‘INITIATING The TURN’-XII—Luke 1:24b-25(:5-25)
Attention:
Whenever it becomes obvious that Fall is near, I will end-up baking a few Pumpkin Pies. We begin stockpiling the ingredients for multiple pies. I will bake two pies at a time. I use the recipe printed on the Libby’s brand canned pumpkin label(‘Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie’), but I add two teaspoons of nutmeg for the two pies.
The recipe calls for
1 ½ C Sugar
¾ tsp. Salt
2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. ground Ginger
½ tsp. ground Cloves
*2 tsp. ground Nutmeg*
4 Eggs(beaten)
2 15oz. cans Pumpkin
2 12 oz. cans Evaporated Milk
2 Pie Crusts
•Set oven to 425º.
•Place pie crusts in pie pans.
•Combine dry ingredients until uniform color.
•Add wet ingredients & combine until uniform consistency.
•Pour mixture into the pie crusts.
•I cheat for the pie crusts: I use refrigerated ‘Pillsbury Pie Crusts’(‘Like Homemade Without The Hassle’) from the grocery store. They come two to a box. You simply unroll each one, & shape them like you want, for a regular or deep dish pie.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Turn heat down to 350º & bake for 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out ‘clean’ from the center of each pie.
Let the pies sit in oven until cool.
*Pumpkin Pie is good, but you also need some Whipped Cream to make it Fall Perfection!
2Cups of Heavy Whipping Cream. Whip on high till it holds a firm peak. Fold in one-+ teaspoons of sugar. ‘INITIATING The TURN’-XII—Luke 1:24b-25(:5-25)
**Having all those ingredients handy, along with the glass pie plate ready for the crusts, & having an oven available to bake them in, will NEVER make a pie!
BUT, taking the initiative to actually put the recipe to work, will make 2 uniformly consistent pies.
**As with baking a Pumpkin Pie, there is a lot of interconnection & involvement in any process.
But the process has to be ‘INITIATED’ at some point!
Likewise, God accomplished the promised ‘turning of people’ to Himself, by INITIATING the actions that were necessary to bring about mankind’s eventual salvation & glorification in Christ Jesus(Eph. 1:6-8, 13-14; Rom. 8:17-21, 30; Heb. 2:9).
God INITIATED the process of ‘turning people’ back to Himself, thru Zacharias & Elizabeth in Israel, over two thousand years ago.
*The title of this sermon series ‘turns’ on Lk. 1:16-17.
Need:
Every person has a deep-seated God-ordained need for certainty, settled peace, & confidence in their lives. And most never experience those things! But they can indeed be yours!....
But ONLY IF you willingly & unconditionally TURN to God, by trusting Christ Jesus as Savior & Lord. ‘
Luke informed his audience of the initial steps that God took to turn His people toward Himself.
God began the process of turning of His people toward Himself.
And we are answering the question...
...?What principles does God use to begin turning people toward Himself?
12 principles God used & uses to begin turning people toward Himself.
So far in Luke’s Gospel, we have found that:
In initiating the Turn to Himself, God uses...
1. RIGHTEOUS FAITHFULNESS(:5-7)
2. PRIVILEGED DUTY(:8-9)
3. CONCERTED & DUTIFUL PRAYER(:10)
4. HEALTHY FEAR(:11-12)
5. DIVINE COMFORT(:13a)
6. DIVINE PARTNERSHIP(:13b-17)
7. DIVINE CHASTISEMENT(:18-20)
8. An ENHANCED PERSPECTIVE(:21)
9. An ENHANCED Or SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY(:22)
10. An ENHANCED CONTINUANCE(:23)
11. CONFIRMING FULFILLMENT(:24a)
Today we’ll find that:
12—In Initiating the Turn to Himself, God ALSO uses...
TRANSFORMATIONAL APPRECIATION(:24b-25)
Explanation:(:24b-25)Thankfulness
:24b—“... & she hid herself five months, saying,”
:25—“Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
:24b—“... & she hid herself five months, saying,”
Why would Elizabeth “hide herself” these “five months”?...
...Elizabeth ‘probably’ did so until it would have been OBVIOUS to others that the spoken or verbally shared prophecy(from the angel Gabriel) about John’s birth was true. That is, It seems that Elizabeth “hid” until ‘the evidence’ was apparent...Until she was ‘showing.’
•Without tangible ‘evidence’(sight/observation/sound/touch/taste/smell) of Christian ‘works’, whatever we ‘say’ to others about Jesus, comes across as just empty, vain, confused, & idle ramblings born of ignorance, & a ‘powerless’ God!
•This holds true for all Christians...Again, Without the ‘LIFE’ lived out, to back up who & what we claim we love(Jesus), no one will respect Jesus, as God deserves & requires them to.
•That is why it’s vital for every true Christian to exhibit ‘works’—actions, a lifestyle, personal choices, speech, decisions— that display the actual trust & belief of a heart that is centered on Christ Jesus.
Js. 2:14-17, 21-22, 26—“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?[the answer is ‘No, it cannot!’] If a brother or sister is naked & destitute of daily food, & one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed & filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”.....“Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, & by works faith was made perfect?”.....“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
:25—“Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
Elizabeth in her own words declares that the One who is her “Lord” has “looked upon” her with favor, regarding her now former barrenness(:7).
God ‘openly’/obviously acted in one particular timeframe of Elizabeth’s life, AFTER she had surpassed her ‘natural’ or ‘usual’ child-bearing years.
*Something God’s people can learn from this, is that no matter our circumstances, the people God uses are to be faithful even when He is SEEMINGLY absent!
God regarded Elizabeth’s involvement & her plight(barrenness) in such a way as to completely remove any “reproach”(shame/disgrace/notoriety) that other people may have held toward her. God had brought about an obvious miracle...And that miracle was directed toward bringing repentance to the people. Elizabeth’s miracle was directed toward proclaiming the unquestioned arrival of the long-promised Messiah(See Zacharias’ prophecy after John’s birth--1:67-79).
Elizabeth’s miracle was not so much for her personally as it was for the furtherance of the Gospel, although it accomplished both. The miracle of John’s conception & birth was for Elizabeth personally, ONLY in that she was willing to submit herself to God’s desire for her part in God’s kingdom work!
Thru John the Baptist, God revealed that He was sovereignly at work in Israel, initiating the return of mankind to Himself.
•God will bring the miraculous to your house, IF that is what you truly need....& IF the Kingdom of God would be served thru it.
•When push-comes-to-shove, I think most of God’s people would have a difficult time believing that they truly ‘deserved’ a miracle from God, for our own use.
It was not so much that Elizabeth’s “reproach” had been “taken away” solely by her finally becoming pregnant.
•Rather, Elizabeth’s “reproach” had been “taken away” because she was not just pregnant, but pregnant with a ‘particular’ child. And God Himself would use that particular child, John the Baptist, to mightily & strategically, fulfill His many promises regarding the salvation of mankind!
*?Why would it be important to have your personal “reproach among people” removed?.....
•No one wants others to think badly of them. If you have a ‘bad reputation’ or you are looked-down-on in the world, then your words & actions are readily scrutinized as to their truthfulness/veracity/accuracy.
*I encourage you to take your “reproach” to Jesus. There you will find God’s perfect wisdom for your situation!
•Particularly as Christians, each of us must maintain a favorable personal reputation among others, BECAUSE that personal reputation, speaks either favorably or unfavorably of Christ’s reality!
•EXAMPLE: Suppose you had openly lived your entire lifetime as a ‘useless redneck, dead-beat loser’, up until the day you gave your life to Jesus. Then people who hear your new-found ‘Christian verbiage’, will be looking for the ‘old-you’ to raise it’s ugly head. They will be scrutinizing you for evidence that you are NOT a new creation in Christ!(cf.-2Cor. 5:17). They will be looking for evidence that you are just ‘blowing smoke’, because if that is the fact, then your ‘new-found religion’ is a lie! And they assume from that, that they are not answerable to the God you preach!
2Cor. 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
If we are received either negatively or positively by others, then Christ Himself will be received in that same light!
Our faith builds upon faith. It progresses, it grows, it strengthens, it diversifies, it expands, incorporates....vastly more than when we first believed.
•We &/or others can observe a person’s growing faith because it is an OVERCOMING faith. And so there are multiple, openly obvious testimonies of God’s work in the growing Christian. And those testimonies are encouraging to yourself, as well as to others of the same faith.
Argumentation:
Lk. 18:9-14—“Also He[Jesus] spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, & despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee & the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood & prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, & he who humbles himself will be exalted.””
Gal. 2:14-21—“But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles & not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, & not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ & not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; & the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me & gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Illustration:
I can remember when I saw for the very first time, a church video of myself preaching on a Sunday morning. It brought me to tears—not because the preaching was so bad!😬😄—, But because I realized that even when I may not think I’ve done well, God still speaks thru my faithfulness! TRANSFORMATIONAL APPRECIATION
I never wanted to be a preacher. I did not grow up aspiring to be a preacher. I never chose to be a preacher. I was always shy, & had real trouble talking to others. BUT when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, I was immediately called & unexpectedly & unbelievably equipped to do just what God wanted of me. And I am so thankful for His using me to bring about His will! TRANSFORMATIONAL APPRECIATION
:25—“Thus the Lord has dealt with me...”
*Remember...
?How do you respond to the way the Lord has "dealt with" you?
Application:
?Can God depend on YOUR TRANSFORMATIONAL APPRECIATION to Turn people to Himself?
?Will YOU serve God in ‘initiating the turn?’
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
Baking pumpkin pies. They do not assemble nor bake themselves! I must begin the process!
Likewise, God INITIATED the process of ‘turning people’ back to Himself, thru Zacharias & Elizabeth in Israel, two thousand years ago.
Action:
In Initiating the Turning of people to Himself, God uses...
12. TRANSFORMATIONAL APPRECIATION(:24b-25)
1. RIGHTEOUS FAITHFULNESS(:5-7)
2. PRIVILEGED DUTY(:8-9)
3. CONCERTED & DUTIFUL PRAYER(:10)
4. HEALTHY FEAR(:11-12)
5. DIVINE COMFORT(:13a)
6. DIVINE PARTNERSHIP(:13b-17)
7. DIVINE CHASTISEMENT(:18-20)
8. An ENHANCED PERSPECTIVE(:21)
9. ENHANCED Or SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY(:22)
10. ENHANCED CONTINUANCE(:23)
11. CONFIRMING FULFILLMENT(:24a)
Pt# 12 only! presented 10/13/2024am to:
Salem Baptist Church
1618 Salem Rd.
Bennettsville, SC 29512
