In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by Lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were prophesying outside at the hour of incense, and there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. And Zechariah said to the angel, How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and bring to you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time and the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple when he came out he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. And after these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people." We spoke last week about the goal that Luke had in writing this book and addressing it to this one Theophilus, and he desired for him to be certain, to be able to find certainty in the things that he had been told and the things that he had been taught. And he continues that theme, I think, in this, as he now unfolds and describes for Theophilus and for us the birth of John the Baptist, this one that had been prophesied to come. And he tells about this answered prayer of Zechariah, and in so doing also tells us of a promise that was now being kept. That would be our title today, is A Prayer Answered and a Promise Kept. A Prayer Answered and a Promise Kept. As the Lord directed my heart to speak upon this passage and to read it and to consider what he would have us to hear about it, those two ideas began to come together. An answered prayer and a promise that had been kept. And how God does both in doing one thing here in this passage. And what you and I can take from it, because it's not merely, I hope today, won't merely be an academic discussion about the birth of John the Baptist, But I hope that it will be something that helps us to understand how our prayers ought to be aligned with the promises of God. And how often God answers our prayers and at the same time keeps a promise that he has made, not just to us, but to others. In our life, God desires for us to be a witness and an example to those around us, to share with them about the message of Christ and the hope that we have in Him. And in our lives, we have prayers that we ask and petition the Lord for. We ask Him for things. We pray for things. We pray for our loved ones. We pray for our relationships. We pray for our jobs, our financial circumstances, our health, certainly. We pray for these things. And we should. John and Elizabeth, or excuse me, Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for many years that God would give them a child and to this point he had not answered that prayer. And he's going to answer it in a way that is certainly beyond Zechariah or Elizabeth's imagination. Sometimes I think He does the same for us. But I want to just set the scene here this morning as we begin. I want us to see the bigger picture as we travel through what might be a very focused portion of that picture. We need to keep the context in mind as we understand what Luke is telling us here. He's telling us, yes indeed, about John the Baptist and his birth. A birth that had also been foretold and prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 40 and in other places where the people were told and we're told in the Old Testament that there would be one who would come who would prepare the way for the Lord. And when he came that the coming of the Messiah was near. So the birth of John the Baptist is one that is expected but unknown as to when its fulfillment was going to come. We said last week and have spoken before, those 400 silent years from the Old Testament to the New, where seemingly no new prophecy from God had been given, and not only seemingly, but in truth, none had been. Malachi closes the Old Testament, and there's nothing for 400 years. That's a long time. to many generations, for there to be apparent silence from heaven. And no doubt God was working in the minds and the hearts of individual people. But as far as revelation to the world through the written form of Scripture or the direct interaction of God among men, it had been 400 years. That is all going to come to a very sudden end here, and Luke begins his account with this experience that Zechariah had while serving in the temple, burning the incense at the daily sacrifice, and he has this encounter with an angel. And in setting this scene, I don't want us to miss some important details in relation to the fact that Luke has said to Theopolis, I desire for you to be certain. I want you to understand, Theopolis, what you've heard is true. What we have taught is true. And in that setting, and with that kept in view, we ought not to miss verse five. with the details that are provided there. Details, historical detail. In keeping with his stated goal, Luke gives Theophilus reasons to be certain of the things he had been taught, and in keeping with that, he provides for Theophilus specific historical details. You might say, why is this important? We must always keep in mind and in view that the Scriptures are speaking of spiritual things, spiritual truths that guide our hearts and our minds. The Scriptures were not written to be merely a history book, but they certainly do contain history. And Luke writing to Theopolis by including these specific details reinforces the reality, Theopolis, you can be certain because Luke can say, I'm not writing about a myth. I'm not telling you stories merely. Luke says, Luke gives Theopolis details. He gives an account of what actually happened at a particular time during the reign of Herod and in a particular place in the temple. to a particular person, Zechariah. Well, what does that mean for Theopolis? Remember, keep this in mind. This is why Luke is writing, that you might be certain. Well, how can this help that? Well, Theopolis could go verify those details. This was not a myth. This was not merely a story. Luke is saying, Theophilus, I'm telling you what actually happened. Of course, none of us were in the room with Zechariah when this happened, but you can go and talk to Zechariah, or at least 30 some years later, if he's not alive, those that knew him well. And you can talk to him. This is not a myth that I'm telling you. I'm telling you a specific story about a historical event that happened. Listen, this is not unique to Luke in the Bible. The Bible contains these details throughout. We don't want to miss this, and this is not the primary point of my message today, and we want to get to that, and I pray that the Lord will help us as we do so. But for us to set on the foundation of the reason that Luke is writing, I'm writing so that you can be certain Luke gives him details that he can latch on to that are not merely made-up fairy tales like the pagan world would tell, or some other false religion might tell. Luke says, no Theophilus, this happened to Zechariah in the temple in Jerusalem during Herod's reign. Go check the facts. Luke wants him to be certain. The Bible is full of these historical markers and that is a great marker of the authenticity and veracity of the Bible that you and I have. The details. could be confirmed by Theopolis himself if he desired. Some object to Christianity claiming there is no proof for its claims, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are many once atheists and agnostics that you can read about who, upon investigation of the details of the Word of God, the details of the crucifixion of Christ, the details of His life that are left, the names, the places, the historical dates and facts and figures, and they add it up. Now, I don't want to be one who would go too far that direction and say that your intellectual agreement with the historical facts of Scripture is enough for your eternal salvation, because certainly it is not, but it does provide a foundation upon reality and historical fact. Yes, these people lived, and it's a historical fact that they did. Yes, 500 and more people saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ after He was crucified and placed in the tomb. They saw Him after that alive in the flesh and in the body. That is a fact. These 500 claimed to see Him, and that is a large tale to tell by 500 some people if it weren't true. There is fact built underneath the Christian faith. Yes, you cannot dismiss them. One is not sufficient. The facts alone are not sufficient to faith. You see, faith comes in with the conclusions that you draw from the facts that are confirmed. But without the facts being confirmed, there is no place for faith to rest, stable and steady in the storms of life that will come against us. Don't miss these facts as you read Scripture and as you study it. Mark those things. These accounts, and in chapter 2 of Luke, there's a big long list of names, and I'll grant you some of them are difficult to pronounce. And you think, well, why is that even there? And you get that in your daily reading, and if you're like many, And if you're honest with yourself, you kind of skip through that section and move on. And perhaps that's appropriate at times. But don't miss these names, these people, these places, these times. There's a reason it's there. The Bible is unique in this. It provides proof for its own claims. And these details, again, they abound throughout Scripture. Details that have caused many skeptics to turn to the Lord. Well, Luke wanted Theopolis to be certain, and listen, God wants you to be certain. What good is it if you're not certain? What good is it if you do not have a faith in your heart and in your mind and in your being that is founded upon a reality that you met the Lord, you know Him, He knows you, and you know that this life is going to pass you by sooner rather than later, and eternity is going to usher in, and you're going to be with the Lord, and you're going to be in a reality and in a heaven, as it is called, and in an eternal life that was intended for you all along. If you're not convinced and certain of that, Then what is the point of all of the other things that we do? Luke says, I want you to be certain, Theophilus. God says to you, I want you to be certain. I want you to be certain. And I've given you facts, and I've given you names, and I've given you dates, and I've given you places. You can go look it up. These are things that are verifiable and identifiably true, demonstrably true, objectively true, not subject to debate. Now what you do with these facts and the faith that you place in God as a result of them is different from simply intellectual agreement. There are a whole lot of people today who call themselves Christian who simply have an intellectual agreement with the facts of Scripture, but to do that is to simply merely be a rational person, not a person of faith. And they're different. You can't have one without the other, but you can definitely have the first without the latter. You must not lose the understanding that faith is a requirement. God has said it very clearly and without any obscurity in Hebrews 11, without faith it is impossible to please God. So do not lose the requirement of faith in the midst of these details that we are given. But the details, they can be verified. The important point is now, what do you do with those conclusions? You are alive today. You're breathing in oxygen. Your body is using it. Your organs are using it. Your heart is pumping the blood. Your brain is firing the electrical signals to allow you to think your body got you here today. That is all happening for some reason. But the details, the fact of the matter is you are here and alive. Where faith comes in is answering the question, why and from whom? But you can be certain of these things. Theophilus, Luke would say, and I'm going to tell you about something that actually happened. He tells him about Zechariah and Elizabeth. A husband and wife who very clearly from Scripture were righteous people, godly people. A godly man and a godly woman. Godly marriage. This was a couple devoted to God who took great care to obey all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Theophilus, go check it out. People knew them. Their people, their friends are no doubt still alive among us today. Go talk to them about these two. You've probably heard of them. within the Jewish community, perhaps. Theophilus was not a Jew, maybe he'd not heard of them, but go talk to people, Theophilus, about these. And if you talk to them about Zechariah and Elizabeth, you would hear these were good people, godly people, committed to following the commandments and statutes of the Lord, and they did so in their lives. And from this, by the way, we can gather this. Elizabeth and Zechariah knew the Old Testament. That's important. They knew the Old Testament. They'd read Isaiah. They'd read Malachi. They'd read those other prophecies where they had heard that God was going to send someone to prepare the way for the Messiah before he came. They knew these things. They were looking for that as well as the Messiah himself. The One who would come to be the One who would make straight the way. Who, when the valleys would be brought up and the mountains would be brought down, and the whole world would be placed on a level playing field. When God Himself would send the Messiah, they were looking for this and they knew that they were to be looking for it. Godly people, aware of what God had said in the Old Testament, and yet the Scriptures then tell us in verse 7, they were childless and advanced in years. devoted followers of Christ. And this is where, as I was studying and praying and felt convinced that the Lord was moving me in this direction to preach upon this particular passage of Scripture, there are times in preparation for that, that I am far behind where the Lord is in understanding where He is going. And as I studied and prayed and considered, this is where this thought began to materialize in my mind and heart, and God began to roll back the confusion a little bit about what it is that we're supposed to gain from this passage of Scripture. And is it really all about whether John the Baptist was saved in the womb or not? Or what is the point of this passage? And He began to bring these things together. This idea of a prayer answered and a promise kept. God is going to answer their prayer. He was going to keep the promise that he'd made in the Old Testament at the same time. Zechariah and Elizabeth, childless, devoted to God and yet had prayed for years, probably decades. We might say more about this later, but probably had given up on this prayer by now. But no doubt for years and years they prayed, God give us a child. Year after year after year and the prayer goes unanswered. At least in the way that they had hoped. We can only imagine, can you? We can only imagine the many tears that Elizabeth and Zechariah shed alone and together as they prayed to the Lord, diligently asking for a child. But year by year goes by without God granting their heart's desire. And you know, beyond their own personal pain in that, beyond that, being childless in that society was considered a shame to the woman. This was considered shameful. In fact, that isn't that what she says in the very last verse of our text today. She was thanking the Lord for taking away her reproach. And that word means shame in the Greek. It's taking away her shame. But for year after year, they prayed, give us a child. That prayer goes unanswered. We can imagine their personal pain. And now you throw on top of that personal pain, their public shame. I wondered, as I thought about this, if they, and particularly Elizabeth, if she ever felt a little bit like Job, when those in their community thought them to be shunned by God because of her barrenness. As Job was thought by his friends to, Job, you've done something wrong or God wouldn't treat you this way. I can imagine there were people in their community that said the same about Elizabeth, if not to her face, probably behind her back. Yeah, Elizabeth and Zachariah, they're good people, but she's barren. And that always probably ended the sentence. She's barren. She doesn't have a child. She can't have children. Prayed and prayed and prayed for this, and yet they obviously and clearly remained faithful to God. This is something I want to impress upon you and to me. Whether or not God answers our prayers, we must remain faithful to Him. Through it all, whether we are in pain and sorrow and even public humiliation and shame, may our hearts, may we take for our model something from Elizabeth and Zechariah, because they continued to be faithful to God in the midst of unanswered prayer. Zechariah continues his obligations, verses 8 through 10. He continues to show up where he's supposed to be, to do what he is supposed to do, to serve in the temple. He's a priest, he's the son of Levi. He's to serve this way. In 1 Chronicles 23-24, if you want to go read it sometime, we get the division of the Levites into 24 divisions. They served each division two weeks out of the year, one week at a time. And this was all laid out in the Old Testament. And Zechariah is a member of the tribe of Levi. He is a priest, and he is a part of this division, and in this great personal pain of his. And no doubt it had continued to go with him, this absence of a child, ever and always. One wonders if there were prayers given to God, even at this point, where there's not something in the back of his mind or in his heart somewhere Not buried too deep, Lord, if we only had a child. If you'd only blessed me with a child. But he's continuing to serve the Lord. He's continuing to show up where he's supposed to show up. Listen, when God doesn't apparently answer your prayers, continue to be committed to Him and obedient to Him, and quite frankly, continue to show up. Continue to be where you're supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing. This is the model that we're given in Zechariah and Elizabeth. So it's Zechariah's division's turn to serve in the temple this week. And not only that, one priest from among that division is chosen by lot to be the one to burn the incense in the daily offering. This was a profound honor, to be able to be the one. Most priests never had this opportunity, and you were never given the opportunity more than once in your entire life. By lot, among your division, You're chosen, you're the one. And well, Zechariah, by lot, was chosen to be the one to burn the incense. And so no doubt this was a notable day for Zechariah. He has no idea how notable it's going to be. But in serving the Lord, he is given an opportunity that honors him and places him in a place of great honor. And in so doing, by the way, we don't want to miss what Luke is doing. Remember, he's talking to Theopolis. He's writing to him, and I know by extension to you and me as well. But he's writing to him and he's saying, is he not connecting the Old Testament and the sacrifices and the systems that God had placed there? with the new, with what's getting ready to happen. Luke is connecting for Theophilus. Look, what I am telling you about is the continuation of the story of God. It's not a restart of the story of God or some new story that God is telling us. This is not something that we are coming up with. He's connecting the Old Testament with the new. The New Testament does not begin a new story, it completes the story that was begun in the Old Testament. There are people, denominations we might call them, people of certain theological persuasion that believe we don't need the Old Testament anymore and we should just study the New. And certainly there are those, the Jews principal among them, who reject the New Testament and hold to the Old Testament alone. And the problem with both of those is you don't have the full story with either. Without the Old Testament, you don't understand so much about the fundamental need of the New Testament and the gospel message itself. The Old Testament shows us why we're sinners, how we became sinners. It shows us what human beings are wont to do, which is to continually turn their face from God, and God continually, in His mercy and grace, reaching out to man to provide, deliver, again, after again, after again, from Abraham to Moses, and Noah before them. and to all the judges, and Gideon, and Samson, and Ruth, and then to the prophets, and Jeremiah, and Isaiah, and then to Zerubbabel, and to Ezra, and to Nehemiah, to bring them out of bondage. But you saw again and again in the Old Testament man's tendency to look away from God because he's a fallen sinner, and without the Old Testament, the New Testament is built upon nothing. And it becomes just a story of nice little moral teachings about a good man named Jesus Christ who didn't actually accomplish anything other than be a good moral teacher. And the whole point of his death and resurrection seemingly has no meaning beyond how deeply he loved people when what it really means is this is the payment of sin. This is what Jesus did. And Luke, in connecting the Old Testament with the story that he's telling Theopolis, you've heard these things, I want you to be certain, it's all connected. It's all connected, and without the New Testament, certainly simply looking at the Old Testament, you have a problem that has not been solved. You have bondage to sin that has no Redeemer. But we have them, and Luke is telling Theopolis this. The Old and the New Testaments are two halves of one story. The birth of John the Baptist, promised in the Old Testament. The birth of the Messiah, promised in the Old Testament. So Luke then is providing details for Theophilus, again, details for him. Way back in Chronicles, how the circumstances led for Zechariah to be where he was on that day. And Luke is providing for Theopolis these details so that he can connect what God had promised to do in the Old Testament with what he was then doing in that moment and in those days in the New. Oh, once again, for the point and the purpose that Theopolis might be certain. Zechariah's service in the temple was a special time, certainly. Only did it two weeks a year with his division, so that was already special. And now to be the one chosen by Lot to burn the incense in the daily sacrifice, this was a place again of honor and a great notable day for him. And yet at the same time, it was a day that was like any other. It started like any other. It was their turn, of course, to serve, but that had happened before. The daily offering had happened every day for days on end before. Nothing in a larger scale that marked this day as any more or less special than those many that had come before Nothing to indicate that God was going to answer Zechariah and Elizabeth's prayer and begin to keep the promise that he had made to Adam and Eve and to every human being that came after them. No indication of that. And yet now in verses 11 through 13 we see where things obviously begin to take shape, what's happening here. Having set this setting, these foundational thoughts let us look together at this experience that Zechariah had and take from it what God would have us to take from it. Gabriel appears to him, he says nothing initially, he just appears. Zechariah sees him, and he, like just about every other human being who encounters an angel in the scriptures, is afraid. I couldn't ever solidify my thoughts on this, so I didn't think that I would say anything, but I feel like I need to. I thought a little bit about what would it be for our eyes to be able to see into the spiritual realm and see the magnificence of the created beings God has made called angels. What would it be for our eyes to be able to see it? One, I do think others have said this and I tend to agree, I think we'd go mad. I don't think we could contain it. I think to see the heavenly angels and then to see the angels who have fallen, to see their hatred and their evil and their wickedness would do things to our minds and hearts that I don't know that we could fully handle. And yet I thought a little bit more about it and I thought, but you know our eyes can't see into the spiritual realm, but our hearts can feel it. God has given us a sense there, a spiritual sense. We are beings created in the likeness and the image of God and we are complex things. When I graduated from college with a degree in accounting and I worked in accounting for about a year and then I found myself doing work in information technology and on computers. And people have said through the years, boy, computers are complicated. And about 10 years or so into my working career, I moved from being the guy who pushed the buttons and pulled the levers to the guy who managed the people who pushed the buttons and pulled the levers. And I'll tell you this, people are a whole lot more complicated than computers are, by an infinite magnitude. God has not allowed us in this world to see, at least in general, and I won't deny what people have said, I had a dream, or that they saw something, an angel, I'm not gonna deny that or dispute it. I know that angels are real, and I know that others have seen them, and by the way, take this for free, and then we'll move on. Go note how many times God appears to Joseph in a dream to direct him. It's again and again and again and again. I don't know what to take from that other than this. There's a realm, a spiritual realm that we can't see, but it's there. And we can, if we attune ourselves rightly, we can feel it and sense it. You can't deny that there's things moving and acting that are beyond the physical senses that still impact our lives directly. Well, this angel, Gabriel, God allows Zechariah to see him, and seeing this angel, he is afraid, like so many others who we read about in Scripture who had the same reaction to an angel, afraid, fearful. But what does Gabriel say in verse 13? He's got really good news. And he starts it this way, right? Your prayer has been answered, or excuse me, your prayer has been heard. God has heard your prayer, Zechariah. That is really good news. Your prayer has been heard, verse 13. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. And the angel, Gabriel, And we'll talk about it here shortly. He then begins to say a lot of other things. I wonder if I were Zechariah, and I had been praying for a child as long as he had, and I had had a hope such as that for him, and had that in my heart, not only for me, but for my wife, who I love, that we might have a child. I don't know if it were me if I wouldn't have heard anything else he said after that. Your prayer's been heard. Elizabeth's going to have a son. He goes on and he says some very important things. But I think with Zechariah's response that we'll talk about in a moment, I wonder if he kind of stopped listening. This is all conjecture, so don't take this anywhere beyond this. This was, I think, what hit his heart first and foremost. You're going to have a son. Your prayer's been heard. When we pray to the Lord and He answers our prayer, it's often that He's actually trying to do more than what He is merely doing in blessing us with the granting of the petition that we have made to Him. He tells him many things, and I want to get into those things briefly and then circle back to Zechariah and what's going on in his mind and heart. He tells him, Gabriel does, a number of things, a number of pronouncements are made about John. His birth, of course, is going to bring Zechariah and Elizabeth joy and gladness, but he also says many are going to rejoice. Certainly, Zechariah and Elizabeth joy and gladness for the answered prayer, and many will rejoice because of the promise kept by God that he is going to send one to be the one who would prepare the people for the Messiah. He said, Gabriel does, about John the Baptist, he's going to be great before the Lord. And if you want to pinhole John the Baptist and where he is in the gospel message and in the plan of salvation, he is the forerunner. He is before the Messiah. So in a sense, he belongs with the Old Testament prophets. But he's going to be the last one. He's going to be the last one that's going to say, the Messiah is coming. He's going to say, behold the Lamb of God. And I know he doesn't say it, but he's here. He's right there. No more will there need to be an Old Testament prophet prophesying of the promise that God had made that He would send a Messiah. He's the last one in saying God has kept His promise. Here is the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, God's own Son, capital S. He's gonna be great in that way. He's gonna be unique in that way. He's gonna be unlike any other in that way. then so that we don't skip past the elephant in the room last half of first fifteen is gonna be filled with the holy spirit from his mother's womb i do not want to get in a theological ping pong i will give you what i believe that that says to us if you do a study of the for the language of the greek and compare it to to old testament usages of the same type of thing it's not merely saying from and continuously his mother's womb. It's from while within his mother's womb. So while he is in his mother's womb, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, something that I believe verse 41 is going to confirm when Mary comes and visits Elizabeth and he leaps in the womb. The Spirit moves upon him. It doesn't say He's saved there. It does not say that he is filled with the Spirit continuously from that point. In fact, I would say this, how could John the Baptist preach a gospel of repentance that he himself had not experienced? I believe this is simply saying that while in the womb, the Spirit is going to be with him, and again, something that is fulfilled. This filling with the Holy Spirit from within is something that happens specifically when Mary comes, as I said, to visit Elizabeth. This reality would provide further confidence, in my view, for Zechariah and Elizabeth. It was not about John the Baptist as a child in the womb. It was about God providing further confidence for Zechariah and Elizabeth and for the others. This child is the one that I said he was going to be, and he's going to be great. You can take that or leave that. There's room for disagreement there. But I didn't want to just skip past it without giving you something of what my thoughts are on what that means. I do not believe God makes exceptions. And I know that there are difficulties that I've not addressed in that, but I believe that is where my mind and heart has settled on it. Well, let's move along. It says most importantly what He's going to do in verses 16 and 17. Ultimately, He's going to prepare the people for the Lord. He's going to make it such that they are ready to receive Him when He comes. All of it was big news. This little meeting in the temple between Zechariah and the angel Gabriel, this was big news. I mean, if you want an understatement of the year, the decade, the centuries, to call this big news would not say the half of it. The only bigger news will be the announcement, of course, to Mary shortly to come and to Joseph regarding Jesus. But the world had been waiting for the Messiah for so long, and it was happening. It was happening. The birth of John the Baptist, who would be the final pre-Messianic prophet, was imminent, and he would prepare the people for the coming king. God's promise was being kept. Hope is alive. Peace is coming. The enemy is soon to be vanquished. And God does this, this keeping of His promise. He does this while at the same time answering a decades-long prayer of a godly husband and wife. It's a real joy. And here's where I'm going to hope to bring it together for us in this prayer answered and a promise kept. It is a real joy. when we find that our prayers of petition to God are in alignment with the promises He's already made. So much so. Listen, it's something that I, this is a thought, it's again, I need you I desire you, I encourage you to take this seed of a thought that God has placed in my heart and I'm going to continue to turn over and to think about and to pray about and meditate on. I want you to take this away with you. It's such a joy when our prayers align with God's promises that our prayers ought then to be given and made in light of those promises. Examine your prayers then in light of the promises of God. If you've not done so before, first then familiarize yourself with what God has promised and look for alignment between your requests and His promises. And if they're at odds, then there's some spiritual work that needs to be done. And this is at once simple and yet at the same time can become quite complex, I understand. Let me continue to try to explain as we look at how Zechariah responded, and we'll not keep you much longer, but Zechariah responds in doubt. He responds in doubt. And you might say, well, it seems like Gabriel's being a little harsh with him. All he said was, how will I know this? I mean, that was the question, which on the surface seems innocent. But for whatever reason, this angel of God looked beyond the question. He looked behind the question. And he saw the doubt that was lurking there. But as we think about this, I want us to think briefly again about what this must have been for Zechariah. This was a lot. I mean, just a few seconds of speech from Gabriel, but it was a lot to take in, was it not? Listen, think about it. Zechariah is chosen to burn the incense at the daily sacrifice, and so it's already a unique day. He's already in a place he's never been and never will be again. An angel has appeared to him. That's probably never happened and probably won't happen again. And spoken words almost too wonderful to believe. Yet, again, I think very soon, Zechariah would have begun to realize that God was doing more than just answering his prayer, but was keeping an even bigger promise. He would have been familiar with the passages in the Old Testament that spoke about the forerunner of the Messiah. He would have known them. In fact, if you look in Isaiah, I believe it's chapter 40, the words Gabriel uses to describe the son that he was being promised were almost word for word what the Old Testament said this one would come to do to prepare the way. Gabriel's words, I think at some point might have started to settle into his mind and heart and begun to sound quite familiar. Certainly there was immediately a sense that God was laying a special claim to this child, because he goes on and says, Elizabeth's going to bear you a son, and his name's going to be John. That must not be missed either. It was the prerogative of the father to name the child. And so when Gabriel says, you're going to have a son, it's not going to be yours to name. His name's John. shows Zechariah from the beginning in answering his prayer, God had also a promise to keep in doing so. He says, His name's going to be John. Again, in fairness to Zechariah, with all of this to take in in such a short amount of time, the fact that he and Elizabeth would have a child was likely the thing that stood out most to him, and it's what appears to in his response. How shall I know this? Zechariah had prayed for a child for years, but one does wonder if he and Elizabeth had given up on the prayer now that they were no longer young. They'd given up on it and just left it in a place of unanswered prayer. But to his and Elizabeth's credit, again, they do not appear to be bitter against God. And I do want to make this point before we move on. Listen, prayers of petition. I do want you to pay attention. Listen to this. I think it's important. It's been very impactful even for me to think about this. Prayers of petition to God. Prayers asking God for something in your life. This is a dangerous thing. This is delicate territory. We are to do so. God has commended us to let our requests be made known to Him. But listen, do so very carefully, thoughtfully, meditatively, prayerfully. Prayers of petition to God are dangerous things. Answered prayer can cause us, if the enemy takes it and takes it to a place like this, they can cause us to feel a sense of entitlement to God's blessings and create in us something of a spoiled spirit. They can, if we're not careful with them. And unanswered prayer. Unanswered prayer can cause us to feel embittered against God and create a darkness and hardness in our hearts such that our fellowship with Him is broken. So do you see that whether answered or unanswered, prayers of petition to God are delicate things to be handled very carefully? because spiritually they can be dangerous if we do not receive answered prayer in the way in which we ought to in thankfulness and humility and a knowledge that only by the goodness and the grace of God has he answered this prayer. And only because he must have some purpose in this beyond my mere request. And if he doesn't answer prayer, may we not become bitter and hardened Zechariah seems to certainly, by Gabriel's response, he's got some doubt. He's asking for what appears to be proof beyond the words of God's messenger. Sometimes I think we can ask what might seem to be innocent questions, but a question that is born from doubt and not faith. And that's for us to consider ourselves, each one of us individually. Gabriel says to him in answer, I was sent from God with this message. Something that should have been, again, we grant him the space. that we ourselves would likely not have responded any better. But this should have been obvious, or at least it should have been apparent in some respect to Zechariah that this was Gabriel and he was sent from God. He was in the temple. He was in the place that was God's. And Gabriel says, I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. He names himself, and as a godly man familiar with the Old Testament, he, I think, perhaps thought Daniel. Because in the book of Daniel this same Gabriel makes an appearance. And here standing before me is this angel that I have read about and he is speaking to me. The very angel. that spoke in the book of Daniel, was speaking to me and told me that I'm going to have a son. Elizabeth's going to bear me a son. His name's going to be John. He's going to tell me all these things, and these things are going to come to pass. So for Zechariah then to respond with, prove it, or how am I going to know this? Zechariah's doubt of God's promise prevented him from being able to speak about it, even to Elizabeth. until its fullness had come and John the Baptist was indeed born. Be wary as we come to a close today, be wary of the doubt that hides in your heart. It will be the reason you can't rejoice with others when God does exactly what He said He would do. Be wary of the doubt that lurks there. When God answers your prayer or others, you might be unable to speak and rejoice. Zechariah completes his service. He returns home. Elizabeth keeps herself hidden for five months, but the promise is being kept. And I close with this thought. A prayer answered and a promise kept. with your prayers of petition. And I don't want to take too much from this. This is a unique circumstance. Of course it is. It's the birth of the forerunner of Christ. Happened once. It's a unique circumstance. But I do think that there are some principles from which we can derive from this for you and us today in our own prayers. I want you to ask, because this is the question God is asking me, and I believe he wants me to share this question with you. If God answered your prayer, what would you do with it? We pray for our health. Well, if he grants us health, what are we going to do with it that's aligned with the promises of God? If he gives us financial stability, what will we do with it? If God answers the prayer of your heart today, what would you do with it? I think that's a question that we need to honestly wrestle with in our own hearts and minds. That will be the test that can help us to discern, am I asking something from God because I want it for myself? Or am I asking this of God because, yes, it would bless me, but also because God could use it for His purposes? A prayer answered and a promise kept, they often go hand in hand. And we leave it to Him to know when to do either and how to do either. But when He makes a promise, let us believe Him. And thanks be to God for answering our prayers and keeping His promises.