So like this rebellious spirit or just almost felt like it was implanted in me is where I just didn't want to do anything that I was I was told or I guess go against the grain of everything that I thought was kind of right you know I didn't develop much of a conscience until like my you know for other people's feelings and whatnot until you know probably at least my later 20s man and then the more I got involved with Jesus and the more relationship that You know, I developed over time, the more, you know, I developed, you know, constant thought of others.

I didn't have an abusive childhood.

My parents did the best they can.

Both of them worked.

I always had a roof over my head.

But, you know, I guess maybe I was a glutton for punishment.

Because once I started partying and getting involved with the wrong people, I started stealing cars and stealing stuff out of cars.

I ended up getting caught one night running from the cops.

It was like, it was a very slow progression, but it progressed very deeply.

And in doing so, I got involved in the adult film business, and after that, I isolated from my family.

You know, I got heavy into drugs.

I got heavy into the lifestyle that, you know, was acquainted with that.

You see, the thing is, man, when you're in the grips of the devil and the addiction of it, you want to stop.

So many people want to stop.

I wanted to stop at the end of it because I was homeless, and I remember having a breakdown, and I would cry.

I wish I could stop.

I wish I wouldn't use again.

And I wish I could get out of this ongoing lifestyle.

It was like a trap that I constantly walked into and I didn't have any other direction to go.

I did, but it was just the necessity of it and the shame of having to admit.

Finding humility in what you had become.

Because you don't want to admit it once you're in too deep.

man you just it's easier to stay there than it is to try to break out this is what heaven looks like i gave everything away because i didn't feel like the way i um acquired it wasn't the way you know god wanted me to i i left my guitar i left my truck i left all my amps and i left everything on the side of the freeway Because if I had to give God everything in order to have something from Him, I would do it all over again.

I was ready to give it all.

There was no going back.

There's no looking back.

You have to give your life to save your life.

I took that very literal.

That's why I don't have any equipment, man.

That's why I don't have any amps, any guitars.

Everything got taken.

And I don't know if it got taken, it got given.

My story like dude where he took me from I don't there's nothing that um Nothing that he can't do and turn things around and I mean she's wow dude It's crazy that I'm sitting here right now right now with you Glad you're here this weekend.

I'm in Luke chapter 1, Luke chapter 1, verse 5.

Okay.

Yes, I know I look like I have a suntan.

Just let me get it out of the bag.

So I was speaking down in New Zealand last week, and it's summer down there.

Opposite, it's like 90 degrees, so there you go.

More information about that to come.

I've got a friend who...

Has been through somewhat of a difficult journey over the last few months.

Has a son and a daughter that has moved into a nice home, a new home.

He has grandchildren.

They've just checked themselves into a new school.

You know how it is when you move from one place to another and then you get the kids in school, you get everything set up in your house, you lease or you get your cars, just your life as a young family, you know, you've kind of settled in, everything's going really well, and then suddenly your whole world is turned upside down.

You've just moved there, you've gotten the kids in school, everything's going well, and then through a series of unfortunate events, you lose your job.

Now you've...

think about, I mean, it's not a rare story, is it?

It happens to a lot of people.

And my friend, when all this happened, just kind of, we talked a lot about it and talked through it.

And basically, when something like this happens, you just need somebody to talk to because he was concerned for his kids and so much stress, so much what's going to happen in all of this.

And my advice is always the same as a pastor to anybody who experiences something like this.

I always say, well, this is a time, this is a moment in the life of your children where they're going to be forced to consider what it is they truly believe.

And that's true about any time of tension that comes into your life.

You're going to have to decide in a series of the most unfortunate circumstances whether you believe that life is random, that everything that happens in your life is just by chance, just random process or processes, or do you really believe there is a God who has knowledge of every event that will ever come into your life, who has power over it, And is in fact able to control all the circumstances and actually manipulate them for something that is ultimate good.

Do you believe that?

And can he, do you believe that he can and he will ultimately deliver you and will always keep his promises?

Will he truly give you, as he says he will in Jeremiah, a hope and a future to those who walk with him?

So when you go through something that's extreme, some unexpected...

Circumstance.

It is the perfect time for God to corner you and ask you what it is that you truly believe.

And as a pastor, my advice to people is they'll say, okay, let's say I do believe.

What do I do now?

And what do we say?

Here's what you do.

You pray and you wait.

The praying's easy.

The waiting's hard.

The truth be told, if you look at Scripture, God seems to take his sweet time.

when he gives a promise.

For over 5,000 years, God told his people Messiah would come.

Now you think of that, 5,000 to 7,000 years since the first prophecy and Jesus had still not come.

You know what else has been a long time coming?

The second coming.

But it's only been 2,000 years.

We could have another 5,000.

You just don't know.

The reality of the first coming should encourage us and assure us that the second coming is going to happen.

But the waiting period is so difficult.

It's so difficult that if we read the Bible, it should not surprise us that during the waiting period, many people will give up, pack up, and go home.

They'll say it's been too long.

And even though you and I can comfort ourselves with spiritual truths like, one day is this a thousand years to God?

Yeah, we're told that.

Yeah, but the truth is I might be dead in less than a hundred, right?

For those who are weary of waiting, those who are waiting on the cancer to be healed, waiting on the soulmate to be discovered, waiting on the circumstance to change, waiting for the deal to come through, waiting on the prodigal son or daughter to come home.

waiting on God to fulfill his promise that you are absolutely sure you heard him make, this part of the Christmas story is for you.

For many years in my 20s, I thought, oh man, Christmas is coming around.

I got to preach about Christmas again.

And the information is limited.

It's the same story.

It never changes.

And then in your 30s, you start to branch out a little bit and you realize, oh, there's some good stuff here.

And then in your 50s, your 40s and 50s, you realize how dumb you've been all your life.

That the entire Christmas narrative, every part of it, is actually a microcosm.

God in his brilliance gives you a microcosm of your life, every detail of it.

So here we go.

Here's one part of it.

Verse 5, Luke chapter 1.

In the time of Herod, king of Judea.

Now some of this stuff will be familiar, but stay with me until we get to the application.

In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there's a priest named Zechariah.

who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.

His wife, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron.

So Zechariah comes from a long line of priests.

His daddy was a priest, his granddaddy was a priest, his great-granddaddy and beyond.

His family represented God to the people and carried out the duties in the temple.

All those associated with temple worship.

Verse 6, both of them, that is Zechariah and Elizabeth, were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's command and decrees blamelessly.

That's impressive.

Do you see that?

All the Lord's commands, food laws and clean laws and sacrificial laws and laws that just about impacted every area of life, they kept them blamelessly.

So these are some good folks.

That means if you sent a private investigator out to watch them, you wouldn't find any dirt on them.

They're clean, they're blameless.

And I want you to note something.

They were following and obeying God based on promises made hundreds and hundreds of years before they were even born.

They're living out their lives day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, as if Christmas was coming any day now, but it had not come for 5,000 years.

They believed that a child would be born, that a son would be given, and that his kingdom would come and it would last forever.

They lived as though Christmas could come any day now, even though it hadn't come for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Now, how was that working out for them, Dr.

Phil?

Verse 7, but they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both very old.

So day after day, waiting for Messiah, serving in the temple, good people doing good stuff, faithful and blameless, and God left them barren.

It's hard to imagine how sad of a statement this really was in first century.

This would have brought great shame to Elizabeth because in that time and that culture, if you were barren, it's because God had cursed you because of some sin you had committed.

In fact, until Jesus shows up, There was no equality between women and men.

In the first century culture, women were only good for one thing, bearing children.

And if you couldn't even do that, imagine the lack of self-worth, meaning and significance in Elizabeth's life.

Even though she had prayed hard, even though she had done well, had done everything God had commanded, she's still barren.

And now the Bible tells us she's too old.

It's too late now.

So she's going to go to her grave with shame.

Now, please don't miss this.

Zechariah and Elizabeth's faithfulness to God is based on a promise to Abraham thousands of years earlier.

And since Abraham's day, there had been 25 regime changes.

In fact, the Syrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans had all conquered Israel.

Israel had been enslaved, exiled for 70 years.

occupied and finally dispersed and no longer had any kind of international influence.

And then to add insult to injury, Pompey the Great, the great Roman general in 65 BC, marches into Jerusalem, occupies the city, pushes past the guards, past the outer court, past the inner court, right into the Holy of Holies, the place where Jews believed that if you went in there uninvited or unannounced, God would strike you dead.

Pompey walks right in there, looks around, walks out, and nothing happened.

And word spread throughout Jerusalem, the implications are clear.

Jupiter, the God of the Romans, is more powerful than Yahweh.

Now, quick time out.

Why do the wicked prosper?

You ever ask that question?

Why do I do everything right?

And of course you don't, but you think you do.

And this wicked person over here, life just seems to turn out, I don't get it.

When I was a little boy growing up in Elizabethan, Tennessee, there was a mean bully on our block.

His name was Billy Joe Brown.

Sounds like a bully, doesn't he?

Billy Joe Brown, BJB.

And I always wondered, I mean, even as a youngster, he would terrorize me on my paper route.

And it would seem like that he got everything.

He got all the yards to mow.

He would knock on the door.

They always said yes.

He was always the first one there.

He always got the girls.

He always got the cool bicycles and the mini bikes and the gadgets.

And I remember asking God as an 11, 12-year-old, God, I don't understand.

I go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

I read my Bible.

I pray.

Billy Joe Brown is the devil incarnate.

And he gets everything.

And I remember one day on my paper route, it just got too much.

I don't know if you've seen the movie Wildcats with Goldie Hawn, long old movie, I think it was around 1986.

But there was a line in it, a cheer that they did, and it basically went like this.

U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, hey, hey, you ugly.

Well, Billy Joe Brown changed that around a little bit and he made the fatal error.

He said, U-G-L-Y, your mama ain't got no alibi, she ugly.

Now in the South, you don't talk about someone's mother.

And I don't know what overcame me, but when he said that, he just stepped across the line.

And the future pastor of One and All Church, I want you to know, I was inspired by the Spirit.

It was just the wrong spirit.

And I rolled up a newspaper, the Weekend Edition.

Now, if you know anything about the Weekend Edition, it's three times as thick.

And as he turned his back to run away after mouthing this...

poem, I slapped him in the back of the head as hard as I could.

And then he turned around.

He was very angry.

He was a whole year older than me.

So, you know, I'm outclassed here and stronger.

But as he turned to swing at me, I noticed he was slow.

And then I knew right then and there, I could do some damage to this guy.

And I did.

Arms flailing, I mean a windmill of pain and suffering.

And after it was over, I had my foot on his chest, and the thought came to me.

God was even speaking to me then.

The thought came to me, who's the wicked one now?

All prospering is by the grace of God.

It has something to do with the plan of God, even though you and I can't see it.

Zechariah would have been a little boy when all this happened.

When the wicked Romans prospered, he would have seen his father tearing his robes, mourning in sackcloth and ashes.

The temple had been desecrated and God did nothing, and Zechariah still went into the priesthood.

He didn't understand why God allowed the destruction of the temple, but he knew that God was trustworthy, and he believed that God knew what he was doing to bring about redemption.

And so he served the Lord his entire life.

He marries Elizabeth.

She serves the Lord her entire life.

And with everything falling apart around them, many Jews turning away from God because it had been so long since the promise, both of them, Zechariah and Elizabeth, remained faithful.

There's no doubt many would have come to Elizabeth and Zechariah and said, it's over.

Give up already.

It's a myth.

There's no Messiah coming.

It's legend.

The Old Testament, legend.

Go live your life and forget all about this stuff.

God has abandoned you.

But they remained faithful when most others had given up, believing that the game was not over, that checkmate had not come, that God was not finished.

And then suddenly out of nowhere, now it appears out of nowhere, right?

But this is the day God had ordained hundreds and hundreds of years before.

But in their minds, out of nowhere, verse 8, once when Zechariah's division was on duty 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.

Now, there's a mouthful here.

There are 23 groups of priests.

And they would cast lots to see who would be chosen to perform a very special duty and go just outside the Holy of Holies to offer incense.

It was symbolism for the prayers of the saints going up before the throne of God.

Most priests would never be chosen for this very special privilege because there's not enough years in their lives.

No one was ever permitted to do it twice.

The lone priest would offer this incense in the morning just outside the curtain of the Holy of Holies.

So this is the closest you're ever going to get to God.

While the other priests were waiting on the outside.

Sometimes they would actually tie a string to the priest because they were afraid that as the priest represented the sins of the people, that God might just zap him right there and they'd have to drag him out.

And they weren't allowed to go in there.

You can imagine what they were thinking when Zechariah stays in there far too long.

But you have to understand that Zechariah getting this opportunity to go and stand just outside the Holy of Holies, once in a lifetime experience.

Once in a lifetime, all your friends would know that day you got to go in just outside the Holy of Holies.

Zechariah would be like a Dodger fan getting to go into the Dodger clubhouse.

Like an All Blacks fan in New Zealand getting to do the haka with the team before they face off against their rivals.

Like a Raiders fan getting to quarterback the team in a real game on a real Sunday and losing just like their favorite team before thousands of people.

Zechariah, obviously what he experienced was far greater.

And then verse 10.

And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah.

Now, why does the angel say that?

It's the standard angel response in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Do you know why?

Because angels are scary, man.

They're scary.

First thing out of their mouths, don't be afraid.

They're big, they're powerful, they're scary, even when they're not trying to be.

Even when they try to turn down the fear gaze just a little bit, even if they turn it all the way down to one.

And Zechariah is a good man.

And he's still afraid.

Nowhere in scriptures do I find the hallmark version of the cute little Cupid-like angels adorable and huggable.

Angels are downright scary and intimidating.

When somebody, I've had occasions in my life where somebody said, Pastor Jeff, I've got to tell you, I saw an angel last night.

Here's my test, what'd you do?

And if they say anything but run, I say, you didn't see a real angel.

Because if you met one, you would not go up for a hug.

I promise you.

I'll tell you what you would do.

You'd start confessing your sins.

You'd make promises to God.

I won't go there again.

I won't drink that.

I won't eat that.

I won't consume that.

I won't look at that.

I won't buy that.

I won't download that again.

I'll never do it again.

I promise.

That's what you do.

What does the angel say to Zechariah?

Well, he says, 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, and many will rejoice because of his birth.

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

Now, why bring back?

Well, because many had left.

They'd given up.

They'd thrown in the towel.

They called it quits.

It's been too long.

And you know who we're talking about, right?

John the Baptist, the forerunner.

To Yeshua, Jesus Messiah, who will prepare the way for the Lord.

He will preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here, or the kingdom of God is near.

Repent from what?

From disbelieving the promises of God.

From living as if Messiah would never come.

From failing to watch and pray and hope.

From going about your everyday life as if Messiah will never come.

That God's promises fail, and the evil has won.

John will call him out in the wilderness.

He'll say, turn back to God.

Why did you give up?

God always keeps his word.

You know that.

Where's your faith?

Return to God.

Verse 17, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the day.

And now, verse 18.

Comes the most diplomatic verse in the Bible.

Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this?

I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.

Oh, he's a good husband.

He's thinking, man, I hear these things get written down somewhere.

I'm not going to describe my wife as old.

I'm just going to say she's mature.

So Mr.

Angel.

I gotta say, you're late.

We prayed in our 20s, nothing.

We prayed in our 30s, nothing.

In our 40s and our 50s, nothing.

And now we're simply past the baby-making date.

Now, before you're quick to judge Zechariah, remember, an angel hadn't showed up in Israel for over 400 years.

And Zechariah had heard stories about Gabriel, but he had never heard from Gabriel or seen Gabriel.

And yes, Gabriel did show up before Daniel 500 years earlier.

Even so, Zechariah, at that point, even in his doubt, knew who was standing before him because he responded the same way that Daniel did 500 years earlier.

He fell on his face in fear.

Let me just point out, in Zechariah's day, God was not seen as the man upstairs or a cosmic running buddy.

He was the one who could strike the nations with vengeance and the one who judges the nations.

And yet, it's perplexing, isn't it?

Zechariah, it's amazing.

As he hears this from Gabriel, he basically says, I don't see how that could happen.

It's amazing.

You want to say to Zechariah, dude, you're talking with Gabriel and he just made a proclamation from the throne of God and your response is, I don't see how this can happen.

Verse 19, the angel said to him, I'm Gabriel.

I stand in the presence of God and I've been sent to speak to you and to 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, two quick things.

Number one, why strike Zechariah with silence?

You see that?

He's not going to be able to speak.

Why?

Well, why do you send your kids to their rooms?

I sent Delaney and Sion to their rooms many times.

And I would say something like, now you go to your room and you stay in there until you realize what you've done and you're ready to apologize.

Think about what you've done.

Contemplate your behavior.

Delaney would be out in five minutes.

Sianna's still there.

We sold a house in New Zealand somewhere.

She's still in the room.

She's never going to leave.

The point is, to not speak and sit in silence, to quiet the chattering of the soul and the noise of circumstances is a great gift.

Please listen.

Sometimes God has to quiet us so we can hear him.

Sometimes we have to be still so we can see a move.

As I was traveling one day, I forgot my phone back at the place we were staying, and I noticed something.

How many times I'll, just by habit, reach over to pick it up when there's any quiet space.

You know?

Don't you do that?

If it's quiet, you pick it up.

If you're on the train, you pick it up.

But if it's not there, it's like I talked to God.

You could not believe how much time I spent with God that day because I didn't have my phone.

I was singing some songs.

I keep telling you there's a reason there's a half-eaten apple on the back of the phone.

The second thing is appointed time.

Do you mean that God had marked this day from the beginning?

The day?

That Gabriel would appear before Zechariah?

Yeah.

That when things look really bleak, he was still in control?

Yes.

That God knew the exact appointed day when he would fulfill his promise of Messiah?

And that all these things that were happening around this great event, everything was happening just when it had been appointed by God in eternity past?

Yeah.

In verse 21, meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.

I guarantee, it doesn't say here, I can't guarantee, but if I meander a little bit here, I would assume they were terrified that this is one of those times their sins of Israel was so great, God just wiped Zechariah out.

When he came out, he could not speak to them.

They realized he had seen a vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak.

Was this the first game of charades?

How do you communicate what he saw?

Maybe they knew it was a vision because there was a glow, that part I get.

But you know, what do you do?

Do you do this, you know?

And do you do this?

Baby, angel.

But then how do you describe the baby's coming to Elizabeth?

There's no way they're gonna believe that.

You wonder if somebody said, okay, who put opium in the candle wicks again?

At the altar of incense, yes, opium was around the first century.

Verse 23, when his time of service was completed, he returned home.

After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

The Lord has done this for me, she said.

In these days, he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.

It's hard for us to describe Elizabeth's delight.

It must have been beyond words.

And we also see how wise and how...

grateful and how humble she is because when Mary hears that she's going to have the Christ child, she will call him Jesus.

She runs to her, as we talked about last week, to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's about to have her.

She's had her own miracle.

She's having her own child in her old age.

And yet when she hears Mary say this, remember her response?

She says, why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

She looks past her own miracle into a far greater miracle.

She was so quick to look past herself, even though her miracle was great in it, it took away her shame because she knew something greater was happening.

She knew that God was gearing up to do what he said he would do and planned to do a long time ago.

Now, you may be familiar with that part of the story, but do you see the two themes that run concurrently through the Christmas narrative?

It's brokenness and new birth.

And it appears that new birth can't come without the brokenness.

Mary is poor, desolate, and dependent.

The angel shows up, and now she's scandalous.

She finds no room in the inn.

Her baby's born in a cave.

She flees Herod to Egypt, ostracized, outcast, burdened.

And yet through all of this, new life, and not just any new life, extraordinary new life.

Elizabeth.

Barren, shamed, feelings of deep, deep insignificance for many, many years, waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

And finally, Gabriel appears.

The promise of new life comes.

New life after years and years of depression and discontent.

Years of waiting and waiting and hoping and hoping and finally giving up the dream of ever having a child.

And then the angel appears to her husband.

And after so much brokenness comes this new life.

Why is this story included in the Christmas narrative?

Because in those seasons when you and I see no way out, in the times when we see no way round, no way through, In those times when we're thinking, what on earth is God doing?

Can I really trust him?

Is he really in control?

Is he really in charge?

And you have difficulty like Zechariah, even though he was a blameless man in believing.

In fact, if Zechariah had difficulty believing and he was a righteous man, what chance do I have?

This is our story.

Do we stay or do we go?

Do we believe or do we stop believing?

Do we keep trusting and keep obeying?

Do we stay engaged or do we finally give up and go our own way?

With so much brokenness in the world, how can we wait for the new life to come?

And folks, let me tell you, this is much more than theory to me right now.

I've got a lot of friends, and I know that surprises you, I've got a lot of friends who are struggling right now.

This seems to be a season.

I have a friend who's waiting for his wife's cancer to subside.

Finally and completely did it go away.

And I can see the wear and tear on him.

I've known him long enough to know that nothing phases him, but this is getting him.

I have a friend whose career has taken a turn for the worse, and now he finds himself penniless at 70.

I have another friend that wants to be married so badly in Tennessee, so badly, but is so frustrated in his late 20s, he just says, I can't find a suitable mate.

And another friend who's waiting and desperately praying and has been waiting so long for his prodigal son to come home.

In all of these situations, there's the temptation to give up.

The party's over, pack up, close up, give up.

But the message of the Christmas story is don't give up, look up and keep waiting and keep trusting and keep believing for the appointed time will come.

You know, every club that I've ever been a member of has some kind of motto.

Now, ladies, give me some grace here, okay?

But there's no motto like the little rascal's motto.

And I've been watching that with my grandkids.

The little rascal's motto, it has been expanded upon since the early motto of one line.

It goes like this.

We are he-man, woman-haters.

We feed girls to alligators.

I, Alfalfa, a member in good standing of the He-Man Woman Haters Club, do solemnly swear to be a He-Man and hate women and not play with them or talk to them unless I have to and especially never fall in love.

And if I do, may I die slowly and painfully and suffer for hours or until I scream bloody murder.

That's the little rascal's motto.

The motto of the church has not changed for 2,000 years.

when it comes to believing and waiting and experiencing the promises of God.

And I've illustrated it for you in many different ways.

Probably the most popular way is that 1950 movie, The Seventh Seal, that artsy movie with great symbolism where you have this medieval knight who's playing chess with death.

Death makes a final move and death says to the medieval knight, checkmate, and the curtain comes down, that's it.

And I share with you how Bobby Fischer, the world champion chess player, saw that movie with a friend, and his brilliant mind looked at that closing scene, and he said to his friend, wait, it's not over.

This is not the end.

This is not checkmate.

Why is he giving up?

The king has one more move.

That is the motto of the church right there.

The king has one more move.

When Jesus entered our world, many in Israel, most in Israel believed that it was checkmate, game over.

Zechariah and Elizabeth listened to their friends say, time and again, checkmate, go home, change course, forget it, all is lost.

God will never speak to us again.

God won't ever show up.

Isn't it obvious?

The story of Christmas is a reminder that your faith is never misplaced, that your kids are messed up and you think it's hopeless.

The king has one more move.

Your marriage is in trouble and you're saying, there's no way God can resolve these issues.

I got good news.

The king has one more move.

I've made so many mistakes.

I've messed up my life so badly.

There's no hope for me.

The king has one more move.

Cancer.

The king has one more move.

Finances.

The king has one more move.

Job loss.

The king has one more move.

Depression, anxiety, barrenness, whatever it is, the king always has.

One more move because checkmate with God never ever comes.

And I can promise some of you who've been waiting for so long on something and you're convinced God has given you that promise.

Just keep moving forward in faith because the day has been ordained.

It's before you.

It may not come in your time.

Maybe you say, if I were God, I would have given it to me sooner.

But you have to understand that's the key phrase.

You're not God.

Never listen to the naysayers.

Don't listen.

Don't quit.

Endure.

Deliverance is just around the corner because the king always has.

One more move.

Winston Churchill, after the Battle of the Bulge, his advisors came to him and said, the British soldiers are braver than the German soldiers.

And Churchill responded by saying this, oh no, they're not.

The German soldiers are just as brave as the British soldiers, but the British soldiers were brave five minutes longer.

Hang on, be faithful.

And here's the thing, while you're waiting, Keep moving.

Just as Elizabeth and Zechariah did not sit around doing nothing but remained faithful in all their duties and obedience, waiting for the door unto Messiah to be opened, stepping through each door as God opened them until the final entryway of the Messiah appeared.

Don't sit still.

Don't sit still.

Keep moving.

What do you mean by that?

Well, my friend, Rika Reed over here, shared a story with me.

a few weeks ago and I had to look it up and kind of find some more details.

But Dr.

Henry Cloud was speaking, a famous speaker, does a lot of just life kind of coaching and great wisdom.

But he was talking about marriage and relationships and a woman approached him after his message.

And she said, I want to get married and I believe God will bring me the man.

So Dr.

Cloud said, well, what are you doing?

She said, what do you mean, what am I doing?

What are you doing?

She goes, no, no, no.

You don't understand.

I am convinced.

God, I prayed about it, and God is going to bring this man into my life.

So Dr.

Cloud said, are you searching?

Are you going to church and events or single opportunities?

And she said, no.

God's going to bring me the man.

And Dr.

Henry Cloud said, then you're going to marry the UPS man or the Amazon driver.

Waiting does not mean doing nothing.

It means you pray, you search, you're obedient, you wait, you trust, you believe, and you keep moving through every door of opportunity that comes.

Listen, waiting on God is the quiet courage to believe that what he is doing in the unseen is greater than what you are demanding to see right now.

Sometimes God, yes, slams the door shut, but it's just for now.

And don't try to reopen it.

Oh man, I've done that.

Chances are high that you're simply not ready for what's behind the door.

At least not right now.

Other times he opens the door just a little bit to let you ease into it.

Now wait, don't force it open.

Wait till it's open wide before you bolt your way through it.

Because he's always working with you, not giving you too much too soon.

And accomplishing his good purposes in you and everybody around you to complete the good work he began in you.

Now, I've got just enough time.

There's one other side that we seldom discuss.

And this is how I want to end.

But lean in, please.

Sometimes you wait on God and the thing you're waiting on does not come in your lifetime.

Man, that's not popular, is it?

In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.

His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.

So Zechariah came from a long line of priests who were waiting on the same thing and they died before it ever came.

Zechariah is the only one in his family to see the fulfillment of the promises of God.

And yet, his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather lived as though one day the promise would come true.

Man, that is it right there.

They obeyed God.

They also kept the laws of God.

They were also righteous in the sight of God, observing all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly, but they did not see its fulfillment.

They lived as though it were a reality.

Friends, this is the calling on your life.

To live as if God's promises will come true.

To live now as if the appointed time is sure to come.

And never forget that God promises to give us a hope and a future, but not a problem-free life.

Right?

He promises to prosper us.

Not to prevent us from pain and suffering.

In fact, we often prosper through the pain and suffering.

Oh man, I wish we could preach on that alone right there.

The pain and suffering often becomes the vehicle God uses to take us to a level we never thought possible.

I'm not saying, I know if God promises you something individually in your prayer life, in your relationship with him, he will deliver it.

But there are some things that are general promises that were given in Scripture, just like the coming of Messiah, just like the second coming, that you still, even though you haven't experienced, you live as though it were true because you can guarantee, I can guarantee, the Scripture guarantees, that the appointed time has been set.

I spoke with another young girl not too long ago.

She was raised in a Christian family.

a solid Christian family, in fact, a very well-to-do Christian family, and she had been given really everything.

And in my conversation with her, she said, you know, Pastor Jeff, I don't want you to tell anyone this, but I'm really not convinced that God is real.

I said, why?

And she said, because he's not giving me the things I've asked for.

Now, my first inclination was you spoil little brat.

I'm sorry, because I mean, I wanted to say something like, you live and you breathe and you come from a wealthy family.

You've gotten to travel and see the whole world.

You've been everywhere and you're telling me you don't believe in God because God hasn't given you everything you want.

My goodness.

But you don't do that as a pastor.

You hold your tongue.

But I did say this to her.

I said, you know, when God says no to you, it's because he has information that you don't have.

I'm not belittling in any way, anything that any of you are going through, but I want to leave you with this.

Here's the story of Zechariah.

Number one, when God says no to you, it's because he has information that you don't have.

You don't know what's going on all around you.

You don't know what he's doing now.

He's going to bring all the dots together to accomplish his purpose.

You don't know that by giving you what you're asking for will destroy you ultimately.

You just don't know.

You trust and you remain obedient and you wait.

Two, it's not about your convenience, always about your conformity.

God is not there to make your life convenient and give you everything you want.

He's there to conform you to the image of his son.

to make you more Christ-like.

And more often than not, that comes through struggle.

Three, it's not about your plan, but about God's plan becoming a reality in and through you.

I'm convinced he has a plan to prosper all of us, to give us a hope and a future.

I'm convinced of that.

That's the promise of God.

But the way he goes about it isn't always very popular.

And God knows all of our idiosyncrasies.

He knows our weaknesses.

He knows what he's got to work on in you specifically.

Oh, that's hard.

That's hard to take, isn't it?

He knows some of you are so stubborn, so stinking stubborn, he's going to have to pull the rug out from under you before you actually wake up and smell the coffee.

For some of you, you're...

And for some of you, you're just so...

Oh, I've got to be careful here, but you are just so...

self-centered and think everything's about you, and God's going to have to just smack you around a little bit until you come to the end of yourself.

It's going to be hard for you.

And I know that from experience.

Listen to the old guy.

Do you remember what Mary said to the angel?

May it be to me as you have said.

That's what she said to the angel.

And she said that before she had knowledge.

Or clarity.

The only certainty that she had was that a baby's going to be born, her life is going to get tough, and it's going to be a scandal.

That's all she knows right now.

And yet she says, may it be to me, as you have said.

And the verse before that, by the way, is Luke 137.

No word from God will ever fail.

So keep moving, keep praying, keep waiting.

Keep trusting.

There are many places in your life right now.

where God may be asking you for a similar surrender, wait, a willingness to trust him when everything seems uncertain, unlikely, and even impossible, but he's waiting for you to just trust him, to wait for the appointed time so that he can do an awesome work in you.

Victor Frankl.

survived the Holocaust, concentration camps.

He saw all of his family members murdered, all of them, every single one of them.

He wrote a book called A Man's Search for Meaning years later.

He was intrigued by the difference between those who survived the camps and those who did not.

And basically the premise of his book is this.

Those who have a why to live can bear almost any what.

Those who have a why to live, in other words, for many people who survived the camps, it was because they knew their families were still alive, and that was the reason that they had to stay alive to be rejoined with their family.

But everybody had a why.

And he said, those who have a why to live can bear almost any what.

Can I tell you, there is no bigger why than God.

And you may not know the why, but he does.

Let me finish with this.

I love this story.

There's so much more.

I just want to finish by reading the Bible.

The Bible speaks a lot better than I do.

Here's what Isaiah 35 says.

This is the word of the Lord.

Strengthen the feeble hands.

Steady the knees that give way.

Say to those who with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear.

Your God will come.

He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution.

He will come to save you.

Then will the eyes of the blind be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyri will grow and a highway will be there.

It will be called the way of holiness.

It will be for those who walk on that way.

The unclean will not journey on it.

Wicked fools will not go about it, but only the redeemed will walk there.

And those the Lord has rescued will return.

Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sign will flee away.

That is the description of those who are part of the kingdom of God.

Wait, wait.

but live as though the appointed time is certain.

Father, thank you for Christmas narratives that are so rich.

I pray that if there's anybody in the room in the listening at Rancho or Westco, wherever they're listening or watching in the world, those who feel like they've been praying for so long to no avail, I pray that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes at this point.

and remind them that the appointed time will come to remain faithful, to pray, to obey, to watch, to walk through doors, never force them open, and to allow God to do his good work until we wait for the day to come.

In Christ's name, everybody said, amen.