God's Grand Purposes, Deeply Personal for You

And so he's the one that completely remodeled the temple and completely made it all this glorious building that the disciples would say to Jesus one day, hey, man, look at that building. And you know what Jesus said? Not one single stone will be left upon another. That thing's coming down. And so the tension of the moment in human history cannot be understated. And yet in the midst of this incredible moment that had been prophesied since Genesis 3.15, it's a part of the promise to Abraham. You see clearly the typology of the fulfillment through the Mosaic covenant. [00:44:46] (39 seconds)  #EarthlyGloryIsTemporary

So Luke, being the ever-present historian that he is, what he's doing is he's dating the historical moment that this is happening. And all throughout his gospel and well into the book of Acts, what Luke does is he uses historical references to validate his investigation. He could have left them out, if you will, and it still would have been the authoritative reality of God's word. But by putting them in, he creates something. Either he's absolutely right or he could be completely ignored. It's kind of like a $100 bill that looks really, really good until you hold it up. And it doesn't have the watermark of authenticity. [00:46:43] (40 seconds)  #HistoryValidatesFaith

And what's important to notice in this is that even through 400 years of silence from Malachi to this moment, guess what? As bad a rap as Israel gets, guess what Israel was still doing? Everything that Malachi said, make sure you obey the law of Moses and all of its ordinances. They were doing the daily ritual, the twice a day ritual of burning incense. These were the prayers of the people for God, for the nation of Israel twice a day. [00:49:25] (29 seconds)  #DailyPrayerEndures

For those people who say that Christianity is not a religion, you need to wake up and realize how ignorant a statement that really is. It's just a relationship. No, it's not just a relationship. Here you have a couple, a man and a group of people who've been doing everything God told them to do for as long as they had to do it until God showed up to do what only God can do. It's called perseverance. That's true biblical perseverance. And there are so many beautiful religious practices that we should never give up on. [00:49:55] (30 seconds)  #PerseveranceIsFaith

A story that's very common in the Bible, three or four different times in the Old Testament. And now as we begin the new, we once again meet a couple who is very faithful but fruitless. They're very, very obedient but unbelievably powerless to change the situation or circumstances of their life. That they're not as some of you in this room and at our other campuses are dealing with right now. You're very faithful but you have yet to be fruitful. You feel very barren. You feel like, I'm just not that important that God is going to move on my behalf. [00:50:50] (42 seconds)  #FaithfulBeforeFruit

But let me ask you something. I spoke to a girl who goes to Bowling Green High School. I will not tell you her name. She's in 10th grade in a very, very, very, very difficult situation. And yesterday, who do you think was more important to God? Donald Trump or that 10th grade girl that goes to Bowling Green High School? [00:51:54] (19 seconds)  #GodSeesEveryLife

And just because your life in any area is fruitless, don't you stop being faithful. Don't you stop doing what you know God has called you to do. You just got to do it as long as you have to do it because you trust that God is finally going to do for you what you can't do for yourself. And every day they're going in there and you'll see in a second burning incense, burning incense, burning incense. Could you imagine if they just fell one prayer short? [00:52:21] (26 seconds)  #FaithfulWhenFruitless

And what we see here is not a competition as much as a contrast between the powerful people of this world and the people nobody ever heard of. And let me ask you this question before I move forward. Who did more for human history? Herod or Zechariah and Elizabeth? Who impacted human history more? Right. A barren widow. I mean, a barren woman. Not a paranoid, powerful world leader. In the midst of the powerful and the powerless, God is getting ready to do something very, very personal. [00:52:55] (37 seconds)  #GodChoosesTheLowly

We persevere in prayer because you are being heard and God is going to show up and he's going to finally have personally what him and his wife have longed for their entire marriage. A child. He's in there praying nationally. You know, it's like getting on your face and praying for peace between Russia and Ukraine and God shows up and says, hey man, you're gonna get that new job. I wasn't even praying about that. I know, but I heard your prayer. Remember you prayed? I remember you prayed. [00:58:20] (38 seconds)  #PrayerIsHeard

Because being faithful always pays off. Even when you're not being fruitful, it always pays off to be faithful because God hears you. God knows you. God cares. Can you imagine, just imagine some of the prayers of some of those children that we're being given the privilege to minister to pray at night before they close their eyes? How many of them pray for breakfast? How many might pray for them that mommy and daddy might stop fighting? Daddy might find a job. I wish mommy didn't have to cry every day. [01:01:10] (46 seconds)  #EveryPrayerMatters

How do we tell the world that God has not forgotten you in your agony? How do we tell the world that God has not forgotten you in your tragedy, that he hears you and he cares for you and that yes, he is sovereign over everything and he's sovereign over everyone but he's so deeply committed and concerned about you. That's how. [01:01:58] (29 seconds)  #GodHasNotForgottenYou

See, remember Luke's writing about fulfillment? He's writing to Theophilus. Theophilus, let me tell you how you can live with confidence in the present about the future promises. God's past performance. If God did for a man who was just praying with incense what he always longed for God to do, bring him a boy. Why would you think that God cannot bring Christ? And how we find present confidence, Luke said last week, is past performance produces present confidence in the future promises. [01:02:39] (36 seconds)  #PastPromisesBuildConfidence

Because when God fulfilled everything that I just read to you, this is like as big if not, the biggest event in human history up to that moment. The next one will be the second coming. Like this is about the biggest thing that's ever happened in all of human history. And that if you take the entire historical books of this beautiful Bible, they're all talking and teaching us about this moment when the Messiah comes, the Christ, the son of the living God who's going to come and walk this earth. [01:03:15] (38 seconds)  #MomentOfTheMessiah

So, God's fulfilling two very important purposes in one powerful moment. Sure, the purposes of biblical history, but the personal, powerful, purposeful prayers of a couple nobody's ever even heard of. This poor guy, he's probably a synagogue leader where they live in some small, remote town, probably has terrible attendance on Sunday. You know what I mean? Not like here. And he's just grinding, grinding. All he wants is a boy. And the declarative statement of God is when I'm in the midst of fulfilling my grand and epic purposes, don't you think for a moment I've forgotten you. [01:05:27] (45 seconds)  #GodRemembersTheSmall

And so, the angel looks at him and says, there's one thing you've got to do when you have doubt about what God said he's going to do. Silence it. This isn't punishment, this is protection. Because you could naturally, he's got to wait nine months, right? Or maybe a little longer, we don't know, but the truth is, God's like, no, don't share your doubt. Don't do that. I don't want you to tell people about everything that happened and then you share with them, I don't know how this is going to happen, so I'm just going to keep your mouth shut until it does happen. Okay? So, shh. [01:08:47] (35 seconds)  #SilenceYourDoubt

But here's the thing you cannot miss. Doubt was not a deterrent. Doubt did not disqualify him from God's promise. Doubt is a natural human response when God intervenes in your world in such a spectacular way and says, mm, I'm going to do that. But don't be shocked when God shuts your mouth a little bit because he doesn't want you to share your doubt because you know what happens. If you say the same thing over and over and over enough, it becomes your truth. Our doubt may silence us but it will never stop God. [01:09:23] (40 seconds)  #DoubtWontStopGod

So think about this and not in a grotesque or vulgar or foul way because it's the same thing that Noah and his wife did or Adam and Eve did. It's the same thing that Abraham and Sarah had to do. He had to try and go home and explain this to his wife who was well along in the years. How do you go home when you can't speak? Because sometimes love is best displayed than explained. [01:11:26] (41 seconds)  #ShowLoveDontExplain

Just go home and make love to your wife and you're an old man. Can you imagine that and walk home? Because the first thing in my mind would be how do I tell her after this his wife Elizabeth, I can't make this up. She became pregnant. What does that say about Zachariah? That his doubt did not lead to disobedience. That his doubt did not lead to defiance. His doubt did not produce faithlessness. [01:12:07] (57 seconds)  #DoubtNotDisobedience

He had the whole gospel of Luke. He had heard enough. He had seen enough to know enough and believe. It's the whole gospel of Luke. You can hear enough. Did you hear what Luke heard? To know enough that God really does care about those everybody else would walk right by and overlook and be too busy to care. You can know that. Now can you believe that he wants to birth something in you and through you in order to change you? [01:13:06] (47 seconds)  #GodCaresForTheOverlooked

This woman had been walking for so many years with a shame that was placed upon her that had nothing to do with anything she had ever done. Everywhere she went there were whispers because in that day to be a barren woman was to be cursed. You've done something wrong. You must have been immoral. What is wrong with you that you can't have a child? And so wherever she went she was in public disgrace and what she sees in this moment and it's probably one of the reasons she stays hidden because she knows the sting of public ridicule. [01:16:42] (36 seconds)  #NoShameInGodsEyes