Finish With Favor

that's me. His favorite rests on me. I used to let you touch your neighbor, but I'm scared they'll lock us up in jail if I have you touch your neighbor right now. So just look at somebody, wink at him and say I got the favor of God. Say it like that, say it kind of yeah, like that with a little bit of swag. I got the favor of God. Anybody who knows that, just put it in the chat. I have the favor of God. I have the faith of God. No, no, no, no no, no, not

a fancy favor. Oh Lord, I thank you for my parking space. Thou hast given me a parking space. So very convenience. I'm not clapping for convenience. No, no, no no, no, that's fancy favor. I'm clapping cook. I could have been bed, I could have lost my mind. I could have gone crazy. Buddy, got me? I shot faith or got it now? I'm not thank you, Lauren. How many are excited about the favor of God? I love y'all. It's a delayed reaction. You're like, I gotta think about that. And that's exactly

what we're gonna do today. We are going to consider as this year ends. I wonder how many of you are new to our ministry. By that, I mean you've been a part of this ministry for less than a year. Put it in the chat say I'm a nube, now use it right. So sorry, my kids just cringe every time I try to say something that's remotely relevant. You

can't say that, so it's weird. But this message is for those of you, whether you're brand new to the ministry, have been here a long time, because we end each year kind of wrapping a word from God around the year, and you are not going to believe what God told me to call this year in Because I had to get this one from the spirit. I could not do this with my mind because I would have tried to

figure out what to call twenty twenty. If you are on planet Earth and watching this in a future year and everything looks weird, I can just imagine if you watch Elevation in twenty nineteen and then turned it on in twenty twenty, you could be like what happened to the people if you didn't know, if it was much later and you didn't have the historical context, that'd be

kind of crazy. But I want to give you some context that every year we finish the year with one word from God, and this year the Lord told me that we were going to you're ready, Finish with favor. That's my message today. Finish with favor. Go ahead and put it in the chat. I mean as big as you can. I wish you could do a size twenty four o'clock for every hour of the day. Finish with favor. Put it right there. Finish with favor, and you may

be seated. Let's get this sermons started. Finish with favor, I said Lord. I can't say favor is the word for twenty twenty in good conscience. They'll think I'm crazy. And it was as if the Lord said to me, not out loud. They already know that. The people that are still there figured that out a long time ago, and they like it. The right kind of crazy. I'm the right kind of crazy. I'm the I'm the right kind of crazy. I'm the right kind of crazy, at least I want to be. I've been all kinds of crazy,

I really am. It isn't it weird to call this the year a favor? I've heard a lot of people use a lot of words to describe twenty twenty, and some of them even started with the letter F. But they they didn't. They didn't, they didn't say it was the year of favor. I went through a lot of options. I was thinking, well, Lord, you know, we should call it the year. We should call it what people have experienced.

And the first thing that came to my mind, and I don't know where your mind went when I said the letter F but I thought the year of fear would be an appropriate thing to call it. So show them on the wide shot, on the white shot. Yeah, the year of fear. But it didn't look right. When I saw it in print, I was like, well, that's not really too terribly inspiring. We're giving an offering next week, and how many of you are excited to give to God? How many of you have been excited to keep giving

to God? And then we go above and beyond. I made my check out this week. I'll tell you I fought God like never before writing my check this year, because there's more fear. There's more fear, and I thought it was hard to give in previous years because we always try to stretch. But this year, I was like and I had to practice writing the number down a few times before I put it on the check because I knew what he was speaking. But there was so much fear, And I think the Year of Fear would

be a good thing to call twenty twenty. If we're gonna if we're gonna keep it one hundred, as the kids say, oh yeah, we have found things to be afraid of that we didn't even know we were supposed to be afraid of. I was never afraid of a handshake until this year. Put it back on the screen, the Year of Fear. I thought we could call it the Fear Offering. That didn't sound right then, sundvery biblical, So I thought about that, and then I thought no,

we should call it. If you really want to be accurate about it, we should label it the Year of frustration, because that starts with an F, and you can say it in church. The year of frustration, the frustration of trying to figure out what in God's name you are going to do not next month. Now I have to check my phone every five minutes to see if it's safe for me to go outside of my door. I feel like so it's frustrating me because I'm a rule follower.

And that surprises you because some people say that this church breaks all the rules. But I really like people to tell me what I'm supposed to do. And what I can't figure out is I live in North Carolina, but sometimes I go to South Carolina, and even between two states, I can't figure out what the freaking rules are. You see what I'm saying. The frustrating you feel it, You feel my frustration. I am terrified to go on a plane, not because it might crash, but because I

don't want to have to deal with the deal. It was already bad enough before the year A frustration set in, telling me I have to pull up my mask in between SIPs. I just don't think I can do it yet, I'm not ready for it yet, and I don't want to end up on the news, so I'm standing away

from planes until further notice. I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated right now because the truck is supposed to be full and there's like three hundred people and they're all spaced out and there's empty rolls, and it stresses me because it's bad out dynamics and I don't like it. But I got the write three hundred in a row favor. But I'm frustrated. It has certainly been If we just want to label this year according to the facts, everybody say facts, as the kids say facts. Oh, Graham's gonna kill me

after this one. He's gonna hate this. If you want to label it by the facts, I think we could call it the Year of fighting all things that start with the letter F. We have found places and spaces to fight. We fight over syllables, we fight over punctuation marks on Facebook. In this year the Year of fighting. You can get canceled when you use a comma instead of a semicolon. In the year twenty twenty, somebody will pick you apart. I'm telling you for everything you say.

It's different from people who have a microphone or a platform or something, but I think everybody's experienced it at some level. Everything is controversial, everything you do. It's some big epic message and we're all supposed to figure it out. I thought of calling it the year of Fuci, but that felt a little bit limiting what we could say. And the Lord said, you can call it any of that, or you can call it what Luke four nineteen says, and tell my people, proclaim this over my people. It's

the year of favor. Somebody shall favor the year. Put it on the screen. It's supposed to come up. The year. Yeah, that's the one. The year. We had to wait for it for a minute. We had to get to the end to figure it out. But it's the year of favor. The spirit of the the Lord is on me. That's what Jesus said. Favor. Put that word in the chat. Favor favor. Put it in the chat. Say it with your mouth, favor, favor, favor. Are you famil with that word? The kids don't say

favor much anymore. This is a word. See my kids introduce me to new words that I'm unfamiliar with. But I want to introduce some people who are spiritually just growing into your faith to a word that you may not have heard, and the word is favor. Now I can't figure out. This is why I've been trying to figure out. Going over to Luke Iour in your Bible, because we're going to study this today. We're going to talk about the year of the Lord's Favor and how

to finish with favor. What's going to require you to do is maybe forget how the first eleven months went. Paul said, this one thing I do forgetting what's ahead behind and straining toward what's ahead, I press toward the mark. And I'm like, that's two things, forgetting and straining. He's like, no, you got to do them both. In order to move forward. You got to forget. So let's just make a deal

right now. I won't bring it up if you don't all the little temper tantrums, pity parties that you had this year, all that other stuff that is not appropriate for us to talk about in a big group like this. Uh huh did you hear it? Did you hear the whole crowd go south? The stuff this year that the other stuff that was fear based frustration, based fighting against people that you're supposed to be fighting for. I won't mention it if you don't. Today we'll talk about favor specifically.

The Lord said, we are going to and I want a personally says you are going to finish with favor. Now, nothing in me wanted to tell you that, because I cannot prove it by the percentages of COVID cases. And I certainly cannot tell you that a flip of the calendar is going to wave a magic wand and all of a sudden make all of the conflict disappear. And now I can't say any of that. But I think the word favor, although it's unfamiliar to some, it's overly

familiar to others. And I can't figure out which One's harder to get somebody who is overly familiar with the concept to unfamiliarize themselves. Sometimes I think I'd rather teach somebody who had never heard of Moses, or, as the country preacher said, somebody who doesn't know the Book of Ruth from a baby Ruth. Amen. I'm telling you, I think it's harder sometimes to get someone who has heard the word favor. I went to the store and I got some shoes and they were twenty percent off. It

was favor. No, it was Black Friday, that's all it was. It wasn't favor. It was marketing because we cheapen it. Or we will think favor is like is like fame. It's a false equivalent. So we'll say, oh, look at how I heard somebody say about a person one time that was getting very popular. They said, they're blowing up. And see, I knew the person personally, and I knew

they are blowing up. They're blowing up their marriage, they're blowing up their physical health, they're blowing up their emotions. So while one person saw the climb of their fame, I didn't really think it was favor. But see, we have a hard time knowing what the word means. Did I use that right? Did I say that right? And I'll be honest. The last time I preached on favor at elevation was twenty eleven. I thought maybe the word needed to be retired, but then I realized it just

needs to be reclaimed. So today you came on the right day, you clicked at the right time. We are reclaiming the favor of God in our life. I am reclaiming God's favor for my family, for my perspective, for my business, for my church, for my ministry, for my emotions. I am reclaiming the favor of God. So what is the favor of God? Is kind of hard to give you a definition because I don't know that we have

like a worldly equivalent. You know, if I'm trying to explain to you the favor of God, it's easier for me to show you than to tell you. Remember when we used to say that all the time, I can show you better than I can tell you. She said that a lot, and it was never a good thing. But in this case, it's a good thing. I could show you. I could give you a picture better than

I could show you a definition. Now, what some of you need to do, and you don't know this yet, is you need to take a selfie and look at it and the fact that you're still here with light in your eyes and a smile on your face. It is. It is a picture of the faith. I wish I could see. I wish I could see a selfie right now on Instagram and tag me and say and say and say in the in the tag, this is my

definition now now what you're doing. When you do that, you are defining to the devil that the proof of the favor of God on your life is not the absence of attack or ambiguity in your life. This year, it's a picture of God's favor. It's a picture of God's favor. And sometimes a picture is better than a definition. So we're going to see a picture of God's favor from Jesus, and he gave it to us in Luke for thirteen all the way through verse thirty. This is

so good, This is so good. Are you familiar with the favor of God? Have you heard about it? Have you? Have you? Yeah? Well, I mean even if not familiar, it's probably better because again I can't really explain. It's not like luck. It's different than luck. It's something different than that because luck is validated and proven externally. So it's different. And I knew when I said it's the year of the Lord's favor that it would make some

people just think, what are you in an alternate reality? No, but I am in an alternate kingdom, and I do have a different spirit than the spirit of the world. I have the favor of God. So when I heard Elijah's friends the other day and they were calling one of the kids a simp. I didn't know what a simp was, and I said, I'm not familiar with this term simp. What meaneth this? They said, Uh, it's kind of hard to describe. And they said it's have you

heard this term simp? Your kid's not old enough. When when Joel gets a little older, he'll start saying, crap, you won't have a clue what it means. So what you'll do, you'll try to correlate the word to things we used to say when we were growing up, and sometimes there is no equivalent. So he said, it's a it's a guy that'll do anything for a girl. Uh, and just doesn't care how it looks. And he said, and they named somebody and they said he's he's a simp. And I was like, okay, I got it now. I

got it now. And I thought, wow, it was easier for you to give me a picture of it than a definition of it, because we don't I don't I don't know what what did we call it? A guy that was? I mean, some of the things I'm thinking of you can't say like that. But but I don't think we had an exact word, and I don't think we have, Like y'all stay with me. It's been it's been a it's been a weird year. So it requires

some some different kind of preaching. So I was saying, I don't think I could put it in a word for you. Let me give you a picture. And I thought about Moses, how he found favor with God. I thought about Noah, how he found favor with God in a flood. I thought about Ruth how she found favor with bo Ass. God can give you favor with the person. Yeah, bo Ass. A lot of single people like that bo Ass. I don't want broke Ass or Boas or any of those.

What I want bow Ass. So you could you could get a picture from We can edit this and we gotta take the life. But you're good. I can't tell if you're smiling behind the mask. It's all right now. So I thought we would skip right to the one who not only spoke of the favor of God, but showed the favor of God, Who was the favor of God, Who is the favor of God. Now get ready, this is why I can tell you it's the year of the Lord's favor, and I hadn't looked at your bank balance.

This is why I tell you the your Lord's favor, and I hadn't looked at your medical report. This is how I can tell you your Lord's favor. And you don't even like the go home right now because you can't stand who you're living with. This is how I can tell you it's the year of the Lord's favor. Luke for thirteen. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him. How many of you want to get to that part? Let me read that again. Doesn't that

sound good? When the devil had finished all this tempting he left Jesus. I thought about calling this sermon, are you done yet? Devil? Because Jesus has been out there fasting forty days and forty nights, and he's doing this not only for preparation for his own ministry, which is about to really really take center stage. In the passage I'm going to read you and I can't wait to

show you. But I had to put verse thirteen, and it seemed important because if you don't realize that the announce of God's favor came after a season of testing for Jesus, you might not recognize God's favor in your life. Now I want to read it again so we don't misunderstand it. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. So it doesn't mean it's over. It just means that, see this one thing you can know about every battle in your life.

It won't last forever. This is what you can know about every blessing in your life. It won't last forever. So if you're in a blessing right now, enjoy it because there will be another battle. If you're in a battle right now, endure it because there will be another blessing. Now I need you to put it in the chat. By faith, there will be another one. There will be another one. And every time I say put it in the chat, y'all say it with your mouth in the

room so we can join our faith. Right, whether by thumbs or by tongues, we're going to confess the word of God. Got it, Say it out loud. There will be another one, another one. So there was a temptation. It was forty days and forty there will be another one. And I kept reading that over and over again. How the enemy tempted Jesus in the wilderness. And then the part I'm about to read you shows Jesus in the synagogue,

which was kind of like church. So he's in the wilderness all alone, and he's in the church with people that he knew and that knew him. And God showed me that it was the same favor in both places. So I saw that the same favor that we're about to encounter working through Jesus in the worship service was with him in the wilderness. And that's what let me know that the favor of God is not contingent on

a place. You can find favor anywhere, And that's why I don't know what to compare it to, because I can't say that about anything else in life. You can find great pizza anywhere. No, there are some places where the pizza is better than others. You know, you can find a good man anywhere. You can find mate anywhere. How many want to put it on the petition, Tiffany should make mat change his name his last name to Hammer, and her name can change to Hudson. She just got married.

But I think they need to do a reverse because Hammer is way cooler than Hudson, so you'll put it in the petition, put it in the chatts. But see, I can't just say you can find a good man anywhere. I can't just say that there are some places. But the favor of God can be found anywhere you want to look for it. 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 maybe a better way to say it is favor can find you anywhere. Because can I be honest, there were sometimes I wasn't looking for God's favor at all. I was looking for other stuff. And just about the time I thought I couldn't make it, the angels of God came to minister to my spirit. When my flesh was weak, when my tears were falling, when my hope was kind of foggy and faded and fuzzy. Here came favor. Here came favor. Here came favor. Here

came favor, Here came favor. Here came grace, Here came love, Here came mercy, Here came favor. Wasn't looking for it, but it came wasn't praying about it, but it came. Didn't even think it was possible at this point. But here, Hey, how many have that testimony that favor found me. Oh that's a good one. Favor found me. Thank you, Lord. I'm sorry, y'all give me twenty seconds, because all this year, all this year, the goodness and the mercy of the Lord were following me. I saw a table, and I

saw enemies. And I sat at the table in the presence of my enemies. And I was said, by the favor of God, and I was said by the mouth of ravens, and I was said by every word that proceeds favor. Favor found me in the comments. Favor found me. To your neighbor, Favor found me. Favor found me here. I am God. Here, I am God. I need you in this wilderness. I wanted you to know that the favor of God that was with Jesus at the resurrection

was with him in the wilderness. The same faith of God that came to marry, that was with Jesus in his mother's womb, that was with you before the beginning of your life, that same favor is with you, same favor, different place. Say that same favor, different place, Favor with a mask on, favor with the church on YouTube, and your home because you can't go out to church because you live with your aging parent. You're scared to get them sick. Favor where you are, same favor, different place.

Y'all please pray for me. That's just verse thirteen. I'm so scared to go any further though, because it felt familiar to me. Forty days, forty nights in the wilderness, forty in the wilderness, forty in the wilderness, forty days to make up for forty years when Moses was in the wilderness he failed. So before Jesus began his ministry, he set up a rematch with the devil. See Moses's story in the Old Testament. He struck the rock twice instead of speaking to it. He became so afraid that

he became frustrated. He became so frustrated that he started fighting. You remember that from the beginning of the sermon. And so Moses's story ended in failure. He didn't get to go into the land that he led the people to. But Jesus came so that what Moses ended in failure he could finish with, say Danish with finish with. And I can't explain this to you because it's like a neube, or it's like a simp, or it's like something that I don't really know how to describe this to you

because we don't have a context for it. See, you are so familiar with earning, so you're reflecting on the year, and you're thinking of all the failures that you had. But Jesus said, I want to set up a rematch. I want to redeem the year. I want to redeem me elet January February. He said, I'm stepping in to the last month of the year so you can finish with Thank you, Jesus, I received your favorite and I

receive your grace, and I am your righteousness. And I thank you that you beat that devil that was beating me, and you took away that sin that was suffocating me, and you you stripped that shame that was sabotaging my life. I thank you that you that you broke the back of fear. I thank you that you broke the yoke of frustration. I thank you that that I no longer have to fight from a place of defeat. I don't have to fight in my flesh. I don't wrestle against

flesh and blood. I have the spirit. The spirit of the Lord is on me. He has annoyed in me. He broke that failure, he broke it off your life. That's why you're gonna finish with failure favor. Sorry, See how easy it was to slip back into the whole one, because that's what I'm familiar with. You slip back into what you're familiar with when you're afraid fear, when you're frustrated, and when you're in it, when you're fighting, you just do familiar stuff. That's why you call people names that

you love. That's why you yell at people that are trying to help you. Because when you're in fear, phil, that's why you strike the rock twice. That's why you do it. Now, let me show you this, because because this is so powerful. When Jesus finished in the wilderness, it said the devil was done, but Jesus wasn't. So the enemy got tired before the Savior did. All right, so you're gonna overcome. You're gonna you're gonna du this. You're gonna finish with favor. You started with some other stuff.

I know you did, But you're gonna finish with favor. Lord told me to tell you that you're gonna finish with favor. And this is how we know, uh luke for fourteen? Did we really only do one verse so far? Y'all need a bathroom break or intermission or something like that. Just get up and do what you need to do. I'll be right here when you get back, all right, Okay, Well, so the Bible says he left the wilderness. That's the

first place. And you want to study this later. There's several places that we're talking about talking about the wilderness where the devil was finished. But Jesus wasn't. He outlasted him, and he lives in you. So you have that spirit of perseverance in you after the point that you've give up when you're tired and hungry and lonely and all those things, and the devil's trying to get you to do crazy stuff. People are doing crazy stuff this year.

That's all right, because it said that Jesus did what Moses couldn't do. And then in verse fourteen, it says that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit that in itself is amazing because he didn't return of the in the pessimism or in the pain, or he returned into power after forty days of being tested by the devil. And so it let me know that the favor of God doesn't mean that he stops the test.

It means that he continues the transformation so that he keeps working in my life, so that he has unlimited patience and grace. Thank you Lord. This is this a powerful, powerful, annoying that that's on this word today. Finish with favor. So he outlasted the devil. I'm just laughing because Graham, my cockiest child, was telling me the other day. He told me the other day that he thinks he could beat Mike Tyson in a fight because Mike is sixty.

He was serious, he said, I think I could outlast him. He's old anyway. That's what made me laugh. I was thinking about Jess I last and the devil. I thought, that's that's crazy. But I guess that's some kind of self confidence delusion. You'll pray for Graham, is what I'm saying. Jess returned to Gottie in the power of the spirit. Wow, in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. This is the real breaking news.

This is the real breaking news. He broke the chain, he broke the shame. That's that's the breaking news. That that's what I mean. Is the year of the Lord's favor. That's what I mean. That's what the Lord said. So it spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues. Remember he was in the wilderness. Now he's in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He didn't pay any attention to that. He knew that man's empty praise

and treasures that fade are never enough. That's Jesus' favorite worship song, grays out the garths. He loves that one. He look at this verse sixteen because it's important. He went to Nazareth. Just please put that right there on the on the side, so I can I can tell you about that in a minute. 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, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written. He found the place where it is written. Somebody say, find the place, Find the place, Find the place, Find the place. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, breaking news, good news. But wait a minute, they're poor. No, no, no, I'm not talking about situation. I'm not talking about circumstance. I'm not talking about fame. I'm not talking about I'm talking about favor. Good news

to the poor, a report that contradicts the reality. Let the week say, I am strong, good news to the poor. I love all this stuff. He sent me to a proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free. Read verse nineteen with me out loud, ready read to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor again, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor one more time. To proclaim the year

of the Lord's favor. And I put twenty twenty by it in my Bible because I don't see that necessarily right now, but I believe it because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that I can't even see. So I want to ask you something. Will you proclaim something that you can't currently perceive. He said, proclaim to the poor. That's not easy to the blind, that's not easy to the prisoners. And let

me tell you something. When Jesus was on Earth, there is no widespread record of people getting out of prison in mass but he still said it was the year of freedom and favor, year of the Lord's favor. And watch what he did. You'll know how. I hadn't had the stool out here in a while. I brought it today just for this moment in the sermon. It's a prop. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to

the attendant, and sat out. So that's why I wanted to bring this out, to show you what Jesus did while you're stressing out, to show you what he's doing in heaven right now. I was surprised to see that in Revelation chapter five he was seated on the throne. I thought that was weird. I'm like, well, that's the whole problem. God, if you'd get up and do something about this crazy mess. How are you gonna sit down at a time like this. Mary helped me in the kitchen.

You know, Martha, remember that story. I'm thinking, how could you be seated right now. Especially what really got me was that Jesus is quoting Isaiah sixty one. Let me show you this real quick. You can just flip there in your Bible right on your phone, So do that real quick. Now. Jesus didn't have you version Craig Groschell Bible at none of that verse of the day. For Jesus, they handed him the whole scroll. It was probably the

attendants and the synagogue leader there in Nazareth. It was probably his decision which scroll handed him, and Isaiah the whole thing was probably on the scroll. And you now you have the verse markers in your Bible. I say, turned to Isaiah sixty one, verse one and two, and you're like, okay, it's sixty sixty two, the one between the sixty one. That's how we do it. There were none of those in the scroll that Jesus read. He

didn't need them. He found the place. He found the place he knew the word that good was the word. So it's kind of easy to find the place when you are what you're reading. All that to say, when you know who you are, When you know who you are, you know where you below. You can always find a place you can always when you know that, when you know that the favor of God is on your life, you can find your place anywhere. Is't that good? Isn't that good? Don't you want to live like that? I'm

not there yet. You're not either what Jesus was. So he's like, okay, we're reading Isaiah. Okay, all right, this is the park. This is this uh, this is something I wrote about me. How cool is Jesus? Somebody shall favor. He wasn't talking about circumstances. He wasn't talking. He wasn't talking about lemons and lemonade, and he wasn't talking about vaccines, and he wasn't talking about candidates or any of that. He so knew his purpose that he found on this place,

same favor, different place. So he unrolls the scroll, make the sound effect. He goes, yeah, this one, this one, this one right here. This is what I want to say. You listening, Rodney, you're listening, Carol, you're listening. David, you're listening. Because he knew these people, because it's the place where he grew up, and they knew him. They thought they did. They thought they did, they thought they did. We think we do, see We're so familiar, aren't we. I wonder

if familiarity is sometimes the enemy of favor. I wonder, I wonder if familiarity is the enemy of God's favor. And the reason I wonder that Isaiah sixty one, I hadn't even found it yet. I'm telling you all how he found it, and I hadn't even turned there yet. Okay, here it is. He said, This is Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus. That amazing. He said, the spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has annoying to me to proclaim good news to the poor.

Sent me to bind up the broken heart. It proclaim freedom for the captives, and to release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Does that sound familiar? Some of it does? Give me looke for again. Let me show you this. It said that he stood up and unrolled it, found the place. Give me verse eighteen. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has annoyed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight. For the blind, to set the oppress free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back, and sat down. Go back to Isaiah sixty one one more time. Verse two he said, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Go back to Luke for the same verse that I just

read to you verse nineteen. One more time he said, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor one more time. I want you to see this, this powerful. In Isaiah sixty one two, the prophet said, hundreds of years before Jesus to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Go back to Luke, for Jesus said to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and he sat down. Why do you stop there? See this was the problem. It wasn't that the people listening

didn't know the scriptures. They were very familiar with the scriptures. So we think that's the problem a lot. If people knew the Bible more, if people knew the word of God moral, I'll tell you, then this nation with America would turn back to God in all of that. No, no, no no, no. They knew the Bible. They knew the rest of the verse, the year of the Lord's favor and the day of angeance of our God. That was

in their Bible. So when Jesus said the year a favor of the Lord and then rolled up the scroll and sat down, they were confused because they were waiting for the vengeance part. When are you gonna finish this member of mortal combat? Finish him? That's what they wanted for the Roman oppression. That's what they wanted him to come and do. That's what we want the Lord to do. Get rid of this. I want this to stop. I want this to be done. I want the bad people punished.

I want the right. I want the wrong to be made right. I want the favor of what we say when we say the favor of God is we want all the enemies eliminated. Jesus came to save the people that they wanted him to wipe out. Oh yeah, he came to fulfill the law, not abolishit. He did it. He came to fulfill the vengeance of God because sin has to be punished and shame has to be dealt with. But he did not put it on you, and he did not put it on me. And see, this is

the breaking news. This is the good news of the gospel. This is what will set the captive free. He didn't come to put it on you. He came to take it on himself, that he became sin who knew no sin, that you might become the righteousness of God. This is the gospel. It's good in twenty twenty. It was good in twenty It was good when he said it, and is good to the last. Draw. Now take this gospel and drink this blood and receive this word. It is finished.

Come on, Praise him like his finished. Praise him like he won it. Praise him lucky he did it. So I need you to know what he did. I need you to know that, he said, it's the year of the Lord's favor. Period you're looking at it. Don't look for the new car. That might be favor. It might be payments. Don't look for that for favor. Don't look for bow ass hmm. Don't look for any of that. He sat down. He said, I don't know how to tell you what favor is. You showed a picture. List,

let me show a picture of this. Let's shaw a picture this man. It'd be so cool to endiscernment here, but I can't because I didn't write the Bible. I wish at that moment that they would have put finished with favor on the chat subscribed on YouTube, turned on the bell and gave the tie to the year end offriend. We cando they didn't do that. Remember, we read the Bible.

It's what is said, and it's where it said. So saying that he defeated the devil in the wilderness where it happened tells us that he was doing for us what we could never do for ourselves. That's the grace of God. If it starts with grace, it ends in favor. If it starts with effort, it ends in frustration. Finished with favor, Start with grace. He stood up and he read, and he stopped at the part that he came to fulfill. He came to do that for you. You can't do

it for yourself. That's the whole point. Rolled it up, gave it back to Timmy, the synagogue assistant. He put it back in the art and Jesus said, I'm the arc you can put that up. I am, I am the word of God. Isn't that amazing? He opened the scroll, read the passage. He's going to set the prisoners free, good news to the poor. What you don't have, God's going to make up the difference in all these things that we can take symbolically. They don't even have to

be literal. That's what he's doing in your life this year. It's not This is not Andy Dufraan's style. Do you remember when he got out of prison. This is a spiritual prison. This is spiritual blindness. And what really ministered to me in the text is to know that he said he came to open the eyes of the blind, and he said in verse twenty one, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Look at the whole verse. He began by saying to them, he finished with favor.

He began to speak, he sat down. When God sits, he's not tired. He's finished. The work is finished. It's accomplished. Okay. So he began by saying, today, if I say today not January first, twenty twenty one, when absolutely nothing changes and we all promise to go on diets and to do better, and we think something that's known, and today this is the year of the Lord's favor. This scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And they were amazed. Give me twenty one and you'll just keep up with me,

because I'm going to go off the screen. All spoke well of him, and we're amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. But watch what they said next. Isn't this Joseph's son, they asked, And that messed the whole thing up. And tell you this, but when we went to see Jody and Emiley a while back. This is my brother in law. He works at North Greenville

College where I went to school, North Greenville University. Now they've really really moved up, and we were talking about how beautiful the campus was, not necessarily the buildings, but the buildings are fine, but it was the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. He said something to me. I can't get this out of my head. He said, can you believe we had this the whole time we were here as students. I said, what do you mean? He said, bo, that's what he calls me. We call each other that bow.

He goes, he points to the mountain range. It's a real pretty day too, He goes. This was in our backyard. The Blue Ridge Mountains were in our backyard. You know. Me and Holly went to that school. We never went on one hike. It was in our backyard. Crazy, and I looked at it. I was like, this is like the kind of thing I would pay the vacation at now. Not the dorm room. The dorm room was crap. And

I think that was the problem. I think this is what I said to him I was looking at I said, we were so focused on what we were living in that we didn't even realize what we were looking at. When you're living in it, you don't even know what you're looking at. That's why we really have to be careful not to wish away stages of our life. Wade, because that was in your backyard. It took twenty twenty

to get some of us to see that's. Showing up early to get a seat at Valentine at nine thirty on a Sunday morning was a privilege back when we could all do it without fear. We had the favor of God. We still do, but some of it it was our backyard. Just looked at it. I was like, dude, this is trippy. Are you sure they didn't move these mountains in since we left. Are you playing with me? Did you slip something in my turkey? What's going on? Is this really here? My illusion? It was there? He

was there, He had been brought up there. He was a Nazareth. That's where he grew up. Is familiarity the enemy of favor? Because I think it is sometimes, I really do. I think we choose what is familiar, even the expense of God's favor sometimes. And I'll prove it to you not from psychology. I have no degree in that. I'll prove it to you, not from sociology. I prove

it to you from theology and the text. Why is it that the place where Jesus should have been able to do the most, he was able to do the least. That should have been the place for the greatest favor of God? Okay, now I need to say this to you. This might sound rough. Some of the places where God should be working the most in your life, you're letting him do the least. And the reason is you are choosing what is familiar, and you are chasing away God's favor.

For many of us, we're waiting on the vengeance. Ah, we think we know so much. And when he rolls up the scroll and sits down, and we think, well, it must be over because God didn't do what I wanted him to do. Look at me is finished when he says it's finished. He is who he says, he is, not who you think he is. And you are who he says. You are, not what they say you are, whether they is your thoughts, your addictions, your insecurities, your secret stuff, your secret stuff. You are not what that

says you are or your life. That's not what we mean by favor. We don't mean the facts. We mean the father. So when they were looking at him, there's a Greek word that they use, and it's used ten times in the Book of Acts, only twice in Luke. It says, when he said what he said, he said today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing, but not with physical ears, spiritual ears. And it's a terrible thing. The famous woman said,

I can't remember her name right now. To have sight but be blind, it's a terrible thing because he's talking about opening blind eyes. But they are blind to the Blue Ridge mountains that are in their own backyard because He is favor, and he's right in front of them, just like the favor of God is right in front of you. I promise it is. It's everywhere. You bumped into it trying to get in a fight on your way out the house. Today, you bumped into the favor

of God. You had to push the favor of God out of the way to get to your bad attitude. He said, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And he sat down and they spoke well, but they were so familiar. That's Joseph's son. Wow, he talks good, but we know him. We know him familiar favor. Familiarity is familiarity keeping you from God's favor. Are you addicted to feeling miserable? Feels familiar? If fear is your natural habitat for long enough, you'll seek it out. You'll find

something to be afraid about. I started looking up a state taxis the other night and freaking out. And I don't think I'm dying. I just needed something to be worried about. I just needed something to freak out about. I didn't have anything in the moment. It was too good, it was too good. I had to make something up in the moment. Isn't that crazy? But I think I was seeking what was familiar and to receive and accept God's favor. When he says the year of the Lord's favor,

the other translation is the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, the Jewish people knew a concept called jubilee every cycle of seven years and fiftieth or forty ninth year. The rabbis differ as to which one it fell on. Originally, the debts would be forgiven and the prisoners would be released. And Jesus was saying, I am your jubilee. You don't have to wait till the fiftieth year. You don't have to wait till twenty twenty one. You don't have to wait till you get married. You don't have to wait

till you get divorced. I mean, everybody's trying to go somewhere else, he said. Today. Today, this is the everybody saying this is the year, this is the year. This is the year. But if frustration is a more familiar state for you, you you will create frustration. You do this. I know this is hard to hear, but please hear me with spiritual ears. Please hear me with spiritual ears. Some of the frustration you just got to get through because it's not your fault. Some of it you're creating.

You're creating it. When you compare yourself to other people, you're creating it. When you overload yourself with all this stuff you're looking at, you are making yourself frust And the reason you're doing it, I'm gonna tell you why you're doing it because it feels familiar. So you want what's familiar, because that feels like nazareth favor feels funny. There's no equivalent for God's favor. People don't love you like that. They don't love you like that. So when

God tries to you push out away. That's not familiar. That's not familiar. I can't just trust that my sins are forgiven. I can't just pray to God in any situation. I can't just give God this burden. I can't just roll it on him and trust that he cares for me. I can't smile I'm going through this. I can't trust wholeheartedly. I can't take the next step without knowing all the details.

That's not familiar. So I will create frustration through a spirit of manipulation, just to feel what feels like home to me. It said, they fastened their eyes on him. The word is adnitzio and spell it. You can look it up on a bible at at neat seo. It's used to describe a very emotional attention. I gotta show you. This is too important. Go all the way back to verse twenty one, please, yeah, no, twenty two? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, twenty three. You want the right one the whole time.

Sorry about that, but I can't find it. Is it still there? I'm sorry. I am not messing this up, because this is what makes the difference. This is why I didn't see the mountains. This is why I couldn't see the Blue Ridge mountains because yeah, yeah, yeah, the gracious word came from his lips. Uh da da da da dah. All the eyes, yeah, the eyes of everyone verse twenty That's where it was. That's where it was. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were at neat seo.

It's an emotional focus. It's the same word. Listen to this halt. When he was taken up in X one to ten, they at need Ceo. They watched because they wondered, if he's leaving, what's going to happen? To us, that's how you felt all year. Well, if I'm losing this, if it's not like this anymore, what's going to replace this? That's what the word was. It was the same word when Peter was cussing, when Jesus was being taken away to be crucified. The servant girl at needs CEO fastened

her eyes. It was an emotion. It's not just like you look. It's like you're emotionally focusing on something. And here's the thing I found out about God's favor. My emotional focus determines whether I go to frustration, fear, fighting, or favor. So the Lord said he wanted to give you the gift this last month of the year, whoever this is for, He wants to give you your emotional focus back. And what that is going to require. I want to make sure you're down because this is not

going to be easy. You are going to have to let go of some certain attachments to familiar things that are blocking God's favor. I don't mean you're gonna leave the city. I don't mean you're gonna flee the state. I don't mean you're gonna move to Canada. I mean that in this moment, you are going to decide what has been in your backyard all along that is bigger than what you're going through and living in right now that my focus, listen, my focus is my favor, not

your favor. God gave you a favor. God gave me a favor. God gave you a family. God gave me a family. God gave you a gift. God gave me a gift. Every preacher watching me, God gave you a church. God gave me a church. Everybody watching this that wants God to do something that he's doing for somebody else, it is time for you to focus on the favor that God has given you in this season of your life. And I promise you this, at Nisio, you will find

what you're looking for. If you want to look for goodness, it's on your right hand. If you want to look for mercy, it's on your left hand. So he rolled up the scroll and he sat down and said, you want favor, it's right in front of you. It's right in front of you. It is right in front of you. It is not out there somewhere. It is not to be found in any earthly promotion. It is not to be found in any earthly acclaim. It is in the wilderness,

it is in the synagogue, it is in Nazareth. But the place where he was brought up was the place where they were so familiar with him that they could not receive the favor because they chose what was familiar. That's Joseph's son. Are you open to seeing the favor of God? I asked the Lord to do three things for us. Make us conscious of his favor. You got to see it, to help us cooperate with his favor. Stop fighting against what God is doing in my life.

And then the biggest part of all this, why I want to give my offering next weekend to make me a conduit for his favor. I want that because this is the year of the Lord's favor, and I don't know about tomorrow. He opened the scroll, you know, that's the same thing he did in Revelation five. They couldn't find anybody to open the scroll and break the seals.

And then there was a lamb next to the one who was seated on the throne, not stressed, not freaking out, and neither should you be, because no matter how it started, it's gonna finish with favor. What sins started in the garden. Jesus dealt with on the cross, and he buried in his tomb. So I'm making the declaration you're gonna finish with favor. I wonder do you receive that or are you gonna chase it away? Are you gonna chase it away? That's what the people did to Jesus. He starts speaking

about the favor of God. He said, it's the year of the Lord's favor. And they were ants. They were looking at him. They were expecting one thing, you know, like we all are. This is how it's gonna be. This was supposed to work. They're looking at it. They're focused on what they think he's going to do. But he said something very powerful. He said in verse twenty four, Truly, I tell you, amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. Oh do you accept what

God is doing in this season of your life? I know what you expected him to do, But will you accept what he is doing? He said, you are too familiar to receive the favor that is sitting right in front of you. You are so used to rejection that you find it when it's not even there. And you are so unfamiliar with acceptance that you can't receive the love I'm sending you. And whoever you are, and whatever this year has been like for you, the Lord send me with the message. Today is the day of the

Lord's favor. It is right in front of you. And I don't care how it started. I don't care what it looks like. It doesn't matter what happened up until now. You will finish with favor. Confess it. I will finish with favor again. I will finish with favor. And he sat down right in front of him. He said, the problem with you, well, you can't receive the favor. This is to the Jewish people who should have really known him, the people who saw him running around when he was

two years old. Their familiarity killed their favor. And this is kind of sad that Jesus was rejected by the people that should have recognized him. Listen to this verse twenty five. I assure you this is Jesus speaking to the people that he knew that should I've known him, but couldn't see it because their emotional focus was on

what they expected God to be like? Is that where your focus is what you expected your kid to be like at age eighteen that you expected that you would have kids by now what you expected to happen this year in your career. If that is your emotional focus, it is going to kill your favor. That's what happened. Here. Jesus goes all the way back to their history and he says there were many widows in Israel twenty five at Elijah's time. You remember this story? Do you all

remember this? I hope you don't, because if you're unfamiliar with it, you'll hear it better. I hope you don't know. He said there was a drought three and a half years. There was a famine caused by the drought. Yet Elijah twenty six was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zaraphath, in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elijah the prophet. These are famous Bible stories,

first King seventeen, second King's five. You can look these up later, but what you'll see is this that God sent his greatest favor to the people who were least familiar. And I wonder do we know too much? I wonder do we have too much of a blueprint of how God is going to bless us. And I wonder have we lived in it so long that we no longer

see it for what it is? He said, God had to go to a woman at Zarapat, had to go to a Syrian commander named name and to show what he could do because the people who should have received his power I couldn't recognize what was right in front of them. Can you God has given you some great opportunities this year. He's done some amazing things in your life. This year, He's shown you some ugly stuff that if he didn't show it to you, it would have killed you.

Can you receive that? Is this the acceptable year of the Lord? He's talking about his salvation, his deliberance as ministry. But I wonder have we accepted this for what it really is yet? Because that's the key. Will you accept the favor of God? Or are you pushing it away because it feels weird? That's what they did, It says in verse twenty eight. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They heard about God's favor and they were furious, Yeah, because it wasn't what

they were familiar with. I don't like this. I'm done. What if Joseph would have said that when his brothers threw him in a pin. What if Mary would have said that, when the angel visits, I don't like this. This doesn't feel good. Do you understand that somebody else is counting on you to find your favor in your situation? They don't have the last word. That's why I love God. If he said, this is the year of his favor. This is the year of his favor. If he said

I'm annoying, I'm annoying. If he said I can do it, I can do it. If he put it in my hand, if he gave it to me, I'm gonna unroll it. I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna sit down with him and trust that it is finished. But they got up verse twenty nine, drove him out of the town, took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. Watch this. They chased away God's favor because it was not familiar. You have been chasing away the favor of

God because it's been coming looking like trouble. You have been chasing away the favor of God because it has been coming looking like challenge. You have been chasing away the favor of God because it's not comfortable. You're gonna chase it away? Are you gonna embrace it? I believe God's favor is finding someone right now. And what I want to leave you with on this message finished with Favor is verse thirty that when the favor of God

is on you, you can do what Jesus did. But he walked right through the crowd six feet back, six feet back, six feet back, six feet back, six feet back, six but he walked right Go ahead and take a selfie right now for a picture of favor, because guess what, there were some times in April and May and June and July. I'm starting my New Year's Eve. Sermon early, I'm starting to right now. Listen, right now, We're gonna

finish with favor. So go ahead and take the picture right now now and post it with a hashtag finish with favor. Watch this. The devil should have killed you while he had the chance. He should have killed you in the cradle. He should have killed you before you found out that the power of God is on you. He should have took you out before you have found out I got the favor of God. It can't kill you. It can't kill you. And he went on his way because it is not finished. When they say it is,

it is not finished. When Hell says it is, it is not finished. When a government official says it is. Jesus said, I will bill my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail. I declare over elevation. This is a ministry that was started in the mind of God. I declare it over your family. I declare it over your calling. You didn't start it. You don't have to finish it, and you don't have to figure it out. So walk right through in the favor of God. Walk

right through in the favor of God. Walk right through in the chat with your mouth say I'm walking in the favor of God. Again, I'm walking in the favor of God. And they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They'll mount up on wings like eagles. Oh it feels good to get above it. Sometimes they were running, not crow weary. I like progress when I'm getting there fast. But one thing is said, they were walking and not fame. I don't know if you got

very high this year. A lot of us didn't. I don't know if you got very far this year very fast. It's been slow progress for a lot of us, and even some steps backwards. But I'm still walking in the favor of God. You're gonna chase it away they chase Jesus out of their town, or are you gonna embrace it? The favor of the Lord. It's right in front of It's not far off. It's not in some distant galaxy. It's not waiting for some future version of you that

has better scripture, reading habits. No, no, no, no no, no, The favor of God is here. Lord. We're We're really tempted right now. That's the true We're tempted to be afraid. It's familiar. Everybody's doing it. It's really foreign concept for us to resist the temptation to fear. It's really easy to fear. It's familiar. We know how to do it. We're good at it. We are professional fearers. We're frustrated

about the things that keep on slipping on us. It's hard for us to believe that you're at work even in those areas. Some of us were born fighters, but the problem comes when we start fighting against the very favor that you gave us, the gift, the situation, and yes, Lord, even the thorn. So Lord, when you gave me this proclamation, I thought it was weird. I thought it was weird. I thought the Year of the Lord's Favor didn't sound

right for twenty twenty. But then you showed me that the fear, the frustration, the fight, that's what favors for. That's what favors for. That's why you gave us that favor to raise that child. That's why you gave us that favor to be patient as we wait. That's why you gave us that favor to battle that addiction. That's why you gave us that favor. We take our seat with you now. People are taking stands everywhere this year. Just for a moment, we want to take a seat

with you. We thank you that you're worthy to open the scroll. You know what's going to happen in the future. You've already been there, and you declare that because you finished with favor, we will too. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I will finish with favor given praise. If you received this word, thank you Lord. It's the year of the

Lord's Favor. Do you believe that takes faith? You have to look right in the of circumstances that seem to say otherwise and still declare I will finish with favor. And I want to thank you for helping us finish this year with favor as a ministry not only to receive God's favor, but to be a conduit of God's favor. When you give here in our year end offering, just know that you're a part of building God's kingdom that can't be shaken, and I'm excited about seeing how God

uses you. We're designating December thirteenth on that Sunday for our offering weekend, but of course you can give any time. Eleviationchurch dot Org. I want to appreciate all of you who tied, those of you who are beginning to do that to put God first. This is a great time to do it, To tell God before a new year begins. I want to thank you for your favor, and I want to trust you in faith and put you first. For those of you who are giving above and beyond,

just know that we're praying for you. Know that we believe that God is going to supply all your needs as you continue to respond in obedience to Him. But above all, know this that he's already gone before. I want to put the blessing on you before we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord turned his face towards you and give you peace. May his favor be upon you. We're finishing with favor. Nothing

can stop what God has started. We love you.