Certainty | Pastor Michael Brueseke

Well, good morning everybody. Good to see you in church today. Could have been anywhere and you came to church, so you know, good job. Uh, hey, if you were here last week, uh, I was sick, but I still preached. I feel like a billion times better today. I feel like I could run through a brick wall. And I'm like, so I'm just saying that because, you know, I I just let's match each other's energy today. Okay. So, let's go. I'm I I'm excited for today. uh at all locations. By the way, let's bring it today. Everybody that's at downtown Suffach, St. Louis, Western Branch, everybody joining online to the men at our God Behind Bars campus. So good to be together today. One church, multiple locations. And we're starting today a new message series that we're going to be in for the next few months. And uh it's going to be a long series, but I think God's going to really do some incredible work in our lives as we study through the Gospel of Luke together. the series we're calling Authentic, the unfiltered story of Jesus because we really want to make certain that we are at the heart of who God is and who he calls us to be. And it's a little bit of a different, you know, it's a longer series than we normally do. A lot of the weeks will be a verse by verse studies, not every week, but some weeks. And so, I want to encourage you, read your Bible uh in this series. I'd encourage you to read your Bible in every series and every day of your life. Uh but any opportunity a pastor can get to tell you to read your Bible, he just takes it. So there you go. It's going to be great. Would you stand to your feet to honor scripture? [clears throat] If you brought your Bible, you can turn to Luke chapter 1. It's in the New Testament. It's the third book of the New Testament. It starts with the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke. And so, uh, I'm going to be on page 1,34. If you have the same, if you will, if you look down and you are on page 1,34, you might have the same Bible as I do. And so then um as you're turning there, I do want to make certain you are uh that you're prepared and you're planning for Christmas with a live church. Uh such a significant day in the life of our church for two reasons. One, this is a specific day, December 24th, every single year where hundreds and hundreds of people put their faith in Jesus. So you have friends, you have family members, you have neighbors and co-workers that are not Christians, they will respond to an invitation to come to church on Christmas. I want to encourage you to be a bringer. It's such an incredible day and moment from that perspective. It's also just a great reminder uh for those of us who are already Christians of the fact that Jesus came to earth for us. Like he knew you. He knew me. He knew what we were going to be like. He knew where we were going to miss it and the thoughts in our minds that weren't going to honor him. And yet he still said, "I love you and I'm coming on a rescue mission for you and for your life." And so such a great celebration. I want to encourage you to be here. And by the way, one final thing on that Christmas with a live church. Um, whatever service you came to last year, come to the same service. Last year was like the miracle, the miracle day. Uh, all of our locations, the services were like evenly disper, I mean, packed, but evenly dispersed. And so, I'm so nervous this year. I don't even know what I want to say. So, just come to the same service and believe in faith with me that it will all be equally um some of you are like now you know what pastors think about on days like that. Luke chapter 1, here we go. Four verses. I'll pray and then you can have a seat. Luke writes this. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those from the first eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too [snorts] decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilos, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Lord, I pray that you would work in us right now, Holy Spirit. God, I I have notes and prepped, but Lord, you know what every one of us needs to hear right now. You say of your word, Lord, that it's living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, that it has the power and the ability to transform everything about us. And so, Holy Spirit, I pray you breathe in these minutes in such a way that we would know we've been with God. That we would know you spoke to our hearts and minds. That we would be changed by you today in Jesus name. Amen. You can have a seat. So, this guy Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke. He also wrote the book of Acts called the Acts of the Apostles in some translations. We're going to actually go in to the book of Acts later in 2026. And uh just some quick context to Luke. Uh if you uh have if you're if you're new to church, then what I'm going to say right now will be new information. But if you've been in church for a while or or heard some preaching or read your Bible, there's a guy named Paul who wrote a lot of the New Testament, a lot of letters in the New Testament. Luke was a companion of Paul. So when when Paul was planting churches a couple thousand years ago and really the Christian movement as we know it today was beginning to take root, Luke was with Paul quite often in those moments. What's interesting about Luke who writes this letter writes this gospel. He was a doctor. He was also a historian. One of the things that's also fascinating fascinating about Luke is he was very intentional in his writing, this gospel, to make clear that it was a writing that was for all. He was clear to not reference too many things that would only apply to a Jewish audience, but wanted to make sure it was clear that this would go to a gentile audience, meaning those that were not Jewish. And so because of that, what we find in Luke is he he wants to make such certainty, not just in who he's writing this letter to, but this is just his natural wiring to some degree that to care about the details, to be a researcher, to make sure that he got things right. And so he writes this letter to a guy named Theophilos. Now, we don't know exactly who Theophilos was. We simply know that he was a a leader, a ruler in some capacity in this time in human history a couple thousand years ago in a moment when there was a whole lot of people talking about Jesus. There was a whole lot of people talking about this concept of Christianity or what exactly is this? Is it true? Is it not true? And so Luke's writing this letter to try to help people cut through the noise. And it makes me think a little bit about today and the fact that you and I have so much noise in our life, >> right? >> Massive. You don't even obviously if you're on social media and you live in a real world to some degree, not like real world the old MTV show, but like real world reel. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about. That's good. That's a terrible show. It'll ruin your life. But I'm talking about right there's just so much noise that exists in life. Sometimes we just want to be able to know what what is actually true. It it makes me think about u noiseancelling headphones. Anybody have some noise cancelling headphones? Any locations? Let me see your hands. You where? These are They're just a gift from God. Certainly when you fly. I love it when I can get on an airplane. And by the way, if I ever sit by you and especially if I don't know, have not met you and I'm sitting by you on an airplane, I promise you I'm not ever being rude on purpose. I just like to lock in when I'm on a flight. I like to put on my headphones. There's this button at the top and and you can click it and you can go from transparency or noise cancelling and you click that noise cancelling. You put these headphones on and you don't really know what's going on. Like I can tell there's a flight attendant that's talking to us. So please don't be offended. By the way, if you're a flight attendant, I do think what you say is important. I've just heard it so many times. I feel confident what to do if there's an emergency. Haven't been in one. So I'll let you know if that ever happens. But everything blocks out and you can actually focus. The Gospel of Luke is Luke's attempt in writing to say, "Let's block out all the other noise. Let's get to a place where there's been a lot of people saying a lot of stuff." But it's almost as if the gospel of Luke is noiseancelling headphones so that we can actually know the way of Jesus. So that we can actually know the gospel, the good news. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to follow Jesus? Can we cut out some of the noise and actually hear what God is saying? And so, this is the goal for us in this study over these next several weeks. Paul or Luke is like, I want you to be able, right, to to be certain. And I want you to be able to know this truth, to know the truth of God's word, which Isaiah 55 to bring in an Old Testament understanding to us tells us why we can have confidence in God's word. It says in Isaiah 55:10, "As the rain and snow comes down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sewer and bread for the eater. So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. So God's word has a purpose and the promise that God makes about his word is that it will do what it's supposed to do. The word of God always works. The question for you and me is, is that what we're listening to? The word of God, God guarantees that his word will not return void. My challenge, maybe your challenge is the same, is have I canceled out the other noise. Have I been able to lock in in such a way that the main thing for me is not what I heard somebody else say or what I saw on social media or what I heard, you know, wherever. It's what God's word has actually said. And so I'm again I'm just believing that's what we're going to learn as we go through this today. So let's get started in verse 5. We're going to go through verse 25 today. Little bit of verse by verse study. A little bit of some of these messages will be a little bit different uh again in in practice in the way we preach through this uh as we go through this series over the next several weeks. Luke writing he says this. I'm going to read uh three verses here. Uh he says in the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zachchariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abi. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both very old. Now Luke starts with a reference that if we're not careful seems to have nothing to do with anything. He says in the time of Herod, Herod was the the the king, the ruler, and he was like the worst of the worst. This guy was I mean, cruel, nasty. He was extremely paranoid. He killed his own family members quite regularly because he was so paranoid about what his family might try to do coming after him. He was oppressive to the people. And yet in this right he he had some leadership or had the some people would call him a brilliant builder who was incredibly demonic in how he was controlled and led. He didn't make life great really for anyone and he used power to control people. So Luke is giving us a moment in human history to say this is what's going on. This was the moment that we're entering into Zachchariah and Elizabeth. We're going to learn in and in in just a couple weeks through Luke chapter 2 Jesus being born. But it's this moment of human history where there's incredible darkness. And most Christmas uh services, celebrations, there'll be a point where we talk about how Jesus is the light and how he brings light into our life. Well, the reference point goes back to Herod. Man, the earth like this moment that Jesus comes into was incredibly [snorts] dark. Didn't seem like there was really any reason to have hope. What's interesting for me in that perspective, and maybe you can relate to this, is sometimes in my life, I'm like, "God, where are you?" Sure. >> Like, why am I having this situation? Why am I going through this with my kids? Why am I going through this in my own life? Why am I going through this in my marriage? Why am I going through whatever it might be, my finances? Pick whatever category you'd like to. And we start to wonder, God, what? Where are you even here? >> Luke is referencing this to show that even though there is a ruler, even though there is something going on in the earth that does not seem godly, it doesn't mean that God is unaware. It doesn't mean that God is uninvolved. And it doesn't mean that God's ways not going to ultimately happen. See, the truth is that God doesn't do things the way that you and I often would choose to do things. But again, his way will work. In fact, if you haven't started taking notes yet, here's a great place to start. God often works in ways that don't seem to make sense until they do. I'm like, God, this isn't I would not choose. Number one, I wouldn't allow Herod to be in charge. >> I wouldn't let somebody like that be a ruler. >> Why is the But the Lord is doing something. So, we're going to learn in just a couple minutes there's this evil ruler and God is going to work through seemingly this small insignificant moment in the life of a priest named Zachariah. It says that Zachchariah and Elizabeth were righteous, which means they were more formed by the way of Jesus rather than being conformed to the way of the world. They were not living their life based on culture. They were living their life based on God. They weren't perfect because we know nobody was perfect other than Jesus. But they still made choices in their life that honored God. They were righteous. Yet, it's maybe discouraging if we're honest today that the scripture tells us they were righteous yet they didn't have the one thing they longed for. It says that they were childless, unable to conceive. And generationally, by the way, a couple thousand years ago, obviously through generations, things change and what's significant in different moments and how you're evaluated and viewed in culture changes throughout the hundreds of years of human history. But in this moment, the inability to conceive was was a a very negative moment on Elizabeth and on Zachariah. They were righteous, but they didn't have all they wanted, but they stayed righteous. And in the New Testament book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says these words in chapter 6, "God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. Even with the disappointment of not having had their prayer answered yet, even with the disappointment of being old in age and not having a baby, they were staying faithful. They're going to experience, just like spoiler alert, they're going to experience Hebrews chapter 6 if you haven't read this yet, but I want to encourage some of us today. God's not unjust. Sometimes the way you and I work in our life is we're like, "God, I will do what you want me to do." And then I do what God wants me to do and I do it for may maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe even a couple years, and then I don't get what it is. The deal I made with God, not the deal God made with me, the deal I made with God. I'll do this, Lord, and then you do this, and then God doesn't do this. So then I just decide, well, I'll just do something different. Maybe this God way doesn't work. And what we're learning, going to learn about Zechariah and Elizabeth is, man, God's not unjust. God is faithful. He doesn't forget, he doesn't expect us to be perfect. He invites us to a life of faithfulness to him where we repent when we miss it, where we can trust him and we can watch him actually follow through on what he says he'll do. So it says in verse 8, once when Zachchariah's division was on duty and was ser he and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by Lot according to the custom of the priesthood to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. Again, this is why I love the Bible. One of the reasons it's fascinating. You're like, "What is this detailed, super religious way that they chose who would go in to the Holy of Holies?" Rock, paper, scissors. You know what I'm saying? They cast who's going in to be the priest today. Like, let's get real spiritual right now. Who's going to be the one? They're humans. Zachariah's a dude. Elizabeth's a dudet, right? They're they're just people like you and me in a position in a role of priest. Zachchariah is not perfect still misses the mark wanting to live his life for God wanting to serve God is the best is the best way he can. And the scripture says just fascinating by the way. So a priest this is old testament so this is before Jesus comes. So there's this there's a temple and then inside of the temple is a holy of holies. The holy of holies inside the temple was the place where the presence of God would dwell and never leave. New Testament, the Bible tells us in the resurrection of Jesus that we are the temple of God. Now, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us as followers of Jesus Christ today. So, just context for you, this holy of holies place like it is the ultimate. And so, to get to be the priest, to go in to the holy of holies is the ultimate goal if that's your role. Many priests in their lifetime would never even get to go in. >> If you did get to go in, it was a once in a-lifetime moment. So, Zachariah is legitimately in this moment living his best life now, right? He is once in a-lifetime moment. Gets to go in to the Holy of Holies. And verse 10 says, "When the time of burning incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside." Now, you're going to we're going to read what happens, but this really struck me as I was studying for this week. This verse number 10 doesn't really need to be in there. There's nothing else really addressed about what the people were doing except to say there was a corporate prayer meeting happening. >> Yeah, >> there were people praying. >> We don't know their names. We we don't know how long that they had been following God. We don't know how old they are. We just know they were like, "You know what? We should be praying right now." And here's why, and we're going to see it. Is because prayer makes things happen. >> Prayer makes things happen. Not on our time, on God's time. Prayer makes things happen. And so, Zachchariah goes in, he's in there, the people are outside praying. Again, so fascinating the order of scripture. It says, "All the assembled worshippers were outside praying." Verse 11, "Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense." People are praying. An angel shows up. Zachariah's inside the Holy of Holies. We know that. That's the reference point. But then there's just people out here praying. And what happens? Heaven moves >> and an angel shows up to Zachariah. The people out here praying, they didn't know at that moment that their prayers were getting answered. >> They were just praying. I'm thankful for like I'm thankful you and I have the scriptures so we have these things written down that we can know how God works in certain ways that we aren't completely ignorant to the fact that when God's people pray heaven begins to move when God's people pray according to scripture and by the way just to throw this quick caveat here if you don't believe that this is true the bi as Christians we believe the Bible's true this is baseline you don't you can disagree with me But we believe the Bible's true as Christians. So the Bible tells us that people are praying and heaven's moving in the context that angels begin to move, which makes me know today. Oh, if I pray, things begin to happen. >> The scriptures tell us that that we live that there's a battle. It's a spiritual war. Just to remind all of us, right, your spouse is not your enemy. Your parents are not your enemy. Your your boss is not your enemy. Your employees are not your enemy. your kids are not your like there's a spiritual battle that goes on. And how do we war in the spirit? Prayer. Prayer is where things begin to shift. In fact, just a reference point, uh, Daniel chapter 10, one of my favorite moments about how God moves in response to prayer. Daniel's praying and in I think it's around verse 12 it says that uh an angel shows up the Gabri the angel Gabriel who's going to show up to Zachchariah as well shows up and he says this to Daniel he goes from the moment you began to pray I began to move but for 21 days [snorts] I was blocked by a demonic force. So, I think about traffic. >> You know what I'm saying? [snorts] >> 664, Bridge Road, 58, I270. Like, pick your highway. And I think about being blocked. >> Yeah. >> And all I know when I'm blocked in traffic is I'm like, I want to get out of here. Right. >> Well, so I think about prayer and I'm like, will I keep praying knowing that the the release of heaven is on its way defeating the traffic jam caused by the enemy eventually [snorts] going to show up in my life. Daniel shows us this. But here here then we come hundreds of years later and God's going to do it in Zachchariah's life as well. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing by him. And when Zachariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. Why? Because there was an angel standing beside him. >> Sometimes people tell me that they've had an angel standing beside them and they say it calmly. I it could be true. I'm not saying it's not. I just want to say in the scriptures when an angel showed up, people freaked out. He's in the presence of God. He knows he's in there. He's in the Holy of Holies. And then there's an angel shows up. And what is the first thing the angel says to Zechariah? Verse 13. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. God is not a checklist God. He's a relational God. God is not a do this, don't do that, demanding, angry God. He's a loving God. He has expectations of us. They all come from the place of love. seeing what is happening in Zechariah in this moment. He doesn't start with, hey, there's a couple things you could have done differently. Let's get those settled and then let's talk about your future. He starts with, I need to address the thing that is holding Zachariah back right now. Do not be afraid. If you are in fear, Zachariah, you are going to struggle. Do not be afraid. And then he says to him, "Zachchariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and a delight to you. Many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit [snorts] even before he is born. Don't be afraid. Your prayers have been heard. Calm down. Your prayers have been answered. Sometimes we're so worked up, we wouldn't know if God answered our prayers. Sometimes we're so frantic and out of control. The Lord could be right there. There's a reason the scripture says Psalm 46, "Be still and know that I am God." It's when we can find ourselves in this place when we can quiet the fear, when we can quiet the noise, when we can actually experience God. And by the way, you talk about we talk about the chaos and the fear and the noise, the anxieties, all of those things. It looks different for every single one of us, but it's the same. There's a world spinning all around. And that world spinning all around also spins on the inside. And God invites us to get to a place to just say, [sighs] >> "Don't be afraid. >> Just calm down." >> He tells Zechariah, "You're not forgotten. You're not ignored. Your prayers have not been wasted." Listen, Alive Church, your prayers have not been wasted. This book promises us that God hears and responds to the prayers of his people. Your prayers have not been wasted. One interesting note that is important when we see certain things of the scripture to help some of you even understand how we take things from scripture that they teach us to help us explain things. [snorts] This guy, he says he used to be called John. We'll learn this. This is John the Baptist. If you if you're like trying to figure out who this is going to be, this is John the Baptist that we're learning about. And it says that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. So for us as Christians, we'll say things like life begins at conception. There's certain scriptures that teach us things where in the womb a son or daughter can be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a person, right? So the spirit of God, you don't have to wait. The Bible's telling us you don't have to wait to be outside of the womb. It's actually possible that inside of the womb, a person can be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a living person. What we will learn ultimately through this guy, John, and what this means, and I want us all to know this, even for who we are as a church and why we believe the way we do, is that being filled with the Holy Spirit changes you. What John's going to do with his life, and we're going to learn about it, is going to be possible because he's filled with the Holy Spirit. Our our identity statement we have as a church, it starts with that we are spiritfilled and spirit led. Why? Because what you're filled with determines who you follow. >> You and me can be drunk on culture or we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. We can be filled with so many other voices and so much other noise or we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so there what what Luke is making sure we know is we're going to learn about again we'll get to Jesus birth very very soon. But we're starting here with the guy who's going to lead or enter in usher in Jesus coming uh to earth. He's saying this guy is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He's going to have a significant role. He's actually referencing back to an Old Testament moment in the last book in our Old Testament. It's the it's the prophet Malachi. And it says this in Malachi chapter 4. God speaking. He said, he he says, "See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction." Luke, I'm just I'm Bible nerding a little bit this week, by the way, so some of you are going to just have to love it. Luke is referencing back to this Old Testament prophet. It's been 400 years since the time of Malach 400 years since Malachi. 400 years since it's been like is God speaking? It's like God's been silent for 400 years. Intertestimonial period it's called. 400 years generations changed. Nobody's still living, right? That was living then and living now. And yet Luke is going, "Hey, I want you to know the last thing we heard about how God was going to bring somebody to turn the hearts of people, that is who this guy is. this longing of who's going to bring reconciliation to this problem. That is how significant this person actually is. Verse 18, after the angel had told Zachchariah how exciting this is for him, here's what Zachariah says. Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. Now, we know that Zachchariah clearly was a wise husband because he references himself as old, but his wife is simply well along in years. So, so clearly they had had some conversations. So remember that second sentence, but not the first. Zechariah wasn't perfect, and his response to the angel is a problem. His question to the angel, "How can I be sure of this?" is a problem. You and me can read that and we're like, "Yo, what's the big deal?" He wants to know, "How can I be sure of this?" You can't be. You can't be sure. You can't be sure of this. You and I can't be sure of the future. >> This is what faith in Jesus is. >> Zachchariah is looking saying, "Angel, give me some guarantee that I can be sure of this." And God is going to actually give Zachariah a punishment for this question. As I debated in how to just teach this this weekend, I'm like, it's kind of strong because we want to excuse just in the culture you and I live in, we want to excuse our doubts and just be like, "Yeah, it's fine. We just have doubts." And I'm simply not saying that you and I don't have the real emotions that we have, the real thoughts that we have. We're we're all, you know, and again, we're all the same but different, right? Or we're all different but the same, right? We we are human and we are living this thing out trying to follow Jesus. But the Lord is showing us that it matters to take him at his word or not. Because here's what happened. Verse 19, the angel said to him, "I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. And 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 appointed time. Now here's the beauty of this moment is it's an example of the grace of God with a consequence. Zechariah is going to get to be a dad. He's John's going to be a joy to him and to his family. But rather than being able to walk out and celebrate with his with you know the other priest and and to tell his wife like you're not going to believe what happened. You're going to be silent. It's he because of this the hand motions and things he also was it's it's it's not explicitly stated but it's explicitly implied. He wasn't able to speak or hear. And so what we learn is this. Doubt causes delays in experiencing the joy of God's promise. It's not that he's not going to experience it. It's his doubt caused a delay. Even in consequence, we see God's grace. Even in what is seemingly like a punishment, we see God's grace. Hey, it's you're going to get it, but this is what's going to have to happen until then. And so for you and me, just massive invitation today. Would I believe first? Could Could I seek God and keep asking God to help me realize we don't need more proof? We need more faith. I don't need more proof. I just need more faith. just a little bit of faith to actually believe that God will do what he says he will do. There's an old song uh it's not a Christian song but it's got this line in it. It says living on a prayer and we view that as a negative. And yet as Christians we're like invited to live on a prayer. I'm just living on a prayer. Oh, that's perfect. What does that mean? That means you're just believing that God's got this. [snorts] I'm just see I'm just believing by faith God's got this. I'm just that's all I got, but I got that. I don't know how it's all going to work out, but I'm just telling you personally and this statement, I am far from perfect. There are six other people in this church with the last name Brucei that will be very happy to tell you that any moment. Actually, my wife wouldn't be happy to tell you that, but my kids probably would be happy to tell you that. Right? This is not a statement of perfection whatsoever. But I do want you to know I have just decided to bet my entire existence that Jesus is God, that he is real, that he rose from the dead, that he gave me the Holy Spirit, that he's coming back again one day. And you might ask, "Hey pastor, how can you be sure of that?" I can't. >> I'm not sure of it. I'm just believing by faith it's true. By the way, I've heard people say before, and I might just throw this thought out there. You know, at the end of the day, if I'm wrong and this whole Jesus thing isn't real, then whatever happens happens. But if you don't believe in Jesus, and at the end of the day, this whole Jesus thing is real. You don't want what happens to happen. >> So, we get the choice. [snorts] >> What are we going to put our faith in? >> Who are we actually going to trust? It says in verse 21, "Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zachariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple." Verse 22, "When he came out, he could not speak to them. and they realized he had seen a vision in the temple and he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. Listen to Zechariah's week. [snorts] This was I don't want to say a typical work week, but this was Zechariah's work week. Once in a-lifetime opportunity to be the one who goes in and offers incense in the Holy of Holies. Two, an angel shows up and speaks to him. The greatest number three, the greatest longing of your life, the deepest prayer is answered better than you could ask or think. The angel didn't just say, "Hey, you're going to have a kid," which was this long prayer. He says, "This kid's going to be a joy to you and to the entire human race." It's like this kid is going to be so significant in ushering in the savior. Number four, you lose your ability to speak and hear. Number five, you go home. It's so fascinating to me. Zachchariah has this moment that is like, bro, like I was praying and like an angel, like a real angel showed up and spoke to me and told me that my wife's going to have a baby and he's going to be like a forerunner for the savior. It's going to be incredible. [snorts] And then I lost my ability to speak or hear because I didn't actually believe it at first. And now I just got on my camel and went back home. It's like, "No, no, you're supposed to do something else. You're supposed to like God's changed you. Something's happened." You see, this is so much of what following God is there's this moment. There's this thing that begins to stir and happen in our life. And then the next step is to wait patiently for God to do what God does. It says when his time of service was completed, he went home. Here's what I learned from this today. Service isn't the end. It's the beginning of what God will do next. >> It's not the end. His moment there was not the end. It was the beginning. And he had to go through this time of doing what? Nothing. Sitting at home waiting. I think some of us [snorts] maybe I could just throw some encouragement, maybe even a prophetic word for some today that don't despise when you're in the waiting moment. Keep your faith in the waiting moment for God to deliver on his promise. Just because it seems like whatever was stirred in your heart hasn't happened yet, you don't have to go work something up or make something up. Stay faithful in the seemingly boring waiting and wait for God to show up. You know, that's that's what the cross is all about. The greatest act of love, the greatest act of service that Jesus ever did for you and I was to die on the cross for our sins. The Bible tells us that you and me are are dead in our sins. And what that means is that because we miss the mark to to sin, to miss the mark, to go against God unintentionally or intentionally, it causes there to be a wall, a separation between us and God. We cannot get into his presence. Jesus goes to the cross and he takes the punishment that sin deserves which is death. So that everybody who will put their trust in Jesus will not have a wall of separation any longer but will be able to get into the presence of God to get into that holy of holies of of sorts of where Zachchariah is. It was a massive act of service but it wasn't the end. It was the very beginning of what God would do next because Jesus would rise from the grave. And then the book of Acts tells us that once he ascended to heaven, he released himself, Holy Spirit, to live inside of us. And then we're promised that because Jesus did those two things already, then we can believe him at his word that he will one day return and set everything in perfect order in a new heavens and a new earth. And so as Christians, we're invited to do this thing we call communion or the Lord's supper where we remember what Jesus did on the cross where we remember this ultimate act of service that wasn't the end if it was the beginning of a totally different way of living. And so I'd love for you to grab this little cup like this that you'll you should see one in the seat pocket in front of you. If you're in the front row, I think we have a a basket underneath on the end somewhere. And you can go ahead and peel back the top layer and hold the cracker. And then you can peel back the other layer and open the juice. Don't take the elements yet. I'll lead you. I'll lead us in that. If you're new to this concept of communion or this practice, this is something all believers in Jesus are invited to be a part of. You don't have to be a member of a specific church. You don't have to pass a test. If you have put your faith in Jesus and said, "I I repent of my sins. I trust Jesus for my life. Then you're invited to be a part of this moment. This cracker represents the body of Jesus. This juice represents the blood of Jesus that was shed. And so in just a moment, I'm going to pray. And part of this prayer is going to be for some of you that maybe today you need to put your faith in Jesus. Maybe you've never fully trusted God. Maybe you've never repented of your sins. And simply in your own words, just before God said, "Jesus, please forgive me for my sins. I put my faith in you today. It really is as simple as that. It's not that they're magical words. It's that it's a significant heart shift. And so, I'm going to pray this prayer. If that's you today and you want to put your faith in Jesus for the first time, then just right where you are in your seat, you can just say tell tell the Lord in your own words, in your own way something like what I just said. And then we'll receive the elements together. God, we thank you today for your love for us. Thank you for this ultimate act of service of giving yourself sacrificially so that we could have life now and forever. God, would you forgive us for taking you for granted? Lord, would you forgive us for not recognizing the significance of you in our life? Forgive us for trying to live only with human power and being frustrated when you offer a totally different life. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for forgiveness of our sins in Jesus name. Amen. Let's eat the cracker. Drink the cup [snorts] in Luke chapter 1 verse 23. It says that word that when John or when when Zachchariah completed the time of his service, [snorts] it says that after that, he went home. Now, what I'm about to tell you again, I've just is a total like maybe Bible nerd out moment for me. [snorts] So the Lord knew that we were going to be starting a series on the Gospel of Luke and be in Luke chapter 1 verse 1-2 on December 7th, the same Sunday that we would be doing our gratitude offering as a church. The Lord knew that the word that is used in the original language in Luke 1 23 for service is the same Greek word and so the Greek is the original language. It is the same word that is used in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 12 when the Apostle Paul is talking about giving sacrificially. Just if you can if you're a Bible nerd if you're not become one cuz it's like oh my gosh how awesome is God. I just want to read you what 2 Corinthians 9 says verse 10 through 12 Paul's talking to the church. He says this, "Now he who supplies seed to the sewer and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. >> I'm like, oh, so literally, we're doing today what Zachchariah did in Luke chapter 1, >> doing our service to the Lord, saying, God, I will give >> sacrificially. And and I'll tell you this in a moment after we watch this video. We're invited to just follow through in the same way Zechariah did. So, our team put together a video uh and we're going to we're going to do our gratitude offering after this to just really uh look at what God has done to hear some personal stories, lives changed through 2025. Let's watch this video. There's just something about a house where hundreds and thousands of people gather together and the power of the Holy Spirit begins to move and miracles begin to happen. You see, God's house is unlike any other house. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> I've watched kids come in from, [music] you know, all walks of life. Some of them shy, some of them excited. Watching the children come through here, it really is amazing to be a part [music] of what God is doing here. >> [music] >> Something I really love about Alive Youth is definitely the people and the friendships that I've made here. It just allows me to make new connections [music] here and I always feel happier, especially after a long and rough day at school. >> [music] >> I'm grateful that honestly that God has seen us all here [music] worthy to do his work. Literally walking in his word and just serving. It's very important. So that's that's [music] the greatest feeling I have is just knowing that we woke up today and God said you're worthy to do [music] this work. >> [music] >> I'm Ivan Junido. My life was once filled with pain and confusion. I grew up without my father and I [music] spent many years searching for a father figure. But everything changed when I was invited to a life church Philippines. Through God's grace, I found my [music] purpose and realized that I have a father in heaven who protect and guides me. Today I'm blessed that as a leader in alive [music] kids and to mentor young people in Christ. [music] We all went to Discover together and while we were at Discover we decided to start serving and start we're going to start coming to [music] church every week. We're going to have a better prayer life. It really did change everything. As soon as we had our daughter, our our relationship was a little rocky and and we knew that we weren't going to be [music] able to kind of raise a family and and be together without having God like in our life. So, um we knew taking that step to [music] getting baptized was very important to us because without God in our relationship, we probably wouldn't be together right now. >> Yeah. [music] Now, here's the thing. If we will behold Jesus, we will become more like Jesus and then we will build what Jesus is building. Jesus is building his church. [music] But listen, Jesus builds his church through people. [music] [music] The call that God has for you and me is so much bigger than we could probably ever imagine. [music] Isn't that incredible? I mean, I just want to if if a live church is your church, wow. Like I'm just in awe that God lets us be a part of this and to the number of people's lives who are being impacted and are being changed. I'm grateful for our church. And if Alive Church is your church, what I've been asking you to do leading up to today is just to pray and say, "God, what should I give in this gratitude offering?" It's a it's a once a year offering we do of sacrificial giving to say, "Thank you, Lord, for what you've been doing, and I believe big for the days ahead." And so in this moment, I know some of you may have already given. The way people give today is way different than years and years ago, right? So, uh, if you if you give by your phone and you're going to give by phone, I just want to ask you to hold your phone in your hand. I'm going to lead us in a prayer in just a moment. If you are filling out a offering envelope, there's offering envelopes in the front. If you want to give in that way, I think you can text. There's a whole lot of different ways that you can give. But here's what I want to say. Just like I mentioned a moment ago about Zachchariah's service, giving is not the end. It's the beginning of what God will do next. This act of giving isn't the I'm done. This act of giving in a moment like this invites you to then go, okay, I'm going to just watch what God does in my life. Is there a direct thread or a direct tie? 100%. Because I've trusted God in this. I know I can expect him to move in other areas of my life. And so again, I just honor those of you who are giving today. It's about leaving a legacy. And legacies are not what we accomplish. Legacy is what other people accomplish because of us. And that's what an offering like this is about. About the thousands of kids now who will be adults leading in this house, right? about a school where hundreds and hundreds of kids are going to be discipled in the way of Jesus. About knowing that in Hampton Roads and in St. Louis, people who are in need are literally having practical needs met because of the generosity of this community of believers that we call a live church. So would you stand with me? I'm going to pray as we again. It's like a act of faith and giving. I know many of you have already given or you're going to give later today, but I just honor your faithfulness to God and watching what he'll do in your life. God, we thank you so much for the invitation to trust you. I thank you for the joy that all of us can know like like deep rooted happiness because we've taken a step of faith. I think about the question that went through my mind. Lord, are you sure this is what you should give? And the answer, I don't know, but just doing it. And I thank you for the peace that brings and the excitement that brings for what you'll do in the lives of others. We pray today, Lord, over the people of our church. We pray for health and wholeness, for restoration in marriages and families. Lord, I pray that as as your people give sacrificially today, I pray that they would see your hand work in their lives in supernatural ways, greater, Lord, just as you did for Zachariah. Greater than we can ask or think in Jesus name. Amen.