SPEAKER_00: Well, it's good to be here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Who's glad they came to church today?
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I know uh Pastor Brody is in Hawaii right now, so pretty cool, but he's running a marathon, so I'd rather be here.
SPEAKER_00: Not a marathon guy at all.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently it's raining in Hawaii, so I mean he's got like the worst of everything right now.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for Pastor Brody today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many miles in he is, but I'm sure he's got a long way to go.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be done hopefully by the time we're done service, give or take.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he could do it in two hours, but that was unreasonable, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: It would take me two months.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into uh Luke chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: So if you got your Bible on you, go to Luke chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Have it on the screen as well.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter one, verse uh five to seventeen.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna read it today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, we're getting some feedback.
SPEAKER_00: Are we okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're all good.
SPEAKER_00: The king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abusha.
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting pronunciation.
SPEAKER_00: I had to write it down so I didn't mess it up.
SPEAKER_00: And he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: Her name was Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 says something interesting about the two of them.
SPEAKER_00: It says they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a really nice way to say that they were older.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can use that for your knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You can, you know, how old are you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm advanced, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying old, I'm I'm advanced.
SPEAKER_00: Way better.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that was free.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while he was serving as a priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot, by essentially lottery, to enter the temple of the Lord to burn incense.
SPEAKER_00: The whole multitude of people were praying outside during the hour of incense.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where it gets really cool in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of the incense, and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him.
SPEAKER_00: Probably should be, and angels are kind of crazy, really wild experience.
SPEAKER_00: And it said that fear fell upon him, but uh the angel classically says to Zechariah, do not be afraid, as angels often had to say that to the people that they were meeting.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.
SPEAKER_00: And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about John the Baptist this morning, and it says that you will have joy and gladness, and you will rejoice, and many people will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because it says that the uh the angel says that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16 says he will turn many children of Israel to their to the Lord their God and will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and to disobedient to the wisdom of the just and make ready for the Lord a prepared people.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to pray before we get into it.
SPEAKER_00: So would you just pray with me this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for this amazing community of people.
SPEAKER_00: God, that we get to gather here today.
SPEAKER_00: We get to gather weekly just to focus on you, to encourage one another, to remind each other of why we're here and what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we just pray that you would speak today.
SPEAKER_00: God, that we would open up our hearts, we would open up our ears, God, you would soften our hearts today to be able to hear what you have to say.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for your word in Jesus' mighty name.
SPEAKER_00: Someone agree, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Bernice.
SPEAKER_00: You're awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Give it up for Bernice.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're coming up to Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Who's excited for Christmas?
SPEAKER_00: Most of you.
SPEAKER_00: That's all right.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get there.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's sometimes controversial.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, I was thinking about Christmas, and I was thinking about when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_00: If anybody remembers when they were a kid during Christmas, who's a kid now, but who remembers being a kid during Christmas?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was and I was thinking about the idea of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember hating the I hated waiting for Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: It was like as soon as December 1st hit, my parents kind of like tortured me and they put the presents under the tree right away.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I would just sit there and I would stare at them, trying to figure out you know what was in those boxes.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember, I don't know if you remember that feeling, especially when you're younger, just waiting for the day of Christmas to come.
SPEAKER_00: And it was just like, it was frustrating, and it was waiting was really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I was thinking about uh on the flip end of kind of being an adult now, waiting for those things is a little bit easier, right?
SPEAKER_00: We have a little bit more patience for those things.
SPEAKER_00: We are often just buying ourselves the gifts anyway, so we know what's in them, so we don't really have to have any patience, right?
SPEAKER_00: We kind of cheat.
SPEAKER_00: Like me and my wife were like, we don't really buy each other gifts because we just like, I'm gonna go get this.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay, go get that for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And like we just say that's our Christmas gift, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's just that's just being an adult now.
SPEAKER_00: You don't really have to wait for anything.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was thinking about this idea of waiting, and this time last year, I think it was actually the week uh last year, we were waiting for our child to be born.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and if you were ever pregnant in your life for the ladies, uh, you know that feeling, right?
SPEAKER_00: That especially if you're past your due date, you're like kind of like stirring in the house and like you're ready to be done with the waiting, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're like you're ready for the baby to be out and you're you're just over it.
SPEAKER_00: Any any ladies, any ladies remember that feeling?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, I have to commend all of you because uh the story that I'm gonna tell.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not gonna tell all the details, obviously, because we're in church and um no one wants to hear everything, but I have to commend all the ladies and them and the moms in the room because it is a crazy audacious miracle the the when when you can literally like grow a child inside of you, and all of a sudden now we have we have our daughter with us, and it's just an incredible thing.
SPEAKER_00: So just kind of the give give it up for the moms.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You go through a lot of changes and a lot of sacrifices, and it's just insane.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, all the dads, you know, we're just here for the ride, right?
SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, the season uh last last year for us, waiting for our our child to be born, it was like exciting, but it's also like nerve-wracking, filled with anxiety a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I think even getting closer to the day that uh Vienna was supposed to be born, it was like, you know what, just stay in there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ready for you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not ready for a child.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like that nervous, like you're excited, but you're you're scared.
SPEAKER_00: And and I want to say this that nothing can fully prepare you for the birth of your child.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing, no book, no, no class.
SPEAKER_00: I remember we took a few classes and I was like, yeah, we got this.
SPEAKER_00: And then I don't got this as soon as it happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's there's no story.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember my buddy Josh was like telling me stories.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Man, he's like, I could write a book on this, and it would help so many dads prepare.
SPEAKER_00: But it's like I could read that book and it wouldn't have prepared me for what I was about to experience.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, all the fathers, if you were in the room for the birth of your child, like we understand each other, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm talking and you're like, I know where this is going.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh again, nothing can prepare you for that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And when the baby is coming, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember we were at home and uh my my wife's mom and her sister were coming to just help us with that week, and I remember the contraction started coming, and it was like actually terrifying because I I don't know if you've ever like had that experience before, but just seeing, you know, when I was sitting there, I see my wife in that much pain, I was like freaking out, right?
SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd be like cool, calm, and collective, but I was like, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I was like calling the midwife, like, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: Like, just keep waiting.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I can't keep waiting.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: Like, and uh, I remember we got to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: Again, nothing can prepare you for when your wife is in so much pain she can't even speak words.
SPEAKER_00: She's just making noises, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you've ever like held the hand of a pregnant woman that going through contractions.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like putting your hand in a vice grip and just keep tightening that thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember just like my hand was just like, oh, okay, we're going, and this is real.
SPEAKER_00: Like the pain is real, and I uh I'm just trying to like wrap my mind around it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I remember I remember getting to the hospital, and I'm not sure who actually enjoys going to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Um, didn't think so.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said, yeah, maybe a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But uh I you you know, when you go to the hospital uh and you and you have to like wait in the first waiting room, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you're just waiting there, waiting there, waiting there, and then they call your name and you like a little bit of hope, right, rises in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then just to just to walk down the hall into another waiting room, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you're waiting in that waiting room four times as long as the first one.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like it's just like painful.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember we got to the hospital and we're we're sitting in the first waiting room, and and I was honestly, like, when I walked in that room, like I didn't know what to expect.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if like we were gonna like do everything there, or if it was like I had no idea.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm completely oblivious.
SPEAKER_00: I remember we walked into that room and uh they admit Rebecca, and she's into the first waiting room, and I remember walking into there, and I opened the door, and all of a sudden I just hear down the hall like screaming.
SPEAKER_00: Like, and it wasn't Rebecca, it was just like way down the hall on the other side of the hospital, just like it just was terrifying.
SPEAKER_00: It sounded like a war zone, and again, nothing can prepare you for the birth of your child.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember we were sitting in that waiting room, and it feels like you just lose all concept of space and time, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're just in that room.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if there was a clock, but I just remember it just didn't move.
SPEAKER_00: Like the clock just never moved, and we're in that room, and it's just it's overwhelming the amount of emotions, and the it's like an emotional roller coaster that we're on.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we finally, we finally come to the point where she's far enough along that we get to uh get admitted into the room that we're actually gonna meet our child.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember like obviously, like the hope, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh sweet, okay, a little bit of relief.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: We start walking down the hall.
SPEAKER_00: That relief went really quickly, really fast.
SPEAKER_00: It just disappeared because I remember walking past one of the rooms, and I'm not gonna give you too many details, but it was like the aftermath of a baby being born, and it was just the doors were wide open and no one was in there.
SPEAKER_00: It was like no, nothing, like no one was in there.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like they just like gave gave birth and they left, and like they just left everything, and I just remember looking and I was like, that's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a lot of blood.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand this process.
SPEAKER_00: Please help me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I said, nothing can prepare you fully for what you are going to walk through.
SPEAKER_00: And this is like birth control for everybody who's like in a in a dating relationship right now.
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should wait.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said, Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's like an emotional roller coaster.
SPEAKER_00: There's like highs and lows, and it's exciting, but you're also like, I'm absolutely terrified.
SPEAKER_00: Walking down the halls, there's just like ah, it's like a it's like a award after like the war, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like people are just screaming and there's babies crying, and it's it's overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, like I'm just the guy, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm kind of not doing much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just trying to help my wife through this process.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you go through, I'm not gonna get into all the details because that would just be we'll save that for a podcast sometime.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh I I just remember obviously the the ups and downs, and the and and you just you're in that room for so so long, but but it's the moment that you see when I saw Vienna, it's like all of that just kind of disappeared.
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of forget that you went through absolute hell with your wife.
SPEAKER_00: And and I and I know that there's actually a scripture that talks about how women don't even remember childbirth, they don't remember the pain of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like it's crazy, but the guys remember.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we remember the trauma of it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but it's but as soon as I saw that little girl, it's like all that melted away, right?
SPEAKER_00: All that you're just overwhelmed by love and nothing else matters in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I say all that to say that, you know, the the in-between that stage, the waiting season to those moments of kind of like these big glorious moments, uh, can be really, really tough.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And and I talk about the waiting season, and and and we're all human and we all kind of go through seasons of life where we're we're we're maybe in the middle of a waiting season, maybe we're at the start of a waiting season, maybe we're at the tail end of a waiting season.
SPEAKER_00: But we're whether whether regardless of where you're at, we're all kind of in this like ebb and flow.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes those seasons of life, and I'm sure all of you could probably remember, especially those advanced today, those who are advanced in age, they they probably remember all of those longer waiting seasons of just trying to be patient, trying to hold on for hope.
SPEAKER_00: And and I was just thinking about this idea, is like, what are we doing and how are we waiting in those seasons?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's it's important to know like what season you're in in life and what kind of waiting season it is, but it's it's more so important to know how you are waiting in those seasons.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I'm honest, you know, you've probably experienced this too, where it it maybe you're in a season where it just feels like nothing is happening, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like it's just the next day comes and and it's the same thing, and you're just kind of like just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting, and nothing is happening, and it's really easy for us to kind of lose hope or even like check out like mentally or spiritually, or maybe you're in a season where it feels like everything is going wrong, and it's like the next thing is just stacking on the next thing, and the next thing is stacking on the next thing, and you're just waiting for relief, and it's and it's these waiting seasons that we go through.
SPEAKER_00: And again, whatever life looks like and whatever that is for you, the most important thing for you to know and to actually ask yourself, and it's a question that you want to ask yourself is how am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: How am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: Not am I going to wait, because you're going to go through seasons where you're going to be waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're, you know, waiting for a breakthrough in your life, or you're waiting for a breakthrough in your business, or you're waiting for a breakthrough in your marriage, or you're waiting for, I think all of us collectively could probably agree that we're waiting for something good to happen in our nation, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where it kind of feels like we're in this really long season of just waiting for something good to happen in Canada.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that's how I feel sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I think, I think even just if you're waiting for, uh, you know, you're waiting for things to change maybe in your family.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're waiting for things to change in a relationship, maybe you're waiting for things to change at your your business or your school or in your friend groups, or maybe you're just literally a kid today and you're just waiting for Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like that?
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm just waiting, or maybe you're maybe today you're like just waiting for the Christmas season to be over because it's it's so busy and it's so like up and down for you.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is, what are we doing in that waiting season?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes waiting seasons can be very painful, sometimes they can just be like just long and drawn out and and brutal to get through.
SPEAKER_00: But I think again, it's how we wait because if we're just uh I I shared this with our our team this morning, if we're just like constantly staring at all the problems, or if we're just constantly staring at all the things that we would like to change, or we're just staring at all the obstacles, it's almost as if we're like, that's the only thing we can see.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we put our hand up really close to our face, what can I see?
SPEAKER_00: Just my hand, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's the things that we focus on in the waiting season what will help your outcome of what's gonna happen in that season.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we're constantly just like, oh man, I just I can't stand everything that's going on, and like I'm just waiting for things to change, and like this is a problem, this is I I'm tight with money, and uh and all we think about is the problem, and we're just only focused on the problem, and we're we're like the little kid that's just staring at the presence like I used to, just sitting there waiting and just like looking at the presence, just like it's like December 1st, there's 24 more days to go.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it is extremely excruciating to just sit there and stare at the problem while we're waiting.
SPEAKER_00: You guys with me?
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing when we're waiting?
SPEAKER_00: And I think too, um, as Christians, we are in a perpetual waiting season, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for the second coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for Christ to come back and take his bride.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting like that's the that's our Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: We're kind of like in the meantime, we're in the middle of this whole scenario for our entire Christian walk.
SPEAKER_00: And so what are we doing in that season?
SPEAKER_00: Some of us may be staring at the sky, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like any minute now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like we're just waiting here, God, like come get us.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I've had enough.
SPEAKER_00: You you have people, you know, literally, there was a news story of people going out to the woods because they thought that Jesus was gonna come back in the specific place on September 28th, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they all looked foolish because like nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows, and it's not gonna help you just to go and stare at the at the trees and be like, God, God, show up, you know, you're gonna come take us.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't help anything, it doesn't help our season because it's going to make that season feel infinitely longer.
SPEAKER_00: How we wait is so important, and how we wait is really crucial to the outcome of the waiting period.
SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to jump back into uh Luke Pat Luke chapter one, and I just want to give you a little bit of a thousand-foot view before we kind of go into uh a deeper look.
SPEAKER_00: Between the book of Malachi, which is my name, cool, but it's also the last book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Um, someone laughed.
SPEAKER_00: It's it I'm so grateful for your laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Um, between the book of Malachi and Luke, right, and really, really, we can look at the Gospels as kind of like the starting point, but it uh specifically in Luke chapter 1, what we're gonna be talking about today, Luke kind of goes into a little bit of detail, what happens before the birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's actually really, really important because between the book of Malachi and the book of Luke, we have 400 years of God not speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Four hundred years of no new revelation, no prophets are are are relaying anything to the people of Israel, God's not coming down and doing anything to what they could see.
SPEAKER_00: On top of that, there's 500 years, uh an extra 100, not an extra 500, but we have 500 years of a time where uh since an angel last appeared.
SPEAKER_00: So you have 400 years of God's not speaking, you have 500 years of there's there's no angel appearances, and you have a total of 800 years since the last miracle has taken place.
SPEAKER_00: So think about that waiting period.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's like a nightmare in the hospital, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like 400 years of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And you have this like promised, like, think about this from generation to generation to generation, they're passing down the prophecies through the the Old Testament, they're talking about this Messiah that's gonna come, and it's like they're like some of them are probably staring at the sky, some of them are probably just like twiddling their thumbs, and they're and they're they're getting restless and antsy and they're they're losing hope, and it's like 400 years of silence from God.
SPEAKER_00: And we complain when our Amazon delivery is one day late, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like uh it just drives us nuts.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine 400 years, we're not even gonna be around, right?
SPEAKER_00: But Israel was essentially in this very long waiting room, waiting for God to show up, waiting for the promise that he had promised.
SPEAKER_00: And and I can just imagine the turmoil and the even just like the weariness of the nation.
SPEAKER_00: There's actually a line in the song that we we sang, it was like the weary nation.
SPEAKER_00: They were probably like just tired of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And although, although God was silent for those 400 years, he was continuing to work.
SPEAKER_00: He was maybe silent to the people, but he was still working in the background.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually just want to go through uh there's four major nations that were kind of controlling uh the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They were over, they were kind of oppressing and in charge over the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: First, during the time of the prophet Malachi, we have the Babylonian rule.
SPEAKER_00: But what was happening in this time was uh synagogues and scribes were kind of allowed to be present, and a synagogue is a place of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of the people having to travel from wherever they lived all the way to Jerusalem to be able to worship, they could actually, they had access to worshiping their God in their synagogue in their local area.
SPEAKER_00: The scribes, they were allowed to begin to copy the scripture and to teach the scripture, and so it was actually in that time making scripture more accessible to people because they always had to rely on only oral teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening in the Babylonian time, and then we moved to the Neo-Persian rule over Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is again, this is just between the 400 years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, during that time, the temple was rebuilt, and so it kind of restored this like hope to this nation during this time, even though it's like not looking very good, like they're not, it's it's not what God was kind of talking to them about, or they didn't maybe feel like this is what was supposed to happen, but at that same time, God was still moving, God was still working, and the temple's rebuilt, purpose is again restored, and there's a central place of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Next, uh, the Greeks took over, which is really interesting to me that they began to adopt the language of the Greek people.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened is if you've ever heard of the Septuagint, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's the it's the Old Testament that was in Hebrew translated to Greek, and so what was happening is now this this language, this uh the Bible was being cross-cultural.
SPEAKER_00: It was able to be read by other people, not just the people that spoke Hebrew, and so God was kind of like doing something, opening the doors, and then finally you have the Roman rule, right?
SPEAKER_00: And this was this was again just a setup for what was gonna take place in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This was just a setup, and the Romans, they were all about trade routes and they were all about infrastructure, and they they began to build roads so that they could trade to different lands, and and and they they had made their uh roads accessible.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened is, and they didn't know this was gonna happen, when the gospel was like took off, it was really easy for the gospel to spread because the roads were there, right?
SPEAKER_00: So God was doing something.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the worst oppression that the Israel, the nation of Israel could could be in, God was still working.
SPEAKER_00: He was silent, but he was still working and he was setting up his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Just because God was silent, it wasn't as if you know God was giving the silent treatment and Israel was on the couch for the night.
SPEAKER_00: Like that doesn't like God is not a petty God.
SPEAKER_00: I heard I heard uh one commentator, he he thought, like, well, you know, Israel was kind of like you know, doing its classic Israel thing where they would, you know, they would drift off and they would start serving other gods, and you know, God was mad at them, so then he gave them the silent treatment.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what was happening because God's not petty, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, God's not just like, oh, you know, Israel, like, okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna not talk to you for 400 years.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's pretty intense.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, but it that that doesn't make sense to me.
SPEAKER_00: And what does make sense to me is he was actually setting up what was going to happen and take place in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Just because he is quiet does not mean he's not working.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a little bit of a background of what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: We have some context, which is what we need when we read a story like this in Luke, because we can easily just glance over it and be like, oh yeah, cool, John the Baptist was born, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to actually just go through this because there's there's some things that we can actually learn from Zachariah and Elizabeth on how they waited.
SPEAKER_00: On how they waited.
SPEAKER_00: We took a thousand-foot view.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's let's kind of dive into this.
SPEAKER_00: And so, point one is they waited faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Again, these are very simple.
SPEAKER_00: They are waiting faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Verse uh five of Luke chapter one, it says, in the days of Herod, king of the Jude, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zachariah, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it talks about who there's Zachariah, it kind of zooms in on these two people, Zachariah and Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in verse 6 that they were righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a couple interesting things that I just want to like highlight really quickly, because I think about that word righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And uh righteousness is described best in three words.
SPEAKER_00: And you can write this down.
SPEAKER_00: First, righteousness is described by the law, it's described by the law, we have grace, and we have obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The three words that describe righteousness the best is law, grace, and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, righteousness is defined by the law.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the law of God and we begin to read the law, and we begin to realize the gap between us and God gets further and further and further as we look at our life because we're like, well, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: This is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I can't follow this perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is the gap between us and God gets further and further and further.
SPEAKER_00: And then we realize that we need a savior, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we read the law of God and we realize that, hey, I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I sinned, I'm not perfect, I'm flawed.
SPEAKER_00: But then grace comes into the picture.
SPEAKER_00: And what does grace do?
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness becomes imputed and imparted to us by grace.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a gift that we didn't earn because again, we go to the law and we're like, I can't earn it.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot earn righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And so grace comes in, grace is imputed and imparted to us to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To then display righteousness by obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so these two, these two people were walking with God, and we could say, just by the description, that they were spiritually good with God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We we see that they are spiritually good, like everything kind of on their, like their spiritual level is their right standing with God through God's eyes.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem: the circumstance that they were living would have been incredibly difficult because the next verse just straight up tells us they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years, and so they were probably maybe 60 years old, maybe 80 years old, right?
SPEAKER_00: The idea of a child is like, no, like if you're 80 today, like and you think about having it, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The reality is only only God can make that happen, and you probably would be mad if that happened, if you were 80 and had a child, um, just being honest.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but like this would have been even more problematic for them socially, not just personally.
SPEAKER_00: Like, personally, it would have like haunted them.
SPEAKER_00: Personally, it would have been the most frustrating thing to deal with as a married couple.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been absolutely the it would just have been like really hard for them to walk through this personally, but but even worse, I would say socially, because in the Jewish culture, they actually believed if you were barren, you were cursed.
SPEAKER_00: And not just cursed by anybody, cursed by God.
SPEAKER_00: They believe that you had a curse on you.
SPEAKER_00: And and so God views them as righteous, but everybody around them, all their all their community is looking at them kind of like with the side eye, like, they're righteous?
SPEAKER_00: No, they can't be.
SPEAKER_00: They must be cursed.
SPEAKER_00: And and because of the curse, like the the reason for the curse is like either they're they're sinful, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or they're living with the consequences of past sin, or they're living with the consequences of their parents' sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so the public views them as sinful, but God views them as righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a reality for them.
SPEAKER_00: Again, going back to this, like think about that 400 years.
SPEAKER_00: The 400 years of silence, the 500 years of no one's seen an angel in 500 years, and we've we haven't seen a miracle in 800 years.
SPEAKER_00: And so for them, the reality of having a child at 70 or 80 years old was stark.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, somehow, they remained faithful to God.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow, through this track record, they remained faithful to God.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't just, you know, say that, you know, you know, Zachariah and Elizabeth, they were faithful and it was all good, and yada, yada, yada.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us, right?
SPEAKER_00: It tells us, it's it you you actually get to see it.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 8, now while he, Zechariah, was serving as a priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by Lot to enter the temple of the Lord to burn incense, and the whole multitude of people were outside praying during this hour.
SPEAKER_00: And so what's happening here is really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I really just wanted to dive into this for a second, if that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's it's it's the equivalent of like winning the priest's lottery for this to happen to Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: To be able to do this, it was it was almost like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a priest to be able to go into that inner room and to begin to do this honor and burn incense for the people.
SPEAKER_00: So Zachariah, he's like one of 20,000 other priests.
SPEAKER_00: And so you probably, you know, he was serving the Lord diligently just day after day, and he would have been really uh like they they would burn uh or sorry, they would they would sacrifice an animal in the morning and the evening, and they would burn incense in the morning and the evening.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was he was probably really familiar with this practice.
SPEAKER_00: He was really used to being on the outer court, he would, he would uh do the uh animal sacrifice for the people, and and then all of a sudden his name gets drawn, and it's this kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him to then go into this inner court, which was separated by a curtain, and on the other side is the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: And the the Holy of Holies carried the Ark of the Covenant, which was a representation of the presence of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: All through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember that when they marched around Jericho, they had the Ark, and they all through the desert, they had they had God's presence with them, and whenever they camped, they would build a temple.
SPEAKER_00: And so Zechariah gets to go into this place, and it's like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And you could say this was the closest physically that he could have been to God in that time.
SPEAKER_00: Because only once a year, the high priest, once a year, one person, a specific person, was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: Once per year.
SPEAKER_00: And so Zachariah, he gets this kind of like pinnacle moment of his career as a priest.
SPEAKER_00: Like he would have just kind of like grinded daily, like just showed up daily serving faithfully, like praying, and then all of a sudden he gets to have this moment that eventually would shift his entire life.
SPEAKER_00: And my point is this, I just wanted to bring that up, but my point is this despite the reality of the disappointment that they were living in, they chose to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: They chose to remain faithful.
SPEAKER_00: They chose to remain, uh, he chose to remain a priest and carried out his responsibilities daily.
SPEAKER_00: He chose to show up day in and day out.
SPEAKER_00: It is, it doesn't say like, hey, you know, they did have they had a conversation with God and we're like, we'll only serve if you do this for us.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were in the middle of years of infertility in their life, year after year, until one day an angel shows up, and it's crazy because I'm gonna get into this in a little bit, but it's just like this this moment is actually insane for us to think about because it breaks this 400 year silence.
SPEAKER_00: It all it breaks the 400 year silence, it breaks the the appearance, uh the 500 years of no appearance of angels, and it breaks the 800 years of a miracle taking place.
SPEAKER_00: It's in it's insane.
SPEAKER_00: So, my second point uh today, my first was they waited faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Despite what they were walking through, they were faithful.
SPEAKER_00: My second point is they waited prayerfully.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 it says, There appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense, and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him.
SPEAKER_00: Fear fell upon him, and the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayer has been heard.
SPEAKER_00: It's really funny the way that Luke writes this.
SPEAKER_00: It's so matter-of-fact.
SPEAKER_00: Like again, looking at the context of like they've been waiting for something to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And he just kind of writes casually an angel appeared on the right side and said to him, You're gonna have a child, your prayer, your prayer's been heard.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's just so like matter of fact.
SPEAKER_00: It's just an it's just a crazy moment.
SPEAKER_00: Like, think about this for the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is insane.
SPEAKER_00: 800 years since the last miracle, and all of a sudden, an angel shows up and just begins talking to somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just an amazing, amazing moment.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel, of course, he gets gets straight to the point.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't be afraid, classic angel thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: But then he says, your prayer, and this is the important part, your prayer has been heard.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer that they had been praying for, I would say, 30 plus years, maybe even 40 plus years.
SPEAKER_00: This prayer that they they would probably pray more than twice a day, and and especially probably during the morning when the incense would get burned up, that was to represent the prayers of the people.
SPEAKER_00: They were probably praying in that moment, and then they would probably pray during the day, and then they would probably pray at night.
SPEAKER_00: And this was throughout their whole life that they would pray that God, would you give us a child?
SPEAKER_00: That prayer that was 30 plus years, despite, despite the growing impossibility, like day, like you would have to have so much resilience because day after day, year after year, that gap of impossibility of having a child would just continue to grow.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And you would probably get weary at some point, you would probably have doubts at this point.
SPEAKER_00: You would probably just be like throwing up a Hail Mary, like, I don't even know if God exists anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But they continued to be faithful and they continued, despite everything, despite the reality, despite the history, to pray.
SPEAKER_00: In parallel, we see Israel, right?
SPEAKER_00: And morning and night they prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Morning and night they sacrificed offerings to God, waiting for their Messiah through 400 years, generation after generation.
SPEAKER_00: And though there was silence, right, God was setting up something so much greater.
SPEAKER_00: And my third point is this, and I'm gonna invite the worship team to come back up.
SPEAKER_00: They waited expectantly.
SPEAKER_00: They waited faithfully, they waited prayerfully, and they waited expectantly.
SPEAKER_00: The angel says to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard.
SPEAKER_00: And your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you shall call him John.
SPEAKER_00: You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even in his mother's room womb.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16 says, He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him, him being Jesus, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and make ready for a Lord a prepared people.
SPEAKER_00: And when I was reading that, I I I truly believe that this is how God does things is he actually will reward the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He will reward the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Will it be in his timing?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But God rewards the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about this too, about Israel and the 400 years of setup that was taking place.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really interesting to me that God would use these pagan rulers to begin uh opening up these spaces and creating uh opportunity for more accessible worship during this time and letting the scribes actually copy the scripture to make it more accessible.
SPEAKER_00: The temple was rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: We see an adoption of a mainstream language that would kind of break cultural barriers in that time, and we have the Roman Empire not knowing that they were doing this, but they were setting up it for the gospel to be spread like a wildfire.
SPEAKER_00: It was a setup for the coming Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just this long period of time that they had to wait.
SPEAKER_00: God was working through every moment to ultimately make it so that everybody can have access to the Father, not just the one high priest that goes in once a year and sprinkles the blood on the altar for the atonement of sin, but so that everybody would have a chance to come into the throne room of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was this it was this 400-year setup.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to think about because at first you're like thinking, like, that's a long time, God.
SPEAKER_00: But he was setting up these things year after year, all for this one moment of the coming Messiah, including this story in the book of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And the people of Israel, so they had an expectation that God was gonna send a Messiah, but they obviously thought of it differently than what actually happened, and and I would say that God blew the expectations off the doors of the people of Israel, and and I want to come back to Zachariah and Elizabeth because again, you know, you could just say, Oh, they just wanted a baby.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that big of a prayer, but we take it and we put it in retrospect to what was actually happening.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's a huge expectation.
SPEAKER_00: A couple that's 80 praying for a baby, that's expectant prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree?
SPEAKER_00: After 400 years of nothing happening to them, be faithfully, daily walking out their faith, walking out their service towards God, praying three, probably four times a day, expecting.
SPEAKER_00: They waited expectantly, but what did God do?
SPEAKER_00: He blew their expectations out of the water, he didn't just give them a baby, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like John the Baptist was a dude, like he was a man's man, like he was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was even out of the womb.
SPEAKER_00: Like the dude hit the ground running, and his his whole purpose was to open up and blaze a path for Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did they send him a child, but it actually fulfilled the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: It's really cool.
SPEAKER_00: You read the end of Malachi, and it's this prophecy that's literally almost verbatim what the angel says to Zachariah.
SPEAKER_00: Says, see, I will send, this is Malachi chapter 4, see, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
SPEAKER_00: He will turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children toward the parents.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have John the Baptist, he's coming in the spirit of Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: He's fulfilling this prophecy, not only in the book of Malachi, but we see he fulfills this prophecy in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: It says, See, I will send a messenger ahead of you who will prepare the way, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord and make straight his path.
SPEAKER_00: His whole goal was to prepare this coming of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And just like imagine you're just praying for a baby, and then all of a sudden, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like there's just a purpose filled in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: I think we talked about this last week, Zachariah.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can you see that God sees him as righteous, but he wasn't perfect, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because he opened his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: And what did God do?
SPEAKER_00: He shut it until the baby was born because he's like, okay, Zachariah, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You've done good so far, but I'll take it from here.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be quiet on this one.
SPEAKER_00: But righteousness is not like this, you know, I'm just walking around perfect and holy.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is I'm walking in that grace that was given to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stumble, I'm gonna fail.
SPEAKER_00: But his grace is on me.
SPEAKER_00: And his grace is on me to be obedient to him.
SPEAKER_00: God's not asking for perfection from you, he's just asking for your obedience to his word.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just close with this.
SPEAKER_00: Just because God is silent, and maybe for you, you've been in a season where you feel like maybe you're questioning, is God even speaking?
SPEAKER_00: Or is God even working?
SPEAKER_00: Is God doing something?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have that, like, where are you in all of this, God?
SPEAKER_00: But just because he is silent does not mean he is absent.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to ask that question, and maybe you could just close your eyes for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Just for you to have this moment between you and God, and it's a bit more introspective today, but it's that question that you might need to ask yourself like, how am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing in this season?
SPEAKER_00: And not just in like the retrospect of your life, there is that question.
SPEAKER_00: Like as a Christian, how am I walking?
SPEAKER_00: How am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: But in those kind of seasons that we walk through as human beings, how am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: Am I, you know, maybe maybe you're waiting for something.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're waiting for God to answer a prayer in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're waiting for something to change in your home.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're waiting for a direction.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where to go.
SPEAKER_00: You've been waiting for God to tell you where to go.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been waiting for a breakthrough in your life, in your family, in your business, in your relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're sitting here today and you've been praying and waiting for healing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not even just in yourself, but maybe you're waiting for a healing in someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been waiting for clarity in your life, and you feel like things are foggy and you don't really know left and right.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you feel like Zechariah and Elizabeth in this season, where you've prayed a prayer so long it's almost embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: And you feel like, man, why am I even praying this prayer anymore?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I showing up and serving anymore when it feels like nothing is happening?
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say again, going back to those points, to wait faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Keep showing up, keep serving, keep pushing through.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's not asking for us to do something big, he just wants our day-to-day obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Those daily little decisions that we make.
SPEAKER_00: Those 1,000 choices that we have throughout our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: Choosing him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to choose him.
SPEAKER_00: And just walking out our life faithfully and and and know this that it's not for nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for nothing.
SPEAKER_00: To wait faithfully, to wait prayerfully, and to wait expectantly.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know who he needs to hear this, but I think that, you know, you have to know that God is not deaf.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've prayed, God's heard it.
SPEAKER_00: If you've prayed, God's heard it.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible talks about prayer like this to continue to keep asking.
SPEAKER_00: To continue to keep knocking on that door.
SPEAKER_00: To continue to seek.
SPEAKER_00: To continue to pray.
SPEAKER_00: To pray when you don't feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: To serve when you don't have the energy.
SPEAKER_00: To show up.
SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is show up.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you today that that prayer that you've prayed, God's heard it.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you the timing of when he's going to fulfill that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's why it's so important for us to just continue to walk faithfully in his obedience, to continue to walk righteously in that grace that he's provided as a gift for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you earn.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you have to like strive for.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you have to like do this and this and this and then you get righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: No, you have to walk by faith, through grace, by faith, that you are righteous today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to pray for you, and we're going to just take a time to respond and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I just I thank you for every single person in this room.
SPEAKER_00: God, for those who are maybe in a season where they feel like they're asking that question, where are you, God?
SPEAKER_00: Why haven't I heard you?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where to go.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the next step is.
SPEAKER_00: For those waiting in a season of maybe even infertility.
SPEAKER_00: God, those waiting in that season where they've been wanting a child, God, we know that's a real problem.
SPEAKER_00: We know that's a real struggle that people are walking through more and more.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for anyone just looking in and waiting for a healing to take place in their body.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not in their body, but they're waiting on behalf of someone else, a family member, a friend.
SPEAKER_00: God, there's people waiting in this room for breakthrough in their life, breakthrough from addiction.
SPEAKER_00: God, there's people waiting in this room for things to change in their home, things to change in this nation.
SPEAKER_00: But God, right now I just pray that your peace would envelop us today.
SPEAKER_00: God, that we'd be reminded that our daily steps, that daily showing up, that daily putting our trust in you, might seem simple, but God, that's what you love.
SPEAKER_00: You just want our obedience.
SPEAKER_00: You just want relationship.
SPEAKER_00: You just want to hear our voice when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: But God, we know that you're a God who is not deaf, who is not weak, who is not absent.
SPEAKER_00: You are here.
SPEAKER_00: God, your Holy Spirit is here.
SPEAKER_00: You're with us.
SPEAKER_00: And that anybody in this room that's discouraged, God, that you would bring them up, you would bring hope in their heart, especially in this season.
SPEAKER_00: God, the anticipation of waiting to celebrate the birth of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: God, that this season would not be a season of traumatic pain or anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: God, that it would be a season of hope, a season of joy, a season of light.
SPEAKER_00: If we reminded that, God, you're you're still working.
SPEAKER_00: That it may have been silent, but God, you are still working.
SPEAKER_00: Can I invite you to stand this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to do any altar calls.
SPEAKER_00: I just invite you to keep your eyes closed and we're just going to respond through worship.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's just one of the best ways that we can just take this message.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's really introspective for us.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're asking that question today.
SPEAKER_00: How am I waiting?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some things you need to adjust, but I just want us just to, um, if you're comfortable, just begin to put your hands out in front of you or lift your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And this is again, this is just saying, God, this is not some weird Christian thing we do.
SPEAKER_00: This is just literally saying, God, I'm open to what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: God, I receive what you have for me today.
SPEAKER_00: Or God, I surrender my thinking and my past habits or my past ways of doing things.
SPEAKER_00: God, I surrender to you today.
SPEAKER_00: God, in this season of waiting, we surrender to you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just begin to sing today.
SPEAKER_00: And just take a few moments just to focus our attention on Him, to take our attention off the problems, off the obstacles that you might be facing, off the things that are enveloping your mind that we would just focus on Him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just sing today.