Hope
Notes
Transcript
My name is Zechariah of the tribe of Levi, a son of Aaron, of the division of Abijah. This means for you Gentiles out there that one month out of every two years I go into Jerusalem to serve before our God as a priest once I turned 30 years old. God has appointed our tribe to be the priests before Him for all of Israel. What a privilege and responsibility! We represented God to the people! We were the ones who held out hope to them. Hope in forgiveness of sins, hope in blessing in the future, hope for protection from the Romans, hope in being restored to our rightful place in the world, hope that God would keep His promises and send the Messiah, his servant, to destroy our enemies and bring us shalom. I hope that as you enter this time of year that you have hope in our God even you Gentiles. Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Moses and David. The God of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel. We know he controls all things, answers prayers, moves seas out of the way, and puts armies to flight. It is good to put your hope in Him and not other gods. I have come to you today to remind you to have hope. To expect our God to do good things. To even be asking our God for good things and looking for His answers.
Because I know some of you aren’t hoping in our God. Why do I know this? Because once I did not hope in God either. Oh, it didn’t happen all at once, but gradually over time I had no hope of our God doing anything. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you my story.
Hope in the strength of Doubt
not having a child for years
Herod on the throne
no word from God for 400 years
8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty,
9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
13 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.
14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
15 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.
16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,
17 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.”
My heart was dead and I did not believe this. I was too old and my wife was too old. Doubt was much stronger than hope right then. I wanted a sign like Gideon before me. You can be so in doubt and fear and despair that even an angel appearing in front of you doesn’t give you hope.
But he was referring to Malachi and Isaiah.
3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
God always brings Himself into our problems. Look to His Word and learn truth.
I should have remembered these things in the midst of my doubts and not let my heart grow cold.
Hope in the space of Silence
Is 41
the one people listen to vs not being able to speak
I can’t solve my problems.
God is all-powerful. Soften your heart.
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I came to realize that in my doubt and frustration and fear I had been sitting in darkness even tho I was in the temple serving God.
Elizabeth conceived and had a son.
Hope in the sound of Praise
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Is 40-44
It’s in spite of my hard heart
God is merciful. Confess your sin and look for His grace.
Greg Lonsway
What are you hoping in?
Money? Family? An amazing experience? All of those things will fail you.
Maybe you are like me and you had given up hope. Maybe you need to be silent instead of shouting your doubts at God and listen to Him instead.
Our God is a God of hope. He gives hope in the face of death and sin and despair. When your heart is dead, hope in God.
