WEBVTT 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:04.160 Hey everybody. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.959 How are y'all? 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:08.960 Merry Christmas. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.679 Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.119 We did. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:21.280 And for all of you young theologians who got the little pads in the back, you can uh write down Luke chapter one. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:23.519 That's where we're going. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:30.320 We are really happy to be with you guys today and so happy to see. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:31.199 It's great. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:32.880 Family Sunday is great. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.759 We're so happy to see the families together. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:43.600 People coming into the family of God, people coming into our church family, people, little little kids entering into your families. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.039 This is just beautiful. 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:50.240 And so we are starting a Christmas sermon series today. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.079 It's called Expecting. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:56.320 And uh, well, one reason is because we got a lot of people expecting here. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:57.600 A lot of ladies expecting. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.479 We have, as you can see, we have a lot of that going on here. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:01.920 That's not really the reason. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:11.920 It's kind of a different Christmas series because we're gonna be we're gonna be reading through the Christmas story this uh the next few weeks, and uh we're gonna be talking about worship. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:20.879 So it's a Christmas series that is focused on worship and it's specifically encountering God in worship. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:26.079 So you probably know, maybe you know, today begins the season of Advent. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:37.359 This is the first Sunday of Advent, and it's a time where Christians all over the world are preparing their hearts expectantly, waiting for the coming of the Lord. 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:40.560 This is happening with our brothers and sisters in every nation. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.640 It's a time of expecting. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:50.719 Uh but in the Christmas story, as we read it, oftentimes there are a lot of unexpected things that happen. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:56.319 And a lot of things unexpected happen to us too during Christmas time, right? 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:00.239 In the Christmas story, there are there are young and there are old. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:08.479 There are males and there are females, there's their nobility and uh the lowly, everyone. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:16.000 So it's basically a multicultural, multi-generational, multi-gender, multi-socioeconomic group. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:28.000 When you read that story, it's all kinds of people that are involved in this story, but they are all encountering what God is doing through Jesus, and they're all worshiping in turn. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:37.439 So the idea is that this story is giving us instruction on how to worship and how to expect God to be moving. 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:40.800 So, and that's really the idea of this whole sermon series. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:42.960 God is active in our worship. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:48.080 When we're worshiping, He is present and He's doing things. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:49.919 So we all love to sing songs, right? 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:51.199 Christmas songs, right? 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:54.560 So tell me what are your what are your favorite Christmas songs? 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.719 This is not rhetorical, you can actually answer. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:58.400 Oh, holy night. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:02:58.960 That's a great one. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:02:59.759 Isn't that a great one? 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:00.240 What else? 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:03.680 Joy to the world, the Lord has come. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:04.319 What else? 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.319 Silent Night? 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:06.639 Good. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:06.879 What? 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:09.439 Oh, come, what come Emmanuel. 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:10.240 Drummer boy? 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:10.719 Who was that? 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:11.439 A drummer? 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.199 Oh, it was a drummer. 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:14.080 It was a drummer. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:15.439 That's so funny. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:17.840 The drummer says drummer boy. 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:19.360 Give the drummer some, please. 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:19.919 What else? 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:20.879 Mary, did you know? 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:22.719 Mary, did you know? 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:23.360 Good. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:24.400 I'm so gall. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:28.400 Thank you so much for not saying grandma got ran over by a reindeer. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:29.439 Thank you. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:30.159 Thank you. 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:36.639 I know probably some of you are thinking it, but you didn't say it, and that was very appropriate to not say it at that time. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.960 That's that's admirable self-control. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:39.520 Thank you. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:40.000 Yeah. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.800 There's a lot of them that are like just drivel, you know. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:46.800 They're just not even about Christmas, really. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:54.080 They're not about Jesus, but the songs that we sing, and we'll sing here over the next few weeks, are all focused on Jesus. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.479 Like the ones that you just uh said. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:03.520 And uh, you know, God loves songs, He is a singing God. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:07.280 We love to sing because we're created in His image. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.439 And He's a creator and He's a singer. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:14.719 Zephaniah says to us in chapter 3 that God even rejoices over us with singing. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.439 God is a singing God, actually. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:23.680 And so He's when we're singing to Him this morning, He's actually singing back over us as well. 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:32.560 Okay, but you may not be aware that there are there are many songs in the Christmas story, and we're gonna be talking about those this next few weeks. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:37.600 Um, we're gonna talk about the song of Simeon, the song that Mary sang. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:43.199 We're gonna be talking about the song of the angels when they were speaking to the shepherds. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:52.000 But this morning we're gonna start at the very beginning, before Jesus was born, before Mary was visited by the angel. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.240 We're gonna begin with what's called the song of Zechariah. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:59.680 And that's Luke chapter 1, if you want to turn there. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:05.920 In some ways, Zechariah was expecting God to be active, just like all the Jews of his day. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:07.920 They had their own advent going on. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:20.079 There was an expectation that God was gonna send a Messiah, that he was not gonna leave them alone, but he was gonna enter into their world, and he was gonna do things for them as the Jewish people. 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:26.720 This was what the prophets had spoken for many years, that he would come and act powerfully in their world. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.439 So they were expectant in some ways. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:35.279 But in other ways, Zechariah could not have been expecting what happened to him. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:42.000 You might remember that he was uh the husband of Elizabeth, Elizabeth, and the father of John the Baptist. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.839 And so he was a Jewish priest who served in the temple. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:49.680 And as he was serving in the temple, he was visited by the angel Gabriel. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:06:03.199 The angel Gabriel told him a lot of things, but specifically told him that his wife, who was very elderly and who was formerly barren, was going to have a baby. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:08.079 Now, Zechariah found that really hard to believe. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:19.040 And uh he doubted that prophecy, and because he he doubted that prophecy, you know, but he found it hard to believe because how many of us have prayed for something for so long and it hasn't come yet? 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:26.399 And sometimes you've you get that little thing inside of you that starts to doubt, right? 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:28.800 And maybe it's not gonna happen at all. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:34.399 And this is a prayer that Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for many years. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:36.800 God send us a son, send us a boy. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:47.199 This was their prayer, but they're so old now, maybe they hadn't prayed this prayer in a long time because they were so old they couldn't, she was past childbearing years. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:49.680 But you know what? 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.720 God remembers the prayers that we have forgotten. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:07:03.759 And he doesn't lose his faithfulness just because we forget for remember, forget to remember the prayers. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:05.199 He remembers. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:12.319 So he promised the child that it would be be born to them in the old age, but Zechariah doubted it, and so he was struck mute. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:18.319 Means he couldn't speak, he couldn't speak at all until the baby was born, and they named him John. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:24.240 So after Elizabeth gave birth to the to the boy, as the angel said, and they were gonna name him John. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:31.279 They were at the naming ceremony, but the priests were gonna say, Hey, we're gonna name him Zechariah because that's what his father's name is. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:39.279 But Elizabeth says, No, his name is John, and they looked to Zechariah and they said, What's up? 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:41.279 What is going on here? 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:46.480 They handed him a writing tablet, kind of like the little things our kids are writing on today, probably. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:51.360 And he wrote down, his name is John, and his mouth was opened. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:56.879 His vocal cords started moving for the first time in nine months or more. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.639 He hadn't been speaking. 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.000 He began to speak, but it wasn't just words. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.680 He began to sing praise to God. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:11.360 His voice was restored, he began to sing praise and to prophesy about his son. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:18.160 It's beautiful poetry here, and this is it's actually a song. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:19.759 So this is Zechariah's song. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:20.560 Let's read it together. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.600 Starting in Luke chapter 1, verse 67. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:42.399 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and he's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:09:13.600 As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:43.600 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:53.120 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance in Israel. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:54.799 Let's pray. 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:58.559 Father, thank you so much for your word. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:07.039 God, we thank you that you are a God of faithfulness and you keep your promises. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:11.759 Thank you, Lord, for the stories that we're going to read over the next few weeks. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:28.240 And Lord, today we ask you by your Holy Spirit that you would do a work in us to open our ears to hear you, that you would give hope, that you would give revelation of Jesus, that you help us understand how to worship better. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.919 And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:32.559 Amen. 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:40.399 Okay, we don't know what this song sounded like, but we know it was a beautiful expression of worship to God. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:52.639 He was seeing God's faithfulness fresh in over his faithfulness over Israel in a fresh way because of his faithfulness in his own life. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:59.919 So why do we want to do a Christmas series that is focusing on worship? 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.080 I'm glad you asked. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:08.559 Because worship is what we're all, each of us were created for. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:12.720 You are made to worship the one who created you. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:18.080 This is why you're never really satisfied until you're in connection with God. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.720 When you're back connected to your Maker and you're worshiping Him and enjoying Him. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:34.320 But many of us didn't really grow up in situations or in churches that taught us how to worship biblically, like the biblical heart of worship or the biblical forms of worship. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:36.960 So this is why we're doing this series. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:41.919 And although God is beyond us, He wants to be present with us. 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:48.639 He wants to speak into our situation today and reveal Himself to us as we seek Him. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:53.200 So worship is not just the song service, the song portion of the service. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:55.279 Worship is not warm-up for the sermon. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:00.480 Worship is not, you know, just that part that happens before the announcements. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:01.600 Yeah. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:04.480 It's it's actually interaction with God. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:15.360 And this happens at home, by yourself, or with your family, and it happens together here corporately as we gather for church. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.799 So when we worship, God is active. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:23.120 So I want to tell you my story a little bit because some of you who are new here don't know this. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:34.559 But for years, I came to Trinity in 1985 and began singing, actually playing with the worship team uh shortly after that, and then I began leading the worship team. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:36.960 Some of you were here during those times. 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.759 Some of our worship team members are here. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:42.320 Actually, one, Jack Wright over there. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:44.960 He was the one who led worship during that time. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:46.480 And I was working with Jack. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:48.399 We were we were worshiping together. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:55.039 And then in 1989, I came on staff as a pastor whose main focus was worship. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:58.639 And so I was trying, I was going deep into the scriptures. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:12:59.679 I was studying worship. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:03.360 I was trying to understand uh biblical forms of worship. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:11.519 I was teaching the the uh the worship teams, and um, I was also using some of the things I was learning from my music degree. 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:25.120 And so we were trying to get more excellence spiritually, uh scripturally, musically, and in character, in our own character in our hearts, to give Jesus what he deserves. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:35.679 So that began a journey for me, and we began doing uh different worship conferences and things all over the United States and also uh in other nations. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.240 Uh eventually wrote a book about worship. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:46.879 And so all of that was just all of this for many years I've been involved in worship, and in many years I've been really thinking about what is worship. 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:48.720 You know, how do you define it? 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.360 And so I'm gonna give you my best try this morning, okay? 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.840 My best try at defining worship. 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:56.720 I think worship is three things. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:01.039 I think it's a revelation, it's a response, and it's a relationship. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:06.399 It's a revelation because God in his mercy opens our eyes to see him. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:15.200 He doesn't want to hide himself, he discloses himself and opens himself up, and we see him like little by little by little. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:17.360 You can't see him all at once. 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:20.240 I don't think we could handle it. 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:25.200 You know, I don't know about you, but I got up this morning and went to the bathroom. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:30.799 You know, when you turn the light on after you've been asleep all night long and it's so bright, it's just too bright. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:34.720 You kind of need a, you kind of need like a little bit of light first. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:39.360 Because if you turn the whole bright light on, it's too much for your eyes. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.600 And this is kind of the way it is with God. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:48.000 He opens our eyes little by little to see him, and in a progressive way, we see more and more of him. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.120 He reveals himself to us, and that causes us to respond. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:55.120 Biblically, when you see God, you respond. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:58.559 And that is in your body, in your soul, in your spirit. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:01.279 And so we're responding to what we see. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:05.519 And then it's a the end product is a relationship. 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:11.840 God wants our lives, he wants to live with us, he wants to walk with us, and as we walk with him, he changes our lives. 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.039 So God, in his grace, reveals himself. 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:19.600 We see him and it causes a response, but it changes our lives. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.840 It's a walk with him, it's a relationship. 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:25.360 That's my best understanding of what worship is. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:29.039 So relationship is the end goal, but it starts with revelation. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:31.679 God has to open our eyes to him. 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:39.279 And the depth and the quality of our worship is directly proportionate to the way we view God. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:43.360 We can't worship big if we have a small God. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:45.840 You understand what I mean, right? 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:55.360 God is not small, but but our understanding of him is sometimes small, and that's as far as we get in our worship because we don't see him as he is. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:16:00.399 God's, and I think we all understand God is bigger than our current revelation of him. 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:00.799 Yeah? 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:01.279 True? 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:02.080 Okay. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:02.559 Yeah. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:05.039 So who is this God we worship? 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:05.840 That's the question. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:07.600 That's the question of theology. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:10.559 Theologo, study of God. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:12.080 Well, A.W. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:32.559 Tozer said this: it's not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in the land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:35.039 Wow. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:43.519 Have you once thought or tried to seriously think about who God really is? 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.320 So here's the other question for us this morning. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:47.440 What is God like? 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:50.240 And that is not rhetorical, you can answer. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:50.960 What is God like? 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:52.000 Throw it out to me. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:53.279 Throw it out to me. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:54.960 He's holy. 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:56.720 He's love. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.039 Forgiving? 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:01.120 True? 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:03.120 Sovereign. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.279 Compassionate. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:09.839 Faithful. 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:11.519 Merciful. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:13.759 Patient. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:15.039 All knowing. 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:19.359 You're doing pretty good, okay? 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:20.160 That's pretty good. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:21.119 That's not bad. 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:28.640 So um, so you can think of you can think of two different categories of what God is like. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.279 Okay, and I have a little chart here. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:42.000 I think God's main two revelations, self-revelations in the Bible, are I think there's two main ones, and there's a bunch of other ones. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:55.359 One would be sovereign Lord, and which means he's beyond us, he's transcendent, he's unknowable, he's greater than we can understand, he's sovereign and in control. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:04.160 Then also he reveals himself as Father, which means he's close, he's personal, intimate, relational at hand. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:07.440 He's not just transcendent, he's also imminent. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:08.880 He's here with us. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.359 He's knowable. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:13.680 He's both unknowable and noble. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:15.039 Can you be both? 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:18.240 Yeah, yeah, you can. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:20.640 He's both sovereign Lord and Father. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:22.160 He's beyond us and with us. 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:23.359 You can be both. 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:25.200 This is, I mean, we can't be both. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:26.960 He can be both, right? 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:32.319 So you think of uh a lot of the things that you said about God are listed up here. 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:41.759 And maybe on the left-hand side, we could call these, well, what theologians call them is communicable attributes of God. 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.839 That means that when God created us, he gave us part of himself. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:49.440 He took some of his loving self and he put it inside of us. 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.720 And some of his wisdom and put it in us. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:19:02.880 He we understand, we have some kind of frame of reference for truth or for beauty or for kindness or for creativity, right? 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:08.960 We have some reference for that because God is those things and God put those things into us. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:18.000 But on the other side, we have what's what are called non-communicable attributes of God, which means that these are things God is, but I'm not. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:26.079 I am not omnipotent, I'm not omniscient, although I seem sometimes I feel like I think I know everything. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.200 And I know some people who think they know everything. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.039 But no, we don't. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:38.559 And we're not we're not um sovereign, we're not infinite in our capacities, right? 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.599 This is not so these are things that God is that we're not. 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:50.960 So you can think of these things altogether, but it's not just like um pick one out, uh, but it's like they're all kind of connected too. 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:59.680 Like God is not only good, but he is infinitely wise in his expression of his goodness, and he's not only solid. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:05.519 Sovereign, but he's infinitely loving in his expressions of his sovereignty. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.720 You could go on forever. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:11.440 You could really go on forever. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:22.000 So one day I was in uh Moscow, Russia, doing a worship conference, and I just decided we did this session about what God is like. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:23.599 And I thought, well, I'm just gonna do it. 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:26.720 We're just gonna take the whole hour and we're just gonna decide. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:28.240 We're just gonna say, what is God like? 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.799 And we're just we're gonna see how many we could come up with. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:36.079 And so just like you, the first 15 or 20 are easy. 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:40.079 You know, oh, he's loving, he's he's just, he's truthful. 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:42.000 Okay, and so they they came. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:43.759 The first 20, pretty easy. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:45.279 Then it slows down. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.720 The next 20 is a little slower, you have to think more. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:52.240 When you get to 40 or 50, it gets harder. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:21:03.359 When you get to 60 or 70, things get really slow, slower, and you have to think, and you're thinking of scripture, and you're going, but we waited, we did this for an entire hour. 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:04.640 Entire hour. 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:06.160 So maybe show that picture. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.400 This is all in Russian, you can't read it. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.359 A few in the room can read it. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:12.720 A few of you can read it. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:13.200 Yeah. 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:13.759 Okay. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:19.680 They came up in one hour, they came up with 106 different attributes of God. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:20.160 Okay. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:27.759 Okay, so I had told them that I did this with a group of Americans one time, and we did, we we stopped at 100. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:30.160 So they wanted to beat the Americans. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.599 So they came up with a, they weren't stopping until they got 106. 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:36.160 So they did, which was great. 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:46.000 Um, but but a few years ago, our youth group had a retreat, and they thought, they did, they had the same idea. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:22:05.920 They had this big blue piece of paper on the wall, and they said, let's just talk about what is God like, and they started, and they without, I wasn't there, but I am told without the aid of a phone, without Google, they came up with 128. 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:12.559 So I just want you to know that your youth group beat the Russians. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:14.640 That's all I want you to know this morning. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:17.440 Yeah! Come on. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:21.119 Okay, now that was that was a a former youth group. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.839 There's this youth group here. 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.799 I mean, I'm not saying anything about the other youth group. 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:28.000 I think you're probably smarter. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.279 That's uh yeah. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:31.920 I think you could do like 150. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:34.319 So challenge right there. 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:35.519 Challenge. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:36.400 Go for it. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.279 Okay, so but what if you took just one of those attributes? 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:41.279 Like, let's just take holy, okay? 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:49.279 Holy, God is holy, and you go home this week and you look up scriptures about the holiness of God, and they're all over the place. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:23:06.960 And you're looking in the Old Testament, you're looking at what it means that He's holy, and how people reacted in the Psalms and the prophets in the New Testament and in the book of Revelation, and you're looking, you're meditating on holiness, and that holiness idea is changing you inside. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:18.319 You begin to change the way you see God, the way you respond to God, and then you come back to church next week, and the worship team sings a song about the holiness of God. 00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:22.319 What do you think is gonna happen in your heart? 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.960 It's just gonna explode. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:35.440 It's totally different because you see his holiness in a deeper way, and then when you sing about it, it's resonating with all the scripture that's inside of you. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:42.960 So you could take, you could take a with this list right here, you could take one a week for the next 128 weeks. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:55.680 Okay, two in a year, two years and a half, maybe something like that, without ever re without ever duplicating an attribute of God, you could focus on um a an attribute of God per week. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:24:00.880 And man, I'm telling you, if your your life will change, your worship will change. 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:05.759 Because worship is a revelation and a response and a relationship. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.359 Okay, does that make sense? 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:10.799 And worship is about who he is, worship is about God. 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:12.720 This is this should be such a no-brainer. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.480 We sang this morning. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:16.559 Um, we are here for you, right? 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:18.400 It should be a no-brainer. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:28.960 Worship is about God, it's not about me, it's not about what I like, it's not about the style of music I like or the kind of songs that I like. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:30.160 It's not. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:34.880 It's about not about what I like, it's about who I love. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:36.400 It's about him. 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:46.799 Okay, so we all kind of know that, but we also kind of betray our hearts sometimes when we say things like, I just didn't get much out of worship today. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:25:00.640 As if it was about you, and as if you were the focal point of all of it, and you getting gifts and presents from God are the is the whole reason for you to come and worship. 00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:07.440 That's not okay, it's like you come into my birthday party and you leave angry because you didn't get a present. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:09.920 I got all the presents. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.920 That's uh well, could we just say childish? 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:15.680 That's childish. 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:19.279 Coming to give is mature. 00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:25.519 Now, when we give and we we worship, the thing is, the great thing is God is gracious and he gives back to us. 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:28.960 We do receive, but we don't come to receive. 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:35.839 And and we don't come as uh this the um spoiled brats of the kingdom who only want what we want. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:37.119 Amen. 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:38.720 Thank you. 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:39.599 That's good, okay. 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:46.640 The main point I'm trying to get across to you is that God reveals himself when we worship and we respond. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:47.920 That's the main point. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:50.160 God reveals himself and we respond. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:54.480 So we should expect God to reveal himself. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:26:03.440 And how we respond with our bodies and our lives, that's gonna be a subject of the coming weeks as we study other songs in the Christmas story. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:07.359 But worship is a verb, there's it's something that we do. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:14.240 Okay, but today we're gonna tune our hearts in to hear what God reveals to Zechariah and how he responds. 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:15.920 So Zechariah's song. 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:26.240 Did you notice when Zechariah was singing, that he he started with praise to God, and then he hears the prophetic voice of God. 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:29.359 His praise turns prophetic. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:37.920 It's all toward God, and then God speaks something to him about this child that he's holding in his hands. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:45.359 Zechariah's song starts as praise and ends as prophecy. 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:56.400 God hears our praise, but he also speaks to us as we worship him personally, in our homes with our families, and in our church together. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.160 He speaks to us. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:06.160 And I just want to say this too, since it's Family Sunday, let me emphasize that God spoke to him about his son. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:10.079 God will speak to you about your children. 00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:14.960 When you're in worship, when you're worshiping him, your mind is focused on him. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:19.920 God will speak to you about what your child needs, how to raise your children. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:32.240 And I know parenting is tough because when you've never done it before and you're learning it as you go along, you know, you learn as much as you can from your brothers and sisters, and but it's not an easy thing because every child is different. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:34.720 There are different challenges, there are different needs. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:42.559 You have to you have a little different parenting style, so to speak, or approach to every child because they they're a little bit different. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:48.400 It takes it takes wisdom, but God will speak to you as you worship. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:49.839 So expect that. 00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:52.720 So, how did God reveal Himself to Zechariah? 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:54.880 First of all, it starts with praise, right? 00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:57.680 He said, Praise to the God of Israel. 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:03.200 Sounds like the Psalms, a lot like the Psalms when he starts out, because the Psalms were his scripture. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.440 The Old Testament was his scripture. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:16.240 He said, He's redeemed his people, he sent his salvation, he kept his promise to David, he kept his covenant to Abraham, and he rescued us from our enemies. 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:22.319 So God is a rescuer, a savior, a redeemer, a promise-keeper. 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:24.480 This is how he begins. 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:26.559 The focus is God word. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:32.799 But then came this prophetic word, and God spoke to Zechariah, to his son. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:34.319 God, you have done this. 00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:35.440 God, you are this. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:36.880 God, you have done these things. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:38.319 God, you are this. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:48.079 And you, child, you will be called the prophet of the Most High. 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:52.160 And it becomes powerfully prophetic. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:55.759 You will give people knowledge and forgiveness of their sins. 00:28:55.759 --> 00:29:03.039 You will go before to prepare a way for the Messiah because of the tender mercies of God. 00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:04.640 And that's exactly what happened. 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:12.000 Just as he sang it, proclaimed it over his child, it happened in the life of John the Baptist. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:21.920 So a song of praise about God and what he had done evolved into a prophetic declaration of God's purpose in that moment. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:27.039 What God wanted to bring about in that moment, what he was going to do in the future. 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:31.039 God speaks to us when we are worshiping him. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.559 That's the point here. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.079 He interacts. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:49.440 We hear the voice of God concerning our own lives, our families, our church, our community, our nation, other nations, what he's doing in this moment, something, this is something that happens throughout Scripture. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:51.519 So you see it in the Psalms. 00:29:51.519 --> 00:30:02.400 They start off as praise or with whatever emotion the psalmist has at that moment, and oftentimes they turn prophetic or they turn even messianic. 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.559 Jesus Himself is revealed through those, through that praise. 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:12.000 Now, Paul hinted this, hinted at this and uh in Ephesians and in Colossians. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:16.400 And let me read these to you just a moment because it's real insight. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:32.559 In Ephesians 5.15, he says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:35.920 Okay, then we go to uh Colossians 3.16. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:38.880 How many know John 3.16? 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:40.720 How many? 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:42.079