Blameless Yet Barren (Lu. 1:5-7)

Read Luke 1:5-7.

1. Are you disappointed in God?  You have lived for Him and thus far He hasn't granted your heart's desire.
1. Call to repentance and submission
2. Call to surrender your dreams
• If God never answered how you wanted - for whatever reason - would you still serve Him wholeheartedly?
2. Define "blameless".
1. It doesn't mean "sinless."
• You can't earn God's blessing.
• You can disqualify yourself from a blessing or delay one, but you can never earn one.
• God doesn't owe you.
3. Barrenness isn't an excuse for a lack of faith, prayer or effort.
1. Did Zachariah and Elizabeth stop trying to have children?
• Did they stop seeking God about the matter?
4. Character is more important than circumstance.
1. "Blameless" is mentioned before barrenness.
2. Zachariah and Elizabeth didn't allow their circumstance to dictate their relationship with God.
• They stayed true to God in spite of the barrenness.
5. Sometimes, barrenness isn't about inability but timing.
1. Knowing the larger story, we understand God waited until the right time for Elizabeth to give birth.
• The prophecy about the "forerunner" had to be fulfilled.
• John couldn't have been born too early before Jesus and Jesus couldn't have been born before John.
2. God's delay doesn't necessarily mean His denial of your desire.
1. The desire has to be right.
2. The timing has to be right.

Flesh It Out (06/18/17)

Read Luke 1:5-32.

Both Zechariah and Mary receive a message from an angel.  Both encounter the same angel.  Both angelic pronouncements involve the birth of a child.  Both Zechariah and Mary ask a similar (not identical) question to the angel.  Zechariah is reprimanded, yet Mary is not. Why?

Zachariah & Elizabeth (Lu. 1:5-17, 23-25, 57)

Read Luke 1:5-17, 23-25, 57.  (You might want to read the whole chapter.)

1.  God's delay does not mean His disinterest, His displeasure or His denial.

2.  When God has a plan for you (and He does), you can't fully understand it all at once.

3.  Zachariah and Elizabeth were broken, battered, belittled, beyond and barren.  God came through anyway!  Your inability becomes God's opportunity.

4.  God not only meets and satisfies but He exceeds.  Zachariah and Elizabeth got a son, but he became a prophet, a voice, a forerunner, the promised "Elijah".