Peace on Earth
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VIDEO: Kids Video
The Point: God will never fail.
Luke 1:5-7, 11-17
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 the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
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. 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 and Elizabeth both have really great reasons to not trust the Lord here. They were old. They were past the point of being able to naturally conceive. And they had lots of reasons to trust God - they were both descendants of aaron, Zechariah was a priest, and they obeyed God blamelessly.
However, when they get this amazing news from the angel - both that, they’re going to have a child, and that the child is going to have this HUGE place in God’s plan to redeem the world - they don’t believe the angel. and we know that Zechariah prayed for his wife to have a child - the angel says, ‘Your prayer has been heard’.
It’s really easy to get to a point where you feel like you have a lot of reasons for why God won’t or can’t answer your prayer.
But look at the story here - you have two people who are blameless (that’s bonus points for them), but who disbelieve the angel (that’s a big strike). They want to see their prayer answered (that’s a good thing), but they doubt that it has been (that’s a bad thing).
This sounds like us, eh? Very conflicted. We trust God, but sometimes we doubt. We believe that God is all powerful, but when the rubber hits the road - it’s harder to hold onto that.
The good news is - God still moved powerfully. God’s grace was greater than their weaknesses.
VIDEO - AVALENA
We can gain a lot of encouragement from the next story, of Mary
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
Mary had a a really good reason to believe that the angel was wrong - for one part, she was a virgin. Pretty clear sign that you don’t have a natural reason to believe you’re pregnant.
But the way the angel answers her is amazing. He spells out God’s way of doing things. ‘The power of the most high will overshadow you’.
In Elizabeth and Zechariah’s case, this was something they wanted. But they let the reality of their circumstances cast a shadow over them, rather than God.
In Mary’s case, this was something that absolutely could not have happened - but God still moved in an amazing way.
I love the last line the angel says in this verse ‘For no word from God will ever fail’.
STORY: Caleb - name.
COMMUNION:
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
ALTAR TIME:
We want to present ourselves before the Lord today in prayer under this simple idea - that no word from God will ever fail.
We want to help you seek a word from God
We want to help you get strength to stand on the word of God you already have