Live to Give

Luke 1:5-24;57-66

Talent 

CIT: Zachariah and Elizabeth get told about John

CIS: God loves to use people who are already serving

SO: The hearer will give their talent to the Lord

Follow along at d1.church/notes on 

Intro: Live to Give: This series is designed to really see how God is generous in all ways to his people. In this series we will discuss biblical understanding of using our Time, Talent and Treasure for God. All through the Christmas story we will show how Generous God is and has been to us and see how the people of God used their Time, Talent and Treasure to welcome the King of Kings. 

Holiday Generosity: We will have several opportunities over the next couple of weeks to show our Generosity to God and others. There are many opportunities to use your talents and time and even to give generously toward the Kingdom of God. 

Firelight Fellowship Dec 13

Undie Sundie- Dec 14

Big Give- Dec 21 

Candlelight Service- Dec 24

Online Service only Dec 28

Baptisms are next week. So if you are ready to take the next Step in Christ after Salvation then we are ready for you. The tank will be here and the water will be warm. It is a celebration Sunday for us. 

Big Give Items

1. North side Sidewalk
2. Continuous Flooring in foyer
3. Internet Upgrade to Starlink

$25,000 goal to accomplish all 

Today we kick off our series talking about Talents and how to use and expand them in the Church, the marketplace and the world. Let’s turn in our bibles to Luke 1

1.In Service (Luke 1:5-17)

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as 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. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; 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 fermented 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.”

EXP: Zechariah and Elizabeth go on to parent John the Baptist. Zechariah was just doing his job in service to the Lord. Zechariah was not just a priest by birth, but was dutiful in his assignments and even was in rotation to perform the duties. Tonight Zechariah is drawn by lot to light the incense in the Holiest of Holies. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you can only get chosen if you show up. After this time his name would be removed and he would never get to do this again. This was an incredible honor. While he was in there an angel appeared to him and let him know that his prayers had been heard.

ILL: Zechariah was a competent Priest. He was good at his job. Zechariah seems to be winning the lottery in this passage. First he gets drawn for the once in a lifetime job, then an angel appears to him. Some things are going well, but his wife is barren. That is hard. He has a pedigree and if he is unable to continue the line, no matter what he accomplishes in life, he will not be seen as successful. Zechariah finds his worth in being a good priest. This job only lasts from age 30 to 50. Mandatory retirement at 50. 

ILL: Malcolm Gladwell- Outliers is a book that changed the business world. He takes people that the world may view as having incredible talent such as Bill Gates, The Beatles etc.. People that the world would call Outliers to normalcy. The idea is that their talent level made them overnight successes and they are better than everyone else. His book walks through their lives and shows you how they actually had incredible opportunities and capitalized on them. 

One of his most talked about concepts is that of 10,000 hours. His premise is that each of the successful people actually spend on average 10,000 practice hours in their field. He shares how the Beatles spent over that amount of time performing in bars in Amsterdam before even having a first hit in England. He also shares how Bill Gates' parents worked at a college that had one of the first super computers in the world. He actually had access to it and was able to learn and understand computers as a child before the world even understood their potential. So first they had incredible talent or opportunity but it still took them 10,000 hours of practice and determination to realize their potential.

APP: We often look at others and think they just have incredible luck. The truth is they have talent but also put in time and effort to finally be noticed. 

Zechariah was born into a priestly family, so was his wife. He had probably been around God and the ministry for at least 10,000 hours. Because of his diligence, God is able to find him doing the right things and is able to bless him. God finds him and is able to open his wife’s womb, but he is given a promise of a child. 

T.S.: God catches Zechariah at the height of his service and answers his prayer and gives him more responsibility. When we reach 10,000 hours it is just the beginning.

2. Silence (Luke 1: 18-24)

 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and 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.” Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

EXP: Zechariah is having this crazy experience. What was his job and most likely today the day not to mess it up, he gets visited by an Angel who tells him God is going to answer his and his wife’s prayers of having a child. I love how generous God is. Zechariah is skeptical. He wants some assurance. Gabriel tells him his sign that everything he has said is going to come to pass is that he will not be able to speak until the baby is born. 

ILL: I heard a preacher say one time that God answers prayers with “Yes, No, and wait for it”

When God does big things it is for God’s glory. Not yours. The idea that serving God will only lead to blessings and promotion for you is not a true statement. It is very rewarding, but not in the way you think. God does miracles not for you, but for his glory. God uses you in his ministry not for your status, but for his glory. 

In order for God to get the glory, you have to get out of the way.

ILL: I spoke with a friend who told me a story about God interacting with him about making a change in his life and ministry. He was serving well and how things were going was just fine. But God wanted to expand the ministry of another person. He wanted this minister to open a door to another faithful servant to do something for God in the church. You see the problem was it was a close family member. As a matter of fact, he had a rule about working with family members. The family member had a really good secular job and he told himself that that was how God was blessing this person and then being on the outside of church was better. He was telling me how he was telling all this to God on three different occasions. But one day during worship God laid it out for him. In no uncertain terms God told him that his rules for family and thoughts about how it would affect financial incomes and outcomes were not in line with what God was trying to do. You see in the end, God is doing this for his Glory and not for any other reason. God appreciates your thoughts about service to his kingdom, but in the end it is his Kingdom. 

APP: God makes Zechariah unable to speak. As a preacher I can tell you that Zachariah the priest was affected by not having a voice. His entire world was that he would share in the family blood line of honoring God and performing the many rich Jewish traditions for his family and the Nation of Israel. It would seem his talent was taken away before it would seem that God had greater things to do with him. God wanted to get the Glory for the next phase of his life.

T.S.: What if God wants to reveal a new talent for you, but it requires you to give up what you can rely on and let him take control of your ability? 

3.His name is John (Luke 1:57-66).                                                 

  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 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.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue 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.

EXP: God got Zachariah’s attention by speaking to him through his talents and service. He had something more important for Zechariah and Elizabeth to do. They had shown themselves faithful and God knew he could trust them to foster a Priestly role and a tenacious spirit in their only child. Their talent wasn’t for them. But for the Kingdom. 

ILL: What if you didn’t know for a generation, the impact you had on the person you opened the door for and smiled at? What if you didn’t get to see how you being a youth sponsor changed a kid's life? What if you worked in a nursery every other week and that kid loved Jesus so much they became the next Billy Graham? What if volunteering at church wasn’t so you felt good? 

ILL: Jerrod Compton is a missionary we support from our Church. I have known Jerrod since he was 6 years old. I can tell you that Jerrod might have been the clumsiest, zaniest kid I have ever met since I was a kid. I am not sure Jerrod and I had any conversations that lasted more than 3 seconds when he was in kids ministry or youth ministry for that matter. When he went to College we encouraged him like all the other students to get involved in a ministry. Jerrod is a genius of a kid, he graduated high school and 2 year college at the same time. He is engineer smart. He graduated from college with an engineering degree in record time. But Jerrod found a love for bringing people to Jesus. He loved college ministry and God called him to full-time ministry before graduation. I think often about the impact of every kids minister, Sunday school teacher, parent, Pastor that made impact on this student for him to become the man of God he is. 

EXP: I love the part of Zacheriah’s Story where the family members want to name John something else. You see, change comes with a lot of cost. Sometimes your true talent in God is so foreign to you that you may need to try a few things out first before you land on what God is calling you to. God knows and so does Zacheriah “His name is John” When your calling appears it will resonate inside of you. 

APP: Most likely the best use of your talents is not what you think it is. Using your talents for Christ is not a thing that everyone else sees and encourages in you. More likely it is between you and God. Some of you have never volunteered at a church before, and then you wonder why it feels weird at first.

God has given you talents to use in the house of God. I love that the Bible tells us his way is higher than our way, his thought above our thoughts. This lets me know, I do not know everything, even for me. That God’s plan for my life may take a little trial and error. But If I am Generous with myself toward the Kingdom, my purpose will be made clear.

I want to pray for three groups today:

1. There are some who are struggling to do the job they have. 
2. I want to pray that God will reward your faithfulness by answering your prayers. Pray boldly today.
3. There are some who God is going to reveal a new talent that you have not thought of yet.
4. I want to pray that you will begin to step out in service until it is plain.
5. There are some here today that did not know God was the giver of good gifts and talents. 
6. I pray today for salvation and rededication