Marcel: We are in what we are calling a season of the Lord's favor.
We had a big giant, LA Jubilee, , several months ago in August, and
it was a gathering of our churches all across the Los Angeles area, and
we were able to experience a great thing and we realized, you know what?
The Jubilee in the old covenant was a season.
And we believe that in Christ, we have not only a season of the
Lord's favor, but we have daily opportunities for the Lord's favor.
But let's take this time to really embrace the principles that God
established in the Jubilee today.
And so we are having this season of the Lord's favor, and we have some plans to
help us collectively and individually experience more and more of God's favor.
And so we had a prayer and fasting chain of September, so thank you to all those.
Who, uh, prayed and fasted in September and then in October we're
having our reconciliation night.
Maybe the better term is the night of release, and that's
coming up on October 29th.
Really excited about that.
I think our campus ministry won't be able to join us for that, but, uh,
you can still have your own release night and that's gonna be awesome.
And then we're gonna have a gratitude wall next month.
And then we also have a serving project.
A couple service project opportunities coming up for us as well.
And so that's the season that we are in as we finish the year here in 2025.
And so we are going to continue in our sermon series, which
is called "The Lord's Favor.
And we have a theme verse for our series.
It's in Luke chapter four, where Jesus really announces that he is the
Messiah and that he is the embodiment, the fulfillment, the one who brings
the true Jubilee and he quotes a verse in Isaiah and he says this
in Luke chapter four and verse 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 oppress free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Just as we talked about before in our previous series, the Lord's favor
really, , embodies and comprises of these elements of a reset, a release,
and a restore, that we as God's people have a chance to have a spiritual reset.
And we talked about how we can have a reset in our relationship with God.
Sometimes it's, it's a little quick reboot or sometimes it's a, it's a factory
reset in our relationship with God.
And I wanna encourage us if that's still where we are, to
take advantage of this season now and to have that reset with God.
We have, also talked about having a reset in our relationships and how we view
people and seeing people as image bearers of the divine image, bearers of God
and how we view each other as spiritual family, not just a spiritual community.
And we also talked about how Jesus resets our pursuit.
And how we are now pursuing holiness as opposed to pursuing happiness.
And really when we have happiness, I mean when we have holiness,
that actually leads to happiness.
And we talked about resetting the question instead of, is this a sin or not?
Instead asking ourselves, is this holy?
And so now we're gonna move from reset to release because once
we've reset our hearts toward God.
We've got to release what holds us back from God and
experiencing the Lord's favor.
And so today's sermon is talking about releasing the world's
grip, releasing the world's grip.
Let's go to our father in prayer.
Father, thank you so much for this, uh, this morning, being able to
worship you, being able to, uh, um, uh, uh, have a chance to encourage
and be encouraged, being able to be introduced to Olivia and excited about
her being, uh, a part of the fellowship.
And God, to have your word.
Your word is powerful.
God, your word transforms our thinking.
Thank you so much for Jesus revealing you.
To us, and God, we pray right now that as we dig into the scriptures, father,
we are not just encouraged, but we, uh, are transformed by your message.
In Jesus name, amen.
Have you ever tried to untie a knot in your shoelace or, or a rope?
And in the harder you pull, the tighter it gets.
We've all been there, right?
You tried to, you, you tried to, to, to, you think you're doing the right thing,
but actually you made the situation worse.
And it gets tighter.
You know, you think pulling will bring freedom, but instead you
make it actually bound and you know, that's how the world works.
It promises freedom, but the more you pull in its direction,
the more trapped you become.
You know, many people, and even some of us, we can fall victim to this.
Living this way where we chase what feels freeing or natural, only to
realize later that it tied us down.
But Jesus came to release us from those knots.
And so we're gonna look here and be reminded of this principle before we get
into our main text here of this reality.
True freedom is in Christ.
In fact, look to your person to your right and to your left and tell 'em
true freedom is found in Christ.
I hope you believe you 'cause you just said it.
Look over.
Let's go back to Luke chapter four, our theme passage for our series.
Let's be reminded of some elements here and what Jesus is telling.
Not only them, but telling us 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 in recovery of sight for
the blind, to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
And we know this was an announcement of who he is, he the embodiment,
but it also was his ministry.
Jesus was setting people free, literally, but most of all spiritually.
And he goes, and he says, I want to set the oppressed free.
We can be oppressed by many things in life, can't we?
And we can be a prisoner to many things in life, but Jesus, and only through
Jesus, just like as we sing, only through Jesus can we find true freedom.
And we see here in this passage, we see here, by it being a quote of
Jesus, of from the prophet Isaiah.
That God's heart has always been to free His creation from what bounds
us, he's always had a heart, a desire.
I don't want you to be bound by things.
I want you to be free.
I want you to have life to the fool.
And so God has always been trying to release us from everything that hinders
us from being who we were created.
To be, and Jesus came to bring true freedom, but that freedom begins with
releasing the world's grip on us.
You see, Jesus came to bring the freedom, but that freedom really begins
when we release the grip of the world.
Let's go on over to our main text for this morning.
Church.
Are you with me first?
John, chapter two.
We're gonna read first John chapter two.
John was an apostle.
He was a follower of Jesus, a part of Jesus' inner circle.
And when Jesus, uh, gave trained, John and John sends this letter to
the churches and he writes, writes something really powerful here that we're
going to look and study and see how it applies to us and the freedom that we
have offered for us in Christ Jesus.
We take it up in chapter two and verse 15.
Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them
for everything in the world.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not
from the Father, but from the world.
The world in its desires pass away, but whoever does the
will of God lives forever.
Let's stop right there.
Let's break this passage down some.
It says, do not love the world or anything in the world.
Now that can be confusing if we're unfamiliar with what he's referring
to when he says the world, because we know the most famous passage in the New
Testament is what, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son
and whoever will believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
And so wait.
God so loved the world, but now we're saying, do not love the world.
Is there a contradiction?
No.
Because in John three 16, what's being referred to is
the world being God's creation.
It means mankind, you and me, God so loved all of us, that he wanted us
not to perish, but have eternal life.
But there's also another way in which we use the term, the world
and what is it being referred to?
Many of us are familiar, but let's get a refresher.
The world can be defined as this, as the system of thinking, values
and lifestyles that go against God.
So it's the, it's the system.
It's, it's the paradigm.
It's, it's the thinking, it's the values, it's the lifestyle.
That actually opposes God.
And so we can think of many things, right?
The idea of, hey, do whatever makes you happy, or, Hey, a little
white lie doesn't hurt anybody.
Do whatever it takes to get ahead.
This is what is common in the world because this is the
world's value self at any cost.
This is the world's thinking, and this is what produces the world's lifestyles.
But we know that goes against.
What we were created to be.
That goes against God's will and character.
And so this is what's being talked about when he says, do not love
the world or anything in the world.
Don't love what the world is preaching.
Don't love what the world advocates, what the world values, how the
world lives, or anything in it.
And you go, well, why not?
Well, when we understand what the world is, we, it makes sense
because loving the world is basically loving what opposes God.
Loving the world is loving what opposes God.
So it makes sense then why we would be called to not love the world, because why
would we love everything that opposes God?
And anything in it.
We are called to a holy reset to pursue holiness, not to pursue worldliness.
We're called to be holy, not worldly.
And so this stood out to me and this, this, this hit me hard
the other day as I was, as I was thinking about this, but what you
love can actually block God's favor.
What you and I love can actually prevent God's favor in our lives.
Not because God is withholding, but because our hearts and our desires, our
intentions are all filled with things that are opposed and against God.
So it can't penetrate because what it's filled up with the world.
It's so we can actually undercut our own selves from God's favor
by the things that we love.
So what do you love?
Do you love the things of God or do you love the things of the world?
The answer for many of us is I love God, but there are a couple
things that I still do love from the world if we're being honest.
Can we be honest?
We gonna have a whole time of front and faking up in here.
Please don't do that 'cause you undercut yourself.
And also what we see in this passage here is that the world pollutes.
Think about this for a second.
Every single one of us, we were born in the world.
Whether you were born in a Christian home or not, you were born in the world
and you adopted worldly ideologies, worldly behavior, worldly thinking, and
you might not have started that way, but just like me, you adopted it because you
were in the world and you didn't realize what the world was doing to your soul.
I know many of us, we get some nice drinks and some coffee before we come in here.
Uh, you know, or some of you stop at your Starbucks, so you a
Starbucks fiend, and so you can't start a day without some Starbucks.
Now just imagine you had your cold, what is it?
Lattes.
Mochas.
Is that what those things are?
I don't drink that stuff, so sorry.
You know, I go to, I go to Starbucks and I get water, and so
I sit up there, me and Daniel, I get, no, maybe I get apple juice.
I get, I get, I get the little apple juice.
I'm like a little kid.
I got my little apple juice with the straw and me and Daniel over
here talking every other Friday.
You know what I'm saying?
And so just imagine you had your juice from your Starbucks or whatever
it is, and you have it, and then you decided to, or somebody else decided to
sprinkle a little bit of dirt in there.
What would that do to your nice little latte mocha?
What would he do to it?
He said make it nasty.
It would pollute it, wouldn't it?
You see, it's just a little bit.
Now on the surface, if you look, the drink was probably, depending on what
drink it is and what color would probably still look the same on the outside.
But when you tasted it, you, oh, what is that?
But what if we started adding some more of that dirt in that drink?
What would happen?
And then what if we started to stir that drink some more?
What would happen that dirt now would what?
Would start to take full, it would start to what?
It would start to change that drink.
It would start to even change the look of that drink.
It would start to change the taste of that drink.
And in fact, the drink is no longer what you purchase.
It is totally something different, and this is what the world does to our souls.
It's just a little bit of thinking.
It's just a little bit of swallowing in what's being perceived.
It's a little bit of actions that relate and that are normal by the
standard of the world and what happens, it corrupts the inside and sooner or
later, it c corrupts our whole being.
And so, yes, you can see it.
Yes, you can hear it in our language and how we behave.
This is why there's a call.
Do not love the world or anything in it because yes, it opposes God,
but it also pollutes our very souls.
And God wants us to be what?
Holy like Him.
So he wants us to refrain.
He wants us to release the things that will corrupt that.
Brothers and sisters, are you with me here?
You know, in our thinking, our actions.
Can become more worldly, but God calls us to release our grip of love for the world.
You see, Jesus comes and we might be bound and we're chained by the world.
Jesus comes and he offers release, but sometimes as those chains
come off, we actually go and grab them back and hold onto 'em, and
we say, yes, I've been released.
But because of our love, we actually hold onto 'em.
Therefore, it still has a grip on us.
There's a call here to release the grip of the world.
Let's go to verse 16.
Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?
For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, the pride of the life comes not from the father, but from the world.
You know, the world's pool is deceiving.
It's subtle, but it's strong.
I mean, look what it says here.
The lust of the flesh.
That's living for what feels good, the lust of the eyes,
living for what looks good.
It says the pride of life, living for what makes me look good.
These things are all tempting, aren't they?
And they have a subtle, but yet a strong pool upon our hearts.
You know, the world tells us, be free.
Follow your desires.
Do what feels right, but that freedom always comes with chains.
It reminds me of the classic Disney story, Pinocchio.
You guys remember Pinocchio?
Yeah.
Now remember, Pinocchio starts all be little cute little doll, right?
And then what happens is Pinocchio, what happens?
He goes over to Pleasure Island.
You remember that?
Remember, pleasure island.
He goes to Pleasure Island and, and they're there and they're
thinking, man, this is awesome.
We get to do whatever we want.
And they're going crazy and they're having what they think is the time
of their lives, and then all of a sudden, boop, the ears change.
Boop.
They get a tail, they look up and what happened?
They turn into donkeys.
And so they thought this world that was so enticing, that was so great, they didn't
realize that it actually came at a cost.
And turned them in to donkeys.
You know, this is what the world does to us spiritually.
The world promises pleasure island every single day of our lives, but not telling
us there's a fine print, you will turn into a spiritual donkey that you will
be trapped in, enslaved by the things that we promised would make you free.
You see, there's an illusion of freedom.
However, it's actually a trap.
The world sells its pleasure island every day.
But again, that kind of freedom comes at a price.
And we can fall into this thinking as well.
Some of us, we've been, we've come out of the world and entered into God's kingdom.
That means under his reign and rule of our lives.
But yet we can still hold on to the thinking of the world.
You do, you follow your truth, live your best life, but that
freedom often leads to bondage.
Bondage to sin, bondage to image, a bondage to approval,
bondage to possessions, and just a bondage to pleasure.
And we look up and we're trapped by it, feeling like there's no way to get out.
I thought I was promised freedom, but now I'm actually
chained for hallelujah to Jesus.
Serves even better than Jim e Cricket.
And Jesus leads out of this trap of sin and the world's traps.
And so we continue in verse 17, it says, the world and its desires pass away.
But whoever does the will of God lives forever.
And here we have a reality check in.
We have a call to freedom.
The reality check, Hey, the world and its desires, it's gonna pass.
There's gonna be a day in which when Christ comes back, all
of that is gonna be passed and there will be a day of judgment.
And he says, you know what's gonna be forever is that those who do the will
of God, but God's will endures forever.
And so there's a reality check here, and there's also a call to freedom
that when we hold on to the things that are temporary, we are forfeiting
the things that Jesus offered.
See, we can hold on to the temporary while Jesus offers us something eternal.
Jesus is offering us the eternal, and so what do we need to do?
Then?
We have to let go of the things so that we can receive the eternal.
We have to let go and release the temporary so we can receive
all that God is wanting to do and produce and bring it to our lives.
But we can't receive it if we're holding on to the world and
therefore it's grip on our souls.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Brothers and sisters, you see, Jesus is offering us something greater.
We need to let go of the temporary.
And here, here's what's was really cool.
I read this here.
It says, every no to the world is a yes to Jesus' freedom.
Every no to the world, is a yes to Jesus's freedom.
Saying no to that.
I'm gonna say no to that temptation.
No to that way of thinking, no to that behavior.
And that means I'm saying yes to Christ's ruling in my life.
Therefore, being free from all of that and living out who I was created to be.
You know, the Lord's favor is about freedom.
It's not bondage.
This freedom isn't about doing what I want.
It's about being released to do what I was made for,
and so how should we respond?
We understand here that Jesus brings true freedom,
but we in order to experience have in living that freedom on a day-to-day basis.
We have to do this.
We have to release our grip of the world.
I wanna read two passages here that most of you're familiar with here,
but we're gonna read 'em again.
Therefore Romans chapter 12 verse one.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy.
To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
This is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his
good, pleasing, and perfect.
Will we jump on over to James chapter one, verse 27.
Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and check this out, and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world.
And so we see this call to not only stop and refrain from being polluted,
but we need to make sure we don't conform to the patterns of the world,
but we are renewed in the way we think.
That will change the way we live.
And so what does that mean for us?
That means we need to release worldly thinking.
We need to release worldly thinking, you know, news networks, social media,
worldly music and TV influence our thinking, our worldview, our convictions,
and therefore they lead our lives.
Some of us, and we're gonna be honest and not, not fake in front.
Up in here.
Some of us, our number one teacher and trainer and old school term, we like to
use our number one discipler in our lives is the news network or social media.
We say Jesus is Lord, but yet Monday through Friday, who's really teaching
and training us, it's the media.
What we're consuming, whether it's TV or music, or it's the news networks,
and therefore, what do we do?
We start sounding just like them and how do we process things
as we deal with each other?
As we look at life, we start sounding just like the world because we view,
we view each other in this sense.
Oh, you know them.
They're, they're liberal.
Oh, you, you know, he's crazy.
He's a conservative.
You know, they just do that.
They're on that race thing again.
Oh, it's all about gender.
It's about class.
What are we doing?
We sound like what?
The world.
We're not processing this in a spiritual way.
Things that happen in our lives, we're processing it
through the lens of the world.
We need to release that worldly thinking.
It's polluting the holiness.
We have, we need to gain or maybe regain biblical convictions
about how we live our lives.
We have a verse that is inspired and taken in the right context that
directs the way we live our lives.
Not just an opinion that I formed, but it's based on Jesus
and the standard of God's word.
That's our guide and our director and our leader in our lives.
If we need to release worldly behavior, you know, that's how we
treat people, respond to situations,
you know, doing what's natural or normal By society's standards,
that's not our standards.
We don't do what's natural or what's normal by society's
standards as the people of God.
We have a standard that's different.
Our standard is different.
Our standard is higher.
Our standard is Jesus.
That's our standard.
And so the world says, treat people how they treat you.
Jesus says, treat people the way you want to be treated.
The world says you fight fire with fire.
Jesus says, no, God's people overcome evil with good.
The world says, do whatever it takes to get on top.
Jesus says, no, you wanna be great.
You actually become, least you become a slave and you serve.
See Jesus and the world, they oppose each other in ideologies,
staking values and lifestyles.
And so we need to drop.
We need to release worldly thinking, but we need to release worldly behavior.
And so how we treat others, the male man, our coworker, our moms,
our dads, whatever it is, we don't think I'm gonna do what's natural.
I'm gonna do what's godly.
I'm gonna do what's holy.
Even though that might not feel like that's natural or
what I wanna do in the moment.
If you do what's natural, guess what you're doing?
Just doing what everybody else does, and that is the world.
Our standard isn't the world, our standard is higher.
Our standard is different because our standard is Jesus.
And so, yes, it's easier said than done, but it can be.
You've had a moment in your life where you've done the holy thing as
opposed to doing the worldly thing that just can't be a one-off, that
needs to become a continual daily life.
I know I was challenged this week with this.
I was in a situation and, uh, let's just say somebody was talking to
me and in a worldly way, and man everything in my body said, boy, this
dude don't know who he talking to.
I was like, oh, you wanna go there?
Oh, I could go there.
I trust me.
I can throw them things now.
Just 'cause the brother's short.
I can throw them things.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, oh, you wanna hold a grudge?
I can hold a grudge with the best of them.
I don't even need to deny myself to do that.
Oh, I'm really good at that.
That comes natural.
You get what I'm saying?
And I was so tempted in the moment to be like, oh, okay, we can go there.
'cause I've been waiting to go there.
Something said, no, if you do that, you'll be worldly.
You won't be any different.
Don't get up there and preach.
Talk about being holy and is this holy.
Don't do that if that's what you're gonna do right now, and then afterwards.
Well, I was tempted to be worldly and worldly in my thinking.
Like, you know, you replay conversations, you do that right.
I'm not the only one.
Okay.
Whew.
Hallelujah.
All right.
You replay it, right?
And then I'm going, oh, okay.
I gotta fight that worldliness.
'cause it wants to come back and I gotta be what?
I gotta be holiness and I can't justify my worldliness.
Now I need to share it with God and get other people.
I, I need to get all that worldliness out so that God can feel me with the right.
You get what I'm saying?
But I can't respond to people the way I naturally feel like.
Brothers and sisters, we can never lower the standard and justify our behavior
and say, well, that's just natural.
That's just who I am.
God is transforming you not to be who you are, but for you to be like him.
And Jesus gives us the opportunity, he's releases us, and all we have
to do is let go of the worldliness that's in us and every day pursuing
righteousness and holiness.
Instead of pursuing worldliness again, the world offers an illusion
of freedom that leads to bondage.
Jesus brings true freedom, but freedom begins when we
release our grip of the world.
So let's get real practical right here, brother and sister,
are you still with me here?
All right.
Action steps here for the week here.
Write this down.
Take a picture.
Here you go.
First up, identify.
Ask God to show you any worldly mindset or habit that's holding
you back from true freedom.
Pray about it.
God show me.
I was even praying about it, uh, earlier in this week.
And then even today, I was like, man, there's still my reaction
in my family that's worldly.
And I realized that this morning.
I said, you know what?
I react to my kids in a worldly way too many times.
It, it's natural the way I respond, but it's not godly.
I need to release that and I need to repent of that.
I need to take that serious and I can't accept it.
Say, well, that's just a whole thing.
That's just how we are in the family.
No, there's no excuse, Marcel, identify, that's worldliness in you and you need
to submit to the Lordship of Christ.
So pray about it.
Pray God, show me what area.
Maybe it's a mindset or it's a habit that's holding me back from true freedom.
And then second share.
Talk with a trusted friend this week.
Pray together to release it and pure pursue holiness.
And so I was planning already, but here you go with some of
my friends in here, and I just shared it with the whole audience.
There you go.
I shared mine with you.
All right, but go ahead and share what it is.
Okay.
You know what?
Here's what I was praying.
Here's what God revealed to me.
Hey, you know what?
Can you pray with me about this?
Can you hold me accountable for this?
Or if you have any advice or input that can help me, I really appreciate.
Over the next few, few weeks, we're gonna learn to release others.
We're gonna learn to release ourselves, but it starts here, releasing the
world so that Jesus can set you free.
We're gonna take commun communion right now, and this is the time
in which we reflect to remember Jesus's sacrifice on the cross, the
emblems representing his body and his blood that was sacrificed for us.
And the Lord's favor isn't just about blessing, it's about freedom.
Jesus didn't come to make you behave better.
He came to set you free.
Freedom begins when we release our grip on the world because the hands that
clinging to the world can't receive the freedom that Jesus is trying to give.
We go back to Luke chapter four.
The spirit of the Lord is on him because he is anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners in recovery of sight.
For the blind to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the
Lord's favor, the freedom Jesus proclaims became reality at the cross.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for Jesus.
Thank you for his example.
Thank you for, uh, all of the results and fruit that comes from,
uh, um, from Christ and his life, his death and his resurrection.
Thank you for the reality that we get a chance to experience, not just once.
Not just at salvation, but daily in our lives, the freedom that Jesus offers.
God, I pray that we can, uh, be that we, we can be listeners, uh, to your
Holy Spirit, to as you minister to us, to hear the message you want us
to hear, to hear what thing could be holding us back from experiencing true
freedom, and then to have the courage and faith to release that to you so
that we can again, not only commune with you, but experience your true freedom.
God, we are so blessed in Christ.
Thank you for the freedom that we have.
Thank you for the salvation.
Thank you for the hope.
Thank you for the love.
Thank you for the joy.
Thank you for the promise of eternal life.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.