All right, well today we're gonna talk about, I'm gonna talk about prayer today. I also wanna pick up a little bit on where Pastor Seth left off last week. If you remember, he gave us our word for the Christmas season. Anybody remember what it is?
Behold, behold. Remember we got up here to really, not just to take a casual glance, but to actually intensely look at something. And he took it from Luke chapter two, where the angel appears to the shepherds and tells them to behold, that a savior is born, and to pay attention to that. But he also made a statement that he felt that he was on a mission to tackle fear.
And I know two weeks ago or three weeks ago, he preached a message on fear. And so I kinda wanna, we're gonna kinda start a little bit with that today, and then we'll finish with that. So I wanna just add a point or two to that, more of a sub point, I guess. But one thing he said last week, he said before, a joy can be received, fear has to be addressed.
And so we're gonna look at something when it comes to fear in the context of prayer. And so sometimes what can happen over time? And I don't think time necessarily is an enemy, right? Time is kinda, it's neither good or bad, time is time.
But what I know about time is, the longer delay occurs in prayer, the enemy can use time to lower expectations. That, and I've experienced, I'm not speaking theoretically, I'm speaking from experience, that the longer you believe for something to come to pass, the tendency is to begin to have questions, right? Maybe God doesn't wanna answer this. Maybe God's mad at me.
Maybe God doesn't hear my prayers. Maybe I need to do X, Y, and Z. Maybe I need to do more in order for God to get me to. And what happens is, the enemy uses time as an open door to begin to lower expectations.
See, what happens a lot of times, when people pray for things, they lose faith not so much because they quit praying, but I find that people lose faith because they keep praying, but they keep praying, but lowering their expectations as they pray. See what happens, and then all of a sudden prayer becomes some routine that we go through just to check a box. But we don't actually pray and expect something to happen. Because what happens is, as delay occurs, we think we begin to spiritualize it, we begin to add excuses for why delay is happening in order to lower our expectations till it gets down to a place where we can accept it or live with it.
One thing I know about Jesus, Jesus never taught his disciples on how to deal with unanswered prayer. He never modeled unanswered prayer. Every prayer that Jesus prayed was answered by the Father. That's our standard.
That's the standard. See, anything, like, what happens a lot of times, we use this term unanswered prayer. I remember when I was a younger guy, there was a country song about unanswered prayer, and how God protects us by unanswered prayer. Well, what happens is, when we attach the term unanswered prayer, we suddenly and unknowingly begin to just come to this place where we begin to believe that God is actually withholding something from us, that he's promised us in his word, that we begin to diminish the finished works of Christ.
And so I really want to attack that thing today. I want to look at it from the Christmas story, actually the preceding story of the Christmas story. A few weeks ago, I preached on Jesus, that the name of Jesus means Jehovah's salvation. We're gonna learn a little bit more about Jehovah today through the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth.
And so we're gonna look at Luke chapter one, and we're gonna read verses five through 14 today. Luke chapter one, verses five through 14, the title of the message is your prayer is heard. So if you have your Bibles, if not, we'll be up on the screen. Luke chapter one verse five.
It says, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest, named Zacharias of the division of Abijah, his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, they were blameless. Now, let's just stop there. So we have Elijah, I'm sorry, Elijah, Zacharias, I'll just see if anybody's paying attention.
Nobody's said anything. We have Zacharias, and Zacharias, we'll just call him a common priest. He wasn't a high priest. Back when David established the temple, David instituted the order of worship, David divided the priest into 24 orders, different orders, and he was of the order of Abijah.
And each order would serve in the temple one week at one point of the year and one week at another point of the year, so each order would serve about two weeks a year. Of the, what we will call the common priest, there was estimated about 20,000 of these priests at that given time. And so what we're gonna see that Zacharias gets selected to do is really a once in a lifetime thing. Like it may or may not ever happen to an average priest, but he gets selected to do it.
And we know that he's married to Elizabeth, and it says that they were righteous before God. Now that's not righteous like we think of righteous today, because under the new covenant, we become righteous by faith in Jesus, under the old covenant a little bit different. And it said before God, they were blameless, which just doesn't mean that they were sinless. It just means that as they committed sin, they would bring the offerings, the sacrifices that were necessary under that covenant to have their sins cleanned.
So they're good people. They follow the rules, they live the way God tells them to live and they do everything right. It says in verse seven, it says, but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was that while he was serving as priests before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
So they would draw like, draw straws, we would call it today, they draw straws, he gets selected through the straws, or casting a lot to go in and burn incense in the holy place. Now not the holy of holies, the high priest went in once a year, but the compartment prior to that. And he would go in at the time of prayer, and he would burn incense. And it says in verse 10, it says, in the whole multitude of the people were outside praying at the hour of incense.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zachariah saw him, he was troubled, and fear, here's where he see fear, and fear fell upon him. And the angel of the Lord said, do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John, and you will have what? I didn't hear you, look up here, and you will have joy.
He says, do not be afraid, when your prayer is answered, you will have joy. The angel said, this angel said, this shepherd, do not fear, do not be afraid, for I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall beat all people. So we have this connection here between removing the removal of fear and the receiving of joy. If you think about it in context, prayer, Jesus said something very similar, John chapter 16, he says to his disciples in verse 24, John 1624, he says, up until now, you've asked me nothing.
You've asked nothing in my name. Then he says, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. So Jesus saying, after I resurrect from the dead, things are gonna change, and in that day, when I come back from the dead, you'll now be able to ask the Father in my name. And when you ask, you will receive, and when you receive, your joy will be full.
So we see this thing of this connection between asking and faith in the name of Jesus, receiving, and that there's a fullness of joy connected to receiving. See, Jesus never taught us to deal with unanswered prayer. He taught us how to, what's it called, believing reception. He said, what's whoever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
So that we're believing that we have received, we're not believing that we will receive, see we're believing that we have received. What happens a lot of times is we confuse or mix up provision with manifestation. Provision was accomplished at the cross. We sang about it a few minutes ago.
When Jesus took my sin, when Jesus took my shame, when Jesus took my sickness, died in my place, went to hell, rose again, to live forever. Provision was accomplished then. Manifestation unfolds in time. And so what happens is, is we think God hasn't provided for us, but we fail to realize that provision is already an accomplished fact.
Manifestation unfolds as time goes on. And so to think that God hasn't provided is to actually deny the finished works of Jesus. And he says, when you ask and when you receive, there will be a fullness of joy. See if you think about this for a minute, anybody ever had delay occur in their prayer life?
I think if your hands not up, I'm gonna say you haven't prayed. Anybody, now more hands go up. If you haven't experienced delay, then you haven't prayed. Because I don't know anybody at some point in their time where they haven't experienced a delay from the moment they pray until the moment what they pray for manifest in time.
See there's reasons it could happen. Sometimes it's demonic interference. Sometimes there's, if you think of the prayer of Daniel, if you look at Daniel in Daniel chapter nine, Daniel prays in the angel set comes literally why he's praying, he says, I came because of your words. And literally the moment he prays seconds later, the angel shows up with the answer to his prayer.
It manifests in seconds. Don't we love those kind of prayers? I love when I pray for somebody who's sick and we see an instantaneous healing. Nothing but like I love it, right?
It happens, we see it. But when you go to Daniel chapter 10, we see a different result. Daniel chapter 10, he goes to prayer again, and he prays for three weeks. And the angel says, he says, I was sent, the moment you prayed, he said, your prayer was heard, I came because of your words, but I was delayed 21 days because of the prince of the power of Persia.
There was a demonic spirit interfered and delayed the prayer from coming in real time. So sometimes it's demonic influence. Sometimes there's interference that we can't see. But in that instant, God answered that prayer instantaneously, but the manifestation of it took 21 days to occur.
Sometimes, sometimes prayers are delayed because it's not yet God's time. The time, it's not on his prophetic time clock. Do you know it says in Galatians 4-4, it says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Do you realize that there was a prophetic time clock for when Jesus had to come?
Daniel prophesied that Jesus, the Messiah, would come 483 years after the decree was given to rebuild Jerusalem. So when the decree to Jerusalem is given to, I'm sorry to rebuild Jerusalem, the time clock starts from the Messiah coming. And you could have declared and bound and prayed and fasted all you want during that 483 years, but the Messiah is not coming because it's not yet God's time in his prophetic time clock. Sometimes it's a timing issue.
Sometimes we try to do all these religious things that we think are right to get God to disrupt his time clock. Like there's some things, most things happen when we pray when we come into alignment and agreement with what God gives us to do. He gives us authority on the earth. But there's certain things that are gonna happen no matter what, like the second coming of Christ.
That's gonna happen whether you pray or not. It's gonna happen. God's gonna comment a certain time. So sometimes there's a timing issue.
Sometimes God's answer is bigger than your ask. I gotta make sure I get the K only end of that. Sometimes God's answer is bigger than your ask. When Lazarus was sick.
Remember Lazarus, John chapter 11? Mary and Martha's brother. The person that Jesus loved, his friend. Lazarus is sick.
Mary and Martha send disciples to Jesus and say, go tell Jesus your friend Lazarus, whom you love is sick. Now what are they essentially? What are Mary and Martha praying for? They're praying for a healing.
Their brother's sick. He's not feeling well. They know Jesus can heal. They send disciples to say, hey Lazarus is sick.
We want you to come and do what? Heal him. Their request was a healing, but God's answer was a resurrection. See sometimes his answer is greater than your ask.
See and I said when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was another two days. Essentially Jesus delayed going because had he gone the moment the prayer was released, he would have had to settle for a healing. But in his mind, his answer, resurrection, was much bigger than the ask for healing. And so sometimes the delay is because God wants to release something bigger into your life than the very thing that you're asking for.
This is what, I mean, imagine, this is what Elizabeth and Zacharot, think about this. They were, she was barren. They were old. What were they praying for?
Oh what? A baby. They're praying for a baby. I doubt they were praying for a John the Baptist.
They're praying for 10 fingers and 10 toes. They're praying for seven pounds and 15 ounces. They're praying for a boy or a girl. They're not thinking the one that would be the forerunner of the Messiah.
They're not thinking the one that would preach with the power of Elijah. They're not thinking of the one that would baptize Jesus. They're not thinking of the one that would be the first human prophet in over 400 years. They're not thinking they're gonna give birth to the greatest prophet of all time ever to be born among women.
I just want a baby. And God's answer is bigger than their request. But see, God couldn't answer that when they prayed it because not only was his answer bigger, but there's a timing issue. See if he answers it too early and John the Baptist is born too soon, he'll never be the forerunner of the Christ who has to be born on a certain time.
And so there's a timing issue, but there's also an answer issue. It's much bigger than they have ever imagined. And so when delay comes, we're gonna address it today. What does he say?
Let's go to the next slide. It says don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. See what happens?
Fear, what did Pastor Seth tell us last week? What cast out fear? Perfect love. There is no blank in love.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear. Who is love? God. So first John 418 says perfect love cast out fear.
First John 418 says God is love. If so the more, think about this. The more I know about God who is love, the more fear will be cast out and the greater my expectation to believe for the thing that he's promised. And so what God does in Luke 113 is he gives Zacharias a prophetic picture of who God is.
He attacks fear because what happens is we begin to think, well, maybe God doesn't remember. Maybe God's for God. Maybe God's not gonna keep his word. Maybe there's something I have to do to get God to keep his word so that he rewards me for my good behavior.
And there's three things in Luke 113 that I wanna show you today. And they're found in the names that are in that story. Zacharias, Elizabeth and John. It says, do not be afraid Zacharias for your prayers heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will call his name what, John.
You're like, well, I don't know, I go back, back, back, back. I don't see anything there, but remember names mean something. There's a story, there's a prophetic nature that's assigned to names, especially Bible times. And so as the angels delivering this, knowing what these names mean gives us the answer to not allowing fear to creep in when we're believing God to do something.
When we're standing in faith to believe that God's gonna answer and he's gonna answer the way scripture promises that he will. He says, do not fear Zacharias, for your wife Elizabeth will bear a son. You will call his name John. These names mean that Zacharias means this, Jehovah remembers or remembered of Jehovah.
Elizabeth means oath of God or God has sworn. And John means this, Jehovah is a gracious giver or Jehovah has graced. Now think about that verse in terms of what those words mean. Do not fear Zacharias because God remembers.
Your wife Elizabeth will have a son because God swore it. God made an oath and you will call his name John not because you deserved it, but because Jehovah is a gracious giver. See, when you're praying for something and he says, God remembers, Jehovah remembers. But not only does he remember he's made an oath, when God makes a promise, we're gonna see that he makes an oath.
He keeps his word. And finally that Jehovah is a gracious giver. Like this is what we do at Christmas, God gave. What God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
He gives graciously, he gives freely, not based on anything we do. And so these three things I wanna look at today apply them to prayer and then we're gonna finish up with Luke. If you wanna peek ahead, don't go there on the slide, if you wanna look, Luke 172 to 74, we're gonna see a shift in Zacharias when he gets his voice back. I'm not gonna go into the story, but what happens is he doesn't believe the angel.
The angel makes him mute until the time that these things come to pass. And when Elizabeth bears the son, and when they take the boys eight days later to the temple to name him and they call him John, Zacharias gets his mouth back, he gets his voice back. And we're gonna close with that. I want you to see what he has to say at the very end.
All right, number one, your prayer is heard. Do not be afraid Zacharias. It means Jehovah remembers or remembered of Jehovah. Do you realize when God says something, he doesn't forget it.
He remembers his word. So a lot of times I think what God said, how often do we try to remind God of what he said? Well, God, you said he didn't forget. He's probably like, idiot, I know that.
I'm not the one that forgot who you were. See, we have more confidence thinking God remembers our sins than we think that he remembers his word. It says under the new covenant, he says, this is the covenant I will make with you with Israel after those days. He says, I will write my laws in their heart.
I will put them on their minds. I will be by God. They will be my people and their sins, I will remember no more. So a lot of times people say, well, God forgets your sins.
He didn't, he didn't forget them. He didn't throw them a popular term as he threw them in the sea of forgetfulness. That doesn't exist in the Bible. It says that they go into the depths of the sea.
God did not forget what you did, but by his choice, he chooses not to remember it. He makes a decisive decision. Their sins and iniquities I will not remember, or I will remember no more. I remember them one day when I put them all in Jesus, every single one of them, I remembered them.
I put them on my son and from that day forward, I choose to not remember them. Didn't forget them, I choose not to remember. But when it comes to his word, he always remembers it. He always remembers it.
It says in Psalm 105 verses 89. It says, he remembers his covenant for a few days. What's it say? He remembers his covenant forever, the word, which he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham.
See, when God says something, when God declares something, I don't care if he declared it 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, when God says something, it's forever settled. Psalm 119, 89 says this, it says forever, oh Lord, your word is settled. That means it's established in heaven. It's not floating around the atmosphere.
It's literally settled in heaven. It's established in heaven. He remembers it. So you can trust when God says something that he remembers his word.
So a lot of times we think, well, God remembers his word, but does he remember my prayers? I want to tell you this today, that God not only remembers your word, but he remembers your prayer. He remembers your prayers. In Revelation chapter 5, the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, he has a revelation, that's why the book is called Revelation, has a revelation of future events.
Jesus takes him in the spirit and shows him things that still have yet to come to pass. But he takes him into the throne room of heaven. And in the throne room of heaven in Revelation chapter 5, it talks about that there's one sitting on the throne, and the one sitting on the throne has a scroll, and that scroll has seven seals on it, and John begins to weep because no one is able to open the scroll. And the elders that are there, there's four living creatures and 24 elders, they said, don't weep, because there's one, the lion of the tribe of Judah, he is able to open the scroll.
Actually, I like this, if you read it, it says behold in there. There's our word, I just remember, the word behold is in that verse. It says behold, there's a lion of the tribe of Judah, and he's able to open the scroll. And John says, then I saw one come into the midst who was as a lamb who was slain.
And it said, when the lamb that was slain came, he took the scroll and opened it. And when he opened it, he was able to read it, and it says that the four creatures and the 24 elders fell down in worship. And in verse eight, it says this, it says, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are what? Prayers of the saints.
Now, we're talking about in eternity outside of time, that God thinks so much of the prayers that you prayed, he values them so much, he stores them in a golden bowl and commits them to the 24 elders to keep them. And every time the lamb, they fall down with the lamb, they have this bowl in which is incense, which are your prayers. It's amazing to me that something that's not eternal are words, makes its way into the eternal realm, into the throne room of God, where everything else there is something God created. But somehow my words that are released through prayer are kept there eternally.
I felt like this morning as I was praying, I'm not sure who this is for, but I felt like it's not just your prayers that are there, that somebody's prayers from a prior generation that prayed for you are still there today. Your grandmother's prayers, your great grandfather's prayers, that were prayed on your behalf, are still being held in one of those bowls, being lifted up before the throne of God. It may have been multiple generations since that prayer was prayed, but a delay is not a no. A delay is not a no.
A delay might just mean it's not yet God's time, or that God has something bigger in store, or that God's preparing you and equipping you and developing you so that you're able to steward and carry that what he wants to release in your life. I like how the, if you have the passion translation or you like the passion translation, I love Luke 113, back to our passage, I don't have it up here, but in the passage translation, it says this, he said, your prayer has been answered. When the angel speaking to Zachari says, your prayer has been answered. And then there's a little asterisk.
And if you go to the footnotes at the bottom, the footnotes at the bottom say, the Greek tense of that verb, allow for the translation of this, the prayer that you no longer pray. Imagine that, the prayer that you no longer pray has been answered. Imagine that, because what happens sometimes? Time goes by, expectations drop, and at one point was this fervent, heartfelt, passionate prayer, high faith, high belief, high expectation, as time goes by what happens, dwindles.
It becomes just a little flame. And the next thing you know, you don't even pray anymore. Even the prayers that you don't pray anymore are still reserved in one of those bowls. The goodness of God, the goodness of God, the prayer that your grandmother prayed for you, that you may not even know about it, but God remembers it.
God remembers it. Number two is this, your prayer is heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. So it's one thing to know that God remembers his word, but does God keep it?
Him remembering it's one thing, but I wanna know, is he gonna keep it? How is he gonna keep it? He says Elizabeth, which means God has sworn, or it means oath, and oath. We've talked about this before, but now don't everybody raise their hands at once, but when you go in front of the judge, what do you do?
Oh, how do we know that more than we know Bible verses? That's called experiential knowledge. I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help me, God, there you go.
I've never been there, but I know it. So, see God took an oath also. But see, when we take an oath, we swear by God, right? We take an oath based on God because he's greater than we are.
And it gives validity to what we're saying. But when God made an oath, there was nobody greater than him. Who's he gonna swear by? He had to swear by himself, because there was nobody greater.
It says in Hebrews, chapter six, talking about the covenant that God made with Abraham, it says, when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying surely I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. So he says this, when God says surely, he's not only making a promise, but he's making a covenant based on who he is. He said, I'm making an oath. I'm putting my hand on the proverbial Bible, and I'm swearing by my own name, that when I say I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it.
But look what, remember, he makes a promise to Abraham. He makes an oath, it's gonna happen. But what did Abraham have to do, verse 15? After he had patient endured, he obtained a promise.
The next slide says this, for 16, for men indeed swear by the greater, an oath for confirmation is the end of dispute. When God makes an oath, it's not up for debate. It's not up for discussion. God said it, God promised it.
God swore by his own name, so there's nothing to discuss. You're like when people say, well, well, God doesn't do that anymore. First of all, I could give you examples from my own life that he does. But secondly, I don't see where God took an oath that ended when the apostles died.
He didn't take an oath that ended when the Bible was canonized. He took an oath, he remembers his word forever, and he keeps his word forever. He says, God determining, look, you're like, well, he made that oath to Abraham. What's that got to do with me?
God determining to show more abundantly to who? The heirs, guess what you are? You're an heir with Christ. We are a co-air, which means everything that Jesus inherited, you inherited.
It says determining more abundantly to show the heirs a promise, the immutability, which means it can't change. It doesn't change. It's what we would call an irrevocable covenant, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which is impossible for God to lie. See, it says two things.
First, God did he made a promise. But secondly, he surrounded that promise with an oath. So he said, I'll do it, and then I'm swearing that I'll do it. And both things, it says it's impossible for God to do what?
Lie, which means when he says it, he's telling the truth. When he says it, you can count on it. That we might have strong consolation, which means strong encouragement or a great hope, who have fled for refuge, that they hope that is set before us. So God makes these promises.
And so when you see a promise in scripture, know that God confirmed it. God, like how often do we approach prayer as trying to convince God to do something? Is not for the purpose of persuading God. Prayer is for the purpose of alignment.
It's alignment. It's me aligning with what he has already provided through the provision that was made at the cross. I'm not convincing God to, like I don't have to convince God to heal somebody. He's already healed them.
I don't have to convince God to save somebody. He's already demonstrated. It's his will to save them. I don't have to approach prayer as convincing God to do something because he's already said he'll do it.
And then he swore he'll do it. Like what more do you want? Like I don't know what else he can give you and the purpose is so we can have a strong consolation. See if I, what makes it difficult is, if I don't know what his word says.
If I don't know the word, if I don't know what promises are in the word, John says this first John 514 and 15, he says this is the confidence. Let's go back to this, Romans chapter four first. See Abraham, it said he didn't waver the promise of God, he was strengthen of faith. He gave glory.
Look at that, he was what? Fully convinced. If Abraham, if God made the covenant with Abraham and the result was Abraham was fully convinced and then God more abundantly wanted to show the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, guess what we can be too? If Abraham was fully convinced, we can be what?
Fully convinced. We're sons of Abraham by faith. We're heirs of Christ. I'm an heir.
I don't have to convince God to give it to me. If it's Christ, I have access to it. John says this is the confidence we have. First John five 14 says this is the confidence we have.
What's our confidence in? Don't put your confidence in your ability to pray. We look at people who have success and prayer and try to mimic their prayers. Sometimes you put confidence in your prayer, sometimes people of confidence in how other people pray.
It's not how long you pray, it's not how loud you pray, it's not how much scripture you know, it's none of that. This is the confidence we have in him. My confidence is in Jesus. My confidence is in what he has already done.
That if we ask anything according to his will, which is his word, which he remembers, which he made an oath about, if I ask anything according to, what is according to? That means in proportion or in alignment. Remember too often we're over here, and right, let's say this to me, my right, your left field. We're in left field and we're trying to get God to do what, a line with me.
I'm trying to pray God over here. And God's saying no, 2000 years ago I displayed my love for you, I provided everything you ever need. I pre-answered every need you ever would have and all you need to do is ask according to or in alignment with what I've already done. Because I've already, I put my oath on that.
He says, if we ask anything according to his will, he does what? Your prayer is heard, he hears you. And if he hears you, we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we ask him. That's the confidence, like confidence in his ability, confidence in his faithfulness, confidence in who he is, that he's a covenant keeping God, that he remembers his word and that he keeps his word.
And the final thing the angel says, oh, let me just, I love this verse, we got through it in there, 2 Corinthians 1, 20, I can't not mention it. All of the promises of God are in him, what? They're in him, where are his promises? In him, in the promises that are in him, what has he already answered?
Yes, stop trying to convince God to say yes. He's already said yes. It's a big Y, promise oath. It said, and in him is what else?
Amen, and who's the Amen through? The last word, through us. All you gotta do is say, amen, let it be so. Let it be so.
What did Mary say when the angel came to her and said, with God, nothing shall be impossible? She said, be it unto me according to your word. Let it be so. You said it, you promised it, I believe it, amen.
And the final thing is this, Jehovah is a gracious giver. Your prayer is heard, you shall call his name John, which means Jehovah is a gracious giver. Where God has graced, how often do we go through these antics and prayer, trying to get God to answer them? Well, if you just get a thousand people praying at the same time, we're gonna storm the gates of heaven.
Where does this stuff come from? God doesn't give in response to my actions. God gave, God demonstrated his love to us in that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us.
Before you did anything, he provided. Now granted, obedience positions you to receive, because if God's providing over here, and provision is here, and you're living your life a certain way, and making your own choices, and doing your own thing, and you're over here, it's not that God didn't provide, but your disobedience repositioned you to a place where you're not able to receive it. But his provision was provided based on grace. Obedience doesn't provide the blessing of obedience just puts me in the right position to be able to receive it.
God always gives, because his nature is a giver. And when he gives, he gives graciously. He gives, see, grace is undeserved, unearned favor. That God's giving favor, God's giving good things that we don't deserve and don't earn, and can't merit them.
I can't do anything to earn what God wants to give. But I have to be willing to follow his lead to position me in a place to receive it. See, when Elijah calls a drought, right? Elijah calls a drought for three years, and he gets the benefit of his unproficy, and there's nothing to drink.
He gets penalized by his unproficy. And God says, go to the brook, Cherith, because I've commanded the Ravens to feed you there. Now what if Elijah said, why don't buy that? I got my life, I want to live my life, I want to go do my own thing.
Would the provision have been there? The provision was there, because God already commanded the Ravens. See, Ravens, I better. The Ravens served the prophet.
They're subservient. See, I believe Elijah was a stealer. But whether Elijah did what God said to or not, the provision was there, not based on anything he did. He went there, right?
And he eats and they bring him food every day, and he drinks it eventually, because of the drought, the brook dries up. Also, nothing to drink. God says, go to a widow in Zerafath, because I've commanded her to provide for you there. Well, I like this brook.
This brook looks nice, I like this tree, I like this life, this is my jam right here. He could have stayed there and starved to death, or he could obey God to go to the place where the provision already was available. See, his obedience didn't cause the provision, but his obedience positioned him to receive by grace what God had already provided. And that's what Jehovah is, he's a gracious giver.
You're like, well, I didn't pray this week. Well, God remembered the one you prayed last week. I didn't pray this year. Well, God remembered the one you prayed last year.
I messed up last night. Well, God forgave you of that sin 2000 years ago, when he put that one on Jesus. Oh, I forgot to confess the one I did last month. That's okay, because God already forgave you of it before you ever confess it to start with.
Well, I hadn't darkeyed the doors at church in two years. That doesn't matter, because God doesn't give based on what you do. He gives based on grace, and God has great things for you. And he wants to pour out in your life because he's a good father.
He's a gracious giver. Romans 832 says, Paul, you know what I say, ask better questions. If you ask better questions, you get better answers. Paul asked a great question.
It said, hey, if God didn't spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely? Do what? Give us all things. See, when God gave his son to be delivered up for our sin, he did it before you ever even born.
Anybody around 2,000 years ago? If you were, then I could go back and say that he was the Lamb of God's slave before the foundation of the earth, because God lives outside of time. But regardless, it happened before you were ever around. If he didn't spare the best that he had, then.
How much more now that we're one with him? See, it would be in a front to the goodness of God if he gave the best then and then held back now. Because God is a gracious giver. It said, how will he not with him freely?
Give us everything. It's the word in Greek, it's chorizo-mye, which comes from the word keros, which is grace. It's literally the verb of grace. It means grace in action.
It's the action form of grace that God is freely giving. He's freely giving. He's a giver. He's not giving with strings attached.
He's giving freely. Peter says it this way in 2 Peter chapter one verse three, four, his divine power has given us what? All things that pertain to life and God with him. So when God has given and provided everything, everything you need for life, your daily life, everything you need to live a godly life, he's provided.
Through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. So you remember, provision versus manifestation. God has already given it to you. It's in, it's like thinking like having a bank account.
He set up a bank account in heaven with your name on it that includes great and precious promises, that includes all things that he's given you that you will ever need for life or godliness. And it's in your account. Through the knowledge of him, as I begin to gain understanding of him, as I begin to put my trust in him, now I'm able to access and pull from the eternal realm into this realm some of those promises that God has laid up for me. And the reason I say some of them, because I don't know that we could ever exhaust all of them.
Like I'd like to say we have access to them all. They're all there. But I don't know anybody that's ever tapped into the all of God. And so it's all there.
It's all there. And that we have access to the divine nature that we're able to actually live and live like life like God does. He gives us the Holy Spirit. It's the first Corinthians chapter 12.
It's a prayer too. It says this, and we're going to close here in a second. It says, we've received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of who is from God that we might what? No.
That we might know the things that God has freely given us. So that look, when God says something, he what? Remembers it. Zacharias, Jehovah remembers it.
God remembers it. Elisabeth, God has sworn where God's oath. He not only remembers it, but who makes it promise, he swears by himself because he could swear by nobody greater. And number three, John, Jehovah graciously gives.
That God has not just eternal life for you, but all things that pertain to life and God in this. Eternal life's great. Knowing God, Jesus is great. But God has the depths of salvation.
What Jesus came to bring. Remember the name of Jesus means Jehovah's salvation. It's an all encompassing life. It's that he's provided everything you'll ever need.
Now, I want you to remember for a minute. Where did we start? We said, the angel, what was the first thing he instructed Zacharias? Do not be afraid.
For your prayer is heard, right? Don't be afraid. And we know, if you read through chapter one, we know that Zacharias, he had got to this point in his life to where he quit believing. He quit believing.
He's like, how we spoke to have a baby? My wife's barren and we're well past the age. Even though there was biblical precedent, there was biblical precedent of God restoring Abraham and Sarah to have baby after the age of natural childbirth and being barren. Seven women in the Old Testament that were barren all became able to bear children because it was God's will.
God said in Deuteronomy 7, 14, he said, there shall not be a male or a female among you who's barren. So it's God's will that God's going to keep it. He made an oath and he's a gracious giver. But remember, so here's Zacharias.
I don't get it. So what's his name to do? He said, till the time this happens, we're going to put a button on it. Sometimes you can talk yourself out of your own prayer.
Sometimes God needs to shut your mouth. Sometimes I'd like to shut your mouth. Sometimes the best thing you can do is be quiet because you'll mess it up. If you can't confess what God's word say, don't say it.
Like forget that. If you can't say something nice, don't say it. Forget that. If you can't confess what God's word says, don't say anything because that's the one thing in this world that's accurate.
After all that, nine months go by, John is born. They take him to the temple. They dedicate him on the eighth day. In the spirit of God comes upon Zacharias, his mouth opens, and he begins to prophesy about Jesus.
He prophesies about Jesus and then he prophesies about John the Baptist. But I want you to see what he says about Jesus in John chapter one, verses 72 to 40. Actually, let me just read it to you. We'll close with this.
There's a little bit more than that. Starts in verse 67, it says, now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Now verse 72, look at this.
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath, which he swore to our Father Abraham to grant us. Zacharias, Jehovah does what? Remembers, Elizabeth, God has sworn her or God's oath, to grant us also as the same thing, it means to give. Jehovah is a gracious giver, that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might do what?
Serve him without fear, without fear. See, God saved you to serve, but he saved you to serve, not in fear, but apart from fear. Because if the enemy can keep you trapped in fear and doubt, you'll never move forward in the calling God has on your life. See, there's something that God has for you.
There's things you've been praying for. There's things that your generations before you have been praying for, and if the enemy can keep you in fear, if the enemy can keep you wondering, God, will this ever happen? I'll spend my whole life in doubt, and like, if the enemy can't keep you from getting saved, he'll keep you from being effective. Like his first goal is to keep you from Jesus.
If he can't keep you from becoming one from Jesus with Jesus, then he'll keep you from leading anybody else to Jesus, and he does it through fear. Like I said, time becomes a tool of the enemy to reduce our level of expectation, to where we don't believe anymore. We, we, we, we, I don't know. If I go back to church, God might strike me down.
Where'd that come from? Oh, God, for me, God will remember me. God doesn't forget anything. He remembers you, he remembers his word, he remembers his promises, he keeps his promises.
He's able to do the impossible, and he does it for free. And he wants you to have the freedom to serve. Like when you serve out of fear, you're limited. There's limits to what you can do.
There's a term, like it's called playing scared. Like you can't play scared. You gotta have freedom to have confidence, to know that God's got your back. The God keeps his word.
God brings it to pass 29 years ago, was 26, 26, no longer than that, 31. I guess I was, I was 24, 31 years ago. I was saved, I wasn't living for the Lord. I didn't believe in the prophetic, I didn't believe in the supernatural, but I was saved.
I'm at the gym, I'm working out, and God graciously tiptoed into my life and gave me a prophetic word, but he did it sneakily. Because had he not done the first thing, I wouldn't have believed the second thing. I'm at the gym, and I'm working out, in a scraggly old guy with long gray hair, and imagine being a gym, he's got off cut off blue jeans. And you ever see them old guys with like little skinny white legs, right?
And they got, they got, they got like the strings coming down from the blue jeans they cut off. That was this guy. And he comes over to me and he says, you're a born again Christian, aren't you? I'm looking over my shoulder.
Come on, I'll live for the Lord. But I knew I was saving, I said, yeah. And I don't know this guy from Adam, I said, how do you know that? He said, the Holy Spirit told me, I'm like, oh, you're one of those.
Okay, well, okay buddy, you're right, okay. Like good guess. Talked kind of tucked it back in my head, I got home. Three weeks later, still 24 years old, I'm in Morristown, New Jersey, I'm in a, I'm in a me, my wife's with me.
I don't remember the story, but it was kind of like, oh, Marshall's, my wife's with Marshall's. Yeah, I was gonna say like Target or something, but yeah, Target wasn't around, Marshall's. And I'm shopping, and I was a bit of a, more of a butt head than I am now, if you can imagine. And I was more of a, I was a fighter, I like to fight.
And I look across the stacks of clothes, and I see this guy, like a very dark skin guy like from Africa, and he's looking at me, and I'm looking at him, and he's looking at me, I'm like, you got, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you want a piece of me or we had, come on. And so, you know, my shoulders go back, you know, I'm acting awful, and he comes over, I'm mean to him, he's meeting me, and I'm drawing back, and I'm a total stranger, and he goes, you're a born again Christian, aren't you? Talk about getting stopped in your tracks. And I said, I asked the same question, how do you know that?
He said the exact same thing. He goes, the Holy Spirit told me, and then he prophesied over me. I never would have, now all of a sudden God set me up, and I didn't realize that, because that guy just said it, it wouldn't have been as effective as the guy three weeks ago said the same thing, but he prophesied, he goes, God's gonna use you to preach to tens of thousands of people one day. And I tell you this, this to say that.
I held onto that promise for 31 years. See some things God wants to pour into your life, you have to start with step one. I didn't go from preaching three weeks ago for the first time in my life, I preached a group of over 10,000 people. See, whether God releases a word from a prophetic word, whether it's a promise in his word, God keeps his word.
But see, there's steps of obedience that we take sometimes. Like I didn't go there from zero to preaching to 10,000 people. I taught Sunday school, I had eight people in it, and then I did a little this, and did a little that, and steps and stages. And sometimes God has to develop you before you can carry the thing that he's promised to release in your life.
But I just wanna testify to this, that God doesn't forget that Jehovah remembers, that Jehovah keeps his word, like God makes a promise, he keeps it. And not because I didn't do anything to earn it. It's the same for you. It doesn't matter if you need to be saved today, it doesn't matter if you need to be healed today, it doesn't matter if you need delivered for some controlling issue in your life today.
Jesus was God's yes. When God sent Jesus, he already said yes to what you're asking right now. And so you don't have to convince him to do it, you just have to believe, but you receive what he's already provided. God says I'll do it today.
Let's pray.