Ezra 1:5–7 ESV

Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

Every City Has a Calling

Introduction:

I want to start by sharing a story about my family’s round trip last year. We wanted to travel in comfort, so we rented a larSUV

We got a brand new Chevy Tahoe, one of those with the three rows, the televisions, it was a beautiful car. On our way to the hotel the first night, I was starting to run low on gas. Now the gas reading said I had 24 miles to go, and they gas station was 4 miles away. I figured, I’m fine. I’ve got plenty of gas. As we get to this hill, the gas station is just on the other side. but as we get to the crest of the hill, just starting to come down, the car turns off. Every though the gauge said we had gas, we were out.

But thank God, I coasted that new Tahoe all the way into a stall to fill up the tank.

The truth is, it didn’t matter how nice that car was, without gas it was useless. What was inside was more important than what was outside.

My Own Worse Enemy

Ezra and Nehemiah go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

I think that Nehemiah is hyped up because it’s a story about overcoming the external opposition. As a matter of fact, we chose a sermon series based off of the very important moment when the builders of the wall had a weapon in one hand, and they had a tool in the other. You can make a block buster movie about the book of Nehemiah, but you can write a good book about the book of Ezra.

Ezra is about overcoming personal opposition. It doesn’t make for a good movie, but it’s the harder of the two.

Nehemiah is about overcoming external opposition, but Ezra is about over coming personal opposition.

Overcoming me, requires more discipline than overcoming others. This is why there is so much study and discussion about leading ourselves. The hardest person to lead, is ourself.

When I say, we are going to win the city! We go into a frenzy. But when I talk about winning your morning, it’s like, “yawn, not interested.”

This is human nature. We’re more concerned about the opinions of others than we are about the opinions that matter.

I remember seeing some of this for the very first time watching my older brother begin to change as he entered Junior High School. My brother and I are very close in age, and we did just about everything together growing up. I remember when my brother got to Junior High, I all of a sudden felt like the odd man out. He and his friends had entered into a new world. They were talking about their first, second and third period. We didn’t have those in elementary school. I noticed that my brother started to care about his clothes. I mean, he really started to care about his clothes. We never cared about our clothes, and there was my brother, really worried about this shirts and his pants. For the first time in my young life I finally started to see how the opinions of other people could really shape our behaviour.

I am seeing this now more and more through social media and our constant need to be seen, heard and liked.

But how many of us can agree that we can’t worry too much about the opinions of others, if we don’t have a healthy opinion about ourselves first.

I hope I am setting the stage here for what we are going to talk about today, because today I’m not trying to move your influence, I am trying to move you.

First They Built the Altar

The book of Ezra records how the first of the exiles returned to Jerusalem to build first build the altar, then to build the temple, and then finally, they built their faith. This building project required them to build internally.

I know that altar and temple are physical things, but they in the spiritual, they represent inward things.

The altar of the old testament was the place where sacrifices were made. They would come to the altar and offer up various sacrifices to atone for the various sins in their lives. Certain sins required certain sacrifices.

The Old Testament is filled with sacrifice upon sacrifice to make right, what was done wrong. This was done at the altar.

In the New Testament, sacrifices are different. Paul said it this way:

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

My life is my sacrifice. My life is my offering. My life is my worship.

God is most concerned with the altar of my heart.

Again, going after the enemy fires us up! Some of us like a good fight. Some of you like a good fight more than others.

But, our first fight is with ourselves.

This is why Jesus was so concerned with his disciples having their hearts right. He needed for them to have their hearts in the right place, and he constantly fought with the religious leaders of his time because their hearts were not in the right place.

The exiles returned to Jerusalem and they began to rebuild the altar.

In the same way any meaningful work that we do for the Kingdom of God also begins in our hearts.

Worship Flows From a Pure Heart

When our heart is right, what flows from it is worship.

When our heart is not right, what flows from it is noise.

Worship flows from a pure heart. Noise is the sound of the impure heart.

Building the altar was creating a place and a space for worship. If the Jews could not get the altar right, they couldn’t get the worship right.

Stirred Hearts

As we get back to our text, knowing the order in which God would work, there’s two things that happen here.

The first is this, God stirs the hearts of the Fathers.

Throughout the new Testament we would see Jesus step away from the crowds to have a private moment with his Father. He would leave the crowds to find a private place. A still place. A place of exchange.

And it was in these moments that Jesus’ heart would be stirred.

Here in the text, we read that God stirred the hearts of the fathers of Judah, Benjamin, the Priests and Levites. Cyrus issued the command, but God issued the calling.

A command without a calling will lead to complacency. You might start out OK. But as time goes on, and especially as things get tough, a command is not enough.

A calling will give you the fuel to persevere when things are tough.

A calling will keep you up at night, thinking about how the job can get done.

You don’t get a hold of a calling, a calling gets a hold of you.

These exiles stepped into the uncertainty of their future, not becuase of a command, but becuase they had a calling over their life. They wanted to get back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. But in order to do so, they needed to have a calling.

Callings Give Birth to Movements

As the people responded to the call, we read that supernaturally all of the provision that they needed came to them. Gold, silver, and other goods were sent with the exiles as they returned to Jerusalem. All of these things must have made them feel affirmed as they returned with the task of building the altar.

Now, let’s just remember for a moment, that the vast majority of these people were headed back to do something none of them have ever done. They were born into exile. All they knew was Babylon, and Persia. Now, they are leaving one system to step into another.

But as they step into Jerusalem, they are stepping into a story that is bigger than them. They are stepping into a plan that is bigger than them.

This is what callings do.

They invite us into a story that is bigger than us, and will demand so much more of us.

Lighthouse, I believe that you are here today because God is inviting you into this story that he is writing for our city.

We are all in difference places on this journey. Just as some were Levites, others priests, and others of the home of Benjamin and Judah. But together, God is calling us to reach this City.