Do-Over

Do-Overs

We all have them in our lives.

Like kids playing games.

Don’t roll the dice the way we want to, end up in jail or paying huge rent.

Strike out in a backyard baseball game

Discard the wrong card in Hand and Foot, once it’s laid, it’s played, once your hand has let it go...

Okay, so it’s not always as a kid, maybe acting like one, though.

In our own minds, we know we’re better than that. We realize we made a mistake. But, come on...

Opponents are like, “Are you kidding?!” Your loss! There are consequences to making mistakes. You may lose this one.

We carry this desire for do-overs into adulthood.

Think back thru your life. Some of us have a rolls of the dice we regret. Some swings and misses. Some discards that we’d love to have back and have a second chance at.

My step-dad retired from Sears. Hard-working guy, worked the floor selling at Sears. Never had a lot. But, once he retired he managed his own investments and he did okay. A nice little house in Wichita, a nice lifestyle.

He was tight, but he did okay by my mom and himself.

So, one day, he tells me about this hot stock. A start up that was “can’t miss.” Made auto parts. The stock was cheap, but it was about a sure thing to take off in the next few months.

So, I called my broker and she questioned me, but I was sure about this, cause I know so much. So we bought some.

This was in the summer of 1987. Anyone know what happened in October of ‘87?

Stock market crashed. This little can’t miss start up went bankrupt.

Could I have a do-over please?

Just give me my money back and I’ll go away quietly.

Right. No. There are consequences to making mistakes.

Sara and I were married in 1984. I started Seminary in ‘85. We were told (by people who know) that since we were going to be around 5 years we should buy a house.

It’s an investment. They only appreciate.

Remember, it’s the summer of ‘85 and Dallas was booming.

Anyone remember “non-qualified assumable loans”?

It’s a loan that you could let some assume and they wouldn’t have to go thru the expensive process of being qualified by the mortgage company.

Qualified: That they are financially capable of making the payments on this loan.

They just pick up the payments. Maybe give you a little down.

Then, 1987 happened.

It’s 1990 and we’re getting ready to move to Minot. Need to sell our house. In 5 years we had made zero dent in the principle.

This little 1200 sq.’ house we bought financed for $75,000 was now worth about $55,000.

But, we had non-qualified assumable loan. God blessed us w/ buyers in about 2 weeks. I “qualified” them. They gave us $1000 and picked up our payments.

They did okay, but they sold the house, someone else assumed out loan, and about 10 years after we bought that house I got a letter in the mail from the mortgage company’s attorney that the loan had been defaulted on.

My name was still on the loan. I checked w/ my attorney and we worked it out. But,....could I have do-over on that first home loan?

What about you?

A financial decision you want a do-over on?

A mortgage you’d like a second chance with?

A second chance to rethink picking up that heavy box?

A job decision. One you regret not taking. Or, one you regret taking and moving you family? You’re still recovering from?

A do-over with that first drink? Or, your last drink?

A marriage?

Do you have a kid you want a do-over with?

Life is littered w/ situations we’d love to have back.

And, typically, these are situations where we got ahead of God, if we were considering God at all.

Here’s where we’re going today. We all make mistakes. And, we can learn from them. Mistakes have consequences.

But, we worship a God of second-chances, do-overs.

And, when we’re given a do-over, let’s not make the same mistake again.

To begin w/, stay behind God, right behind God. Don’t get ahead of Him.

Wherever He leads is the best place to go even if it doesn’t look like it at the time or wouldn’t be your first choice.

He knows us, He knows the future, He knows where we best fit in it.

This winter we are going to study thru the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Chronologically, the last history books in the OT.

Haggai and Zechariah are contemporary prophets of Ezra. Malachi is a contemporary of Nehemiah.

They all tell the story of Israel getting a great, big do-over.

First, the back story

The Back Story

Israel was enslaved in Egypt and God used Moses to lead them out to the Promised Land.

Joseph and his brothers settle in Egypt

The nation grows w/in their boundaries and Egypts fears an internal takeover so they enslave Israel.

God raises up Moses, provides plagues so Pharaoh will let Israel go.

There is no one powerful enough to take Egypt on so God has to move Himself to deliver Israel from their slavery.

Thru the Sea, the Egyptian army follows and God lets the water go and the Egyptian army is destroyed.

Israel doesn’t have to do a thing except follow God and obey what He says to do and go where He says to go.

They could have gone straight into the PL, made a bee-line. It wasn’t that far.

But, Moses goes up on the mountain and gets the 10 commandments. He comes down to find the rest involved in a drunken, sexual, immoral, worship to a golden calf.

So, God punishes them by making the wander around until that entire generation is dead. 2 million funerals.

Even Moses, b/c of his disob. doesn’t get to go into the PL. He only gets them up to the river. Joshua led them in.

God’s instructions to the people thru Joshua are basically; live faithfully and obediently and I will take care of you.

God will protect them and the land will produce for them.

“Choose you this day Whom you will serve.”

Yes, there were other people who live here, but God promised to take care of that. Just follow.

Here’s your chance. Make a life for yourselves. It’ll be great. All they had to do was live faithfully and obediently.

Long story short, they didn’t.

God warned them; over and over to repent and return.

Again, they didn’t.

So, the punishment was severe. God kicked them out.

He used the evil, nasty Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians and they wiped what was left of the nation out of the land.

Some had to wonder, Is that it? Game over?

God’s game, His rules.

Was He done w/ Israel? No.

Israel is about to get a great, big do-over; a second chance in the PL.

There were consequences for their mistakes. But it was the same land and the same promises applied.

Just like in Egypt there was no one powerful enough to do anything so God had to do something.

This is where we pick up the story of Ezra.

God & Cyrus

Ezra 1:1–2 NIV

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

It was 538 BC. The Persians kept great records.

The Babylonians had come to the end of their reign and Cyrus, the king of Persia, marched thru the middle east conquering everything in his sight.

Cyrus had His reasons, but God had His.

In 539, Cyrus wrapped up the campaign and Babylon fell.

He immediately went to work building alliances in the region.

Now, he’s got a different leadership philosophy than Nebuchadnezzar. He’s looking for political allies. His thoughts were if he did Israel a favor like this then when he needed them they do a favor for him.

Cyrus had His reasons, but God had His.

Isaiah 45:13 NIV

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”

God raised up Cyrus. Moved in his heart.

“Moved” in Hebrew is a word for alarm, or woke him up. Time to get up and go do something different than you had been. You had been asleep. Now, wake up and get busy.

Stirred

The Lord moved Cyrus to start his march across the world and smoothed his way to victory setting up this act. Whatever great battles he won, empires he built, his greatest achievement was to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and set God’s exiles free.

Let this sink in.

Cyrus was a Pagan, polytheistic king.

His knowledge of God would have been nominal at best.

Certainly he did not believe in God. Even though he knew who was talking to him.

When God has something He wants to get done He can use a non-believing Pagan king to get it done.

And, if He can move in a Pagan king like Cyrus, He can move in the hearts of the people around you who appear to be in your way of getting done what you want to do.

Cyrus wouldn’t have known what Jeremiah wrote, though he probably had Jewish advisors around him by this point.

But, this is what Jeremiah wrote:

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 29:10 NIV

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

God promised He’d bring Israel back to the same land in 70 years. Just like he used Nebuchadnezzar to move them out, he used Cyrus to bring them back.

Cyrus also rebuilt the temple of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. He was covering all his bases, hedging his bets, building alliances.

Simply diplomatic courtesy.

To worship God and others is to not worship God at all.

God created the universe “ex-hihilo” out of nothing. He can absolutely move the heart of an unbeliever to do what He wants him to do.

This wasn’t all God did. He didn’t just get the process started. He provided financial assistance for those returning to build the temple, too.

Promised Provision

Ezra 1:3–4 NIV

Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”

As the Jews read this decree 2 things would have stood out to them.

First, the word “survivor”

In Hebrew it means, “remnant”.

This term has prophetic significance.

God always promised to preserve a remnant of Israel no matter what happens to the Nation. Due to their disobedience and other nations invading, disease, famine, war, whatever. God promised the entire nation would never be destroyed.

Some descendants of Abraham would still be alive at all times.

There would always be a remnant.

Even true today. There will always be a remnant of Israel no matter what happens in the middle east and around the world.

In the end times, God will remove the church, and for the 7-year tribulation Israel is the focus.

Many will die. But, God has promised He will preserve a remnant who will survive and enter the millennial kingdom alive.

Cyrus didn’t know. But, God prompted him to use this term describing the Jews who had survived the Babylonian exile.

The Jews would have understood that God was behind the decree no matter whose pen produced it.

The second thing that would have stood out was the provision.

Silver, gold, goods, livestock and freewill offerings. No obligations, no terms or conditions.

Well, other than Cyrus decreed and commanded it.

Jews would have immediately made the connection to when God delivered them out of Egypt. He sent the plagues. And their suffering was so severe the Egyptians paid Israel to leave.

Israel plundered Egypt of all their vast wealth as they headed off to the PL the first time.

The amount was not the same. Israel didn’t plunder Persia. They didn’t leave wealthy.

There were consequences for their mistakes. They got to return to the PL, just not as wealthy.

But, God still provided in a significant way.

When they get back and rebuild the temple it is not nearly as spectacular as the original temple Solomon built. We’ll talk about that when we get there. The people grumbled a bit b/c this one wasn’t as nice.

Like the difference between the Crystal Cathedral and our little old MPCC.

All glass w/ drive-in speakers on poles so you wouldn’t even have to leave your car. You could still see and hear Robert Schuler and their choir.

Here, you have to come inside and all you get is me. Linda is pretty good, and our choir.

But, God is here. He’s really all that matters.

God moved the locals to support their Jewish neighbors as they returned just like God moved in Cyrus’ heart to issue the decree.

It was no easy deal returning to Jerusalem. The neighboring nations still detested them. There was tremendous opposition to the re-establishment of Israel.

But, God was in it.

Rather than show up en masse as a show of strength and might, just a few showed up.

And, to get those few to leave Persia and return, God has to move in their hearts, too.

God & the People

Ezra 1:

Ezra 1:5 NIV

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

Same word as Cyrus. “Moved” in their hearts. Awakened them. The alarm went off and it was time for them to get up and go.

God had to stir them first. This was not a group of people who came up the idea to return and making it happen. God gave them the desire to return. He moved first. Then, they moved.

In the face of great danger, they went.

Only 2 tribes of the 12. Judah and Benjamin.

A little more history. As Israel grew increasingly disobedient in the PL the first time led by immoral and ungodly kings, there was a civil war and the nation divided north and south.

The north kept the name Israel and was made up of the majority of the tribes.

The south took the name Judah, though it involved 2 other tribes with them, and they occupied the area that included the city of Jerusalem.

The north accelerated their disobedience and the Assyrians invaded and destroyed them 200 years before the Babylonians invaded and destroyed the south.

Judah remained faithful longer, but still fell in the same way and suffered the same judgment.

That said, God moved only in the southern tribes to return now to rebuild the temple.

He didn’t call the entire nation back in a show of strength. In fact, to the world this would have been a show of weakness and vulnerability.

What it required was for the few who returned to depend more heavily on God and not their own ability to protect and provide for themselves.

That was at the heart of their fall in the first place. They stopped depending on God and relied on their own ability to figure life out and make their decisions.

That led to one “ooops” after another.

Don’t make the same mistake again. God put them in a position where they had little choice against the opposition of the neighboring nations. They had to depend on God. They couldn’t do it themselves.

God promised. Would He come thru? Would it all happen the way He said.

Not the easiest course. Not the most obvious choice. But, this is where God led them. And, just as promised, the provisions came thru.

The Provision

Ezra 1:

Ezra 1:6–7 NIV

All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.

Just as Cyrus decreed the people actually followed thru.

Cyrus did too. Nebuchadnezzar had kept the articles and utensils used in the temple worship before he invaded.

Cyrus returned all of it. A great sacrificial gesture on his part.

This wasn’t strictly a foreign financed project. The Jews who received the provision participated sacrificially, too.

Ezra 2:68–70 NIV

When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly garments. The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.

The people gave freewill offerings.

This wasn’t the re-establishment of the tithe. The tithe was the legal requirement. One tenth of everything earned.

They hadn’t gone to work yet. They hadn’t earned anything yet.

This was a free will offering, no obligation.

And, each family gave as they has ability to give.

This is the verse on which Paul bases his teaching on giving in 2 Corinthians. No specified, common amount. Just give sacrificially as God has blessed you.

Each family had been given assets before they left. Differing amounts in differing denominations. Then, out of what they had been given they gave a portion to start the building fund for the temple project.

It’s a sign of health of the organization when its members participate sacrificially like this. Above and beyond their tithe they gave generously.

This was the beginning of Israel’s big do-over.

We’ll get into all of it and unpack the significance of all the details in the weeks to come.

But for now, the questions we’re dealing with are, “Where has God given you a second chance?” “What are you trying to fix?”

Where have you messed up?

We all make mistakes. And, we can learn from them. But, mistakes often times have consequences.

To begin w/, don’t get ahead of God. Follow. Let Him move first. He will stir in your heart and the hearts of those who are involved to get up and go.

But, we worship a God of second-chances, do-overs.

When you see that happening, get up and follow God.

And, when we’re given a do-over, let’s not make the same mistake again.

To begin w/, stay behind God, right behind God. Don’t get ahead of Him.

Wherever He leads is the best place to go even if it doesn’t look like it at the time or wouldn’t be your first choice.

He knows us, He knows the future, He knows where we best fit in it.

Applications

Find Jesus

Every time we get ahead of God we get in trouble. Can we trust God to lead us out of trouble and into a peaceful existence?

When we answer ‘no’, we try to figure it out on our own.

Remember, God moved in the heart of a Pagan God to get Israel back where He wanted them.

So, when you look ahead of you what do you see?

If you see Jesus out there then you can be pretty sure He’s leading you.

If you don’t. Stop and turn around until you see Him.

Jesus may not lead you where you think you need to go and it may be harder than other paths look.

But, God knows you, knows the future, and knows where is beat for you to go.

Find Jesus and follow Him.

Feeling weak and vulnerable?

Then you are probably in the right place.

God will never lead you where you don’t need Him.

Don’t run from the vulnerability to place where you feel strong and don’t need God.

Learn to be comfortable in your weakness and vulnerability.

How do you feel right now?

What are you trying to fix?

Where has God given you a second chance, a do-over?

We all make mistakes. And, we can learn from them. Mistakes have consequences.

But, we worship a God of second-chances, do-overs.

And, when we’re given a do-over, let’s not make the same mistake again.

Stay behind God, right behind Him. Don’t get ahead of Him.

Wherever He leads is the best place to go even if it doesn’t look like it at the time or wouldn’t be your first choice.

He knows us, He knows the future, He knows where we best fit in it.