Introduction:
I Pray with Expectation (Luke 1:5-25):
- Because God will keep His Word . (Luke 1:13-17)
Jeremiah 1:12 - ...I am watching over my word to perform it.
- Because God will keep His Word, according to His Timing . (Luke 1:20)
Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
- Because God will keep His Word, according to His Timing and unbelief only hurts Us . (Luke 1:20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
Luke 1, are you there?
00:01-00:10
The next three messages are called, "We're expecting." We all come to Christmas time with expectations.
00:11-00:13
No one more than a kid.
00:13-00:17
And no kid more than me when I was a kid.
00:18-00:21
One year for Christmas, I remember, and Darren, you remember this well.
00:21-00:25
One year for Christmas, I wanted a pogo ball.
00:25-00:28
How many people, show of hands, know what a pogo ball is?
00:28-00:30
A lot more than I expected.
00:30-00:46
For those of you that are like, "What in the world is a pogo ball?" Follow-up question, "Why in the world did you want a pogo ball?" I want to take you back to the most glorious chapter of history since biblical times.
00:47-00:48
We call it the 80s.
00:49-00:51
Right, Jesse? Right? Okay, alright.
00:51-00:55
And turn your attention to the screen, and you're going to see exactly why I wanted this pogo ball.
00:56-00:57
I know what you're thinking.
00:58-01:00
How could I not have wanted that?
01:01-01:04
I mean, I saw that commercial and I was sold.
01:04-01:12
I'm like, "I want a pogo ball." And I don't remember what year it was, what Christmas it was, but do you know what I got?
01:12-01:16
You're like, "You got a pogo ball, didn't you?" No, I got a Saturn ball.
01:16-01:18
Do you know what a Saturn ball is?
01:19-01:21
It's the knockoff of the pogo ball.
01:22-01:27
And I gotta tell you, with this Saturn ball, was the most fun I've ever had for about 20 seconds.
01:29-01:30
Not even as long as the commercial.
01:30-01:40
It was almost as thrilling as regular jumping, only it was harder because you also had to squeeze the top of this ball between your feet.
01:41-01:50
And if that wasn't bad enough, for the 20 seconds I was in my basement trying to play with this thing, my brother was singing this song.
01:50-01:51
Do you remember the song that you sang?
01:51-01:52
You remember the song that you sang?
01:53-02:01
"Here we go on our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball..." And I'm like, "Alright, I'm done with this stupid thing." Do you remember that song? You don't remember that?
02:01-02:03
I'm going to call in a third witness. We have another brother.
02:04-02:05
I know he remembers that.
02:06-02:09
I know. You guys make fun of my Saturn ball.
02:09-02:12
Well, why are you telling us all this?
02:13-02:19
Here's the point. Much of life on Earth is extremely high expectation, right?
02:19-02:44
I had in mind when I got my Pogo/Saturn ball that I was going to play the keytar on stage or be serving food at a restaurant jumping on this thing and it was going to be awesome and the reality was much much much more disappointing than the expectation. And the series we're going through is called "We're We're expecting.
02:45-02:54
And while on the earth, earthly expectations and reality leads to a lot of disappointment, here's a reminder of the next three messages.
02:55-02:57
Jesus Christ never disappoints.
02:57-02:59
He never disappoints.
02:59-03:00
We're expecting.
03:01-03:04
The series is going to call us to live in expectation.
03:05-03:10
We want to believe that God is and will be actively at work.
03:11-03:15
Every day we look to God's goodness That's the way a child looks to Christmas.
03:17-03:22
The second reason we're calling it "We're Expecting" is all three of these sermons have something else in common.
03:22-03:24
They're about a pregnant woman.
03:26-03:30
They're like, "Oh, you mean when Mary was pregnant with Jesus?" Yes, but not today.
03:31-03:34
Today we're actually going back a little earlier than that.
03:34-03:41
Luke 1.5, we're going to be starting by talking about John the Baptist's mother and his story.
03:41-03:44
This is really how the Christmas story begins.
03:45-03:58
Luke 1.5 says, "In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
03:59-04:11
And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, but they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
04:12-04:17
So Zacharias was a priest, and he was married to the daughter of a priest.
04:17-04:20
God-fearing, God-seeking people, and they had no children.
04:20-04:28
And in those days, it was wrongly believed that if you didn't have children, you were cursed by God.
04:28-04:29
He closed your womb.
04:29-04:31
You did something bad, and He judged you.
04:32-04:34
That's a common misconception.
04:35-05:11
Regardless, Elizabeth was barren, were old. So from their perspective it didn't look like they were going to hear the pitter-patter of little feet anytime soon. Look at verse 8. It says, "Now while he was serving as 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 and burn incense. The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense." Stop right here, I'm going to give you a little history lesson to sort of explain what's going on.
05:11-05:19
Every priest served at the temple two times a year, for a week, and they weren't consecutive.
05:19-05:22
Okay, so two times a year we were going, serving a week.
05:23-05:27
And usually their job was to kill the sacrifices.
05:27-05:30
They were basically like butchers.
05:30-05:39
They would stand and they would slaughter the animals that were brought for sacrifice, but each time they would cast lots.
05:39-05:42
What was that? It was kind of like throwing dice.
05:42-05:50
It was a lottery system they had in place to see which of the priests were going to be allowed to burn incense.
05:52-05:56
And most of the priests, because there were so many of them, they never got chosen.
05:57-06:00
Most just didn't ever get the opportunity to do it.
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But if you were one of the ones who did get chosen, you were only allowed to do it once in your lifetime.
06:08-06:08
That's it.
06:09-06:11
And you're like, "All right, Pastor Jeff, hang on a second.
06:11-06:12
I'm missing something.
06:13-06:16
What was the huge deal about burning the incense?
06:16-06:21
I mean, my wife does that, but I've never seen her get all giddy before she does it." Well, here's the big deal.
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Do you know where the altar of incense was?
06:25-06:26
It was in the holy place.
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So that meant, if you were a priest and you were chosen, you were able to go in to the holy place, and the altar of incense was actually right next to the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
06:40-06:55
So the priest was like, "Hey, physically on the earth, this is the closest I will ever get to God, and I have the opportunity to be right on the other side of the curtain from the place where God sits." So yeah, it was a huge deal.
06:56-07:08
So what they would do is they would take coals from the altar of the burnt offering, and they would take those coals into the holy place and put them in the altar of incense, and then they would actually put the incense on the burning coals.
07:09-07:19
And we've talked about this many times in the past, but the purpose of that incense, it was to represent the prayers of the people as a fragrant aroma going to the Lord.
07:20-07:25
And that's why verse 10 says people were outside praying while this was happening.
07:25-07:29
It was a picture of we are coming before God and raising up our prayers.
07:30-07:30
All right?
07:31-07:36
Verse 11, you have the scene, Zechariah, he's in the holy place, he's burning the incense.
07:36-07:45
Verse 11 says, "And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
07:46-07:50
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
07:50-08:01
But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
08:02-08:16
And 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, And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
08:17-08:37
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him 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, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." So this angel shows up.
08:37-08:41
You have this scene, Zechariah, big deal, holy place, burning incense.
08:41-08:49
and an angel shows up and the angel says, "Hey, your prayer has been heard, and you are having a son.
08:50-08:53
And this son is going to be special." Like, every son is special, right?
08:53-09:12
He goes, "Yeah, but this is special in biblical proportions, because he's going to be great before the Lord, he's going to be full of the Holy Spirit from birth, he's going to bring revival in Israel as he prepares people for the Messiah." And that's John the Baptist, and we spent some time talking about him, didn't we?
09:13-09:16
To me, one of the most fascinating people to ever walk the planet.
09:17-09:19
This angel's like, "Hey, your prayer's been heard.
09:21-09:27
Your wife is going to give birth to a global game changer." What did he say to that?
09:28-09:29
Well, let's look at what he said. Verse 18.
09:30-09:34
"And Zechariah said to the angel, 'How shall I know this?
09:34-09:41
"For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." Like, that's the response we're going with here.
09:41-09:41
Okay.
09:42-09:44
He says, Zechariah's like, "Haven't you heard?
09:46-09:47
"We're old.
09:47-09:53
"I don't know if you got the memo, "but I gotta give credit for Zechariah here for one thing.
09:53-10:00
"Do you see what a gentleman he is?" He says, "I'm an old man, "but my wife is advanced in years." Isn't that nice?
10:01-10:02
Can we just stop and acknowledge?
10:03-10:07
But I just thought that was very gentlemanly of him to say it that way.
10:07-10:08
Apparently just me, okay.
10:10-10:14
But Zechariah is like, well, how am I gonna know this?
10:14-10:20
Because I'm old and my wife's advanced in years and the angel was like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize your age.
10:20-10:22
I mean, you look very good for your age.
10:23-10:26
And apparently I'm going to need to go back to heaven to update our files.
10:27-10:32
Forget all the pregnancy talk, forget I was even here, I didn't know you were old.
10:33-10:34
Is that what your Bible says?
10:35-10:37
No, because that's not what the angel said.
10:37-10:39
Look at verses 19 through 23 with me.
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Here's what the angel actually did say.
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The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel.
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I stand in the presence of God.
10:47-10:50
And I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
10:51-11:01
And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.
11:02-11:06
And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple.
11:06-11:12
When he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.
11:12-11:15
And he kept making signs to them and remained mute.
11:16-11:19
When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
11:19-11:27
Okay, so people outside are like wondering, "What's going on in there?" Typically, priests got the business done as fast as they could.
11:27-11:46
There was this fear that if I did something irreverent in the holy place, God was going to strike me dead, so let's take care of business and get out." And people were like, "He has been in there an awfully long time, and he couldn't speak when he came out." Typically, when the priest came out, they gave a little speech, a benediction.
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It was typically the Deuteronomy 6.24 benediction.
11:51-12:00
But since he couldn't speak, they were like, "Something happened in there to him." Could you imagine how badly he wanted to tell people what happened?
12:01-12:04
I mean, if that was you, couldn't you... you couldn't wait to tell...
12:04-12:12
"You won't believe who I saw in there! And you won't believe what he told me!" And I'm sure he was busting it to seems to tell, but he couldn't.
12:13-12:17
Oh, and by the way, we're going to find out in verse 62, he was also deaf.
12:18-12:19
This was all God's discipline.
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Like, "Hey, you don't want to hear the Word of God?
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Then you're not going to speak the Word of God.
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Oh, and you're not going to hear anybody else's words either, if you're not willing to listen to the Word of God.
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This was an act of discipline on Zechariah.
12:31-12:35
"Well, does that mean he changed his mind about the promise?" Absolutely not. Look at verse 24.
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It says, "After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 'Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me to take away my reproach among people.'" There it is. You know, that's the first miracle of the New Testament.
12:53-12:59
Zechariah comes home, Elizabeth conceives, because God allowed her to become pregnant.
12:59-13:02
You're like, "Well, why did she stay hidden?" I kind of get that, right?
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Because here's a woman advanced in years, going around telling people, "Hey, an angel told my husband I was going to get pregnant.
13:10-13:14
My husband came home, next thing you know, I'm pregnant." Isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard?
13:14-13:26
They're like, "Yeah, you're crazy." So she kept herself hidden until about the five-month mark, when not gonna sound so crazy when there's evidence that you are pregnant.
13:26-13:28
Right? I think that's why she kept herself hidden.
13:28-13:32
But regardless, she knew. She knew what happened. God made this happen.
13:33-13:37
Isn't that a great story? I would say that is a great story.
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I would say most of that is a great story.
13:40-13:47
Because I kind of wish verses 18 through 23, I kind of wish those verses didn't happen.
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I kind of wish the story went like this.
13:50-13:52
The angel shows up and says, "Zechariah, God heard your prayer.
13:53-14:01
You're going to have a son. He's going to be awesome." Zechariah's like, "Great! High five!" Goes home, Elizabeth has John, but that's not how it happened.
14:02-14:04
He didn't believe Him, and God disciplined him for that.
14:05-14:08
And it's real easy to criticize Zechariah, isn't it?
14:08-14:16
"Shame on you! How could you not believe?" But the truth is, this hits closer to home than I think most of us would want to admit.
14:16-14:22
In verse 18, remember, the angel says, "You're going to have a son." And here's exactly what he's going to be like.
14:22-14:29
Verse 18, "Zechariah said, 'How shall I know this?'" Wasn't he praying for this?
14:30-14:40
According to verse 13, Zechariah had been praying for this, at least once upon a time, and I don't know what happened over the course of his prayer life.
14:41-14:43
But I know what's happened over the course of mine.
14:44-14:58
when I've prayed for the same thing over and over, and days turn into weeks, turn into months, and then suddenly, years later, I'm still saying the words.
14:58-15:03
I mean, I'm still down, and I'm still saying the words to God.
15:04-15:06
But you know, I'm just being honest.
15:06-15:14
I've really had to take a hard look at my life in times to ask myself, Am I praying with expectation?
15:14-15:26
Or has years of discouragement put me in this place of, "I'm more saying my prayers than I am praying." Can we get back to praying with expectation?
15:26-15:27
Can we get back there?
15:27-15:30
Can we get back to the place where we know that God's going to keep His Word?
15:31-15:41
And if you're like me, if you've ever struggled in this area, I just want to give you today three things that Zechariah teaches us about praying with expectation.
15:41-15:43
So jot this down if you haven't outlined.
15:44-15:46
Again, if you're like me, if you're like, "You know what, Jeff?
15:46-15:53
There's things I've been praying about." Maybe some of you are like, "You know what? I just stopped praying about it because I just didn't think it was going to happen.
15:54-15:56
And I dressed it up.
15:56-16:07
I said, "Oh, maybe perhaps this is not God's preordained sovereign will for my life, so I'm just going to stop praying for that." And really, when I'm being honest, I just got discouraged.
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Let's get back to praying with expectation.
16:11-16:14
Number one, I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word.
16:15-16:18
I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word.
16:18-16:26
Remember Zechariah in verse 18, he said, "How shall I know this?" This is actually kind of funny, I think. He probably didn't think so.
16:26-16:30
But I think this is kind of funny, that Zechariah is like, "How will I know?
16:31-16:35
How will I know this is true?" And Gabriel's like, "I don't know.
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Maybe like if God did something huge like send an angel from heaven to tell you face to face in the temple, would that do it?
16:49-16:51
Like what kind of sign are you looking for, man?
16:53-16:57
Gabriel says, "Here's how sure I am that God's going to keep his word.
16:58-17:02
I'm not going to give you some vague prediction.
17:02-17:11
I'm going to tell you what the name of this baby is going to be, and I'm going to tell you exactly what he's going to be like.
17:12-17:23
Just ask yourself. I had to kind of go through this myself this week as I was wrestling through this, but ask yourself, "What if an angel showed up to you today?" Maybe not in the holy place, maybe in your kitchen or whatever.
17:25-17:28
What if an angel showed up and said, "Hey, you know that thing you've been praying for?
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Do you know God's heard every prayer, and He's giving you that?
17:32-17:34
He's going to give you exactly what you want.
17:35-17:35
What would you say?
17:36-17:42
Would you be like Zechariah and sort of talk yourself out of why God can't answer your prayers?
17:42-17:44
Sort of reason it out.
17:44-18:02
"You know, I prayed for healing for my kid, but you know what, we've tried everything, we've been to every doctor, we've done every treatment, we've done every therapy, we've seen every therapist, I just..." "Yeah, I hear what you're saying and I wish I could buy in, but we've sort of been there, done that, I got the t-shirt, nothing to show for it.
18:03-18:14
And like Zechariah, I just have to ask myself, and you need to ask yourself, have we sort of talked ourselves out of the truth that God still hears and answers prayer?
18:15-18:17
Have we reasoned ourselves out of that?
18:18-18:19
Because church, I'm gonna tell you something.
18:19-18:22
There are some things that God cannot do.
18:23-18:23
Yeah, I said that right.
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Write this down.
18:25-18:28
There are some things that God cannot do.
18:29-18:31
One of them is lie.
18:31-18:32
He cannot lie.
18:33-18:40
That's why I love Jeremiah 1.12, when the Lord says, I love this verse so much.
18:41-18:45
He says, "I am watching over my word to perform it." Do you know what that means?
18:46-18:52
That means it's like God has a copy of the Bible on his desk and he's looking through it.
18:52-18:56
And he's like, yeah, I said that, I'm gonna make sure that happens.
18:56-18:58
Yep, I said that, I'm gonna make sure that happens.
18:58-19:00
Oh yeah, I'm making sure.
19:00-19:01
Did I miss anything?
19:01-19:02
No, I didn't miss anything.
19:02-19:06
I'm doing every single thing that I said, I'm gonna do it.
19:07-19:14
And I'm rereading it and I'm watching over to make sure everything happens exactly how I said it's gonna happen.
19:14-19:16
Isn't that an encouragement for us today?
19:17-19:17
He's watching.
19:18-19:19
He's watching.
19:19-19:27
So Zacharias' doubts and my doubts and your doubts, let's acknowledge them for the foolish things they are.
19:27-19:30
If God says He's going to do something, He's going to make it happen.
19:31-19:33
He's watching to make sure that He keeps every promise.
19:34-19:38
We have to start there. God will keep His Word.
19:38-19:40
So I can pray with expectation.
19:40-19:46
Number two, I pray with expectation because God will keep His Word according to His timing.
19:47-19:48
According to His timing.
19:49-19:51
Look at the very last phrase in verse 20.
19:52-19:53
The last couple of phrases, I guess.
19:54-20:01
Gabriel says to Zechariah, "Because you did not believe my words," which were God's words, right?
20:01-20:02
He was just repeating them, right?
20:03-20:10
"Because you did not believe my words," look at this last phrase, "which will be fulfilled in their time." In their time, right?
20:12-20:19
Sometimes the only thing that's between you and answered prayer is just a little bit of time.
20:20-20:21
Like, so what do we do in the meantime?
20:22-20:23
We wait on the Lord.
20:24-20:25
You know what Tom Petty said about the waiting.
20:26-20:26
Do you know?
20:27-20:28
You know?
20:28-20:29
Somebody tell me, what did he say?
20:30-20:30
Yeah.
20:30-20:37
♪ Waiting is the hardest part ♪ I love that song because my sons sing that with me.
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It's true.
20:39-20:40
It is the hardest part.
20:41-20:43
That's what Tom Petty said, but we're not here to talk about him.
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We're here to talk about God.
20:44-20:45
Here's what God said.
20:45-20:46
God said, "Wait for the Lord.
20:47-20:50
"Be strong and let your heart take courage.
20:50-20:54
"Wait for the Lord." This is a whole other sermon series.
20:54-20:57
The Bible says so much about waiting for the Lord.
20:57-21:00
Why? Why does the Bible say so much about that?
21:00-21:04
Because God's going to keep His Word, and He's going to do it according to His time.
21:04-21:11
And in the meantime, we have to grow in the strength of our faith while we wait on Him to do what He said.
21:12-21:18
And you're like, "Well, I don't like waiting." Right. "I don't like waiting either." You know why?
21:19-21:20
I think because we're Americans.
21:21-21:23
And we're not used to waiting for anything.
21:24-21:29
I mean, I know not all of us here are from America, but by virtue of you being here, I'm calling you an American now.
21:30-21:36
And there are people that listen to these messages, other places in the world, maybe they can relate on some level.
21:37-21:39
I can only speak to America. We don't wait for anything.
21:40-21:45
We stand in front of the microwave and we say, "What's taking this stupid thing so long?" Right?
21:46-21:54
They put, "Here's how much we don't like waiting for anything." Do you see they put shampoo and conditioner in the same bottle?
21:55-22:04
It's like, I don't have time to go into the shower with all these bottles and all these shampoos and all these conditioners.
22:04-22:05
Like, what am I, a chemist?
22:05-22:07
Like I don't have this kind of time.
22:08-22:12
Wait for the shampoo to do its thing and then wait for the conditioner to do its thing.
22:13-22:17
Can you just put it all in one bottle and then do the same with peanut butter and jelly?
22:18-22:19
But we don't like to wait.
22:19-22:22
"Look, I'm just as guilty." I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, I'm just as guilty.
22:22-22:35
Somebody will send me a YouTube video, and they're like, "Hey, check out this video," or, "Hey, we're thinking about doing this worship song," and I'll click on the link, and they'll be like, "Your video will play in 15 seconds." I'm like, "Not for me, click.
22:36-22:41
"Guess I'll never know what was happening there." Not waiting for that, 15 seconds?
22:41-22:42
What am I, Rip Van Winkle?
22:42-22:45
Like, I'm not waiting for that, right?
22:46-23:00
Then the Bible says, "Wait on the Lord," And we're like, "What?" And it's something that we need to get back to, to say, "Look, look, God is not the God of everything, instant, when I want it, how I want it.
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God has a plan." You're like, "Well, why?
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Why wait?
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If God's gonna do it, why doesn't he do it now?
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Why wait? Why wait? Why wait?" Well, why wait for the cake to get done baking before you eat it?
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I mean, your five-year-old is eventually going to drive a car.
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Why wait to teach him when he's 16?
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I think you see the point, don't you?
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Sometimes waiting is just necessary.
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Sometimes it's just necessary.
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You've got to wait.
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And God in His perfect wisdom, He has a reason for doing things when He does them.
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You've been praying for healing? I know a lot of you have.
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I get the Friendship Register prayer request.
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We talked about that last week.
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Some of you have been praying for healing for someone for a long time.
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God will bring it about. He will, in His time.
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Some of you have been praying for provision.
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God is going to provide you everything that you need in His time and in His way.
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And I know a lot of you have been praying for salvation for someone, for loved ones to receive Christ.
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It's coming.
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You need to believe that these answers are coming, and you need to believe that these answers are coming in God's time, and you need to trust God while you wait for it to happen.
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So I pray with expectation, finally, number three, because God will keep His Word according to His timing.
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And unbelief only hurts us.
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Now, let's choose your own adventure.
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I could say unbelief only hurts you, and you don't get to put anything in that blank.
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But you can write "us." Unbelief only hurts us. Same point.
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You can choose not to believe the Word of God, but God doesn't become any less God.
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He's no less awesome. He's no less powerful. He's no less able to keep His Word.
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The truth is unbelief only hurts us.
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Now, Zacharias' consequences - I always say John - Zacharias' consequences, they were obvious to everyone.
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He comes out and he can't speak.
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I mean, that was an obvious hurting yourself kind of thing.
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God might not strike you mute in death for not believing Him.
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That would be really interesting if that happened, though.
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It would affect a lot more of us than I think we would realize.
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God might not strike you mute for disbelief, but even if He doesn't, there are consequences that we face when we don't believe.
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Like what?
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Like worry.
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I know people that their lives are just consumed with worry.
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You're hurting yourself by not believing God's Word.
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Anxiety, discouragement, a discouragement that leads to despondency, a despondency that leads to what the Bible calls losing heart, and over time you choose disbelieving the Word of God as a lifestyle, that's going to lead to a form of godliness that denies its power.
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It eventually leads to religion without relationship. I show up to church, I got my checkmark from God, but I'm not really expecting him to show up in power and do I'm going to do some transformational, God-sized thing in my life.
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I'm just not really expecting that anymore.
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Maybe I did once upon a time, not anymore.
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But I still go to church, disbelieving the Word of God.
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Unbelief. It only hurts us.
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Zechariah would tell us, now that he has his voice back, he would say, "If God tells you something, look, just believe it.
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I just believe it.
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It's going to happen.
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It's going to happen when God wants it to happen.
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And if I choose not to believe it, I discover that that's a terrible idea.
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And as we close, you might say, "Pastor Jeff, I hear everything you're saying, and I wish I was there." I'm just going to be honest with you, my faith is really small right now.
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And that's awesome.
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Because it's not about the size of your faith.
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It's about the size of your God, whom you have faith in.
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I can remind you of the story of the ice skater.
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I think about this guy a lot.
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You know the story of the ice skater.
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This kid loved ice skating.
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There was a little pond by his house.
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And soon as the weather got cold and the pond froze, he grabbed his ice skates and he put them on.
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So excited, he ran down and he jumped right on the pond, but it wasn't very thick.
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And he fell right through.
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And he crawled and scrambled and fought, got on shore, shore, got on the side of the pond, I don't think ponds have a shore, there are no seagulls, you know the point, he climbed to the side, should've rehearsed this again, he climbed to the side of the pond, cold, wet, scared, well a week later, another cold blast comes in, like really cold, and the pond freezes again.
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Loved ice skating so much, he goes, "I am going ice skating," and he goes down to the pond, he puts his ice skates on, but this time, He's not jumping onto the ice like he did before.
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Right, this time he's kind of like very slowly stepping on, very slowly.
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And then after some time, he saw the ice was thick enough to skate upon and he did and had a jolly good time.
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And here's the point of that story.
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The first time he went down to the pond, he had a really strong faith, but the object of what he had his faith in was weak.
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The second time, he had a really weak faith, But the thing that he had his faith in, the object of his faith, was very strong.
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It's not about the size of your faith, it's about the size of your God.
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Are you confident that God can do what He promised?
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Because we can expect God to keep His Word.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank You that You are watching over Your Word to perform it.
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God, I thank You for that.
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And God, You know in my life, the times I've wondered, the times I've doubted, the truth be told, way worse than Zechariah.
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And I'm sure, Father, that I have some brothers and sisters that are sitting right here that would say the same thing.
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That, "Yeah, I've been praying for something for a long time and it hasn't happened, so I kind of quit, or I kind of lost any expectation that it might happen." And God, I pray today that we would take a hard look at Zechariah.
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He gave up hope. He had his reasons.
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The word just trumps them all.
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I simply ask God for myself, for our church family here, that you would renew in us, praying with hopeful expectation.
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Give us eyes of faith to see how you're answering these prayers in your time.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 1:5-25
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think Zechariah didn’t believe the angel? Have you ever “lost expectation” while praying for something for a long period of time?
Zechariah faced some consequences for not believing the word from God. What are some consequences WE face when we choose not to believe the Word of God?
Breakout
Pray that we learn to wait on the Lord. And pray that He would restore in us a spirit of belief and expectation, trusting Him to keep His Word