An opportunity for an audience
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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.”
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Intro: Good luck
I went to A&E with my son last week Tuesday evening and we were sitting in there waiting for some blood results with other patients. People kept coming in and out depending on the doctors and the order they were calling us in. After about 2hours of watching everyone else going in i was getting a bit fed up with the whole process. It was even more frustrating that Michael wasn’t the least bothered by the amount of time we were having to wait. The arbitrary way in which people got attended to was starting to make no sense as i saw others who had apparently arrived way after mike get seen before us.
At one point a man who arrived about an hour after us got called in. That was it i was thinking other things at this point, fabricating in my mind other reasons why we were not getting attention. Honestly, we were the first to sit and wait and people came and went like busses at a station.
As the man i just mentioned made his way to the room with the doctor , i heard another patient who had apparently been chatting with him shout out ‘good luck ‘ to him as he was led away for whatever he had to deal with. After he had been seen He walked back and set down again and within a short space of time he was fetched again. At this point a few people who had come in after us and had been seen actually asked us if we had been seen as we were still in the same seats we had been when they had left to be seen.
That really annoyed me at that point and i cried out quietly to the Lord, why is this happening? without skipping a beat a man who had been talking to one of the student doctors somehow landed on ‘oh so what you are saying is it normally takes about 2 hours for blood results to come back’, literally the answer to my question to the Lord.
At this point Michael and i were now in a half empty room still waiting , but then it hit me. Our steps are ordered by the Lord, our time gets easier when we relinquish the need to hurry things to match the pace at which everyone else is being responded to, some of the people relied on luck to get through their tests, i have no clue what they were dealing with or if indeed they had been waiting longer somewhere else as well to be seen. I have no idea who they call to when they are going through it,
but i know that we trust in the Lord, so we can be still and find peace and joy while we wait to be seen wherever we are in our life issues. We can take it all in and know that when it is our turn, he will call us out by name, but only in His divine timing!
Now Id like to say i learned that lesson and it gave me considerable peace while in that waiting room, but i was still annoyed all the way til we got seen 1hour later that
Today i want to talk about God’s time. Turn to your neighbour and say God’s timing!
An opportunity for an audience
Focus Scripture - Luke 1:13-14
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
Prayer
A new year can mean so many different things to so many different people. For some it is a time of excitement and exploration , of new possibilities. For others it could be a reminder of past trauma and disappointment on the things we have been waiting on that have not taken root, so it is met with trepidation and reluctance, with lack of energy and lack of motivation.
For every believer however one thing must always be true. That God reigns supreme and that his timing and his purposes are for our good. God shows up and operates the inoperable things in our lives, and makes dreams we allowed to fade away to once again be revitalised.
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
When we look at this text, we need to always look for a practical example in our own lives of how it applies, thats the point of teaching in church. Romans 15:4 - For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope., so as we are sitting here we need to ask ourselves…..
Does scripture instruct my expectations of what God does when i pray?
Am I caught unprepared for when God visits me?
What does God say about visiting his people?
Is there a correlation between God’s plan and the our spirit of fear?
Why does the messenger say do not be afraid?
Phobeo - frightened, afraid of
Phoebos - fear, were we get the word phobia
Do not be afraid - as if to declare that there is nothing to fear.
Can we identify ourselves in the person of Zechariah today?
serving (1 Peter 2:9 - But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.)
old - him and his wife were ‘both were advanced in years’, beyond the place of making a difference
had no legacy of his own except his service which was not of his own choice, he was a Levite, “of the division of Abijah”. Though we know what his root was, he himself had no heir so he knew that his bloodline would not participate in the promise of redemption foretold for God’s people. In the natural sense he was disqualified by his circumstances
for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
John - Yahweh is Gracious
God is gracious! WHAT?
to summarise - no children, no legacy, old, weak and spent, a modern day pensioner, who probably has nothing to offer!!
We have come into the new year, probably older, unfulfilled, spent, some of us even feeling like we dont have much to offer…. naturally. BUT an angel has come to remind us that Yahweh is gracious!
Turn to your neighbor and tell them God is still gracious.
You have been praying, Father help me, i need to matter to my generation. Give me the ability to affect those who come after me in a way that pleases you. You Lord have said i will be a blessing to the nations, but in myself i have no more strength.
This year has begun, last years prayers are still loading and being released according to His will, but we should stand in expectation, that those things that we released into the heavens are being loosed to us according to His word.
Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
have - active indicative verb, already in effect
Gabriel tells Zechariah his prayer has been heard. I can imagine Zechariah sitting there, thinking through the whole catalogue of prayers he has been making, hoping to figure out which one Gabriel is talking about.
Some of us spent our time with the father last year not being intentional with our prayer life, praying foolishness in our atmosphere. Then we would find ourselves bemused as foolishness began to manifest before our very eyes and ironically we would go back and ask God why our lives had become a circus.
So when a messenger announces to us ‘your prayer has been answered’ do we rejoice and praise God or is our first thought “Uh oh, which prayer”? Is it the one where we prayed that our ex would get hit by a truck because they broke our heart, or the one where we declared that annoying coworker should fall into a ditch and break a leg because they outperform and overshadow us at work, or maybe that prayer about the insessently talkative spouse who is constantly criticising and putting us down, which prayer has God responded to?
Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
What are we concerning ourselves with in our secret place with God. Is what we are asking God for a blessing or a curse to not only ourselves but our neighbor?
1 John 4:20-21 - If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Is your prayer about wealth and power for yourself or is it a prayer for influence over those souls who would draw nearer to Christ? Lord give me more strength, more time, more patience, to evangelise and fulfil your great commission. Birth in me a new hunger that cannot be satisfied until i am a useful vessel in your house to carry out with me the rivers of living water and pour it onto those who are thirsting for your love.
Are we still together? A year of building needs to start with reworking the man in the mirror to conform to the image of Christ. Zechariah prayed in secret for something that was released in public.
So when the angel is going to show up and tell you your prayer has been answered this season, are you sure you want it to be answered given some of what we been praying?
So Gabriel tells him the specific prayer in question that has been answered. Now Zechariah knows it can only be God because sometimes you only utter certain things in your heart in your time in prayer. Somethings you are so brokenhearted you have no human words to say , so you only say them inside yourself, to give your soul consolation, those deep dark parts were noone can find your thoughts and deep desire, were you have buried the thing that you have wished for but have accepted it will never happen because it seems too propestorous to even dream of. These lamentations we hide in the dark place to avoid disappointment , but we forget that we are still ministering to our broken hearts in the darkness
Psalm 139:7-12 - …..If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Earlier in the focus passage in verse 5-8 the word tells us Zechariah was serving yet that did not exempt him from disappointment. The Bible says he was righteous before God, walking in his ordinances, blameless, like Job.
Like Job, Zechariah had accepted what God had given , and also what he hadnt given, and to him his God was still good, howelse would he have shown up for work? And we are told he was a priest, and the job of the priest is to minister for the people to God. Can you imagine what it is to be an intercessor for other people, while you yourself are carrying pain, disillusionment, discomfort, frustration, unfulfilled expectations.
But thats not what you are carrying to the Lord, you have to carry his people issues, that day, in that situation, as he was chosen to go into the temple , Zechariah had to recognise and accept that in that moment….. it was not about him!
When you come in to minister, are you looking inwardly, outwardly, or upwardly. Our relationships with people are directly affected by our relationship with God
Matt 10:38
God is still sovereign while you are going through it… turn to your neighbour and tell em God still sees
and you cannot fake it if you are a priest to the most high,Malachi 1:12-14 because the consequences are quite real.
Ephesians 3:20
How many times has God told us something and yet we continue to look for a sign or demand a second opinion?
14 And you will have joy and gladness,
As we set our minds to build this year, let us look to the things above. God gave to Zechariah more than he would have imagined. exceeding and abundantly more. You might have come into this year downtrodden, spent, battered and bruised , thinking Lord what’s going on, why am i neglected. God sees , and he stills works wonders.
Those who are in the wilderness God has said you will have joy and gladness,
those who are called by his name, he has declared you will have joy and gladness,
those who are waiting upon the Lord, you will have joy and gladness,
those looking Jesus, you will have joy and gladness.
In every circumstance the vehicle to God is your faith, so show up expectantly, you are about to birth something new this year 2026, you are about to recieve something miraculous in 2026 and you are about to be unshackled and unbound from your chains of bondage in 2026. God is still faithful and you will have joy and gladness. Turn to your neighbor and say you will have joy and gladness and what you are carrying inside of you many will rejoice at his birth,
Look to Jesus to carry you to your place of freedom. I dont know what you carried into 2026, but i know that your prayer will not go unanswered.
Message for the church
15 for he will be great before the Lord.
