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Single-Hearted Devotion in 2007 Grace Emmanuel Church Pastor Sam Chess
It's the first Sunday of a bright New Year. I'm expected to talk about change…some here are 7 days in to their New Year's resolution/s. I'm a big fan of change… that is; the internal spiritual change that God brings from the inside-- out. I'm not such a big fan of change that we impose from the outside--in. (perhaps it shows). I'm not a big fan of New Years resolutions and the statistics are definitely on my side. (E-National News.com) 37% have abandoned their resolution completely within six weeks. The vast majority are abandoned within 6 months Those who do manage to make a resolution that lasts for 6 months or more have often tried 5 or 6 times before finally succeeding. I have actually found a theme song that I think addresses this subject as well as anything I have ever seen…let me play it for you… ( If you are reading this online; go to sermonspice.com and watch the video; Change IS Possible…it will be worth your time)
I. Used by God T or F Through-out Scripture when God wanted to use somebody he always chose those who had everything together in their lives? The answer is a resounding no! …in fact, God goes to huge effort to make sure we know that he loves to use the unworthy, the unprepared, often, "the nobody" to accomplish his eternal design. In this first week of your New Year I'm not interested in telling you how to lose 15 ugly pounds…. (My dad used to say if you want to lose 15 ugly pounds… cut off your head) I'm not here to tell you that today. I know I'm not being very encouraging to you who are struggling with New Year's resolutions…. I actually "Googled" that subject and found page after page of suggestions from people who were all saying; I know this is hard but if you will follow my eight steps it will become easier. One national group of psychologists and sociologists were advertising for a test group of 10,000 volunteers because they (the professionals) said; we don't know the answer to how to keep a resolution and we want to try to find out. I think our time, here, would be better used if I could point out to you how God chose the people he used and what he looked for personal qualifications in those he was calling for special service. Since Christmas I have been intrigued by looking back at the Christmas Story through a different set of eyes…. focusing on the people that God laid his Divine calling on…. to play an eternal role in bringing his Savior into the world. I find it tremendously encouraging that if God used him, and him, and her, and her…and they were just ordinary people, going about their daily lives.. that perhaps this year he might use me.. or you, and you…. to bring about his eternal plan. Last week we looked, briefly, at Zechariah the father of John the Baptist and then we looked beyond him to the 24,000 other priests who worked everyday with the Word of God and it's prophesies of the coming Savior… and yet, when Jesus did arrive, they looked right at him and missed him completely. We were all warned by their behavior. I'm still fascinated by the two we looked at, here, on Wednesday Evening. This happens eight days after the birth of Jesus when Mary and Joseph bring him to the temple to be circumcised. Luke 2:22-38: Snapshot #1: 25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. Snapshot #2: 36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Seven years into Anna's marriage her husband tragically dies… in a land where being single was considered a curse she lived on alone for decades… 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. (or had been a widow for 84 years) She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. In her old age, Anna was limited physically but completely unlimited spiritually. So…She focused her life, not on what she couldn’t do, but on what she could do! We looked at, and discussed, a lot of clues that the text tells us about her, (these studies are available in the foyer) but on Thursday I couldn't get away from thinking about her. II. The Life God Uses Did this woman deal with daily struggles like us. Did she look at herself in the mirror and dislike what she saw. Possibly! A single woman in that day would have cut off her left foot if it would have made her more marriageable. Singleness was a curse! Her imperfections were glaringly obvious to society around her and you can bet they verbalized them. Did she deal with offensive family members… probably…. Did she struggle with inner attitudes of anger and bitterness … She was human…. for goodness sake.. One of the obvious points that God is trying to communicate through the Christmas story is that all the key players; Anna, Simeon, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph and yes, even Mary, were just ordinary common people, facing the same life issues as everyone else… struggling with temptation, at times desperate for inner change. But at a key point in their life… God chose them to work his eternal plan through. That's not just the lesson of the Christmas story.. it's the lesson of the whole Bible… it's the lesson of all of Church History, ever since: God loves to take ordinary, faulted people and call them out to a special service that will turn the course of history from a little to a lot. I'm intrigued by the fact the in the case of both Simeon and Anna, their entire lives were setting them up for what would happen in just a few minutes time, in the afternoon, of one ordinary day. Our study showed us that these people had waded through the challenges of their lives and this day found them both locked in to God. The high point of Anna's life, everything her life had been leading up to, came just a finger-snap before her death. What if she had laid down the torch six months earlier? What if she had said; I'm too old…I'm going to leave the job to younger minds? Simeon, we are told was led by the Spirit to go to the temple that day, at that specific time, to be there at the exact moment that Mary and Joseph would come in to circumcise Jesus. Out of his mouth came prophetic words about Jesus that Mary would cherish all her life… and that we all still read today. What if he had waded through all the issues that were his life… up to that day… and gotten himself tuned in to the Spirit…. What if that day, he had gotten his focus diverted to something else… and had allowed himself to ignore the leading of the Spirit?... That's the lesson from this group of people surrounding the birth of Christ. The Bible doesn't for a minute teach us that these people were Super-saints. It's teaching us that they faced the challenges and hardships of life, kept relentlessly placing their faith in God, allowing him to mold them, even through the most difficult of times.. ….And then.. in the midst of their ordinary lives, at the most ordinary of times God flowed through them to make an eternal difference on the world around them. What if this year, 2007, is the year God has been preparing your whole life for. What if everything you have waded through in your life has been leading you up to this year when God will flow through you, in your ordinariness, to make an eternal difference in this world. You say; I'm too old for that….Look at Anna I'm too young for that…. Mary was probably about 13 I'm not skilled enough… Joseph was a village carpenter We don't know what Simeon was.. all we know is that he had his ear tuned to God. You say; I'm not focused enough on God's plan for my life? Well you had better do something about that because that is the common key here. These people didn't have anything going for them except that they were spiritually surrendered to God for anything he wanted to do in them…. and through them!
III. Life Lessons for 2007 A) God uses people who are already busily going through life doing what He has given them to do. Moses/David/Sheep; Gideon/Wheat; Peter, James, John./Fishing You can't steer a car that is sitting still!! B) God often uses people, not after their struggles, but in the middle of them! I want to move our attention back to Zechariah, the priest, and his wife ________? Elizabeth. In a world where God's blessing was aid to be measured by how many children they had they had _____ / 0! Despite what others would have told them was God mocking them… they chose to devote their lives to God's service. C) God's blessing is not limited to people with perfect faith! Luke 1:11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. 13 But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. 16 And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. 17b He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. 18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.” 19 Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news! 20 But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.” (NLT) Seems like if God had been a little more picky, he could have chosen someone who would not have doubted… right off the bat. That's what makes this story great…. Ordinary people! For 40 weeks he is tight-lipped/mute. His wife Elizabeth believed and is speaking just fine. Actually though.. she is hiding out in her house. Luke 1:24 Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months. 25 “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.” There was the issue of the National Enquirer paparazzi to deal with… When the Baby is finally born the drama is very moving.. Luke 1: 57 When it was time for Elizabeth’s baby to be born, she gave birth to a son. 58 And when her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very merciful to her, everyone rejoiced with her. 59 When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father. 60 But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!” 61 “What?” they exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.” 62 So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. 63 He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God. 65 Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills. 66 Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way. Think about what's going on here with Elizabeth. This is a woman who lives her whole life, to old age, without anything out of the ordinary happening to her… She lives with the curse of childlessness hanging over her head. She is past the point where anybody, in their right mind, would expect anything out of the ordinary to happen to them. In a one year period: 1) She becomes the like only Sarah in getting pregnant in her old age. 2) She gets a visit from the angel…Gabriel/ only a few ever do. 3) She finds out her baby is the forerunner of the Messiah 4) She gets to live with, and become an encourager to, the mother of the Messiah for three months. 5) She gets to hear Mary's eternal song: possibly the one who wrote it down for us to read today. 6) She becomes the first Woman to exhibit real faith in the New Testament 7) She is the first woman to prophesy in the New Testament. Her words are still repeated by millions around the world every day; Luke 1:42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 8) She is the first person in the New Testament said to be filled with the Spirit/ said of very few before Pentecost. Ordinary Old Mary, changed the course of history!... and so did Ordinary Old Zechariah: All this happened, not in the prime of their lives.. but at the very end. Zechariah spent 40 weeks without saying a word because of his unbelief. He spent that time pouring over the Word of God, figuring out for sure what had just taken place. When his mouth finally opens it was like taking the cork out of a champagne bottle. What came bubbling out was what has been fermenting in his mind for nine months. He sings a song that still reverberates today. Luke 1: 67 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 “ Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, (redemption is a New Testament concept said only about Jesus…how would he know that?)
That is some serious New Testament theology… Zechariah was way ahead of his time. When did he pick up this wealth of knowledge about what was getting ready to happen? Could it have been during those nine months when he was mute because of his unbelief? Ordinary Old Zechariah… used of God in the most unexpected way at the most unexpected time of his life.
Luke 1:78 Because of God’s tender mercy, the Morning Light from heaven is about to break upon us, 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”
What if this year, 2007, is the year God has been preparing your whole life for. What if everything you have waded through in your life has been leading you up to this year when God will flow through you, in your ordinariness, to make an eternal difference in this world.
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