Advent 2024 - Week 2: Peace

Jesus Mighty mighty name. Amen, Amen and amen.

All right, if you got a Bible, go to Luke

chapter one. Luke chapter one. We're gonna start in verse eighteen.

Luke chapter one. I don't have a title for today.

I've just got a message. Amen, So a Luke chapter one.

We'll start in verse eighteen and pretty much stay in

Luke chapter one for most of the day to day.

Luke one.

Verse eighteen reads like this, and Zacharias said to the angel,

hold on, let me, let me, let me paint the picture.

Let me tell you what's going on. We kind of

jumped in the middle of this story, so let me

back up and give you and give you some background

on where we're reading. So Zacharias was of the tribe

of Levi. He was a priest. He is now his

time has come to serve in the temple. So he's

going and doing his temple service. He's suposed to be

and listen, God meets us where we are, come on, somebody.

He's supposed to be praying for the nation. He's supposed

to be carrying out worship unto the Lord.

But somewhere along the way.

He decides that he's going to pray for hisself while

he's come on somebody. You know, that moment of opportunity,

he probably felt the presence of the Lord.

So he slides.

In his own personal prayer request there and he says, hey,

you know, i'd love to have a kid. I don't

have a kid. I'd love to have a kid. And anyway,

let me get back to what I'm supposed to be doing.

And that's where we pick up reading in verse eighteen.

So Zacharyce he's doing his his temple duty and he's

been praying. In verse eighteen, it says, and Zacharias said

to the angel, how shall I know this? So an

angel has shown up and said, Zacharias, I heard your prayer.

I know you're supposed to be doing something else, but.

I heard your prayer.

And you're gonna have a son. You're gonna God has

heard you. He's granting your wish. You're gonna have a son.

Now. I don't know about you, but uh, but.

Usually when I pray, and every single time I've prayed,

and God has dispatched an angel to manifest in front

of me and tell me that God heard my prayer.

I mean every single time this has happened in my life,

I've had a response of thank you Lord, just because

that's you know, that's that's a pretty special thing when

an angel shows.

Up and looks.

At you and says, hey, God heard you pray. Okay, First,

that's never happened to me.

Y'all.

Y'all are looking at me like, how often does that happen?

Pastor I'm being funny? Come on now, it's it's Christmas.

We don't lose our sense of humor just because we're

in the holidays.

Amen, So that never happened to be. I wish you had.

I pray every I pray two things I want. I

want an angel to talk to me, and I want

to dream about heaven. Those are the two things I've

asked God for. These never seemed to do. And I

think if I ever dreamed about heaven, I just won't

wake up. I'll just stay asleep. So he doesn't let

me do that.

Amen.

So he says you're gonna have a baby, And this

is how verse eighteen starts.

World.

Now he asked for it. Remember, as Zachariah said to

the angel, how shall I know this? For I'm an

old man? And my wife is well advanced in years.

So he just said, I want to have a kid.

The angel says, okay, and now he starts making excuses

of why it shouldn't happen. So maybe he didn't really

want what he asked for. I don't know all the

parents here. There's those days, right, there's those days where

you're like what some times I wonder? And the Angel

answered and said to him, I'm Gabriel, who stands in

the presence of God and was sent to speak to.

You and bring you these glad tidings.

But behold, you will be mute and not able to

speak until the day these things take place, because you

did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in

their own time. And the people waited for Zacharias and

marvel that he lingered so long in the temple, but

when he came out, he could not speak to them,

and they perceived he had seen a vision in the temple,

for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. Father, we

thank you for your word. It is the only change

agent on the.

Face of the planet.

And today I pray that you change us at the

very fabric of our.

Being changes.

Mold us and shape us to look more like you

and less like us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So Gabriel shows up, he gives this incredible news. He says, okay,

here's the promise, here's the blessing.

Now. Of course, Zacharies didn't know who.

His baby was gonna be, but he wanted the son,

and the Lord blesses him, and he starts immediately, he

starts speaking doubt to the promise. So, how many of

you understand that words have power and that our words

set the atmosphere that we operate in. If you wake

up every day and you tell yourself you're a loser,

guess what you're gonna be. If you'd wake up every

day and you tell yourself, hey, I'm an overcomer, guess

what you're gonna be because your words have power to

build an atmosphere around your life. And Gabriel picked up

on it's pretty quick. Gabriel's a pretty sharp angel, and

he says, Okay, this is what we're gonna do.

Just be quiet.

Just be quiet. You're not gonna talk, because after all,

I mean, if you go home and start talking, you're

probably not ever gonna have a chance to have a

baby anyway, because she don't like it when you talk anyway,

So just be mute and maybe y'all can get along

long enough to have a baby.

So you stop.

And from then on there was not one word of

doubt that came out of Zachariah's mouth. Because God desired

for the promise to happen. God desires for the promise

in your life to happen. God has a purpose for

you that's bigger than your situation and your circumstance. God's

purpose for you is so much larger than you could

ever imagine or think.

It so big that often it scares.

Us and we start explaining why we're not able to

achieve what God has called us to. You know, when

God begins to speak to me, a lot of times,

my go to is God, we don't have enough money

for that. Immediately when God starts speaking, I'm like, you

know our budget, God, you have I show you the

financial statement every month. I get along and I say

I get along with you God. I say, God, look

at this. Can you not add zero somewhere before the

decimal point? And God just keeps speaking and I keep

explaining why we can't do it, And God keeps speaking,

and I try to explain why we can't do it.

That's my go to, but yours may be something else.

See your go to doubt. Maybe well, I'm not smart enough,

I'm not strong enough.

I'm not I'm.

Not that, I'm not educated enough. I don't know how,

I don't this, I don't that, I don't know the

people I don't know.

And we all have our reasons. We all have our

words that we.

Use to explain away what God's trying to do in

our lives. Every single one of us have our go

to reflexive doubt mechanism, and we need to somehow move

our reflexive doubt mechanism into a reflexive faith mechanism that

when God speaks, we realize that, well, God, if you

said it, it.

Has to happen.

God, if you desire it and you're guiding, you will provide.

And Zacharias goes home and obviously he bought in enough

because his wife got pregnant. Now I want to pick

up where we meet Elizabeth. Now in between these times,

I want to I want to make sure that that

that you understand.

Uh. The Angel has.

Shown up to Mary and says Mary you're gonna have

a son. You're gonna the power of the Holy Spirit

is gonna overshadow you. You're you're gonna give birth to Uh,

to the Son and Manuel God with us, with your

name him, Jesus. That's that, that's gonna happen. And she's like, no, no, no, no,

can't happen. I've never see. She had a different excuse.

She wasn't too old. She thought she was too young

because I no, yeah, it's it's it's it's gonna happen.

He chose you, You found favor in his eyes. He

chose you.

So the power of the the Almighty overshadowed her, and

she becomes pregnant with the child Jesus, my Savior, my friend,

my Lord, my brother.

Jesus.

Then the angel tells her, hey, you know your cousin Elizabeth.

I like this because every bodyble says.

Elizabeth in her great age has conceived a child. See,

she wasn't a spring chicken either. And then the verse

thirty nine, it says, now Mary arose in those days

and went into the hill country with haste to a

city of Judah, and entered the house of Psycharias and

greeted Elizabeth, and it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting

of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb and

Elizabeth was.

Filled with the whole spirit. Then she spoke out with

a loud voice.

And said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is

the fruit of your womb. So for six months now

we know this because earlier it tells us that Mary

has been with child for six months. She's she's been

pregnant for six months. She's she hasn't felt the baby

move for six months. She's been pregnant. There's never been movement.

And listen, I'm not a lady, but I know enough

to know that you fill the baby within the first

six months. There's at least some bubbling going on. Come on, now,

she's starting to get bigger. She's starting to show, because

you can't hide God's plan in God's miracle. See, when

God starts to work, people start to notice, even if

you don't want them to. So she starts staying at

home because it's embarrassing.

This this uh, this.

Senior saint can't be walking down the street with her

blessing showing. Come on, somebody, because what are people gonna

say if if I'm out there.

And and it's me and and people.

Are gonna think strange things if if I start showing

my blessing. So I'm gonna keep my blessing hidden. I'm

gonna keep my purpose at home behind closed doors because

my purpose is embarrassing.

How many of you.

Have something on the inside of you that God put there,

but you have been hiding it away because you're too

embarrassed to reveal it. You started trying to explain it away,

and when you quit talking about it, it started happening.

And now you find yourself pregnant with this blessing and

it's not quite what it should be. It doesn't quite

have life. So you're trying to hide it because you.

Don't want people to know.

Because if people know, people are gonna start talking, and

people are gonna start showing up, and people are gonna

want to start giving you a baby shop. Come on, somebody,

do you know that if you would just let people

know what's happening in you, the purpose that you're pregnant with,

they may want to have you a baby shower. The

resources you're looking for may already be there, and people

want to bring them to you. But because you're showing

and you don't want anybody to see, you're hiding it

away so that they can't. But the very thing you need,

the diapers for your new purpose, are on the way,

but nobody can see it, so they don't know to

bring it because.

Good.

And then a big holy ghost monkey Rich gets thrown

into the equation because Elizabeth thought she had this thing

under control. She thought, no, I'm managing. I know I'm

getting bigger, but I think I'm just eating too much.

And then Mary shows up, pregnant with Jesus. When purpose.

And presence.

Get in the room together, something happens. When purpose in

presents meet, a shaking begins to happen. And the Bible

says that Mary knocked on the door, and when Elizabeth

opened the door, the presence in her shook the purpose

in her, and that baby began to leap inside the womb,

and there was life where there was only a little

bit of visibility. That suddenly there was movement where just

before there had been a little extra weight. That thing

that you've been carrying needs to be put in the

presence of the presence. So Mary comes and she says, hey,

I'm here, Elizabeth says.

Wow, my baby jumped.

This thing that's been dormant for six months is beginning

to move and turn and make some noise.

And I don't really know how to feel. Makes me.

Listen, when God gets a hold of you, you don't

act like you used to act. You don't stand like

you used to stay before your life.

And then and then you start saying, crazy thing. Listen,

my wife.

My wife was like four days pregnant, and she's like,

I'm ready for this day to be born.

Because the purpose doesn't belong in us. It belongs to

the world.

See, the purpose doesn't stay in us. The purpose is

for everybody else. The purpose is to bless other people.

Because that baby that was on the inside of Elizabeth

was the forerunner of Jesus and the purpose, and the

baby on the inside of you is the forerunner of Jesus. See,

your purpose opens the door for other people to hear

and see Jesus.

See this purpose is the purpose. That Jesus came down

to the river and.

Her purpose was standing in the water, and he walked

out and the very first supernatural experience was seen where

he baptized him. The father spoke and the Holy Spirit

descended like a dove, and he said, this is my son.

And whom I'm well please, and they all.

Went Because purpose has power, and right now, one of

the biggest things the church is missing is power. We

don't have power because we don't have purpose. We want blessing,

but we don't want purpose. We want help, but we

don't want to be positioned to be the helper. I thought,

when y'all woke up this morning, you wanted to come

to church. See what we want is we want God

to do something that's that's really really fun and exciting,

but we don't want to have to change diapers. It's

kind of like we want to be grandparents, not parents.

Come on, somebody we want to be able to. We

want we want them to come over. We want to

spoil them, but then we want to send them home

when the stinky starts. But your purpose is stinky. Your

purpose is work. You don't just suddenly walk up to

the Hallelujah sliding doors of heaven and they swing open

and the angel chorus sings.

On, Heelujah, your purpose it's here. Now.

There's work, there's travail, there's pushing, there's blood, there's sacrifice.

There's pain.

All of those things come with purpose, and God is

looking for a church that wants to express purpose, not blessing,

because purpose.

Changes the world.

Purpose looks at the world and says, listen, you need

to repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

That's what purpose does. And in this little house.

In the middle of the hill country, you know, just

a little mountain cabin, a collision of purpose that echoes

through eternity happened. And if God would bring a collision

of purpose there, how much greater will he do it

at your house? How much more in the day that

we live, where there are now more people alive on

the planet right now than ever in the history of creation.

Why then, but not now?

When God has leveraged technology so that even though there's

more people, the world is smaller and easier to reach

than it ever has been before.

Why then, but not now?

When God has populated people into towns and cities and

those population centers are right there, and that they're easier

to reach than ever before. Young people, look at me,

if you're in school, look at me.

You have bought into the lie.

That because there's no prayer in school Jesus can't be

in your school. But I want to tell you, if

you're praying in school, nobody took prayer out of school.

They can't stop you from praying. They can't stop you

from leading, they can't stop you from sharing your faith.

They can't stop that. Put prayer back in school. You

have a captive audience for eight hours a day.

They can't leave. So leverage it for Jesus.

Leverage your life for Jesus, and stop I'm searching for

the next thing he'll do for you, and start searching

for the next thing you can do for somebody else.

Because receiving a blessing is the lowest form of the

Christian experience.

Any U listen, I'm gonna say something I know none

of y'all. I'm gonna say dummy.

In just a second, Okay, of course, I'm not talking

to anybody in this room. Any dummy can get a blessing.

You just say Jesus, I can't do it, and then

he does it for you.

He blesses you.

But it takes someone serious about the kingdom to be

a blessing. It takes someone serious about the Kingdom to

not just buy somebody lunch but buy somebody lunch and

explain to them why Jesus provided the resources for you

to buy their lunch so that he create so that

he could create this king connection, so that you could

be sitting at this table at the same time. Because

their soul is too important, and you cannot allow them

to die and go to hell, because hell is a

place that they'll never be redeemed from, and their only

chance is right now over.

This chicken sandwich.

And if they'll just pray with you and receive Jesus

as their savior, they can have the same kind of

purpose that you have. If you're trying to do life

by yourself, Clay, you guys can come and get ready.

If you're trying to do life by yourself and you're

not hanging out with people that make your baby jump,

come on now, you're going to live a purposeless life,

you know.

Uh One of the reasons that uh.

I mentioned that we were gonna go up and and

spend time with a with a pastor. You know, there's

just something about Pastor Derek. Even though I'm coming, you know,

I'm going to speak to his staff and do some

of those things, But when I'm around Pastor Derek.

He makes my baby jump.

See, he's just he's just, I don't know, crazy enough

to believe that Jesus still does.

What he says he'll do. And that excites me.

That excites me that he believes that when he praised,

people get healed.

You know, if.

If you're hanging around with people that that don't make

your baby jump, you need to make some new friends.

Some people that that pull the greatness out of you,

some people that that that that that inspire you, some

people that that that activate what's on the inside of you,

the purpose that's on the inside of you. God has

strategic people around and you need to allow those people

into your life. You need to allow them to speak

into your life and you need to speak into their life,

and you need to do life together. That's why groups

are so important. And you walk around and you go

and you find a group and you plug into a group.

And do you find a group of people that make

your baby jump?

Not that occupies an hour and a half one night

a week, but somebody that taps into the purpose that's

on the inside of you until it begins to shake

and you can't deny anymore that God is doing something

on the inside of me.

See, the Bible says that greater is he who is

in you.

Than he who is in the world. Now, let me

phrase that. We often pastor Clay when we quote that scripture.

Usually we quote that in the context of the enemies

like trying to beat me up, right, But greater is

he who is in me that he's in the world.

But I don't believe that's the totality of what it says,

because it's not just about protection. Do you realize we

as believe, we as believers, we've assumed a defensive posture

for most of our lives. Oh, when the enemy comes

in like a fluster, the Lord lift up a standard

against him. Greater So he was in me and who's

in the world, it's all defensive. It's all defensive. The

purpose that's in you is greater than anything the world

has ever seen. The dreams and the ideas and the

purpose that are on the inside of you are bigger

than anything that's been dreamt and created on the face

of the planet.

And it's alive in you.

And the difference between what's in the world and what's

in you. As the world points people to worldly things,

but the purpose in you will point people to Jesus

as Lord and Savior and how great he is.

So stop letting the world.

Dream the biggest dreams and build the biggest companies.

And make the greatest discoveries. You do it because time

is getting short.

Look at me, time is getting short. We don't have

as long on this planet as we used to have.

Now.

Jesus may not come back. Glenn and I were talking

about it earlier. Jesus may not come back in my lifetime.

I would be shocked if he doesn't come back, give

my kid's lifetime.

But I believe he may come tomorrow.

As a matter of fact, I'm watching the sky pretty

close every single day because I don't want him to

slip up on me. Come on, somebody. I don't want

to have my back turning.

I don't want that.

That's not my first the first impression I want to make.

I want to be looking right down the barrel of

the horn.

And when he says do do do do? I try

and say I told you so, I'm out.

But you know what, there's a lot of people that

when that horn blows, there's gonna be in bad shape.

And when we stand before the Lord, if.

We say, Jesus, I'm so happy to see you.

Listen to me. I'm so happy to see you. Thank

you for saving me. Thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you.

He's gonna look say, hey, what about that purpose I

put on the inside of you? What about those dreams

I put on the inside of you that were supposed.

To reach multitudes? Where are the multitudes?

Oh well, you know for me to get for me

to get a business license, it was gonna cost seventeen

dollars and thirty seven cents, and oh well, I would

have had to not go to Starbucks one day.

And after all, I mean, I need caffeine.

When we stand before Jesus, we will give an account

for all that we did and all that we were

supposed to do. And I want you to be an overachiever.

I want you Jesus to look at you and say, whoa, Jeremy.

I mean, I know what I called you to do,

but you brought some others with you. Good job, man,

Well done, my good and faithful servant, Terry. I mean,

you know, I had big dreams, I had big hopes

for you.

But whoa. You blew me away?

Man, You blew me away because I didn't realize how

fast you were going to grab hold of purpose and

run with it. When I stand before Heaven, I want

Jesus to look at me and say.

Steve, you were adequate quo. But those people you pastored,

they went above and beyond.

They they went above and beyond. And because they did

so good, well, I think I'm gonna let you in,

not just kidding, because.

They did so, because they.

Overachieved at such a high level.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Purpose Purpose, Purpose is life and life more abundant. Everybody's

staying with me. You know, it's possible that you're here today.

The alter team will come and get ready. It's possible

that you're here today and you've never asked Jesus to

forgive you of your sins to be the Lord your life.

It's possible you're here today.

You know, sometime a long time ago, you prayed that prayer.

But things are not right between you and the Lord.

But you don't have to leave that way.

In just a moment, I'm gonna count to three.

And if you're here and you know you've got sin

in your life, you.

Need to make those things right between you and Jesus.

When I count to three, you're gonna step out. You're

gonna make your way. You're gonna find one of these people.

They're gonna pray with you. You know, Jeremy, we don't.

We don't expect anybody here to be perfect to do it.

We've all had our share of junk. God still uses us.

Don't allow shame to rob you of the miracle of

restoration today. So if you're here today when I count

to three, if you've never asked Jesus to be your.

Savor, or you want to.

Repent of sin, make things right between you and him.

When I count to three, I want you to step

out and make you way the front. Or if you're

here today and you say, hey, I'm ready to grab purpose.

I don't want to just exist. I don't want to

just coast. I want to go all in.

For Jesus. My baby's jumping and I'm ready to give birth.

I want it to happen because I'm ready to get

busy about the father's business.

So ask you when I count to three, you come to.

Soon. As that count to three, the band's gonna sing.

These amazing men and women of God are gonna pray

for you. We're gonna see miracles happen. People are gonna

give their lives to Jesus be saved, and then they're

gonna come next week and get baptized.

What a day.

It's on the count of three. Don't look to see

if somebody else is moving.

You take the first step.

One, two, three, step out and move right now. Come on,

come on, amen, amen, come on, come on, come on,

come on.

Don't s