Press On - Pt. 2: Ezra 6

Victories: 1. Father's Day 2.

Prayer: Eastgate Community Church Nate Wayman

Missionary Prayer: Matt & Katie Dooney / Word of Life - Pray for health and energy

Intro

I want to give you a scenario and see what your response would be. You and a group of your friends and family have begun a huge project that is for the benefit of all. There is an area of your town that has fallen into disrepair, and now it is filled with junk and graffiti, and it just seems to bring in all the wrong types of people. But you spend a bunch of time and get approval from the town to start to fix up this eyesore. The plan is to make a playground on one end and an amphitheater at the other end. You are beyond happy that the project has begun, and you are excited about the work even though you know it will not be easy, quick, or cheap. Your work begins in earnest, but you are not working very long before concerned neighbors show up and ask you what you are doing. They want to know who approved this work. They want to know who is going to continue doing the upkeep. They want to know whose going to pay for it all. Their questions eventually led to them demanding to know all the names of those who are involved in the work. As they humph away, you are left with that impending sense of doom. By a show of hands, how many of you think that things are going to turn out badly? We are conditioned to expect that bad stuff will happen when others stick their noses into our work. It is almost a foregone conclusion that they will show back up, and this time, they will have someone in authority to make you stop.

That is exactly where we find ourselves in Ezra, and just a few weeks ago, as we read Ezra 4, that is what happened. The accusations were brought by Rehum and Shimshai, and their letter to the King brought the rebuilding of the temple to a halt for 9 years. For 9 years, the returned Jews in Jerusalem went about their business in the shadow of a temple they knew must be rebuilt, but they could do nothing. In chapter 5, it looked like history was about to repeat itself. The work began again when Haggai and Zechariah urged the people to do the work as they had been commanded by and and they had no sooner gotten started when a new accuser showed up. The governor of the region beyond the River Tattenai, together with his entourage of nosey, opinionated neighbors, wrote another letter to the king. Now the difference is that this time the desire of Tattenai to stop the work backfired on him, and instead the new King, King Darius, declared that the work should continue. As we pick this up this week, we are going to look at exactly what Darius wrote to Tattenai.

Bible Reading: Ezra 6:1-12

Unexpected Blessings

Wow! what a turn of events. In case you didn’t catch all of what happened in this letter from Darius let me break it down.

Darius makes a thorough search of the archives and finds the original decree of King Cyrus nearly 20 years earlier. Not only does he reaffirm this decree, but he adds to it. There are 3 additions made to the original decree.

First, (Keep out) the temple will be rebuilt, and Tattenai and his cronies are to keep their noses out of it. Ezra 6:6–7 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the region beyond the River, and Shethar-Boznai, and your companions the Persians who are beyond the River, keep yourselves far from there. Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its site.”

Second, (The Payment) the rebuilding will be paid by the king, which is part of the original decree, but did you catch where that money is specifically supposed to come from? Ezra 6:8 “Moreover I issue a decree as to what you shall do for the elders of these Jews, for the building of this house of God: Let the cost be paid at the king’s expense from taxes on the region beyond the River; this is to be given immediately to these men, so that they are not hindered.” Where is Tattenai governor? Oh, right, “the region beyond the river.” So not only is Tattenai supposed to stop nosing into the affairs of the Jews, but His own taxes owed to Darius are to be given specifically to the rebuilding project. This is demoralizing to Tattenai and beyond the wildest dreams of the Jews trying to rebuild.

Lastly, (Disobedience), we see that this reissuing of the decree comes with some teeth. To disobey the decree will be met with destruction. Ezra 6:11 “Also I issue a decree that whoever alters this edict, let a timber be pulled from his house and erected, and let him be hanged on it; and let his house be made a refuse heap because of this.” In other words, “Tattenai, if you mess with them or don’t give your taxes to them, I will bring your region to its knees, and you will be executed.” I think that Tattenai got the picture.

The whole thing is just unthinkable in our human wisdom. Things like this just don’t happen. We tend to think along the lines of David from Psalm 94:3 “Lord, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?” We see the evilness of this world prevail time and time again to the point that we have given up hope that anything good could actually happen. Things like this just don’t happen, except they do happen.

We have spent a good amount of time discussing over the past few weeks the need for Christians to be ready to endure the trials and hardships of this life. We live in a world marred by sin and rebellion, and while we have been forgiven, we are still racked by the sin we commit and have committed. The trials and temptations that God uses for our benefit are hard, and they bring us to our knees, for that is exactly where God wants us. He wants us to realize that without Him, we are nothing. We need the God of creation; we need our great provider. These things are absolutely true, and we should expect them to continue. What we don’t expect are the blessings that God gives us in the midst of the trials, what we don’t expect are the little moments of bliss that God gives, and the momentous moments that change our lives.

Glimpse of New Creation

I am reading a book by a missionary doctor named Eric McLaughlin called Promises in the Dark. In chapter 3 of this book, he described a day in his life as an ER doctor in Kenya. I have been struck in reading this book by the hardness and sorrow that life brings, and yet we as Christians are supposed to live as victors in the midst of it all. Eric McLaughlin tells the reader about a verse that strikes at the core of His faith. Revelation 21:5 “Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” What strikes Eric is that with all the death, destruction, and horror that he sees in his everyday life, he questions, “Where is God? How is this making all things New?” As I look out at the world around me, I too question the goodness of God at times. When I see the horrors of sin and the destructiveness of evil, I wonder as David did when God is going to put a stop to it all. But as I read “Promises in the Dark,” I realize that my life isn’t so bad. Let me read you a bit of his story.

“[Every day] My team of interns gathers their clipboards, and we head into the male ward. The first patient is breathing 70 times a minute, his lips are blue, and his skin is stretched tight over his cheekbones. He has AIDS as well as something bad in his lungs that could have been fought off if his immune system weren't so destroyed by HIV. We don't know what, so we're treating for as many different possibilities as we can. The second patient came in with a splitting headache. He has HIV as well as fungal meningitis, so he'll be here for several weeks getting IV therapy. The third patient is in a coma. We don't know a lot about his story; he looks like a 70 lb skeleton, and he has violet skin spots all over his chest. He also has HIV.

The other half of the ward seems to be full of incurable cancer: stomach, esophagus, liver, whatever. Patients sought treatment too late, and so now the hospital staff and I will do what we can, but curing the cancer is not in that category. Most of them have come a long way, looking for help, hoping we can do something that we just can't do. Bed by bed, person by person, the interns and I make our way around the room, doing what we can and feeling the tremendous weight of all that we can't. It's exhausting. We keep waiting for the good news, but it doesn't seem to come.

However, when we're done, all the family members, who have been patiently waiting outside, come in and crowd the beds. They bring handshakes and news from the village. The kitchen worker rolls her cart down the center aisle, and the family shares a meal of rice and beans and a slice of pineapple. The shift in the room is slight, but it's definite - a little more light. A little of the goodness of everyday human life enters. A bit of consolation sneaks in at the end of a long litany of sorrow. I catch a glimpse of new creation.”

Did you catch what he called the families visiting the patients? He called it “A glimpse of new creation.” He goes on to define that as the sometimes small but always glorious moments when God showers His blessings on us, sinful creations. Eric McLaughlin later said this, “There is all this darkness and all this suffering, sometimes injected with little points of golden light. Yes, beauty is found from time to time, but pride and selfish ambition still rule the day.” Life is full of these God moments, where we are reminded that God loves us and wants us to feel His blessing. Hang on to those moments, friends. King David, who questions when God will stop allowing evil to prosper, knows that God does remember us. Psalm 30:5 “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” We are never far from God, and God knows how to give His children good gifts.

Craving Blessing

Have you ever had these moments in your life? Moments that are like a warm hug from God. Moments that seem to well up in you and bring you to your knees in prayer and thankfulness. I truly hope that you have, because they are often what gets us through the toughest parts of life. When we see the goodness of God in our lives, we can face the trials of a job loss, the death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, marital hurt, the lonely days of being single but wanting more. These and many more trials are beyond hard to live through, and yet when we are given or when we remember the glimpses of new creation that God showers upon His beloved children, we find the strength to make it through. We find that even the hardest days can be days when we sing along with Horatio Spafford. “Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come Let this blest assurance control That Christ has regarded my helpless estate And hath shed His own blood for my soul It is well, it is well with my soul”

Faith Modeled

When we model this kind of faith before the world, we show that our Christianity is different and that is contagious. True faith makes even the ungodly crave the blessing of God. King Darius even desires the prayers of the Godly for his own life and family. Ezra 6:10 “that they may offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his sons.” This king, who had no idea who God was or how to follow Him, did, however, know that the faith of the exiles was something to be desired. A faith that He wanted and needed. How did he know that? He saw it in the faith of those exiles still left in Babylon. He saw it in the perseverance of the returned exiles who, even in the face of adversity, still desired to build the temple; he saw it in creation itself that cries out to worship the Lord of all creation.

True faith makes even the ungodly crave the blessing of God. We model that kind of faith every time we face the adversities of our lives, and we face them with confidence, knowing that God can get us through. Romans 8:37–39 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When we live out our faith with fear and trembling, we are showing the world that God matters, and they will crave that kind of faith as well.

Sustained Faith

How do we hold on to all of this in the middle of our hardest trials, in the middle of our worst days? We believe in the Sovereignty of God, and we worship Him as our Majesty. He is in control even in a world that feels out of control. We find those glimpses of new creation that show us the love of God, and we hold tight. I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to deal with the hardships of life; none of you needs to be reminded about how debilitating they can be to every part of your thoughts, actions, and words. When you are in the middle of a trial, it is all-encompassing. Everything you do is surrounded by it; you can’t escape it. From the very first waking moment of your day to the moment you finally fall asleep, it is your constant companion and focus.

What is the solution? A change of focus. Instead of allowing the issue to be your focus, try something different. Try focusing on the Majesty of God. Try being enamored by the mercy of God, humbled by the fear of God, and worship Him, the God of awesome power. Try this out. Most of you probably have a Bible that has a concordance in the back of it. Look back there in the concordance for “fear of the Lord.” Most concordances will have 20 or more references to it. Go, and one by one look those verses up and then spend time asking God to help you understand them and to let them become real in your life. We don’t need a God who is our best friend (There is nothing wrong with us believing that God loves us, of course He does.) we need a God who is big and powerful and who holds the oceans at bay, who calls the wind to stop, who speaks and the world was made, who calls forth the thunder, we need a God who makes us fearful so that when that God comes to you and says, Hebrews 13:5–6 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

We have a God who can do all these things and more if only we will ask. Do you know this God of new creation? Have you put your trust in Him? Are you ready today?

Gospel

Jesus died for our sins, and because He did, we can place our belief in that sacrifice. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We have the promise of God that if we ask for forgiveness and believe in the saving power of Jesus, we will be saved. And from the saving power of Jesus, we become new creations. 2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” This means that as Christians, we get a fresh start, we aren’t who we used to be, and we have the power of God behind us to change who we are becoming. Glory to God in the highest, for He has saved my soul, and He can save yours too if you will let Him. If you aren’t sure, then you can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today, you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

Dear Lord, I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins, and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Friend, if you prayed that prayer today, I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

Benediction: Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”