When word first came out that schools were closing and we were supposed to stay home as much as possible, I think a lot of us thought, “time off!”

But then reality set in. 

Our kids would suddenly be at home all day. 

The reality of us or someone we love, getting sick started to sink in. The stress and anxiety of going grocery shopping and lines starting at 5:30 am like black Friday, except it’s every day. 

What about our finances, our career, savings, retirement? A friend told me in one day; she lost everything she gained in a decade towards her retirement. 

If you have kids, you are also navigating their stress and anxiety about all of this. They are being marked and shaped by this pandemic. They feel your stress, as well as the stress in their little bodies. You might be trying to help aging parents and trying to convince them to stay in. 

And it’s a lot!

Something else happens when we sit at home. Memories come back. The voices and messages in our heads get louder. 

Guilt, shame, regret, anxieties we thought we had gotten over, addictions we thought we were past, creep back in. 

You see, in the busyness of life, we can sometimes drown these out. As we run from one meeting to the next, crossing things off our to-do list, it is easy to drown out those things and not think about them. That is one reason we are as busy as we are; it keeps us from being alone with ourselves and our thoughts. 

But now, life is quieter, so those voices are louder. 

We sit on our couch, endlessly scrolling through Netflix and think about missed opportunities: what if we had taken that job, made that choice differently last year, would my life be somewhere else now?

It feels like right now that a lot of things are stacked against us and those that we love. 

We started a series this past Sunday, called Against all odds because right now, it can feel like we are on the ropes, that we are stuck, that there is no hope. If we’re honest, we feel like that right now. We are fighting for hope about our job and the economy. We are fighting against fear for our health and those that we love. 

But in Jesus, there is always hope. 

The theme for this whole series is found in Romans 8:31 says If God is for us, who can be against us?

Do you know what is incredible about this verse? Not only what it says but that most of us don’t live like it is true. 

Many of us live as if God is against us. 

And the reason for many of us is most of our life we have felt like people were against us. 

Many of us haven’t had the feeling of people being in our corner, so we wonder if God is like that. 

Often, in moments like this, we will ask why questions. Why has God allowed this to happen? Why doesn’t God stop this? Why didn’t God step in to do what we think he should do?

But I think there is a more profound question lurking for us. And the answer to that question influences how we answer the why questions. 

And it’s this: When God looks at me, what does He think? 

When you come to God’s mind, what does he think?

Does he look at you and me like a disappointed dad, shaking his head at our mistakes, our worries? 

Does he look at you and say, “be a man, be tougher!”

Stop being a failure, stop flipping out at your kids, and get your act together. 

Most of us think that is what God thinks. 

Others of us feel forgotten by God; we wonder if he is there, does he hear my prayers?

We wonder, in these stressful, anxious moments, does God love? Does he care about me? Does he know what is keeping me up at night, and does he care?

But that isn’t the picture the Bible gives us of God.

Instead, we see a God who comes to us. Who rescues us. Who steps into the mess of our world to pick us up, clean us off, and hold us.

Pastor Ray Ortlund said, “Being forgiven, in Jesus means that we are not holding on to Jesus as much as he is holding on to us.”

Let that sink in for a moment. 

Jesus is holding on to you. In your brokenness, in your lust, your struggle, your hangups, hurts, and addictions.

He is holding you.

Have you ever felt stuck in life? In a relationship? Or your career?

This happens in our career where we feel like we’re just going in circles. We feel stuck in our finances, where it seems impossible to get ahead.  Or sometimes, relationally, we feel like a relationship is stuck, or we find ourselves bouncing from one group to another, never really feeling like we belong. Or at a spiritual level, we feel like God is putting something in front of us, something that is out of our comfort zone, and we’re not sure we want to do it.

We’ll try all kinds of things to get unstuck. Books, blogs, counseling. And all those are great, but what about God?

I think for many of us, we wonder if God cares that we’re stuck. Could God help us get unstuck? I know for myself, I often think I’m so small, and the things that I’m facing seem so small in comparison to other items in the world God is dealing with, but we need to remind ourselves, that He cares for each one of us and what we are facing.

What if, an encounter with God gets us unstuck? That sounds so simple. An encounter with God. But how does that work? How do we encounter God?

To answer that, we need to go to a mountain top. Why a mountain top?

For me, I love to be on top of a mountain. When life feels hectic and stressful or hot in the summer in Tucson, going up Mt Lemmon is a breath of fresh air. The cold weather, the quiet, and peace bring clarity to things. It is refreshing. I feel the same way when I stand on a mountain with a snowboard strapped to my feet. I feel closer to God, and I feel more alive.

Have you ever felt that way?

There is a clarity to a mountain top in life; obstacles feel smaller, dreams, and visions for our lives become clearer than in a valley.

Mountaintops bring perspective.

And if we’re honest, God feels closer on a mountain top than in a valley. But encountering God on the mountain reshapes our reality to live in the valley.

Is there something to that? I believe so.

Very often in the Bible, encounters with God happen on mountains.

In the book of Exodus, Moses meets God on a mountain top, and God tells him that He will use Moses to set the nation of Israel free from slavery in Egypt after 400 years. After bringing the nation of Israel out of slavery, God gives Moses the ten commandments for them on a mountain top. Elijah, a great prophet in the Old Testament, heard the still, small voice of God on a mountain top. Jesus often went off to pray and be alone with God on a mountain top. Jesus gave his most famous sermon known as the sermon on the mount, on a mountain top. When Jesus ascended into heaven, and he gave his disciples the call to go into all the world and make disciples, he did it on a mountain top.

This is important, and something easily missed in the busyness of life.

Perspective in life, getting unstuck, involves moving to a new place (not a different city) but getting away from the busyness and daily activities of living.

We know this, but we keep grinding it out, hoping that somehow, something will change for us.

But what happens on the mountain? What happens when we pull away?

What we hope will happen and what will happen are different things.

We hope that God will change everything at once. He will move us here, change this job, fill our bank account, fix that relational issue, or take that hurt away in an instant.

And for some of us, that happens.

Most of the time, though, God simply invites us to what is next.

We can’t move on to what is next until we encounter God.

One of the things many Christians are looking for is how do I grow spiritually?

I think many things can help you grow your faith, but two of them stand out in the New Testament. One that we often talk about and one we do not — one surprising and one that isn’t.

Let’s start with the one that you might expect.

Community. Relationships.

We all know that community and relationships make an enormous impact in positive and negative ways.

Throughout the New Testament, we see that we are to pursue being one with others. We are to love them, care for them, do life with them. Too many of though, are trying to grow spiritually on our own. We are trying to figure out God’s will for our lives, figure out our spiritual gifts and do that all in isolation. The reality is, though, many of those things become more apparent to us in community.

I can’t become all that God wants me to become in isolation.

J.D. Greear said, “The church is to be God’s demonstration community.”

It is through relationships that we show what God is like. It is a willingness to be humble, to love, to serve, to handle complicated relationships, and forgive that we show what God is like.

The second we grow spiritually, and this is the surprising one, or at least, the one we wished weren’t true, and that is difficulties.

When life is going well, relationships are hitting on all cylinders, my career and finances are going well; my perceived need for God goes down. I start to think I can handle most of my life and turn less and less to God.

But when life is hard. When I find myself facing the dark night of the soul or a desert season, I am very aware of my need for God.

While we will run toward community and relationships, we will often do what we can to avoid difficulty in life, but both are needed to grow in our relationship with God.

Christmas is the perfect picture of anticipation as a child. 

Every year on December 24, we let our kids open a present. A teaser, a taste of things to come, and we kids relished it. Of course, it wasn’t much of a surprise – we always get them new pajamas, even when they don’t need them. But still, it was a ritual of hope. Our kids hope they’ll get something cooler than PJs. 

Christmas morning. For many of us is an unfortunate picture of disappointment. I am only one person with his own set of experiences, but as I talk to others, I find similar feelings of frustration. As we get older, many people seem to develop a general distrust toward any day that promises to fill the emptiness they’ve felt all year long. It is why, for some, Christmas is a reminder of the inevitable letdown of life. 

The unfortunate answer to the question, “Did you get everything you wanted?” is, of course, no. And we feel terrible about this. 

Why can’t we be happy? Why can’t we be satisfied? Will we ever be content with what we have – with the gifts in our stockings, the toys under the tree? Why is there this constant thirst for more?

Christmas is about hope, but if we’re honest, in the dark places of our hearts, we feel hopeless. 

Many of us look back over this last year with a sense of regret. We think of conversations we wish we could redo, choices we could makeover, opportunities we missed that we would take, if only. 

Each year, the Washington post releases how Americans feel about the year. They asked them to describe their year in one word. Of the top 20 answers, 11 were negative. Words like bad, unsettled, scary, disastrous, disappointed, horrible, turmoil, challenging. And the number 1 word to describe this year was chaotic. 

Many of us can relate. 

Where does this come from?

Henri Nouwen says our feeling of hopelessness comes from 3 places, three lies many of us believe:

• I am what I have 
• I am what I do 
• I am what other people say or think of me

In Luke 1, Zechariah and Elizabeth felt this. An angel promised Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a son, one they had longed for. Hope for a childless couple. 

Zechariah and Elizabeth are the first ones we encounter in the Christmas story. Now, what is fascinating about Zechariah’s name is what it means, especially as we are looking for hope. Zechariah means “The Lord has remembered.” When we feel hopeless, we wonder if God has forgotten.

This is incredibly powerful for us to hear. It is in the act of remembering that God acts.

This is incredibly painful in any century, but in the first century, having children was considered a sign of God’s blessing. The gospel of Luke points out how Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous and followed God’s law so that we don’t fall into the temptation of thinking their childlessness is a result of personal sin.

They had resigned themselves to being childless. They had prayed and asked, and nothing.

Many of us have been there. Many of us are there. We’ve prayed and begged God. We’ve shouted at the heavens and nothing. So, we resign ourselves to not being answered. We take God’s silence. We feel forgotten and give up on hope.

The story of Christmas, the birth of Jesus and John in impossible ways, in ways that only God can bring about is what Christmas is all about. It is what Christianity is all about. The hope we long for is only possible through Jesus.

Christmas, the gospel, Jesus is about bringing about something new.

In Luke 1:78-79, Zechariah sang a song after his son was born about the new life that God brings about: Those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death have seen a light.

Tim Keller said, “Christmas through the lens of Jesus is the most unsentimental, realistic way of looking at life. It does not agree with the optimists who say, ‘We can fix things if we try hard enough.’ Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dismal future. Instead, the message of Jesus is, ‘Things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark – nevertheless, there is hope.”

One of the most common feelings at Christmas is feeling forgotten. It might be missing out on a Christmas party, a gift, a bonus at work, or not getting a Christmas card from someone. 

Christmas raises the awareness of our feelings that lay beneath the surface for the rest of the year.

The story of Christmas found in Matthew and Luke is a story of the unexpected. Two thousand years ago, in Israel, the people of God had been waiting. God had been silent for 400 years. Think about that for a moment, 400 years and nothing from God. God had not sent a prophet. A king or even an angel to help them like in the past. There were so many prophecies made in the Old Testament, and yet for 400 years, nothing seemed to be happening. 

God seemed eerily quiet. They felt forgotten. The people of God wondered if God would remember his promise to send a Messiah.

And if we’re honest, some of us are there today. Some of us feel like God is silent. That God has gone away even. We might also feel forgotten. 

The first person God comes to is a man named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Verse 6 of Luke 1 tells us about them: Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Zechariah was a priest who went into the temple to intercede on behalf of the people. So, he’s doing his job, going about his business. We must be told they were blameless and then that they were childless because in this culture, if you weren’t able to have children, that was often seen as a curse from God, or it made people wonder if you had sinned. But it also tells us about their situation. 

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. Luke 1:11 – 15a

Now, when we think of angels, we always think of cute, cuddly creatures floating on a cloud that looks like a baby in a diaper or a toga. Yet every time an angel appears in scripture, the first thing they say is, “Don’t be afraid.” Because the angels looked more like warriors. They were called warriors of light. 

The angel tells him, your prayer has been heard. What prayer? It could be the prayer to have a child, but as a priest, he would’ve been praying for the coming of the Messiah. 

I’ve often wondered if he was still praying for a child or if he had given up on that prayer. Has that happened to you when you think, “I’m done praying for this because nothing seems to be happening.” We don’t believe that, but we just one day stop asking God for something. 

I wonder if, sometimes, to protect ourselves from being hurt, we stop expecting God to do anything. 

Look at Zechariah’s response in verse 18: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

We’re so hard on people in the bible. An angel is standing there talking to you, and you are questioning him. How could he doubt?

We would do the same. 

We read a verse in the bible, see a promise of God’s, and think, are you sure? I know the text says I’m forgiven, but am I? I know the bible says God will never leave me nor forsake, but…?

Now, let me tell you something that I think is amazing. For many of us, we name a child after a family friend, someone close to us, or look up the top 10 names of the year and go on that. But Throughout the bible, names are essential. They tell a part of a person’s story, character, or something God wants us to know about them. 

Zechariah’s name means “The Lord has remembered.”

It is not a coincidence that after 400 years of silence, God’s first words are to a man whose name means “The Lord remembers.” 

Why? The people of God felt forgotten. They were under Roman rule. I’m sure many people wondered, how do we know God is even real? When was the last time we heard from him? When was the last time he sent us a prophet? Moved? Did anything we can see? 

Not only that, I wonder if Zechariah felt forgotten. I wonder if Zechariah heard his name said by friends and ever thought, “God doesn’t remember.”

Yet, Zechariah believed and prayed. And God remembered. 

God remembers and answers. The message of Christmas tells us, God remembers and answers. 

Right now, some of you are wondering, does God remembers and answer? Does he remember and answer while I walk through a divorce? Cancer? A family that is the picture in the dictionary when you look up dysfunctional? Does he remember and answer in unemployment? Lost hopes and dreams?

Sometimes, we need to be reminded; God knows you. God remembers you. God hears you. Maybe you’re here today, and you don’t know why you’re here, but you need to be reminded, God knows you. God remembers you. God hears you. God answers. 

Not always the way we want or on our timetable. Zechariah was an old man!

So God sends an angel to Zechariah to say, “Your prayer has been answered, you will have a son.”

Christmas is not about sentimental feelings. Those are nice, but they only get us so far. They aren’t able to handle the darkness of the valley. Christmas is about the reality that God came to earth in Jesus, he entered our mess and became one of us, and because of Jesus, and because of the birth of Jesus, this leads us to the peace we long for. 

God remembers and answers. 

So because of that…

What prayer are you asking God for this Christmas? 

Maybe it is something specific that you stopped praying for but need to start. 

Or maybe it is something you have never prayed for but need to start. 

Or maybe, you need to ask God to open your eyes to see what he’s doing around, so you don’t miss him showing up.

Have you ever been stuck in life? I know I have. 

We get stuck trying to decide for our family, career, a trip, major in college, or what school to put our kids in.

I think one of the most common things I see among people right now is the feeling that their life isn’t going anywhere, that it is standing still. Another way to put it is the feeling that life isn’t going the way you expected it to go.

If we aren’t careful, we get cynical and bitter when life doesn’t go how we planned or hoped. 

It is easy to get cynical and bitter when it comes to faith and prayer. 

For some of us, you have had a life-changing experience with Jesus. The encounter was so real and vivid that it was life-changing. If you’re reading this, you probably want that, this sense that God is in your life, active and on the move. You want your life to count, to matter, to be part of something significant. 

But many of us miss it.

And for a simple, but surprising reason. 

Control.  

The path to our greatest hopes and dreams is through the door of surrender.

In Matthew 6, when Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he prayed like this:

This, then, is how you should pray:

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.