Uncommon Christmas | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is

Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad

that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where

you're streaming from. We would love to interact with you.

We hope that you enjoy today's service.

I want to welcome you to Venture Church. If I

have not had the opportunity to meet you, I'm Brandon.

I'm the lead pastor of the church. If you're new,

I'd love the opportunity to shake your hand. I'll be

hanging out in the lobby after the service. Please come

up introduce yourself to me. I'd love the opportunity to

meet you. I'm gonna remind you what we're doing next week.

I was asked multiple times after the first service why

I was so dressed up for this service, Because I

figure if I dress nice today, next week when we

do our crazy ugly Christmas sweater Sunday, it will equal

each other out and I will look like Brandon as

normal over two weeks. Now, I want to remind you

next week we're all coming in Christmas sweaters. There will

be pictures with Sanna. It's gonna be great. We want

to remind you today after the service. In case you

didn't know, we have a petting zoo. It's over there.

I got asked in the lobby where it was. It's there.

It's right over there. All right, everybody, by your heads,

close your eyes. I want you to repeat this prayer

after me. Everybody say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart,

change my life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to

Luke Chapter one. Can you believe? Two weeks and Christmas

is here? Is that stunning to anyone? As adult? If

we were to compare all of our different Christmases, our

Christmas experience, it'd probably be all over the map. Like adults,

we do Christmas very uniquely different traditions for our family.

For my family, we do an Italian Christmas on Christmas Eve.

That's when Italians celebrate Christmas Christmas Eve.

I grew up thinking.

It was normal to eat spaghetti on Christmas, so that's

what we do. It's actually one of the highlights of

all of Christmas for us. My dad is an amazing cook,

does our family Italian spaghetti recipe. All of our family

comes together, we eat it Christmas Eve. We all look

forward to it, grandkids everyone. This year, for our board

members and their spouses, we are cooking our family Italian

spaghetti for our board Christmas dinner, so our board gets

to experience it this year or two. But that's part

of our unique Christmas experience. Then on Christmas Day we

do what I refer to as a traditional white person

Christmas on Christmas Day with Dye's family. But that's my

Christmas experience, probably very uniquely different from many of yours.

But as kids, our Christmas experiences are very similar. Christmas

is that agonizing weight and count down. Christmas seems when

you're a kid, like it never comes. Remember, as parents,

to appease our kids, we would buy them those calendars

that every day they would open and then they would

eat the really cheap chalk that's inside.

And that was to teach them patients.

But let's be honest, how many of you, when you

were given those open them up right away and ate

all the chocolate right away?

Anybody willing to admit? Okay?

As kids, Christmas seems like it takes forever to come,

and the night before Christmas you can't sleep.

It is the longest night ever.

As an adult, we hear that Christmas is two weeks away,

and we're like, can it be like a month away?

In fact, we were doing our pre service gathering. There

were some of the people that were helping with our service.

They're like, we haven't even started Christmas shopping yet. It's

coming too fast. And then you're a kid, it's coming

too slow. But the great thing, no matter how slow

or how long, we always get there. There's all we

the promise and certainty of Christmas morning. All right, let's

do some confession time. I always say that you're my

support group, so let's have let's be honest with each other.

How many of you, when you were kids scoured your

house to find the presence your parents hid? Is your

hand everybody else you're lying, put your hands down. How

many of you actually found the presence that your parents?

Okay, good good?

How many of you opened and played with those presents?

Good good? How many of you broke the present before

it was given to you? Some of you? Good? Good good?

How many of you tried to rewrap the present afterwards?

All right, good, this is good.

My problem is, let's say I'm in my early fifties.

As an early fifty year old man, I still can't

wrap presents. Well.

If I wrap a present and stick it under our tree,

my kids will say, Dad, obviously wrap this. So I

couldn't get away with it. If I found to try

to rewrap the present, it was obvious that I was caught.

Do you realize that the dynamic of waiting.

Was setting up the very first Christmas?

For generations, a group of Jewish people waited every day

for not Santa to show up, but for the Messiah.

And for generations, a group of Jewish people waited anxiously

believing this could be the moment the Messiah arrives. But

unlike the certainty of our Christmas, this way on for

generations and nothing happened. Most of the people who waited

died without seeing its fulfillment. They prayed, they waited, they

remained faithful. Along the way, many gave up, but there

is always this small group that got up believing this

could be the day. I think it's relevant to you

and I today because there's many times you and I

have waited too long for something. We've wondered, Why am

I waiting? Man, I've been praying about this for years.

Why am I continuing to be obedient. Why am I

continuing to be faithful? Why am I living my life

as if there's something to this faith thing? And do

I do this because my parents taught me to? Am

I just falling prey to some superstition? I think we've

all had those moments in our attempt to be faithful,

where we wonder what am I getting out of this?

Where is this going?

If you've ever had those thoughts before, if you've ever

had those questions before, the Christmas story is for you, Luke,

chapter one, verse five. If you didn't bring your Bible,

the words should be back there, Luke, Chapter one, verse five.

It says, in the time of King Herod of Judea,

there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the

priestly division of Abajai. His wife, Elizabeth, was also a

descendant of Erin. So in this particular setting, King Herod

had heard a rumor that the Messiah that a new

king was about to be born. So Herod, as to

protect himself, had every male child under the age of

two killed throughout the region. Were also introduced to Zechariah

and Elizabeth. Both of them were from the priestly line

of Israel. In other words, they were preacher's kids. Verse six,

it says both of them were righteous in the sight

of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly.

What is Luke saying. He's the author of his book.

He said they were righteous. They followed all of the commands.

Now you've been around venture long enough to know there

wasn't just ten commands that the Jewish people were supposed

to follow, but there was over six hundred commandments in

the Old Testament that they were to adhere to. When

Luke looked at Zechariah in Elizabeth, he said, these are

two that are doing it right. And then he goes

on and he says they were blameless. What does that mean.

It meant that if you were to hire a private

investigator to look at all the secret parts of their life,

he wouldn't find anything. And Zechariah and Elizabeth lived this

way because of the promises given to the people of Israel.

A couple thousand years ago.

And for the last four hundred years God had been silent.

He hadn't done anything for Israel.

But they waited, they believed they were faithful, and they

lived every day as if today could be the day

that Christmas will come. I mean, if you were their friend,

you might look at them and say, Zechariah, Elizabeth, seriously,

how's all of this working out for you?

Well?

Verse seven tells us.

They were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive,

and they were both very old. They were childless. So

let me get this straight. You get up every morning,

day after day, you serve the temple waiting, and this

God leaves you without an air? Did you know that

in this culture it was always her fault? In this culture,

having a baby is frankly.

What a woman was good for.

They had no political standing, they couldn't work, they were uneducated,

and there was this religious stigma.

Back then.

That God granted children, that he decided who would have

children and who would not have children. And since she

couldn't get pregnant, some thought God had chosen.

To curse her. Reason. Here's a woman.

Faithful throughout her whole life and she couldn't have the

one thing that she wanted most, a child.

And Luke wants to remind you that she is.

Old, Okay, she is way past the time in her

life where she's.

Going to have a child. That ship has sailed.

We know that Zecharia and Elizabeth prayed they'd have a baby,

but there was no answer, and Elizabeth lived with the

shame and pain of this going into her old age.

And their faithfulness to God was based on a promise

made to Abraham two thousand years before.

Now.

This isn't two thousand years before you and I. This

is two thousand years before them. This this is four

thousand years before. Genesis twelve tells us what that promise was.

I taught on Genesis about a year ago. Go back,

listen to those sermons. God told Abraham, Abraham, I want

you to leave your family everything that's familiar, and I

want you to go to this place you've never been.

But if you go, I'll make your name great.

And we see that God does that. And he says

if you go, your family will multiply, and God does that.

And then God adds this other promise, and he said

all the people of the world will be blessed through you.

And that is the root reason the Jewish people continued

to hold out hope that even though their circumstances didn't

look like it was gonna happen, they.

Believe there was going to be more for Israel. You

know the story him.

He has a son, who has a son who ends

up having a bunch of sons.

They moved to.

Egypt, they grow into over a million people, they become

a nation.

They eventually moved back.

To their land, the Promised Land, and then they become

a kingdom and things start to take off. Maybe it

was during this period that God would bless the whole

earth because of them. I mean, there was David, there

was Solomon. Things were awesome. If there was ever a

time where God could use Israel to bless the nations,

it was then. But oddly everything falls apart. The nation splits.

There was wars. There were good kings, there were bad kings.

Did you know that between the time of Solomon, in

the period of Luke chapter one of Zecharai and Elizabeth,

the nation of Israel had changed hands twenty five times.

They'd been conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians,

the Greeks, and now the Romans. After a while, they

had zero international clout. They didn't even have an army

half the time. For seventy years they were exiled. At

one point, the nation of Israel became less and less

of a factor in world events. The idea that God

would bless all the nations through Israel, it was ridiculous.

Finally adding insult in injury.

In sixty five b c.

Pompey the Great, the Roman general, conquers Jerusalem, and he

occupies the city, and he marches past the temple guards

into the temple, and he marches past the priests who

are trying to stop him, who are trying to warn him,

and he marches right into the Holy of Holies, the

place where the Jewish people believed God's presence dwelt, the

place they believed that if you went in unannounced and uninvited,

God would strike you dead. I mean, they had heard

the stories Uziah the King, the Great King, went to

burn incense in the temple, and God struck him with

leprosy for the rest of his life. But POMPEII, ignoring

the priests, ignoring their warnings, marches right into the Holy

of Holies, looks around, shrugs his shoulders, and walks out.

And nothing happened. God didn't do.

Anything, And word began to spread throughout Jerusalem, and the

implications were clear. The Jupiter, the god of the Romans,

must be more powerful than Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Did you know that Zechariah was a little boy when

this happened, and his father was a priest during that period.

He likely remembers that.

Day as the day his dad tore his robe and

mourned the temple had been desecrated by the presence of

this Roman general who ignored their customs. He walked into

the Holy of Holies and he walked out, and God

did nothing.

Yet that boy, with that background.

Still went into the priesthood, and he served God with

his whole life, and he marries Elizabeth, who served God.

With her whole life the whole time.

They're holding on to a promise given two thousand years

before to Abraham, a promise It seems ridiculous when you

look at their circumstances. Many Jews had turned away. People

would ask them all the time, Zechariah, Elizabeth, why do

you hold onto this myth? Live your life. It's not

gonna happen. It can't happen. Israel will never rise again

on the world scene. Give up, enjoy the few remaining

years of your life. If there is a God, he

has clearly abandoned you. If you or I would have

thought that if we would have said that, we would

have ended up being dead wrong. Luke begins his Christmas

story with this story because he wanted us to know

that this was the start of something brand new, a

story that would ultimately result in the fulfillment of God's

promise to Abraham Church. It is important to us because

there are seasons and moments of our lives when we

wonder does God hear me?

Is God still active? Has God abandoned me?

Some of you, you've been praying for something for years

and you've heard nothing. I mean, you've responded to every

alter call, you've been put on every single prayer list.

You've watched everyone around you see their miracles happen, but

nothing has happened for you.

And the whole time you're like, where are you? God?

Do you even care? Well?

Christmas is a reminder The answer is a resounding yes.

What happens next verse eight.

You're still with me?

All right?

You still with me? Okay? Good? Verse eight.

Once, when Zechariah's division was on duty, he was serving

as a priest before God. He was chosen by Lot,

according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into

the Temple of.

The Lord and burn incense.

Now, it's important to understand that there were several thousand

priests that lived in that region, and those priests would

be divided into twenty three different groups to serve the temple,

and they would, Bible says, they would cast lots.

And what is that.

It's like gambling, for lack of a better way to

put it's like rolling dice.

It's like winning the lottery. And the lot.

First fell on the group of priests that Zechariah was

a part of. That group could have been anywhere from

twenty to fifty different priests.

And then the lots were cast.

Again, and it landed on Zechariah, and he was given

the honor and privilege that could come maybe once in

your lifetime. And it was the privilege of going into

the temple alone and being able to burn incense on

behalf of the people. And this was an incredible honor,

a huge honor, and it fell upon Zechariah Verse ten.

And when the time for the burning of incense came,

all the assembled worshipers were outside praying. This was such

a huge deal, Like the entire city would come and

they would stand outside the temple and it would turn

into a huge revival worship service as the priest would

step forward, light the incense and walk into the temple

on their behalf.

So as he enters the.

Temple, goes into the holiest place in the temple to

burn incense. The Bible says verse eleven that the Angel

of the Lord appears to him and stands at the

right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him,

he was startled and gripped with fear.

Was not expecting to see this.

Have you ever noticed that in the Old Testament, whenever

they encounter an angel, like the most amazing pillar Mount Rushmore,

men and women of God, whenever they see an angel,

they're always afraid. Whenever people today see an angel and

write a book about it, they seem to be cool

with that angel.

I don't get.

It, says he was gripped with fear. And then in

typical angel m o whenever an angel would encounter everyone,

this is the first thing the angel would say, don't

be afraid.

Your prayer has been heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bury you a son, and you

are to call him John. Then the angel describes who

John will become, and he said, he will bring He

will be a joy and delight to you, and many

will rejoice because of his birth, or 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's born.

He will bring.

Back many of the people of Israel to the Lord,

their God. Why did they have to be brought back,

because in the four hundred years of waiting and seeing nothing,

many had turned away from God. And it says, 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. Zechariah was not expecting any of this. It's

full of honor, excitement. Goes into the temple, the whole city, friends,

family outside worshiping and waiting for him, and he has

this encounter, this unbelievable encounter with an angel, and then

the angel tells him it's gonna have a baby. The

next part just cracks me up. Verse eighteen is his response.

Zechariah asked the angel, how can I be sure of this.

I'm an old man. Look at how politically correct he says.

His wife is old. He said, I'm an old man.

But my wife she looks great for her age. Don't

tell her I said this. But she's well along in

her years, like she is way past the point of

having kids. God's a little bit late here, The angel

says to him.

I am Gabriel.

I stand in the presence of God, and I have

been sent to speak to you to tell you this

good news. And now you will be silent and not

able to speak until the day this happens, because you

did not believe my words, which will come true at

their appointed time.

Sure till you have good news for you.

Some of you have been praying, fasting, believing, waiting for

something for years. I mean you are wondering. I mean,

does God And even though I'm here, does God care

about me? Does God see me? Did you know? Just

as He had an appointed time for Zecharia and Elizabeth,

he has an appointed time for you. God has an

appointed time. Keep praying, keep being faithful, because I always

say this that it seems like you're faithful. You're faithful,

you're faithful, you see nothing. And then when God all

of a sudden answers. He answers suddenly because he has

an appointed time. Some of you you're here, man, you've

been praying for your kids. Some of you you were

like Zecharia and Elizabeth. You've been praying for a baby.

And the whole time you feel like you've heard nothing.

You prayed for your finances, health, nothing. God has an

appointed time for you, So he says, Zechariah, because you

didn't believe, you can't speak till this baby's born.

Now remember the setting.

All the people of Jerusalem have gathered in a worship

service outside of the temple, waiting for Zechariah.

To come out. They cheer.

He'd tell them all about the experience, and the worship

service is going on a little bit longer than normal.

They're like, what is taking him so long? And then

this happens. Meanwhile, verse twenty one. The people were waiting

for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in

the temple. When he came out, he could not speak,

for they realized he had seen a vision in the temple,

for he kept making signs to them.

But remained unable to speak. I think them like this.

Walks out of the temple. People are cheering, they get

quiet waiting. Nothing comes out of his mouth, so he

begins to mime it. So he's miming what he'd what

he'd heard.

Church. This was just God's opening act. This is a

preview of what he was about to do.

Generations that had prayed and believed for the Messiah, that

had passed on that.

Hope to their children. This was only the beginning.

Here's how that story ends, and the greatest story ever

told begins.

In the sixth month.

Of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,

a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be

married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. The angels went to her

and said, greetings, you, who are highly favored. The Lord

is with you. Here's our dilemma. Do we wait, do

we keep waiting? Do we believe or.

Do we stop believing? Do we give up or do

we hold on?

Do we continue to be faithful to serve or do

we quit Every generation there are a remnant of Christians

that continue to stay faithful even though they're still waiting

for their promised miracle, and every generation someone taps out,

someone gives up. If you're still waiting, there's nothing wrong

with you. Welcome to the common experience of those who

have placed their faith in Jesus, where you follow faithfully

in spite of what you see around you.

Welcome to the world.

Of Zechariah and Elizabeth. We're gonna walk blamelessly before God

in spite of what we see. We can't imagine how

we're gonna have a child, so we can't imagine how.

God will bless the world through Israel. That is the dilemma.

But the good news is.

That is a normal, common experience for followers of Jesus.

The challenge for you and I is will we continue

to be the remnant that holds on. Christmas is your

yearly reminder that your faith in God is not misplaced.

Christmas is your yearly reminder that when God is silent,

he is still active.

Christmas is your yearly reminder.

That God always has an appointed time. Christmas is your

reminder that your faith and hope is not in vain,

but God has an appointed time for you. I want

to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes.

I don't want anybody looking around.

I did this in the first service, I'll do this

here too. If you're here and.

You want to be honest and say, Brandon, then I've

been praying and waiting for something, and I relate to

Zecharai and Elizabeth, and I wonder does he care.

Does he hear me? Does he see me?

And I'm believing that my appointed time will eventually come.

If you're here, you want to be honest and.

Say you're wrestling, you're frustrated, maybe you're even mad because

you're praying and believing and you're not seeing an answer.

If that's you, would you raise your hand.

Hands up everywhere you can put them down, whatever wouldn't

do me a favor, I want you to stand up

on your feet.

Everybody stand up.

I have a few extra minutes today, so I'm gonna

do something that I normally don't have the time to do.

There was let's say fifty seventy five of you that

raised your hands.

The staff and.

Our prayer workers we would love the opportunity to pray

for you. So if you raised your hand, I'm gonna

ask you to do something in front of all these

people that might seem uncomfortable.

But if you've been.

Waiting for an answer for a long time, you get desperate.

I'm gonna invite you to leave your eat and come

stand right up here.

And as you come, our.

Staff is going to come to, our prayer workers are

going to come to, and we want to take a

moment and just pray for you. But if you have

been waiting patiently, you're believing for an answer of your

appointed time, I want you to step out and come

forward right now.

You can come all the way across the front.

I'm gonna ever staff, our prayer workers if you would

gather around these people. First thing I want to do

is pray for you, and I'm going to release the

staff and the prayer workers to pray specifically for you.

Now for the rest of you.

As I pray, I want you to stretch out your

hands and pray for your friends, pray for your family members.

After I say amen, Kelsey is going to come up.

She's going to close the service, and I want to

ask that you would leave respectfully for these people that

there's a lot of them. It's going to take us

a little bit of time to pray through them all,

but I want you to leave quietly, respectfully, don't forget

that the living Nativity thing is out there. Also, if

you're a guest, I'll be hanging out in the lobby.

I'd love the opportunity to shake your hand. So for

you that responded, will you look at me for a moment.

I'm believing that your appointed time is coming, that you

will leave the altar today. Faith believe that that appointed

time is near. So I want you to stretch out,

stretch out your hands, close your eyes. Lord Jesus, you

know the stories, you know the prayers.

You've heard them. You're not surprised by them.

You know what every person is going through, what they're facing.

You know the frustration, you know the disappointment, you know

the anger, the sadness that has come. And now, Lord,

I ask that you would comfort them in this moment.

You would give them peace.

Lord, you would remind them that you see them, that

you hear them, and you would begin to speak to

them that you have an appointed moment and.

Appointed time for them. Lord.

I pray that they will but be overwhelmed right now

with your presence.

God.

I also pray that they would begin to have the

faith to believe that my answer is coming, that my

time is near. Lord, I pray that they would leave

today filled with hope and excitement because Christmas is near. Lord,

I pray for each and every person that's in our service.

Today that you would speak to them, bless them. May

they have an amazing week in Jesus's name. Amen.

Amen. Well, hey, if you are in the front, please

wait to receive prayer from someone on our staff. And

if you are not, go ahead and check out our

Nativity scene and make sure on your way out that

you grab a couple of those touch cards. Otherwise, be

blessed and we'll see you next week.

Thank you again for joining us. If you enjoyed today's service,

go ahead and subscribe to our channel so you can

see your messages. If you'd like to learn more about

Venture Church, you can flick the link that's in our bio.

We hope to see you again.

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