Renewed Worship

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, you can open up to the book of Ezra. We will be in Ezra 3 this morning. Some of you might be wondering why I am skipping all of chapter 2. It’s quite simple, chapter 2 is a list of names and numbers of the Jews that left Babylon and returned to Jerusalem. I am not going to attempt to read the names or preach it. Not because it’s not important, but because it is extremely difficult to exposit. If you want to study it, go ahead, but we are jumping to Chapter 3.

What we will see as we look at this chapter this morning is that followers of God long to worship God.

Main Idea: Followers of God Long to Worship God.

Teaching Points:

1. Followers of God worship God regardless of Circumstances

2. Followers of God love to worship with each other

1. Followers of God Worship God Regardless of Circumstance (1-6)

Ezra 3:1–6 ESV

1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.

The very first thing that Israel did when they returned to Jerusalem was to build the altar and begin to make offerings and sacrifices to the Lord. They don’t start building walls, a fortress, or even homes. They didn’t even start with the Temple. They rebuilt the altar. The people of Israel were intentional.

While they were gone from the land, apparently some people moved in that apparently were not too happy about getting new neighbors. Because of this, the people of Israel were afraid of them. But this fear did not make them unwilling to worship God. Instead, they put the altar exactly where it needed to be.

They weren’t messing around. They did everything literally by the book, celebrated feasts, performed every offering needed, and did so in one accord. They joined together as one man and were united in worship to the Lord.

The importance of the altar to Israel cannot be missed. They saw their angry neighbors and they went straight to worshipping God. They had to walls to protect them, and yet they went straight to worshipping God. They had no Temple, but they built the altar and worshipped God.

They spend the last 70 years in a place where they were not allowed to worship God. They learned their need for Him and the importance of worship. So when they returned home, saw their land in ruins, and met their fearsome neighbors, they went straight to the Lord knowing they would meet Him at the altar.

When I was reading this passage, I was struck with the tenacity and resoluteness Israel had. Nothing was going to stop them from worshipping God. They didn’t need the Temple. They didn’t need security. They didn’t have any of that, and yet they built the altar, gave offerings to God, and worshipped Him.

Followers of God worship God regardless of circumstance. Do we worship God regardless of circumstance? Do we only worship God when everything is going our way? Do we only worship God when life is great, no problems at home or at work, our kids are behaving and sleeping through the night, all our bills are paid, and everyone likes us?

Do we only worship God when we’re healthy? Or when the weather is nice? Do we only worship God on Sundays, when we sing four songs? What about when times are rough? What about when our cars break down, or our hours are cut, or we’re sick, or we’re fighting with our spouses, and our kids are going insane because you put them down for one second?

What about when everyone around you seemingly hates you because you are a Christian? Do you worship God regardless of circumstances?

Followers of God worship Him when it’s favorable and unfavorable. When it’s safe and unsafe. When it’s convenient and inconvenient. God is still God whether you are having a bad day or a good day and He is worthy of your worship no matter what.

God is still good even when your life is falling apart and He still promises to sustain you and hold you. Do you worship Him even then?

The people of Israel could not worship God in the open for seventy years and the very first thing that they did was build the altar and worship God.

Followers of God Long to Worship with Others (6-13)

Ezra 3:6–13 ESV

6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia. 8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers. 10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

The chapter continues and we see that eventually they begin to build the Temple. They laid the foundation of the Temple and they all sang together thanking God, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” They shouted with joy and the old men who saw the first Temple wept loudly. Their was great rejoicing as the Temple was being rebuilt.

The Temple is where corporate worship took place. They were rejoicing because now they could worship together again.

Followers of God long to worship with others. We should desire and be excited to sing praises to our King together. We should be excited and be present during the whole service. Not sneaking in half way through worship. If you are a follower of Christ, corporate worship must be a priority.

We are blessed to be able to live in a country where we can sing as loud as we want in a large building next to the highway with a sign saying “New Hope Baptist Church.” We have nothing to be afraid of. Imagine how loud the believers in China, North Korea, Africa, and the Middle East would shout for joy and sing if they had the same opportunity to worship God publicly that we have. Instead of whispering, we can sing loudly.

Do we long to worship God together? Or is it just something we just shrug our shoulders and just check out and hang out in the foyer until after the music is over?

The nation of Israel shouted for joy and wept as the foundations of the Temple was being laid. Believers oversees are whispering hymns so they don’t get caught.(read post about Chinese believers)

Churches in America are empty if it rains.

Israel was delivered from a physical captivity and they worshipped God with fervor and zeal. God has delivered us from spiritual captivity with His own blood. How much more should we long to worship Him?

God is worthy of our praise. He has given us new life from the dead. He has forgiven us from all our sins and has given us His Spirit. If we are alive in Him and belong to Him then we should want to worship God. We should want to spend our lives magnifying Him and praising Him with fellow believers.

Application

Worship God always

Be present