Pastor Earl McClellan // Release Of Favor

hey everybody's in the building and everybody who's online right now i'm excited about today are you ready for a great day or what hey listen we've got american airlines center happening on december 23rd i am shocked and amazed at our church what are we eight years old now about to be nine years old and here we are renting out the american airlines center and that's because you guys are people of faith and people of hope and we're gonna believe that god is going to fill that place up i fill that place up i think it only means we have like 5 000 people in there because of social distancing we're going to fill uh that place up and i want to encourage you make sure you're inviting every friend and family member you have to american airlines uh if you're you're like man i cannot be out in public just yet no problem we're gonna live stream as well so there is an online and an in-person option and i cannot wait to see what god does but that's going to be really our next big gathering as a church family but we've got a bunch of folks gathering right now in the building and we love you tremendously and you're you're not more important though you're not more important than all those folks at home so we love you as well now as a church family it's just it's a whole new day for us we get the opportunity to to really have a church oh you think about it maybe like a brick and mortar building people used to just do brick and mortar and now they also have their online and whenever you are um let's take let's take i don't know macy's for instance if they've got uh an outfit uh that they want to put up on a mannequin they have to you know kind of style it a certain way and then if you're gonna put it online you have to style it a different way same outfit but you just have to you have you have a different audience that you're trying to connect with and we are now as a church family in the middle of that tension uh we were used to just always as being in the building uh together and now we get the opportunity to go wait we gotta style this for online too because there are thousands of people that have now jumped on the journey and says shoreline city that's not just a church i watch that's my church this is my family my community and what we're not going to do is shame those who come into a building or shame those who won't come into a building we're gonna say hey wherever you're comfortable we'll meet you exactly where you are we're gonna trust for god do something great in your heart and your life today um i want to jump in uh to god's word and i'm really really excited about this and i i want to take a step back to really the beginning of 2020. and in the beginning of 2020 god gave me a word for our church and this word was some of you will remember this word others of you you're new to the journey you might not remember this word but the word was release release there is without a doubt some irony some humor and also some prophetic undertones to this word release uh we all know what kovit has done for and how it has locked very many of us uh in a spot we wouldn't even want to be in many of us have lost people that we care about others of us have lost jobs that we care about it's been a tough time in a lot of different ways but here god still spoke release and here's the definition of the word here's the definition release means to set free from restraint or confinement to relief from something that confines and burdens or oppresses so before we knew covent was going to hit i think god was trying to speak over our lives as a church family don't let covet chain you don't let this next season hold you in bondage don't let what you're about to walk through dictate to you the word that i have spoken over your life and many of us maybe have felt like we've lost our way a little bit some of us have felt maybe a little bit dead on the inside but i just wanted to renounce to you today and remind you again that god is still in the business of releasing his sons and daughters and what he spoke at the beginning of the year he did not change his mind as a result of the difficulties that we are facing matter of fact he spoke it because he knew the difficulties we would be facing and i want you to hold on to this word for your family i want you to hold on to this word for your personal life i want you to hold on to this word for your business or your finances or your heart or your mindset i want you to hold on to this word for your friendships i don't want you just to allow what's going on in the world to dictate the truth of what god is trying to speak over your heart in my heart here's the verse of scripture we're going to read it's found in luke chapter 4 verse number 18 luke chapter 4 verses 18 and 19. i'm reading out of the new living translation that says this the spirit of the lord is upon me for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim that the captives will be released that the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the lord's favor has come i feel like i just want to read it again the spirit of the lord is upon me for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released that the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the lord's favor has come let me come over here for a second let me talk to everybody here uh everybody at home you know what before i do that i feel like i got some uh i feel like i have my mask on so i have some condensation underneath my nose right here honey am i good okay thank you thank you my wife gets lipstick on her teeth i get condensation underneath my nose uh he says i've got good news for the poor this year a lot of folks have dealt with a lot of poverty this is not just an american issue this is a guatemalan issue as well there's people all over the world that are dealing with poverty bills aren't able to be paid a job that you had for a long time is now being has been set aside and you're wondering how are ends going to meet now this is not everyone because plenty of folks have been blessed with some promotions and some people have been blessed with buying a house or some people have been blessed with maybe uh you know down the line of a whole bunch of different things but there's some of us that are still struggling and jesus here in luke chapter 4 verse 18 says hey just so you know i'm coming and i'm not coming with bad news i'm coming with good news i'm coming with good news for the poor i'm coming to let them know i'm for you and i haven't forgotten about you so if you're broke i mean if you're like okay i made it to this home or neighborhood gathering i made it to church on my last my last bit of gas you ever gone to the gas station and gotten two dollars worth of gas if you've never gotten two dollars worth of gas you haven't actually been broke okay yeah you walk in you're like man i hope this card i'm gonna stick this card in there because i checked my account i got and 3.78 cents in the account so if i can get two dollars worth of gas i can get home and you put that card in there you pray father in the name of jesus christ i ask right now you got your dollars your gonzales whatever you got you got your money and you are just god just get me through just get me through there's a lot of folks this year god just get me through there's more people that have transitioned from living in apartments to their cars than we've seen in quite some time god will you get me through there's a lot of individuals that were like hey uh things are secure things are strong everything's gonna be fine and and now they're finding themselves in a food line that they never thought they would be in and they're driving a nice car but still need food this is the reality of the world that we are living in and again it is not bad in every spot but it's bad in enough spots for us not to put our head in the sand as a church and go man everything's just perfect it's not perfect right now shoot it hasn't been perfect for a long time but there is still an announcement that jesus makes over this year we see it here in luke chapter 4 verse number 18 and that is i'm anointed and i'm bringing good news to the poor i'm bringing you good news and the good news is not just oh you're going to be rich are you going to have a bunch of money that man i pray that happens for all of us but the good news is i have not forgotten about you the good news is you you don't have you might be broke financially but you don't have to be broke spiritually that that's the good news you might not have what you need in your bank account but your soul can still be full even in the midst of the pain and the difficulty of the world i'm letting you know i'm bringing good news to the poor can i make a uh just a quick little this is a quick little public service but especially for uh the folks in dallas we're also doing this in guatemala as well and i'm really excited about this we are actually going to provide um we're partnering with parents and we want the parents to be the heroes for christmas so so the church we're not going to bring the gifts to the family's house we're inviting the parents to come and shop for free at the church and they get to wrap it up and they get to bring it to their house and when the kid opens up the present they don't just think about oh the church is great they think mom and dad you're the best so we're going to help cover mom and dad during this time so so serve team if you're in a spot right now where you're struggling maybe you're a part of shoreline city and you're just like man things are just really tight right now i'm not sure how i'm going to be able to provide christmas for my kids what i want you to do is text you're going to text s c shop i'm not kidding sc shop to 97 000. and c-sharp to 97 000. i'm hoping this works in antigua too i'm hoping it does if it doesn't we'll get another text number but i know for now it's going to take sc shop to 97 000 maybe even if you know somebody that's going to need some help go ahead and text i might be messing stuff up now texas c shop to 97 000. we want to make sure families are covered and we're going to have toys set up in our lobbies and parents will walk through and we'll be free of charge we're gonna help gift wrap it we're gonna pray blessings and you're gonna go on out and you have a smile on your face there is no shame at all there is no condemnation at all you don't hang your head at all this has been a tough year for all of us so we're just going to partner together link arms together and be there for each other during this time this is where part of the heaven to earth offering is actually going church family that's why there are real people on the other side of your giving good news for the poor but then he says i i i've got something it's not just good news for the poor he sent me to proclaim that the captives will be released at the so it's like prisoners and captives and he talks about the oppressed but he even says he even says here that the blind will see i wanted to pause on this one just for a second um i i did a little bit of study and i don't feel like i'm an expert on this at all the disability community is a lot wider and deeper than that i i could i could possibly know and and again i'm excited that we get the chance to even partner with that community by building our special needs playground uh in dallas and then all the initiatives we have in guatemala there's so many great things going on but but something about blindness that i learned is when we think of blind we think you can't see anything but but most people aren't totally blind most people from when i from what i read when we talk about blindness it's actually that they have uh they're like legally blind like you can see light and you might even be able to see images but in order for you to see an image it has to be magnified like 20 200 2 000 times so you'd be able to see it so when we think of blind we think somebody that can see nothing see no light no peripheral vision nothing in front of them we think there's absolute utter darkness and yes there are some folks that have that type of blindness but but that's not most people most people can see something and i was thinking about this i'm thinking that most of us can see something like in this year you might not have all the sight you want to have but you can see something like like all the lights not gone you can still see something now the question is the question is what will you and i choose to magnify when we can't see everything but we can see something and i'm looking at this verse of scripture here and jesus saying i've come so that the blind will see and i'm i'm reading into the text here a little bit but i just wonder if he's also giving us a little bit of nudge to say hey hey in a day in a time when there's going to be a lot of distractions around it's going to be a day and a time where you'll be confused about which way to go and what to do you'll be confused about should you take a right or should you take a left you'll be confused about should you take that job or not take that job you'll be confused about what's going on you'll be confused about do i wipe this down do i not wipe this down do i shake hands do i not shake hands is it six feet is it 10 feet is it 12 feet is it a mask is it a face shield you'll be confused about a whole lot of things this year but what i don't want you to be confused about is what you magnify what i want you to do instead of magnifying the things that are broken and the things that are lost and the things that are fearful and the things that are doubtful the things that will tear you down what i want you to do instead i want he said come on it's an announcement to all of us shoreline city i'm telling everybody in guatemala everybody in dallas everybody in kenya everybody in atlanta everybody all over it's an announcement today that what you choose to magnify will have everything to do with your peace what are you going to put your eyes on and what we find in psalm 34 is the psalmist writes oh magnify what come on talk to me the lord with me you got a choice about what you're going to magnify you have a choice about who you will magnify you and i have a choice that when we are confused and not sure which way to go when we are feeling blind what will you and i magnify and i'm telling you i can't force you to magnify the lord i cannot force you to magnify his goodness i cannot force you to magnify his power i cannot force you to magnify his promises but if you will choose to drown out the noise my friend and say god in the midst of everything that's going on i'm keeping my eyes fixed on you i can't see everything but i choose in this moment to magnify the lord luke 1 46 then mary said my soul magnifies the lord i'm confused about what i see but i'm not confused about what to magnify my soul magnifies the lord you got to talk to your soul you have to talk to your soul some people might say a little bit crazy you're not crazy you're healthy you have to talk to your soul your soul will begin to get in alignment with the word of god that you begin to speak over your soul okay you are not less than you are not defeated you it is not over for you soul magnify the lord i'm fearfully and wonderfully made i'm the head and not the tail man i don't have money in the bank but god is still on my side my marriage is not all i wanted to be but god you didn't bring me this far to leave me i thank you god that you're good i will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living magnify the lord but none of this is even my message it's not even my whole message this is this is this is just that's part one that's part one that's part one luke chapter four verse 19 to proclaim the year of the lord's favor the title of today's message is actually release of favor release of favor when i was praying about this last month of december i was praying for our family in uh not just in the states but in guadalajara guatemala i was praying for those who were spanish speakers and english speakers i was praying for all of us and i just felt like god was saying hey take my kids back to what i spoke at the beginning of the year take them back to what i said because i'm still saying the same thing over that church tell them tell them that i still am speaking this over everyone who was a part of shoreline city remind them remind i was like lord what are you releasing and he said i'm telling you i'm releasing these could be the next three weeks i'm releasing favor i'm releasing faith and i'm releasing fire in the name of jesus christ that's the next three weeks i'm releasing favor i'm releasing faith and i'm releasing fire so today release a favor let's look at the definition the biblical definition of favor i got my little logos on my uh computer it's a little bible software uh app that helps me kind of dig into what what do words mean and and here's the definition of favor finding favor means gaining approval acceptance or special benefits or blessings finding favor means gaining approval this sounds good acceptance or special benefits or blessings looking kindly upon someone or treating someone with special regard so we see here in luke chapter 4 verse 19 he's proclaiming the year of the lord's favor it's almost it's in christ god is proclaiming the year of his favor and extending his grace and his favor to all of humanity it's now what what's happened for us is we now live in not just the year but the era of god's favor that's what we're walking in right now but i want you to notice this notice that they're the poor the prisoners the blind and the oppressed are all in the year of the lord's favor people are still blind still prisoners still oppressed still captive in the year of the lord's favor see we think we think if it's the year of the lord's favor no one's blind no one's captive no one's oppressed and no one's a prisoner but in actuality jesus is letting us know that i actually am pouring out my favor because there's the poor there's the blind come on are you with me on this because because the poor are there because the blind are there because the captive are there because there are oppressed that is the reason i'm pouring out my favor it is not the favor that takes all those things away it's the favor that that empowers you and i to go into all of those things and declare that they don't have to be that way forever i'm telling you this is the year of the lord's favor so in the year of the lord's favor people were the woman was caught because this verse happens at the beginning of jesus ministry so the woman was still caught in adultery in the year the lord's favor uh people were still jockeying for position in the year of lord's favor people were still stabbing each other in the back in the year of the lord's favor uh the disciples were trying to say hey jesus give me this big give me this fight give me this i don't forget those other people give me the spot matter of fact they're going to talk they're going to talk to their mother and say hey mom ask jesus for jesus to give us the spot of honor when he comes into his kingdom there were people scheming in the year of the lord's favor people were pushing aside blind bartimaeus in the year of the lord's favor there was racism in the year of the lord's favor there was sexism in the year of the lord's favor there was doubt and depression in the year of the lord's favor and i'm telling you it's because of all of that that god was giving us the favor and giving jesus the favor i'll i'll put it i'll put it this way how do i have it how do i have it in my notes in the year of the lord's favor there are still problems to fight just because he's pouring out favor doesn't mean we aren't dealing with problems i put it this way if there is no fight there's no need for favor come on talk to me i don't know if everybody in the room is listening to me here so let me let me talk to y'all at home for a second okay if if there's no fight there's no need for favor do you need favor if everything's going perfect in your life do you need favor if every door opens at every moment no resistance no struggle no difficulty do you need favor of every prayer is answered exactly the way you ask for it to be answered when you ask for it to be answered do you need favor if there's no spiritual warfare do you need favor if there's no demonic attack do you need favor if nothing's coming against your marriage or coming against your single life you need favor there's nothing coming against your finances or your mind you need favor if there is no anxiety or depression that you're dealing with i say to you we need the year of the lord's favor because of all of those things it's because of the problems that he's pouring out the favor i i was reading this and i just i just couldn't believe that all that stuff was happening in the year of the lord's favor uh football uh let me talk about nfl football for just a second nfl football okay dallas cowboys man it's tough matter of fact just for a second i'm not even sure totally what that means but man ruffia praying for dak prescott to get all healed and whole and all of that uh but american football american football because we've got folks all over that like oh football you mean football no i mean like football where you don't really use your feet uh other than the run nowadays when you get penalized for anything in today in modern football okay there was a day old people helped me out here okay there was a day i'm talking ronnie lott kind of days okay he was a safety back any old people with me on this one young people you don't know about this okay because nowadays if you go boo personal file if you tackle someone too hard in football they say unsportsmanlike conduct if you pick them up slam them to the ground back in the day you're the man you you would have gotten a bonus for that back in the day nowadays when you do that type of stuff in football the ref pulls out his flag if the quarterback is going to throw the ball and a person grazes the quarterback's helmet grazes it doesn't hit it grazes it personal foul 15 yards now you can say what you want to say about you know football and you know you don't be like i don't like football's too violent and but now it's not now it's kind of like ballet okay it's gotten very it's not that bad but you you know it's just it's just gotten softer and and this this softness that you kind of see in society kind of trickling in or maybe flooding into the church that the first time the enemy grazes our helmet oh god oh god oh god oh god lord lord this cold this cold lord this cold take it away lord take it away take it away i can't have this cold okay oh man they weren't nice to me they weren't nice to me they weren't nice to me they weren't nice to me i can't do what you call me to do i can't i read a great article this past week talking about how the picture of manhood that we even have in this day and ages you can be nice but if you're tough you're not a man of god but if you're nice you are a man of god trying to take away as much of the fire that we actually need in order to be who god has called us to be i'm just telling you if you want to be a follower of jesus prepare for the fight if you want to be someone that does what god is calling you to prepare for the fight a matter of fact god gets favor for the fight when david was going to fight goliath he was going to fight goliath and before he ever got to goliath he had to go through his family first it was his family that first said what are you doing here and tried to get him to stop from doing stuff to stop him from doing the thing that god was asking him to do he had to push through his family some of y'all you're gonna have to push through your family you're gonna have to push through the naysayers you have to push through the negative comments you have to push through all of that stuff say god i thank you for the favor that i need for the fight that's in front of me luke chapter 1 verse 30 to 35 but the angel said to her do not be afraid mary you have found what you have found favor with god you will conceive and give birth to a son and you will call him jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high the lord god will give him the throne of his father david and he will reign over jacob's descendants forever his kingdom will never end how will this be mary asked the angel since i am i'm a virgin the angel answered the holy spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you so the holy one will be born to be born will be called the son of god this tells me you can be favored and still be put in an uncomfortable predicament and we think when we're favored we get to avoid all the uncomfortable predicaments our understanding of favor has been so limited that we are actually thinking we're not favored because of we're fighting in an actuality you need to recognize that is part of the sign that you are favored mary was favored and joseph thought about leaving her just let it sit in look i'm i'm talking real here i'm talking real about oh your favorite your favorite it's easy it's light oh yeah oh no no no no no no friends no friends that's not going to prepare you for a very real world that is going to try to tear you apart try to rip away the faith that you have on the inside of you but i'm telling you no weapon formed against you can prosper i met as a matter of fact there god is setting up things for you even this week writing he is setting up things and if you think there's no fight then you're not seeing it correctly i'm trying to get you ready for the fight a release a favor okay i'm going to be quiet here because i got a bunch of verses i want to read but i do want you to know this you are favored by love and for love you are favored by love and for love favored by love you need to understand the god of all gods the creed of all things favored you not because you're good but because of the work of jesus christ this is not something you and i do earn because of our behavior this is a free gift as a matter of fact i don't have time to dig into this but the word favor and grace are so intertwined in scripture you my friend need to understand that what god is pouring out for you and on you is not even because of you [Music] it's because of him it is unmerited and it's the reason we with a heart of joy give god our everything but i'm not just favored by love love being god i'm favored for love meaning that which god wants to give me does not stop with me it is designed to go through me and to serve and impact the world to make it as we put it on earth as it is in heaven [Music] so yes you're favored meaning the god gave god gave this to you because he loves you and not because of your goodness but because of his goodness but then he says don't keep it to yourself and if you do then you're not walking in favor you're walking in selfishness you're walking in greed but if you receive it and you give it now that's favor let me read these verses to you just some i don't know it's like 10 15 verses just about favor i just wanted to just wanted to announce these verses over you you uh we're gonna put them on the screen so you can jot them down and even later actually this is all on demand so you can go back and pause it and write down every verse psalm chapter 5 verse 12 for you bless the righteous o lord you cover him and her with favor as with a shield psalm 90 verse 17 let the favor of the lord our god be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us yes establish the work of our hands psalm 84 11 4 the lord god is a son and a shield the lord bestows favor and honor no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly psalm 30 verse 5 for his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning first samuel 2 26 now the young man samuel continue to grow both in stature and in favor with the lord and also with man acts chapter 7 verse number 10 and and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before pharaoh king of egypt who made him ruler over egypt in over all his household esther chapter five verse number two and when the king saw queen esther standing in the court she won favor in his sight and he held out to esther the golden scepter that was in his hand exodus chapter 3 verse 21 and i will give this people favor in the sight of the egyptians that means you don't have to be in a christian organization in order to have favor you can be in a place of bondage and still have favor and when you go you shall not go empty exodus 33 verse 17 and the lord said to moses this very thing that you have spoken i will do for you have found favor in my sight and i know you by name proverbs 3 verse 4 so you will find favor and good success in the sight of god and man proverbs 8 35 for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the lord luke chapter 2 verse 52 and jesus grew in wisdom and saturn and favor with god and man and lastly but certainly not least luke chapter 2 verse 14 glory to god in the highest in on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests i declare a release of favor over all of shoreline city in guatemala in the states and in every other country all over the world would you bow your head just for a moment father i thank you so much for these sons and daughters that are under the sound of my voice that you love each and every every one of us so much and in this moment we surrender our hearts and our lives to you and we receive the favor that you have and god we will not keep it to ourselves we promise to share it with the world as your head's about for just a moment if you're in the room or you're in a home or in a coffee shop wherever you might find yourself maybe even sitting in a car and right now you have not surrendered your heart in your life to jesus christ you haven't made him first you haven't made him number one you haven't made him the boss of your life but maybe you're you're saying i i don't want to go my own way anymore i want to go his way i don't want to be first i want him to be first i'm going to ask you to respond to the grace of god in this moment and say you don't want to go your own way you want to go his way you don't want to be boss of your life you want him to be boss you don't want to be first you want him to be first and on the count of three i'm going to ask you something simple but something incredibly bold i just want you to put your hand over your heart if that's you ready one two three just put your hand over your heart you're responding to god's grace saying god i want you to have the core of me i don't want to play games anymore i don't want to live i'm a peripheral i want you and i to have a very intimate very real relationship i want to go from lost to found from dead to alive i'm going to ask every person who's under the sound of my voice to repeat this prayer out loud after me say dear jesus i ask you to forgive me of all my sins i admit i've made mistakes and today i give you my heart i give you my life give me the power to live for you in jesus name amen and amen can we clap our hands at every home every neighborhood gathering hey your next step we don't want it just to be that it was a prayer and going back to living how you've always lived we want it to be that you take a step to be involved in community so your next step needs to be growth track that ought to be your next step it will help get your bible will help you understand what it means to be a passionate follower of jesus christ we don't want you just praying something and thinking this moment is not supposed to impact the rest of your life so help us allow us the opportunity to walk beside you so that you can become a passionate authentic follower of jesus you don't have to be perfect but if you'll be surrendered i'm telling you god will do stuff in your life that you never even thought possible next growth track for those who are watching on a sunday is on uh sunday or we also have it throughout the week and we have it in spanish we've got it in english we've got so many opportunities for you to jump on the journey and we want you to do that i also want to remind everyone in the room and those uh who also are are watching online that we are a generous church and we're not shying back we're not like stepping taking steps back from that we're going to keep on being generous even in a year where so many people have experienced so much loss we're going to continue to be generous because we get to be the answer to their prayers so we're not going to stop talking about money because the economy or because of job loss we're going to keep talking about money because god owns the cattle on a thousand hills and he will meet us exactly where we are and if your needs aren't being met the way you need them to be met i'm telling you god is not done with your life yet but as a church family let's keep on putting them first whether you text to give give online qr code uh however you choose to do it let's make sure we keep putting god first in our giving and don't forget about heaven to earth we are now 54 of the way they're all ready [Applause] let's go ahead and get to 100 so by december 31st 800 000 will have come in and we're going to see god do a miracle

Channel: Shoreline City Church

Views: 5,230

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: shorelinecity, earlmcclellan, release, chrisdurso, runafteritnow

Id: YRQxjAJtIOw

Length: 42min 9sec (2529 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020