The Year of the Lord's Favour - Luke 4:14-21, Isaiah 61:1-3

- This story took place very shortly after Jesus received the Holy Spirit.
- One of the first things He does is announce Himself. This is probably one of the most blatant ways Jesus pointed to Himself being the Christ, the Jews listening understood the passage He read to be prophetic, about the Christ, and He claimed to fulfill it.
- When we receive the Holy Spirit from God, this becomes our mission, and our call. Whatever else we do, we have to:

Preach good news to the poor.
- show them the good news by taking care of them

Proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.
- these go hand in hand, those who are prisoners to their flesh are often blind to the things of the Spirit

Release the oppressed.
- not only not oppressing others, but actively releasing them... whether the oppression be physical, mental, spiritual or whatever

Proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.
- when we live by the Spirit, we have the favour of God on our lives, He wants to show favour on everyone, and it's our job to let them know.

P.S. - Rick and I had a pretty good discussion going on after the devo about the continuation of the passage in Isaiah, about the "Day of Vengeance"...I encourage people to read the rest of the passage, and just want to say that for those of us who are Christians, the Day of Vengeance is not something to be afraid of... but it should spur us to action, to want to let friends, family and everyone know about Jesus while it's still the Year of Favour.