the gps of angels sermon; Details changed my life
Title: “The GPS of Angels”
Theme: God has a detailed plan for your life.
Text: Luke 1:5-25
Goal: Many people have no idea where they are in their Christian journey, how can the living word guide us into a way of thinking and living that lives for God following an unseen detailed. (Biblical worldview)
Me: orientation: (find common ground with the audience)
Wow do I hate to get lost?
It makes me feel uncomfortable, vulnerable etc?
Global positioning system… 3 satellites and your signal tell you where you are.
Truthfully I hate that lost feeling in many areas.
Assembly, knowledge, economics, future, children…
(God’s petitioning system): Angels is present in the coming of Christ.
We: Identification (Make it clear that you struggle)
For many when they get lost it is the feeling of being out of control.
Is being lost alone worse than community.
Sometimes we place security in people or computer systems that may or may not be deserved.
What other things make you feel out of control or vulnerable… disease, death, a sense of poverty beyond which we cannot change.
God: illumination (The goal here is to resolve the tension by pointing people to God)
I. The proclamation is bigger than my life
A. Proclamation : public announcement of truth
The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. Luke 1:19
1. Both Zechariah & Elizabeth came from priestly families
2. They both had a living breathing faith relationship that was being lived out
3. Elizabeth was barren and they had no children
· Which meant they had no one to care for them when they were old
· They were looked down upon as if they did something wrong and this was a judgment.
· They were advanced in years beyond child bearing years.
B. Zechariah gets this honor that comes once in a lifetime.
1. I wonder whether there were people who thought it was a mistake for him to have this honor.
· The priests were divided into 24 groups, and each group served twice a year for a week at a time at the temple. On this occasion Zech was chosen to enter the sanctuary and offer incense.
· A list was drawn of those priests who had never been chosen to enter the sanctuary and then lots were cast to see who would bring the sacrifice and who would clean the ashes. This honor only came once in a lifetime. During this great and high moment… an angel appeared.
C. At this moment… the pinnacle of his career an angel appeared on the right side of the alter.
1. The intrusion of the divine into the mundane brings an end to the sacred ceremonies of worship.
2. All that matters is the response to the Lord’s charge to him. Don’t really know whether he burned the incense or not.
II. The call was to be a link in the chain of God’s generations
A. Truth will prevail
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."
1. WE tend in our day to think of truth as personal but God’s truth prevail from generation to generation.
2. Psalm 139 13-17
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. 16
B. Zechariah’s Bless was a greater purpose beyond him.
1. He is doing the very task that all his life he hoped to do and bam… something happens
2. Many other priests had performed the same duties and no angel but today above all days God appears to him.
C. This family chosen to be a link in the chain.
1. They had lived there life willing and open and today is a special day.
2. Don’t be afraid your prayers have been answered
11Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13But 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 give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15for 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 from birth.[b] 16Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
III. Will you choose to live for God
A. Christian worldview, which believes that a commitment to Christ is bigger than one’s life or lifetime.
1. These people had to believe that.
2. Zechariah even questions it
18Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
19The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."
B. truth will prevail because it is true, but may not occur in our lifetime.
1. Zech was afraid that his days would pass without blessing and now he would count the days until fulfillment.
2. Truth and the life links of God have come before and may come after. What will God’s link for you look like and will it be fulfilled.
C. truth could cost our life.
1. What about you…
Angels may once again bring truth but we have the Holy Spirit leading us in this direction:
14 So the Word became human[d] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.[e] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. (John 1:14 NLT)
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (NRSV)
Secular soft. “These people believe in God and claim a faith identity, yet God is a secondary value or belief. They may confess Jesus but they trust the values of the secular culture, putting their trust in material possessions to provide meaning rather than trusting God’s promise of provision. They make religious donations rather than life sacrifice. It is difficult for soft-secular people to make significant time or financial commitments to the church.” (Mike Slaughter Momentum for Life)
Christ world view: The second is Christian worldview, which believes that a commitment to Christ is bigger than one’s life or lifetime. They believe that truth will prevail because it is true, but may not occur in our lifetime. They would go as far as saying that this truth could cost our life.
You: Application (tell people what to do with what they have heard)
God has truth for you to live out in your faith journey. Please this morning open your heart and life to the living presence of God. Look to the proclamation you have been given in the following ways:
Where is your heart in relationship to God?
What details of your life are you overlooking?
What message is God sharing with you?
We Inspiration is an emotion identify, vision casting