Never Finished

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Intro:

We sports fans love our shirts. That’s our uniform for the vital job of cheering the team of our choosing.

If the seahawks were in the game today, we would see some jerseys in here.

I have this one Duck tshirt that was spoiled for me by a friend. This is it:

Never Finished.

That’s right! Always working. This “friend” said yup, you never have finished. That O right there is the number of National Championships you’ve won. (sad face)

But, even with the slander against my team…there is something to that slogan that rings true for any team, any one with purpose, anyone alive.

It could be an exasperated: “I’m never finished”

Or, as I looked over the text today, I see a God who is also never finished. He’s not exasperated, I could see God wearing this tshirt (ok…not really) meaning it the way the designer intended.

The more I study scripture, the more I see a God who is intentional, persistent, ever-reaching, ever-seeking, and never finished.

Today’s passage illustrates that aspect of God’s character.

The question for us, is: “What does it mean for us that God is persistent? What is our calling in light of that?

Let’s pray

Ok, this first point starts with a confession. I misspoke a couple weeks ago. I made the comment that Zechariah had one story and his one story was one of disbelief.

That is the part that is most remembered, the part that stands out.

But like our inkling to remember all the character flaws and mistakes of someone else (or ourselves) and not focus on their progression, the changes they are making, we know…but don’t…notice the way his story wraps up.

In Luke, Gabriel tells Zechariah, mutes Zechariah, goes to tell Mary, and then the story shifts back to the birth of this first baby.

Our focus will start in verse 67, but let me give the plot that gets us there.

All the neighbors and relatives come out for labor and delivery. They are excited for Old Elizabeth who is finally having a baby.

The party stretches beyond the birth, all the way to the 8th day, when it was time to circumcise this little man…it was also the day the parents would give the boy his name.

verse 59 says when THEY came to circumcise the child, THEY were going to name him after his dad.

Standard. Dad is mute, so we’ll make the decision.

Elizabeth says, nope…this is John. They argue that this is not standard practice. So they motion to Zechariah (note, this passage leads most scholars to think that Zechariah was both mute and deaf during this time.

Z gets his ipad and writes out: His name is John.

They were all surprised by this choice, but not as surprised as they were about to be.

In a blink, Zechariah’s tongue was set loose and he begins to praise God! That neighborhood was freaking out a bit. Right? All of that and then as soon as the name is given, Zechariah is healed and begins to get his Pentecostal on.

The crowd talked and wondered “What then will this child become?”

Well God and Zechariah answered the question. Which gets us to point 1:

God Is Never Finished...

With You in your doubt or disbelief

Luke 1:67 CSB

“Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:”

If you missed a couple weeks back, we saw Zechariah struck mute by an angel because when told his prayers were going to be answered, that he was going to have a child…he said, “How can I know this is true?”

In essence, I think God is lying to me.

I made the point that doubt is not a sin, but choosing disbelief is.

Disbelief is where doubt turns into action…or inaction…in otherwords it is where we begin to disobey. Where we cease to act in faith.

Zechariah was there! That is what he would be remembered for! But then he does something cool. He obeys. He takes a step in faith. Grabs a tablet and writes four short words. “His name is John”

God then says, “Too little too late Zack!” NO

God hits the mute button again and returns his volume, he responds in praise and then...

He is filled with Holy Spirit and prophesied.

God uses this disbelieving, disobedient man to answer the question on everyone’s mind. God’s word comes to the people through a man rebuked by an angel just months before.

God is never finished with you, even in your doubt and disbelief.

This is an appropriate moment for a hallelujah.

I for one, am thankful God uses doubting and disobedient men and women.

Do you know, that your pastor has and does struggle with doubts sometimes? That carries into disbelief on occasion. But I have learned over and over that God is PERSISTENT. Even when I’m not.

The same is true for you.

Do you question or minimize your value to kingdom work because of your past?

Do you hesitate to tell people about Jesus because you haven’t been a model Christian?

You my friend, are exactly who God uses. God loves you so much, he wants you to know your value and purpose. Even when you think there can’t be any anymore.

Yes, we’ll remember Zechariah’s disbelief. But God is never finished.

Now we get this song, a word from God to the people about who this baby, John will be. Though the song is less about John, and more about the one John will proclaim.

In this song we see a few other ways God is never finished. First we see God is never finished with...

His Purpose to Redeem

Luke 1:68-70 CSB

“Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and provided redemption for his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient times;”

God is starting with a Bible Study.

Look back! Since God made Israel a people, he has never simply left them to be enslaved or oppressed. In their rebellion, he allowed it to happen, but always he redeemed.

And now, the ultimate redemption is at hand.

Redeem…Do we understand the power of that word?

It means to pay a price to get back what was yours.

More often we tend to think in terms of a coupon or gift card. Someone paid for this gift card, and the business is obligated to redeem it, to buy it back with products.

But it is so much more than that.

This is where the OT ceremonies can come to life when you understand the story of Jesus and how it permeates all the way back.

In ancient Israel, God declared that every firstborn was his to be made a sacrifice. Including people. But you could choose for your animals and were REQUIRED for your children, to buy them back.

A price was paid to receive back something lost.

In those ancient ceremonies, God is telling a story.

In the garden and in our ongoing push away from God he lost us. His created image bearers, so loved…So loved that he has been at work through the pages of history redeeming us.

and now the big moment of redemption is approaching. Promises made throughout the prophets, empty places fulfilled from the psalms, and the stories. How?

God has raised up a horn (king) of salvation from the house of David. God promised David he would establish a forever throne through him. And that forever king is coming. But coming as redemption?

That king would be the price paid to redeem, to save the ones God loves.

Jesus was not a new and novel idea on God’s part. Jesus was the plan from the moment we rebelled against God and now he was our redemption and is our salvation! Another hallelujah appropriate moment i think.

Do you know, Christian, that you have been redeemed at great price? You were loved so much that the king of kings was the value God placed on your soul?

No wonder he won’t give up on you! He paid too much to let you lay your purpose aside! As Paul says in

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you know that love this morning? If you have never surrendered to the love of God in Jesus, will you do so this morning? Right now? Simply, “God I know you love me, I know I am a sinner, Thank you for giving me Jesus. I surrender to you. Be my Lord and savior.”

And God’s redemptive story goes on. He is still reaching, still loving, still determined that every soul be given the chance to respond to his love. Desirous that every soul will.

And he lets us be a part! Amazing.

Let’s keep moving:

With our Circumstances

Luke 1:71-74a CSB

“salvation from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us. He has dealt mercifully with our ancestors and remembered his holy covenant— the oath that he swore to our father Abraham. He has given us the privilege, since we have been rescued from the hand of our enemies...”

Twice “our enemies” are mentioned. The hand of those who hate us.

It is easy to spiritualize this…and I think we should. Clearly God is concerned about our souls more than our happiness.

BUT. That doesn’t mean God isn’t concerned about our struggles.

These who heard Zechariah sing would immediately thought of their current Roman occupation. They would have thought about oppression under Greece. Semi-independance under the Persians. Exile and death at the hands of the Babylonians. Even all the way back to their beginnings as a nation under the thumb of the Egyptian Pharoah.

In all of those moments, God said to his people, “I see you”. Not just a desire for them to return to following him, but pain at seeing them in that moment.

God says to Moses, I have seen the misery of my people...

Israel keeps choosing to rebel, they keep choosing things which cause them pain, and God keeps seeing them and even…and even works through our rebellion to bring about the redemption we just talked about.

It is the reason Paul can say, in Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

God works good in and through even those circumstances we deem painful!

We think it’s all bad, but God does the things we cannot see.

I will never promise you that God will make all your circumstances, your health, finances, or family just the way you like it so you can live happily ever after.

I WILL promise, again and again and again, that God will do good out it all. Every time, even if you never see it, you can KNOW that God is good and ultimately, even your suffering has good ends.

Might be in growth in your faith in character, it might be refining out of you things that are doing you harm…that ultimately might kill you or keep you from knowing God.

In the days when Zechariah sung this song, the people of Israel had endured several hundred years of waiting for God to change their circumstance.

God wasn’t idle. Our circumstances are the field where God grows some of the greatest fruit.

He sees you.

And

With our Holiness

Luke 1:74b-75 CSB

“...to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days.”

The words right before that, since we have been rescued from the hands of our enemies…to…That’s a big two letter word.

We were not rescued for nothing. We were rescued to something. We were redeemed to a purpose and a calling.

To serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days.

Let me just break down those parts.

Serve him - Again, we come back to purpose. Your life has a purpose. Sometimes we have to snap out of our distraction, distress, or disbelief and step into it. It takes courage, God’s calling and purpose are never risk free…but life was never meant to be risk free. But when our souls are in his hands, we can take that risk, serving without fear because we know we are loved!

In holiness - God wants to set you apart for himself. Not out of the world, but out from it. He is inviting you to be his in a world of those who reject him. Set apart, looking a little different. Kind when others are cruel. Patient when others are rushed. Loving when others hate. Brave when fear rules the day.

And righteousness - walking with him in right relationship. Trusting him, seeing him for who he is and allowing him to show us who we really are. He is the only one who has that right. Not even we can determine our identity. He is the one who shaped us and crafted us. We need far less self-discovery than we need God discovery. Know him and you will not need to find yourself.

In his presence all his days. A few years back we did a series at Christmas, “All I want” Looking at 5 “One Thing” verses in the bible. The one that moves my heart the most is David’s cry in Psalm 27:4 “I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.”

The ultimate goal. Nod to mission. Love God. The more you know God, the more this prayer will resonate. To be with Him is greater than life.

And why did God redeem? Why did he bring this baby John into the world to point toward Jesus? To rescue us from our enemies TO serve him with out fear, in holiness and righteousness IN HIS PRESENCE…all our days.

David’s great prayer is our great gift.

Worship team

Let’s bring this home with the rest of the story…still in song. Zechariah finally answers the questions of the town, “Who will this child be?”

Luke 1:76-79 CSB

“And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

John was born to be sent. To show the world the need for the one who was coming after him. To show people their sin, their need for salvation, and most importantly, God’s merciful compassion to lead us there.

So what do we do with that?

1 - We respond in our lives. We allow God to do the work in and through us to make us holy.

2 - We see and respond to the truth that we have been sent, just like John. Jesus tells his disciples after the resurrection in John 20 that in the same way God sent him, he is sending us.

Your life has a purpose. God is never finished. And for that I sing.

Pray