Resurrecting Your Prayer life

Introduction

Opening Illustration: This week we officially have begun the Advent season. For the Church this is an annual rhythm where we prepare our hearts to remember the incarnation in a very particular way. Advent, simply means arrival. And during Advent we commemorate the arrival of Christ. I believe that rhythms like these in a Christian’s life are vitally important. In the Old Testament, the people of God had all sorts of ceremonies and rituals that served as touchpoints of their faith, reminding them both of what God had done, and what God had still promised to do. Advent, I believe, falls in line with these ancent rituals of preparation.

Personal: And so I want to ask you as we begin our time in the Word today, what are you doing to prepare your heart for the celebration of the incarnation? It is so easy to let Christmas be filled with the marketing and the purchasing of it all, and to suddenly realize you have missed out on the very best part, the part that truly forms the soul. What will you do this advent, to prepare your soul for worship and praise for the arrival of our King.

Context: Over the next two weeks of Advent we will explore two different prayers that were prayed surrounding the birth narrative of Christ. The first, is a prayer by the father of John the Baptist, a man named Zechariah. And the second, which we will study next week, a prayer by the mother of Jesus, Mary. And in these two prayer, I hope that we will discover elements of their heart, and elements of their posture in prayer, that can guide us during our own celebration of Advent. Today’s verses are Luke 1:68-79, a prayer of thankfulness offered by Zechariah, after his son John the Baptist was born.

Luke 1:68–79 ““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””

Three elements of Zechariah’s prayer that can deepen our own prayer lives.

Meaning and Application

I ZECHARIAH’S PRAYED EXPERIENTIALLY

First, Zechariah prayed experientially. What I mean by this is that his prayer was doctrinally sound, but it came out of practical real life experience. It was an all-of-life blessing to God. In order to see this, we have to understand Zechariah’s story. If we go back in the Gospel of Luke to the beginning of chapter 1 we read of the story of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. Zechariah was priest in the temple, a very high ranking man in Israel, which means that he would have great knowledge of God’s Word and God’s promises as made through the Scriptures.

400 Silent Years: To understand the context, the last prophetic word among the people of God, had been 400 years prior. There had been 400 years of silence from God. No prophet. In those 400 years incredible history took place. You have Alexandar the Great and the expansion of Greece. You have the great Greek philosophers (Aristotle, Socrates). You have the rise of the Roman empire. The Jews themselves in Israel had remarkable history, the Maccabean Wars and refinishing of the temple. Israel at that time was underneath Roman occupation, and this was a true thorn in their heal. They were the people of God! They shouldn’t be a vassal state. But God had been silent for 400 years. Imagine the skepticism that was brewing among the average Israelite in those days. Faithful… but weary.

Infertility: Secondly, Zechariah and his wife were infertile. We read in Luke 1:7,

Luke 1:7 ESV

But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

Infertility is painful. Today, it is one of the great pains that many people in our church carry around with them and don’t speak of. In Zechariah’s day there was even more cultural baggage associated with infertility. How they had longed for a child. But that time had passed. They were older.

An Angel Appears: Then one day, while Zechariah is serving as priest, an angel of God appears to him and tells him. Keep in mind, nothing like this had happened in 400 years in Isarel. The angel said,

Luke 1:12–17 ESV

And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 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. 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. 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.”

Let us pause and get into the mind of this man. He must have been overwhelmed, not only at the presence of an angel, which would have been overwhelming enough. But at the message of the angel. God was about to burst onto the scene in an unprecedented way. But Zechariah is a very relateable man. Even in the presence of an angel, his rational mind starts asking, “I don’t know… My wife is very old.”

Luke 1:18 ESV

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

Rationalism: For this doubting of God, Zechariah is punished. He is struck mute and unable to speak for nine months. When the child is finally born, he explodes in experiential prayer. We read in Luke 1:64,

Luke 1:64 ESV

And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

And out of his mouth flows this marvelous prayer. I wanted you to see his journey, so you can feel this prayer, and what it must have meant to him to watch his wife’s belly grow for nine months, and all the while to consider his nation, and what God was about to do.

Five Expressions of Experiential Prayer: Let me show you in this prayer five ways that it is experiential.

“Visited His People”: In verse 68, he prays that God has “visited his people.” This is not just doctrinally true. For Zechariah, he had lived those painful silent years his whole life. “He has visited his people” is loaded language with all sorts of recognition of what it meant to be in the time when God was not visiting his people, and to long for the good old days.

“Delivered from our enemies”: Verse 73 he prays, “God has delivered us from our enemies.” This is not just pie in sky theology. He was raised under Roman occupation of Israel. He knew the ins and the outs of that relationship between Israel and the Romans. He watched the rise of Herod personally.

“And you child,”: Verse 76 he prays, “And you child, will be called a prophet.” He’s looking at his sweet baby boy. That miraculous sweet baby boy. And he’s remembering being in his twenties of hoping for a child. Being in his thirties and hoping for a child. Being in his forties and beginning to stop hoping for a child. Being in his fifties and accepting there would be no child. His sixties, maybe seventies. And he’s holding his baby in his hands. Do you feel his life flowing through this prayer?

“Forgiveness of Sins”: Verse 77 he prays about “forgiveness of sins.” For nine months he couldn’t speak because he had sinned by doubting God’s Word. For nine months he experience the reality of the consequences of his sin, in a very physical way. All the while watching his wife’s belly grow. And so when his tongue is unloosed and he can finally say a word, he belts out a prayer of thankfulness for the forgiveness of sin.

“Tender Mercy:”: Verse 78 he prays, “Because of your tender mercy.” Now those are the words of a man that knows the God I have to come know in Scripture. He’s adding it all up, and considering Israel’s sin, and their hard heartedness, and considering that God was not done with them. That he had not forgotten them. “You’ve been so tender and merciful with us.”

Praying Experientially: Church, we must learn to pray experientially. All of our life, being filtered through all of the Word of God. Notice the two sides of this. Praying experientially is not just praying emotionally. It is not simply bringing all of your situations to God. Praying experientially is submitting your experiences to the Word of God, standing confidently in who God is and what God has done and is doing in your life, and then letting your experiences be shaped by what God has said about them.

Think of What You Have: Some of you might say, John had an advantage. He had a physical miracle, an angel, and a growing womb to affirm these promises. You might think, I’d be able to do that too, if I had those experiences. O Church! We must have our eyes opened to see the extraordinary things God has done in our lives, in our Church, in our nation. Some of us, our Christianity, is not much more than a storybook of detached from the reality of our life. I think of Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians

Ephesians 1:18–19 ESV

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

If you are a Christian, God has visited you! This is the point of the entire passage we are studying today. God has come. He promised the birth of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist would pave the way for Christ to come. And if you are in Christ, then this is your story. What’s more, God has tender and merciful with you! God has blessed you with his Holy Spirit which He poured out extravagently upon His Church. This very week, God has been leading you, guiding you, orchestrating events in your life to speak to you, to mold you. O may the eyes of our hearts be opened this Advent. May we pray true experiential prayers of gratitude as we take stock of the countless ways God presence is manifested in our lives.

II ZECHARIAH PRAYED THE PROMISES OF GOD

The second aspect of Zechariahs’s prayer is a latching onto the promises of God. We see this in a few places

Verse 70, “as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old

Verse 72, “to show the mercy promised to our fathers.”

Verse 72, “to remember his holy covenant.”

Verse 73, “the oath that he swore to our father Abraham.”

In each of these phrases, Zechariah is saying, “I know the promise you made. And now I’m praising you for it is coming to fruition before my very eyes.” As Christians, our prayer life must be fixed upon the promises. It is the promises of God that provide the bedrock of our faith.

Illustration: Mountain Climbing: I like to think of the Christian life like climbing a large mountain. You can imagine the mountain climber with his bag of powder on his hip, and his climbing shoes on. He sets out on this magnificent mountain to climb it. But as he gets to the first difficult face of the mountain, he has to determine where to put his hands. If he’s not careful he’ll put all his weight on a crag or a rock that is unstable. And when that rock falls, he falls with it. But the trained mountain climber knows how to find the stable footholds. He relies on the unmoving footholds in order to scale the mountain.

Stable Footholds: The clearly expressed promises of God, made to you and to the Lord’s Church in the pages of Scripture, are your solid footholds. You can stand on them as if they are solid ground. They are irreversible declarations of what will certainly be. It is upon those footholds that your faith must develop, and that your prayer life must develop. This is why the Christian must make a habit of praying these words, “It is written...” In other words, “God you said… therefore I am praying such and such.”

Unstable Footholds: But many of us make the mistake of the mountain climber who relied on an unstable foothold. Whenever I hear somebody say something overly confident about what God is going to do in their life, I get a bit nervous for their faith. Why? Because if your faith is being built off of anything besides the clear promises of God, then you are developing your faith on presumptions, not on God’s Word. God may or may not fulfill your presumptions of what you want him to do in any given circumstance.

The Prayer of Daniel’s Friends: Daniels three friends in the Old Testament provide us a wonderful example. They were being persecuted for their faith and they were going to be thrown into a fiery furnace where they were to be killed. Listen to how they responded.

Daniel 3:17–18 ESV

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Notice the humility. This trial may lead to death. And if it does, may God get the glory. He is no less God if this trial leads to my death or to my deliverance.

Why We Don’t Pray the Promises: Before I give you some examples of how to do this well, I want to wrestle with why we don’t do this. I think there are three reasons why Christians often spend so much time praying unstable footholds, rather than fixed promises of God

Don’t Know: For some, it might be as simple you don’t know the promises of God. Maybe you’ve never thought of this before, but I want to tell you today, there are countless promises God has made about who He is, who He will be to you, and what He is doing in this world right now, and what He will do with your stories, that will make your relationship with God come alive if you learn this. If that is you, let me exhort you, to study the Scripture, mine them for God’s promises.

Unconvinced: For others, you are simply unconvinced. Deep down inside, your failure to lean on God’s promises is actually revealing you don’t really believe them in a tangible way. Maybe you believe them in the same way that you believe that George Washington crossed the Delaware River. You’ve heard the stories, you’ve seen the paintings, but you’re daily life is largely disconnected from that. This is a travesty! It reminds of the Israelites who after escaping from Egypt, seeing God’s wonders, having the promised land on the horizon

Exodus 16:3 ESV

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Church, that generation died in the wilderness because of their grumbling. See the larger picture. See daily what God has delivered you from, where he has promised to take you.

Dire Situation: Third, for some, the emotional weight of what you are enduring right now is so heavy that you can only think of the urgent. All you can see is what’s immediately before you. O Church, if that is you today, know it is the lord who pleads your case. It is the the Lord receives who your prayer. But if you are able, you may find a whole new strength to endure your trial if you learn to pray the promises.

Examples: And so, permit me to give some examples of how we ought to do this.

#1 Promise For Renewed Strength: Let’s say that it has just been a tiring season. And you feel zapped of all energy. Even your energy to pursue God seems small. Remember how Zechariah prayed. He took his experience and he submitted to the Word of God. Perhaps You can turn to Isaiah 40:31,

Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Lord, you said that if I waited on you, you would renew my strength. God, help me to wait on you in this trial. Help me to cling to you and wait with faith, and Lord as you said, would you renew my strength.

#2 When We Are Mourning a Lack of Holiness: Perhaps you are down on yourself for a lack of holiness. You continue to find yourself making the same sinful choices. And you’re a Christian, so there is a longing in your heart for holiness, and yet a habit a series of habits that are gaining victory over you.

Hosea 14:5 “I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;”

Lord, you said that you would be like the dew to Israel, and that we would take deep root like the trees of lebanon. O God, I don’t feel deeply rooted. I feel scattered with you. Help me to sit before you, and develop my faith so that I might take deep root as you promised.

#3 When We Are In Times of Danger: Perhaps you enter into a season of deep trial, where your life just feels out of control. It’s not just that your tired but there have been some real dangers and struggles and challenges that have been the front and center of all you’re going through. In those seasons you will be tempted to let your entire vision be shaped by what is in front of you. And your temptation will be to truly rely, on what you think you can control, rather than to truly rely on God’s Word.

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

Those precious words are a promise that God will be with you even in the flame. He will never leave you. He will always be enough for you.

#4 When You Are Bold In Sharing Scripture With Somebody: Perhaps you were bold and shared the gospel with somebody over Christmas, and you feel like they just shot you down, and nothing came out of it. Maybe you feel like a failure in being a Christian witness. Turn to Isaiah 55:11,

Isaiah 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Do you know how many times I have prayed that prayer before and after preaching a sermon. “Lord you said...”

God’s Good Timing: Let me close our discussion on the promises by considering some wise words from the great Puritan William Spurstowe.

“God has in his Word recorded [the promises], as so many discoveries of his immutable counsel and purpose, that thereby faith might have a sure ground to rely upon him in all exeigencies, and to expect a relief from him, but the season and time of performance, God has reserved to himself, as best knowing not only what to give, but when to give; so that, believers, though they may plead to God his promise, must yet be careful not to confide and limit him to times which they judge fittest; but wholly to resign themselves to his wise disposal, to whom every creature looks, and receive their meat in due season.”

Our job is to exhibit faith in God. That his Word is true. That it will never fail. We do that by hanging onto his word. By depending on him, and by trusting that even when it seems like God is delaying, his answers are always right on time.

III ZECHARIAH PRAYED VICTORY IN CHRIST

Lastly, if you want to pray like Zechariah, pray victoriously in Christ. Do you notice in this passage he prays so certainly about events that have not happened yet.

“that we should be saved from our enemies” (71).

“that we being delivred from the hand of our enemies” (74).

“to guide our feet into the way of peace” (79).

John the Baptist is barely out of the womb, and Jesus hasn’t even born yet. Yet, Zechariah prays as if victory is already theirs. This entire prayer is wrapped up in a eager, hopeful, anticipation of Christ’s victory. O how our prayer lives would be radically transformed if we learned how to pray victoriously in Christ. Is there a good godly place for lament, and pouring out your frustration to Christ, yes! But Church if you understand the fulness of the gospel, your prayers cannot stay there. Christ has sealed your victory with his blood. His love for you is perfect and unchanging. His grace towards you is eternal. His mercy towards you covers every mistake you’ve ever made. His grip on you is unrelenting. His promises towards you are for your good. ,...

Closing

As I close, I would like to exhort us as we head into this Advent season. Advent is a time for reflection. It is a time for inward heart work. If we rush through this, we will miss the opportunity to see true spiritual growth. God delights in bringing us to new places of our faith. He delights in magnifying Christ in our life. He delights in helping sleepy Christians wake up to glory of what God is doing all around them. He delights comforting hurting Christians in such a powerful that they in turn can be used by him to comfort other hurting Christians. May Advent magnify Christ in your life and in your home.