Open Your Bible to Matthew 16
In our human relationships, we can gain favor and we can lose favor pretty easily. Sometimes we don’t know why or how we gain or lose favor with people, but not with God. Through the Gospel, he tells us how to gain his favor and how to keep it. Pastor Ron has selected seven ways, taken from the Bible, to stay in God’s favor. These are things that will help you to remain faithful to Him, as He bestows his favor upon you as individuals, as family members, and as a church. 

7 Ways to Stay in God’s Favor

1. Never be fooled into thinking it’s your church or our church. It is God’s church!
   “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”(Matthew 16:18)
2. Never be seduced by human praise, influence, or power.
   “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10) 
3. Never be misguided into justifying that your way is the “only way” or the “best way” or the “right way.”
   “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12) 
4. Never be tempted by an attitude of entitlement.
   Entitlement is when you get a false impression that you deserve more than you really deserve because you think more of yourself than you ought to.
   “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4) 
5. Never get hoodwinked into building your kingdom instead of God’s Kingdom.
   “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.” (1 Chronicles 29:11) 
6. Never put your faith and trust in what you can do, but rather what God can do through you.
   “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”(Psalm 20:7) 
7. Never hide or cover up your own struggle with human depravity and individual sin.
   “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confessed and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Prov. 28:13)

By keeping these seven verses in mind, you can gain and keep the favor of God. You can watch Pastor Ron’s sermon on staying in God’s favor here.