Joy Found Through Faithful Waiting

Joy Even When You Feel Forgotten. There are seasons when life leaves you feeling overlooked, unheard, or stuck in a long wait you never asked for. The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1 shows that even when God seems silent he is still moving. Their experience reveals how joy can begin long before the circumstances change and how God sees what others miss. This message invites listeners to rediscover hope in the God who remembers.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18274897

Key Points

1. God Sees Your Faithfulness
    Luke 1:6-7
    Faithfulness is never wasted. God sees the quiet obedience and steady service that others overlook, and joy grows from trusting his unseen work.
2. God Hears the Prayers You Stopped Expecting Him to Answer
    Luke 1:11-13
    Old prayers still matter to God. Even when hope feels gone, God continues to work and answers in his perfect timing.
3. God Can Bring Joy in Unexpected Ways and Unlikely Situations
    Luke 1:18-20
    God often surprises his people by working through moments that seem impossible. The delay becomes part of the preparation.
4. What Their Story Means for Us Today
    Real joy does not come from perfect circumstances but from the character and presence of God. Seasons of waiting can become places where God is quietly shaping what comes next.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris

Pastor Chris shares how God unexpectedly led his family back to the Iron Range and arranged the sale of homes on the same day, showing how God works behind the scenes. He also tells the story of a student who longed to share her faith and later found that God had been preparing her for the perfect moment to do so.

Notable Quotes

“Bible joy is a deep and steady gladness that comes from knowing and trusting God, not from how life feels in the moment.”
 “God hears the prayers you stopped expecting him to answer.”
 “Living for Christ is an adventure. You never know what God is about to do when you stay faithful.”

Actionable Takeaways

• Revisit one old prayer and bring it before God with renewed trust.
 • Stay consistent in the quiet habits of obedience that no one sees.
 • Ask God to show you one new step you can take while you wait.
 • Begin each morning with the prayer: Here I am, Lord. Use me today.

Scripture References

Luke 1:5-25
 2 Timothy 3:15-17
 James 1:2-4
 Psalm 37:4
 Philippians 4:19
 Hebrews 13:5

Keywords Paragraph

This episode explores themes of waiting, unanswered prayer, disappointment, and renewed joy through the account of Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1:5-25. It highlights faithfulness in long seasons of silence, the hope that comes from trusting God’s timing, and the quiet ways God works behind the scenes even when life feels overlooked or forgotten.

Challenge

Choose one place in your life where you feel forgotten and bring it to God this week with fresh trust that he sees, hears, and is already working.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

It's good to proclaim the Christmas message, but I know that many of you are so familiar with it, familiar with it in every way. And so as I was praying about it, thinking about what could I say this year, I really wanted to focus on in the Christmas story, when you see how God treated those people, how does that relate to us? How does that apply to us? What can we learn from it? What did they do that was good and bad? What did they do that was admirable? What did they do that we might advise against? And how does God treat us? Now we can do that because 2 Timothy 3, 15 through 17 says, you've been taught the Holy Scripture from childhood, and they've given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. We know that when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're adopted into God's family. You become a child of God. You receive the Holy Spirit, which helps you to understand the Bible and live the Christian life, and also even serve with at least one spiritual gift and so many things from that. So when you're in Christ, then we can apply scripture to our life. And verse 16 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. And that scripture includes the Old Testament and the New Testament, includes the Gospels and even the Christmas account in the Gospels. So we are able to do that. And when I talk about joy, when I talk about joy, it doesn't just mean happiness. It doesn't mean that you're joyful because everything's working out. During the Christmas season, there's so much joy. Everybody's so happy and everything's so great for everybody. At least that's what the TV commercials say. But in reality, uh there's a lot of stressed out people. There's a lot of stressed out people at Christmas time, and it's not really based on the Christmas story, it's based upon cultural expectations and expectations of children and families that you have to get the perfect gifts and you have to have the perfect Christmas dinner and you have to go to all the functions and you have to do this and that and all these different things, and it can be really stressful. And for some people, in the midst of all the action, their loss of joy is because they're just too busy. But then there's a whole nother side of people that they don't have anywhere to go. No one invited them over. There's no no one left in their life, or their kids live far away, or they never had kids, or all this stuff, and they're just lonely and they're not feeling any joy either. So see what you can do to share the joy. But let me just define the joy before we start. Bible joy is a deep, steady gladness that comes from knowing and trusting God, not from how life feels in the moment. It's the inner confidence that God is good, God is with us, and God keeps his promises even in hardship. Happiness depends on circumstances and rises or falls with what is happening around us, but joy is a work of the Holy Spirit and remains even when circumstances are painful. Joy is rooted in God's character, God's salvation, and God's presence, which means it can coexist with sorrow and still give strength, hope, and peace. And in James 1:2 it says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. So, joy, joy. And so to have joy when you feel forgotten. And we're going to look at Zechariah and Elizabeth and the gospel account, the Christmas account, doesn't start with a party, doesn't start with a celebration. It starts with two very old people faithfully serving God, yet disappointed in life, because God never blessed them with a child. At least not yet, when we start in the story. Sometimes you don't get it, to be realistic. Sometimes it answers it in a different way. Sometimes he knows it's not good for you. Sometimes I think it's just based upon either choices or sinful choices of people around us or things like that. But the thing that we truly need, the relationship that we need with the Lord will get us through. And the greatest act of worship isn't when you're loving Jesus because everything in your life is perfect, because you have more money than you know what to do with, because everything that you put your hand to is prosperous and good, because everything's just great, then you're praising God. I think the truest praise is when you struggle, when you have difficulty, when you keep moving on, or I like to say keep soldiering on in faithfulness to do God's will, God's way. And I think he can reward you for that. I think that sometimes he's preparing you for something. Sometimes he's preparing other people around you for something. Sometimes your greatest life achievement isn't going to even be what you did, but it's going to be what God did through you. We see that with missionaries and all these people in the past that didn't think they were making a difference, and then after they died, you started to see the fruit of their labor and they experienced a rough life. But when you were able to look at their life in relationship to the seeds that they planted and things like that, you see the great results that God did through them because they didn't give up, because they were faithful, because they didn't say, Well, you know, it doesn't seem like I'm getting exactly what I want when I want it. But a joy when you feel forgotten. When we come to this season, too, there's people that struggle with broken relationships or loss of somebody they love. Some people have health worries, some people are concerned about their jobs or their businesses or the economy or politics or just all sorts of different things. And to just have this confidence that you know this is in heaven, but God is still involved in your life and that God still cares and God is still moving. Even when you're in a situation that feels stuck, even when you have a question you can't resolve, even when those unanswered prayers seem like God's silence, but God sees, God knows, God cares, God hears, and God remembers. So I assume that you all know this gospel Christmas story very well. But I'm just gonna read from Luke 1, verse 5 to 25, which might seem like a long passage, but actually it's not very long. I'm gonna read that right now. The birth of John the Baptist foretold. In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 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. Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 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. He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many people will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I'm an old man, and my wife is well along in years. And the angel said to him, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them, but remained unable to speak. When this time when his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant, and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. Well, that's a pretty exciting message when you listen to it. There's all sorts of questions you could ask of the text. I just want to focus on three in the time that we have. But I do think it's amazing that in the Bible that we are given the stories of real life people who do dumb things, who make mistakes, and who have statements that you wonder about. And so I just have a few statements that are said here that I wonder about. One is, okay, Zechariah questioned, but he didn't really question like Mary. Mary, when she was approached by the angel, and the angels, you're gonna give birth to a son, and the Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you, and everything. She's like, What? But she didn't say, Oh no, that's not gonna happen. She said, How can this be? I don't how is this gonna work? I'm a virgin. I don't, I've never slept with a man. I don't, how's that happening? And then the angel explained it, and she's like, All right, I'm good with it. I'm the Lord's servant, let's do this. But Zechariah, though, he's like, Man, I'm gonna need something. Moses had a staff and he could throw down and it would turn into a snake, and he'd pick it back up and it was a staff again. And Gideon, he had that fleece, he had the sign, and I don't know. I I think it's impossible. I I just don't trust God because I I know that we're too old. We've already had this discussion and we would like to have a child, but you know, we're we're too old, it can't happen. But the sign was an angel. That the sign too is that it was a once-in-a-lifetime, if you've got the experience or got the opportunity to go serve in the temple as a priest. So the division of priests, they would serve twice. There were quite a there were thousands of them, but they would serve like twice a year, like two weeks out of the year, and then they would cast lots to see who got to go into the temple. And in this particular moment, in this particular day, on this particular time, just the perfect time, because John the Baptist had to be born like six months before Jesus came, so he could be the forerunner before Jesus and do what he needed to do before Jesus came. And so everything had to be worked out perfect, and so Zechariah's in the temple at the perfect time, and the angel shows up and gives the message at the perfect time. And so part of me is okay, Zechariah, I don't think you should have questioned it like that way. But the other part of me is like, why was the angel so stern? But this is the way that God chose to deal with him, and I think that there was a good purpose. A good purpose to glorify God in the fact that Zechariah, as a result of his choice, wasn't able to speak. As a matter of fact, if you look in the full passage in Luke chapter 1, it looks like he wasn't able to hear either, because they had to like sign to him to get his attention when it was the time when it was time to name John. And so it appears that he was deaf and unable to speak for that period of time. So he had some time for quiet reflection before John was born into the world. And then the other question that I have that's not answered at all, but when you hear of this child being promised, this child that's going to be used by God, this child that is going to make a difference in the world and everything. The first thought I had struck me is that Elizabeth was more focused on her shame. He has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. And it just seemed like it was focused on, well, I really need to have a baby to be somebody in this culture. But yeah, to be promised a kid that was going to do all those things, to be promised a kid that was gonna make a difference, that was gonna be great in the eyes of God and all those things. I guess that really would take away her disgrace, too, to have a great kid. But when we look at their life, we look at the setting, they were faithful. They were faithful to do God's will. They were faithful even in a culture that seemed like it'd be easy to do something else. They weren't slaves, but they were overtaken and ruled by the Romans. And so it was a difficult time to live. And the culture in which they lived, after not hearing from God for 400 years, because there was like the silent period of 400 years, the last thing they heard was the prophet Malachi 400 years before, and everything had been real quiet. Things had been really corrupt. The people were oppressed by the Romans. But at the closing of the verse, in the closing of Malachi, the last Malachi 4, verse 5 and 6, the last prophetic words spoken to Israel were, see, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And that's where Luke begins. Picks up right from Malachi and says, Zechariah and Elizabeth, you're gonna have a son, and John is going to fill this. He is going to be like the prophet Elijah, and he is going to do these things. And so that's a pretty exciting thing. That's a pretty exciting thing to think about God's plan and to think about God's plan and how he waits for the right time. And while we're waiting, we need to be like Elizabeth and Zechariah, verse 6. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. So they were righteous in the sight of God. The Pharisees were wanted or acted righteous in the sight of people, but God knew their hearts, and God knows our hearts, not just being righteous in the sight of the church. Some people act a certain way on Sundays, and then they act a different way on Mondays and through the rest of the week. And so to be righteous in the sight of God. He sees our hearts, he knows our motives, he knows what we do as we wait, as we wonder, as we continue to move forward, to continue to grow in Christ and to be righteous in God's sight is a great way to live, especially when God seems silent to continue to be faithful, when God seems distant to continue to be faithful, when you have a heart desire and it's unmet to continue to be faithful. I know I've shared this before, uh, but if you don't remember or you're new here, they show you commercials over and over again. So preachers will often share the same stories every now and then, because one, there's different people in the audience, and two, people don't remember everything. But to be faithful, to be faithful in the little things, to be faithful in the time that you have. I mentioned this before, but when I was a youth pastor, there was a girl in my youth group in junior high, and she was going to the Christian school, and she just really wanted to share Jesus with people. And she said, I don't have anybody to share Jesus with, because all of my friends at the Christian school, they're all they all know Jesus. So what do I do? And I'm like, you should pray and prepare for God to give you an opportunity someday to share your faith and to look for opportunities to share your faith. And then I ended up going to a different church, but I had heard that she got her opportunity, that she was prepared, that when she hit ninth grade, that she would join the public school cross-country team, and she was surrounded. She was really good at cross-country, and she was surrounded by other runners, and she had lots of opportunities to share her faith, and she was totally ready to do it, and it was an answer to prayer for her. So that was a good thing. But to be faithful, to continue to be faithful even when you don't think anybody notices, to be faithful even when you don't think anybody notices. So being righteous in the sight of God, being righteous as culture is turning away from Christ. It's really easy to just go with culture and do what they do and to not stand up for the things of God or to let people take away our religious values or to not stand for the things of Jesus. It's really easy for us to be disappointed when we don't seem to hear new things from God. Sometimes we don't hear new things from God because we're not spending any time in God's word. Sometimes we're looking for something spectacular, fabulous, interesting. Sometimes people want to find teachers that say things that no one's ever heard before, which is kind of dangerous because we've had 2,000 years to go through the Bible. And so if somebody is saying something new that no one has said over 2,000 years, that's a little suspicious. You might want to check into the a little more. But there is excitement when you do God's will. There is excitement when God uses you to do good things. There is a great peace and joy that comes from knowing that you are doing right in the sight of God, and there's nothing, there's not guilt. Now, this passage isn't saying that Elizabeth and Zechariah were perfect in every way, but it does say that in the sight of God that they were doing the right things, that they were living the life, that they were living the Christian life the way that God wanted them to, and that they were moving forward. And this is a reminder, too, that sometimes God is working out his plan and we're in a waiting period. And so when God brings the right people together at the right time, he will answer our prayer and give us what we're looking for, give us what we want, give us our heart's desire. And sometimes, I just know this from experience, sometimes God doesn't give us our heart's desire because he wants to make sure that we are ready for what he has for us. And I mentioned this before that when I was also in where this girl was, when I was a youth pastor down in Iowa, that we were trying to sell our house to move to an acreage in the country. And I don't know if when another ministry opportunity came, if we were living the life on the farm, on the hobby farm, we had the animals we were doing everything. I don't know if we'd want to leave that, but we didn't get that. That didn't work out. But we're able to move to a good house that God provided and everything. And so that was a prayer when I was young with young kids. I don't know if I'd want the hobby farm with all the work now, but uh God knows our heart and He knows what we need and we can trust that. So this Elizabeth's inability to conceive, it sounds like they had tried for a long time, that it was really a desire. They had done everything, they had prayed and prayed, and then finally they just gave up when they said that we're just too old. Maybe some medical expert told them, yeah, you're too old. And maybe you, maybe some people are too old to be having babies or to be taking their grandkids in or whatever. But we know that we can do all things through Christ, and we know that God can empower us, God can enable us, God can help us to get through and to wait and to pray and to trust and to know that when we're obedient, that God can use us to do great things. Spend time in God's word, keep praying, keep trusting, and keep praying, Lord, I want your will more than mine. Your will be done on heaven as it is on earth. Okay, number two, God hears the prayers you stopped expecting him to answer. God hears the prayers, God knows. So we are encouraged that God hears our prayers. And we have if we ask anything according to his will, he can answer, but he knows he hears. And sometimes he just says no. And as time goes on, maybe you stop praying those prayers because you just feel it's not God's will. But sometimes those prayers are good prayers, and it is God's will, but it's just such a big thing that God has to work behind the scenes or get you prepared, or there's different things that sometimes we need to do to make it happen. Maybe we need to get training, maybe we need to find ways to invest in that ministry or that thing. But to keep moving forward, God hears the prayers you stopped expecting Him to answer. And I would encourage you that if it's still on your heart, if you delight yourself in the Lord, He'll give you the desires of your heart, if it's still something that you really want, to keep praying for it, and then maybe ask God to relieve you of that burden or that desire if it's not his will for your life, and to keep trusting and moving on. So again, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah and said, Don't fear. I'm sure he was praying for all sorts of things, but that one particular prayer they kept praying over and over again. The angel is like, God heard your prayers. God's just been waiting for the perfect time. Now's the perfect time, and now you are going to have a son. And so that is a good thing. So that old prayer, that private prayer, that tear-filled prayer, to keep moving forward. I like to listen to a lot of audiobooks. I went down to get my grandson, and so I was in the car for an hour and a half. And I was listening to an audiobook called The Solo Pastor, and it got me thinking, it got me thinking that I pray for a lot of things. And if God were to bless me and us as a church with a wave of new believers that just received Jesus that needed to be discipled, and all of a sudden this church is filled up. Are we ready for it? Is that a that could be a burden that would be beyond us if we're not ready and we're not prepared? So sometimes God answers our prayers as we become more and more ready. And I remember listening to, oh no, reading a book by John MacArthur that said that God will grow your church as your church is prepared to grow. So I have lots of prayers that our church would grow, that lost people would get saved, that saved people would grow up in their faith, that those mature believers would find some ministry to serve in, and that somehow we would raise up ministries, ministers, missionaries in this church that we can send out to other churches, keep here to serve in ministry and even send around the world. What a great thing. What a great opportunity to do, but to trust that God hears our prayers even when we stopped expecting Him to answer. Don't give up, don't wear out. Doesn't matter what your age is, God can still use you. How many times do you wake up in the morning and pray, God, here I am, use me for your glory today. Show me what I can do next. Show me what I can do better. Show me how I can serve you. All of those things. Number three, my last point, is that God can bring joy in unexpected ways and unlikely situations. Sometimes you will be surprised at what God does in your life. You'll be surprised at the way that God treats you and works in your life. I have been surprised over the last few years, and it is amazing how God has worked. But Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I'm old. And the angel says, as I read before, I'm Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I came to tell you this good news, and these things are going to happen at their appointed time, and it's all good. But they wanted a child, and they've never, I don't think they ever thought that it was going to happen in their old age this way, that an angel was going to come and announce it, that the child was going to be used of God in the spirit of Elijah, that God had a plan to do an amazing thing, probably wasn't on their bingo card. That was ever going to happen. But God can bring joy in unexpected ways and unlikely situations. So as I've shared before, when I was a Chisholm Baptist and I moved away, I never in a million years thought I was coming back to the Iron Range. There wasn't anything about the range I didn't like, but I just didn't expect it. And it was a surprise to know we were coming up here. But it was also a surprise to know that my daughter and her husband and family were coming up with us at the same time that our houses sold on the exact same day. Houses that I wondered years ago, you know, before they sold, if they would sell for the value, if they would sell, because houses get old and have some issues, but just everything, the way that it worked out. It's amazing. Living with Jesus is an adventure. Living with Christ, living for Christ, serving Christ is an adventure. You never know who you're about to meet. You never know the opportunity that's about to come. You never know what God can do if you're faithful to serve, faithful to show up, faithful to live for God, faithful to do what's right. And it is exciting that we can live the Christian life this way. We should never say, oh, we're too old. We're too old for God to use us. If you wake up in the morning and you still have the breath of life, you should ask God how He can use you and what you can do. Maybe you're going to be an intercessory prayer warrior. Maybe you're going to encourage somebody. Maybe you're going to help impart wisdom to someone and share with them the things that God has taught you over the years. Maybe you're just going to be a great encourager. So many things that you can do. So you can be financially supporting things. You can encourage people and just help them in so many ways. I just want to, we're going to talk about joy when you need encouragement next week. But in Philippians 4 19, God says, I will supply all your needs. Hebrews 13 5, he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. There are so many promises to prayer. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock on the door will be open. James says that you have not, because you ask not. And when you ask, sometimes you ask for selfish, greedy motives. But to be prayer people, to trust God in prayer, to thank God for prayer, and to share your answers to prayer with other believers so we can encourage each other and build each other up.