, Pastor Prince, because such thing, one. God will give it to us anyway". No, no. Remember the guy who was 38 years old who was lame in his feet, impertinent at the pool of Bethesda? Jesus had to ask him, "Do you want to be well? Are you sure you want to be well"? Because there are people who don't want to be well. They want people to come and pat them. They want people to like, you know, focus on them. Some of them when they are sick, they get welfare in some nations of the world. All right? They don't want to be well. So Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be well"?

I want to ask you, do you want more well-being in your life? Well, it tells you how. "May grace, God's favor, and peace," which is Shalom in Hebrew, eirene in Greek, if your name is Irene, it means peace in Greek. "Which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, freedom from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts, be multiplied to you in the full, personal, precise, correct," which is revelatory knowledge of Jesus who is our God and Lord. Amen, amen? So it should be our passion to see more of Jesus. And I'll tell you, friends, you will never fathom the depths of the wonderful Jesus. Let me just say this. Doesn't mean you focus on Jesus your marriage suffers, your career suffers; that kind of thing.

You know, friend, this is not the truth. The truth is that when you're occupied with Jesus your marriage prospers, your career starts to flourish by accident, if I can say it that way. It's a by-product. When you focus on it, it doesn't prosper. There's no grace. There's no oil. There's no smoothness. But when you focus on Jesus, it flows. Mary did that, and Jesus says that one thing is necessary. Do we really believe that? Like people say, "Well, Pastor Prince, I think for marriages they need to learn how to communicate". But you can learn the seven steps of communication and still not have grace in that marriage, no favor in that marriage because the Bible doesn't say, "Husbands, love your wife". "Well, Pastor Prince, it does... It..." No, it doesn't. It says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church".

Paul brings in Christ. When you know how much Christ loves you, amen, and you know how he's patient with you, how he's kind with you even when you don't deserve it, you can turn around and pour that on your wife. But when you lose this and you start to look at her and make her your redeemer and make her your savior and look to her for affirmation and look to her for esteem; whenever I've done that, I put pressure on my relationship with Wendy. She cannot be my savior. She cannot be my redeemer. Amen? But she's so good...ladies, don't feel angry or don't feel attacked when we say that we depend on you. Because you are so effective. Our wives are so good. Amen? They give us good advice.

So there's a tendency to depend on them and then we start drawing from them what we should draw from Jesus and then we put pressure on that relationship. Wives are the same. Sometimes we treat our husbands like God. We give them burnt offerings. "It was the stove. Overcooked. Sorry". All right. Burnt toast. Burnt this. Burnt that. We look to our husbands and we draw from them the esteem, the security, and the encouragement and the affirmation that we can only receive from Jesus. So when we don't receive it because, trust me, ladies. We make lousy gods. We really do. And then you put pressure on that and you start getting resentful when it doesn't happen because they were never meant to take the place that only the Lord can fill in your life. Amen? And I'm not saying the Lord alone is enough. I'm not saying that. Okay? Because Adam had the Lord before Eve came. Life was peaceful.

Okay, let me say that again. Sound a bit bad. Adam did not know he had a need. God told him, "You can eat from every tree of the garden, but don't eat from the tree of knowledge". But you know what? That includes the, "You can eat from the tree of life". But Adam never, you know, he passed by the tree of life which can be eaten, which is Christ, and he never partook of the tree of life. He looked at the tree. He passed by. He looked at the tree. He passed by. He looked at the tree. He passed by. And God looked down, God says, "He cannot. He needs help". Then God said, "It is not good for man to be alone". So God created woman with power to influence. That power is given by God. That's why women can literally change kingdoms, cause armies to march for Helen of Troy. They will, you know, do all kinds of things for...God gave women influence. Say, "I want to be the head. I want to be the head".

Hey, you are better than head. You are the neck that turns the head. Let the man think he's the head. Sometimes I think when I go to a meeting or whatever it's not important who is the chairman. It's important to find out who are the influencers. They are more important. And sometimes people want to meet the chairman they forget, and they don't treat the secretary well when she's the influencer and she can say, "This one is low priority". God gave women influence. So God made, but notice, before God made Eve, you know what God did? Did you read your Bible? God made all kinds of animals to come before Adam. Why? Because it's not good for man to be alone. And God looked down and God said, "The donkey"? "No". "The lion"? "Too fierce". "Pastor, I married a lion". Shh, "And also Asian tiger". Shh, okay? God brought animals to Adam, and I believe that one of the reasons that God brought them two by two, so when God said it's not good for man to be alone, man must know it's not good. Man must see his need.

You see, like before Jesus came, if Jesus had come before the law, man won't see their need for a Savior. They think they are okay. So God had to give the law first. The law must do its thorough work with us until we are in despair, until we say we are a sinner. All right? Because no one can see my actions, but I know my thoughts. I know my heart. Okay? And then we see our need for a Savior. So the same thing. God gave Eve, man will not appreciate. So God had to create the need before he filled the need. All right? So God brought all of them two by two and then Adam began to realize two by two, two by two and he thought to himself, "I'm one and very peaceful". No, I'm joking. Sorry, sorry. Forget the last part. "I'm alone". God says, "It's not good for man to be alone". All right? Then God put him to sleep and God made woman.

Now, God created the most beautiful, I say the most beautiful creation because everything was created already. Even man was created. So the last creation must be the best. Revised Standard Version, the latest up to date seven plus, eight plus or whatever. What's the latest? I don't know. Right? Must be. Right? God put man to sleep to create the most beautiful thing, the best. Man had to sleep. Man had to rest. You don't like what you have, go to sleep and then you tell God before you sleep, "Lord, I give up". Trust me, those three words is music to heaven's ears. "Lord, I give up. All right? You deal with my wife. I go to sleep". Because if God created her, God can recreate her when you are sleeping; but not with your nagging, not with your, okay, I'm preaching to myself. Okay, right, rest. "Pastor Prince, why are you touching on... we're talking about grace, right"?

The first area favor must work is in our families. Many of us want increased favor in our relationships, in our career, with our bosses, with our fellow colleagues and all that. But that's not where, you know, it really matters because at the end of your life it won't be, if Jesus tarries, you're on your deathbed, you won't regret not making the extra $1 million, you'll regret not spending that time when your child asks you to attend his kindergarten final rehearsal or what, I mean, presentation. You're not there. You'll always regret that 'cause the time will never come back. Clients, you can have many; family, you don't have time. You only have time for one family. So you need favor with your spouse. Have you ever asked God for favor with your spouse, favor with your children? That's where favor need to be increased first. Would you agree, amen? So, ask God for favor.

And you say, "Pastor Prince, why are you preaching this"? Well, because I told my pastors before that we don't have marriage seminars. So far, we don't have, right? Have you noticed that? Because I notice that in places where they have marriage seminars, most of the time women appear. The men don't appear. So I told the pastors, "You know what? I'll just hijack one Sunday, I just preach". So, guys, this is the hijacked Sunday. Do you know that in the Bible, there is no word for husband or wife? It's all "man" and "woman," and you must tell from the context, both Old and New Testament, both in the Greek and in the Hebrew in the Old, there is no word for husband and there's no word for wife. It is always "man" or "woman," in the Hebrew, "ish," male, "isha," female, all right? In the Greek, there's also the same thing.

For example, woman is "gynae," all right? You pronounce it as gunay, actually, in the Greek, but the spelling is G-Y-N-A-E, we get gynecologist, for example, that's woman. But it's used the same for wife so we must tell from the context of the story, or the narration, whether it's a wife that's being referred or it's a woman, another woman, just a woman. Likewise for men. Is it a husband or the... so when you find, for example, in the Old Testament Abraham says, "She is my wife". He lied, but you look carefully in the Hebrew, all right, it doesn't say, "She is my wife": "She is my woman".

So in the Hebrew, there's no word for wife. So many years ago, I asked the Lord, "Why"? And God says, "That's the wisdom of my Spirit, because men, after they marry, all right, they think of their woman as 'dutiful,' as 'This is my wife.' And when they watch a movie or they look at a woman in the street or whatever, and they think of that. 'There is a woman, there is a whoa-man. Wife. Woman. Wife.'" Then she's talking "Man... Man". Like, when the Bible says the Lord rejoices over us, right, with rejoicing, like a bridegroom over the bride. Notice it's not like a husband over the wife, it's the best and freshest and the most intense passion during that time is on the wedding day and that's until today he loves us like that. So, expressions are important. And it's important to realize this is your woman. And many men don't realize until another man pays attention, then they realize they see their wife differently. "Oh, she's a woman". Then their passions get stirred and all that.

So let me just say this to you, like, I wanna close with this, okay? Let me just say this as much as clearly as I can. God will never leave you, okay? He paid the price for you to have his constant presence. He was forsaken for us that we might never be forsaken. We have God's constant presence. Even when we fail, God doesn't leave us, okay? But in the dynamics of relationship, there are times God never leaves us but he withholds the sense of his presence. He withholds the sense. How many of you have felt like sometimes, "You know, I used to sense his presence, I used to sense, like, he's close, he loves me, but I find that he's been quite cold. I know he never leaves me but I miss those times". You ever had that? That's how God draws you.

And the way he loves us is the way we love our wife, that's how our wives respond to us. There's a story, there's a beautiful account of this in the Song of Songs. God taught so much about one particular song. He calls it the Song of Songs and he put it right smack dab in the middle of the Bible, the heart of the Bible. It's called the Song of Songs because it deals with the greatest theme of all. Not about eschatology, not about other doctrines, but the love of Christ for the church. It's about the love of Jesus for us. And in it, there's a story in chapter 5 where the woman actually was asleep in bed and, in the Middle Eastern culture, all right, they have this bridal love.

The man will come and there's a door, an opening in the door, that he will invite her to open the door. His hand comes through and he says, "Open to me, my beloved. Open to me, my beloved," okay? "My perfect one; My head is covered with dew, My locks with drops of the night," all right? But she's all cleansed, she is washed. Her feet are all washed already. She feels very fresh. She put on her cosmetic and all that. Everything's in place. She's gonna dirty her feet, all right? In the Middle Eastern culture, a lot of dust around. She said, "I'm not gonna get up". If you look at her response. Her response: "I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them"? So she didn't respond to his love, okay? Then he "put his hand By the latch of the door," okay? When he put his hand to the door, her heart yearned.

Now some time, of course, took place. He put his hand in. That's a picture of where, probably, she saw the nail-pierced hand. The way he rekindles our love is to remind us of what happened at the cross, how he loves us so, right? Now, her heart is rekindled. The love is rekindled. She opened the door, all right? Next verse. "She arose to open the door, My hands dripped with myrrh," and all that. "She opened, But my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him".

Now, because of time, I'm gonna just tell you the story. Look up here. There are times he withholds the sense of his presence. He never withholds his presence. He's with us all the time. But sometime he leaves us, like, he leaves us a sense of it, you know? Take away the sense so that we long for him. Have you had that? You are being romanticized. You are being romanced, amen? You are being loved. He wants the dynamics and, wives, can I say this, especially for women, all right? Women sometimes gets really desperate when they find that their husbands are interested in somebody else or whatever and all that, and then they get desperate, okay? I know it's very hard. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I know it's very hard. Everything in you says: You either hate your husband, hate everything, or else you will pull away and you cut off everything.

So there is a wiser approach and the approach is here, all right? To withdraw the sense and to learn to bring back the mystery, if you can. If your husband is taking you for granted, amen? Just all of a sudden, don't be predictable anymore. Don't respond. And even when he look at you, dressed up, if he likes another woman, you dress up. You dress, baby. And you put on your lipstick. You look good. I know it's very hard. You gotta be like the proverbial swan, you know? Serene on the pond; underneath, paddle like crazy. But don't let him see the paddling. Just be calm, amen, amen? So the thing is this, when you do that, he might ask you, he might think, "Is there another man"?

Now, make sure there's no man. That is destructive. If you have another man, it's gonna aggravate the whole problem, but if he thinks there's another man, good for you. And please don't assure him. "No, there's only you. I only have eyes", no, let him think there's another one. But don't ever have another one. That's dangerous, amen? But dress up, start looking good. Most women when they realize there's somebody else, whatever, they let everything go. Don't do that. Bring back the dignity. Let me tell you this. You will have more favor from God than that woman peahen, okay? God is not on her side. God is on your side. And quietly, you pray that God surround them with a hedge of thorns. And that's in the Bible. That's in the Bible, all right? Surround them both. When they meet, aghh, aghh, you know? You pray for a hedge of thorns, all right?

I learned this from the book of Hosea. Hosea, remember that one, all right? The book of Hosea, it says that "I will surround her with hedge of thorns". In other words, God will, there's a hedge of favor and there's a hedge of thorns. Pray that God surround them both, hedge of thorns. Every time they come, don't know why he sees her fault really clearly. And when he thinks of you, you are now the beauty, the epitome of self-dignity, respect, self-respect, and glory and favor. God can give him one dream, and it will rekindle his romantic's heart. But if you get desperate and you start doing things... You know, we cannot preach this.

Look, time has passed and I need to close. But the anointing is here, it's really here, you can feel it, right? And I'm telling you that if you have Jesus as your focus, do it for him, not for your husband. Do it for him, dress well, look good. Make the guy think, all right, that you have someone but don't ever have someone. But don't respond like this: "I'm angry. I'll cut off everything". That's bitterness and that'll make you ugly, amen? So learn from the Song of Songs how that woman start looking for him in the street. He disappeared. She started longing for him, all right? And then she found some women and the women ask, "Who are you looking for"? "I'm looking for my beloved". "Why is your beloved more special than anybody else, you'll come out at night like this"? And then she says that, she start talking about his, "My beloved is like this, okay, drop down. My beloved is white and ruddy, Chief among ten thousand. His head like the finest gold".

I have preached on this before in a midweek service. The beauty of our Lord Jesus. He's radiant, glorious, right? His eyes like eyes of doves. Now, she started describing him to the women. When she described him, he appeared. Isn't it beautiful when you've lost that sense of love, start sharing about his beauty with somebody else, and guess what? That sense of his presence will return. She didn't speak directly to him. She spoke about him to somebody, he appeared. In the Song of Songs when the Lord talks about the beauty of the bride, all of us, he talks to us directly. But when the bride talks about the beauty of the groom, it's indirectly. When she talks about him, he appears. When we talk about the Lord, we sing about the Lord, we sense his presence again, amen? We are to love our wives as we love...Children is the same.

Sometimes, your teenagers, and I'll close with the part on teenagers. Teenagers, especially, they don't like their parents to do too much for them, and do you realize that when they were smaller, they enjoy you doing things for them. They ask you to do things for them. As they grow older, they sense a frustrating, like, I call it frustrating the favor of God, when you do too much. You almost have to wait to be invited to advise them, to even counsel them. If you advise too, you know, you advise them too readily, they might not like it. So it takes everything against us, against nature, to learn to rest and say, "Lord, you got this handled. I trust you, Lord". Then when they opens the door, when they ask you, when you share, there's favor. Because sometimes, you are doing too much, not because you care for them.

Say, "I care for them, I care for them". That is superficial. When you go deeper, it's because you worry. It's because we are anxious. It's because we are not at rest and they can sense it. And when you're not at rest, that means what? You are performing. And guess what? You are frustrating the favor of God with your children. So sometime, you gotta step back to let the favor flow in your relationship with your children. I know I'm speaking very generally and all that, I wish I can break it down to give you how it all works, because this needs a series by itself. But I'm here to tell you the favor of God. Ask God for favor, increase favor with your spouse and with your children. Even your small children, amen, they are not too small to sense favor on you. In fact, the younger they are, it seems like they can sense favor very readily.

So, friends, don't ask for increased favor because, like Joseph with Potiphar, Joseph with Pharaoh, or Esther in front of the king and all that, you know, don't just ask favor for promotion, but ask favor with your family members. That's where it starts, amen? God can give your wife a dream. God can give your husband just a thought. God can give your children just a revelation and all of a sudden, their hearts are warm towards you. They miss you, they love you. God can remind them of something of your virtue or they see the favor of God in you and then they start respecting you, or your wife starts to fall in love with you again. You know, God can do that. Trust God more. Rest more. Let go more. And see the favor of God increase in your life more and more, amen? Give him praise. Praise the Lord.

Every head bowed, every eye closed. I wanna pray for you right now for increased favor, all right? I believe that God always confirms the word with signs and wonders following, okay? God always increase, or confirms the word, okay, with increased favor, which is the word for today. I wanna pray for your relationship with your family members. I know what I said just now, you might say, "Well, Pastor Prince, I am going through a situation where I've tried everything I know. My husband is not turning. In fact, he's becoming worse," and all that. I know the frustration. I have counseled many people down through the years in that same predicament. I know it's not very easy, all right? What I'm saying is not easy. The hardest thing to do is to rest. It's easier to operate by nature. It's easier to operate by the flesh. Sometimes, it gets immediate results. Threatening your teenager gets immediate result, but not the long-term, wonderful fruit that you're looking for.

But if I tell you, if you give the excuse, "It's because I love my son. It's because I love my daughter, that's why I'm always asking, that's why I'm always..." My friend, can I just submit to you that it could perhaps be an anxious heart that you're covering up. It could perhaps be you're dealing with worry when you should deal with God and say, "God, I let go this worry into your hands. Give me a peace that is so aggressive, it will guard my heart and mind beyond me, because I cannot be at peace without you giving me that aggressive peace that I see in the life of Jesus". Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I bequeath unto you. Not as the world gives, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid".

So, friend, we have an inheritance. Our Lord Jesus bequeathed upon us the night he was betrayed in the words, "My peace I bequeath unto you". Receive it. Say, "Lord, I receive it. I receive it". And now, even though grace superabounds, where there is sin, grace superabounds where there is no strength. Grace superabounds where there is infirmity. Grace superabounds, in my case, I was a stutterer and a stammerer and now God is using my mouth to bless multitudes. Grace superabounds in the area of your inability. Will you receive it? Will you receive it? If it's not received, even though it's abounding, it's like the people of the world, they are forgiven but they can still be lost in hell because the forgiveness is not received.

So will you receive the superabounding favor right now? It's all over you now. Will you say, "I receive favor in the area of my relationships"? "I receive favor, abounding favor with my spouse. I receive favor with my children. I receive superabounding favor," amen. Even though your heart is troubled about your child, about your son, just say, "Lord, I receive your superabounding favor for my son and for me and my relationship with him. I receive it right now. Thank you, Lord. Give me favor. Increase favor with my son, with my daughter". And then, let go, and trust God. When you let go, God will not. God will take hold. Just do it right now. Just receive it. Receive it. It's all over you. Receive it in Jesus's name, amen? Thank you, Lord.

Wow, God is even healing people right now, amen. God is healing, healing, healing. Thank you, Lord. I receive the superabounding grace of healing for my body right now. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, amen. Now, if you have never made Jesus your Savior and Lord, pray this prayer with me right now. Close your eyes and say this from your heart. Say:

Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died on the cross in my place, for my sins. He was judged and condemned in my stead, so that I'll never ever be condemned by God. It's all paid for. And you raised Jesus from the dead when all my sins that he bore was put away. And he rose without them, and today I'm in him, seated with him in the secret place of the Most High, the place of love, security, and power. Thank you, Lord, I rest in this place of complete protection. I rest in Christ risen. Jesus Christ is my Lord, in Jesus's name, amen.

Praise the Lord. Stand to your feet, hallelujah. If you prayed that prayer, my friend, you are now a child of God, amen? Straightaway, you're in Christ risen at the Father's right hand. Straightaway, you're in Psalms 91, verse 1, in the secret place of the Most High, straightaway. Never pray for Psalms 91 as if it's something that will happen. Pray as a realization you are there, amen? Lift your hands. Never take your protection for granted. Throughout this week, I'm gonna pray that God protect you. Lift your hands all across this place.

Father God, I thank you as the shepherd of Israel, as the shepherd of his flock, you have gone ahead of us this week, and you have prepared the way for us. You have made the crooked places straight. Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have gone ahead of us and caused every mountain to be made flat, every valley to be exalted. So that we walk straight, Lord, with no sense of burden, Lord, and oppression. Father, protect everyone under the sound of my voice, everyone and their loved ones. Throughout this week, Father, in the name of Jesus, protect every one of us from every sickness, from every danger, from accidents, from terror, from evil people, and from all the powers of darkness. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you. And Father God, prosper our way. Thank you, Father. Increase your favor in our lives, Father. In the name of Jesus, I decree increase. May grace, the unmerited favor of God and shalom, perfect wellbeing, increase and be multiplied in your life, even as you've received the revelation of Jesus today. In Jesus's name, and all the people said... thank you, Father.