Today’s verse: Luke 4:13-30

Verses mentioned: 

• Isaiah 61: 1-2
• Revelations 5 

Theme Worship song: The Blessing by Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes 

Main topics: Favor, Familiarity, Fear, Faith

What name would we give this year? 

The Year of Frustration? The Year of Fear? The Year of Facts? The Year of Fighting? The Year of Forgiveness? 

The Lord says that this is the Year of the Lord’s Favor! You are going to finish this year with FAVOR!

Favored 

In order to move forward, you have to forgive. 

Ways of perceiving the term favor: 

• Is ‘favored’ something like cheapening things as we do on Black Friday? Or is it like getting recognition like celebrities, or as kids say, “blowing up”? How is it defined?

We are reclaiming God’s favor in our lives!!!! We are defining favor the way GOD does! 

Luke 4:13-30 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Take a selfie, look at it, and recognize that you are still alive and have a smile on your face! That is favor! A picture of God’s favor. 

It’s not luck! I am not in an alternate reality, but I am in an alternate kingdom, and therefore, I am in the favor of God. 

There will be another…. Another blessing, another battle! Another Battle? Endure it. Another Blessing? Enjoy it!

Luke 4:13 – The Wilderness and The Favor

The favor of God is not contingent on a place. The favor of God can be found anywhere!

It  was the same favor that enabled Him to endure the isolation and testing of the wilderness, that enabled him to proclaim the truth in the synagogue. 

You can find favor anywhere…or… FAVOR can find YOU anywhere. 

When you think you can’t find hope, here came favor…grace…mercy. FAVOR CAME!

FAVOR FOUND YOU! FAVOR FOUND ME!! 

Same favor, different place! 

Favor where you are, favor with Youtube on your church at home. What are some examples of God’s favor in your life right now?

40 days in the Old Testament vs New Testament: 

• The 40 days in the wilderness is making up for the 40 years Moses failed in the wilderness. 
• Jesus set a rematch with the devil, in the wilderness. Jesus redeeming the story of Moses, in the wilderness. What Moses ended in failure, Jesus would finish with favor!

Redemption is God’s favor: 

• Jesus wants a rematch for 2020. 
• Jesus said, don’t think of all the failures…I want to redeem all 11 months, and finish this year with favor. 

Thank God at this time for His favor in your life this year. Break the failures!

Favor-Failure-Favor-Failure:  

• You can easily slip back into failure from favor. It’s easy to get back to what you are used to. Easy to get back to familiar stuff. Especially when frustrated. 
• When you are in fear, you are in failure (You yell at loved ones etc.). 

In the wilderness, the enemy got tired, but Jesus didn’t. Hence, you will overcome! You started with some other stuff…but you are going to finish with FAVOR. 

Luke 4:14- Power After Wilderness

Luke 14: Jesus continued his transformation even after the wilderness. He returned in the POWER of the Holy Spirit. After 40 days of fasting…Jesus returned in the POWER! WOW! 

The favor of God doesn’t mean he stops the test, it means that he continues the transformation. He keeps working in our lives. He has unlimited patience. 

Luke 4:16 – Breaking News 

Good news = Breaking News. 

Not in situation, nor circumstance, not in fame, but in favor. 

A report that contradicts reality. Let the weak say, “I am strong”. 

I may not see the Lord’s favor in my life right now, but I believe it. 

Proclaim something that you don’t see. 

Jesus stood up and read what was present in the scrolls, which is Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn”. 

• But Jesus did not mention the vengeance part. He stopped at the Year of the Lord’s favor, and then rolled up the scroll.  
• Why? Perhaps the favor of God is not what we think. Jesus came to save the people that they (The Nazarenes) wanted to wipe out. He came for the vengeance of God but he did not put it on you or me. 
  • THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS! HE DIDNT COME TO PUT IT ON YOU, HE TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF TO TAKE THAT SIN AND SHED HIS BLOOD ON THE CROSS! IT IS FINISHED! 

If it starts with grace, it ends with favor. But if it stats with effort, it ENDS in frustration. 

Jesus stopped at the scroll what he came to fulfill. Then he sat down.

Familiarity 

Is familiarity the enemy of God’s favor? Because the greatest favor of God should have been in Nazareth, where he is from, but perhaps because they knew him as Joseph’s son, he was rejected. 

• Some of the places God should be doing most of the work in your life, you are letting him do the least, and the reason is because you are choosing what is familiar and chasing away God’s favor. 
  • Some of us are waiting on the vengeance, but if he sits down, it is finished. He is who He says He is, not who you say He is. 
  • You are not ‘what you say you are’ in secret, you are ‘who He says you are’.

Faith comes by hearing 

• It’s a terrible thing to have sight and be blind. The favor of God is in front of you! 
• They did not listen to Jesus in the synagogue because they were familiar with him. 
• In Luke 4:20 God is talking about hearing. We need to hear from God, hear in the spirit. 

Fear & Frustration 

Sometimes we are seeking what is familiar and one of those things can be fear. 

Some of the frustration you have, you’re creating it when you compare yourselves to other people. 

You deal with fear and frustration because it feels familiar. Like the Nazarenes felt about Jesus. 

You aren’t trusting God, so you sit in frustration and fear — because it feels like home to you. 

In Luke 4:20, the eyes of the people of the synagogue were fastened on him. Focused on him. They were emotionally focusing their eyes on him. 

My emotional focus determines whether I go: to frustration, fear, fighting, or favor. 

The Lord wants to give you your emotional focus back. You are going to have to let go of some emotional attachments to familiar things that are blocking God’s favor. 

My focus is my favor! Focus on the favor God has given you in your life. 

Luke 4: 24 – No prophet is accepted in his hometown. You are so unfamiliar with acceptance, you cannot receive the Love that God is sending you. 

Today is the day of the Lord’s favor. You will finish with favor. 

Confess it! 

“I WILL FINISH WITH FAVOR!” 

Luke 4:25-30

• I wonder if we know too much, or have too much of a blueprint to think we have God’s favor already. The people God favored the most should have received most of his power and blessing. But, they didn’t want it and pushed him away. 
• God’s done some amazing things in your life this year but He is also showing you some ugly stuff that could have killed you…can your receive that? 
  • Are you accepting the favor of God, or pushing him away like the Nazarenes pushed Jesus?
  • Don’t chase away God’s favor just because it’s not comfortable, just because it’s challenging. Embrace His favor! 
• You have the favor of God! It can’t kill you! God’s plans, and God’s favor, are finished when He says they’re finished. 

Walk right through in the favor of God! Do not grow weary! 

Take God’s favor! Take a seat with God, who knows your future, who opened the scroll. As God ends the year with favor, I will dwell in the house of the Lord. I will finish with FAVOR!