God is the promise keeper! (CLAIM THE PROMISE)

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, gentlemen. Saints, it's great to have you here. A huge thank you to all of you who have been listening and sharing this podcast out. It is doing wonderful things. I'm seeing all kinds of people engage. I am very excited for where we're going here. We're going to pick back up in Luke today, take a look at the birth of John. I'm excited to do that as well. For all of you that prefer to listen to this podcast on specific platforms, just so you know, most of the directories have now picked up the platform. So if you want to listen to this on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, that option is available for you as well as here on the main site. So if you're— if you've been looking to get this on one of the platforms that you usually listen to podcasts on, that's available for you now. So without further ado, let's get down to it. We're going to get to the birth of John today. Excited to get there. Let's see what we've got. So as always, guys, I will be reading from the ESV. We're picking it up Luke 1, chapter 57. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the 8th day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. And they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father inquiring why— what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. They all wondered, and immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his And as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. You will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of sins. Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit 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. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. So when last we had left Zechariah, he had been muted by the angel, right? He had doubted what God had said he was going to do, even though he'd been praying for it forever. And we kind of went over that a little bit in one of the previous episodes. previous episodes. If you missed that, feel free to go back and listen. It's in the first chapter of Luke that we took a look at. But in this one, what we see is Zechariah coming through, understanding what needed to happen here, following through, believing the Lord, seeing the child, calling him John as instructed, doing the right thing. And that's not too impressive. But I want to come back to the Book of Luke and what it was written for. Right. Out of the 4 Gospels, you got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And Luke was the one that was really, really written for the Gentiles. For those that are unfamiliar with the faith, and I think that's what's really powerful in this chapter, at least for me, is seeing God's promises fulfilled and letting the readers know that who might not have any familiarity with the Old Testament, with the Jewish scriptures. This has long been promised. This is something that the Lord has committed to from times old. This is something that has been prophesied. This is something that is a, is a work of God that people have been waiting for for hundreds, if not thousands of years. This is prophecy come to life in a time where people were desperate to see it. And again, just like we saw with Mary, the response is one of outspoken praise and worship. It is one that acknowledges this is not a work of man. This is a work of God. It is one that acknowledges the amazing things that he has done and that he has promised these things from time forgotten, from times so far past that people can't even fathom. If that doesn't ring true today, I'm not sure what does. And there's a lot of sadness in the world right now. There's war, there's poverty, there's family There's disease. Those things have always existed. But for us to look back at what God's promises were, what God promises are for his church, for his people, we went from being a persecuted, tiny little church back in the beginning, back when Christ walked, back when John was around, back just this tiny, tiny little following by any standard, a tiny little following to being the dominant religion of the world, to being this massive movement that is globally known almost anywhere you go in the world. Christ is known. And if Christ Christ is not known in a way where he is followed and loved and, and, and, and there are practicing believers. He is hated and that much more so known. He is the thing to be vilified. The thing that I would look at today, though, is the fulfillment of prophecy in this, guys. Take a look at the promises that God has for you, not just in, in a larger scope and scale for promises of the world, promises for the church as a whole, but also for yourself in your life. What are the promises he has for you? What promises has he fulfilled regularly? Which promises Like Zachariah, is he just waiting for you to speak out loud? Is he waiting for you to say, God, you said that this would be true in my life and I need to make this happen just by speaking it out, by saying it's there? Consider that today as you walk. Are you going through trials right now where God's promises say, I'm going to be there for you? I promised I'm going to be there for you. I'm with you even now. Take that time today as you face trials and struggles, men. It's not going to be easy, but realize throughout your life, throughout your walk, God has been there all along. See prophecy Fulfilled in your previous days, in your weeks, in your years that you've lived, and how God has shown up over and over again to fulfill the prophecies that he is your God. You are his people. He loves you. He cherishes you. He protects you. He provides for you. He teaches you. He guides you. He grows you. Those promises are true and they're yours. See them in the past. See them in the things that have happened in your walk and your journey so far, and know those promises are true moving forward. Take that comfort today. Take that comfort wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Lord, I lift up the men that are listening here today. I pray that you would sharpen them. I pray that you would show them that your prophecies in the Old Testament and the New Testament are theirs today. They're theirs to have the blessings that you've promised. The prosperity is a small thing. But when I speak of prosperity, I'm not speaking of wealth. I'm speaking of the prosperity in the spirit, that deepening relationship with you, Lord, that we can look at the things of the past, our walk, our testimony, and realize you've been with us through all this. You continue to be with us in all of this, Lord. You have a passion and a purpose in what we are doing, and you continue to walk alongside us, bringing that passion and purpose to life. Pray for those of us going through seasons of trial right now, Lord. Be with us. Trials are never easy, and they're not meant to be, but on the other side, there's great blessings. Help us to have pure joy like James speaks of in our trials, Lord. Pray for those of us that are going through a season of blessing, that we would recognize that that's prophecy fulfilled, Lord. That's your provision. That's providence at its fullest, and it's not our doing.

Amen.

I pray for the men that have unspoken prayer requests. Lord, pray that you would hear their prayers, that you would be with them, that you guide them. In your name we pray. That's it for today, man. We are going to continue again tomorrow on Friday, and then Saturday I'm going to mix it up a little bit. I don't think that we're going to do a scripture breakdown. I will probably start to look at new Christian books, music, possibly videos. If you guys have resources that you think would be valuable to the community, please let me know on social media. As always, guys, prayer requests are more than welcome. You can tag me on social media. You can email me directly, directly. All of those links are in the description on this podcast, so feel free to do that. Thank you so much to all of you who are listening and sharing this out. If you do have a moment, please take the time to give the podcast review. It means the world. It does a lot to help get it spread to new listeners, whatever platform they're listening on. Have an amazing day, guys, and I can't wait to see you tomorrow with the next chapter of Luke. Take it easy.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.