Something called the Passover in the Old Testament. The Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt. Have you ever been in bondage? You ever felt like you were in bondage? I feel like I'm in bondage to this body I live in right now. But they were slaves. And God came and spoke to Moses and he said, Moses, tell him to take a lamb. Tell him to sacrifice the lamb, roast it. And you're supposed to eat it in haste and you're supposed to eat it in haste. You're supposed to be ready to leave tomorrow because I'm going to deliver you. Now this morning we don't celebrate the fact that we were delivered from Egypt, but we celebrate the fact we were delivered from our sin. Because sin puts you in bondage. It controls you. It causes you to be a prisoner. The Word of God says that Jesus, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. [00:32:54] (72 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




And God told Moses, he said, now you take blood from that lamb. He said, you put it on the sides of your door and over the top of your doorpost. And he said, the angel of death is going to come. And he's going to go throughout Egypt and he's going to take the firstborn of everyone that does not have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. Can you imagine what it was like in Egypt that night when the angel of death passed over and there was weeping in every house that did not have the blood of the lamb? Do you have the blood of the lamb over the doorpost? [00:34:59] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




Lord Jesus, I pray that you would heal your body today. That, Lord, anyone who is ill would be healed in the name of Jesus. That, Lord, people that are confused or anxious or don't know which way to turn would have the mind of Christ. And that, Lord, the power of your Holy Spirit would take over our lives. And that your Holy Spirit would lead us and would guide us today as we open your word. And that, Lord, we would leave this place different than the way we came in. Closer to you. Closer to you in Jesus' name. Amen. [00:36:34] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid. Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. Is that awesome? [00:39:28] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in the years. The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. This is pure gospel, church. Now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words which will come true at their appointed time. [00:40:25] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




His father Zechariah, don't miss this, I want this for everybody here today, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people to redeem them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To show mercy to our ancestors. To remember His holy covenant. The oath He swore to our father, Abraham. [00:42:42] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




Zechariah had a plan, but it was interrupted by the angel. And the angel Gabriel came and he interrupted him. And are you willing to be interrupted in your life sometimes? I'm here to tell you, when I was in high school, we had this assignment. And we had to write down what we were going to do with our life. Think about that when you're about 17 years old. And I can remember the teacher laughing at me when I told him I was going to be a dairy farmer and stuff like that. And I thought, boy, if I had that piece of paper now and that teacher could see me, he just wouldn't believe it, would he? [00:46:22] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




Now before we leave this point, what do angels actually do? In Hebrews 1, verse 14, it says, don't you know that angels are ministering, beings, and they have been sent to minister to those who are to inherit salvation. Turn to somebody and say, that's me. And they're sent to minister to us. They're God's ministering spirits. Isn't that something? I dare you to sit down and figure out how many times you've been saved by them in your life from dying at an early age. Man, I've kept one busy for quite some time. [00:49:26] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




Now your next point, Gabriel tried to put Zechariah at ease. If an angel comes from God, they will always say, Fear not. Fear not. And we need to hear those words because it also tells us in Scripture that Satan comes as an angel of light. He disguises himself. And so if an angel of light comes to you and he doesn't say, Fear not, and if you're afraid, you better check him out because he didn't come from God. God's not the author of fear. You haven't been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. [00:52:29] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

You may be seated.

Something called the Passover in the Old Testament. The Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt. Have you ever been in bondage? You ever felt like you were in bondage? I feel like I'm in bondage to this body I live in right now. But they were slaves.

And God came and spoke to Moses and He said, "Moses, tell him to take a lamb. Tell him to sacrifice the lamb, roast it. And you're supposed to eat it in haste and you're supposed to eat it in haste. You're supposed to be ready to leave tomorrow because I'm going to deliver you."

Now this morning we don't celebrate the fact that we were delivered from Egypt, but we celebrate the fact we were delivered from our sin. Because sin puts you in bondage. It controls you. It causes you to be a prisoner.

The Word of God says that Jesus, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Lord Jesus, we remember you this morning. That, Lord, this bread represents your body. You died willingly for us on the cross in our place so that we can go free.

Lord Jesus, we ask you to forgive us today for all the places we've fallen short, where we've been in bondage to sin and self. And so, Lord, we recognize you. We remember you. We thank you. We praise you. We celebrate what you've done for us today as we take.

Let's eat the bread.

And God told Moses, He said, "Now you take blood from that lamb. He said, you put it on the sides of your door and over the top of your doorpost. And He said, the angel of death is going to come. And he's going to go throughout Egypt and he's going to take the firstborn of everyone that does not have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost."

Can you imagine what it was like in Egypt that night when the angel of death passed over and there was weeping in every house that did not have the blood of the lamb?

Do you have the blood of the lamb over the doorpost?

And the night Jesus was betrayed, He said, "This is a cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. Do you have the blood of Jesus over your doorpost to protect you today?"

Lord Jesus, as we drink this, we recognize that it represents your blood. That's the blood of Jesus. Set us free. That washed us clean. We were singing it. It washes us clean.

Lord, we're sorry for the times we've sinned against you. We recognize that Jesus died and bled for us. And Lord, we celebrate the fact that we can be free today in your precious name.

Let's drink.

Lord Jesus, I pray that you would heal your body today. That, Lord, anyone who is ill would be healed in the name of Jesus. That, Lord, people that are confused or anxious or don't know which way to turn would have the mind of Christ.

And that, Lord, the power of your Holy Spirit would take over our lives. And that your Holy Spirit would lead us and would guide us today as we open your word. And that, Lord, we would leave this place different than the way we came in. Closer to you. Closer to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Good morning. Boy, what a difference a week in temperature can make. Won't be long, we'll be able to walk on water. Amen?

So this morning we are in a new series called "Fear Not." Anybody in here ever been afraid? Yeah, everybody that tells the truth has their hand up. That's right. Fear not. It's something that the angel always says when he comes to God's people. The angel will always say fear not. Don't be afraid.

But we're going to read about Zechariah this morning. We're going to start in Luke chapter 1 beginning in verse 5. When you think about fear, I want you to think about the definition. The definition of fear, it's an emotion that you feel when you sense some type of danger. And it's real. And it causes people to act. And to react in different kinds of ways.

And so it's my prayer this morning that God will deal with fear in all of us. He will get us to think like Him and to walk like Him. Amen?

Alright, so Luke chapter 1 beginning in the 5th verse. We're going to read a lot of Scripture. Don't panic. We'll be done in plenty of time.

In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. Wouldn't you like to have that written about you? They were both righteous in the sight of God.

But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive. And they were both very old.

Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before the Lord, he was chosen by lot according to the custom of priesthood to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

When the time for burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. Is that awesome?

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in the years."

The angel said to him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. This is pure gospel, church. Now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words which will come true at their appointed time."

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them and they realized he had seen a vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

When his time of service was completed, he returned home and after this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

"The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days, He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

Now we're going to go to verse 57 and we're going to read what happens after the birth of his son.

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah. But his mother spoke up and said, "No, he is to be called John."

They said to her, "There's no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, "His name is John."

Immediately, his mouth was opened, his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe and throughout the hill country, the Judean people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him."

His father Zechariah, don't miss this, I want this for everybody here today, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.

"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people to redeem them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he said through his holy prophets of long ago. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To show mercy to our ancestors. To remember His holy covenant. The oath He swore to our father, Abraham. To rescue us from the hand of our enemies. To enable us to serve Him without fear. In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High. For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him. To give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven. To shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death. To guide our feet into the path of peace.

Father, I ask you to breathe life into the text today. In Jesus' precious name.

Your first point this morning, Zechariah expected a normal church service, but God interrupted his routine.

I wonder if anybody here this morning came to have a normal church service. My first question to you is, what is that? Maybe you got up this morning and said, "Man, I hope that guy doesn't talk too long. I want to get home for this," or "I got this to do," or "I want to get that one Christmas present which is on sale today and today only."

You see, I believe Zechariah has done this before. Some say this is the first time he was able to burn incense. You know that there are so many priests. But I believe he's done it before. I think he expected a normal service. I think he thought he would go in there. He would take that censer and put fire in it. He would fill it with incense. And he would come before that altar with that censer. And the incense would go up. And he would do everything he was supposed to do according to the Levitical law. And then he would come back out and all the people would say, "Amen." And he would go home to whatever Elizabeth had for dinner.

And it was interrupted.

What would you do if God interrupted service today? We had a young preacher here one time. And I was an associate pastor. And Pastor Rick was the senior pastor. And he was sitting up here in the front. And he was going to preach this day. And he was sitting here. And I could see he was in anguish. He had his head down like this. And he was praying sincerely. And I thought, "Man, we better find out what's going on with him."

And I went up there and I said to him, "Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?" And he said, "Yeah, you know, I was just thinking about my prayer. And I was praying that God wouldn't do anything today."

And I said, "What?"

Well, he said, "Man, I was praying that God wouldn't, you know, speak out in a tongue or have somebody prophesy or do something that I wouldn't know what to do about."

And I said, "Okay, we got to change this like right now."

And we had to come and pray with him. And we said, "Don't worry about it. We got you. You're back, man. If anything crazy happens, we'll take care of it. But don't pray that way."

Isn't it interesting what goes on in church today? Man, I hope everything goes smooth. Let's plan it. Let's plan it.

Zechariah had a plan, but it was interrupted by the angel. And the angel Gabriel came and he interrupted him. And are you willing to be interrupted in your life sometimes?

I'm here to tell you, when I was in high school, we had this assignment. And we had to write down what we were going to do with our life. Think about that when you're about 17 years old.

And I can remember the teacher laughing at me when I told him I was going to be a dairy farmer and stuff like that. And I thought, boy, if I had that piece of paper now and that teacher could see me, he just wouldn't believe it, would he?

Now look at your next point. When humans are naturally afraid of celestial beings.

You know, sometimes it says in Scripture, we're going to do a little bit of angelology now, the study of angels. If you get the theology book, you can read, there's just pages and pages about angels and demons and Satan and fallen angels and everything, and it goes on and on.

But it's really interesting. Do you really know what angels are about? The Bible says sometimes you entertain them unaware. I kind of like that because I don't know they were an angel after the fact. I'm wondering, is that an angel or wasn't it an angel? It doesn't scare me so much.

But in this case, he knew that was an angel. It was angel Gabriel. He was no ordinary angel, this guy.

And I wonder if you know what angels are all about according to Scripture. Because if you watch movies, Hollywood will mess you up about angels.

But there's all kinds of information about angels. Angels have a free will, just like you and I do. Do you know it? That's why Satan sinned and fell out. Taken out of heaven. Have a free will.

They don't procreate like humans. These are just facts I'm throwing out there for you if you want to study angels.

This angel was angel Gabriel. He's a protector of Israel. Because in Daniel, if you want to do a little bit of research, Daniel 8, 9, and 10, those chapters, you will see that Gabriel appears to Daniel.

And he comes to him. And at one point in chapter 10, he says, "You know, I was answering your prayer right away, but I was fighting with the prince of Persia, and then Michael had to come and help me so I could get free to come and explain to you what the vision you had actually means."

See, he's a protector of Israel. So he's no ordinary angel, and I understand why he was pretty intimidating to him.

And when it came to Daniel, if you read it in chapter 8, it says when this man, Gabriel, came, he looked like a man, but when he came to Daniel, Daniel said, "I fell down like a dead man on my face." How do you like that? He rested in the Spirit like boom.

And so it would be easy for me to go, "Why were you so afraid, Zechariah?" But I'm telling you, that was intimidating when the angel came.

Now before we leave this point, what do angels actually do?

In Hebrews 1, verse 14, it says, "Don't you know that angels are ministering beings, and they have been sent to minister to those who are to inherit salvation?"

Turn to somebody and say, "That's me."

And they're sent to minister to us. They're God's ministering spirits. Isn't that something?

I dare you to sit down and figure out how many times you've been saved by them in your life from dying at an early age. Man, I've kept one busy for quite some time.

That's it? Now, I wrote here in my notes when you were a kid, you're afraid because it says Zechariah was afraid. It says it right in the text, doesn't it? It says he was afraid when he saw the angel. Fear causes a human reaction.

Have you ever been afraid and done something you wish you hadn't done? Now you don't have to raise your hand, but yeah, we do, huh? All the time.

I remember one time we were at a farm bureau meeting. We had a great big meeting. There used to be a whole lot of farmers in this area and we filled up this banquet hall, you know, and we were having a big meal.

And what they did at the end of the meal, they were giving away 40-year pins. If you had been a member for 40 years, they were giving you this special pin and recognizing you.

And the guy up there was not a public speaker and I could tell he was nervous. Then he was afraid and he didn't know exactly what was going on. But he was announcing a name and somebody would come up and get a 40-year pin and they would go back. And then he announced his name and nobody came forward.

And you could see he was getting constantly kind of edgy, you see, up in front there. And he was dancing a little bit. And then he announced the name again, and nobody came forward.

And finally, somebody in the audience says, "He passed away last year."

And then he got a little bit more nervous. And they said, "Okay, okay." He said, "And he set the pin down, and he said, we'll send it to him."

And my dad, the jokester that he is, is out in the crowd, goes, "Could I get his address?"

Our series is "Fear Not." If you know where you're going to be when you get there, when you leave this world, you don't have to be afraid of anything. You know why? Because the worst thing they can do is kill us.

And if they do, we're with Jesus. But do you know it? Because if you have fear, it'll mess with you all the time, okay?

Now your next point, Gabriel tried to put Zechariah at ease.

If an angel comes from God, they will always say, "Fear not. Fear not."

And we need to hear those words because it also tells us in Scripture that Satan comes as an angel of light. He disguises himself.

And so if an angel of light comes to you and he doesn't say, "Fear not," and if you're afraid, you better check him out because he didn't come from God.

God's not the author of fear. You haven't been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And so we need to learn to discern. But the angel, you know, Gabriel, he said, "Just don't be afraid, Zechariah." Easy for him to say, huh?

But it says Zechariah was afraid. And then he says, "Don't be afraid." He says, "Your prayers have been answered."

Your next point, God remembers all of our prayers.

Now I have a question for you this morning. If the angel Gabriel came to you and he said, "You know, don't be afraid." And you were like, "Okay." And he said, "Your prayers have been answered." What would you think of?

I'm ashamed to tell you what I would think of. Because if the angel from God came to me and said, "You know, Pastor Dave, your prayers have been answered," the first thing I would think of was, "Finally, I'm going to get that new pickup truck."

And I thought, "Oh man, am I selfish."

But stop and think about that for a minute. What prayer? Think of all the prayers you've prayed. Think of all the prayers Zechariah's prayed. What would you think of?

So I thought, "Well, wait a minute. Now, hold it, Lord. I'll get real spiritual. Your prayer's been answered. We're going to get a million dollars and pay off the wing."

And then I went, "Oh man, that's not very good either, is it?"

And I was, "Man, Lord. Sometimes you don't realize how many dead men's bones you have inside you, do you? How selfish we can be."

And I think when he said to Zechariah, "Your prayer's been answered," I wonder what Zechariah was thinking of.

Because it says him and Elizabeth were past the childbearing age, and so he thought it was impossible, and I think he had given up on that prayer.

I think he had given up on that prayer. And all of a sudden, you know, Gabriel says to him, he says, "Hey, you're going to have a little baby boy."

And Zechariah, isn't it interesting? He doesn't go, "Oh, that's really good, Gabriel." He doesn't say that. He says, "Oh, wait, I got a few questions here."

He says, "How can that be? Because I'm old, and we're old. And we're past it naturally."

And Gabriel says, "Elizabeth's going to have a baby." He describes the baby. And he tells him what his ministry's going to be, and he tells him what he's going to do, how he's going to introduce the Messiah.

Now, when we read Scripture, we should put ourselves in that place and say, "What would I do?"

I know this is going to get me in trouble later, but if Gabriel came to me and said, "Hey, Dave, you and Princess Pat are going to have a baby," after I woke up from passing out, I'd say, "Gabriel, I got some questions."

What does Zechariah say? He says, "How can this be?"

But we have to ask the question, is anything impossible with God? This is an Abraham and Sarah story in real life, isn't it, church?

And he goes on and he tells him, "No, she's going to conceive. She's going to have a little boy." He remembered the prayer. I don't know if Zechariah did.

Now, when I get to heaven, Zechariah might take me aside and say, "You missed this up really bad, you know."

But I think he had given up on that prayer. Have you given up on any prayers? How many people have you given up praying for? Thinking it's not going to happen.

And I'm here to tell you, God remembers the prayer. And if there's life and if there's breath, then God can come through, amen?

Your next point, Gabriel detected fearful unbelief in Zechariah.

Do you know angels and God, they know when you're afraid and they know when you don't believe? Fear and unbelief are kind of our partners, aren't they? You get afraid and then you have a hard time believing and you capitulate between faith and fear and it goes on every day in my mind.

Church, I have to confess, there are times when I'm like, "What am I doing? Lord, why did I let you get me into this?"

But the Spirit of God will say, "What are you worried about? I got this."

But the angel knew, Gabriel detected that. He could tell right away that he was afraid and that he didn't believe him and he just couldn't take that news. And it was good news. He called it good news.

And he said, "Okay." He said, "Zechariah, because you don't believe it, you can't talk."

Wow, aren't you glad that doesn't happen to everybody who doesn't believe today? It would be really quiet, wouldn't it?

And so he couldn't speak.

Here's your next point. Zechariah could not talk. He couldn't talk about his experience, but he acted according to the angel's good news.

Have you ever heard that actions speak louder than words?

He was afraid. He didn't believe. He couldn't speak. But he went home and what did he do? He loved his wife and she conceived. It was a pretty quiet household, wasn't it? He couldn't talk.

And we read in the text that when Elizabeth knew she was pregnant, she went into seclusion for five months. My goodness, what a peaceful home.

But God did exactly what He said He was going to do. And Zechariah didn't shrink back. Zechariah acted exactly according to what God said was going to happen.

And when his little baby boy, John, was born, and they came and circumcised him, and then they said, "What are we going to name him?" And the whole family with him that day to celebrate said, "Oh, he's going to be Zechariah Jr."

And Elizabeth said, "No, his name is John."

And they said, "There's nobody in your family. What's wrong with you, Elizabeth?"

And they said, "Zechariah, what do you want to call him?"

And he asked for a writing tablet, and he wrote down, "His name will be John."

His actions were exactly what the angel told him to do. And the moment he acted according to the will of God, what happened? His obedience opened his mouth.

It opened his mouth.

You maybe have heard the saying, "Preach the gospel at all times, but use words only when necessary."

In the first service, I thought it was St. Augustine. My Bible scholars in between services told me it was St. Francis of Assisi.

Assisi, but they said he didn't really say it, just somebody wrote it down and said he said it. So I don't know who said it, but it's a good saying, isn't it?

To preach the gospel at all times, but use words only when they're necessary.

Because people watch you, and they watch how you act, and they watch what you do, and they watched Zechariah, and they watched Elizabeth, and they saw their lives, and then they saw them bear a child.

They saw Zechariah when he came out of the temple. He acted according to God's will and to what the angel told him was going to happen.

Church, we got a whole book full of instructions from God. It's time for the church to start acting.

All week, I'm going, "God, you know, you get to a place, I've done this a million times in ministry, you get to a place where you commit to do something, going, 'God, why did I say we'd be in that parade?'"

You know, and he goes, "If you're not going to do it, who's going to do it? So get up there, be quiet, and do it. Tell everybody Christmas is about Jesus."

And he's going to take care of it because it's not my will, it's his will.

Brings us to your next point. God's will prevails in the midst of man's unbelief.

Do you know God's will is going to be done? Think about it. Did any of you have any say in when you were born?

Isn't that a great question? Have you ever stopped even to think about that? I didn't get to go, "No, mom, I don't want to be born on the 23rd of November, okay? So let's wait till tomorrow. I don't want to be born on the 23rd of November."

I didn't get to say that. You didn't get to say it. It was an act of God.

How many of us have something to say about when we die? We don't, do we?

You know how many people I've met who the doctor said you have this long to live and ten years later they're still living?

Because we're not in charge. We're not in charge.

God's will is going to prevail in the midst of our unbelief or belief. I'd rather believe and go along with Him.

I love Henry Blackaby. Henry Blackaby said quit trying to get God to come along with you and complete your plans. He said lay your plans down and figure out what God's doing and join Him. Isn't that just great advice?

Isn't that just great advice? Because God's will will prevail.

And so Elizabeth and Zechariah had this little boy named John.

Here's your next point. Zechariah's obedience allows him to speak and he prophesied concerning his son John and the salvation through Jesus.

There's two kinds of fear. There's bad fear and there's good fear. This is a good fear. Zechariah had fear of God in an adoration way and in loving God. And in adoring God. And in thanking Him for what He was going to do.

And when his mouth opens and he is filled with the Holy Spirit, which I pray happens to everybody here today, he began to speak and prophesy.

And if you read that text, it tells you exactly that his son John is coming in the spirit of Elijah, and he is going to introduce the Messiah.

When Jesus comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, and they said, "Elijah is supposed to come first," and Jesus said, "Elijah has come, and they did what they wanted with him."

He was speaking about John the Baptist, and it says they understood. He was talking about John the Baptist, coming in the spirit of Elijah.

And that made Jesus the Messiah.

He went on and he spoke about the salvation that was going to come through Jesus. He said the horn of salvation has risen up. Forgiveness for our sins, he said. What a powerful prophetic word.

How did it happen? Through obedience to the Word of God, acting according to the good news. The good news that God sent.

Last point in your outline today, Zechariah's forgotten prayer was answered.

You know, I don't know if he forgot the prayer or if he had given up on it, or maybe none.

But my question to you is, how many forgotten prayers have you got? Or how many prayers have you given up on?

You got any people you've given up on? I'm telling you, I've got a list this long.

And you know what? God keeps reminding me, if they're still alive, there's still hope.

We have a whole bunch of names up here that you've written down that you're praying for salvation.

And so many times people say, "Well, God hasn't answered my prayer." And I go, "Yet."

Because Zechariah could have said, "Well, God hasn't answered my prayer and Elizabeth's prayer." And the angel said, "Not yet, but guess what's going to happen, pal?"

Father, we come to You today, and Lord, I want to address fear in here. If there's any fear in this place, Lord, I pray You would expunge it and You would replace it with faith in Jesus.

Because the angel said, "Fear not. Fear not."

He said, "Your prayer's been answered, Zechariah." And Zechariah, he said, "How in the world can this happen?" And he said, "Don't worry, it's going to happen."

Father, I ask You to watch over Your people. Lord, there are people in here today that have health problems.

And Lord, they may have had bad news and been told certain things. And Father, I pray right now, in the name of Jesus, they would turn to You and they would listen to You and they would ask You, "Lord, what do You think about this?"

And that, Lord, they wouldn't fear, but they would submit to You.

Father, there are people in here, there are people watching online right now that are in situations and they hate it.

And they're fighting against it. And the Scripture says it's like Paul. They're kicking against the goads and they're fighting it.

And I pray, Father, that this morning we can submit to Your will. We can say, like Jehoshaphat, we can say, "Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on You."

Lord, I pray that this morning we wouldn't be afraid we would turn our eyes to you and that Lord Jesus you would fill us with your spirit and you would guide us.

The Bible says those who are led by the spirit they are the children of God, they're the sons and they're the daughters of God.

Lord, we want to be your children. We want to act like your children and then Lord we'll have the benefits of your children.

Father, take your word today. Let it accomplish in each of us what you sent it to do.

Lord, if there's one person in here, if there's one person listening that doesn't know their eternal address, that they don't know when they leave this world that they're going to be with you, I pray that Lord today would be the day of salvation.

That Lord Jesus they would surrender to you, they would confess their sins, they would confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and be set free by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

If you need prayer, I'm going to ask the prayer teams to come up. They want to pray for you. We want to pray for you.

If not, go out there and live a fearless life for our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

God bless you. You're free. You're free. You're an example. You're faithful. You're kwabba said forever ever.

EST and more now that you're with me.