I Need A Miracle: Week 4

Thanks Pastor Andrew for the applause prompt, and thank you Church of the Crossing

for being out this day. This is the first Sunday of Advent in the

ancient liturgical calendar of the Church, four weeks counting down to Christmas. I'm

so thankful, as is my wife, who's in the room with me,

to celebrate this Lord's Day with you. My name is Jin and I am

so thankful, not only because it's the first Sunday and Advent, but because

I have a chance before I open the word to tell the Church of the

Crossing how treasured you are in a large family of churches called the Church of

God, of which you have been apart from your beginning. And it's my

privilege as a General Director for the General Assembly of the Church of God the

United States and Canada to be able to travel the world because we not only

work here, but we are in ninety other countries abroad, and to travel

the world and to see the Church and its expanse and breadth. And I

promise you you would be astonished, you would be in and you would be

humbled. How many times the name of this congregation is spoken around the world

because over many many decades, you have left your fingerprints of grace and love

and truth and witness with them. In fact, so excited to hear about

your year end offering to help benefit families here in Indianapolis, right at your

front door, but also abroad in Bangladesh, because within the last year I've

been in Bangladesh and everywhere I went, in villages, in ministry centers,

I found plaques that say Church of the Crossing Indianapolis, Indiana. Because over

many, many years you have been faithful in sharing and working together. We

are a team in the Church of God. And from a new church plant

in Temecula in southern California to a new church plant in Dubai underway right now,

in all of this expanse, you're part of the team, and we

thank you for your faithful witness and your partnership with brothers and sisters in the

Church of God here in the United States and Canada and around the world.

Today, well, yes, give yourself a hair, a phenomenal, phenomenal

testimony that all said I made a miracle. That's the series that you have

been experiencing for the last few weeks. Today is the close, and I'm

so excited to be able to speak into the series because a miracle. I

mean, come on, don't we all need a miracle? Many people would

say, oh, I don't believe in that stuff, but I would forecast

that in every person's life journey at some point or another, whether they believe

in God or not, they're thinking, I need a miracle because we all

find ourselves on corner sometimes sometimes our backs are against a wall and we know

we alone are not enough and we need something from the outside to reach in

and intervene in the course of our journey to provide life and hope and future.

Have you ever thought about what it means to have a miracle? On

the screen? You'll see a definition from the Cambridge English Dictionary just from this

year. A miracle that's is an unusual and mysterious event that is thought to

have been caused by God because it does not follow the usual laws of nature.

In other words, in the popular parlance and actually in the root of

the term, a miracle is something that is attributed to God or a supernatural

being or a deity, or something beyond the natural order of this world.

Because its impact, its effect, its occurrence cannot just be explained naturally.

A few years ago I had the chance to take a cruise with my family.

I had signed up. I've been invited and agreed to be a teacher

on a cruise. You know, one of those Christian cruise things where you

get a boat and all the casinos are dead and empty because all the people

on board are Christians. Though maybe you've experienced that unless you wake up at

two am in ear life. Some of the saints are doing the tables too.

But in any case, I was on this cruise. It was going

to leave from Venice. I had my wife and children. Oh, I

have four sons. It's been a while. They're all adult men now,

but they were kids then. And we were flying from the States to get

to Venice, to get on the boat for seven days and the Adriatic and

the Greek islands. It was going to be dreamy. By the way.

My teaching series then was Joan and the Whale, which proved not to be

such a win for the people on the boat. But in any cas as

we were on our way, there were thunderstorms on the East coast, and

our connections from Indianapolis to the seaboard across the ocean to Paris and then to

Venice, where old topsy Turvy I was running, jumping over barriers, scaling

glass walls to get my kids all on the plane on time from here to

here to hear We landed in Venice. We had left plenty of time in

our schedule to come to Venice a day early, but we got there within

twenty minutes of closing the gate on the boat. As the ship was going

to sail, we ran into the ship, realizing as we boarded that we

did not have any luggage none. They cannot keep up with us. And

as we set sail and watched Venice fade in the distance, I lined my

wife and children up along the cabin wall and said, hear me, and

hear me clearly, if you ever ever see any of that lugga you again

in your lifetime, it will be a miracle, because there is no way,

there is no way those suitcases are going to show up. We have

sailed from Venice, having had three connections late. How in the world would

we ever see it again? And my children looked at me big eyes.

My one son that had that Michael Jordan Jersey for which he was willing to

lay down his life now lost in a suitcase. They began to believe in

God and pray. And you know that, two days out at sea,

a boat came from Dobrovnik in Croatia with our suitcases and I stared at them

all and I said, there, don't ever tell me you don't believe there

is a God, because there's no way this could have happened. But as

I tell you that story, I realize it's kind of cavalier because I understand

how airlines work. I understand how cruise ships work. My first job out

of law school was at Northwest Airlines now Delta, and I'd lived in the

industry, and I'll tell you what, there's tremendous capacity to work. Miracles.

Never take for granted when you get on a plane and land somewhere and

there's a suitcase that shows up eventually, even is it really a miracle.

Well, there are several things in life that we cannot control that other persons

might do that could be a miraculous occurrence. And of course another person might

be used in the hand of God to actually supernaturally intervene in the course of

our life. But today I want to talk about miracles that require the obvious

and absolute intervention of God. Others may play a hand, and He may

organize others hands to do good. But you know when it happens for you

that it was God showing up. The world needs a miracle. Israel needs

a miracle, The Gaza needs a miracle, The West Bank needs a miracle.

Ukraine needs americle. Russia needs a miracle. The American presidential election needs

a miracle. And maybe some younger voices. Oh sorry, don't get me

going. I'm just saying there are a lot of things we could talk about.

Our city in Indianapolis needs a miracle. Seattle is my home, and

people in Seattle are always going on about crime and so on, while Seattle

is three times the size of this city. And I promise you that evening

news in Indianapolis has somebody shot every night. It's almost predictable, It's almost

passe. What's it going to take to help turn the page and make the

place that we call home safe? In the most elementary way, miracles are

required, but today's message is not about that kind of miraculous intervention. Though,

hold this as a footnote. It is not foolish to pray for miracles

on the world stage. It's not foolish to pray for miracles in the Middle

East. It's not foolish to pray for miracles in the city of Annapolis.

God is greater than all of the sun. But today it's been my privilege

to be asked to speak about people who need a miracle personally, when they

have lost a dream, when there's been something longed for and it seems to

be beyond the grasp, what do we do? Is it possible. Is

it possible that even that thing that is beyond our grasp, but the ship

has sailed and there's no way we can catch up. Is it possible that

God still works miracles for people like us? Absolutely? Of this for Sunday

n event. Look at the first chapter of Luke with me, beginning with

verse five. This is a new living translation. It's a famous story about

the annunciation of the birth of a child, not Jesus but his forerunner,

John the Baptist. When Herod was the king of Judea, there was a

Jewish priest named Zachariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abajah,

and his wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Erin.

Zachariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God's eyes, careful to obey all of

the Lord's commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to

conceive and they were both very old. One day, Zachariah was serving God

in the temple for his order was on duty that week, and as was

the custom of the priest, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary

of the Lord and to burn incense. Where the incense was being burned,

a great crowd stood outside praying. While Zachariah was in the sanctuary, an

angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense

altar Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him, but the

angel said, don't be afraid, Zachria. God has heard your prayer.

Your wife Elizabeth will give you a son, and you are to name him

John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at

his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord.

He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with

the Holy Spirit even before his birth, and he will turn many Israelites to

the Lord, their God. He will be a man with the spirit and

power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.

He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and he will

cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly. Zachariah 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 verse nineteen,

then the Angel said, I am Gabrielle. I stand in the very

presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good

news. Take a moment and bow your head and heart with me, and

pray upon the reading of the word Father, we are so thankful for the

scripture. We're thankful that it has been preserved across time and space, oceans,

continents, centuries, languages, cultures for us to hear even now.

We're thankful for your Holy Spirit that first penned these lines by Luke's hand,

and we're thankful for the events that it records, supernaturally miraculously intervening in human

history. I pray Lord that all of us, all of us in the

room now, will move closer to your will and way and approach, even

the miraculous, for having been here now. And I prayed the single and

the sacred name of Christ, Jesus the Lord, and for his glory alone.

Amen Zachari and Elizabeth, two people who longed for miracles. They hoped

to conceive a child, and in the ancient world, even as sometimes in

today's modern world, the failure to have a child when longing to have one

can be one of the greatest challenges of a lifetime. I know something about

this because I'm an adopted person. I was adopted and adopted by two people

who were unable to conceive. My mother had waited over ten years for a

child, desperately wanting to have a child, believing God had created her to

have a family, but it just was not coming together. And there's a

whole miracle story about how I fell into her arms. I know something about

this burden because I've been a pastor for forty years before I took my press

a post. And this sense of what the scripture here describes as barrenness,

whether it be some kind of physical challenge in a woman's body or in a

man's body, whatever it is, whatever the reality of It is that unspoken

longing, but it today represents all unspoken longings. How many people in this

world long for a life partner, to be married to someone they can trust

and love forever as long as this life shall last. How many people in

this world long for some kind of stable job where they wouldn't have to worry

from day to day or week for week, and it seems impossible it will

take a miracle to get a job like that, given their sense of their

own preparation and skill set and so on. How many people long for just

good health? How many people long for some freedom from something that now enslaves

them, and there's no way on earth that they have so far been able

to find to be set free. I mean, there are so many levels

of human experience that can be encapsulated in this illustration, in this true story

Zacharia and Elizabeth. But we have to know that as God is going to

work a miracle for them, there are some pieces of the story that are

important for us to also take on. First up, Zechariah and Elizabeth were

considered righteous by God. This is not to say that God does not work

miracles for the unrighteous. It is to say that your chance of receiving a

miracle for the thing that is your heart cry is greatly enhanced if you are

yourself devoted to God. Zechariah and Elizabeth were not perfect. No one is.

They could not figure everything out. Nobody can. They did not do

everything right. Nobody does. But there was something about the quality of their

heart. And none of us can tell our own hearts, except God and

yourself. But there was something in their longing, their generosity of spirit,

the way in which they have framed their lives, that that there is a

God, their maker, that they will serve him, they will honor him.

It says they did everything they knew how to do to obey his commands,

to live within his framework. This was their ambition. They had many,

many stumbles in life. Everyone does. They had one big void of

ache in their heart. No children in their life was flying by, and

now their agent passed a time when any person might reasonably be expected to conceive

a child, all of it evaporating like the morning mist. But still God

saw them as righteous because they would not abandon God, they would not curse

God, they would not blame God, they would not wallow in their pity.

Something about their quality of heart allowed God to see them as righteous friends.

Today. Whatever you care, whatever your longing, whatever miracle, for

what you hope, be certain that your heart is soft and open to the

one who made you. And furthermore, they fulfilled their duty. Zacariah was

a priest. He was born of a priestly tribe. Every male descended from

Levi in the Old Testament was considered to be a qualified priest. But over

time, over generations, there were many more male descendants of Levi And than

could have be accommodated at a single temple, and so during the reign of

King David, they were divided into twenty four divisions, and even then there

were more than could actually get the nod. But he Zechariah was a part

of a particular division of Abaja, and as he was his number came up.

His division was going to have a chance. In the long course of

the year, fifty two weeks a year, they're working in the Temple of

God. They're managing the worship of God in this sacred space, and Zachariah,

in this the second Temple period, Zachariah's team gets the nod to step

up and actually manage the temple and then, even more remarkably, Zechariah is

chosen by lot to go inside to the holy place of the Temple, a

place to which very few people would ever access. We cannot know for certain,

but it's likely that someone in Zechariah's station would only have one chance in

a whole lifetime to go through the great sacred gates into that most holy part

of the temple, just outside the veil that separated the Holy Room into two,

from the holiest place to the ante room where the incense was burned,

and it was his responsibility to do it. He might have said, I'm

not doing it. I'm angry at God. I'm not going to church this

Sunday because, you know what, he just doesn't show up for me.

I've had a heart cry for years. My wife and I have been praying

for so long. I'm not doing this job anymore. It just doesn't satisfy

me. How can I know that it's even true? Because things have not

worked out like I designed it to be. You see, there's a lot

of that going on in our world. It even happens in our churches.

But he was faithful, he was true, he was responsible, and he

went in and he did his job. He bloomed where he was planted.

He took what he had and did what he could. And as he was

being faithful in the extraordinary and yet at the same time ordinary course of a

levite's life, an angel appeared. The altar of incense was just on one

side of the veil, the veil famously rented too at the crucifixion of Christ,

and there was an altar there where incest was born was burned all through

the day. There were two moments during the day, one at nine am

and one at three pm where a priest would go in and tend to this

burning incense. We're not sure if he was in the morning set or the

evening set, but because there was a crowd outside praying, most scholars have

interpreted that it was probably the three o'clock assignment. He's there in the afternoon

and as he is, he's doing his job. He's just doing what he

should. Oh, but let's not mistake he was doing it in the house

of God, and there appeared an angel that startled him. He was shaken

by it. The appearance of this angel is the first evidence that a miracles

in store. The appearance of an angel at any time helps us understand that

there's just a very thin membrane between our material and physical universe and the spiritual

one. We don't think about this, and this often blocks our access to

miracles, in that we are so preoccupied with the material and physical that we

are not conscious that we are walking in the midst of also a spiritual reality.

I am mystical enough to believe that there are angels about us right now

in this room. Every night, before I sleep, I ask God to

post angels on the four corners of my house to protect my house while I

am asleep and cannot be alert. Angels are the evidence of God's mystery working

among us. The scripture is replete with illustrations. If you read your Bible

storybook, you'll see them from start to finish. If you deep into theology,

you'll understand that angels are the messengers of God. In the Old Testament

through which I've been reading this year, God refers to himself most often as

the Lord God of Heaven's armies. What's that Heaven's armies are those legions of

angels that are in the unseen realm, but they're always nearby the thin thin

wall. Maybe you've seen that wall break down between your material and chronological moment

into eternity, maybe at the passing of someone. Hell dear, my mother

passed away three years ago. I was with her. I didn't expect her

to die as I was in her company, but she did, and I

experienced in a palpable way the union of the physical and the material as my

mother moved from one dimension to the next right before my eyes. I'm here

to tell you they're angels at work right now around you, in your car,

at keystone of the crossing of the mall, on the highway, in

your front yard, in your garage, in your house. You may not

think it, you're not conscious of it. But I'm telling you, if

your heart is open and you will surrender to Christ as Lord, as you

give yourself to God, he will send his angels and he will govern you.

I pray every night that God will post his angels not just around my

house, but around my four sons, their wives, my grandchildren, my

wife, and I. That those angels will protect us and guard us from

the enemies. Mister physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, don't take

this for granted. Set yourself up for a miracle, and never forget that

you are in proximity to a spiritual divine that can change the course of your

material be The appearance of the Angel not only tells us that we're very close,

for the Angel disappears, we're very close, but also that God is

a plan. The reason that the Angel has appeared is because he is going

to declare to Zechariah a plan, a purpose in the mind of God that

transcends Zechariah and Elizabeth's own hopes for a child. You see, our longing

for miracles have a greater chance if we are surrendered into the will of God,

because the miracles will always take place to further the plan of God,

not our convenience. Many of the miracles for which I have fallen on my

knees to pray have really been in the end about my pleasure, my convenience.

Oh but I have seen some miracles in my life life, and the

ones most astounding and that will go with me to my grave are those when

I've seen them appear in my life, in my circumstances consequent to a larger

plan of God. Miracles happen, and they happen to further God's advancing reach

to restore and reclaim a lost world, to bring life and fullness and hope

and eternity to a people that he's created in his own image, that he

loves more than his own life itself. Ah, but the miracle in your

own life will come to pass as you surrender into the will of God.

You may not even know what the will of God is. You could not

have imagined what will be. But your longing probably is a prompt of the

Holy Spirit. If you are righteous before Him in some way mysteriously connected to

a greater cause, and you can expect a miracle then because the cause of

God will not be deterred, and you want to be a part of it.

Also, noticed this and the story that the Angel has come just now

to tell Zakariah about this miracle that's going to take place in the conceiving of

this child. Because of the timing of God, the birth of John the

Baptist is the forerunner of the coming of the Christ. The long longed for

Messiah, and first the Prophet as of old, the prophecies were clear there

would be one like Elijah that came forth. It's going to be your boys,

Zichariah, the fulfillment of your dreams is far beyond anything you could imagine.

It is greater still than anything you and Elizabeth could have hoped for.

And yes, you've waited a long time, and yes a lot of things

have happened, and all of your friends have had multiple children, and you've

been to one hundred baby showers. You just leave weeping. But your child

is going to be worth waiting for, because yours if the Elijah, the

forerunner of the Messiah, the anointed One. He's going to be so extraordinary

that many people were with joice at his birth. Jesus himself said that no

person was ever born greater than John the Baptist. In all of the history

of the human race, no one, Saint Jesus himself has been greater than

John the Baptist, Not the Apostle Paul, not Martin Luther, not Mother

Teresa, not one hundred or a thousand or a million other names you could

bring up. John the Baptist, your son's ai Criah. Your son is

going to be conceived beyond human reason, outside the course of nature. It

will be humanly conceived, this baby, but in a way that human nature

has already passed you by your wife is agent. You speak the truth zid

Cria, and you're an old man, but you will have a new life.

And proof of this will be the Holy Spirit will possess the child even

in the womb. Footnote if you'd like to speak to me about when life

begins, please do after the service. Because I was conceived out of woodlock.

I'm an Irisisan by birth. I'm a person whose life story could be

the stuff of film. I'm hoping that Ryan Gosling will play me in the

movie. But I'm here to tell you that my birth mother a deep woman

of faith who found herself in a desperate strait, who hardly even spoke English.

For she's an Irish speaker from a poor village in the west coast of

Ireland. She was taken to a doctor. I was born in nineteen fifty

two. Think of it. In nineteen fifty two. She was taken to

a doctor who said for twenty five US dollars, I will abort the baby

and you can go forward with your life. And no one will ever know.

Because in her world in those days, to conceive a child out of

woodlock would bring shame not just on herself economic dispossession, but also shame on

her whole family in the small village where she lived. I mean, there

are a hundred reasons why it made sense for her to abort me. But

she said to me in my face when I saw her for the first time

at the age of fifty eight, she said, I was terrified and didn't

know what I would do. But I knew what I would not do.

I could not end your life because I knew your life within me. The

Holy Spirit was in John the Baptist before he was conceived. That's more than

a glob of fetal cells and that purpose life. Sochariah, your child is

going to be supernaturally touched and anointed to bring them Messiah and introduce him to

the world. The Angel said, your prayers have been heard. When you're

longing for a miracle, sometimes we feel like, oh, I can't,

I can't pray. There's nothing to pray about anymore. I've just prayed and

prayed and prayed. Never give up praying. Every prayer offered by a heart

sincere and humble before God is heard. My father that adopted me, whose

name I bear don Lyon, He was as good a man as could ever

have lived. He lived righteously, but he did not even believe there was

a God. Nobody could know it. He outshined all the people who were

professing believers. He came to church and loved it, but he didn't believe

there was a God. And I didn't discover this because he was so good,

and everyone assumed because he was a church and so did I, that

he was a godly man. But then as I became a young man,

I realized in talking to him, he doesn't believe there even is a God.

And then I became a pastor, and then I became his pastor.

And then I didn't know what to do, and I started to pray,

and I made a vow that I would kneel at an altar of prayer at

the front of the church, wherever I was praying, wherever I was preaching,

whatever I was doing, I would never preach a message which I would

not get on my knees at the clothes and pray for my father's redemption,

salvation, his acknowledgment of God, and the grace of Jesus. I never

told anyone about which I was praying. I did want to compromise it,

but I promise you year after year, decade after decade. It came and

went and came and went, and I thought, it'll take a miracle from

my dad. It's just not gonna happen. And then one day, while

I was preaching at my church and Anderson up the road, my mother came

down to the front with my dad. Afterwards, I thought my mom was

praying. She was a woman of deep faith, and I just let them

be. And then someone came and said, your mother would like you to

come and pray with them, and I thought, all right, and I

came and I went to my mom and I said, Mom, what is

it. How can I help you? Just making all these asumptions. This

has to be about mom. And Dad was just helping her down because they

were aged. My father was eighty seven years old. And my mom said,

it's not about me, it's about your dad. I said, what.

I looked at Dad, and my dad's face is streaming with tears and

he's saying, I don't know, Jim, I don't even know what I'm

doing. I don't even know if this is crazy, But in my heart,

I have to surrender to God. I know, oh he must be

Never stop pray The angel says, your prayers heard and it's answered. But

oh, poor Zechariah, Zria says, I I get you. I hear

what you're saying. The words are registring, but I don't see how it

can happen. You see, Zechariah had enough faith to pray, but he

did not have enough faith to believe his prayer could be answered? Or isn't

that where we live? I can keep up pray, but I'm not sure

it makes any difference. But God's purposes are greater even than our weakness,

if our hearts are for him. And when he said, how will I

know these things to come true? The angel stands up tall. It's almost

incorporated into the text with an acclamation point. Who do you think you're talking

to? I am gabrielle. Gabriel first appears in scripture and in history in

Daniel chapter nine. Gabriel is the one who's going to announce to Mary that

she's going to conceive the Christ Child. He is the messenger of the Messiah.

Gabriel is not just some lacky angel. He's not at the back of

the crowd. He's a front bencher. He's an eighteen He said, I

am Gabriel and I come from the presence of God. Friends, do you

have something for which you're longing for a miracle? Conform your heart and surrender

it to God. Allow him to see you righteously by the work of his

son. Accept the grace and the peace and the beauty of the Lord's presence

in your life by the work of Christ on the Cross, and then pray.

Let the Lord hear your heart. Cry what is it that you need?

Whatever it is, it may seem so far fetched that it is beyond

human capacity. Exactly you need a miracle, Then be faithful where you are,

never turn your back on the discipline of serving God. And know this.

The more you do this, and the more your heart walks with God,

the more you'll come into the presence of God. And when you come

into the presence of God, just like Gabriel stands in the presence of God,

Yes you can, miracles happen, and God will move today this morning,

before you leave this room, take a deep breath and exhale out all

the doubt, all the reasons why nothing can happen on your miracle case.

Just exhale it, and then bow in the chair where you are and just

ask God to have his way in your life and to fulfill his great will

by working a miracle in your journey. And maybe there's a prompt of the

Holy Spirit in your heart right now to step forward and pray. And there

are benches at the front, nearly benches where you can pray. And I

want to suggest to you that if there's anything in you right now, if

there's anything in you that says, go kneel before me, come kneel before

me with your prayer, obey that prompt. Obey the command, just like

Psychria, and you come and kneel before God. And if you come to

this side over here, right here on my left, you're right. This

is a place for private and personal prayer. No one's going to bother you.

It's just about you. You may be prompted to pray for yourself and

a miracle in your life, or for your child, or your spouse,

or your parent, or your coworker or your neighbor, whatever it is.

You come there and no one's going to talk to you. It's just you

and God. But you are going to obey the prompt and kneel before Him.

If you come to this side a prayer partner will meet you and we'll

share your heart cry, because sometimes that's also part of what we need.

But in either case, if that prompt is in your heart, do not

set still, because here's a truth that you can stand on and take to

the bank. The devil is never going to prompt you to kneel before God.

And if there's anything in you like that, oh, just give it

over to him. Would you stand with me as we pray our Father this

morning? We thank you for the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth. We thank

you for the coming of John the baptism, most of all, for the

coming of Christ, and for the way in which He ushers us into your

presence so that we can see and know and be moved by the miraculous.

We pray Lord that there will be testimonies born war than have already come to

pass on this church family over the last weeks, and this series. May

there be even more in the week to come. On this Christmas. By

your direct and supernatural intervention. Right now, I pray that you will hold

us close and work your will miraculously in each of us. For Jesu's sake. A man