Priceless | Donovan Rillion | Unbelievably Chosen

When you flip through your Bible, assuming you

still use a paper copy, you may notice that when

you come to the end of the Old Testament, after

the book of Malachi, like right after, there's

usually a blank page or two. There's a couple

blank pages. And after those blank pages, you

arrive in the New Testament. Well, those two

pages, those blank pages represent about 400

years of silence from God. For 400 years, after

all of this time where God was actively working

in the lives of Israel or the life of Israel,

and God is leading them through battles, he's

leading them through the wilderness, he's providing

for them, he's arriving and speaking to them

through prophets and judges and kings and all

of these different modes that God connects with

his people. After all of that history, God goes

silent for 400 years. The Israelite people don't

hear from God. This chosen nation of Israel,

they don't have the prophets anymore sharing

these direct messages from God. They don't have

God working expressly through the kings and the

judges. It's just silence. And so for 400 years,

the Israelite people who had been promised a

Messiah, a Savior who would come down and free

them from all of the pain of this world, the

Israelite people waited. And they listened, but

they heard nothing. Can you imagine waiting 400

years and not hearing anything? Some of us get

upset when we text someone and they take more

than 30 minutes to respond. Even worse, if we

see that they saw our text and then they didn't

respond. But waiting, seriously, for 400 years,

the Israelites had been promised a Savior who

would set everything right, yet here they are

still waiting and not even a, hold on, I'm on

my way, text from God. But right after those

two pages, after 400 years of silence, something

starts to happen. So we get to the Gospels, the

Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ.

And all of the Gospels start with how Jesus got

here. And so I want you to look with me at Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. We're going to start in verse 5, and

we're going to work through the passage here

in Luke 1 this morning. If it's underlined, I

would love if you read along with me. In the

days of King Herod, there was a priest named

Zechariah, and he had a wife named Elizabeth.

They were both righteous before God, walking

blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes

of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth

was barren. and both were advanced in years.

Now, while he was serving as priest before God,

he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the

Lord and burn incense. Now, you'll notice that's

a little bit paraphrased, but what I did there,

and please read that in your own Bibles, what

I did there was just, I gave you the essentials

in that passage. So the story starts with a priest

named Zechariah. 1 Chronicles tells us that among

the nation of Israel, the priesthood was organized

into 24 divisions. And so each division would

serve twice a year for one week as far as the

temple goes. And by this point in history, due

to such a large number of priests, there was

about 20 ,000 priests believed to be at that

time. Most of these men... would never be chosen

for the job of entering into the holy place for

the job of burning incense. And so this was a

really big task. This was a big deal for you

to be able to get to do this. And so you live

your life, you serve as a priest, and you're

doing what you can to earn some notoriety as

a priest. But you know that for this high honor,

you may never get chosen. And even if you do,

it'll be by random happenstance. Well... On this

day, Zechariah was chosen. So Zechariah, we could

say, has this once -in -a -lifetime opportunity.

And so he goes in, he's doing his job, everything

is going how it's supposed to, it's standard

operating procedure, until we get to verse 11.

Well, Zechariah was chosen. Important note. Verse

11, and there appeared unto him an angel of the

Lord standing on the right side of the altar

of incense. After 400 years of silence, 400 years

of God not appearing via angels, an angel appears.

God sends an angel on his behalf. So this generation

of Jewish people, they had heard stories about

angels. They knew their history really well.

They knew the story of their people really well.

So they had heard these stories about angels

appearing to people in these great happenings.

But as far as we can tell, nobody in this generation

had seen them. In this period of 400 years. And

so until now, when Zachariah, this ordinary priest

who was randomly chosen by Lot, he sees this

angel. And not only does he see the angel, he

hears the first words to break the silence from

God. Now, I find this to be relevant because

I believe God could have chosen any other priest.

He could have chosen anyone in the priesthood

for this, for this historic moment. But he chose

Zechariah to receive the message that this angel

is bringing. And what a message it was. Bear

with me as we read through this, but it's good

stuff. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

There's nothing underlying on this because there's

a lot, all right? And Zechariah was troubled

when he saw him. And fear fell upon him, but

the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah,

for your prayer has been heard, and your wife

Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall

call his name John. And you will have joy and

gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

for he will be great before the Lord. And he

must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will

be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his

mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children

of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will

go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah

to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just

to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

So let's break that down really quick. Your prayer

has been heard. Good news, John, God heard you.

You're going to have a child. And that child,

he's going to be great in the eyes of God, and

you're going to be happy about it. You're going

to be filled with joy. You're going to be filled

with gladness. And this child is not just going

to be any ordinary child that makes you happy.

He is going to be a man who leads a bunch of

God's people back to God and prepares the way

for the coming Messiah. If you got all that,

say, I got it. So John gets this incredible news.

This incredible message about what is going to

become of this son that he's going to have, that

he's going to be blessed by God. Could you imagine

if I could definitively tell you right now that

you are going to have a child and that child

would not only be great in God's eyes, but they

would do great things that leads the nation to

salvation. Could you imagine what you would feel?

I mean, I think I would either maybe. feel some

really good feelings of joy and excitement. But

I think more likely, I'm going to respond with

disbelief and shock because we know what the

Scripture says, that Zechariah was an older guy,

his wife was barren, and she was older. So I'm

looking at this saying, you may have chosen the

wrong person. Or maybe you didn't choose me.

Maybe you've got the wrong person. Check the

address on the invitation. You may have had the

wrong guy in mind. We're no different than Zechariah.

Look what he says in verse 18. And Zechariah

said to the angel, how shall I know this? For

I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years.

Zechariah had been chosen by God that day. He'd

been chosen by God. to receive this incredible

news, to be the father of this incredible child.

He's hearing this message from God, breaking

the silence of 400 years, and what is his response?

How? I'm too old, and my wife's too old. Men,

I don't recommend you say that. Don't call your

wife old. Seriously, though, it's like Zechariah

isn't sure the angel knows who he's talking to,

as if the angel got the wrong assignment or was

supposed to appear to a different, much younger

Zechariah. Maybe there was another guy named

Zechariah that also happened to be a priest,

and the angel was supposed to go to him and not

me. But do you know what this tells me? It tells

me that Zechariah didn't quite understand God.

It tells me that Zechariah didn't quite understand

who God is, God's track record, what God has

done, how God has enjoyed operating for all of

this time of human history. And do you know why

that's important? It's important because I think

sometimes we don't quite understand God. I don't

think we really know. who God is. I don't think

we really understand how God works or how he

operates. I mean, I want you to think, what's

your version of how shall I know this? I'm too

old. Is it I'm too far gone? I've done too many

bad things. I've been too bad a person. Or is

it I'm just too ordinary? I'm just a normal guy.

I don't have any special gifts or abilities.

I'm not a person of prominence. What kind of

influence can I have? What is your How? How,

God? You see, I think sometimes we hear of something

that could be incredible that would include us,

and we think, no, that's not meant for me. I

think that's probably meant for someone more

capable. My favorite thing working in a church,

and I'm sure people get this in every facet of

work. This is my experience. Man, it'd be really

cool if we did fill in the blank as a church.

Yeah, that's a great idea. You should lead that

ministry or you should be in charge of that.

Oh, no, no, no, I meant like someone else should

do this. Somebody else, more qualified, somebody

who knows the people, somebody who has the skills,

someone who has the background. We think, no,

it's not for me. That's for someone much younger.

That's for someone wealthier or more popular.

And the list goes on of all the excuses we can

make and all of the, well, that's somebody else's.

John. Or maybe that's somebody else's calling.

And we question if God actually meant to include

us in the first place. As I said earlier, we

are no different than Zechariah. And so the angel

responds to him, hey man, are you sure you never

heard the story of Abraham and Sarah who gave

birth to your ancestors when they were in their

90s? Could you imagine being in your 90s having

a kid? The angel doesn't actually say that to

Zechariah. But what he says is actually a lot

better than my sarcasm. Look at verse 19. I am

Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and have

been sent to speak to you and give you this good

news. He looks Zechariah in the face and he says,

dude. I'm one of the archangels. I'm one of God's

people that sits next to God and gets these direct

messages from God and gets sent to do these important

missions for God. And God sent me directly to

you to share this good news. The good news that

your people have been waiting on for 400, actually

more than 400 years, because God promised way

back in the garden that he would send a Messiah

to crush the head of the enemy. And so your people

have been waiting on this news, and you say you're

a faithful people, you say you're a faithful

priest, well, check the track record. God is

sending me to you to do what God has done all

along, and it is work through old people who

think they know better than me. You see, what

Zechariah didn't understand, what we sometimes

fail to understand is that God does not care

how ordinary you are. God does not care how old

you are. He doesn't care how unbelieving you

are. He will use you. Last week, we talked about

how God could use an outcast and a murderer like

Moses. He could use a man like that to lead his

chosen people out of slavery and into the promised

land. And today we see this cool story of God

choosing this old man to have a son who will

be the forerunner for the Messiah. And yes, I

said forerunner. Another word for it would be

the trailblazer. for the Savior. John, maybe

you've heard of him, John the Baptist, would

be the one who would prepare the way for Jesus'

arrival. See, right here in this opening scene

of Luke's gospel account, God breaks his silence

to choose this unexpected man to be the father

of a man of immense worth in the gospel story,

immense worth in the redemptive mission of God.

Can you just imagine what that would do for a

man's feeling of worth? To know, man, The God

of the universe, he can use someone like me.

The God of the universe would care to choose

someone like me. The God of the universe, the

creator of it all, the one who has been leading

my people for all of this time, that same God

can use and choose and wants to use someone like

me. How valuable do you think Zechariah must

have felt leaving that temple? I mean, I just

imagine there had to be like a glow about him.

And when he walked out, people were like, what

in the world has gotten into Zechariah? I mean,

he was only one of some 20 ,000 priests, but

God chose him. And then as Luke 1 continues,

God sends Gabriel to another man and woman. to

tell them about a child they'll have. God sends

Gabriel to Nazareth, this worthless town in the

eyes of many at that time. But because of what

God was about to do, Nazareth would become this

town that is going to be worth so much more in

the history of the world. And in Nazareth, Gabriel

is going to deliver a similar message as the

one he just gave Zechariah, except this one will

be not to an old couple who is barren. This will

be to an engaged teenage couple. And their son

wouldn't be the forerunner for the Messiah. Their

son would be the Messiah. Their son would be

the savior of the world. Their son would be Jesus.

Once again, God chooses people that we would

never choose in places that we would never expect.

And they all reply with the same disbelief. And

they all respond with, who am I? Or are you sure?

There's no way you mean me. But God does. See,

when they're all questioning their worth, when

they're given these excuses in the midst of being

given these incredible parts of this story as

if God made some kind of mistake. And I say this

a lot, and I'm going to keep saying it, and I

hope you believe this. God does not make mistakes.

He chooses who he chooses on purpose and rightfully.

He does what he does on purpose and rightfully.

When he created you, the way he created you,

where he created you, where he placed you, in

the circumstances you're in, God did not make

a mistake. And when he chooses to redeem your

life and use you for something incredible, he's

not making a mistake. It's intentional. So we've

got to stop believing that God... did not mean

what he said he was going to do in and through

our lives. And as is the thesis of this series,

God does not see our value like we see our value.

God looks at us and he doesn't see sinner. He

looks at us and he doesn't see cheater. He doesn't

see liar. Now he sees that we've sinned. Don't

get me wrong. But he doesn't see that. When he

looks at you, he sees you. He sees his child.

He sees this being that he created, that he formed

in the womb intentionally, that he gave a place

in history. God sees you as an indispensable

person created for great things in his redemptive

mission. From the start of this series, we've

said our worth was never something that we earned.

It's never been something we proved, and that

is absolutely true. Our worth has already been

settled by what God was willing to pay. Our worth

has already been proven by the lengths that God

would go through to save us, to purchase us,

to redeem us. And likewise, Zechariah's worth

isn't created the moment Gabriel appears to him

and gives him this message. His work was already

there. Gabriel just revealed it. it to him. He

revealed to him what his purpose on this world

was for. I think Zechariah was probably content

to just be an ordinary priest among this 20 ,000

member priesthood. I think he was content to

just live into his old age with his barren wife.

I think he was okay. with where he was. Now,

sure, he probably wanted a kid. Sure, he wanted

some significance, but I think he would take

what he's got over the alternative being, you

know, being worthless and poor and having no

wife. And so I think Zechariah was okay, but

what God looks at when he sees us is not people

that he wants to be okay. God sees people that

he wants to thrive. There's a reason that when

Jesus comes and he says, I come to give life,

he doesn't just say eternal life. He says abundant

life. We were not put here to just survive. Five,

we were put here to thrive, to do great things

in the kingdom for the kingdom in this world

to change it. And so we might look at ourselves

and think, I'm too old. I think maybe I said

this last week. I don't know. I said it to somebody

recently. Another thing I love hearing when I'm

working in a church is, well, I've done my time.

That's for the young people to do now. Or my

other favorite thing is, well. We've just, you

know, we're young parents and we've just got

so much going on and we're so busy. The old retired

people, they can handle it. And so you've got

these two groups saying the other person can

do it. Well, guess what happens if everybody's

saying the other person can do it? Nobody does

it. And then we wonder why things don't happen.

And so what needs to happen is we need to see

the calling and say, yeah, maybe I was chosen

for this. Maybe this is where I step up and step

in and do the work that God has put in front

of me. We've got to stop looking at ourselves

and saying, I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm not

anything special. I don't have any great talents.

I'm not qualified. I'm not smart enough. I'm

not cool enough. I'm not strong enough or whatever.

Because to all of those excuses, I say, and God

says, baloney. That's baloney. There's no such

thing as I can't. I'm not good enough. If God

put the job in front of you, it was not a mistake.

And sometimes we feel a conviction. We feel a

strong pull to say this needs to be done. You

know, I've had so many people come up to me in

the year that I've been here. And the thing that

they say is we need to get our youth ministry

going. And I'm like, yeah, we do. Where will

you sign up to serve? We need a youth minute.

Okay, where will you sign? We need our small

group. You know, we really need to do more about

connections. Okay, sign up for a small group.

By the way, I'm reorganizing the small groups.

If you've signed up, great. If you haven't signed

up, today is the deadline. Please do so. Because

we've got these things that will say this needs

to happen, but we're not willing to actually

do what it means to prove that we believe it

needs to happen. If we are convicted by something,

If we believe that God has put something in front

of us, then we have one response, and that is

to do what we've been called to do. The whole

narrative of Scripture is just story after story

of God choosing unlikely people to do great things.

And again, God does not make mistakes. And all

throughout Scripture, the people that obey...

what God has chosen them to do? Well, they're

in the book. We remember them. We tell our kids

stories about them. We sing songs about them.

And maybe you've got people in your life that

you can think of that were chosen, that stepped

up in roles that really didn't make sense for

them to step up into. But you remember the example

that that set and how that affected your life,

how that affected a community, how that affected

the church. I brag all the time and I will continue

to do so about my youth minister who was not

a youth minister by trade. He wasn't paid to

be a youth minister. He just did it voluntarily.

He was in his late 40s. He had two daughters

that were getting ready to go off to college.

He had all of his own responsibilities. But he

still stepped up to deal with some snot -nosed,

rugged old middle school boys who could care

less about doing the right thing. And because

of him, I'm here. Because a man who was unlike...

in an unexpected place, decided to step up to

something he believed God was calling him to

do. We remember those people. We tell stories

about those people. There's a reason for that.

The truth for us today, regardless of your thoughts

about yourself or whatever lies the devil has

sold you, is this. God not only wants you, but

God highly favors you. And he wants everyone

he chooses to know, every one of his children

to know how much he thinks they are worth, even

when they don't believe it. Which, by the way,

there are consequences for unbelief. You know,

like I said, we tell stories, we sing songs about

the people that obeyed. But I also remember a

story about a man named Jonah getting swallowed

by a fish because he didn't do what he was supposed

to do. I also remember a story about a woman

ruining mankind's future because she couldn't

just trust God and not eat a fruit. And in the

story of Zechariah, Zechariah decides, well,

I mean, he doesn't decide. He just has this unbelief

in the moment when the angel brings him this

message. And if you read on, you'll notice the

angel makes Zechariah mute for a period of time

due to his unbelief. Faith matters. Acting on

faith. And so when we find ourselves thinking

we can't do it, when we find ourselves thinking

that we're not worth anything, we need to remember,

we better remember God's track record. We better

remember who he is and what he's done and how

he has operated all throughout human history.

We need to remember the list of people that God

has chosen and used before us. Because I promise

there are some stories out there. There's some

stories in this room. I know there are. of some

really unexpected people who obeyed God's call

and have made a difference in the kingdom because

of it. So we need to remember, I'll say it again,

God doesn't make worthless people. And I believe

that to be true. He uses us not to give us worth,

but because we have worth. You don't choose a

tool that doesn't work well for a job to do that

job that it doesn't work well for. That God,

when he chooses us, he chooses us for what he

knows we can have an impact on. And by using

us, we are able to feel what God has already

proven to be true, that we have immense value.

See, we remember these people like Zechariah,

Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph because of what God

did through them. Not because of who they were,

but because of what God did. Because despite

who they were, what they were, what they weren't

capable of, God still used them in powerful ways.

And now you might not be Mary delivering the

Son of God, fair. You may not be Zechariah directly

getting a visit from the angel of God, fair.

But you still have a chance to be used in a powerful

way. We are all chosen to deliver the good news

of Jesus to the world, to prepare the way. for

Jesus to return. And that's not a task given

to worthless people. Like I said, you don't choose

a tool for a job that that tool is not good for.

That's an essential part. We have an essential

part in God's plan to redeem the whole world.

It's a great responsibility, but God deems us

fit for the job. He looks at us and he says they

can do it, not on their own. not by their own

strength, not by their own talent, but by His.

He walks with us. And you'll notice in every

moment in history in the Bible, when God calls

somebody and says, go do this, and they're like,

I can't do that, God, I'm not. I will be with

you. Don't worry about it. Because God knows

that it's by His power that His will will be

done. And so we need to be mindful of that as

we live this life. Every day, God presents us

with... presents us with choices of how we can

be used by him. Maybe not presented by an angel

in the holy place of the temple. Again, I get

it. But they're presented to us. Things like

doing good and making a difference in the community,

leading or being an example in the church, comforting

others or teaching them the Bible, praying for

others and standing up for truth in this world

and being faithful to God even when it's not

easy. We have all these opportunities that if

we're not careful, we will turn down because

we don't believe. But God did not make a mistake

in presenting that opportunity to you or choosing

you, and so you need to believe it. And so right

now, I want you to think of one opportunity,

one thing, one place where you feel like maybe,

like if you think, you're like, maybe that was

God calling me? Maybe that was a sign? I want

you to think about one opportunity that God has

put in front of you that you have talked yourself

out of, or at least you've tried to. I want to

say this to you in as pastoral of a way as I

can. Stop. Stop not believing. It's time to stop

believing the lie that God couldn't possibly

want you on the mission. This isn't like when

I was... I'm the second oldest of eight, and

so I have plenty of little brothers and sisters.

And I can remember being little, and my mom or

my grandma or whoever I was living with at the

time would say, you should take your brother

with you. Some of you have been there. You should

take your sister with you. No. Yes. No. Yes.

This isn't that. Nobody's telling God, hey, bring

Tim along. You know, he, yeah, yeah, yeah, right?

No, it's hey, Tim is valuable to the mission.

Bring him along because he has a big part to

play. Like this isn't some accident. Nobody's

forcing you. God has chosen you on purpose. You

have value to the mission. You're not just a

tag along. You're there on purpose. As Paul says

in 1 Thessalonians 1 .4, for we know, brothers

and sisters, loved by God, that we have been

chosen, that he has chosen you. I'm sorry. He's

chosen you. It's time to stop doubting God's

love for us because we made some mistakes. It's

time to stop the disbelief and the trust that

God has chosen us to be a part of his family.

It's time to stop doubting that we have a part

in his redemptive mission for this world. So

today, if you're struggling to believe that God

could use someone like you, if you're struggling

to believe that God could possibly redeem someone

like you, or if you're just struggling, Like

in general, if life's just been hard, if things

have been weighing on you, please let us pray

for you. Give us the opportunity to put hands

on you, pray and lift you up to God this morning.

We offer the invitation and we mean it. This

call is not an accident. We don't make mistakes

either. We want you to know that we are a family

that wants to love you and pray for you and pray

with you and lead you closer to Jesus because

that's what we've been put here for. That's our...

call. And we have one choice. It's a song to

trust and obey. And so this morning, if you need

help trusting, if you need help understanding

or believing that you're a part of God's plan,

wherever you're at this morning, we invite you

to come now as we stand and as we sing.