Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas. Thank you for listening to the message today. I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with. God bless you. Hey, man, and you can find your seat, but don't sit just yet. We're going to get into the Word of God this morning. Amen. Praise the Lord. Anybody happy to be in the house of God this morning? Amen. There's no better place to be on a Sunday morning than at church with fellow believers getting their praise on and their word on God. Pastor Brand is good to see you, Pastor Brand. After five Sundays holding it down for the family, man's got to do what a man's got to do. But we're visiting and you don't have a home church. We welcome you to make this your home church. We have something for your entire family. We have something for the marriages, for the kids, for the youth, for men, for women. I mean, everybody, amen. Got something for everyone. Praise the Lord. Just a couple. Well, I'll save this to the end. No, I better do it now because I'll forget. A couple announcements real quick. At the last Sunday of this month, which is the 26th, we will be having one service, a combined service. When we have combined services, I don't see a lot of you. I don't see a lot of you. So, yeah, it's an hour earlier, okay? 10 o'clock, we're going to have one combined service with our Spanish congregation and God is going to move. We have Daniel Cabaret. He was here earlier this year and God uses him tremendously, amen. Praise the Lord. So, if you have your Bibles, go with me to Job. Job chapter one. And if you don't know the Bible, it is spelled like Job. Job chapter one, verses six through 12. If you have it, say, I have it. Amen. Praise the Lord. And if you're not there yet, just take two seconds more. And I got you up here. It's chapter one, verses six through 12. Let's read it. It says, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and from on the earth and walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him on the earth and blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a head in the house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold all that he has in your hand only against him. Do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Let's pray heavenly Father, I thank you for this word that you have ministered to your servant, Father God. I just pray Lord that you would be on my lips this morning Holy Spirit. As you deliver this word, Father God, from your very mouth, Father God, I pray that you would be with us this morning as we are receptive to hearing what your spirit has to say to your church, Father God. Holy Spirit, we give you this time. I rebuke distractions, Father God. I rebuke crying babies. I'm just kidding. But anything that would bring a distraction to your word, Lord, we want to give this time to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. You can take your seat. I want to encourage you with this word this morning church and it's not going to feel very encouraging at first. I entitled the message, unfair favor. Pastor Danny has this thing where he says anytime something goes his way, he'll say, favor ain't fair. Right? Like if he gets like a parking spot right at the front of the lot, he'll say, favor ain't fair. And so of course he means it, you know, obviously like in a positive way. Like if I were to win the lottery, that's not fair to you, but favor ain't fair, right? But I think you can also flip it the other way. And that's kind of what I want to focus on a little bit. You can flip it to mean that the favor that you receive isn't always favorable. That's what I want to talk about. So we want the favor that is favorable, right? That's what I pray about. That's what I pray for. Like Lord, I want the favor not to be burdensome. I want the favor that makes me smile. The favor that makes me win the lottery, right? The favor that makes life easier. That's the favor of God that we ask for. Is it not? But when I think about the favor of God and the favor that he's given to people throughout Scripture, it's opposite of that. Like I think about the favor of Mary, God called Mary. Mary, he favored Mary and she became a mother before she was ready to become a mother. Her whole life was disrupted. She almost got a divorce before she even got married. She had to spend some time in hiding and fleeing because she had to protect the little child Jesus because people were trying to kill him. That ain't fair. I think about Paul. The Lord had favor with Paul. And you know what he tells Ananias? He tells him how much he must suffer. Paul's like, I didn't even ask for this. That ain't fair. Abraham was shown favor and he was called to leave the land that he knew, leave his mother and father's house and journey to a land of the unknown. That ain't fair. And so I think about all of this and I think, man, favor really isn't fair. And it's not unfair to the people who don't receive it. It's unfair to the people who do receive it. It almost makes you not want the favor of God. When you look at the story of Job and how God just basically handed Job over to Satan, he says, have you considered my servant Job? I favor him. It almost makes you not want the favor of God. I'll take the blessings of God all day. But the favor, Lord, give it to someone else. Because when I look at the Bible, favor looks to me like it comes with burdens and uncertainty and a lot of drama and sickness and poverty and constant faith and walking in faith and not by sight and having to be patient about the things of God and all this suffering. That's the favor that God shows to his people. How many of us say I want the favor of the Lord this morning? Yeah, some real ones. I still want the favor. Maybe you're like, okay, if that's what favor is, then I must be highly favored by God. Because I'm going through it right now. You know, the book of Job was written to deal with that one major question. Like, that's the whole theme of the book. It's to deal with one major question. Why do the righteous suffer? Not just why do people suffer. Why do the righteous suffer? In the ancient world, everybody was religious. Everybody worshiped some type of God or multiple gods. And it was commonly believed, and you can look this up by just looking up ancient religious texts, it was believed that whenever humanity suffered, it was because the gods were no longer with them. And so if you go into battle and you're going up against this army and you lose, it's because the gods abandoned you. And this common belief was also ingrained in the friends of Job. And you can see that because they accuse Job of sinning. And that's why God was making him go through all of this. It's obviously because you have committed some offense towards God. So the book of Job is a timeless book. It's got a timeless message because how many times do we wonder to ourselves, why am I going through this? I am a man of faith. I am a man devoted to the things of God, and yet I am going through hell. Why haven't you delivered me from this? That's the book of Job. It attempts to answer the question that has been asked for thousands and thousands of years that is still being asked today. I understand why the wicked suffer. They're just getting what's coming to them, right? I get why rapists and murderers spend the rest of their lives in prison. I get it. But why do the blameless? Why do the upright? Why do the men and women who fear God experience seasons of suffering? Why do the people who love God with all their heart love people with the compassion of God who tend to the sick to tend to the needy? Why do they get sick themselves? Why do babies get cancer? Why do they get cancer and die before they can experience life? Why do missionaries who are doing the work of God get killed for doing the work of God? Why do people who are faithful in their giving and in their tithing lose their jobs and lose their houses? Part of it is, I think you could probably answer it, we live in a fallen world. That's the answer that you give to your unbelieving friends when they question the goodness of God. Why do the righteous suffer while we live in a fallen world? That's what every Christian says, and it's true. It's true, but I believe that there is another element to it. I don't think that it's just because we live in a fallen world because how many of us believe that God is an intentional God? He's a relational God. He's a God that has a plan. How many of you know that God has a plan? He ain't just up there trying to figure it out. No, he's got a plan. And so if we believe that God is an intentional God who walks with us in life and he is sovereign over all of creation, all things, and he has a plan, and he uses human agents to accomplish his plan, then we have to believe that God also manufactures seasons of misfortune. God isn't just the God of the sun. He's the God of the rain. God's the God of the storm, just as much as he's the God of the rainbows. God will cause wealth and he will cause poverty. He will cause health and he will cause diseases. Now listen to this. No thing, no spirit has authority over Jehovah. Nothing happens under the sun without him knowing of it. So yes, we live in a fallen world, but God is still sovereign. And so his favor doesn't always come with sunlight. Sometimes it comes with darkness. And you know, you want to know what sucks? This is what sucks. When you are a righteous person, you get the attention of both God and the enemy. Tell the person next to you, both sides want you. Both sides want you. If you are a righteous person, you are full of faith and full of fear. You are wholly devoted to God. You know how to pray, you know how to fast, you know how to be faithful. You are a man or woman of God. You are an asset to God and God wants to use you. God has his eyes on you to use you for his honor and his glory. He looks at Pastor Brandon and he says, this is a man of God. This is a man that I can count on. This is a man that I can trust. He looks at Pastor Danny and he looks at his heart and he looks at the servant's heart that he has. And he says, this is a man that I can count on to do my work. When you are righteous, God has his eye on you. And when God has his eye on you, the enemy has his eye on you. And God will use you and he will call you and he will equip you and he will test you and he will strengthen you. But at the same time, because you are all of those things, you are a threat to the enemy. And so he's also got his eyes on you and he wants you just like God wants you. And he will take you, he wants to take you out. He wants to prove to God that you are not the man that you thought he was. God will take a faithful man. I'm sorry, the enemy will take a faithful man who has been faithful to his wife for 30 years. And tell God, I bet you, if he's in the right position, he'll fail you. And this faithful servant, this faithful spouse will cease to be faithful. So that's what sucks. Because when you are a righteous person, you've got the eyes of God, but you've also got the eyes of the enemy. And so all the good that is met with the favor of God is also met with all the unwanted mess that the enemy wants to attack you with. And this is why, church, man, I pray so hard and I encourage you to pray so hard for your family. Man, I pray so hard for them every single day. And it's almost a fearful prayer. I mean, if I'm being honest, because I look at my family and I am crazy about my two beautiful daughters. I am crazy about my wife that I'm deeply in love with and I look at pictures of them. And I don't know if this is just like a girl dad thing. If girl dad is maybe you can relate, but I look at my daughters and I get filled with tears just by looking at them. And I say, Lord, thank you for what I have. You have blessed me. I have the favor of God over my family. And so because I know that I have the favor of God, I have to protect it. I have to protect it. I have to fight so hard daily on my knees in prayer, saying, Lord, cover them in the blood of your son Jesus. When they go to school, cover them in the blood of your son Jesus. When I can't protect them, Lord, you protect them. Guard my marriage. Guard my eyes. Guard my wife from the man who wants to be charming to her and give her attention. I almost said something that wasn't Christian. Sorry. You got to fight hard when you have the favor of the Lord of your life, because the enemy wants to take that from you. He wants to take it. There is an accuser that says, if you strike his family, he will no longer serve you. That's what scares me. If God has shown you favor church, if he has chosen you for something, if he has chosen you to pastor, you better get ready. It ain't because there's going to be some attacks along the way, because there is an accuser saying he's only serving you for the position. If your business is blessed, there is an accuser saying she's only at church because business is good. Take it away as she'll leave you real quick. The Bible says that God asks Satan, from where have you come? He said, from going to and from on the earth and walking up and down. The enemy is always roaming the earth. He's trying to take out God's creation. I mean, since the beginning, he has brought temptation. He has corrupted the world with lies and deception, deceit. He has confused the whole generation on their God-given identity. He has confused people in the church to believe in doctrines of man and not doctrines of God. The world is the enemy's mission field. And his purpose is to destroy all that belongs to God. And if you belong to God, the enemy's God is eyes on you. I want you to understand something real quick. The Hebrew word, you're still with me? The Hebrew word for Satan is hasatanah. Hasatanah. Hasatanah like that. And it's interesting because it's spelled in English with a capital S, but it's not a proper noun. So what is a proper noun? Like a personal name. Ryan is a proper noun. So the word Satan is not a proper noun. If you want to check your Bibles, you can check. You'll see the word Lord in all caps, right? Most of us are pretty familiar with that. All caps, Lord, is different than not all caps, Lord. All caps, Lord, is the proper name of God. Yahweh, Jehovah. The word hasatan for Satan is not a proper noun. It's just a noun. And it literally means accuser. And so later in the New Testament, the accuser or the adversary is commonly associated with the devil. And the reason I want you to understand this is because it tells us the mission of the enemy. His mission is to still, kill, and destroy for the sole purpose of accusing you on the day of judgment. Hear me? He's doing all this work right now so that at the time where you are standing before the throne of judgment, he's got some stuff on you. So that he can accuse you because the enemy knows that God is a just and merciful God, and he is a good God, and only he has the authority to judge. That's it. Only God has the authority to judge. The authority of the enemy, all he has is the ability to accuse. That's all the power he has. And so he will corrupt, and he will lie, and he will possess. He can go to God and say, look at this person. He doesn't even love you. Look at how enslaved she is to depression. You don't bring her enough joy. Look at how he's lost in his addiction. You are clearly not enough for him. He's never been able to get over that pornography addiction, that alcohol addiction. You are not enough for him. His mission in the garden was to say, look at Adam and Eve. How they disobeyed you. Look at how quick they were to stop listening to their Creator. That's all the enemy can do is accuse. And you know what? Sometimes his accusations hold some weight. Sometimes they're true. But other times they're just speculation. See, the enemy has even less credibility when it comes to the righteous, because his accusations are just speculation. He's making a bet. And because he's making a bet, that makes him extra dangerous, because he's got to work extra hard to make sure that he's victorious. This is why when you are lost in your sin, the enemy doesn't really need to work as hard for you, because you already belong to him. He's just waiting for the sin to kill you. You don't have to attack something that you're not threatened by. But when you are a righteous person, like I believe most of us in this room are righteous, you make the devil nervous. You make him nervous and he wants your soul. He wants you to turn your back on God. And so he will go after anything that can make your faith weak. He'll attack you with things until there's no longer joy in your midst. He'll bring everyone and everything against you, so that you wonder if God is really even with you. When you are favored by God, you are a favorite of the enemy. He told God, does Job fear you for no reason? Look at how much you blessed him. Have you not put a hedge around him in his house and everything that he's got? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased. But I bet you, if you stretch out your hand and you touch all that he has, he will curse you to your face. I don't know about you, man, but I read that and it makes me kind of angry. Like the fact that I know Satan is accusing me of some things before my God, I wish he would get my name out of his mouth, but he might be telling God, take away the things that Ryan loves. Take away his ministry, take away his church, take away his health, take away his hair. I got him there, right? Take away the things that he's worked for and I bet you he will curse you to your face. And because we've been seen by God with favor, sometimes God will allow us to go through these seasons to prove to the enemy and to prove to ourselves just how faithful we really are to him. The favor of God, it seems unfair sometimes. I'm going to tell you right now, it's not for the week. It's not the favor of God is not for the week. It's for those of us walking in the strength of God every single day. And that's why the story of Job is so relatable because the only thing that Job did to deserve this was to be faithful. It doesn't make sense. Good things should happen to good people. Bad things should happen to bad people. That's not the way that it works. And I know that there's people in the room today who are going through unfavorable circumstances. And I talk to many of you. Some of you are in the room today. Some of you are not. But I know what you're going through. I've had those conversations with you as a pastor and my heart breaks. Sometimes I hang up the phone when I hear some of these stories and I just have to weep in the presence of God because man my heart breaks for some of the things that the people of God are going through. I know that some of us are going through marital issues. I know that some of us are drowning in debt. I know that some of us have lost our jobs and we have no way of making money but the bills are still coming in. The creditors don't care about our job situation. Some of you are battling diseases. Some of you are hurting for your family. But I want to encourage you because in spite of all the hurt that you're going through, you're here today. That's a victory. You are here today. You might not realize that but the fact that you are standing in the presence of God, some of you are crawling man just to make it to the finish line of this year. But be encouraged because with every step as slow as it might be, as painful as it might be, you are staying faithful to God. And with every step, listen, with every step that you are taking, you are proven to the enemy. You were wrong about me. Everything he said about you was false. Everything he thought about you was wrong. What he accused you of was only said in desperation. God knows you more than the enemy knows you. Shoot, God knows you more than you know you. That's deep right there. God knows me more than I know me. The things that I said, God, don't put me through that because I don't know if I can make it. He put me through it and I came out on the other side. You might not have thought that you'd make it this far. You might not have thought that you could go through a divorce and be standing here proclaiming the goodness of God. But here you are. You might not have thought that you can have gone through that foreclosure. But here you are singing Jehovah is Rafa. He is my provider. You might have lost everything. And you are still saying Jesus, you are all that I need. You are stronger than you thought. And you're a lot stronger than the enemy thought. The devil was wrong about me. He was wrong about you. He accused you that he was wrong about you. Because God has put his spirit in you. And he's increased your faith through the storm. He's increased your peace through the chaos. You made it out to the other side looking back thinking, wow, how did I do this? I was sure that I would have been defeated. I probably would have even took the bet of the enemy against me. But God knows you more than you know you. God knows what you can handle. God knows what you can take. See, the enemy made the wrong assumption about Joe. His whole premise was wrong to begin with. I'm almost done. You're still with me, right? I want you to get this. See, the enemy thought that the faithfulness of Job was tied to Job's favor. Very clear in the text. I'm going to say it again. He thought that Job's faithfulness was tied to Job's favor. And it'd be like that sometimes. Sometimes we are only faithful to God when we are in favorable seasons. And sometimes the opposite is true. We only go to God when we need him and then when we're good again, then we pull out. That's how it goes. And so I think there's enough of that to go around in the church where the enemy can make the assumption about most people and probably be right. I'm trying to be most people. I'm trying to be righteous. Because a lot of times our faithfulness is tied to the favor. And so the accuser says he's only good to you because you've blessed his life. Or the only reason she's even at church today is because she needs favor and she needs prayer. Once the prayer is answered, she'll be getting brunch with their besties, drinking mimosas at 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning. She ain't going to be here. The accuser said to God, if you take away his possessions, he'll curse you. And then he was proved wrong. And then Satan said, OK, we'll make him miserable, make him sick and he'll curse you. I want you to know that when God looks at the righteous, he looks at you with a knowledge that the enemy doesn't have. God knows that your faithfulness isn't tied to his favor. Your faithfulness is tied to his faithfulness. When your faithfulness gets to that level, the enemy's got nothing you don't understand. Because God may not always give you the favor that you want in the way that you want it. But he will always be faithful. And so if your faithfulness is tied to God's faithfulness, you can never lose. Take away the health, take away the money, take away the house, take away the job, take away the car, take away the position. But there is one thing that the enemy cannot touch. And that is the goodness and the love and the faithfulness of my God. With that, the enemy's got nothing in his plan falls short. The favor of God doesn't always mean what we hope it to mean. I pray for the favor of God all the time. I say, Lord, give me favor in my ministry, in my anointing, in my business, in my leadership, as a parent, as a husband. I want God to favor me. When you reach out saying that you need a job and you're about to go on an interview, I pray for the favor of the Lord over you. I say, God, put favor upon her with the people that are interviewing her. So that they like her more than everybody else. That's what we're asking. Favor. Choose. Choose me above everybody else. And sometimes that is the favor of God. But sometimes the favor isn't what you ask for. And sometimes the favor is unfair. It is easy for us to look at the blessings and the fruit and call that favor. Man, there's this man that I really look up to and he's a Christian and he's a really successful businessman. And he's able to bless the church. He's able to bless people. He's able to give an abundance. And I look at that and I'm like, man, he's got the favor of the Lord upon him. And maybe he does, but God looks deeper than that. David's brothers. Remember David in the Bible, right? I'm almost done. I'll have the rest of the worship team come up. David's brothers would probably, they were all favored by Samuel. They were tall. They were strong. They were men. They could make good kings. And I want you to understand this. When you read the book of 1 Samuel, we often miss the theme that the author is trying to convey. King Saul represented the favor of the people. The people asked for a king, even though God said, no, it's not time for a king yet. I will give the king at my time. If you do it now, it's not going to lead to good things. They didn't listen. They said, give us a king. So God said, okay. He gave Saul. And the Bible says that Saul was a man of wealth. He came from a wealthy family. It says that he was the most handsome man in Israel. That's the bachelor of the year. It says that he was taller than any other person. I can't imagine how tall he was. That's what the Bible says. The Bible depicts Saul as a man favored by the people. And so when Samuel goes in to anoint the new king who is going to replace Saul because Saul disobeyed God, Samuel is going in with the same kind of requirements as before. Okay, well, I'm going to go in and I'm going to judge by what I see. And so he gets to Eliab, David's brother, and the Bible says that he's tall and he's handsome. And he's like, well, surely this is the one. Look at his build, man. Work out. Surely it's him. It's got to be Eliab. And God says to Samuel, he says, do not look at the appearance. Don't look at the height. Don't look at the stature. Don't look at the muscles. Because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And so the story of Saul and David is purposely juxtaposed. They are purposely compared and contrasted because they're completely opposite. At first sight, one was favored by the people, but rejected by God. And the other was rejected by the people, even his own brothers, but favored by God. But just because David was favored by God doesn't mean that his life was easy. No. If you know anything about David's life, it wasn't easy. David came from humbly beginnings. He was a simple shepherd boy. He had encounters with lions and bears and giants. And then he spent much of his life running from King Saul who was trying to kill him. He spent time living in caves and in the wilderness. And then throughout his reign, he had so much bloodshed on his hands that God didn't even allow him to build the temple. He committed horrible acts of adultery and murder. He lost a child. And then when his other kids grew up, his son Amnon raped David's daughter Tamar. And so the other son, Absalom, got revenge on Tamar by killing Amnon. Just because David was king doesn't mean that I ever want his life. Because the favor of God isn't always favorable. But you know what? Even though David struggled filled life that was full of mistakes, you know what? God made covenant with David. God made a promise with David because David was special. God looked past the mistakes and he looked with eyes of grace and he looked at the heart that loved to serve him. And he says, I'm going to make a pact with you David. From you because you have been faithful. Your kingdom will never end. From you will be the Messiah and his kingdom will endure forever. And I am choosing you because I have favored you. Yes, you are an adulterer. Yes, you are a murderer. Yes, you are a maybe a bad father at times, but I see your heart David. It's for me. It's a heart for me. And because it's a heart for me, I have eyes for you. And let me tell you church, the devil, the devil might have gone before God and accused. Because I want you to see that David is a murderous, adulterous, lazy, king, bad father. God says I see the heart. I see the heart. I see the fates of David. Church, the devil might be accusing you today of all the wrong you've ever done. How many mistakes you've made. You can't even count them. It's like every single day I fall short of the glory of God. And the enemy is just taking notes. He's taking notes. He knows you. He knows all of the mistakes that you've ever made. He's got the speculations of what you might do in the middle of the storm. But God is looking at a man or a woman who is stronger than they know, who can withstand more than they ever thought they could. You are favored by God. The enemy is just jealous. Tell the enemy this morning, favor ain't fair. Favor ain't fair. I'm sorry he didn't want you. I'm sorry he cast you out. But favor ain't fair. I am a child of God. And because I am a child of God, God's got his eyes on me. God's got his things on me. The enemy, go ahead and stand with me. The end of Job tells us that God blessed him abundantly more than ever before. I don't know how God is going to bless you, church. I have no idea. And tell you that if you lost one thing, God is going to bless you with a hundred times full. But I want you to be encouraged by this. Because once you get past the unfavorable part of God's favor, you will be walking in the goodness of his favor. You will be walking in the goodness of his favor because what the enemy meant for evil, God always means for good. Don't give up. Don't give up before you make it through. Don't throw in the towel before you've gone through it yet. The fire isn't going to kill you. It's just going to refine you. You are favored. You are favored by the hand of the Almighty, Jehovah Rapha. Jehovah Nisi. You are favored by the King of kings, the Lord of lords. He is with you and not against you. And He's with you. No one can come against you this morning. Come on, why don't we sing that this morning? Come on, if you want to work tomorrow morning. Come to the office. Thanks for listening. If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.org. If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at mynumachurch. Thanks again and God bless. Copyright © 2020 PNEUMA Churches PNEUMA Churches PNEUMA Churches