Latest / The Daily Word / September 18 – When Something Isn’t Going Right
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Hello everyone. Happy September 18th. Pastor Jenny here as we begin the book of Luke and continuing in the Life Journal Renee Plan as a church at Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. Maybe you're part of our church family. Maybe you're listening in, joining from wherever you are. So if you haven't already, I want you to pause this podcast, go read. Luke chapter one, so you can follow along, maybe catch a scripture of your own, journal your own insights, and then come back to the podcast, jump back in with us. But I want to share with you today what I caught in the reading from Luke chapter one. And so I love Dr. Luke, as they would call him. Of course, Luke chapter one is a full eighty verses. He leaves no detail unchecked. He's a very thorough man. He's a doctor, as they would say. And so very detailed in his accounts. And but I didn't have to go far before I just really felt the Lord highlight some things for me. So I'm gonna start in verse five just to give a little bit of context, but not gonna go too far. really gonna stop at verse seven. so chap Luke chapter one, starting in verse five, says this there were in the days of there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abiha. His wife was the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. But they had no child. Because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. And so again, if you read today, or if perhaps you're familiar with this story, you go on to read. and of course, Elizabeth and Zacharias go on in their old age for God to speak to Zacharias and promise him a child, promises him and Elizabeth a child. Elizabeth ends up getting pregnant and giving birth to the person we now know. As John the Baptist, who is of course prepares the way, we'll say, for Jesus. But what really stood out to me today is really verse six. I want to go back to that. And it says, they, referring to Elizabeth and Zacharias, were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Verse 7, but They had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years. And so it's really important to connect these two verses because especially in the Jewish culture, the Jews considered children to be a sign of God's favor. And childlessness was considered a sign of God's displeasure, meaning that, you know, obviously it would seem to the Jews that That Elizabeth and Zachariah, something was amiss in their lives. They had done something wrong. God was not satisfied with them because she wasn't, she hadn't had any children, she was barren. However, that is not how God saw them. That in fact is not how God defined them. Because we, before we even know Elizabeth is barren, we actually find out first that they were righteous before God. And before we even know why they're righteous. God, it though the scripture in the word tells us that they were righteous before God. It goes on to tell us that they were walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, and they were found blameless before Him. So there's a couple of things that really connected here for me. It's in kind of some application that brought into my life One is that we have a tendency in our lives when something isn't going right. something isn't the way we think it should be, whether it's in our own personal life or maybe in someone else's life. And our tendency can be, well, God, what have I done wrong? Where am I missing it? Why isn't this thing coming to pass? So in like Elizabeth and Zacharias's case, why haven't we had a child? Why are we bearing? What are you upset or mad at me about? And I want to encourage us today in our thinking and how we approach God. God is not mad at us. There isn't anything that we have done or haven't done that He He looks at us and says, Well, I'm displeased with you. As believers, we are in right standing with God. How do we know that? How can I say that? Is that just my wishful thinking or view of God? No. We can actually look to scripture all throughout, so there's many scriptures that point to this, but starting with Romans 5, 1 and 2, that tells us therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Therefore, having been justified by In other words, just as if I had never sinned, in other words, been counted righteous. So again, Elizabeth and Zacharias, they were both righteous before God. What was a result of that righteousness? Well, in fact, they did walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord and were found blameless. You see, I don't believe that it is us walking in our obedience and It's not us doing all the right things. No, that's not what makes us righteous. Because again, go to Romans. Romans three sixteen lets us know we're all found blameless. We are all, none of us are without sin. We all mess up, we're all gonna fall short. However, again, that Romans points us back to Jesus and the sacrifice he made. Now, of course, you can say, Pastor Jenny, well, Jesus hadn't come yet for Elizabeth and Zacharias. I understand that. But there was obviously God had looked upon them and he had counted them righteous. So we know we do stand under the covenant of Jesus and we are now counted as righteous because of what he has done. Because of what he has done and we are counted righteous. I believe we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to do just as Zacharias and Elizabeth did, and now we can walk in the commandments and the ways of our Lord Jesus. And we are found blameless not because we're walking a perfect life, but because we have now been perfected by the blood of Jesus and we are in the process of being made holy. So want to encourage you in those things today. We are made righteous because of Jesus' sacrifice. It's not because of what we have or haven't done. That doesn't mean we don't tune ourselves to the Holy Spirit and we don't continue to surrender our life, lean into Him and be led by Him. But we also are not in a relationship with a God who looks on us and withholds things from us in such a way to say we're not suffering things because, you know, you just like Elizabeth, she didn't have children because God was displeased with her. So when you're going through a difficulty, when you're going through a tra trial, I encourage you, don't look and say, God, what have I done wrong? But do look to Jesus and say, Jesus, help me. Jesus, what you know, prov you are the provider. Jesus, you have a greater way. And so his ways are higher than our ways. and he will lead and guide us. In all things, he'll lead and guide us into all truth. And so while our righteousness is not found in our right doing, I do believe he can lead us onto right paths. And so repentance is being led away from our thinking into his ways and into his thinking. So that was my encouragement. I hope you have been encouraged and blessed by that today. Let me pray for us. Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you that We are not found righteous by our right doing, for we know that we could never do it in and of ourselves. We have messed up until this point. I know we're gonna mess up again. But it's not our our doing the right thing, it's not because we're we're doing the wrong thing, but it's because of the sacrifice Jesus made that we are found blameless before you and God But because of what Jesus did, we desire to be in community with you. We desire to be in relationship with you and walk in your ways and to walk in your commandments. And so, Holy Spirit, would you teach us? Would you lead us and guide us? Help us to walk in your paths. Lord, just as Proverbs three and six said, we we want to be led in all that we do to understand your ways to lean not on our own understanding, but to in all of our ways acknowledge you and so that you can make our path straight. So Lord, we love you and we thank you for your blessing. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.