Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

Bibles to the book of Ezra, chapter 4. Ezra, chapter 4. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we started into the book of Ezra under the heading of restoration, or restoring the heart of a nation. The children of Israel had been in captivity for those 70 years because of their idolatry, because of their disobedience to the Lord. And so God had brought them back according to the promise that he had made under the direction of

Cyrus, the king. He sent them back to the land, and they started the process of rebuilding the temple. And the last time that we were together, there was a great celebration at the end of chapter 3 because they had laid the foundation. The foundation of the temple. They built the altar, and they were making sacrifices again. And everybody's excited. And it feels like one of those moments where there's going to be the

happily ever after in the next chapter, right? Like, and then they finished the temple, and then they all lived happily ever after, right? Because that's the way a story is supposed to go in that moment. Except for the fact that they did not live happily ever after. Instead, what they faced was opposition. And so that's what we're going to look at tonight under the heading of chapters 4 through

6. We'll be facing opposition. Starting off in chapter 4, verse 1, it says this.

So the first attempt that's made in this opposition that they face is they face the potential of compromise. So the inhabitants of the land, which oddly enough, they're not of Israel, refers to as enemies of the house of Israel, were the ones that we read about all the way back in 2 Kings. If you remember in 2 Kings, when the Assyrians came in and took over the northern kingdom of Israel, they hauled most, everybody of Israel out, and they brought other people in. It was sort of the repatriate, I don't know how you pronounce that word, repatriatization. Yeah, I think that's how you say it. Of the nation in order to take away the

nationalistic spirit of Israel. And so they brought other people in. And so they brought the spirit of the nation. And so Assyria moved all of these foreigners in. Well, what happened was the foreigners were worshiping foreign gods, and they were being attacked by the animals of the land. And so they sent a letter to the king. They're like, here's the deal. Lions keep eating

people, right? This seems like a bad thing. So I think what we need to do is we need to find some priests who used to live in this land to teach us how to worship the god of this land. Otherwise, the lions are going to keep eating us, sincerely scared for our lives, right? And so the king of Assyria sends back some of the people who were worshiping the gods of this land. And so the king

sends back some of the priests of the nation of Israel to the northern kingdom. And what they do is they do two things. Number one, they perform a syncretistic religion among the people. And so they start combining not only the worship of the idolatry of the idols that were in the land at that point in time, but they added into that the worship of God. Now, the second thing that they

did is they began to intermingle with the people. And so they began to produce this race or this generation of people that was half Jewish. And so they began to intermingle with the people. And so they began to produce this race or this generation of people that was half Jewish and half Gentile. We know them in the New Testament as Samaritans. If we were to jump all the way into the Gospels,

you would find that there was an area of the land that they would always go around, and that was called Samaria. And they were ones who both worshiped God in a syncretistic sort of way. In other words, combining foreign gods with the worship of the one true God. And they were only half Jewish. And so they were rejected by the people. Well, these enemies, the ones who had

created the world, they were the ones who had created the world. And so they began to intermingle with the people. And so they began to intermingle with the people. And so they began to intermingle a compromise that the worship of God are the ones that want to join in in the building of the temple. They're like, hey, listen, we worship your God too. Sure, it looks a little bit different.

Our worship looks different than yours does. But aren't we all actually just worshiping the same God? Sure, we're doing it different ways. We call them different names. But aren't we ultimately worshiping the same God? This isn't familiar to anybody at all. Doesn't it kind of feel like the Unitarian cult that we have in the culture today? Aren't we really just all worshiping?

being the same God. And so they tried to join in with him in the building of the temple. Of course, they make a really strong stand. They say, no, we don't have anything to do with you. We're going to rebuild the temple. And I will tell you this, when we face opposition from the enemy, the first thing he will try to get us to do is to compromise our core beliefs.

He will try to get us to compromise our core beliefs. Now, we have to be careful as the church because there are lots of other groups of people that, morally speaking, will think exactly the same as we do. For instance, we can make a stand against abortion. And there are going to be other people from other, shall we say, religions that will also say, we agree with you. We also are

against abortion. And we have to be careful to not now link arms with a foreign religion and say, we're on the same team because we're both against the same thing. That's what we have to be careful of in the culture today because that ultimately... That ultimately becomes compromise. It's kind of like what I told you happened at the prayer meeting with the Ministerial Alliance. When confronted, somebody said, oh, but man, he's really sincere.

I'm like, I don't care. He's sincerely wrong. And that's still compromise. And you can't do that. You can't compromise with those things. And so we have to beware of compromising with other religions, even though we may agree on a certain number of things. If we don't agree on the main thing, and that's who God really is and what his word really says, then we don't agree really

on anything. Does that kind of make sense? And so that's the first thing that happens. The leader stands strong and praise God for that, but it makes them very unpopular amongst the people. And listen, we need to know something. When you stand up in a lack of compromise sort of way, when you stand up and say, this is truth, and I'm going to stand on truth, whether you agree with it

or not, or whether it's popular or not, you need to know there's going to be more opposition that you will face. That's just the nature of what it is to live in the world today. And so when compromise is the first thing that happens, you need to know that there's going to be more opposition. When compromise didn't work, the enemy went to option number two. Notice what it says in verse four.

Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and they frightened them from building. And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Now in the days of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah, and Jerusalem. The second thing that the enemy did in this instance is the enemy sought to discourage them. Now it's interesting to look at this word discourage. As a matter of fact, the old King James

actually translates it this way. The idea behind the word discouragement here is to weaken the hands. That's what that word could literally be translated as, to weaken the hands. And can you think of a better description of discouragement? What happens in your life when you begin to become discouraged about something? The first thing you say is, I'm going to, I'm going to quit. Right? Because it just got difficult,

and that discouragement begins to weaken your hands. And so you just say, I'm just going to quit. I'm just going to be done. I'm going to move out of this job. I'm going to move out of this place. I'm going to move out of this ministry. I'm just going to quit, and I'm going to run as fast and as far as I can. And in that moment, the enemy wins, because he has just weakened your hands,

and you are no longer standing where you need to stand. You are no longer holding strong in the ministry, in the calling, in the job, whatever it is that God has for you to do. I speak this from a place of experience. I don't know what it is about ministry that discouragement is the number one tool that the enemy loves to use. And the way that he uses it is by telling you, you're worthless. Your work is worthless. The things you do are

worthless. No impact is being made on you. You are no longer holding strong in the ministry, in the ministry, in the ministry. You are no longer holding strong in the ministry, in the ministry. You are no longer holding strong in the ministry, in the ministry. You are no longer holding strong in the ministry. on the things that you're doing. No impact is happening because of the things that you do.

And I have to fight that. This is just honesty 101 from Ryan. And I have to fight that with every fiber of my being, because the enemy knows that that's where he can get me. And so he will seek to discourage me, and it will weaken my hands, and it will make me want to quit. And I have to, in that moment, say, no, I'm not going to quit. My hands are weak. I need to move forward,

but I'm not going to quit. He wants them to do. They began to discourage them. And did you notice the other things? There were two other things they did. They frightened them from the building, and then they hired counselors against them. In other words, they built a team to be against them. You've got to stop what you're doing. As a matter of fact, we've hired lawyers to file injunctions against you so

that you will not continue in this work, because the enemy wants to discourage us. And I think it's fascinating, because the song, or the song that I'm going to sing, I'm going to sing it. I'm going to sing it. So the scripture that ran through my head all afternoon as I was studying this comes out of the book of Isaiah, chapter 35, where it says, so strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. And the song that we used to always sing was, and make straight paths for

your feet and be healed. Because we've got to bump, bump, walk in the light. We've got to bump, bump, fight the good fight. We have to be strong in grace and keep running the race. Sorry, we'll sing that song at some point in time, but that's the song I knew growing up. But it uses the song, that scripture. And that's why we're told to do that. That's why, that's why Isaiah, through the

working of God, wrote those words down, is because he knows that our tendency is for our hands to get weakened through discouragement. Maybe that's you tonight. Maybe something has happened in your world. Something has happened in your life, and you have found yourself going, nothing is going to work. Everything is falling apart. I'm just going to quit. You know who, you know who can relate to

you on that? A guy by the name of Elijah. Elijah. Remember the story of Elijah? It's been a little while since we've covered it. But remember, Elijah faces off against all of the prophets of Baal. And when Elijah faces off against all of the prophets of Baal, not only does God show himself to be faithful by consuming the sacrifice and the altar and all of the water that was poured on the sacrifice and the altar, but then

Isaiah goes, or Elijah goes, and he wipes out all of the prophets of Baal. And then when he begins to pray that God would make it rain, which by the way, is not going to happen. He's going to kill Elijah. And by the way, it hadn't done for years. God makes it rain out of nowhere. And do you remember what happened after that? After that, Jezebel said, I'm going to kill Elijah. And he was

like, that's it. I'm done. The best thing I can do is just go lay down and die because I'm the only one that still follows the Lord. Why? Because the enemy used the most popular tactic that works best against all of us, discouragement. And so this is what they began to do. So they hire these counselors and they write this letter. Don't you notice what it says in verse six, now in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his

reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Mishlam, Mithridah, Tabeal, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia. And the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic. Rehum, the commander and Shemshai, the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows. Then wrote Rehum, the commander and

the scribe and the rest of their colleagues and the judges and the lesser governors, the officials, and a whole bunch of people. The rest of the nations which the great and honorable Osnapper, I have no idea if it means Osnapper or actually is pronounced that way, but I'm a lawnmower guy so that's where I went with it. Osnapper deported and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region beyond the river. Now this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him. To King Artaxerxes, your servants

the men in the region beyond the Jordan, now let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up here and have come to us at Jerusalem, they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations. Now let it be known to the king that if the city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll and it will damage the revenue of the kings. Now because we are in the service of the palace and it's not fitting for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore we have sent and informed the king. So that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers and you will discover in the record books and learn that the city is a rebellious city, damaging to

kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days. Therefore that city was laid waste. We inform the king that if the city is rebuilt and the walls finished as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the river. So what do they do? Not only do they discourage but they accuse. And the problem is the accusations were right. If you go back in the history

books, because we just covered it not long ago, if you go back in the history books of the nation of Israel, they had a tendency to revolt against those that would take them over. As a matter of fact, even though Jeremiah the prophet told them the Babylonians are here, this is God's work, you just need to surrender to the Babylonians and I promise if you surrender, if you go into captivity, God will do his thing and then you will come back into the land. They continued to revolt against the king. There were three different revolts against the Babylonians. And so if he goes back into the records, and we'll see this in just a minute,

when he goes back into the records he's going to find they're right. The city was a rebellious city. The city was a city that revolted against those who would come against it. And can I tell you that this is another tactic that the enemy likes to use? The enemy loves to bring up our past. The enemy loves to bring back all of the past mistakes against us. And it begins with discouragement,

and when the discouragement sinks in he says, and don't forget about and tells you about all of the things that you did in the past. And unfortunately the effect that it can have on you is the same effect that it's going to have on them. Sometimes it makes the work stop. Anybody ever dealt with this before? Dealt with the fact that the enemy loves to tell you all of the things that you did before. He loves to remind you

of all of the guilt of your past, all of the rebellion of who you were before Christ, all of the rebellion of who you even, of what you deal with, even in your walk with Christ. And because of that you find yourself feeling really condemned and you go, God can't use me now because of everything that I've done and all the failures that I have. That's opposition from the enemy. That's Him wanting to discourage you and pull you away and make you feel like you're not good enough to be used by God. You're not good

enough to be able to be used in any way by the Creator of the heavens and the earth and quite frankly He's right, you're not, but God is, because God takes broken people and He does beautiful things with them. God takes our inability and He does something amazing with it. I was just reading in the book of Matthew chapter 13, 13, 14, I think it's 13, the feeding of the 5,000. And I love that story because in the feeding of the 5,000, there's all of these people out there that need a meal. And the disciples come to Jesus and they

say, dude, we should send these people home because it's really late in the day. They're really hungry and there's a whole bunch of them and not a whole bunch of us. Send them home so that they can go get something to eat. And Jesus looks at them and he says, will you give them something to eat? How about that? And they were like, Lord, what we have is not enough. We have

five loaves and two fish and we stole it from that kid. So I know that there's not enough. There's not even enough for us from what we stole from that kid. They didn't really steal it from him, but you know where I'm going with this. And Jesus says, make everybody sit down. Because you know what? They're right in this moment. What they have is not good enough to feed,

5,000 people. It's barely enough to feed one small boy. But he says, give me what you've got. He gives them the five loaves. They give him the five loaves and the two fish. He says, have everybody sit down. So they sit down and Jesus begins to hand out the bread and he begins to hand out the fishies. And pretty soon, not only does everybody get to eat, but the word in

the Greek is that everyone was glutted. They were full. And there were 12, baskets left over. Ironically, one for each disciple to take home to their family. Because we'll never be good enough because of our past and all those kinds of things. But God takes our brokenness and God takes our inability and he makes it more than enough. And so, so unfortunately, they believe that their past keeps them from continuing to serve. Because

notice what it says in verse 17. Verse 17. The kings in past days that rebellion and revolt have been perpetrated in it. That mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem governing governing all the provinces beyond the river. And so, I'm going to read this out to you. I'm going to read this out to you. I'm going to river. That tribute, custom, and toll were paid to them. So now issue a decree to make these men

stop their work, that this city may not be rebuilt until the decree is issued by me. Beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter. Why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings? As soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Raham and Shemshai, the scribe, and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews, and they stopped them by force of arms. And I want you to pay really close attention to verse 24. Then the work on the house

of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. In this moment, it seems like the enemy has won. Have you ever been in a place like that in your life, where whether it was the compromise, whether it was the discouragement, or whether it was just believing that your past disqualifies you from the present, your past disqualifies you from God's use of you in the future, whatever it is, your work stopped. Whether it was you stopped coming to church, whether it was that you stopped pursuing God through his word and through prayer, whether it was because you got out of the ministry that God called you into, whatever it is, the enemy won, and you stopped. And in that moment, you find

yourself in a place where you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. What now? What now that the work has stopped? Does this mean there's no hope for me? Does this mean

I can never get back to doing the work that God has called me to do? Well, I'm here to tell you right now that as long as you are on topside of planet Earth, you're never going to reach the end of your story. And this is what we find with these guys right here. I want you to notice what it says in chapter 5, because what we're going to see is we're going to see them get back to work.

It says, And when the prophets, Haggai the prophet, Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the Lord God of Israel who was over them, then Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel and Jeshua the son of Josedach arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. So what happens? What happens? God sends a preacher. I want you to pay attention to this. This is exactly what God

does. God sent a preacher. I got to tell you right now in this moment, when I read this a few weeks ago in my own devotional time and in the margin of my Bible, I wrote, so God sent a preacher. And this time in my notes, I wrote, so God sent a preacher. And it was really encouraging to me because I was like, sometimes when the work is great, I'm like, all I do is talk. That's the

only thing I'm good at doing is talking. And so I'm like, well, I don't really serve that much of a purpose because all I do is talk. And God's like, you just keep talking because sometimes what we need is a preacher. And this is exactly what these guys do. Matter of fact, the book of Haggai that we come to, that we'll come to later in scripture and the book of Zechariah that we'll come to later in scripture were written for this

specific purpose because they saw that the work had stopped. Not only had the work, not only had the work stopped, but the heart of the people had grown cold. They had started building their own houses. They had started building two houses. They had started building two houses. They had started doing three-story houses with multiple car garages, multiple donkey garages. They had built

all these beautiful homes and Haggai and Zechariah are like, bro, what are you doing? Why are you building a beautiful home and ignoring the house of God? They said to stop. Who cares? It's not their house. It's God's house. And so God sent a preacher. But more than that, God sent an encourager, right? Like, I don't know if y'all realize, some of y'all have the gift of

encouragement. I have a former college kid that every now and then they'll just drop a dime on me, right? Like, I'm just sitting there and all of a sudden they'll be like, hey, I was watching you today and man, I just love that service. And it's usually in the time when I'm like, nobody got anything out of that. Like, I should have just stayed at home this morning because I don't think

anybody got anything out of that. And this kid will drop a dime on me and I'm like, dude, you have no idea how much I needed to hear this in this moment because I was ready to quit. You have no idea how much I needed. And I told him, I said, you have the gift of encouragement. I don't know if you realize that or not, but there's not a single text you've ever sent to me that's not the most

encouraging thing I've ever heard in my life. And it makes me want to keep going. Listen, if you have that gift, use that gift with the people around you. Because people around you sometimes want to quit and they need you to annoy them and encourage them. They need you to be the one who won't leave them alone. Who keeps going, dude, don't give up. Keep rolling. Keep doing your thing. Don't stop.

Because God sends encouragement. When we are ready to quit. God sends encouragers when we are not doing the work he's called for us to do. So you're in a place where you say, I don't know if God can use me anymore. I bought into the compromise. I bought into the discouragement. I believe that my past was too great for God to overcome. And so you quit. What now? God's about to send somebody your way. Maybe it's me tonight.

Maybe it's somebody else to say, get back on it. It's time to get back to work. Because that's what I and Zachariah did. Is they came and they lit up their world with the truth of God's word. With the truth of the promise that God made and said, it's time to get back to the work. And it reminds me of something. Everybody in the body of Christ fills a different role. Everybody in the body of

Christ does something different. Some of you are the hammer swingers. Some of you are the encouragers. Some of you are the, are the gophers. Whatever it is, everybody plays a different role. We always talk about this every year at VBS. VBS is, listen, I am not a decorative human being, okay? That's just all that there is to it. You throw me in making paper chains and people will

be like, let's find a different job for you, okay? Because this is not what I do. But when we get together with VBS and get all of these people in this building, you have no, if you were not here for the decoration of this building, we said we should have made a time-lapse video to watch VBS, okay? Because it's fascinating. Everybody plays a different role. You know what my role is?

Carry heavy things and go get stuff. And I am super good at that role. They're like, where's the ladder? On it. Got this right here. Yep. Where's this? I know exactly where that is. Who needs coffee? I'll go get it, right? I'm happy to be that guy. That's the role that I play. And then we have someone who is the, the, the artistic director behind all of it that we're like,

what do we do now? And she's like, do this. And I'm like, I have no idea how that's going to work. And then it comes together. I'm like, I'll be darned. I don't know if y'all saw the tree that was out here, right? That was the coolest tree ever. Do you realize that tree was a perfect picture of the body of Christ? Do you realize that? So when I first saw that tree, it was set up in the, in the cornerstone room and it looked like

a rocket. I was like, interesting. How are we fitting a rocket into Psalm 23? Emerald Isle, Ireland. And she said, that's not a rocket. And on the inside, she said, that's not a rocket, you moron. But on the outside, she said, it's not a rocket, it's a tree. And I was like, oh, all right. Well, then it gets moved in here. Do you realize that all of those paper chains were made by different people? Like a bunch

of you maybe even were the ones that made them and y'all brought your little paper chains in. And then we had these two super creative teenage boys, teenage boys did that, right? And they, they thumbtack all of that stuff up to the ceiling. And, and it was amazing how it all came together and everybody played a different part. And we discuss this every year,

like there is no better picture, the body of Christ and the coming together of VBS because everybody plays a role. I am so glad that God has brought us some younger people that play the role that I used to play. And that's how I need to do the stupid skits up on this stage. I am so, I praise God for the young people that came up here and did that. I'm just like,

I just sat back there in the back. I was like, I like my seat now. You guys keep doing that. You're better than I ever thought about being. But that's what the body of Christ does. And listen, that's what we see here. Haggai and Zechariah, they were the encouragers. These other two fellas, Zerubbabel and Sheltiel, Jeshua, they were the leaders and they got everybody together to start building.

They were inspired by Haggai and Zechariah. They led the team, but they couldn't do it all themselves. So they assembled the workers and they all began to do the work. And the entire time, do you see what was going on there? The prophets of God were with them, supporting them. That means both physically and spiritually. That's the idea behind that phrase, supporting them.

And so they're back to the building of the temple. We're going building, now we're on our way. Wait, but we're not done. At that time, Tatanai, the governor of the province, beyond the river, and that name right there, and their colleagues with them, spoke to them saying, who issued you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure? And then we, I love it.

Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men who were, who were reconstructing the building. But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius. And then a written reply returned concerning it. This time, when they said, who's told you you should start rebuilding this temple? I thought this was

supposed to stop. And they were like, well, those guys right there, did you notice who they named? All of them. All of them. All of the guys building the temple. It's like they all blamed each other, right? Well, Zerubbabel said to do it, and then this guy said to do it. Haggai and Zechariah, those are the guys really rolling on us to do this thing. We're all the guys building the temple. And when they stood strong, what

happened? It says the eye of their God was on them. Why? Because they were confidently doing what God called them to do. They would not be thwarted this time. They would not be discouraged this time. And that brings me to another statement. Boldness and confidence come when you can rest in the calling that God has on your life. Boldness and confidence come when you can rest

in the calling that God has on your life. Whether that calling be just simply the position that you have in Christ, because that's always where your boldness and confidence begins. It begins when you realize this is who God says that I am. That I am a new creation in Christ Jesus that I've made for more than the garbage of this world, and I'm going to boldly and confidently stand in who I am in Christ. And then from there,

God begins to say, and this is what I've called you to do. And when somebody says, why are you doing it? Say, talk to my boss, because he's the one that called me to do it. This is what I'm called to do, and I'm going to keep doing it until God tells me not to. I love this, because this is a different mode of operation than they were in in the last chapter. The last time they said,

hey, who told you to do this? You're like, yeah, you're right. We should stop now. No. Roll. Do what God calls you to do. And so what do they do? They do what God calls you to do. And so what do they do? They send another letter. This is the copy of the letter, verse 6, which Tatanai, the governor of the province beyond the river, and Shether, I don't still know how to say that one, and his

colleagues and the officials who were beyond the river sent to Darius the king. They sent a report to him in which it was written like this. To Darius the king, all peace. Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with huge stones and beams and are being laid in the walls, and this work is going on with great care and is succeeding in their hands. We asked those elders and said to them, who issued

you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure? We also asked them their names so that we could inform you. We might write down the names of the men who were at their head. Thus they answered and said, we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the temple which was built many years ago, which the great king of Israel built and finished. But because

had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon. However, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, king Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house. Also the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, brought them to the temple of Babylon. These king Cyrus took from the temple of Babylon and were given to the house of God, whose name was Sheshbazar, whom he appointed governor. He said to them,

take these utensils and go and deposit them in the temple of Jerusalem and let the house of God be rebuilt in its place. Then that Sheshbazar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. And from then until now, it has been under construction and it has not yet been completed. Now, if it pleases the king, let a search be conducted in the king's treasurer's house, which is there in Babylon, if it be that a decree was issued by king Cyrus to rebuild this house of God.

Jerusalem and let the king send to us his decision concerning this matter. I want to point out one thing to you. This letter recounts the words from the elders of the Jews. And I want you to notice what the elders of the Jews said when they were asked, why are you rebuilding this house? They owned their past and they believed in their future. They said, we got sent into Babylon because we

disobeyed our God and we served other gods. And this was God's right. And this was God's judgment on us. But now God has restored us and sent us back to build this temple. Can I tell you that there is great confidence in our lives when we, number one, will own our past, but number two, we'll believe in our future. Sometimes I think the reason why we lack confidence is because we keep wanting to say, well, my past wasn't real. No, it was real. It's

okay. Own that. Own who you were. I was just having a conversation with a group of young men yesterday. I said, listen, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings us to a place where we can be out of the shadows and it gives us confidence and boldness to say, that's who I was, but it's not who I am anymore. And we can move boldly into the future because God has a future for us because

we've already dealt with our past. And that's what they do here. This is what they do in this letter. And so they say, you should search and see if King Cyrus really did this. So King Darius, chapter six, verse one, issued a decree and search was made into the archives where the treasures were stored in Babylon. In the fortress, which is in the province of Media, a scroll was found and there was written

in it as follows. Memorandum. In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem. Let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained. Its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits with three layers of huge stones, one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid by the royal treasury and let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God,

which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple. You shall put these in the house of God. Now, therefore, Tatanai, governor of the province beyond the river, that name, and your colleagues, the officials of the provinces beyond the river, keep away from there. Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders,

of the Jews, rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of the house of God. The full cost is to be paid from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the river and that without delay. Whatever is needed, young bulls, rams, lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and anointing oil is the priest in Jerusalem's request. It's given to them from the house of God. It's given to them from the house of God.

It's given to them daily without fail that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven. Pray for the life of the king and his sons. I issue a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this. And may the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it so as to destroy this house of God.

Now, the simple reading of that, we don't realize the miraculous nature of the fact that they found this scroll. But I want you to notice the fact that they started searching for this scroll in Babylon, and they found it in Ekbana. Why is that miraculous? That is 300 miles away from Babylon. And yet 300 miles away, they find this scroll. Can I just tell you that we are told in the book of

Psalms, chapter 37, that God is able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. You can let God fight those battles because God will send people 300 miles away into an unknown spot to retrieve whatever it takes to bring forth your righteousness, just like he did here. They found this scroll somewhere else. And I love it. Darius raises the stakes. He goes,

first of all, you're going to leave him alone. You're going to let him do this thing, right? Second of all, you're going to support them. Quit sending us taxes from you guys. Instead, as you gather taxes, give it to them because that's what's going to fund the building of this temple. As a matter of fact, anything that they need, animals, wine, salt, I don't care what it

is. Give them everything that they need to rebuild this temple. Not only that, anyone who tries to stop it, and this is where it gets funky, let a beam be pulled from his house and you will be impelled upon it. Like this guy means business. Right? By the way, this is Darius, the same one that we read about in the book of Daniel, who was going to send Daniel to the lion's den. And I believe it was probably after that,

that he began to realize that there is a one true God and he is in heaven. And he even knows how to close the mouths of lions. And so he issues this decree. Yay, life is good. Verse 13. Then Tat and I, the governor of the province beyond the river, and that guy and their colleagues carried out the decrees. Pay attention. With all diligence. Listen, you throw impaling in there and I'm going to do

everything with all diligence as well. Just as King Darius had sent. And the elders of the Jews were successful in the building through the prophesying of Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Biddo. They finished building according to the command of God. And the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The temple was completed on the third day of the month of

Adar. It was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. And the elders of the Jews were successful and the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the rest of the exiles celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. They offered dedication of the temple with 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, 12 male goats corresponding to the number of tribes. They appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites in their orders for the

service of God in Jerusalem. That's what's written in the book of Moses. And of course, they're going to go on and they're going to celebrate the Passover and they're going to celebrate the feast of the Lord. And they're going to celebrate the feast of the Lord. And they're going to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread because God has brought great victory into their lives.

And so I have a question for you. What opposition are you facing tonight? Maybe you're facing the opposition of compromise. And it's a whole lot easier to not make a strong stand and just sort of compromise some of those beliefs, compromise some of those things, because after all, we agree on almost everything. But if you don't agree on the most important thing,

then it's compromise. And if you don't agree on the most important thing, then it's compromise. And if you don't agree on the most important thing, then it's compromise. Your hands are so weakened that you just want to stop. You're just like, what's the point? I don't think I'm making any difference in anyone's life. And you just want to quit because your hands have been

weakened. And it's time to strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees. Maybe tonight it's your past, or maybe it's even the mistakes you made yesterday that are making you go, man, the enemy's right. I keep screwing up. I keep messing up. God can't ever use me because my past is too dark. My failures are too great. The things I struggle with are still too strong in my life,

and God can't use me. It's time to own your past. It's time to own your weaknesses. It's time to own your failures, because once you can own your past, then you can start believing your future. You can start believing what God has for you. Or maybe it's just time to hear a good word of encouragement. And you need to hear this word tonight that says, it's time to get back to work.

It's time to get back to doing what God has called for you. Because quite frankly, God has more for you than you can ever imagine. Now get back to the work that he's called you to do. Amen. Father, we come before you, and I just thank you that, I thank you that you give us these sections in scripture, Lord, and they're always well-timed. They're always perfectly timed for everything that we need. And Lord, I know that this one was perfectly timed as

well. And so Father, I pray that you would strengthen us in you, and I pray, God, that you would put the fire into our souls, that you would put the fire in our bellies to do what you have called for us to do. Lord, that, that we would not be discouraged, that we would not be held back. But Lord, that we would march on with the freedom that we have, being confident in who we are in you and what you call us to do. And so Father, be with us as we go

on from here, moving our lives by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.