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grace is found is where you are where you are lord is christ in me where you are is christ in my song to rise to you when temptation comes my way when i cannot stand i'll fall on jesus you're my hope and stay yes go and have a seat if you like blessed assurance jesus is mine he's been my fourth man in the fire time after time washington here is more i trust him that's why i trust him that's my answer that's why i trust him that's why i trust him i would just like to say thank you so much for joining us today and thank you so much for joining us today and thank you so much for joining us today and thank you just give you thanks and we give you just give you thanks and we give you just give you thanks and we give you praise praise

praise oh god we just want to express our oh god we just want to express our oh god we just want to express our gratitude to you this evening gratitude to you this evening gratitude to you this evening well god for the mighty works that you well god for the mighty works that you well god for the mighty works that you have done in our lives lord i could i have done in our lives lord i could i have done in our lives lord i could i could sit down and write a list of all could sit down and write a list of all could sit down and write a list of all the amazing things you've done in my the amazing things you've done in my the amazing things you've done in my life lord god all the ways that you life lord god all the ways that you

That you have provided for me, taken care of me, protected me, and healed me, Lord God. But it wouldn't be enough. Lord God, I just, I can't help but thank you. I can't help but praise you, God. Lord, this evening, God, let's pray that your word would go out with extraordinary power. Lord, move mightily in our hearts this evening. By the power of your word, by the power of your Holy Spirit.

We love you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Ezra, chapter 1.

Ezra, chapter 1.

Well, the last time that we were together, we wrapped up the book of 2 Chronicles. And we saw really kind of the precursor, the advertisement, if you will, for the book of Ezra. Because Ezra is going to bring the children of Israel back into the land. They had been taken captive by the Babylonians. They'd been in exile. To the Babylonians. Because of really two main reasons.

One was because of their idolatry. That they had given in to the idols of the people that were around them. They'd given in to the lifestyle of the idolatry of the people around them. And despite continual warnings from God, they continued to give in to those things. And because of that, God said, eventually I'm going to have to deal with you because of this.

And it was ultimately during the reign of Manasseh that God said, enough is enough. We've got to deal with this. And though there was a point of revival under Josiah, ultimately the heart of the people was still not for the Lord. And so the idolatry is the first thing that led them into captivity. But there was ultimately another thing that led them into captivity.

And that was their disobedience to a direct command of God. God had told them, every seven years, what I want you to do is I want you to let the land rest. And the reason why I want you to let the land rest is for two things. Number one, because it's good for the land. Rest is something that God has always intended for us. And he intended it for the land. And he said, the land just needs to lie fallow so that it can rebuild, so that it can restore.

And I'm going to make you a promise. If you will allow the land to rest, then I will provide for you everything that you need, an abundance of everything that you need. It will actually be miraculous in nature how what you produce in the sixth year will actually last you until the ninth year when you begin to once again produce crops. And I'm going to make you a promise.

And I'm going to make you a promise. It's going to be a miraculous thing. Well, they never took God at his word. And they ultimately disobeyed that. And again, for two reasons. Number one, because they had a hard time trusting God. Number two, the same reason why you don't rest. You think you can get a little bit ahead if you can work just a little bit harder.

Well, you know, if I work five days a week, six days a week is probably better. And quite frankly, if I'm working six days a week, seven days a week, I'm ultimately going to make even more money that way. The problem is you keep going and eventually you burn out just like they did with the land. And so God said, you're going to be in captivity. And when they got into captivity, there were some false prophets who were like,

this is going to be really short-lived. You guys, don't worry. God's bringing you back any day now. And finally, Jeremiah sends that letter like we've talked about before. He says, no, no, you're going to be there for 70 years. 70 years until the land has fulfilled its Sabbath rest that you would not give during that time. And so Jeremiah ultimately kind of makes this promise through God to the people

that after 70 years, you will go back. And rebuild and restore Jerusalem, but you're going to be there for 70 years. And so, so during that 70 years, while they were in captivity, two, two really big things took place. Two, two really big prophets did their ministry. One was the prophet Daniel. Daniel was a young man that was ultimately taken into captivity with the very first wave

of captives that was taken, a young gifted individual, along with his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they were all taken captive and, and ultimately, he became some of the highest leaders within the land. Daniel would actually survive not only through the Babylonian captivity, but he would also be a political leader within the Medo-Persian Empire. As a matter of fact, Daniel would be one of the most well-known politicians of the day, advisors of the day, through both of those empires. And so, so while Daniel was ministering almost in a political sort of a way, there was another prophet at the time.

His name was Ezekiel, and while Daniel was ministering in this, this kind of upfront political sort of way, Ezekiel was ministering to the people, and poor Ezekiel got called to do all kinds of crazy things, right? Just, hey, lay on your side for, like, years, you know, cook your food over poop. Like, that's just, yeah, every, all the commentators are, like, overdone. I'm like, look, let's just call it what it is, okay?

Horse poop, right? That's what you're doing right there. That's what you're cooking it over. And the whole thing is, is to minister to the people. So those two guys are, are two of the big ones that are ministering during that time, and, and, and so it's finally to the end of the time of, of the end of the captivity, and this is where we come to in verse one of chapter one of the book of Ezra.

It says, now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and he put it into writing. We'll read that proclamation. Proclamation in just a minute. So this entire book is going to have to do with the children of Israel going back to rebuild the temple.

And so I've given this a title, and I think I actually robbed this title from Warren Wiersbe. So this is not original to me, but I gave it a title, Ezra, the Restoring of the Heart of a Nation, because that's what's going to take place is, is yes, they're going to go back and rebuild the temple, and politically speaking, it's huge that they get to go back and do this, but ultimately what's going to take place is a restoration. It's a restoration of the heart of the people. As a matter of fact, they will never again fall into idolatry.

That will not be something that they deal with. They will eventually deal with some self-righteousness. We call them the scribes and the Pharisees, but they never again dealt with idolatry because partly of what we're going to see here in the book of Ezra. So let me give you a quick little timeline of how all of this breaks down, because there's going to be three times that the children of Israel return from this captivity back to the land.

Okay? So. Ezra 38 BC is when this decree that we just read about from Cyrus goes forth, and there is a return under Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is a fantastic name. Again, perhaps if there's any people that maybe are going to be having babies soon and you know it's a boy, Zerubbabel is a name you should just keep in mind because it would be fun to say. Nobody doesn't smile when they say Zerubbabel.

Go ahead and say it to yourself right now. You're smiling, aren't you? It's fun. It's a fun word to say. I'm just saying it's a great name. So that's the first one. And then there's going to be 70 years between the return of Zerubbabel until we actually start reading about this guy named Ezra. Now, from 538 BC to 458 BC, there's a fascinating thing that takes place.

During that 70 years is the events of a book we call Esther. And so during that 70 years, between chapters 1 through 6 of the book of Ezra, and chapters 7 through 10 of the book of Ezra, there's actually this 70 year time frame. And that's when the whole incident with Esther takes place. That kind of fits in there chronologically. Then in 458 BC or Ezra chapter 7, you have the return of the children of Israel under Ezra the scribe.

Then in 444 BC, you have the return of Nehemiah, who we'll read about in the next book, that brings back some of the children of Israel with him as he goes back to rebuild Israel. the wall. So, a little bit of a timeline that runs down through there. So, Ezra, as I mentioned before, breaks down very well into chapters 1 through 6 is the return under Zerubbabel, and then chapters 7 through 10 are the return under Ezra. But now, as we return back here,

it says, now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. I hope you're asking yourself a question right now. What happened for God to start stirring up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia? Right here, you have this incredible king who was a dominant force that ultimately ended up destroying one of the greatest empires of all time, the Babylonian Empire. What happened in the very first year that he was there that God starts working on his heart?

What are the events that precipitated that? Well, I think that there's three things that we should pay attention to here. About this. First thing that we need to pay attention to is that this is a promise of the prophet Jeremiah, or a promise of God through the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah. So it's kind of cool that God was at work, and the way that he was at work is through Jeremiah, he made this promise

that this is the time frame that you need to look at, and when this time frame comes close, you know that it's going to be time to go back to Jerusalem, because 70 years are decreed for your people. But here's the spicy one that I want you to pay really close attention to here, that you need to stay аничin the comics, because I do see that you should pay really close attention to. In the margin of your Bible, you might write Isaiah 44 and 44. Isaiah 44 and 45. Because interestingly enough, the prophet Isaiah, who, by the way, prophesied 150

years prior to the life of Cyrus, prior to Cyrus even being born, I think it was 170 years prior to him making this proclamation, God, through the mouth Of Isaiah became thelude o the holy just maybe I now where's that? creed o the holy just maybe I know Tom, so get it out there, REHA beeno, went, and have stood tiny. called out Cyrus by name. He says, Cyrus, who is my servant, will, first of all, he prophesies the way that Cyrus ultimately takes over the Babylonian empire, but then prophesies that he will be the one who will restore the people. So it's kind of fascinating that 150 to 170 years before this

incident that we're looking at right now, God calls Cyrus out by name. And as a sidebar, we need to remember something, that God's ability to foretell the future prophetically is part of how we can prove that he is God. It's part of our proof that everything that he says is true, because all of his words come true. Even those that are spoken well in advance, 150 years before the guy's even born, calls him out by name. And so it's kind of cool that God knows that, and God has that plan for

how he's going to do those things. I don't know about you, but it'd be a lot of fun to do that. It builds my faith a great deal to know that God knows what's going to happen 150 years from now, already knows it, and calls those people out by name. Matter of fact, before Cyrus was formed in the womb, God knew him. And God had declared what he was going to do. I've heard a psalm really

similar to that that says, before I was formed in the womb, God knew me. And it tells us something about this month of life, right? Because that's what June is. June is life month, right? It's when we pray. It's when we pray. It's when we pray. It's when we pray. It's when we pray. It's when we overturn Roe versus Wade. And so this is the month of life. And we are reminded during this

life month that God is able to know people before they are even formed in the womb. And so there's a third thing I think that we need to pay attention to, and that's that Daniel is actually in the kingdom of Cyrus during this time. You ever wonder what started stirring the heart of Cyrus? Well, I think, and many commentators agree with this, I think that the work of Daniel is who actually began to stir the heart of Cyrus the king. Twofold. Number one, we read

in Daniel that when Daniel realized that the time was almost near for the children of Israel to return, he started praying for the people. He started praying. It says he started confessing his own sins and the sins of the people. And that was sort of the preparatory groundwork for the moving of the spirit of God. And we can never discount the fact that if we want God's

spirit to move in, we can never discount the fact that if we want God's spirit to move in, our lives, that if we want God's spirit to move in our family's lives, that if we want God's spirit to move in our church or in our city, in our nation, it always begins with the people of God on their knees before God praying for the movement of the spirit of God. It's seen throughout all of scripture. That intercession of the people of God is what moves the heart of God to send forth the spirit of God to do his work. But then also most commentators agree that Daniel was probably in the place of the people of God to do his work. And so he said, hey, I want to show you a couple of

writings. The first writing that I want to show you is from this prophet. You've never heard of before, but he's pretty big with my people. And his name is Isaiah. And he actually, through Isaiah's mouth, God declared your name before you were ever even thought of. And then he probably showed him this prophecy from Jeremiah, how 70 years had been decreed for your people to be here. They'll be here

70 years. It'll be time to show you your name. And he actually, through Isaiah's mouth, God declared your name. to go back and rebuild the temple and he's probably showed him those things and cyrus is going wow that's amazing it's amazing what's at work here now this tells me two things about the moving of the spirit of god and the in the hearts of people number one it begins with prayer number two god wants to use you to do it you ever thought about that that part of what stirs people's hearts through the power of the holy spirit is that god uses you on your knees before him in prayer but then god uses you as you speak into the lives of people i bet the first time daniel told cyrus

about this he was like he didn't even listen to anything i had to say i don't even think he cared that i said all that i don't even know that he was paying attention to anything that i had to say because he was busy signing documents or whatever he was doing at that point in time he probably didn't think he was paying attention and then here you go within the first year he's sending the people back you ever been in that place you ever you ever tried to minister the truth to somebody like i bet they weren't even listening i bet they weren't paying attention to a thing that i was saying i just told them about sin and righteousness and judgment and how god wants to save them i bet they weren't even listening to anything that i had to say

they were staring at their phone the whole time but what you don't realize is is that through your words the holy spirit was at work because he was actually moving through you in ways that you don't even know i can't tell you how many times that the people that i think pay attention the least are the ones that come and tell me the most and i'm like wow that's really amazing i didn't know you're listening to anything i had to say and they're like i'm not listening to anything i had to say i didn't either but i was and because that's how god moves and so in the first year of cyrus king of persia in order to fulfill the word of the lord through the mouth of jeremiah the lord stirred up

his heart so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing saying verse two thus says cyrus king of persia the lord the god of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build him a house in jerusalem which is in judah whoever there is among you of all his people may his god be with him let him go up to jerusalem which is in judah and rebuild the house of the lord the god of israel he is the god who is in jerusalem every survivor at whatever place he may live let the men of that place support him with silver and gold with goods and cattle together with a free will offering and the house of god which is in jerusalem

he makes his proclamation whoever wants to go back can go back matter of fact i'll support you in going back he goes on from here to say verse five then the heads of the father's households of judah and benjamin and the priests of the levites arose i want you to pay close attention to verse five here everyone whose spirit god stirred to go up and to rebuild the house of the lord which is in jerusalem you see the prayer of daniel did not just affect cyrus king of persia it affected the people as well because as his spirit was at work they all went and this seems like a really good idea we should go back and and god's spirit was at work in the heart of the people because they had this desire to go back

and to to rebuild the temple to re-establish their nation and to to get back to their roots of who they were and so god's spirit is at work stirring the people and and moving them and and it goes on in verse six to say and all those about them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold and with goods and with cattle and with valuables aside from all that was given as a free will offering and also cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the lord which nebuchadnezzar had carried away from jerusalem and he put in the house of his gods and cyrus king of persia had them brought out by the hand of mithridath the treasure and he counted them out to sheshbazar

the prince of the house of the lord and he said to him i'm going to take you to the house of the of judah and this was their number 30 gold dishes a thousand silver dishes 29 duplicates 30 gold bowls 410 silver bowls and a second kind and a thousand other articles and all the articles of gold and silver numbered 5400 he brought them all up with the exiles who went up from babylon to jerusalem so two things i want to point out about that section first of all did you notice that not everybody was stirred to go back some of their hearts were stirred to return to the land to do the hard work that it was going to be to make the long journey to re-establish themselves in a land that most of them had never been to

before because they'd been in exile this whole time some of their hearts were stirred to go back and do the hard work but some people were not able to go back and do the work but their hearts were still stirred too but i want you to pay attention again to what it says in verse 6 all those about them meaning those who were going to go back and do the hard work were stirred to go back and do the hard work all those about them encouraged them with articles of silver with gold with goods with cattle with valuables aside from all that was given as a free will offering that means that some people it was going to be their job to go back and rebuild the temple some people's job

was going to be support those that were going to go back and rebuild the temple listen each job was necessary and i love this because not everybody can go out and do all of the work for for different reasons you can't go out and do the work that's out there and you go man i still want to be a part of it i want to be a part of the work of what god is doing i want to i want to be a part of what's going on with the guatemala missions trip i i want to be a part of what's going on with the kids going to camp i i want to be a part of all these things but i just can't do it my my job won't allow me my body won't allow me but you can still support it there's lots of ways that you can be involved in the ministry without physically doing it

and i love that because when you monetarily give to the work of the ministry do you know that actually god accounts that to you as well because your heart is being stirred by the spirit to support it when you prayerfully support the ministry which we always say i'll pray for you right because that's like our cop-out for the ministry like well i'm not going to be involved but i'll pray for you but we don't really mean i'll pray for you we just say that because we don't want to go do it but listen when you really decide that what you're going to do is prayerfully support the ministry you're not going to be involved in the ministry you're not going to be involved in the ministry then then you are now a part of it and believe it or not you can be at

ministry and anywhere in the world that you wanted to in any point in time through your prayer life and through the way that you support those ministries and so both of them were very important both of them played important roles in what was going to take place and both were incredibly necessary and so where do you fit into the ministry are you the one that has the time and the energy to be the one that does the work wonderful let's get into the ministry let's get you to work are you the one that prayerfully or financially supports it wonderful let's get you to work no matter what it is as long as it's done for the kingdom god says that's kingdom work amen and so in chapter two we start looking at the list of all

of those returning it says now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom nebuchadnezzar king of babylon had carried away to babylon and returned to jerusalem and judah each to his city these came with zerubbabel jeshua nehemiah sariah uh that name mordecai bilshan mizpar big vi big vi that's a great name i don't even know if it's pronounced that right it's a good name rehum and baana and then it goes on to list all of the people let's discuss those leaders momentarily first of all the mordecai and the nehemiah are not the ones that we know about right i'm this is this is almost 100 years before nehemiah is going to go back so he's not one of the ones

and it's not the mordecai that we read about in the book of esther because he can't be in two places at one time we've all tried that so those aren't the same guys the one name i do want to point out to you is this the name that i want to point out to you is the guy that's leading them back zerubbabel and the reason why i want to point that out to you is because when you start looking at the lineage you realize that zerubbabel is a descendant of david and he is established as the governor who's going to lead the people back and i think that that's significant because as as ezra the scribe is writing out these details this information by the way that's who most people feel like wrote most of this book as as ezra the

scribe is writing these things out we are reminded of god's promise that there would always be even though he was not actually sitting on the throne yet god still remembers his promise and the guy that led them back the first time was a descendant of david because god always keeps his promises you and so so this zerubbabel is the the one that leads them back and so i'm not going to read the entire list of names to you i think you should read the entire list of names i did read through it thank i read through most of it uh god's always big on lists especially in the old testament book but we are not going to read through it it does divide it up into three sections it divides it

up into the men and then the priests uh and then the levites and and and those levites are returning thing that i'll point out to you uh is this starting in verse 61 of chapter 2 it says of the sons of the priests the sons of habayah the sons of hachaz the sons of barzillai who took a wife from the daughters of barzillai the gileadite was called by their name these searched among their ancestral registration but they could not be located therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood the governor said so and so the lepidophtheippgodus was the same because they were not considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood the The governor said to them that they should not eat from the holy things

until a priest stood up with the Urim and the Thummim, and the whole assembly numbered about 42,360 besides their male and female servants who numbered 7,337, and they had 200 singing men and women, and that's all their horses and livestock and whatnot. What I want to point out to you is this. They're coming back to the land, and they know that unfaithfulness to God is what landed them in captivity, and so they're not going to make that same mistake twice. So on their way back, they find that there's some who are calling themselves priests who cannot prove their priestly lineage, and they say, we're not letting this happen.

We've learned our lesson, and we are not going to be unfaithful to God in even the smallest of ways. If there's an opportunity to be unfaithful to God, then we are going to nip it in the bud so that there's no issue with that, and can I say there's something very commendable about that. In the lives of these Jewish refugees that are on their way back to the land, and perhaps a lesson for us to learn as well. Sometimes in our lives, God deals with us in our areas of unfaithfulness, our areas of failure, and the temptation is when we have been restored to allow compromise back into our lives again.

After all, it's a small compromise. It's not a big one, but I'll remind you that small compromises lead to a lot of bad. It's not a big one, but it's a small compromise. It doesn't lead to big compromises, which leads to small unfaithfulness, and then leads to big unfaithfulness, and that leads to God's discipline once again in our lives, and they weren't going to let that happen again, and perhaps we shouldn't let that happen again in our lives.

Amen? And so, we wrap this up. We'll end with verse 70 in this chapter. We won't end. I've got 20 minutes left. Hang with me, people. It says, Now, the priests and the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, the temple servants, they lived in their cities, and all Israel in their cities. And I just, I found that verse interesting because we're reminded that they had to move back,

they had to settle in, and they had to reestablish their lives. And this is what they did for one purpose and one purpose only, to restore the heart of the nation. It takes hard work to restore the heart of the nation, but if you're willing to do it, there's great dividends that are paid through it. So, we now come to chapter 3. And I've simply entitled chapter 3, The Restoration Begins.

It says,

So, they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. They celebrated the Feast of Booths as it is written, and they offered burnt offerings to the Lord, and they offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily according to the ordinance as each day required. And afterward, there was a continual burnt offering, also for the new moons and for all the fixed festivals of the Lord that were consecrated. And from everyone who offered, a freewill offering to the Lord.

From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings. The foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid, and so they gave money to the masons and the carpenters. Now, I want to point out a few things to you here out of this section. So, the first thing that they do when they return, the first thing that they do after they have established themselves, it says it's in the seventh month.

I think that that's not only the seventh month of their returning, but I think it's the seventh month of their year, which gets us into the fall. Most commentators agree that since they quickly afterwards celebrate the Feast of Booths, that when they started making sacrifices, it was somewhere around the Day of Atonement. And the Day of Atonement was, one of the most holy days in the nation of Israel, because on the Day of Atonement, they would make sacrifice for the sins of the people that God would atone for their sins for another year through the blood that was offered during that time. And so, as they come together, the first thing I want to point out to you is this.

Number one, it says they gathered as one man. It lists all these different people, the priests, the Levites, everybody's brothers. They all gathered together. But when they gathered together, they gathered as one man. When they gathered together, they gathered together in unity. Why? Because there is something strong about the people of God when the people of God gather together in unity.

Right? What did David say in the Psalms? Behold how good and how pleasant it is when the brethren dwell together in unity. Right? Because there's something precious about all of us coming together as one, knowing that we are pursuing the Lord together. I actually think one of the big problems, that we have in the church in general right now, is that there's very little unity in the church.

Right? There's very little unity about the way that we handle things. And it's usually for two reasons. Either one, because some people think that they're better than everybody else. And that could be true of whatever the church is. I don't care which one it is. Or two, because the churches want to get together and not just follow Jesus with all of their hearts.

Do I say this?

I was very disappointed in a prayer meeting that we had with the Ministerial Alliance. On that Sunday night, or that gathering for worship that we had on that Sunday night. I was very disappointed in it. Again, this is going to get me in really big trouble. But this is just the way that it is. And I have felt like I kind of needed to address this. Because some people gathered there together.

I wasn't disappointed that we all got together as churches. I love that we all got together as churches. I wasn't disappointed that there were worship groups from different churches. I love that there's worship groups from different churches. I was disappointed that we asked the Mormon to pray. That we asked the Mormon pastor to get up and pray. That was not my idea. I want you to know that.

If I would have had any idea that was happening, I would have told us not to go to that. Because that's not unity. Unity is not gathering together with people whose doctrine is opposed to Scripture. That's not unity. That's what the world tells us unity is. But that's not unity. Unity means we are unified under the headship of Jesus Christ, who is very God Himself,

and everything that His Word has to say. But the reason why we can't always have unity in a town like this is because we don't all want to get behind the idea that there's one way and His name is Jesus. And that Jesus is the creator of the heavens and the earth, not an angel. Not an archangel. But He is the creator. Not a created being. And that God is a triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And because we can't get together on that, And because we can't get together on that, there can't be unity. Because unity cannot take place at the expense of doctrine. Because unity cannot take place at the expense of doctrine. It cannot take place at the expense of what is right and what is wrong. It cannot take place at the expense of what is right and what is wrong.

It cannot take place at the expense of what is right and what is wrong. And so, if we want unity, it's got to be underneath the headship of Jesus Christ. It's got to be underneath the instruction of Scripture. It's got to be underneath the instruction of Scripture. But we do need it. We need that unity to take place We need that unity to take place if we want there to be strength in the way that things happen.

If we want there to be strength in the way that things happen. together as one man. And when they gathered together as one man, they built an altar to God. They probably found the foundation of where the original altar would have been built outside of the temple. And they build this altar to the Lord. And I love this because starting in Genesis, what you find is every time, every time God begins to move, the first thing that they do is they

build an altar. Abraham, when he arrived in the land, he built an altar. When Abraham failed in the way that he did by going down to Egypt and he moved back, he rebuilt an altar. Every time that Abraham failed in faith, the first thing he did was he rebuilt an altar. When Jacob returned to the land after his running away from the lies that he had told, what did he do? He built an altar.

What did Noah do when he came off of the boat and God had preserved his life? He built an altar. Throughout scripture, what you see is that when restoration begins, it begins with the building of an altar. And then they offered a burnt offering unto the Lord. Again, probably somewhere around that day of atonement, perhaps a nod to celebrating that day of atonement. But it didn't end with just the

building of an altar. They go, well, we built an altar and had a burnt offering. Let's just go back and do our thing now. No, they began to truly pursue God and worship him the way that they were supposed to. Because did you notice the next thing that they did? The next thing that they did is they began to celebrate the Feast of Booths. Now, this would have been an incredible, symbolic,

thing that they did in this moment. Because if you don't know what the Feast of Booths is, it's often called the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Feast of Tabernacles, they would literally camp out for a week. And it was in celebration, in remembrance of the fact that God preserved the children of Israel in their first exodus in leaving Egypt. Now, many people call this return

from Babylon the second exodus. And so as they have returned from this second exodus, they once again are having bar kanesha, and you find that the autant Avakid said, so if you have no way of getting out of this moment, you will go to echem ver. It has nothing to do with the end. In fact, if you get off the ahead-point view, you will be coming back to the rest of Israel, and there you will find all the new associates of Egypt. So when you come out in season, you will receive also

new archive updates and contributions to the day. They came back with the third Feast of Tanakh, and they built the Feast of Tabernacles where they had to assist Lot. And they built the Feast of Tabernacles in internal. In this, it says, if you Traveled After me to a garden perhaps you burnt offering for the fixed festivals for the new moons and they were consecrated and everyone offered a free will offering to the Lord I got to thinking about these things that they did and I thought I thought this is kind of fascinating because the three main things that I see that they did are the three main things that we need to do if we're going to restore the heart of the

nation that if we're going to restore the heart of where God wants us to be as a matter of fact if you need restoration in your life these three things are really important and so I wrote these down number one if you want restoration in your life you have to rebuild the altar you have to rebuild the altar I want you to think about what the altar was the altar was the place that they met with God and and there was multiple sacrifices there were sacrifices of consecration in other words I'm dedicating my entire self to you there were consecrate there were sacrifices of fellowship in other words this is a fellowship meal where I'm actually spending time with God in sharing a meal with God so then I have fellowship

with him there were there were sacrifices that dealt with sin there were sacrifices that dealt with atonement but it was always the place where you meet with God and so if you want restoration in your life and in your family number one you have to rebuild the altar you have to rebuild the place where you confess your sins to the Lord you have to rebuild the place where you have fell fellowship with God. You have to rebuild the place where you consecrate yourself to him. You have to rebuild that altar. Maybe that's a physical place for you, but probably it's a place in your heart and in the heart of your family and in the heart of the nations. We've got to

rebuild a place where we say, this is where we sacrifice to the Lord. Not physical sacrifices to the Lord, but it's where I bring myself and I say, Lord, these are my sins. I need you to atone for them. These are my sins. I need you to cleanse them like you promised to do in 1 John 1, verse 9. Lord, these are the issues that I have in my life. We've got to start with that confession of sin,

and then it moves into that fellowship with God, and then it moves into complete consecration to the Lord, saying, Lord, I've got to surrender 100% of myself to you. Restoration begins with the rebuilding of the altar. Number two, restoration means you have to re-establish the worship. Restoration means you have to re-establish the worship. For the children of Israel that had returned, that re-establishing of the worship was getting

back to the festivals that they knew that they were supposed to keep. I want you to think about the nostalgia it would have built in them to keep this festival, remembering what God had done the first time in the nation of Israel, but now remembering what God had done to keep his promises this time in the nation of Israel, that God was not done with them. And brothers and sisters, worship is a remembering of what God has done for us. Worship is a response to what God has done for us.

And as we respond to the work that God has done, that we re-establish the worship in our lives. Sometimes we need to re-establish worship by going back and reminding ourselves of the faithfulness of God in the past, reminding ourselves of what God has done for us, and reminding ourselves that if God has done that in the past, that he's going to continue to do that in the future. And then we worship God not only in response to what he has done, but in response to what we know he will do by faith. And so we, re-establish that place of worship in our lives. I've shared with you lots of times before that

when I first started walking with Jesus at 17 years old, that was the first thing I started doing, is I started actually listening to worship music again. I hadn't done that forever. I got to where I didn't listen to Christian music anymore. But I started pulling out all this stuff, and all of a sudden, I didn't want to listen to all the garbage of the world. I wanted to listen to something that

was going to glorify the Lord. Even if it was like, it's a little cringier than I want it to be, I didn't care. Because all I knew was, I just wanted only things of God. And it was a constant reminder of what God has done in my life. You have to re-establish worship. You have to do that with your family, you have to do that in your life. When you re-establish that altar, it then re-establishes

the worship. But then number three, you have to make it a lifestyle. You have to make the altar and worship a lifestyle in your life. It can't just be something that you do once a week. It has to be something that you have to do continually. Matter of fact, have you ever noticed that all of the sacrifices, it was both a morning and an evening sacrifice? I think that

there's something to that. I think that there's something to the establishing of the habit of every morning I start off in God's word and in prayer, and every evening I end off in God's word and in prayer. And I bookend my day with the truth of God, because I want my entire day to be packed in the midst of God. And I want my entire day to be packed in the midst of God. And I want my

entire day to be packed in the midst of God. And I want my entire day to be packed in the midst of God. of all the things that I know that are true about who God is. So that all day long, I'm reminding myself of the wonderful things I read that morning and the wonderful work that I was reminded of that morning in my time in worship with the Lord. And then by the time I get to the end of the day,

I'm like, whew, that's a long day. I don't even remember what I read this morning. Let's do it again. And I remind myself again of who God is so that I can have that sweet rest in the Lord. I just think there's something kind of interesting to that. But we make that our lifestyle. Because that's what they did. If you want to restore your heart, and you want to restore the

heart of your family, and you want to restore the heart of the nation, you have to build the altar, you have to establish the worship, and you have to make it your lifestyle. Well, we go on from there. Verse 7. And it says, then they gave money to the masons and the carpenters and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians who brought cedarwood from Lebanon.

To the sea at Joppa, according to the permission they had from Cyrus, king of Persia. And the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and the rest of their brothers. Thank you for just calling them the rest of their brothers. And the priests and the Levites and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem began the work. And they appointed the Levites from

20 years old and older to oversee the work of the house of the Lord. I want to point out one thing here. So they began the work. Two things. You've got to eventually get to the work. Worship is wonderful, but worship should lead you into the work. Because worship prepares your heart for the work that God has for you. But it says that they put to work all the priests and the Levites at 20 years old.

Now, if you look at the law, you find that in the law, Levites began serving at the age of 30. But David amended the law and brought it all the way down to the age of 20. Why did he do that? Because the work was not done. The work was great. The nation had grown and the work was great. And David said, it's time to put the young men to work. It's time to get the young men doing the work of the ministry. And can I just

say, God sort of spoke a word to me today as I was reading that. And I was listening to John Corson teach on this, that we've got to get the young men to work. And the easiest thing for us to do is to say, yeah, but they won't work. Yeah, because we haven't made them. Ultimately, at some point in time, we as adults have to start taking some responsibility for the fact that we've never

held anybody accountable, that we've not held these young men accountable. And at some point in time, young people, listen, just like old people, no offense, you will do what's expected of you. And if what's expected of you is to be lazy, then you're probably going to be lazy. But if what's expected of you is responsibility, then you will rise to the occasion.

And so we've got to start holding these young men responsible. But we can't do that by now going and saying, listen, you lazy, no good kid, it won't do anything. No, no, no, we've got to come alongside. We've got to come alongside and we've got to say, let's work on this together. Because I have always had this philosophy, I'm not going to ask anybody to do something that I'm not willing to do myself. I'm not going to ask anybody to do something that

I'm not willing to put the gloves on and work right alongside with you. Because that's what it looks like to put the young men to work. And so it goes on from there. So they put these young men to work. It says,

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the temple, or the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Yay, everybody's praising God. But many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the father's household, the old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping for the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout. The sound

was heard far away. And let me tell you what this is. All the young dudes were like, yeah, we got a temple back. And all the old guys were like, it's just not what it used to be. The old days were better. I remember when things were so good. I remember back in 1978, when this was awesome. And everything was so much better in 1985. And I liked the way the music was then. And I liked the way the style was then. And

everything was better back then. Too much. We had to be careful. There's a proverb that says, don't wish for the good old days because they weren't as good as you thought they were. It's just all that there is to it. Listen, God's always doing something new. But you know what we always want? We want to go back to the old. But Lord, I was so happy with the bell bottoms on. Listen, I was so much happier in the 90s, okay? That's my thing

now. As I'm becoming the old guy going, man, it was better in the 90s. Music was better. Everything was better. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so

happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy

And what an unfortunate scene after the laying of this foundation that some guys are cheering and some are weeping. Thank God you couldn't tell the difference between the two. It sounded the same. The sound was heard from very far away. So we have this beginning of the work of the restoration of the temple. And so what a wonderful thing to see what God is doing with the nation.

Now as I wrap up here, I need to share one piece of housekeeping information. We will not have service here next Wednesday unless you want to come and help with VBS, in which case we would love to put you to work. So if you show up next Wednesday with your Bible, we're going to put you in charge of kids. Okay, so just so you know, no normal service next week.

But I am excited about what God is going to do with all those little kids. So let's pray. Father, we come before you and we thank you, Lord, for who you are. We thank you for how great you are. And, Lord, I thank you that you are a God who restores. And so, Lord, continue to do that work, not only in our hearts, Lord, but in the hearts of our family and hopefully, Lord, in the heart of our nation.

And so, Lord, do your work, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.