Primary Text: Luke 1:8–12 Big Idea: God is actively seeking faithful people — even in the most ordinary, overlooked moments — to accomplish His extraordinary purposes.
Introduction: The God Who Sees in Secret
There is a question that haunts every believer at some point in their walk: Does anybody see what I’m doing?
Does anybody see the years you’ve poured into that ministry with no applause? Does anybody see the faithfulness in your marriage when everything in you wanted to walk away? Does anybody see you showing up to work, showing up to pray, showing up to serve — week after week — with nothing remarkable to show for it?
The world celebrates the spectacular. The viral moment. The overnight success. The breakthrough that comes with a spotlight and a crowd. But God? God has always operated differently. He scans the earth — not looking for the talented, not looking for the famous, not looking for the impressive — but looking for the faithful.
Second Chronicles 16:9 says:
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
“Porque los ojos de Jehová recorren toda la tierra para fortalecer a los que están íntegros a él.”
That word — recorren — it’s active. It’s intentional. God is not passively waiting. He is searching. He is looking for someone who will simply be faithful where they are.
And here is what I want us to grab hold of today: God uses the most unlikely people — in the most ordinary moments — to accomplish His most extraordinary plans.
Movement I: Faithfulness in the Routine (Luke 1:8–12)
Let’s look at our text. Luke 1:8–12:
“And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.”
“Aconteció que mientras Zacarías ejercía el sacerdocio delante de Dios en el orden de su turno, según la costumbre del sacerdocio, echó suerte para quemar el incienso; y entrando en el templo del Señor, toda la multitud del pueblo estaba orando fuera a la hora del incienso. Y se le apareció un ángel del Señor, en pie a la derecha del altar del incienso. Cuando Zacarías lo vio, se turbó, y le sobrecogió el temor.”
Now, let me set the scene for you, because there is a richness here that’s easy to miss.
Zacharias was a priest from the lineage of Aaron. That meant he was part of God’s anointed line — set apart for sacred service. But here’s what’s important: being a priest in Zacharias’s day was not a rare thing. There were roughly eighteen thousand priests in Israel at that time. Eighteen thousand. They were divided into twenty-four courses — rotations — and each course served in the temple twice a year. So Zacharias had been doing this for a long time. This was not his first rotation. This was not some dramatic, once-in-a-lifetime moment — at least, not from his perspective.
And within the temple service itself, even the task of burning incense was assigned by lot. Out of all the priests in his division, only one would be chosen to enter the holy place and offer the incense before God. Most priests served their entire lives and never got that lot. It was considered the highest honor of a priest’s career.
The lot fell on Zacharias.
He walked in. He began the routine — the custom, the order of his course. Just another day of service. Just another act of obedience. Just another moment of showing up and doing what God had called him to do.
And that is when the angel appeared.
Not in the middle of a revival. Not after a three-day fast. Not in some dramatic, mountaintop experience. The angel showed up in the middle of a routine. In the middle of faithfulness. In the middle of Zacharias simply doing his job before God.
That is how God works. He doesn’t wait for you to be extraordinary. He meets you in the ordinary. He meets you in the showing up. He meets you in the staying.
Let me define faithfulness for you the way this text defines it: Faithfulness is doing what God has called you to do, even when nothing remarkable is happening. It is showing up when no one is watching. It is staying when everything you want walks away.
Zacharias didn’t know that God was meticulously working out a plan around his faithfulness. He didn’t know that his wife Elizabeth’s barrenness was about to be reversed. He didn’t know that a son was coming — John, the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. He didn’t know that while he was burning incense, God was setting in motion the fulfillment of four hundred years of prophetic silence.
He just showed up.
And beloved, that is enough. Your faithfulness — in the routine, in the mundane, in the unglamorous obedience of daily life — is the very thing God is looking for.
Movement II: Faithfulness on the Edge of Death (2 Kings 7:3–4)
Now let’s turn to another unlikely group — four lepers sitting at the gate of Samaria.
Second Kings 7:3–4:
“And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.”
“Y había cuatro hombres leprosos a la entrada de la puerta; y dijeron el uno al otro: ¿Por qué nos hemos de quedar aquí hasta que muramos? Si decimos: Entraremos en la ciudad, el hambre que hay en la ciudad nos hará morir allí; y si nos quedamos aquí, también moriremos. Venid pues, y pasémonos al ejército de los sirios; si nos dejan vivir, viviremos; y si nos matan, pues moriremos.”
The context is devastating. Samaria is under siege. The Syrian army has surrounded the city. A famine has gripped the land so severely that people are resorting to cannibalism. The animals are dead. The food is gone. Hope is a memory.
And at the entrance of the gate sit four leprous men. These are the most marginalized people in Israel. Lepers were unclean — cast out of the city, cast out of community, cast out of worship. They had no status. No influence. No power. They were already living on the margins of life, and now even the margins had run out.
They had three options, and every single one of them led to death. Go into the city? The famine will kill them. Stay where they are? They’ll die of starvation and exposure. Walk toward the enemy camp? The Syrians might kill them on sight.
But notice what they said:
“Why sit we here until we die?”
“¿Por qué nos hemos de quedar aquí hasta que muramos?”
That question — that refusal to accept death as the final answer — is the spark that God used. They didn’t have a plan. They didn’t have a strategy. They didn’t have a revelation from heaven telling them what to do. They just decided: We’re not going to sit here and die.
And when they got to the Syrian camp, they found something no one expected. Second Kings 7:6 tells us:
“For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host.”
“Porque Jehová había hecho oír al ejército de los sirios estruendo de carros y estruendo de caballos, estruendo de un gran ejército.”
God had already gone ahead of them. Before the lepers took a single step, God had already routed the enemy. The Syrians fled in terror, leaving behind food, silver, gold, clothing — everything Samaria needed to survive.
Four lepers — the most unlikely deliverers in all of Israel — became the bearers of salvation to God’s people.
We don’t know how or when God will work. We don’t know the logistics of His rescue. But we know this: if God can use four outcasts on the edge of death to save a nation, He can use you.
Psalm 68:20 declares:
“He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.”
“El Dios nuestro es Dios que salva; y de Jehová el Señor son las salidas de la muerte.”
Even the exit from death belongs to God. The way out — the deliverance — that is His domain. You may not see the way out. You may not feel the way out. But God holds the issues of death in His hands.
Movement III: Faithfulness When You Don’t Understand the Plan
Here is where we have to be honest.
Most of the time, we don’t understand what God is doing. We don’t see the full picture. We don’t have access to the blueprint. And that is by design.
Isaiah 55:8–9 says:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
“Porque mis pensamientos no son vuestros pensamientos, ni vuestros caminos mis caminos, dice Jehová. Porque como los cielos son más altos que la tierra, así son mis caminos más altos que vuestros caminos, y mis pensamientos más altos que vuestros pensamientos.”
And Ecclesiastes 11:5 adds:
“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”
“Como tú no sabes cuál es el camino del viento, ni cómo se forman los huesos en el vientre de la que está encinta, así no sabrás las obras de Dios que hace con todas las cosas.”
You don’t know how a baby forms in the womb. You don’t know how the Spirit moves. And you don’t know how God is orchestrating His purposes around your faithfulness.
Zacharias didn’t know. The lepers didn’t know. Noah didn’t know — he built an ark for decades with no rain, and Genesis 6:8 simply says:
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
“Pero Noé halló gracia ante los ojos de Jehová.”
David didn’t know — he was a shepherd boy tending sheep when Samuel came to anoint him king, because God had sought:
“A man after his own heart.”
“Un varón conforme a su corazón.” (1 Samuel 13:14)
None of them had the full picture. None of them had the blueprint. But every single one of them was faithful in what was in front of them.
And that is the invitation today.
Application: Show Up. Stay Faithful. Let God Work.
So what do we do with this?
First, stop measuring your faithfulness by the spectacular. The world — and sometimes even the church — has conditioned us to think that if it’s not big, it doesn’t count. If there’s no platform, no crowd, no viral moment, then somehow it doesn’t matter. But God is not looking for the spectacular. He is looking for the faithful. He is looking for the person who will show up on Tuesday morning and pray. Who will teach that children’s class with three kids in it. Who will stay in that marriage when every feeling says leave. Who will keep serving when no one says thank you.
Second, refuse to sit down and die. The lepers’ question is your question:
“¿Por qué nos hemos de quedar aquí hasta que muramos?”
If you are in a season of famine — spiritual, emotional, relational, financial — don’t accept death as the final word. Take a step. It doesn’t have to be a big step. It doesn’t have to be a confident step. But move. God has already gone ahead of you. The chariots are already sounding in the camp.
Third, release the need to understand the full plan. You are not meant to know the logistics of God’s deliverance. You are meant to be faithful in the part He has given you. The plan is His. The faithfulness is yours.
Conclusion: You Are Not Invisible
Can I close with this?
If you feel invisible today — if you feel like your faithfulness doesn’t matter, like no one sees what you’re doing, like you’re burning incense in an empty room — hear me: God sees you.
His eyes range throughout the earth. He is not looking past you. He is looking at you. And He is working something around your faithfulness that you cannot yet see.
Zacharias was just doing his job. The lepers were just trying to survive. Noah was just building. David was just tending sheep. And God was weaving salvation history around every single one of them.
Your faithfulness is not wasted. Your obedience is not invisible. Your showing up is not meaningless.
God uses the most unlikely people — in the most ordinary moments — to accomplish His most extraordinary plans.
So show up. Stay faithful. And trust the God who holds the issues of death in His hands.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You that You are the God who sees. You see us in our routine. You see us on the edge of death. You see us in our confusion. And You are working — even now — around our faithfulness. Strengthen us to show up. Strengthen us to stay. Strengthen us to trust what we cannot see. In Jesus’ name, Amen.