Recognizing Roadblocks

Last week was so much fun! If you weren’t here, I hate you missed it.

It was so incredible to celebrate all God has done in lives this last year to bring himself glory.

As God has worked through his Spirit in our lives, we have seen Jesus lifted up, and it has been incredible.

One of my favorite parts of this is the heart of our church family during worship.

There have been so many services where it is evident that God is moving in unique ways. His people are singing loudly, declaring that he really is as awesome as his word says. We have been praying boldly, anticipating that he will work. We have been responding in brokenness as we look at the mirror of God’s Word and see just how short we fall and how amazing God is.

It kinda reminds us of what we have seen in Ezra so far, doesn’t it?

If you have been with us over the last month or so, you know that a few weeks back, we started looking at the book of Ezra.

This book of the Bible tells the story of God’s people starting to come back to the land he promised him. They hadn’t obeyed him, had broken their covenant with God, and so he allowed them to be taken to captivity.

Now, a group of them have come back to rebuild the temple and set up the foundation of worship that they neglected before.

Last time we looked at Ezra, we saw them worshiping in the midst of fear and discouragement and took comfort in the fact that God can be worshiped, even with our negative, hard emotions.

Like we have seen with our church family, things were moving in the right direction. There was an excitement building over what God was up to, and they were eagerly anticipating the days ahead.

However, as we will see, they soon encountered a roadblock that would sidetrack them for at least 18 years.

This morning, I believe God is going to challenge us through his word with this truth: be ready for roadblocks.

As we see how the people around Jerusalem opposed what God was telling his people to do, I hope you and I will learn better how to recognize and respond to the roadblocks that Satan and others will try to put in our path.

Satan still doesn’t want God’s plans to succeed, he still doesn’t want God glorified, and he will still do whatever he can to disrupt God’s people and keep them from honoring the God he hates and we love.

Not only that, but people still don’t want to let God be in charge of their lives, so when you stand up for what God has told us, you are going to be opposed for it!

In case you doubt that, here’s what Paul told Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:12 CSB

In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

If you are going to live a godly life, you are going to face some level of persecution.

When you get serious about following God, about worshiping him and placing him at the center of your life, it is going to upset someone.

When you get serious about following God, about worshiping him and placing him at the center of your life, it is going to upset someone.

You are going to make some people mad. In America, that usually stops with someone saying something mean about us. In other parts of the world, though, this can still bring about your death.

We aren’t trying to be belligerent, but when we hold the standard of the word of God up, it is going to make people upset.

Since that is going to happen, we need to be ready when it comes.

In order for us to be ready to face that opposition, we need to know what it looks like.

When we do that, I hope you will better recognize the dangers we face and be ready to respond in a way that continues to honor God.

I want you to examine with me three different forms opposition takes.

When we do that, I hope you will better recognize the dangers we face and be ready to respond in a way that continues to honor God.

Read with me.

The first way we see the enemy attack God’s people in this passage is subtle, which makes it one of the most dangerous methods. When the enemy tries to stop us from doing God’s will, he may first try to get us to...

1) Dilute.

Go back to verses 1 & 2.

These “enemies” are the “surrounding peoples” from 3:3. These are the people that the Israelites were afraid of.

At first glance, though, it doesn’t seem like a bad proposition, right?

They were offering to help! They wanted to come alongside Zerubabbel and Jeshua and help rebuild the temple.

What’s wrong with that?

For us to catch what is going on here, we have to check out what has been going on in history.

When the Assyrian army moved the Israelites out, they moved other people from other regions in. Some of the kings were more aggressive about that than others, but they were trying to mix people up so you lost a sense of your national identity and wouldn’t rebel against the empire.

When these people moved in, they married some of the remaining Israelites.

They did start worshiping the God of Israel, but they also kept worshiping their other gods.

They simply added one more to the mix, and it became a compromised mess that was no longer worship of the one true God.

When these people came to Jeshua and Zerubabbel, they were attempting to infiltrate the ranks of Israel.

In doing so, they could keep the work from proceeding like it should have and may have even tried to work in some pagan elements to keep their gods happy.

Instead of restoring true worship of the one true God, they would have been happy to dilute it down to add him as one of the gods in their mix.

Don’t miss the danger here, folks.

Honestly, of the three forms of attack in this passage, I think this one is the most effective and dangerous to our church today.

We need to be extremely careful in what advice we listen to, where we get our information, and what practices we follow.

The internet is an incredible tool that is aiding the spread of the gospel like never before possible.

However, it is also allowing false teachers to spread their messages of compromise and outright lies.

It is more important than ever for us to stay on our toes, studying God’s word and comparing everything we hear with what God says.

Not only that, but it is so easy for us to focus on copying other churches, ministries, and businesses that we lose sight of how God calls us to honor him and make decisions and operate as a church.

If we let our guard down, we could very easily find ourselves essentially building the temple alongside people who have no real claim to God.

Where are these areas of compromise? I’ll highlight a few:

We want as many people to come to know Jesus as possible, but we cannot

We can draw great leadership principles from business, but we must always remember that the body and bride of Christ is not the same as a for-profit corporation. We need to be wise in how we adopt and adapt tools from the business world to help our church to function well.

We want as many people as possible to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but that cannot come by compromising on the foundational truths of our sinfulness, God’s holiness, and Christ’s sacrifice.

We cannot abandon parts of the Bible we don’t like, and we cannot think we know better than the men who wrote Scripture and declare them to be on the wrong side of history.

If we compromise in these areas, we will dilute the life-transforming message of God’s infinite love for his people that led to Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross for everyone, from the most religious person to the most obvious sinner.

We cannot allow the enemy to dilute our message and methods. If we do, we will find ourselves at a roadblock, not allowing God to work and move as he should.

Zerubbabel and Jeshua were wise enough to see it coming, so look at their response in verse 3...

You have no part in this, so move along.

May we respond likewise when given the opportunity to compromise.

Since that didn’t work, the enemies of God’s people decided to try something else. If they can’t dilute our message and methods, then why not try to...

2) Discourage.

If the enemy can’t get us to compromise and water down what we say and do, then he will do everything he can do discourage us.

Look at verse 4.

It is hard to honor God. It really is.

This is especially true if you are here and you are the only one who is genuinely trying to follow Christ in your family.

You know exactly what this is like...”Are you going back to church again? Why do you waste your time with that?” “You are paying how much to go to Alaska to do what? You could go on a cruise for that much!” “You used to be so much more fun before you got all religious on us. Just come downtown with us tonight and loosen up.”

When you get serious about walking with Jesus and growing with him, you will have days when it seems like even nature itself is against you. You will experience setbacks, strained relationships, and you will wonder if it is worth it.

It is my job as your pastor to be honest about that: the Christian life is hard, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I will follow that immediately with this: it is worth every second.

Jesus said it would be like this:

John 15:18–21 CSB

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.

John 15:18-21

Later that same evening, Jesus would give us this promise:

John 16:33 CSB

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

You and I will be tempted to allow discouragement to keep us from moving forward with God.

We will want to quit and give up and never serve God again.

In those moments, though, we have the most effective weapon in history: the cross of Christ.

heb 12:

You see, we were the ones who abandoned God, not the other way around. We decided we wanted to be in charge, and we sinned and pushed him away.

When we did, God responded by coming to earth for us. Jesus, God in the flesh, lived among us. He taught people who God was and what he expected of us. He demonstrated God’s power over all of creation, and yet we rejected him again.

Eventually, we put him to death on a cross. What few realized that day, though, was that he was dying in our place, taking our sin upon himself and paying the penalty we deserved.

While he was dying for us, we beat him and spit on him and ridiculed him.

If Jesus would willingly endure that for us, then we can fight discouragement for him:

Hebrews 12:3 CSB

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

Don’t give up. Don’t let the enemy stop you from serving the God who would put up with all of that from us.

Serve him, love him, and honor him in spite of the discouragement.

Unfortunately, discouragement isn’t the last tactic that the enemy uses in this chapter.

If he can’t get to you, either through dilution or discouragement, he will do what he can to...

3) Disrupt.

Galatians 6:9 CSB

Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

3) Disrupt.

As if they hadn’t done enough to God’s people, they actively enticed the governing officials to stop the work.

Look at verse 5 again.

People are still people, aren’t they?

Right now, there are moments when it seems like our government is in the hands of people who would want nothing more than to see anything God-honoring abolished from our society.

Thus far, God has mercifully kept that at bay, although we do not know for how long.

There may come a time when our government seeks to keep us from proclaiming salvation through Jesus and Jesus alone.

However, I think this disruption seems to happen on smaller scales already.

You are trying to raise your kids in a godly way, and your unsaved spouse does what they can to stop you.

Your boss changes your schedule so you have to work and can’t make it to church.

Financially, things fall apart that keep you from being able to do all you felt God calling you to do.

There may be seasons where God allows things outside of your control to happen that keep you from being able to do all you felt God calling you to do.

In fact, as best we can tell, the enemies of Israel were successful for at least 18 years in stopping the work of the temple.

Slow down on that for a second: 18 years is a long, long time. I graduated from high school 18 years ago this May.

How many of you in here are 18 or under? These people wouldn’t have yet been born between when the work stopped and when it restarted.

Think about Joshua and Caleb from the book of Numbers. They were ready to go into the Promised Land, but because of everyone else’s disobedience, it would take 40 years for them to get in.

Sometimes, something may happen that keeps you from being able to move forward with God in a particular area, and it may take a long time.

What do you do when you find yourself sidetracked, or possibly even sidelined?

Do what you can. Stay faithful and keep worshiping, waiting with eager anticipation for the day God is going to move.

Listen, guys, we are in an amazing season as a church, and I cannot wait to see what God does.

It is likely that something will come up to try to throw us off track.

Would you join me in praying that God would give us wisdom so we never dilute the message he has given us?

That only happens for us as a church if it is happening for you as an individual and as families, so would you pray for God to give you wisdom to recognize any areas of compromise that are keeping you from honoring him?

And then, would you pray for God to strengthen us? Ask him to keep the cross before us at all times so we don’t grow weary and lose heart.

Pray also for God to keep us from being disrupted in any way. That God will preserve unity around his purpose inside the church and protect us from interference outside the church?

Ask, beg God, to let us honor him this way.

Remember: the only way to face this life is to face it with Christ. Look at what he did, surrender to him, and find joy in the midst of pain, peace in the midst of struggle, and purpose in the midst of the storm.