Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Certainty Brings Confidence - Luke 1:56-66

We've been in a series going through the Book of Luke, and it's called

Luke the Orderly Account of Truth. We're going straight through the whole Book of

Luke, and it's awesome because sometimes when we jump around and do some topical

teaching, you miss a lot of stuff that God's saying in the Bible.

So this gives us a chance not to skip anything and go through every verse

going through the Book of Luke. And it's been awesome because when we've been

learning a ton already and we're still in the first chapter. But Luke investigated

and wrote an orderly account so that the awful us would have certainty about the

things he'd been taught. So he would have certainty about those things, so

he would know the exact truth about everything that he had been told. That

is why the Book of Luke was written. So let's look at the first

first four verses. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things

that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us

by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With

this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,

I too, decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent,

Theofelous, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been

taught. So everything that we're talking about in the book of Luke, or

everything that Luke is talking about in his book, is to help Theofelous understand

and know with certainty the things that he's been taught about, the things that

were fulfilled among them. And very specifically, we know this from acts,

the things that Jesus did and the things that Jesus taught. That's what Luke

wants the awful us to have certainty about. But the beautiful part about this

is we also get to have some certainty in that, don't we because we're

reading the same account. So we can have certainty in the same way that

Luke is intending for Theoffulas to have certainty. And last week Pastor Jordan he

got to talk about when Mary visited Elizabeth after getting the news that she was

going to birth the Sun of the Most High. Now that's some interesting news,

right to be told you're going to birth the Sun of the Most High.

And then Mary breaks out into this beautiful song glorifying God and his Goodness.

So today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna pick up right where

Pastor Jordan left off, and we're gonna be in chapter one, starting in

verse fifty six. So if you have your Bible so you can start turning

there. If you don't have a Bible, we have some on the back

table back there, please grab one, take it. If you don't own

a Bible, keep it. We want that to be our gift to you

because we love God's Word and we want you to have it. But before

we get any of that, let's pray God. We thank you. We

thank you for tonight. We thank you for this moment to just put a

pause on life and focus in on You and your word. God. As

we go through the Book of Luke, we pray that we have open ears

and open eyes and open hearts to see and hear and receive everything that you

have for us today. God, as we open up your word, that

it speaks life into us. God. It challenges us where we need to

be challenged, It encourages us where we need to be encouraged, and it

brings life to the dead parts of us and also gets rid of the things

in us that doesn't need to be there. So God, we just submit

to you and give you all permission and authority to do what you will tonight

as we go through your words. Any of the words that I say tonight

that are not yours, please let them fall in death ears. Let the

only words that are heard be your words tonight. Thank you for all this

and the name of Jesus. Everybody said a men, have you ever been

to corn Mas? Who went to Cormes this year? This past season?

We like them so much? A buch of two of them. Apparently I

do enjoy corn Mas as they are a lot of fun because we have I

don't know, we got like three of them, I think locally, so

we did two, three or four. I can't remember. There's three or

four. There's definitely three, and we did two of them. But my

personal favorites are the ones where you get to go in and you have like

a like a mission to accomplish, Like you have the checkpoints. You guys

what I'm talking about. You got to find all the spots or find all

the facts. Yeah, apparently my youngest loves them as well. We want

to have as it's also fun to just run in there and get completely lost,

right, and then try to find your way out. That's one too,

But I like to have a mission or an objective while we're there,

objective while we're there. But have you ever gone in and followed someone in

the corn maze who had no clue where they were going, had no clue

where they were Every time they came to a fork in the road, they're

like, well, they're like looking down, which everyone looks less foggy.

They're like, let's go that way, just kidding because it's a little scary.

Sometimes No, they're like, if we go left at the fork in

the road, I don't know, this might get us more lost, but

it might get us closer to our our objective. But there's zero certainty or

zero confidence, right, there's no confidence. But what if you were following

someone who knew exactly where they were going? What is that person like they

know they come up to the fork in the road, They're like, I

know that if we take a left, I know exactly where're at. I

know where it's gonna take U. That's going to get as closer to our

objective. It's gonna help us go where we want to go. I also

had a joke in here, like wives don't elbow your husbands and they say

they know where they're they have no idea, because sometimes that's the case.

But when you follow someone who knows where they're going, they have complete confidence.

They have confidence in where they're going. There's no question when they come

to a fork in the road which is the right way to go, they

know exactly how to get to the end. But what's my point, And

my point is also why am I saying this? My point is this title

of the message, Certainty brings confidence. Certainty brings confidence when you are certain

which way to go, it makes you confident in how you walk through the

maze. Right now, this isn't an exclusively biblical truth. This is just

a general truth. But we all know this to be true that when we

are certain about something, we have a level of confidence that cannot exist if

we are uncertain. Uncertain this level of confidence that we just hold. But

certainty doesn't just come out of thin air, does it not. Usually there's

usually something that gives a certainty. There's always a reason that we are so

certain. So what makes the person in the corn maze so certain? How

do they know exactly where they are? And exactly which way they should go.

Well, if you guys, notice when you walk into the pumpkin patch

of the farm and they hand you this little pamphlet, you know, the

one that you almost immediately throw in the garbage. If you open that bad

boy up, usually there's a map inside there. They have a map that

will show them exactly where to go. I mean some of the new ones

are now like GPS based. I don't know if you guys did that one

this year. You pull out your phone, you take a picture of the

QR code, it gives you the map and show that's cheating. Don't do

that. Got to use the old school map. But there's something that gives

the person certainty. They have a map to get through the maze. It's

not just coming out of thin air. The reason they can move forward in

confidence and know for a certainty, with certainty where they are is because they

have the map. And my argument today, and what I think will find

in our text today, is that God gave Zachariah Eliza or Zechariah Elizabeth and

everyone around them exactly what they needed to be confident about his plan, and

it brought them confidence to move forward. That's my argument. Today. Okay,

I gave you an eternity to turn to the text. You guys are

there, Yeah, Okay, we're gonna go. Luke Chapter one, verses

fifty six through sixty six. You're there, sweet chill, he's there.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. When it

was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.

Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy,

and they shared her joy. On the eighth day, they came to circumcise

the child, and they were going to name him after his father, Zechariah,

but his mother spoke up and said, no, he is to be

called on. They said to her, there's no one among your relatives who

has that name. Then they made signs to his father to find out what

he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet,

and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, his name is John. Immediately his

mouth was opened and his tongue was set free, and he began to speak,

praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the

hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard

this wondered about it, asking, what then is this child going to be?

For the Lord's hand was with him. The time is finally here,

John, the baptizer is finally born. It's been a long nine months for

Zechariah. Can you imagine not being able to speak for nine months? It's

a miracle. All my verbal processors and external communicators are having a panic attack

right now just picturing it or imagining it, nine plus months without being able

to speak. But where And we're gonna break down these verses and we're gonna

see what's kind of going on here. So let's go right back to verse

fifty six and read it. And I said, pregnant ladies unite. Mary

stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Right, So

she sang her song, stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, and now

she's returning home. If Gabriel told Elizabeth that or told Mary that Elizabeth was

in her sixth month, and then she traveled to see her and stay with

her three months, I'm not really good at math, but that's nine months.

How long does it take to grow a baby? Or write? About

nine months? Right? So maybe Mary was there for the birth of John

the Baptists. But the Bible isn't super clear that she's with evidence clear saying

that she was there, so we can't say for certain she was, but

she could have been right. She might have been there, maybe she wasn't.

But either way, she stayed for three months and then she returned home.

And now it's time for John to be born. Let's keep reading.

In verse fifty seven, when it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby,

she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the

Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. Elizabeth gives

birth to a son, and this is fulfilling what God had said would happen

through the angel Gabriel. You guys, remember what he said back in verse

thirteen. He said, your prayer has been heard. Don't freak out.

It's not on the screen yet. I'm just gonna read it from my notes.

Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,

and you are to call him John. But that's not all that he

said. That's not the only thing Gabriel said to Zechariah. He also said

that he will be a joy and a delight to you, and many will

rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of

the Lord. So we see something a little bit deeper or more being fulfilled.

This promise is being fulfilled exactly the way God said it would be fulfilled.

Elizabeth did indeed have a son. We see that here, and even

in his birth, he's already bringing joy to her, the parents and those

around those around them. He's already bringing joy. He's a great joy to

those around So God's word always comes to pass, always comes to pass.

But why does this matter? Like, what do I actually want you to

understand from this? It's this big point. We can trust what God says

because his word is always true. We can trust what God says because his

word is always true. We are given countless examples all throughout the Bible of

this being true, all these examples of times where his word came to pass.

His plans never ever fail. When he says something's going to happen,

guess what it happens, and it happens the way he said it was going

to happen. So we can have complete and full confidence in his word because

He's proven that it is true and it will happen the way that he said

it was going to happen. We can have this confidence, and as we

continue reading in Luke, we're gonna see it happen over and over and over

again. The fact that one prophecy would be fulfilled is bananas. But when

you look at scripture and see that every single one was fulfilled, what are

the odds of that impossible? I'll tell you. Only God can make that

happen. That every single prophecy comes to fulfillment or comes to pass, it's

amazing. So let's keep looking. In verse fifty nine, on the eighth

day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name

him after his father, Zechariah. Okay, so why the eighth day?

Why circumcision? And this goes all the way back to God's covenant that he

made with Abraham back in Genesis seventeen. This was the sign of the covenant

that he'd made with oldes Rita. It's in Genesis seventeen, verse ten.

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you. This is God

speaking to Abraham the covenant. You are to keep every male among you shall

be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign

of the covenant between me and you for the generations to come. Every male

among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in

your household or bought with money from a foreigner. Those who are not your

offspring, whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must

be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.

Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh will be cut off

from his people. He has broken my covenant. So you see how serious

God took this sign of his covenant with Abraham. And because John was born

under the covenant, his family would keep the laws of God by performing the

comcision and naming the baby on the eighth day. And not to get into

too much of it today, but we'll just kind of touch on it now.

God uses the sign of baptism or baptism as the sign of the new

covenant with him. It's a circumcision of the heart, is how he puts

it, rather than a circumcision of the flesh like we just read, and

we get baptized as this outward sign of his covenant that we have with him,

of this inward work that he's done in our lives. And we got

to celebrate a couple of those last week. It was awesome. Danny knows

what's up. Where's India and he's running the screens up there. Give it

up for both Danny and India. That's amazing. So we got to celebrate

baptism the sign of the New Covenant. See, I guess we did get

into it a little bit. Let's get back to the text. Okay,

we're gonna look back at verses fifty nine through sixty three. On the eighth

day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name

him after his father, Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said,

no, he is to be called John. They said to her, there

is no one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs

to his father to find out what he would like to name the child.

He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote,

his name is John. So as they go to name the baby, they're

trying to do what they normally do and name him after the father they wanted

to name him Zechariah, but Elizabeth tells them no. And why did she

tell him no? Because he's already got a name. He's already got a

name. His name's John, That's what his name is. And how did

they respond? How do the people around him respond, It's not how we

do things around here. That's not how this works. You have no relatives

among you that are named that. Who is this they it's their relatives.

It's those who are around when he was born. Those are the ones who

are saying, that's not how we do things around here. But sometimes God's

plans and commands go against the grain of what's normal. Right. We see

that often they go against how we do things around here. And this is

kind of a big a side note, but kind of a big side note

that the world and cultural will say that all kinds of things are right,

like do this because this is what's right. But if it's contrary to what

God has stated, the world and culture are wrong. God sets the standard.

He's the creator, He created all things. He created how things are

to be, and the one who creates them gets to decide. I use

this silly example with my boys. Jackson will remember this one well maybe Grayson.

Two. When they build stuff out of legos, I don't get to

tell them what they built and what it is, because they're the creators.

He loves legos. They create some I'm like, bro, that looks like

a plane. He's like, no, it's a boat with wings. I'm

like, you're the one who made it. You get to decide what it

is. The creator gets to decide. And if the world says something contrary

to that, who's right, who's wrong? The world is wrong? God

is right. We always side with the creator. But here in the text

we see Elizabeth as pushing back and letting everybody know that the boy's name is

John. Even if there isn't a relative within one hundred generations, his name

is John. So let's look back at verse sixty two. Then they made

signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child.

He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote,

his name is John. People might have been thinking that, well,

hey, this is Elizabeth has taking some crazy pills. We better ask Zachariah

what to name the child. So they asked Zechariah what he wants to name

the baby, and by the way. This is where we get the idea

that maybe he wasn't just mute, maybe he was also deaf, because it

says then they made signs to his father. Why would they make signs if

he could hear, they would say, hey, what do you want to

name the kid? So there's reason to believe that he might have not just

been mute but also death at the same time. But when they asked him,

what was his response. His name is John, that was his response.

That's what he wrote on the tablet. His name is John. This

is the confidence in that. There's no like, that's just straight up confidence.

His name's John. He was certain of what the boy's name was.

It wasn't hey, we want to name him this, or it might be

cool if his name was this. No, his name is John. Mike

drop boom, mic drop. That's it. He knew what the child's name

was. There was no question about it. There was no other options.

This is what his name is, and let's look at what happens next.

Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to

speak, praising God. This is what happened right after he named the sun

the angel Gabriel said that Elizabeth was gonna bear a son and that they were

to name him John. And because of Zacharaia's doubt in God's word or of

God's word through the angel Gabriel, he was unable to speak until the day

it happened. So it wasn't just they was unable to speak until John was

born or until the baby boy was born. No, it was until the

son was born and he was named John. Can you imagine what Zachari was

thinking when John was born. He's like, why can't I speak yet?

Like freaking out a little bit. It's like, the kid's there. I

thought, I wasn't able to speak until the child was born. And I

wonder if he figured it out before the eight days or not. If it

took him eight days and all of a sudden, it was just like a

complete surprise when they named him John and then he could speak. I don't

know, it's just fun to wonder. I wonder what I would do.

I don't know. But John was born, they told everyone what his name

was, and then Zachari Zachariah was able to speak again. And before we

get into exactly what he said, when his tongue was loosed. I want

to point out one more thing. I want to point out that it was

through Zechariah's obedience to God that made it so that they could speak again.

It was through his obedience. So for as long as he pushed against God's

plan or walked in disobedience, he would have remained a mute. At least

that's the inference we get from scripture. He would remain a mute. And

up until this point he had zero reason not to believe the message that Gabriel

brought to him. Everything happened that God said would happen in exactly the same

way that God said it was going to happen. But it's through his obedience

that God has given him a greater what I think is an even greater gift

in the ability to speak. What God gave him through his obedience was more

confirmation and confidence in God's word and in God's plan. He gave him certainty

that what God was saying was the plan that was going to come to that

was going to come to fru. God is showing Zachariah that he can trust

him and his words, and he confirmed it through the sign that he said

of what he said was going to happen. The child will be born.

You will name him John, and until this day you'll be unable to speak.

So God gave him not only just his voice back and maybe even his

hearing back, but gave him confidence and certainty in his plan. When we

walk in obedience to God's commands, we get the same thing. We get

the same thing. We are given confidence that we can trust him because he

always follows through on his promises. Another way, we could say it is

like this, obedience to God lets us experience the blessing of his promises.

Obedience to God lets us experience the blessing of his promises. God has a

lot of promises to his children. You don't believe me star reading your Bible,

They're all in there. He has a lot of promises to his children.

And it's when we walk in obedience to what he commands and we actually

get to experience the blessings of those promises. We get to experience him following

through on his word. And Zechariah obeyed what the Lord told him to do,

and he got to experience the promise that he made specifically to him.

And what was the first thing he did when the promise came true's Look at

verse sixty four again. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free.

There's the promise, and he began to speak praising God. That's what

Zechariah did when he got the promise from the Lord. He began to speak

praising God. And next week we're going to talk about exactly what he said,

because the Bible continues on to talk about what he said when he raised

his voice. But for now, I just want you to focus in on

what Zacharai's response to God following through on his promise was. When God confirmed

his plans with this sign, Zacharai's response was to raise his voice and praise

God. He started to he started publicly praising God for what he did.

To just look at the last two verses of today's text and we get to

see the result. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the

hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard

this wondered about it, asking what then is this child going to be?

For the Lord's hand was with him? What then is this child going to

be? For the Lord's hand was with him. When the relatives and neighbors

all around saw what happened. They were in awe, which oftentimes when God

does something it invokes awe. It's awe inspiring, it's sometimes mind blowing,

is kind of a way to think about it, like, oh my gosh,

I can't believe he just did that. And because of that, word

started to spread. I mean, just imagine if you saw something like this.

Think about Zechariyah goes into the temple, normal Zechariyah. Dude comes out,

unable to speak and maybe even not able to hear, and he's saying,

trying to communicate that we're gonna have a kid. Okay, Well,

nine months goes by. He's not speaking the entire time, so all as

far as as I see it, he's not playing a joke or some long

prank. He actually cannot speak for nine months. His wife has the baby,

they name him John, and all of a sudden, he speaking,

and I was praising the Lord. What do you think if you saw that,

I'd be in awe and I'd start telling everybody about it. I mean,

we live in the generation of social media, be all over the internet.

We would all be in awe. But not only were the relatives and

the people in the area in Awe and telling everybody about it. But they

were asking a very specific question. They were asking, what then is this

child going to be? What then is this child going to be? They

knew there was something different about this kid. There's something different about this boy

who they just named John, that God's hand was with him and he was

going to be someone special. And I like refreshers because I forget things easily.

So I think we should go back and read about who John is and

who he was going to be, back in verse thirteen. So let's look

at chapter one, verse thirteen. But the Angel said to him, Missus

Gabriel, speaking to Zechari, do not be afraid, Zecharai, your prayer

has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you

are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you,

and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great

in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other

for men to drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of

Israel to the Lord, their God. And he will go on before the

Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents

to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make

ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's who John is going to be.

That's what kind of child this is. John is the one that God

is sending in the spirit and power of Elijah, which by the way,

was one of the last things prophesied before the four hundred years of silence in

Israel. So the last thing said, John is the one that God sent

to make ready or to make a people prepared for the Lord. That's who

John is. He's going to bring back many of the people of Israel to

God. That's what this child is going to be. This is the answer

to their question. Can I have the band come up? Who's come up

for that? But my question is how did they confidently know that this is

the John, the one that God prophesied about. How are they certain that

this is him? And they know for certain because of what God did that

was his proof to them. He's proving it over and over and over again.

God confirmed through signs. This is exactly who he said it was.

This is the John, and it is what I said at the beginning of

today's message, I said that my argument today, and what I think we

see in the text, is that God gave Zechariah, Elizabeth and everyone around

them exactly what they needed to be certain of his plan. Why so they

could have confidence to move forward. He gave them the prophecy of having a

son who would fulfill the prophecy from Malachi. He gave the sign of Zechariah's

silence. They actually had a son. They named him what they were told

to name him, and Zachari was able to speak again. God gave them

everything they needed to be certain so they can move forward in confidence with God's

plan. And now for the big question, I think, what did Zechariah

do with that confidence? How did he respond when given all this evidence,

this proof, this confidence, a certainty. How did he respond? He

opened his mouth and publicly praised God. He told others of God's goodness.

That's what he did. Or to put it super duper clear, he spread

the good news of what God had done. He's spread the good news about

what God had done. And what does that mean for us today? I

mean, I'm kind of like not making it a secret, you'd kind of

know where this is leading up to I believe that God has given us everything

that we need to be certain about his salvation plan and the Gospel message,

so that we can have confidence to tell everybody about it. I think He

gave us everything we need that we lack and are missing nothing. It's the

whole point of Luke writing his book, this book to Thiophilos we talked about

at the beginning. He wants him to have certainty of the things he's been

taught about Jesus and the things have been fulfilled among them. He wants to

have certainty and there is enough evidence and proof for us to know that the

things that we have been taught, the things that we believe, that they

are in fact true. We've been given enough evidence we know that it's true.

We can have confidence that is true. And Christianity is a religion based

on faith. We know it's through grace alone, through faith alone, in

Christ alone, right, that's how we get salvation. To explain that grace

is in we couldn't do anything to receive it's just the free gift of God

through faith. That means it takes true belief in something, and that something

is only Christ according to scripture alone to the glory of God alone. But

just because this is a religion based on faith does not mean it's devoid of

evidence. That doesn't mean there isn't proof. It isn't a blind faith.

God has proved himself over and over again. God has given us as his

word, and it's full of countless examples of His word always coming to pass.

What he says will come to pass. It's full of all the evids

we need to know that it is all true. And I really do believe

that one of the biggest reasons that God put together the Bible and put it

in the hands of us believers is so that we as believers can have certainty

about the truth and have confidence to be able to tell the world about Him.

I think He gave us this we have the Gospel message, and then

put all the proof in there for us to know it's true, so that

we can step forward in confidence and share it with the world. That we

can tell everyone about Jesus. It's through the Gospel message of God reveals who

Jesus is. It's through that simple story. Sometimes we overcomplicate it. Just

tell someone the story of Jesus. That's how God reveals who Jesus is,

and it's through the rest of his word that he continues to prove it all

to be true. So again, what are we supposed to do with the

confidence that we have that we can get from knowing the truth of scripture.

We should go and tell people about Jesus. Go and tell them about what

he has done in your life. And I want to look at the story

of the demon possessed man in Mark five. Whoa that took a quick turn.

It's a good one, I promise. They went across the lake to

the region of the garrisons. However, you want to say that when Jesus

got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the

tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one

could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often

been chained hand and foot. But he tore the chains apart and broke the

irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night

and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and

cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, this is

great, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He

shouted at the top of his voice, what do you want with me,

Jesus, son of the Most High God, in God's name, don't torture

me. He sees Jesus far off and runs up and says that to him,

for Jesus had said to him, come out of this man, you

impure spirit. Then Jesus asked him, what is your name. My name

is Legion, he replied, for we are many, And he begged Jesus

again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd

of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send

us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. He gave them

permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The

herd, about two thousand and number, rushed down the steep bank into the

lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in

the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed

by the legion of d demens sitting there, dressed and in his right mind,

and they were afraid. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why would they

be afraid. I figured they'd be afraid when they saw him, as he

had been crazy, cutting himself and screaming in the tombs. Now they were

afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the

demon possessed man, and told about the pigs as well. Then the people

began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. He figured they want to

stay, but no, they pleaded with him to leave the region. As

Jesus was getting into the boat to leave, the man who had been demon

possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said,

go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has

done for you, and how he has had mercy on you. So the

man went away and began to tell in the dicopolis how much Jesus had done

for him, and all the people were amazed. Jesus told the man to

go to his own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for

him, or how much he had done for He said, how much he'd

done for you. God uses our story and our journey in parts of our

journey as part of our witness to others. He just does. But wait,

I've never been demon possessed, so my story is not that exciting.

Well, for starters, it's actually a good thing that you haven't been demon

possessed. Let's thank God for that. But just because you haven't been demon

possessed doesn't mean that you don't have a story. And how can I stand

up here and confidently say that, because every good thing comes from God.

Every good thing you have and have ever experienced came from God, every single

one of them. And the most important and greatest good thing is the fact

that somebody else stood in your place and died for your sins. That's the

greatest good thing that you have ever received. That we are reconciled to God.

That means to be made right with Him in right standing. All accounts

are settled, you don't owe anything anymore. That's what means be reconciled to

God. The payment for our sin is death. And some people are like,

yeah, for the people have done a lot of sin. No tell

one little white lie boom, welcome to the club sinners. We all need

Jesus. All of our sin paid for Jesus' death fully satisfied that payment,

and what will we receive instead forgiveness and righteousness that we are now viewed by

God as good, as clean, as right, with the ability to stand

in His presence. So I have a question for you. What's stopping you?

What's stopping you? And this is your homework for this week. You

have homework. Sorry, all the kids know how to do homework. The

application for today's go and tell somebody about Jesus or tell him what he's done

in your life. But the homework today is to answer this question. What's

stopping you? Identify what it is, look to God's word to overcome it,

and go do it. If you feel like you don't know enough,

then here's my answer. Continue to learn by reading God's word. That's number

one. But also, if God saved you, you're qualified to go tell

people about him, tell people about your experience. Don't let someone else say

well, you have to learn more first before you can speak about Jesus.

No, that's wrong. How much experience did the demon possessed man have none?

He literally was just just was saved by Jesus. The demons just came

out, he says, Go tell what the Lord has done for you.

Don't tell, don't let someone else say. You have to be qualified for

it. If He saved you, he qualified you. He gave you an

experience that go tell people about what Jesus has done for you. Speak from

your experience. You have a story. What's stopping you? What if you're

scared? That's a real one. There's a bunch of different reasons for scared.

I'm only gonna focus on one. I want you to remember that God

has given you the message that brings eternal life, the message that brings eternal

life, and it's been proven to be true time and time again. He

has given us all the proof and evidence that it is true. So don't

forget that. And also, bring a friend. It's a lot less scary

when you go out with a friend. Bring someone with you. You don't

have to do it by yourself. We talk all the time about God has

created us to be in community and we thrive best. And like even from

a pragmatic standpoint or just a practical standpoint, like, we know we thrive

best in community. So where we grow, that's where we feel supported.

We know that we can't if to lie down together, you can keep warm.

But if you lay down by yourself, you won't keep warm. We

thrive best in community. Bring someone with you to tell others about Jesus.

Here's a reason that might be stopping us. And I know as personally for

me, maybe I don't even think about it. Just walk through life and

it doesn't even pop into my head. I don't even think to tell others

about Jesus. My hope is that you'll stop and pray and ask God to

break your heart for the lost and dying world, that our hearts would break.

That we're walking by people every day that are destined for the eternal wrath

of God on their sin. Eternity is a long time. Our hearts should

break for that. So we should pray that God would reprioritize our life and

our hearts to hold the things that He finds most important, most important in

our lives. Also use practical reminders. I like sticky notes and phone alarms.

Every time you get in the car, Maybe not put it in a

safe spot. Put a sticky note this like tells them about Jesus today.

Put it on your mirror in the bathroom, because everybody looks at the mirror

in their bathroom. Put a little alert on your phone around lunchtime. You're

about to have lunch with your coworkers, and maybe they don't know Jesus.

Just so alarm, it says Jesus. So the Jesus alarm. Use practical

things that will help you. Remember My point is we need to do some

self reflection and find out what's stopping us and overcome it. That's what we're

called to as believers, go out in the world baptizing the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that

I've commanded you. God has called us to be reconcilers who've been given the

ministry of reconciliation. We need to go and tell people about Jesus. God

has given us everything. We need to be certain of his plan so that

we can walk in confidence to share that plan with others, because certainty brings

confidence. Amen, Hey, guys, stand to your feet for me,

please and thank you. We're going to go into a song, So time

to just respond to God and his word. Let it keep doing its surgery

on us right, and we're gonna have all the available elders on the sides

to pray for you anything, you have anything, any prayer requests that you

have, we'd love to pray with you. If you are not wanting to

come up and get prayer, but still want prayer, you can use our

connect card. Our connect card on the back has a spot for need prayer

or have questions, write them on there. If you have a prayer request,

if you don't want to come up and I would love to pray with

you, so please come up. But you can also write them on here

and then we're going to send it out to everyone we can in the church

basically, so if you don't want everyone in the church to get that right

private and then only the elders will get it. But we do pray over

these every single week. We pray because we believe that God can do something

about it. It's not about us, it's about God and his ability to

do the impossible. So if you have a prayer request and you're not comfortable

coming up again prayer, please write it on there. You can also use

this to connect with us. Let us know. Has a little next step

section. I'm committed. I committed my life to Jesus today, I'm ready

to get baptized. We do baptisms every usually every quarter, but if there's

like someone's like I need to get baptized, we'll set up the tank and

dunk you, like we just need to do that. We're also going to

be doing another one in December, which you're really excited about. I would

like to become a church member. If you're looking to get plugged in at

a church. We have membership class every month. We would love to connect

with you, show you go through all of what we believe, our fundamental

biblical beliefs. A Christian who is not a member of a church is a

walking contradiction based on Scripture. You need to be an active member somewhere.

We're called to be part of this body of set it a lot latelig Yes,

Jesus died for my sins, but also died for his people to make

you a part of his family, so we should be that family together.

There's also I'd love to serve on a team or a blank checkbox. Maybe

you feel God telling you to take a next steps not on here. We

want to celebrate that with you and walk with you in that. There's also

giving envelope for those who came prepared to give. Can you can drop both

of these off in the offering box on your way out of the sanctuary too.

I think that's everything. If I forgot it, well come back next

week. Maybe one of us will remember it. Okay, I'm gonna pray.

We're gonna sing a song, and if you need prayer, make sure

you come up and see us. We love to pray with you. God.

We thank you for it today. We thank you that you've given us

your word. God, we thank you that you've given us everything we need

to have confidence, to be certain and sure of your truth and have confidence

to walk forward with your plan. God. I pray that if there's anything

or whatever is stopping us from sharing your good news with the whole world around

us, God, I pray that you bring those at the forefront of our

mind, put them right in front of our face. Don't let us ignore

it. Let us look to your word, have certainty and confidence, and

then move forward and sharing your good news to a loss and dying world,

the news that brings eternal forgiveness and eternal life. So God, I pray

that you continue to break our hearts for the things that break yours, that

if we're scared God, that we know that there is nothing we should fear,

especially when sharing your gospel. What's the worst they're going to do is

say no. But God, that we still walk forward in confidence sharing your

good news with others. God, I pray that we feel a closest together

as brothers and sisters in Christ. That we continue to grow as a tight

knit family as we walk striving our best to please You, our Father,

our creator. That we get to see our obedience as we're walking in obedience

to your commands. That you promise things, and that we get to enjoy

the blessings of those promises. So God, we just thank you for your

word tonight. That it is challenging, it is encouraging that we're able to

walk forward wholly trusting you because your word is true. What you say will

come to pass. We can have full confidence and assurance in you because you

are truth. So thank you for all these things. In Jesus' name,

everybody said, hey man, this worship