God is worthy to be praised (Lk 1:57-80)

Miracle is not useful if it doesn't stir you to come to God and draw near to him. New things will still happen.
Learn to anchor in God through the miracle, because you are so in awe of His mighty hands
“All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:65‬ ‭NIV‬‬

““Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant,

to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:68-72, 74-80‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:67‬ ‭NIV‬‬
HS can turn a faithless person faithful; make a feeble person respond to the calling of god
You will receive power when HS comes upon you
Before we search for any outward outcome, we need to first search our inner soul, the real battle starts within our spirit. Victory in spirit, only then you can be victor over external

Positive: HS dwells inside us to stir up our born again inclination
- Born again inclinations mean
  - Seeker of god; we are drawn to God's word
  - Fighting spirit - when HS works in us, we will have this determination of not making our sinful nature/ flesh becoming our habit
  - Compete with self - strike a blow to my own body -> fruit of self-control (resist devil and flee from him)
Negative: (not obvious)
- When we don't have fighting spirit, when we desires the pleasures of sin too --> when you are weak, HS works even harder to help you --> we are passively receiving it
  - Sometime HS helps us by giving us some discipline, so that we will be awakened and be drawn to the full grace of God instead of circumstances

God is praiseworthy

God saves (v 68-69; 71.74)
- Horn of salvation
  - Many people come to god for the wrong motives. (Want relief from worldly problem, but God wants to save us from the destiny of eternal curse and destruction)
  - A person can only be saved through the forgiveness of sin, no other way
    - “to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,”‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:77‬ ‭NIV‬
    - Not human grace, but entirely tender mercy of God
- Enemies within us
  - Disbelief, doubts, our inclinations that are fallen
  - And these enemies not only make us sin, but turn us away from the heart of needing god, for we are a satisfied by anything non-God
- Enemies outside us - seen and unseen
  - Unseen: forces of darkness (insinuation, temptations etc)
- Free forgiveness is God's grace -> not to make you feel good and let loose! but empower you to transcend your flesh and world
He gives us a purposeful grace
- not typical grace
- “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”
  ‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:74-75‬ ‭NIV‬‬
- We can go all out to live in His empowerment in all our days (not only when you are more free, spare cash..)
- He wants us to consistently taste his grace --> you want a one time off victory! or consistent victory?
- Pray consistently to be
  - Truth based
  - Kingdom-directed
  - HS guided
  - Then Christ will reign in your heart --> all your fear is gone, n you are indeed consistently tasting the grace of god
    - Means you are reconciled with God (Christ reigns in your heart) --> you have brokenness and contriteness when you fall short of the glory of God --> but you approach him instead of running away! because you believe that only God can help you

Connect our life events to God's master plan of human salvation

Narrow -> broad
- Messiah (things are not of personal issues to you only, it relates to God's covenant and promise to the mankind; don't be hedonistic)
  - Hedonistic --> care about God's glory (that's when you experience the power of HS)
Life events --> linked to covenant
- Abrahamic - source of all blessings
- Davidic - v69-> 2 Sam 7: eternal kingship
- New covenant (77-79): more personal -
  - ““The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭31:31-34‬ ‭NIV‬‬
- All these covenants look so good, but they cannot empower the people to do the will of God because of the sinful nature of man, inhibiting from enjoying the grace of God. Therefore God came to give the solutions, ie the new covenant, it has 2 things (God driven, unconditional)
  - A new heart - new power to seek god, hate sins, battle away our inclinations to yield to flesh (godly inclination)
  - Forgiveness of sins (even though we may still fail)

Prayers - the link to bridge your past to present, and future

If we want to move God's hand, we cannot be self-serving, but pray to link the life events to His master plan
Pray until God's truth becoming our feelings and thinkings
3 points of effective prayers
- The truth needs to be there (the promise of god)
- Struggle because of the truth (and presence of flesh) -- if you don't struggle, how extensive you are connected to the truth? How much you have realized you need to tear down because of the illumination of the truth
- Live out the truth consistently
- Persevere to the end

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Synopsis

How are you looking at yourself today? As a child of God, redeemed by God with a heavy price through the holy son Jesus Christ, do we still often look at ourselves through our naked eyes or through the lens of God.

When Zechariah's heart started to grow cold towards the promise of God because of the many unfulfilled prayers, God was still faithful and preparing the greatest blessing for him that transcended all physical conditions of men. Like Zechariah, we often lose hope in God because we are always seeing ourselves without the covenant, with such narrow-minded, when God is still working mightily at the background to carry His perfect will to completion through your conditions. Despite our narrow-mindedness, Holy spirits is still empowering us both strongly and passively so that we will not lose faith.

Indeed God is worthy to be praised, not only "did He rescue us from the hand of our enemies, He also enables us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”