When you flip through your Bible, assuming you
still use a paper copy, you may notice that when
you come to the end of the Old Testament, after
the book of Malachi, like right after, there's
usually a blank page or two. There's a couple
blank pages. And after those blank pages, you
arrive in the New Testament. Well, those two
pages, those blank pages represent about 400
years of silence from God. For 400 years, after
all of this time where God was actively working
in the lives of Israel or the life of Israel,
and God is leading them through battles, he's
leading them through the wilderness, he's providing
for them, he's arriving and speaking to them
through prophets and judges and kings and all
of these different modes that God connects with
his people. After all of that history, God goes
silent for 400 years. The Israelite people don't
hear from God. This chosen nation of Israel,
they don't have the prophets anymore sharing
these direct messages from God. They don't have
God working expressly through the kings and the
judges. It's just silence. And so for 400 years,
the Israelite people who had been promised a
Messiah, a Savior who would come down and free
them from all of the pain of this world, the
Israelite people waited. And they listened, but
they heard nothing. Can you imagine waiting 400
years and not hearing anything? Some of us get
upset when we text someone and they take more
than 30 minutes to respond. Even worse, if we
see that they saw our text and then they didn't
respond. But waiting, seriously, for 400 years,
the Israelites had been promised a Savior who
would set everything right, yet here they are
still waiting and not even a, hold on, I'm on
my way, text from God. But right after those
two pages, after 400 years of silence, something
starts to happen. So we get to the Gospels, the
Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ.
And all of the Gospels start with how Jesus got
here. And so I want you to look with me at Luke
chapter 1. We're going to start in verse 5, and
we're going to work through the passage here
in Luke 1 this morning. If it's underlined, I
would love if you read along with me. In the
days of King Herod, there was a priest named
Zechariah, and he had a wife named Elizabeth.
They were both righteous before God, walking
blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes
of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth
was barren. and both were advanced in years.
Now, while he was serving as priest before God,
he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the
Lord and burn incense. Now, you'll notice that's
a little bit paraphrased, but what I did there,
and please read that in your own Bibles, what
I did there was just, I gave you the essentials
in that passage. So the story starts with a priest
named Zechariah. 1 Chronicles tells us that among
the nation of Israel, the priesthood was organized
into 24 divisions. And so each division would
serve twice a year for one week as far as the
temple goes. And by this point in history, due
to such a large number of priests, there was
about 20 ,000 priests believed to be at that
time. Most of these men... would never be chosen
for the job of entering into the holy place for
the job of burning incense. And so this was a
really big task. This was a big deal for you
to be able to get to do this. And so you live
your life, you serve as a priest, and you're
doing what you can to earn some notoriety as
a priest. But you know that for this high honor,
you may never get chosen. And even if you do,
it'll be by random happenstance. Well... On this
day, Zechariah was chosen. So Zechariah, we could
say, has this once -in -a -lifetime opportunity.
And so he goes in, he's doing his job, everything
is going how it's supposed to, it's standard
operating procedure, until we get to verse 11.
Well, Zechariah was chosen. Important note. Verse
11, and there appeared unto him an angel of the
Lord standing on the right side of the altar
of incense. After 400 years of silence, 400 years
of God not appearing via angels, an angel appears.
God sends an angel on his behalf. So this generation
of Jewish people, they had heard stories about
angels. They knew their history really well.
They knew the story of their people really well.
So they had heard these stories about angels
appearing to people in these great happenings.
But as far as we can tell, nobody in this generation
had seen them. In this period of 400 years. And
so until now, when Zachariah, this ordinary priest
who was randomly chosen by Lot, he sees this
angel. And not only does he see the angel, he
hears the first words to break the silence from
God. Now, I find this to be relevant because
I believe God could have chosen any other priest.
He could have chosen anyone in the priesthood
for this, for this historic moment. But he chose
Zechariah to receive the message that this angel
is bringing. And what a message it was. Bear
with me as we read through this, but it's good
stuff. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
There's nothing underlying on this because there's
a lot, all right? And Zechariah was troubled
when he saw him. And fear fell upon him, 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. And you will have joy and
gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
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. And he will turn many of the children
of Israel to the Lord their God. 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.
So let's break that down really quick. Your prayer
has been heard. Good news, John, God heard you.
You're going to have a child. And that child,
he's going to be great in the eyes of God, and
you're going to be happy about it. You're going
to be filled with joy. You're going to be filled
with gladness. And this child is not just going
to be any ordinary child that makes you happy.
He is going to be a man who leads a bunch of
God's people back to God and prepares the way
for the coming Messiah. If you got all that,
say, I got it. So John gets this incredible news.
This incredible message about what is going to
become of this son that he's going to have, that
he's going to be blessed by God. Could you imagine
if I could definitively tell you right now that
you are going to have a child and that child
would not only be great in God's eyes, but they
would do great things that leads the nation to
salvation. Could you imagine what you would feel?
I mean, I think I would either maybe. feel some
really good feelings of joy and excitement. But
I think more likely, I'm going to respond with
disbelief and shock because we know what the
Scripture says, that Zechariah was an older guy,
his wife was barren, and she was older. So I'm
looking at this saying, you may have chosen the
wrong person. Or maybe you didn't choose me.
Maybe you've got the wrong person. Check the
address on the invitation. You may have had the
wrong guy in mind. We're no different than Zechariah.
Look what he says in verse 18. And Zechariah
said to the angel, how shall I know this? For
I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years.
Zechariah had been chosen by God that day. He'd
been chosen by God. to receive this incredible
news, to be the father of this incredible child.
He's hearing this message from God, breaking
the silence of 400 years, and what is his response?
How? I'm too old, and my wife's too old. Men,
I don't recommend you say that. Don't call your
wife old. Seriously, though, it's like Zechariah
isn't sure the angel knows who he's talking to,
as if the angel got the wrong assignment or was
supposed to appear to a different, much younger
Zechariah. Maybe there was another guy named
Zechariah that also happened to be a priest,
and the angel was supposed to go to him and not
me. But do you know what this tells me? It tells
me that Zechariah didn't quite understand God.
It tells me that Zechariah didn't quite understand
who God is, God's track record, what God has
done, how God has enjoyed operating for all of
this time of human history. And do you know why
that's important? It's important because I think
sometimes we don't quite understand God. I don't
think we really know. who God is. I don't think
we really understand how God works or how he
operates. I mean, I want you to think, what's
your version of how shall I know this? I'm too
old. Is it I'm too far gone? I've done too many
bad things. I've been too bad a person. Or is
it I'm just too ordinary? I'm just a normal guy.
I don't have any special gifts or abilities.
I'm not a person of prominence. What kind of
influence can I have? What is your How? How,
God? You see, I think sometimes we hear of something
that could be incredible that would include us,
and we think, no, that's not meant for me. I
think that's probably meant for someone more
capable. My favorite thing working in a church,
and I'm sure people get this in every facet of
work. This is my experience. Man, it'd be really
cool if we did fill in the blank as a church.
Yeah, that's a great idea. You should lead that
ministry or you should be in charge of that.
Oh, no, no, no, I meant like someone else should
do this. Somebody else, more qualified, somebody
who knows the people, somebody who has the skills,
someone who has the background. We think, no,
it's not for me. That's for someone much younger.
That's for someone wealthier or more popular.
And the list goes on of all the excuses we can
make and all of the, well, that's somebody else's.
John. Or maybe that's somebody else's calling.
And we question if God actually meant to include
us in the first place. As I said earlier, we
are no different than Zechariah. And so the angel
responds to him, hey man, are you sure you never
heard the story of Abraham and Sarah who gave
birth to your ancestors when they were in their
90s? Could you imagine being in your 90s having
a kid? The angel doesn't actually say that to
Zechariah. But what he says is actually a lot
better than my sarcasm. Look at verse 19. I am
Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and have
been sent to speak to you and give you this good
news. He looks Zechariah in the face and he says,
dude. I'm one of the archangels. I'm one of God's
people that sits next to God and gets these direct
messages from God and gets sent to do these important
missions for God. And God sent me directly to
you to share this good news. The good news that
your people have been waiting on for 400, actually
more than 400 years, because God promised way
back in the garden that he would send a Messiah
to crush the head of the enemy. And so your people
have been waiting on this news, and you say you're
a faithful people, you say you're a faithful
priest, well, check the track record. God is
sending me to you to do what God has done all
along, and it is work through old people who
think they know better than me. You see, what
Zechariah didn't understand, what we sometimes
fail to understand is that God does not care
how ordinary you are. God does not care how old
you are. He doesn't care how unbelieving you
are. He will use you. Last week, we talked about
how God could use an outcast and a murderer like
Moses. He could use a man like that to lead his
chosen people out of slavery and into the promised
land. And today we see this cool story of God
choosing this old man to have a son who will
be the forerunner for the Messiah. And yes, I
said forerunner. Another word for it would be
the trailblazer. for the Savior. John, maybe
you've heard of him, John the Baptist, would
be the one who would prepare the way for Jesus'
arrival. See, right here in this opening scene
of Luke's gospel account, God breaks his silence
to choose this unexpected man to be the father
of a man of immense worth in the gospel story,
immense worth in the redemptive mission of God.
Can you just imagine what that would do for a
man's feeling of worth? To know, man, The God
of the universe, he can use someone like me.
The God of the universe would care to choose
someone like me. The God of the universe, the
creator of it all, the one who has been leading
my people for all of this time, that same God
can use and choose and wants to use someone like
me. How valuable do you think Zechariah must
have felt leaving that temple? I mean, I just
imagine there had to be like a glow about him.
And when he walked out, people were like, what
in the world has gotten into Zechariah? I mean,
he was only one of some 20 ,000 priests, but
God chose him. And then as Luke 1 continues,
God sends Gabriel to another man and woman. to
tell them about a child they'll have. God sends
Gabriel to Nazareth, this worthless town in the
eyes of many at that time. But because of what
God was about to do, Nazareth would become this
town that is going to be worth so much more in
the history of the world. And in Nazareth, Gabriel
is going to deliver a similar message as the
one he just gave Zechariah, except this one will
be not to an old couple who is barren. This will
be to an engaged teenage couple. And their son
wouldn't be the forerunner for the Messiah. Their
son would be the Messiah. Their son would be
the savior of the world. Their son would be Jesus.
Once again, God chooses people that we would
never choose in places that we would never expect.
And they all reply with the same disbelief. And
they all respond with, who am I? Or are you sure?
There's no way you mean me. But God does. See,
when they're all questioning their worth, when
they're given these excuses in the midst of being
given these incredible parts of this story as
if God made some kind of mistake. And I say this
a lot, and I'm going to keep saying it, and I
hope you believe this. God does not make mistakes.
He chooses who he chooses on purpose and rightfully.
He does what he does on purpose and rightfully.
When he created you, the way he created you,
where he created you, where he placed you, in
the circumstances you're in, God did not make
a mistake. And when he chooses to redeem your
life and use you for something incredible, he's
not making a mistake. It's intentional. So we've
got to stop believing that God... did not mean
what he said he was going to do in and through
our lives. And as is the thesis of this series,
God does not see our value like we see our value.
God looks at us and he doesn't see sinner. He
looks at us and he doesn't see cheater. He doesn't
see liar. Now he sees that we've sinned. Don't
get me wrong. But he doesn't see that. When he
looks at you, he sees you. He sees his child.
He sees this being that he created, that he formed
in the womb intentionally, that he gave a place
in history. God sees you as an indispensable
person created for great things in his redemptive
mission. From the start of this series, we've
said our worth was never something that we earned.
It's never been something we proved, and that
is absolutely true. Our worth has already been
settled by what God was willing to pay. Our worth
has already been proven by the lengths that God
would go through to save us, to purchase us,
to redeem us. And likewise, Zechariah's worth
isn't created the moment Gabriel appears to him
and gives him this message. His work was already
there. Gabriel just revealed it. it to him. He
revealed to him what his purpose on this world
was for. I think Zechariah was probably content
to just be an ordinary priest among this 20 ,000
member priesthood. I think he was content to
just live into his old age with his barren wife.
I think he was okay. with where he was. Now,
sure, he probably wanted a kid. Sure, he wanted
some significance, but I think he would take
what he's got over the alternative being, you
know, being worthless and poor and having no
wife. And so I think Zechariah was okay, but
what God looks at when he sees us is not people
that he wants to be okay. God sees people that
he wants to thrive. There's a reason that when
Jesus comes and he says, I come to give life,
he doesn't just say eternal life. He says abundant
life. We were not put here to just survive. Five,
we were put here to thrive, to do great things
in the kingdom for the kingdom in this world
to change it. And so we might look at ourselves
and think, I'm too old. I think maybe I said
this last week. I don't know. I said it to somebody
recently. Another thing I love hearing when I'm
working in a church is, well, I've done my time.
That's for the young people to do now. Or my
other favorite thing is, well. We've just, you
know, we're young parents and we've just got
so much going on and we're so busy. The old retired
people, they can handle it. And so you've got
these two groups saying the other person can
do it. Well, guess what happens if everybody's
saying the other person can do it? Nobody does
it. And then we wonder why things don't happen.
And so what needs to happen is we need to see
the calling and say, yeah, maybe I was chosen
for this. Maybe this is where I step up and step
in and do the work that God has put in front
of me. We've got to stop looking at ourselves
and saying, I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm not
anything special. I don't have any great talents.
I'm not qualified. I'm not smart enough. I'm
not cool enough. I'm not strong enough or whatever.
Because to all of those excuses, I say, and God
says, baloney. That's baloney. There's no such
thing as I can't. I'm not good enough. If God
put the job in front of you, it was not a mistake.
And sometimes we feel a conviction. We feel a
strong pull to say this needs to be done. You
know, I've had so many people come up to me in
the year that I've been here. And the thing that
they say is we need to get our youth ministry
going. And I'm like, yeah, we do. Where will
you sign up to serve? We need a youth minute.
Okay, where will you sign? We need our small
group. You know, we really need to do more about
connections. Okay, sign up for a small group.
By the way, I'm reorganizing the small groups.
If you've signed up, great. If you haven't signed
up, today is the deadline. Please do so. Because
we've got these things that will say this needs
to happen, but we're not willing to actually
do what it means to prove that we believe it
needs to happen. If we are convicted by something,
If we believe that God has put something in front
of us, then we have one response, and that is
to do what we've been called to do. The whole
narrative of Scripture is just story after story
of God choosing unlikely people to do great things.
And again, God does not make mistakes. And all
throughout Scripture, the people that obey...
what God has chosen them to do? Well, they're
in the book. We remember them. We tell our kids
stories about them. We sing songs about them.
And maybe you've got people in your life that
you can think of that were chosen, that stepped
up in roles that really didn't make sense for
them to step up into. But you remember the example
that that set and how that affected your life,
how that affected a community, how that affected
the church. I brag all the time and I will continue
to do so about my youth minister who was not
a youth minister by trade. He wasn't paid to
be a youth minister. He just did it voluntarily.
He was in his late 40s. He had two daughters
that were getting ready to go off to college.
He had all of his own responsibilities. But he
still stepped up to deal with some snot -nosed,
rugged old middle school boys who could care
less about doing the right thing. And because
of him, I'm here. Because a man who was unlike...
in an unexpected place, decided to step up to
something he believed God was calling him to
do. We remember those people. We tell stories
about those people. There's a reason for that.
The truth for us today, regardless of your thoughts
about yourself or whatever lies the devil has
sold you, is this. God not only wants you, but
God highly favors you. And he wants everyone
he chooses to know, every one of his children
to know how much he thinks they are worth, even
when they don't believe it. Which, by the way,
there are consequences for unbelief. You know,
like I said, we tell stories, we sing songs about
the people that obeyed. But I also remember a
story about a man named Jonah getting swallowed
by a fish because he didn't do what he was supposed
to do. I also remember a story about a woman
ruining mankind's future because she couldn't
just trust God and not eat a fruit. And in the
story of Zechariah, Zechariah decides, well,
I mean, he doesn't decide. He just has this unbelief
in the moment when the angel brings him this
message. And if you read on, you'll notice the
angel makes Zechariah mute for a period of time
due to his unbelief. Faith matters. Acting on
faith. And so when we find ourselves thinking
we can't do it, when we find ourselves thinking
that we're not worth anything, we need to remember,
we better remember God's track record. We better
remember who he is and what he's done and how
he has operated all throughout human history.
We need to remember the list of people that God
has chosen and used before us. Because I promise
there are some stories out there. There's some
stories in this room. I know there are. of some
really unexpected people who obeyed God's call
and have made a difference in the kingdom because
of it. So we need to remember, I'll say it again,
God doesn't make worthless people. And I believe
that to be true. He uses us not to give us worth,
but because we have worth. You don't choose a
tool that doesn't work well for a job to do that
job that it doesn't work well for. That God,
when he chooses us, he chooses us for what he
knows we can have an impact on. And by using
us, we are able to feel what God has already
proven to be true, that we have immense value.
See, we remember these people like Zechariah,
Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph because of what God
did through them. Not because of who they were,
but because of what God did. Because despite
who they were, what they were, what they weren't
capable of, God still used them in powerful ways.
And now you might not be Mary delivering the
Son of God, fair. You may not be Zechariah directly
getting a visit from the angel of God, fair.
But you still have a chance to be used in a powerful
way. We are all chosen to deliver the good news
of Jesus to the world, to prepare the way. for
Jesus to return. And that's not a task given
to worthless people. Like I said, you don't choose
a tool for a job that that tool is not good for.
That's an essential part. We have an essential
part in God's plan to redeem the whole world.
It's a great responsibility, but God deems us
fit for the job. He looks at us and he says they
can do it, not on their own. not by their own
strength, not by their own talent, but by His.
He walks with us. And you'll notice in every
moment in history in the Bible, when God calls
somebody and says, go do this, and they're like,
I can't do that, God, I'm not. I will be with
you. Don't worry about it. Because God knows
that it's by His power that His will will be
done. And so we need to be mindful of that as
we live this life. Every day, God presents us
with... presents us with choices of how we can
be used by him. Maybe not presented by an angel
in the holy place of the temple. Again, I get
it. But they're presented to us. Things like
doing good and making a difference in the community,
leading or being an example in the church, comforting
others or teaching them the Bible, praying for
others and standing up for truth in this world
and being faithful to God even when it's not
easy. We have all these opportunities that if
we're not careful, we will turn down because
we don't believe. But God did not make a mistake
in presenting that opportunity to you or choosing
you, and so you need to believe it. And so right
now, I want you to think of one opportunity,
one thing, one place where you feel like maybe,
like if you think, you're like, maybe that was
God calling me? Maybe that was a sign? I want
you to think about one opportunity that God has
put in front of you that you have talked yourself
out of, or at least you've tried to. I want to
say this to you in as pastoral of a way as I
can. Stop. Stop not believing. It's time to stop
believing the lie that God couldn't possibly
want you on the mission. This isn't like when
I was... I'm the second oldest of eight, and
so I have plenty of little brothers and sisters.
And I can remember being little, and my mom or
my grandma or whoever I was living with at the
time would say, you should take your brother
with you. Some of you have been there. You should
take your sister with you. No. Yes. No. Yes.
This isn't that. Nobody's telling God, hey, bring
Tim along. You know, he, yeah, yeah, yeah, right?
No, it's hey, Tim is valuable to the mission.
Bring him along because he has a big part to
play. Like this isn't some accident. Nobody's
forcing you. God has chosen you on purpose. You
have value to the mission. You're not just a
tag along. You're there on purpose. As Paul says
in 1 Thessalonians 1 .4, for we know, brothers
and sisters, loved by God, that we have been
chosen, that he has chosen you. I'm sorry. He's
chosen you. It's time to stop doubting God's
love for us because we made some mistakes. It's
time to stop the disbelief and the trust that
God has chosen us to be a part of his family.
It's time to stop doubting that we have a part
in his redemptive mission for this world. So
today, if you're struggling to believe that God
could use someone like you, if you're struggling
to believe that God could possibly redeem someone
like you, or if you're just struggling, Like
in general, if life's just been hard, if things
have been weighing on you, please let us pray
for you. Give us the opportunity to put hands
on you, pray and lift you up to God this morning.
We offer the invitation and we mean it. This
call is not an accident. We don't make mistakes
either. We want you to know that we are a family
that wants to love you and pray for you and pray
with you and lead you closer to Jesus because
that's what we've been put here for. That's our...
call. And we have one choice. It's a song to
trust and obey. And so this morning, if you need
help trusting, if you need help understanding
or believing that you're a part of God's plan,
wherever you're at this morning, we invite you
to come now as we stand and as we sing.