Prayer of gratefulness

We dive into the story of Zechariah from Luke 1 and the powerful transformation that happens when silence leads to clarity. Pastor Nicole Barnett shares how losing the ability to speak gave Zechariah the opportunity to listen, observe, and recognize the faithfulness of God in a way he never had before.

How often do our words and doubts get in the way of seeing what God is doing? What if the noise in our lives is keeping us from experiencing gratitude and faith?

Join us as we explore what it means to embrace stillness, open our hearts to God’s promises, and live with bold gratitude, even in challenging times. Plus, discover how a prayer list of praise can transform your Advent season.

Enjoy this message? Consider visiting Ravenna Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Jason is the Senior Pastor. Have a prayer need? Want to share something with Pastor Jason?

Help spread the gospel through this podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this episode.

Chapters

• 0:00 Trailer
• 0:32 Theme song--"The Dirt Path" by Jeremy Edwards
• 1:36 Introduction--A chance to see without eyes
• 6:40 Reading of the Passage: Luke 1:68-79
• 7:50 Zechariah's gratitude
• 10:31 Zechariah's mouth
• 15:59 Zechariah's reaction
• 17:43 What does this teach us?
• 24:29 Invitation--Maybe we should be silent
• 33:48 Call to action

Transcript

As I have shared before, Jason and I will regularly cycle through different shows as kind of a “decompression” of the day. The familiar plot lines and predictability actually helps the brain to process the information of the day—and yes, that has been scientifically proven. So, we cycle—and we are currently in the MASH portion of the cycle and there was one episode that just hit different this time around. It was an episode in which Hawkeye is helping the nurses relight their gas stove in their tent and the stove blows up in his face—causing him to lose his sight. 

Throughout the episode, Hawkeye goes from being angry at losing his sight to learning how to navigate without it. His other senses become stronger to the point that he walks into the surgical room and is able to smell nick in a patients intestine that the operating surgeon had missed and pointed it out to the surgeon. He was able to recognize that there were things he had been missing prior to losing his sight that he had been able to discover during his blindness. He even tells his friend, “I’m almost sorry to get my sight back because I’ve been seeing things so much clearer without it.”

And that is immediately what I thought of when I began looking into the passage we are going to read today. So, Luke 1 starting in verse 68

”Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people.

For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

As he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago,

that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.

He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant—

the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham. This oath grants

That we, being rescue from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear,

in holiness and righteousness before him as long as we live.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.

Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high.

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

This is the word of God for the people of God…

Now, if you were following along, you might have noticed the heading of that passage. It might have been labeled “Zechariah’s Prophecy,” Zechariah’s song,” “The Benedictus,” “Zechariah’s praise,” or some other variation of that. So, it is important to note that this praise to God is coming from Zechariah’s lips.

Zechariah is so overwhelmed by the Goodness of God in the moment of his son’s birth that he not only breaks out in praise, but he begins prophecying over his child as well.

But what led to that moment? I mean, I have been excited over the birth of my children—but I have never gone so far as to make such bold statements as “You’re going to be a prophet!” And I can say with almost 100% certainty, Jason’s never been that bold either (and that’s saying something).

But here is Zechariah not only declaring that the infant in his arms is going to be a prophet—but is going to prepare the way for the coming Messiah by giving people the knowledge of *salvation through the forgiveness of sins.* You might recall through other passages within the gospels that the right to forgive sins was only granted to God—this was not seen by the people of Israel at the time as something within the Messiah’s job description. They were expecting deliverance from Rome, not deliverance from sin. Yet here was Zechariah not only making a bold statement about his son being a prophet, but about a Messiah who would forgive sins—

But again, what led to this bold gratitude? This praise that manifested in prophecy?

For that answer, we need to go back to the beginning of the chapter. 

Zechariah is married to Elizabeth—Mary’s much older cousin. And they are childless (which was not a good look in Hebrew culture as it basically guaranteed that there was no chance your family would be connected to the Messiah—so it was seen as a curse from God to be childless). But that didn’t stop he and his wife from following God’s law and doing what they could to serve Him—including Zechariah serving as a priest.

And while he was serving as a priest, he was randomly chosen to enter the Holy place and burn incense. While he was in there, An angel appeared to him and told him that his wife—Elizabeth—was going to give birth to a son. The angel told him that his son needed to be set apart so there were some rules that they had to follow in his upbringing—but that wasn’t the issue.

In verse 18, “Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man and my wife is old as well.” 

The issue wasn’t the rules—the issue was Zechariah’s lack of belief that God would give two old people a son (I wonder if he even remotely thought about Abraham and Sarah—probably not because they were OLD)

And, because of his lack of belief, The angel (who identifies himself as Gabriel) tells him, “And now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will be silent, unable to speak, until the day these things take place.” (V 20).

So, before Elizabeth even became pregnant, Zechariah was forced into silence because he didn’t believe God’s words. He may have followed the law to the T, but he didn’t believe the Word of the Lord that had come to him personally—he rejected it. And was basically told to shut up.

But, whereas some commentators view this as God cursing Zechariah, I wonder if it was more a blessing in disguise. Because, like Hawkeye earlier who lost his sight and said he was able to see more clearly—Zechariah lost his voice and he was forced to listen, to observe, to pray, to ponder, to reflect, and during that time of silence, he was able to develop a level of gratitude that he priviously was incapable of experiencing due to his words getting in the way.

In the end of his silence—he wasn’t saying, “THANK YOU GOD, I CAN SPEAK AGAIN!” No, instead the first words he spoke were a call for everyone who could hear to praise God—not because he could speak, but because God is keeping his promise, redeeming his people, and bringing salvation to them. Because he was silenced, he was able to see and hear what God was doing in the midst of His people. But here’s the kicker—it was also because of his silence, that he was able to hear God’s voice enough to see that his newborn son would not only be a prophet (as the Angel had basically said initially) but he also prophesied that his son would help give people knowledge of salvation *through the forgiveness of sins*—this was neither told to him by the angel nor a general belief about the messiah. This was only revealed through God’s interaction with him during the quiet.

So what does this mean for us?

A lot of us might read Zechariah’s prophecy and think, “it was a nice thought then—but hey, the world is so dark today. The idea of serving God without fear is a nice idea but unrealistic—the world is just so… worldly… I can’t help be afraid of how people will respond or of the consequences of serving Him. And quite honestly, even being grateful in our current environment is a stretch. I mean, we have so many people that hate Christians and church that its sometimes like entering a hostile battlefield when I even leave the house. How am I supposed to “bless the Lord” when I don’t feel blessed at all?”

We are so full of doubt that God can possibly do any good work in a world like this—and honestly, I am not condemning anyone for feeling that way. It’s hard to see it when we have children being murdered in schools, people freezing to death outside of warm churches and businesses, arrogant and hateful people placed in charge and compassionate people replaced. The injustice we have both witnessed and experienced for ourselves puts a damper on what we believe God is capable of—and the sad thing is that when we are made aware of God’s working we look at the circumstances and declare that there is no possible way. God wouldn’t use a person like that. God wouldn’t speak through someone who looks like that. God wouldn’t move in the life of someone in that situation and lifestyle. Because we see what is the “normal” and believe that God cannot work outside of that—and when we are told it’s possible, we balk at the very idea—Just like Zechariah who looked at the “normal” and acceptable age for a couple to have children and lacked belief that God would provide he and his “old wife” a son. 

But, perhaps, just like Zechariah, when we find ourselves in that state of unbelief and cynicism, we aught to close our mouths and shut up. And just like Zechariah, perhaps it is through our silence that we will be able to observe what God truely is capable of doing in our lives and the lives of those around us—and it is through that observation that we will be able to open our mouths with an attitude of praise and pray a prayer of gratitude.

So, when we find ourselves nit-picking—pointing out the flaws (I’m too old, they’re too messy, you’re too fidgety, they’re too….[fill in the blank] for God to use), and living with an attitude of critical cynicism, perhaps we aught to close our mouths and open our eyes and ears to what God is doing—and don’t open our mouths again until the ONLY words we are capable of uttering are a prayer of gratfulness at who God is, what he is doing, and what we KNOW he will do because we know and BELIEVE that he ALWAYS keeps his promises!