When the Promise Feels Late // The Story of Christmas Week 3

Hey, let's jump into the Word of God today. Who's ready for the Word? All right. So growing up, the pastor used to preach every single Sunday, and he'd always start his message off by saying this phrase, God is good. Congregation would say, all the time. And then he'd say, all the time. So let's do this today. Let's have some fun in church. We're celebrating 225 baptisms this year. 27 people taking the next step. Can we all say, God is good. And all the time. Come on, say it like you mean it today. God is good. And all the time. And everything that I'm going to say in this message today hinges on that reality that the Lord has been gracious to you and to me. Luke chapter one, verse 37 says that nothing is impossible for our God. Nothing is impossible for our God. I think when the author Luke puts pen to parchment and begins to describe in great detail and accuracy the birth of Jesus Christ, a birth that would change the world forever, it's amazing that he does not begin by describing a virgin named Mary or her fiance Joseph. No, no, no, no, no. Luke begins with an old couple.

He starts with a senior citizen couple that has some gray hair coming in. They've got their J-A-R-P cards. Some of you don't know what that means. Jerusalem Association of Retired Persons. You know what I'm saying? He begins his gospel by talking about two people and their names are Zachariah and Elizabeth who had been faithful to the call of God and they thought it was too late for God to come through on his promise. Luke the doctor goes into great detail in letting us know that the angel Gabriel's first appearance in the Christmas story is actually not to Mary and it's not to Joseph, it's actually to Zachariah, a priest who was serving in the temple. Now I know every single Christmas as we go through the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph, they get all the shine, they get all the accolades, they get all the attention. As the young people down front might say, they got main character energy, right? And that's awesome and all, but I love that Luke begins his gospel not talking about Mary and Joseph. He said, I don't wanna start with a young couple that went viral, I wanna start with the old couple that was faithful. Oh, I love the faithfulness of this couple. As the Bible says this, that they were old

and advanced in their years, but they were righteous and blameless in the sight of God. Didn't mean that they were perfect, just meant that they were righteous and faithful and I would use the word they were consistent. Oh, I love people that are consistent. The older that I get, and I know that I'm not very old, but the older that I do get, the less impressed I am with people who have intensity or can start something, the more impressed I am with people who can be faithful to something, who let their yes be yes and don't just show up one time, but keep showing up day after day, who don't just come to church on one Sunday, but they'll plant someplace for 20 or 30 years. I'm not impressed with that couple at the restaurant when you go out to eat and they just got married and they've been married for three months and they're all over each other. Come on somebody, give me the couple that's in their 80s that takes a minute to get into the restaurant and sits down and they don't even know what to say to each other because they've already said everything over 50 years of marriage. I love the consistency and faithfulness of people who stick to something. There's something about consistency and Zachariah and Elizabeth, they were consistent. And let me show you the power of consistency. There's something about consistency in your life

and in your faith journey and obedience to the word of God and obedience to what he tells us to do as followers of Jesus. There's something about a consistent life that lives a life for Jesus that gives you an opportunity then to show you how mighty he is and can be in your life. See, I believe the successful people do consistently what normal people do occasionally. All right, let's face the reality today. God could show his might in a minute. He can show his might in a moment, but there's something about him showing his might when you have some mileage, when you can look back over the years of life and say, God, I've seen you be faithful then, you can still be faithful now. As scripture says, he's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's the God who was and who is and who is to come, which means he was faithful at the beginning of time, won't he be faithful to see all of our needs that we have right now and the promise of God still can be fulfilled in your life and mine, still can be fulfilled. I love the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth. I love the names of Zachariah and Elizabeth. Zachariah means this, it means God remembers. The name Elizabeth is translated to oath. So literally, their names together is this, God remembers his oath.

God remembers his promise. Every time they walked into a room and their names were said, people were literally saying, hi, Zachariah and Elizabeth, hi, God remembers his promise. God remembers his promise. What's so interesting is that their name, their declaration was contradictory to their circumstance that they were in. Because the Bible lets us know that Zachariah and Elizabeth are righteous, they're blameless in the sight of God, but they're also, what scripture says, they're also childless. They don't have a child. What do you do when the circumstances of your life are contradictory to what God has called you to do? What do you do when God has declared something in your life, but the reality of your circumstances of your season don't show what God has declared in your life? And literally for Zachariah and Elizabeth, their names were literally God remembers his promise, but they had yet to hold onto the promise of God in their life because they were without child. They were not able to have children. I know that is an extremely difficult, painful thing in our culture and society today. If you've ever gone through that,

if you've ever been unable to have children, but you have to understand this, that in biblical days to be barren was not just something that was painful, it was incredibly shaming and embarrassing. People would have thought that there was some secret sin that was going on in their life. There was something that Zachariah and Elizabeth would have done that would have precluded them from having children. There would have been whispers in the hallway going, I wonder what Zachariah and Elizabeth did. I wonder what they did that would have made God so angry at them that he would have punished them with not having any children. There would have been whispers about Zachariah and Elizabeth's actions, yet God says, no, no, no, you have not done anything wrong at all, Zachariah and Elizabeth. You're actually righteous in my sight. That's why you can never live for the whispers and the opinions of other people. Have you ever found that pleasing God often means that you'll be disappointing people in life? Oh, I'll just remind you of this. If you will live for the approval of people in our world today, you will die at their disapproval. You've gotta know what God says about you, and the primary way to know what God says about you

is what the word of God says, the promises of God that are yes and amen. Come on, is anyone thankful for the word of God that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever? If God's word says you're blessed, that you're blessed. My Bible says that we're victors and more than conquerors through Christ. My Bible even says that he'll take what the enemy has meant for evil and he'll turn it for good. I'm thankful for the promises of God in our life. So here they are, promises of God, promise to them. Zechariah and Elizabeth, God remembers his promise, yet their circumstances are not lining up with what God has called them to do. And all of a sudden, one seemingly ordinary day, Zechariah is selected one out of 20,000 priests, big day, to get to be the person, to get to be in the altar of incense, to get to prepare the place, to get to be in the tabernacle of the Lord. And he's there one day and the angel of the Lord Gabriel appears to him. And he says this, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Do not be afraid, Zechariah. And he says these words, he says, your prayer has been heard. Notice it didn't say prayers, it says your prayer. In other words, that one serious heart cry

that you've been bringing to God over and over and over again. That one thing that you've been asking God for for years and years and years. That one thing that God spoke to you in a church service or at an altar years and years that you've been waiting on, but it didn't come through on your timetable and you started to lose hope. Listen, God sees every tear. God hears every prayer. God knows where you are today. God says, I heard it. Zechariah, I've seen your faithfulness and you're to give birth to a son and his name will be called John. Zechariah responds back to the angel of the Lord, though, with doubt. He said, how can I be sure that this is gonna come to pass? How can I be sure that this is going to come to pass? How can I be sure that this is gonna come to pass? Now, that is the account in which the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, appears to Zechariah. There's not much further later in the text of Luke, an appearance where the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, appears to Mary. And it's so interesting to see these two experiences because the angel of the Lord comes to Mary and says, guess what, Mary, you found favor.

You're gonna give birth to. the son of the living God. And on the surface level, if you just look at this initially, it seems like Mary's response is actually pretty similar to Zechariah's response. Mary's response says this, how is this gonna happen? And the angel of the Lord says, guess what? The Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow you and then gives all of the detail. Now, wait a second. Didn't Zechariah respond the same way? Zechariah responds the same way, and the moment that he responds with doubt in that manner, his mouth gets shut, and he's not able to talk for the entirety of the pregnancy of John the Baptist. Mary says it, and she gets an explanation. Does anyone else think that's not fair right there? Gabriel, that's some gender discrimination that's going on right there. I don't like that. How come Mary gets an explanation and Zechariah gets put on mute? But check this out. I actually looked at this a little bit deeper these past couple of weeks. There's differences. Zechariah's response is with doubt.

It's saying, how can I be sure of this? How do I know that this is really gonna happen? But Mary's response is more of just a question. She believes God can. She just says, can you give me some details on how this will be? Zechariah doubted the certainty. Mary knew God always could and would. She was just asking for more clarity because she said, I'm engaged to Joseph, and I don't know him in that manner to be able to have a child. Lord, just tell me how this will be. And when the angel of the Lord tells her how it will be, Mary says these words. She says, let it be according to your words. In other words, God, I don't understand how this is gonna happen. I don't know how this will actually happen because it's not physically possible for me and Joseph to have a kid if we are not married in this manner, but I believe that you can still do it because you're a mighty God. You are who you say you are, and you will do what you say you will do. Come on, is there anyone that believes here today that our God is still able to do what he says he will do, that every word will come to promise, that he is the God of the miraculous?

Mary said it, let it be to me according to your word, according to your word, according to your word. I would love to invite my wife up here just to get to share with you a little of our story. Some of you may know this story, shared maybe two years ago, two and a half years ago in a church service. Others of you are so new. We've had so many new people. As you saw, over 1,000 people that have been first-time guests this year. Calvary Church, we know there are many new. I just thought it was just a beautiful story today, just a reminder of the faithfulness of God in the text that we're studying today, and as we're heading into 21 days of prayer and fasting, just would love for her to share how we went through a season similar and how she clinged to the promise of God. I was prepared this time. The first service, he didn't tell me, and I came up here and I was like, ugh, but I got it this time. First of all, it's just always such a privilege to even get to share anything that the Lord has done. It was funny, when he told me to share this, I said, I was like, ugh, I just feel like people are gonna get sick of me sharing the same story over and over again, and I really feel like the Lord made clear to me that he can use

the same story in so many different ways, and so, yeah, like my husband said, we have two children, Andy and Samuel. Samuel's about to be six months old, and Andy is three years old, and we went through a period of about 2 1⁄2 years trying to have a baby, and it was the hardest thing that I had ever gone through, and I know he talked about how in biblical times it was shameful to be infertile, not just painful, but I can tell you that I still felt shame. I was ashamed that I couldn't have a child because I felt like that was what I was supposed to do, right, like isn't that why the Lord created me to have a child, and so I was angry. I was angry, Kathy knows. I would come in here, and if I even came to church, I didn't even wanna come to church, but if I did, I would come here, and I just would stand here and be so angry and refuse to worship because I couldn't have a baby, and so to me, that meant that God wasn't good, and much like Zachariah and Elizabeth, I felt I was going through my life like, oh, well, all right, well, the Lord must be punishing me. Like, what did I do that is making him make me suffer like this, and there's tons of things. Like, I was like, was it when I put a tack on my dad's chair when he yelled at me when I was eight? It could be that.

I would literally pace around my house at night. I couldn't sleep trying to understand why I couldn't have a baby, and so we went through IVF. Our first transfer failed, and at that point, it was December, and we were getting ready to start the 21 days of prayer and fasting. at the church. And I had never really like fully committed to the prayer and fasting. I was like, all right, I'll like, you know, I'll give up broccoli. Like, I just won't eat any broccoli. I couldn't like, but this time I was like, you know what? I'm, I am going to lean into it. And I did. And what I got from that period of time was something that just completely transformed my life because I learned during that 21 days of prayer and fasting that God was good. God was good. God was faithful because he is not because I have children now, not because he could give me children, but because that is who he is. And much like Zachariah and Elizabeth in that time, in that season, you don't have to pray about whether or not you need to serve the Lord. You just need to do it. You just have to serve him. You just have to worship him because he is the answer. Even though I have children now, that's, that's not my purpose. That is my purpose to know him and to make him known. And, and he showed me that. I heard it illustrated when I was going through it. You know, when Moses led the Israelites, right, he parted the Red Sea. Like they were like, oh my gosh, like the land is dry. Here we go. This is great. And then so when Joshua led the Israelites to the Jordan River, they were expecting to walk across on dry land because like that's what they expected. But what happened? The Lord had the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant step into the water and then the water receded. And, and I think that's such an important message because a lot of times our faith is just a series of steps, right? Because I was like, well, if I could just see that I would have a baby, Lord, I'd worship you. I'd worship you. But that's why his word is a lamp unto our feet because we just have to take the next step. And I felt like I should be exempt from suffering. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, they were righteous in the sight of God, right? So if anybody should have had a baby based on merit, it should have been them. And I realized through that that I'm not exempt from suffering. None of us are. Because the only one that should have been exempt from suffering wasn't. And he died for us and he was punished for our sins. But

now, like Paul says, I can boast in my weakness because God did that for me. And it wasn't because I had a baby. And I know if you're going through that, I know it's the most painful thing that you could go through. I, I, I know that and I understand that. But trusting him and, and leaning into him is so much more powerful than, than anything that he could ever give you because he's already given you everything that you need. And, and that season just radically transformed my life. After we had Andy and in between doing IVF to have Samuel, I got pregnant for the first time ever. And I wound up having a miscarriage. And, but my foundation was built and it still hurt. It was still incredibly painful, but I knew that my John was waiting. I knew that the Lord had a reason and his reason is always good. It might not be what we want, but it's always good. So whatever your John is, the Lord is going to use that for his purpose. It may not be a baby, but we all have a John. And so I just encourage you during the season, if you are going through that, just keep going because it's a choice you make. It's a choice you make to keep worshiping him through the storm. So I encourage you to do that. Um, I hope that made sense. So Luke 1 58, it says when the time for Elizabeth to have her baby came, she gave birth to a son and they're fighting over what his name should be. We should name him Zachariah after his father. And the mother spoke up and said, no, he should be called John. And they said, no, there's no one amongst your relatives that has that name. Let's ask Zachariah. And Zachariah, of course, can't speak. He's been put on mute for the last couple of months. And so he asked for his iPad. Just kidding. He asked for her to tablet. And to everyone's astonishment, Luke 1 64, he wrote his name is John. Immediately his mouth opens, his tongue is set free, and he begins praising the Lord the same way that Mary was praising the Lord after she said. Let it be to me according to your word. It took Zechariah a little bit, took him a couple months of not being able to say it, of some doubt, but finally he reached the point in his life where he said, God is good all the time, and all the time God is good, and I will praise him. My son's name will be called John, and here's what the name John means. It means this, the Lord is gracious to me. God has shown me favor. God is good. The name John means the Lord has been gracious to me.

Listen, I know not every single prayer that you're going to pray in this life will ever be answered in this life. Some of these prayers will not be fulfilled until we get to eternity, but has God saved you today? Has he redeemed you today? Has he forgiven you today? Has he provided for you today? Oh, I know that you don't have everything in life. I'm not saying that you just claim all of these promises and do 21 days of prayer and fasting, and God is some magic genie who's going to give you everything that you want. I'm just saying regardless of how you feel today, and regardless of your circumstances, here is the good news today, church, the Lord has been gracious to you, and he's been gracious to me. And so the angel of the Lord says, call him John, so every time you hold him, every time you see him, every time you say his name, you're thanking the Lord that God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. Oh, my prayer as we head into this Christmas season and new year is regardless of whatever this year has held for you so far, may your prayer be the prayer of Mary that says, God, here is my life, and may my life be whatever you've called me to be according to your words, because you're a great God. Regardless of the situation, regardless if it ever changes, regardless of the promise ever being fulfilled, you're a gracious and a good God, and I will trust you, in Jesus' name. Amen. Father, we thank you for this day. We just love you. We just honor you. We bless you today. You're a gracious and a good God. We thank you that your mercies are available every single morning.

Lord, we thank you that we get to celebrate with all those, Lord, that made that decision today to follow you, Lord, fully with that next step in water baptism. Be with them, Lord. Strengthen them, energize them today. In your name, we pray. Just continuing in this atmosphere of prayer, every head's bowed, every eye's closed in this moment. I wonder, do you know this Jesus today that we're talking about, the one who is the waymaker, the miracle worker, the one that can do the impossible? See, John the Baptist was the one who was there to prepare the way for Jesus. He actually baptizes Jesus and then launches Jesus, starts his three-year ministry where he does signs and wonders and miracles. But the culmination of his ministry was at age 33 when he died on a cross for you and me. And he paid the price for all of our sins. See, the gift of Christmas this year is that God, Emmanuel, became one of us, took on our sin, took on our shame, took on our sin, took on our shame. He never once sinned, but he paid the price for us so that we can know him today. And I wonder, do you know him today? If that's you, I'm going to lead you in a moment, ask everyone to raise their hand as I count to three. If that is you today and you want to say, for the first time, I want to commit myself to Jesus or I want to recommit, if that's you, I want to lead you through this prayer in just a moment. Ready? One, two, three. Go ahead, just lift your hands. I want to make Jesus, Lord of my life. Fantastic. See those three hands right down front?

God's got big things for you guys. Amen. My right, your left. See that? God bless you. All the way in the back, those three hands as well. My left, your right. See that as well? Put those hands down. Thank you guys for responding to a God who loves you. Hey, let's all pray together. Romans 10 says this, if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Come on, repeat after me, say Jesus, I come to you today just as I am. Say God, I know that I've sinned, I've missed the mark. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to change me. I ask you to make me new. And from this day forward, I'll follow you. And just say this, say my life is not my own, but I exist for you. In Jesus' name we pray. And everyone said.