If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. Turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. I'm going to be reading from 17 through 25. Luke chapter 1, 17 through 25. Reading the NASB. Is he who will go as forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord?

Zachariah said to the angel, "How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." The angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time." The people are waiting for Zacharias and were wondering at his delay in the temple, but when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them and remained mute.

When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home. After these days, Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men." Let's pray.

Gracious Father, we pray that your word would speak to us, revive us, renew us, help us to have a clear vision of Christ, what he has done, who he is, what he has said. May it all have a deep impression in our hearts, Lord God, in our lives, that we may continue to be sanctified according to your will and purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, one of the benefits of being at our church, I think, is that there's an emphasis on the word of God, and I'm very encouraged to see so many of our church people who are engaged in the study of God's word, who come to the Bible study prepared, ready to engage, and so I believe if you're at our church, you are, again, not just at our church, but you are growing in knowledge of the word of God, and so there's a benefit that you know more and more about what the Bible says.

But the danger that also comes with being at a church where there's a heavy emphasis on the word of God is that you gain a lot of knowledge, and if you're not careful, one of the first things that happens to somebody where knowledge comes in is that you get puffed up, that you tend to think that you are more mature than you really are because you have more knowledge of God's word.

The power of the Bible is not knowledge, it's not you have more information. Now information is important because not knowing what the word of God says, you can have passions that are not based on the word of God. You can have passionate feelings and opinions of things that's not based on what the word of God says, but the power of the word is not knowledge.

Power of the word is your faith, that when you hear the word of God, when you study the word of God, do you believe it? That's why Jesus says in John 11 when he was talking to Martha, he said, "For indeed we have had good news preached to us just as," oh sorry, "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.' And he said, 'Do you believe this?'" Do you believe this? That's the important part. Not did you hear it? Not can you recite it? But do you know the intricate theology?

Because you know the hardest people to be around, the most difficult people to be around are people who throw out theology without affection for Christ. They can quote scripture without knowing who Jesus is. And all it does is puff up and the word of God just becomes a tool to examine other people's lives.

And it is a miserable person to be around when knowledge puffs up. The power of the word is at the end of the study, do you believe that? Do you believe that? In Hebrews chapter 4, 2 it says, "For indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word that they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard." So the difference between a Christian and non-Christian are those people who heard the word of God, who heard the gospel, and did they believe it?

Did they actually believe it? And it's also true of sanctification. Sanctification isn't simply behaving a certain way. Sanctification is you hear the word of God. Every Sunday, every Bible study, you hear the word of God, but the next question after you've heard, after you've studied, after you've memorized is do you believe that?

Because until you believe that, there is no change other than adding more knowledge. There's no transformation taking place. Your life doesn't look any different than what other people value, except your peers are in the church. So because your peers are in the church, the pressure you feel is not from the world, but the pressure you feel is in the church.

So you try to compete with other Christians to be more knowledgeable, to be more godly, to know the Bible more. And so you conform to all of this because you're trying to move up the recognition ladder in the church. But it's not breaking you. It's not humbling you. Your love for Christ isn't growing.

The way we look at eternity hasn't changed. In fact, it's a miserable place to be when we have a church filled with people who are growing in knowledge without growing brokenness and affection for Christ. Because the key to everything that we are learning is the question, do you believe it?

Not do they believe it. Not what do they say. Who do you say Jesus is? Do you believe it? The text that we're looking at this morning in Zacharias' response and the angel Gabriel's response to Zacharias' unbelief gives us some insight as to not only what God does with them but how God deals with us.

It says in Luke 1 17, after he gives his prophesy, this old couple answer prayer for them and through them answer prayer for the nation of Israel that their Messiah would come and deliver them. Zacharias said to the angel, how will I know this for certain for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.

Now we can understand why Zacharias had a hard time believing this. Because he was already advanced in years. Humanly it's impossible. He wasn't simply tweaking certain things. He's saying something supernatural is going to happen. It's like how am I going to know this? And on top of that God hasn't spoken through a prophet for over 400 years.

So this was not a regular occurrence in the nation of Israel. Every priest that went in there to burn incense didn't come out speaking to the angel. There are 400 years of dead silence and then finally when he speaks he says something supernatural is going to happen. So we understand that other human beings, why he had a hard time believing this.

Now this is not new. If you look at redemptive history we see men and women whom God has chosen because of their faith to work mighty things and yet they themselves struggled with this. Remember Abraham? God calls him out. He walks out to the desert risking his life, family's life, all because of the simple promise that God made that if you follow me I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and all the other nations will be blessed by you.

And yet if you look at Abraham's life as he was wandering and following God, remember there are periods when he was so scared for his own life that he would lie about his wife and say hey make sure that you say you're my sister. And so we see a fragile man, even though there was a man of faith, he was a fragile man just like us.

Remember Sarah? Finally when God says that they're going to give him a son just like he promised, remember how she responded? She laughed in unbelief. And as a result God says your child is going to be named laughter just to remind you how you responded. Do you remember Gideon?

How God raises up Gideon and that he was going to dwindle down his army to a few hundred people to overcome tens of thousands Midianites and Gideon's response is like well how am I going to know that you're really going to do this? So he says send out a fleece and it's going to keep it dry and he's like to prove like God telling him wasn't enough.

It's like prove yourself. He struggled with doubt. Remember Hezekiah? When they he was a prophet that came that he was going to die and then he pleaded with the Lord and then he asked God like how am I going to know this is going to happen? Can you show me a sign?

He said well can you make the sun stop or to move forward? And so we see this pattern repeated through mighty men. Men who are supposed to represent faith at certain periods of time they doubt. If we're honest with ourselves we're no different. I think the greatest struggle that we have is faith.

Sometimes our faith feels so small. Even as we say we believe, even as we profess, even as we surrendered our life to Christ from time to time we feel like our faith is no bigger than a mustard seed. I mean just practically speaking when we see Matthew 7 7 it says ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. I mean we memorize that passage and we teach that to Sunday school. But the power of that passage is not that do you know this passage? Have you memorized this passage? Have you dissected this passage? Have you exegeted this passage?

Have you preached this passage? The power of that passage is do you believe it? That if you seek you will find. If you knock you will open. If you ask you will answer. Because if you believe it you would pursue. You would ask. You would knock. And the reason we struggle with that is because we hear it but it's not coupled with faith.

You guys know that passage. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. You know that passage. If you grew up in Sunday school you may have memorized that passage. But the power of that passage is not do you know it? Did you memorize it?

Did you tell other people about it? But do you believe it? That if you seek his kingdom, if you put his kingdom first that God will take care of all the other stuff. How much of our lives is flipped the other way? If I take care of all the other stuff and I'll leave the stuff that I can't do in God's hands.

The reason why we live like that is because we profess this, we teach this, we exegete this. But when we ask do you believe it? We don't have confidence. We struggle. He who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it.

We know that's the fundamental thing that Jesus taught. And when he was going to the cross he said you must also pick up the cross and follow me. Deny yourself. This is the fundamental thing that is taught in discipleship. But again the power of these words is not do you know it?

Have you heard it? Can you exposit it? Do you know the context of it? But the question is do you believe it? Do you believe that if you live your life to make something of yourself you will lose it? Do you believe that all the pursuits of life so that you can have a better life here that you're pursuing something that eventually is going to ruin your life?

Do you believe that forfeiting all the temptations of the world will actually lead to greater life? Do you believe that? Not do you know that? Have you studied that? Memorized that? But do you believe that? Because if we believed it our life would change. Our pursuit would change. We struggle with that.

Finally in Romans 8.32 it says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for another soul how will he not along with this give us all things. Think how inconsistent our faith is from week to week to sing songs about God himself took on human form and he gave himself while we were yet sinners.

He died for us. How will he not? If you believe and we sing we memorize and we preach the gospel to other people that this is what God has done for us and yet day to day we struggle with does God really care? Is God actually listening? Is he really going to take care of my needs?

And so we work hard to take care of all this other stuff and then only the things that we feel like we have no power over we just kind of hand it over to him. So again the power of these words is not do you know it? Have you studied it?

Did you exegete it? Did you memorize it? Have you taught other people about it? But at the end do you believe it? Do you believe it? In response to Zacharias' doubting the angel says in verse 19 I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

Now for us we say oh I am Gabriel what does that mean? A Jew would have immediately understood when he says I am Gabriel because the Bible actually only names three angels. Number one Archangel Michael and again they're not everywhere but when you look him up Archangel Michael is the chief angel and whenever you see Archangel Michael appear in the Bible he's in some kind of battle.

He's the one fighting with the dragon in the book of Revelations. He's the one who is gathering the other angels and basically going to war, spiritual war. That's Archangel Michael he's the chief of the angels. The other angel that's mentioned in the Bible is Lucifer. Lucifer basically was a worshiper.

He was the chief worshiper in God's creation. But instead of worshipping God in the context of worship he was trying to get worship himself. Just like you know he was a great worshipper. Imagine if you met the best worship leader that you've ever met in your life and he is trying to get attention for himself as he is worshipping.

So he may be the most skilled but he's the least person that you want up there. And that's exactly what Lucifer was. Lucifer's rebellion is that he wants worship for himself. Isaiah 14, 12-14 it says, "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of morning, son of dawn. You have been cut down to the earth.

You who have weakened the nation, but you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recess of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will make myself like the most high." And that's Lucifer. So you have the Archangel Michael who is in conflict with Lucifer. Typically we think God is in conflict with Satan. That the good and the bad. That God is good and Satan is bad. Satan is under God's sovereign control.

Every time Satan, Lucifer needs to do something, he has to get permission from God. The conflict that the Bible describes is a conflict between Archangel Michael. In fact in Jude chapter 9 it says, "But Michael the Archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" So the two other angels that are mentioned in the Bible is Archangel Michael who is in conflict with Lucifer.

So the only other angel that is named in the Bible is Gabriel. Gabriel appears in Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, and he's the one who is sent as a messenger to interpret the dreams that was coming through the people at that time. And so Gabriel is widely understood in the Jewish community as the messenger of God.

So when Zachariah hears when he says, "I am Gabriel," I mean he would have known immediately. My guess is he probably was floored, was to the ground, was like, "Oh my gosh. Gabriel is here." That's what he means because the promise, the promise of the angel is only good as the one who is promising.

That's why we have credit scores, right? Like if your credit is like 500 or 400, you signing a name on something doesn't mean a whole lot, right? Because you just don't have good credit. So when he says, "I am Gabriel," in other words he's saying, "I am the one who stands in the presence of God." In other words, what he's saying, what I am saying to you is from God himself.

That's how he answers his doubt. I am Gabriel. I am the one sent from God. That's exactly what happens. Remember when Moses asked the Lord in Exodus chapter 3, "When you send me to Pharaoh and to the Israelites, who are you to demand that my people be set free?

What do I say to them? Tell them what? 'I AM has sent you.'" You're not going with your authority. You're not speaking on your behalf. I didn't choose you because you are the most articulate. I didn't choose you because you are the greatest leader. Tell them, "I AM has sent you." The power comes from the sender, not the messenger.

So when Gabriel says, "I am Gabriel," the one who stands in the presence of God is speaking to you, he says, "That should confirm for you." You know, typically we ask ourselves in the end, when I said the power of everything that we're studying is at the end, "Do you believe this?" Not "Do you know this?" Nobody cares what you know.

Let me say that. Okay, does it sound harsh? Nobody cares what you know. Let me say it one more time, right? Nobody cares what you know if it fills you with pride. If what you know doesn't lead you to point to a greater Christ, nobody not only cares what you know, nobody wants to hear what you know.

The question is, "Do you believe this?" Do you believe this is the Word of God? That God is speaking to you? What do you say? Who do you say Jesus is? Do you believe this? You know, the typical way that somebody would dismiss the Word of God, if you've ever tried to evangelize and say, "Oh, the Word of God." They say, "I don't believe the Word of God because it was written by man." Right?

Have you heard that before? That's a common argument against this being the Word of God. "Oh, the man put it together. The church put it together." And so if the church put it together, if man wrote it, it can't be divine. That's usually the argument that you will hear.

I like what R.C. Sproul says about this subject, and he says, "The reason we doubt the Word of God is not because His Word is unbelievable or not credible, but because we project unto God the trustworthiness that describes our own condition. Let every man be a liar, but God's Word is true." The reason why they put forth that if it came through human hands, we don't trust it because we don't trust man.

We don't trust each other. Man doesn't have good credit. That's basically what he's saying. Second Peter 1, 16-21, Peter, James, and John sees the transfiguration, hears the audible voice of God, and God appears and says, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased." But God tells him, Jesus tells him, "Don't say anything yet because it's not time." But this is how Peter describes that incident.

"For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the majestic glory.

This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain." He's talking about the transfiguration. Can you imagine that impact that it must have had on him? He sees the transfiguration and he says, "Don't tell anything." And then he finally gets to tell people, "Man, you know what I saw.

I actually heard the audible voice of God." We've been walking with Jesus, but His glory was veiled. But for the first time, that veil was lifted so we could see Him and God spoke to us physically. But look what he says, 19. So we have the prophetic word made more sure.

More sure than what? What he saw. More sure than what he heard audibly. The prophetic word, "To which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." Rising in your heart through what?

Through God's Word. But know this, first of all, that no prophetic scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. He's saying God has not ordained miracles to bring you to Christ.

God has not ordained supernatural audible hearings so that you can commune with God. God has not ordained miracles so that you can hear Him. He says God has ordained His very breath in the Word of God to make it sure. So the question that we need to ask is, do you believe that this is the Word of God?

Do you believe it? Not are you studying it, not are you meditating on it, not are you telling other people. Not are you handling it accurately, but even before any of that, do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is the only way, truly the only way, that there is judgment coming, that the book of Revelation is not just some fairy tale, that hell is not just something that was written just to tickle our imagination, but it's real, that heaven is real, that Jesus Christ died for us, for me, is real, my sins have been washed away, it's real, that if you seek His kingdom first that all these things shall be added unto you is real, that He who did not spare His own Son but gave Himself up for us all, how will He not along with Him give us everything else, is real, if you truly believe.

If you doubt, that's where your struggle needs to be. Part of the reason why there is so little attention given to the diligent study of the Word of God, I believe, is because we wrestle with faith. We don't really believe, or we struggle with belief. I mean, if I told you that you got a letter from your favorite basketball star and it was seven page and it was written to you, my guess is you would take time to read it.

If you don't like sports, it's completely irrelevant, right? Movie star, I don't know. Your favorite person, I don't know. The girl you love, right? That girl that you've been praying for so dearly has written in response, right? And you get that letter, right? And then you realize it's like six pages.

Six pages, I've got time to read that, six pages? If you responded like that, I would say, "Ah, you're not interested." Your natural response would be, "Only six pages?" You comb through that letter. What does she mean by hello? Look at the big letters, right? Why is there a comma there?

XOXO. And you would examine every part of that letter because every part of that letter is personal to you. If you believe that this is God's Word, that God wrote it to you, to talk to you, to bring you to Him, to tell you how much He loves you, the warnings that He gives you, to tell us what it's going to be like after we die, to tell us where the power lies, to tell us about our children.

I mean, it's been given to us. But our struggle is, do we believe? Do we actually believe that? You know, sometimes, because we are raised in a church, we just assume we believe. Of course I believe it, and you just kind of give a knee-jerk reaction. But look at the way you respond to that, right?

Because sometimes we can easily fool ourselves. I remember when I first became a Christian, the first person that I was so excited to share that I became a Christian was this co-worker. My dad used to work at this medical supply company, and as he was pastor, that was his side job, so during the summer, I went with him to work for about three months.

And there was this one guy, one of his co-workers, in my mind, he was like the most sincere Christian I've ever met. He always has his Bible. Every opportunity he had, he was reading it in between, and then every opportunity he got, he was sharing it with people. So when I became a Christian, he's the first guy I wanted to tell.

So he came to my mom's dry cleaner store, and I took a break because I wanted to tell him what happened. Because every break, he was trying to share with me about God. So I said, "Hey, he's going to be so excited that I became a Christian." So I sat down, and we had probably about an hour worth of conversation.

And I can't even remember exactly what he said, because I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible, other than the things that I learned in Sunday school. But he said something that triggered, it's like something's weird. And I asked him, "Are you a Jehovah Witness?" And I could tell that just kind of like, boom, like he didn't want to tell me that, but he admitted because I asked him, "Are you a Jehovah Witness?" And he said, "Yes." And obviously, boom, the walls went up, right?

I have to be careful. Again, to this day, I have no idea what triggered that because I didn't know anything about Jehovah Witnesses. It must have been something that maybe my dad said that I kind of picked up subconsciously, and then boom, it went up. And then that encounter with him messed me up because this is the most strongest Christian I've ever met, at least in my mind.

I mean, he takes his faith seriously than any other person that I've met. How do I know that what I believe is true? How can I be so confident? Because he seemed to believe just as strong. So I went on this journey. Even as I was professing as a Christian, in the back of my mind, I needed to know for sure.

What if I say I'm a Protestant because I was born in a Protestant home? My dad's a pastor, so that was the only access that I had. So I began a journey to look for myself. So every opportunity I got, I started to study different religions. Every extra elective class I had, I would study Buddhism and different Muslims and different things and would come back.

And the conclusion was Christianity made the most sense. But the next question was then which Christianity, which version of Christianity made more sense? Mormonism? They say they have their Bible, and then Jehovah Witnesses, they say they have their Bible. Well, obviously, at the conclusion of that, and it wasn't a specific day that that happened, but after years of wrestling with this, my conclusion is not even close.

The Word of God, to me, without a doubt, proved itself that this is God's Word. I could tell you all the extracurricular stuff, where archaeological finds fulfilled prophecies, the copies of manuscripts and how it was handled, scrutinized for thousands of years, and to this day, they couldn't destroy the credibility of the Word of God.

The other Bibles were just, you trust a guy who is discredited. I mean, I can tell you about the stuff that I found, and it was almost impossible to believe their claim. And even if you don't believe it, it's very difficult to dismiss. But since then, I can tell you with full conviction, the greatest revelation of God's Word is the Word itself.

All this extra stuff, those are good to have. That's argument. But when you dive into the Word of God, you see the roots underneath the Word of God. On the surface, you read the words, and you see the connections, and you see how the themes are connected, but the more you dive into the Word of God, you'll see the roots underneath that connects thousands of years of authors and themes, like just connected, one theme after another.

And I couldn't understand, it's like everything points to Christ. You know, as a young Christian, it's like, okay, I guess it is, but it is amazing. There is no way that a human being, no matter how wise, how smart, could have put this together in 1,500 years, 45 different men to have brought this together.

And the more you see the roots underneath, you sense the breath of God in His Word. I don't know how many times I'm doing quiet time, and just instinctively, I hear myself say, "Wow. Wow." Because I get to see a glimpse of God through the Word. And many times, it's through the same thing I'm looking at.

I've preached through almost every part of the Bible, did quiet time numerous times, every part of the Bible. But even now, as I'm going through it, it's like, "Wow." Because I still, it's living and active. The words that it says now, as a 54-year-old, in the stage of life, my perspective is completely different, and it looks very different than when I was 16 or 20 or 30 or 40.

And every time, it's just living and active. It's not, it's never dead. It's hard for me to explain to you, other than to invite you yourself to come, take a look. The power of the Word of God is not your knowledge, is not to be able to connect the dots to have the best and the most perfect systematic theology.

And I'm not saying that doesn't matter, but that has no power to change anybody, other than to make you look good. And nobody cares. You know how when somebody, when you see pride in people, the natural instinct is to humble them? You know what I'm talking about? Right? And somebody comes on the basketball court and they start speaking trash, and everybody motivated is to humble that person?

That's what happens when you get filled with knowledge. You don't inspire people. You inspire people to humble you. That's what happens, right? The power of the Word of God is that question. Do you believe it? Do you believe this is the Word of God? You know what's amazing about this is, after this encounter, he says, "Because of your unbelief, he gets punished." And in his punishment, in this discipline, basically he doesn't get to speak during Elizabeth's pregnancy.

Whenever God disciplines, there's always two sides. Just like if you were to discipline your children, you're disciplining them, but you're not disciplining them just to hurt them. I hope not. You know what I mean? Most parents will know that you're disciplining them, but you're hoping that the discipline would lead to something positive, and that's why discipline happens.

And in the same way, God brings discipline, and there's a negative side to this discipline. He could not speak. But the privilege that he had to represent Israel and go and then pray, that at the end of that, he would declare the priestly blessing upon Israel. That was his privilege.

So typically what would happen, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime privilege, that he would come out and declare number 624 through 26. He said, "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His counseling on you and give you peace." That was his blessing.

That's like winning the lottery, to stand before God's people and God, and to come out of that room saying, "The Lord bless you and keep you." Because of his unbelief, he couldn't do it. Not only that, the whole reason why John was coming to be a forerunner, to tell people about the coming Messiah.

And so that privilege was taken away from him, so he could not. So he had to keep quiet. And I'm sure that kind of grieved his heart, that one time he was looking forward to, when he won the lottery, to go in there and he was looking forward to, like after he's done, "I'm going to come there, represent God, the Lord bless you, and keep you, make His face shine upon you." And he comes out and he's like, because he couldn't speak, so he's making sign language.

What is he saying? But just like everything negative, there's always a positive to his discipline. Remember Israel? They go to Canaan, they come back and they said, "They're too big for us. They're going to kill us if we go." And as a result of that, Israel wanders in the desert for 40 years.

So the punishment was they couldn't go into the Promised Land. But the 40 years in the desert was the best time Israel had in their history. Forty years, where God spoke to them, God moved, His fire would move. God was in the tabernacle, was in the middle, people were worshiping God.

When He told them to move, they would move. They told them to sit down, they would sit down. And as long as the Lord was with them, they were protected for 40 years. So even though they were being punished, the 40 years was the best time in Israel's life.

Like Moses, 40 years is wandering in the desert and he's about to go in and he strikes the rock and God says, "Because you do not show me as holy, you cannot go in." And Moses wanted to go in so bad, "Look at that beautiful land." And God says, "Enough, you will not go in." If you look at Israel's history, as soon as they enter Canaan, everything fell apart.

They started following the idols and you think Israel was frustrated during the 40 years of wandering. So even though he was being disciplined, he was actually being spared as well. The positive of being mute, one, it was a sign that God was actually going to do what He said He was going to do.

But the greatest time of knowing God, hearing God is when God isolates us and oftentimes in pain and in struggle. You ever hear in the middle of the night the clock ticking? You ever hear that? Or you wake up in the middle of the night and you hear the water dripping from the faucet?

During the day, you wouldn't hear it. You try to hear it, you can't hear it, right? But in the middle of the night when it's dead silence, something that you don't even know exists will keep you up at night. Well, at least me. You hear the ticking. That's what it sounds like in the middle of the night.

But why can't you hear it during the day? It's not all of a sudden that thing gets like the volume, they turn off the volume three o'clock in the morning. It's because all the other noise disappeared. All the other noise has disappeared. And so all of a sudden that noise is amplified.

And I remember thinking in the middle of the night, how much of God's voice is being drowned out by the noise of our life, the busyness, trying to present ourselves a certain way, being concerned about our paycheck, about relationships, about how people view us. How much of God's voice is drowned out because of that?

Sometimes God will isolate us in order for him to speak to us. I remember back when I was 19 and 20, I had a job, I shared with you, where I was a janitor at Hughes Aircraft at Fullerton. It doesn't exist there anymore, but it was a large piece of land where if you were in the middle of the company, you couldn't hear anything outside.

And so my job was from five to two in the morning to clean up trash cans and vacuum and tidy things up in about 10, 15 bungalows. And I remember the sun would go down around 5.30, 6 o'clock during the wintertime. And I remember being so isolated during that time because one, I was trying to break away from my worldly friends.

I didn't want to do what they were doing. I was trying to get back right with God. And so I separated from them. I wasn't living at home. I was outside by myself. So I was working from five to two and then I would go to sleep around 2.30, get home, and then I'd have to wake up around seven because I have to go to school.

And then I tried, I tried to take full time and I would go to school till about two in the afternoon and I'd have to take a short nap and then go back to work. And this was my schedule from Monday through Friday. And then because I didn't have any time during the day, because I was working and going to school, every Friday, Saturday, Sunday night, I would hang out at Biola by myself, just trying to study.

So part of it was because I was trying to study. And part of it was because I had nowhere else to go, to be honest with you, because I wasn't involved in any ministry. I didn't have any friends to call. And so, you know, Friday night I was at Biola, you know, at some, because back then they used to leave all the rooms open.

I don't know how many guys are Biola students and now they don't because they don't trust you. They trusted us back then. So they had everything open. So I would go there Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, you know, whenever I was done, I would go there and hang out.

And I remember just being so lonely. You know, no, no, no friends. And I remember my birthday would come and go and having no contact with anybody that I knew. But man, that period, Jesus was so real to me. It was so real. And as painful as that period was, I often think about, I wish I was back there.

I didn't put myself there. I didn't choose to be there. My circumstance, and because I got into so much trouble, I was trying to break away from my friends. And I forced myself into that position because I needed to, I needed to pay the bills and I needed to go to school.

And I remember everything God said was so loud and clear to me, everything that I read. And I remember going to the chapel at Biola, not because I had an agenda, like, oh, I got to pray for this and I need to pray for my family and to pray with, because just being in his presence was, was where I wanted to be more than anywhere else.

So sometimes I would just go to the chapel and just sit there and say, God, I'm here. And I'd rather be here with you than anywhere else. And to be honest, I had nowhere else to go. And I remember thinking to myself, if I can maintain this relationship with Jesus, I don't need to get married.

Don't get me wrong, I wanted to get married. Right. But I remember thinking, I don't need to get married. That's how real he was to me. And all of that because he isolated me. And I had nothing else. Sometimes God will, it may seem like discipline and it is sometimes because God's trying to correct us.

But in his correction, there's always love. There's always grace. And you will always meet a gentle and caring Jesus. Always. Sometimes our faith feels smaller than a mustard seed. And we struggle. And our honest prayer is, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief. Jesus waited for the perfect time because the perfect time was when Israel's faith was like a burning wick that should have been snuffed out.

It was a burning wick that should have been snuffed out. It was a bruised reed that would have been useful for nothing. And just hanging on by a thread. And yet Jesus promised a battered reed he will not break off and a smoldering wick he will not put out until he leads justice to victory.

I pray that you would come to know this Jesus. Not a figurehead Jesus. Not just a theological Jesus. Not just a Jesus to be worshipped from a distance or something to be looked forward to when we go to heaven. But this Jesus, this sympathetic high priest, that even as we struggle, even as we recognize more and more each day that we are undeserving, that you would come to know this sympathetic high priest.

So when they ask you, do you believe, that you would resoundingly say, yes, I believe. I believe, Lord. All my unbelief, I believe. I pray that as we continue to wrestle through his word, that this is the Jesus that you come to know, to grow, to love, to follow, and to proclaim.

Let's pray. Lord, you truly are beautiful beyond comprehension. I pray, Father God, that you would open our eyes, that we may enter the throne of grace with confidence, that we may find help, grace, mercy, and love when we are weak, when we are discouraged, when we have failed, when we are isolated, when we are alone.

Lord God, help us, Lord, as you've drawn near to us, that you would draw your children to yourself. We love you. We honor you. We want to follow you. We want to glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.