Bible Text: Luke 1:5-15 | Preacher: Pastor Steve | Series: The Best Christmas Ever
The Lord Keeps His Covenant
Zacharias: the Lord is faithful
Elizabeth: the oath or the covenant
God Heals Our Wounds
Past woundedness can cause us to doubt and distrust the Lord’s Word in our lives!
Zacharias Doubts God
James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Doubting, underestimating God, is just as serious as rebelling against God
The Lord Will Forgive Our Doubt and Rebellion
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Doubting, underestimating God, is just as serious as rebelling against God
Expect God To Do A Miracle!
How many of us prefer the safety of lowered expectations over the risk of personal disappointment and possible failure?
Genuine faith can look at all of life’s disappointment and heartbreak and believe that this IS NOT all there is and this IS NOT all there’s going to be.
The Joy Of The Lord
Faith is unstable when doubt is present Zacharias’ belief was static rather than dynamic!
He was stuck in a rut, incapable of experiencing the joy that comes in trusting the Lord.
Dynamic Faith
The Lord will make us new people, dynamic people, joyous people, a new creation and an ecstatic people!
Ecstatic: ek, out of, and stasis, place
To be moved out of the place you were to the new place with God.
The Sin Of Presumption
When we believe in ourselves more than we believe in the Lord we can end up being presumptuous
I’m an old man
I’m Gabriel, and I stand in the presence of God
Do you believe God is able to come into your life and bring GREAT joy and blessing where there has been emptiness, disgrace and disappointment?
Matthew 4:16
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, the prophet said. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
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God Heals Our Wounds
We do not need extraordinary faith, if we did, we’d all be goners.  All it takes is the extraordinary faithfulness of God!
God says to us: fear not! Joy is here! Repent of your doubt and  unbelief, and receive the gift of faith, hope and love.
Do we have FAITH that this could be THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER?