[0:00] Well, take your Bibles, if you would, and go with me back to Ezra chapter 7, and we will start reading there in chapter 7 and verse 1. You know, the beautiful thing about the God of the Bible, the God, the only God, the only true God, is that he has a definite, direct, personal relationship with his people.
[0:22] All gods, there are millions of gods in the world, but they are a long ways off. They are gods that may be man-made with their hands. There may be gods that people have heard about that live on Mount Olympus, or they are whatever number of gods.
[0:38] But here is a God in the Bible, the God, and he has a definite, direct, personal relationship with Ezra. The verse that we read to start off with was that the good hand of his God was on him.
[0:52] He knew that there was something, a direct connection, that God was working in his life and through his life. He knew that he had that with God, and that's the key to what's going on in this chapter.
[1:06] So if you're here and you don't know the God of the Bible, you may know about him. You may know about other gods. I want you to know about a God who has a direct and personal relationship.
[1:17] He wants that with you. He wants you to know for sure that you know him, that he knows you, that you can be saved. In the story, where we are in our Bibles, we come to Ezra chapter 7, and there's a man, Ezra.
[1:30] He is the man of God, and he shows up on the scene. If you've got your Bible open in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 1, look what it says. Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxas, king of Persia, Ezra shows up.
[1:44] Ezra, circle his name, your first time to really get introduced to him. In chapter 7 and verse 8, he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year. And there's a lot of things that are very interesting about Ezra the man, Ezra the preacher, Ezra the leader, Ezra the priest that I want you to look at.
[2:02] The first one I want you to see about him was that he had a godly heritage, a godly heritage, and he honored his godly heritage. Look, if you would, in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 5.
[2:14] His line, he names himself in Ezra chapter 7 and verses 1 through 4. He says, Ezra, and then he names all of his daddies. Daddy, granddaddy, great-granddaddy, great-great-granddaddy.
[2:25] All the way back to Aaron, the son of Aaron, the chief priest. All the way back when they got to the promised land. All the way back when Moses came in.
[2:35] And this guy's part of that family. That is a tremendous privilege to come from such a long line of people that love God and serve God. Preachers born into preachers' homes.
[2:46] Christians born into Christian homes. A long time ago in Peru, everybody that came to visit, I'd have them say a word, and they'd speak to our church, and they'd say, I was born in a Christian home.
[2:56] Well, the man came to me when his wife got pregnant. He was an older fellow. He was maybe in his 40s. And they were going to have their third, I think their third son. He was going to be born, and he came to me and he said, I am going to be able to say, my son will be able to say what all those Americans say when they come.
[3:11] And I said, what's that? He said, my son will be able to say I was born and raised in a Christian home. And what a privilege to know his daddy was a Christian and his mama was a Christian.
[3:21] What I really like about Oez was he honored that. He honored that. He honored the fact that he had lived out all the faith of his family. You don't have to come from a godly line.
[3:32] But, you know, if you don't, you could start a godly line. In my family, I was my mother's family. My granddad wasn't a Christian. He did not know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
[3:45] My grandmother went to a church service, a little Baptist church that got saved. She came home and invited him to go to church, and he told her he would have nothing to do with church. He didn't want to go to church.
[3:56] He wanted nothing about them people. So she kept going back every night, and he got angry and said, I will prove to her from the Bible she's wrong. So he got a copy of the Bible, started reading the Bible. But the third night, she came home and said, I think you need to go to church with me.
[4:08] He said, I will be going. I got saved. I've been reading the Bible. I found out about Jesus, and he started a godly line. He was a Christian. He's the first one in that side of the family that came down.
[4:18] And it came down to my mom and dad, my mom, and then my mom's family members. There were like three missionaries that came out of that, and it kept on down. On my dad's side, totally different story.
[4:30] My dad's dad was an alcoholic, a drunkard, owned a bar. His wife died of an illegal abortion when my dad was six years old. Back in 1935, I think it was, my dad's mom died, and dad got saved and started a godly home.
[4:45] I just wish you'd look and consider this. Ezra says, let me tell you about my family. Let me tell you about my family. My family is a godly family. And if you don't have that privilege, I hope you'd start that privilege for your children.
[4:59] Now, I want you to go with me to Ezra chapter 7 and verse 6. Do you honor a godly heritage? Do you have one? Can you start one? But then in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 6, here's what you find. We find his relationship with the Word of God.
[5:12] His relationship with the Word of God. Before I read the verse with you, understand, there's this God in heaven who didn't just say, I'm up here and I'm going to be capricious. I'm going to do what I want to do.
[5:23] I'm going to treat people like I want to. But a God who wanted to directly be involved with his people. And so he wrote a book. He wrote a book and he gave us a book. It's what you have in your hands.
[5:34] There's a copy of that. He wrote this book so he could say, I want to communicate with you. And he gave us the Bible. And so Ezra wants to know God. Ezra knows God. He wants to know more about God.
[5:44] And the way you know more about God is read the book that God had written for us. Look if you would in Ezra 7, 6. This Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a ready scribe. I want you to circle that word ready.
[5:56] He was a ready scribe. That means he was capable. He was studied. He was prepared. He was skilled. He was the guy that would have said, when people talked to him, they said, he knows his Bible.
[6:08] He knows what the Word of God says. He's a ready scribe. He's a guy that knows what's going on in the Bible, knows what's going on in God's Word. Second thing I want you to notice about his relationship, he's ready, studied.
[6:22] But then I want you to notice this. He knew that it was called the Law of Moses, but it wasn't from Moses. I want you to look at the verse. Are you reading Ezra 7, 6 to me? He was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given.
[6:36] You need to underline that. See, sometimes it's easy to look at the Bible and say, well, it's a man's book, and men wrote it. And so it was the Law of Moses. And so that's Moses' Law and Moses' opinion.
[6:48] That's Paul's opinion and what Paul had to write, and that's Peter's opinion. But see, Ezra knew something that all of us ought to know. It was much more than the Law of Moses. Look at the verse.
[6:58] It says, which the Lord God of Israel had given. God gave his Law through men. We got the Bible by people writing it, but we know that though they were writers, there's only one author, and that was the Lord God of heaven.
[7:13] He recognized that the Law of Moses, the Bible, came from God. Can I get an amen right there? You should know this morning that though it is 66 books written over 1,500 or 1,600 years, but 40 plus authors, it's got one, 40 writers, it's got one author, one purpose.
[7:30] It's the story of salvation, of our God loving us and telling us how we can have eternal life. Now look what he does with the Bible, how he prepares. Look at Ezra chapter 7 and verse 10.
[7:42] Ezra chapter 7 and verse 10. These are steps in our relationship with the Word of God. It says, Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Law.
[7:54] We'll stop right there. That's the first step. Look at this. Ezra backed up and said, I need to know God. I need to go speak to God. And see, you can't learn about God if you won't humble yourself.
[8:06] You can't walk up to the Bible like somebody says, I'm a really smart guy and I know a lot of stuff and I'm going to read the Bible in a critical way to see what I think about the Bible. No. Ezra knew this is the Word of God.
[8:18] I need to talk to God and I am going to humble myself. I'm going to recognize who I am. I'm going to recognize who he is and I'm going to act that way when I get to him. How would you talk to God?
[8:29] If God Almighty were here, how would you talk to God? I think we'd all be like passing out scared to death. I mean, if the king of a country or the president of the United States walked in a room, we'd all be, you know, you can talk as big and tough as you want to, but when them big shots show up, your knees start knocking.
[8:47] And this is the God of heaven. So Ezra said, I'm going to talk to God. I'm going to talk to God. I'm going to humble myself and I'm going to go seek the law. I'm going to get into the Bible and see what God has to say.
[9:00] So he got in a position to study the Word of God, to find out what God wanted. He approached the Word of God like it was really God speaking. Y'all know you can take the Bible and you can read it like a book?
[9:11] Or you can take the Bible and say, this is God's book and God's speaking to me. And I want to know what God has to say. And that's how he came to it. The second thing he did there was he studied to practice not to know.
[9:24] Look at the verse. Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. I wish you'd underline that. He didn't come to church to say, preach us a good sermon, preacher.
[9:35] He didn't come to church to say, tell us what the Bible says. He went to the Word of God and said, when I find out what God says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go to find out what God says, and I'm going to do it. Can I tell you what God says?
[9:45] The number one thing God says is to realize that you are going to die and go to an eternal punishment forever. All people are destined to die and suffer forever.
[9:59] The wrath of God abides on them. But the God of heaven says, I love you. And I don't want that to happen. It's only going to happen because you have chosen to ignore me. You have chosen to do your own thing.
[10:11] And when you realize that, and you realize that God loves you and Jesus died for you, then he says, believe me. Trust me. So as you come this morning and you approach the Bible, prepare your heart.
[10:22] Prepare your heart to say, I have sinned. I have failed God. I am not good enough to go to heaven. I can't do enough stuff. And then you'll hear what he said. Trust him. The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
[10:35] But the gift of God is eternal life. You know what you need to do this morning? Realize he has a free gift for you. Realize that Jesus died for you. Realize that Jesus paid for your sin. Realize that Jesus wants you to go to heaven.
[10:47] You do it. For those of you who are already born again, just let me say this. We don't come to church to just talk about what the Bible says. We come to church to say, God, you talk to us and tell us what you want from us.
[11:00] How you want us living. How you working in our lives. If you would, read with me and they'll throw it up here for you. Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. You do before you teach.
[11:11] What's so wrong with so many churches is people don't do before they teach. In Ezra chapter 7 and verse 10, he sought the Lord to do it. And later he would teach it.
[11:21] Acts 1.1 says Jesus, even Jesus came. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. The former treatise I've written of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.
[11:31] He did and he taught. How many religious leaders teach, but they don't live what they teach. They say stuff, but it's not what's coming out of their life.
[11:44] And Ezra said, I'm studying the Bible to know what I'm supposed to do. And Jesus did it before he taught it. I just want to show you, I want to show you one of my favorite passages of the Bible that I think fits this verse.
[11:58] I want you to go with me to James chapter 1 and verse 21. You need to look this verse up. You need to mark it in that paper Bible. You hold it in your hand so you can read it later and study it. You see, it is a matter of approaching God to learn what to do.
[12:11] It's a matter of approaching God. That's how you'll get saved. That's how you'll live the holy life you've been called to. In James chapter 1 and verse 21, the Bible says, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.
[12:30] Now here's what it says. In Tennessee Hillbilly for you real quick. It says, hey, if you're a born again people, you need to get rid of all the filth out of your life. You need to lay aside all the junk that's not holy, that's not God-like.
[12:44] You want to lay that apart. You want to get rid of that. And you want to receive. You want to accept. You want to believe the word of God. And you want to engraft it into your heart so it becomes a part of who you are.
[12:55] You take truth and you incorporate truth into you until it becomes a part of who you are. And that will save your soul. I'm going to go to heaven because I trusted Christ.
[13:06] I'm on my way to heaven. I'm saved. I'm saved by the grace of God. But I still don't have the joy of my salvation maybe. I still don't enjoy all this stuff that's going on. I still don't have victory over sin. I still can't live out who I am.
[13:18] You can when you get in the book and get the book in you. You can when you understand what God says. So you receive with meekness the word. You engraft it in you until it becomes a part of you.
[13:30] You change the way you think. You don't think like an American. You don't think like an Alpharetian. You don't think like a normal person. You say, I want to know what God thinks. I want to think like what he thinks.
[13:40] Verse 22 says, be doers, not hearers. We come to study the word of God to know how to apply it to our lives. That's what Ezra did.
[13:51] Ezra went in Ezra chapter 70. He said, man, I got to seek God. I got to seek his word. But I want to seek it so I can apply it to my life. Not a doer, not a hearer, but a doer. Because if you're just a hearer, you're just a trick in yourself.
[14:05] There are a lot of people that are going to die and not go to heaven, not have God's salvation. Because they heard and they heard and they heard and they heard, but they never trusted. They never believed.
[14:16] They never applied it. In verse 23 it says, if you're a hearer and not a doer, you're like a guy that looks at yourself in a mirror. And you forget what you look like when you leave. And so you don't have any real changes.
[14:27] Now, my wife spends a long time in front of the mirror. And she is constantly worried about how I won't spend time in front of the mirror.
[14:39] Sometimes when I'm preaching, she's down on the front doing this for the tie. And I look down at her and I'm like, well, you ain't even got a tie on. But she's trying to tell me your tie is crooked. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm fine. I don't need a mirror. She says, well, your hair is sticking up.
[14:50] And she says, what did you do that to your hair for? And she's sitting up there going just like this the whole time. And I look down at her and she's going, she must have fleas or something. I don't know. See, I look in the mirror and I just kind of forget.
[15:01] I want to forget what I see when I look in the mirror. Amen. But when you come to God, you've got to come to God saying, I need to know what you say. And I need to apply it to my life. I don't want to just hear it.
[15:11] I want to live it. I want to apply it. You want to continue so that you will do the work of God. Go back with me if you would to Ezra chapter 7. Ezra chapter 7 and verse 25.
[15:23] Then he taught the word. In verse 10, the Bible said, Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach Israel statutes and judgments.
[15:38] And so when you get there, you're going to look up Ezra chapter 7 and verse 25. But let me show you something. If I knew, if I knew what would change your life, if I knew what would give you joy and happiness and an abundant life, if I knew that and it was working in my life, wouldn't I be bad wrong if I didn't tell you about that?
[15:59] So see, Ezra went over there and Ezra said, I will seek God and I will learn. And Ezra knew God. And in this chapter, he's going to talk about how God's hands on him, how God's directing him and how God's moving him.
[16:10] And Ezra's like, man, knowing God is everything. And so once Ezra knows God and applies it to his own life, Ezra goes out to teach it. I'll give you one in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 25.
[16:21] And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set the magistrates and judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of God, and you teach them that don't know.
[16:37] People ought to know. People ought to know. The sad truth is that this Bible is such a big book that people look at it and they're like scared to death. They're like, I could never read all of that.
[16:48] Not you. I know you would read it. But a lot of people are like, that's so big. So they need you to seek God. They need you to say, I'll go talk to God. I'll learn about God. I'll apply it to my life.
[16:58] I'll enjoy the benefits. And when I know, then I'll go tell other people about Jesus. Amen. I'll go tell other people what God's done in my life. I'll go tell other people what God can do in their life.
[17:10] That's exactly what you could write. Second Timothy 2, 2 right there beside that. That's our New Testament verse. That which you have heard of me among many faithful witnesses is the same commit to others, to faithful men that will be able to teach others also.
[17:22] Here's the beautiful thing about Ezra. Ezra knows God's with him. Ezra knows God's with him. Look if you would at Ezra chapter 7 and verse 6.
[17:33] Ezra knew this.
[17:51] I'm not just living my life. I'm not just a coincidence. I'm not just a, that's what happens, guy. I'm living a life on purpose. I have a life that has meaning.
[18:02] I have a life that has purpose. God's got his hand on me. God's blessing me. I prepared my heart. I sought him. I want to do what he says. I want to teach what he says.
[18:14] And God's working in my life. You know, I want God's hand on me. I want to know that God's using me. I want to know that my life's counting. I want to do something special with my life.
[18:25] I want God's hand on our church so that our church is not just a normal church, but it's a church where God has his fingerprints. It's a place where God is moving. Isn't it great, you know, a God who's personally, directly involved in your life?
[18:39] Amen? And so here we are, and that's what Ezra's got going on. Ezra, the man of God, knows God's hands on him. In chapter 7 and verse 9, he said, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
[18:51] In Ezra chapter 7 and verse 28, he says, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. Here's what Ezra would have said to you. I'm a nobody. I'm a nothing. Man, God's with me.
[19:05] God's with me. And when these people sing and play the instruments and stuff, they need God to be with them. And when the teachers teach in the Sunday school classes, we need God to be with us. And when you step out to raise and teach your children, you need God to be with you.
[19:19] And when you go to your business, you need the hand of God on you. Ezra's like, hey, I'll tell you something. I'm a nobody. I might have come from a long line of people that love God, but God's got his hand on me.
[19:33] Has God got his hand on you? The first question is, do you know for sure you're saved on your way to heaven? Do you know your sins have been forgiven? Do you know that things are made right between you and God, the God of forever, the God of eternity?
[19:47] Are things made right between you and him? Do you have that peace in your heart that comes from knowing you're right with God and God's right with you because things have been fixed? Do you have that? And then the second thing is, that's his hand on you.
[20:01] But then the next thing is, I need God blessing and working. I want to leave here today and step out here on my own and go do my own thing. I want to live a life on purpose with God's blessing. In the chapter, the next thing you see are God's people and their serving.
[20:15] Go with me, if you would, to Ezra chapter 7 and verse 13. Now, here's the beautiful thing. The great God of the Bible, the great God of the Bible doesn't force you.
[20:29] The great God of the Bible offers you great blessings. John said it well to you when he was talking about the offering. You see somebody greater than you. You see somebody more holy than you. You see somebody worthy of your offering.
[20:40] Well, in Ezra chapter 7, these people are going to serve God because they want to. Look at you in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 13. I make a decree that all they of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, let them go with you.
[20:59] So, in this story, the king says God told him to build the temple over in Jerusalem. And the king came out to the people and said, God of heaven's told me what to do.
[21:10] And here's how God wants it operated. He wants those of you who want to go, to go. I need you to know this morning that if you're not a born-again believer, if you're not on your way to heaven, if you don't know your sins are forgiven, he's not going to force you.
[21:23] He loves you. He wants you to be saved. He offers you salvation. He offers you forgiveness of your sins. He offers you this abundant life. But you're going to have to decide, I will trust.
[21:34] I will believe. And those of us who are going to serve God, there's no manipulating here. There's no guilt here. There's no beating up on you. It ought to be, man, I love him and I want to.
[21:44] I love him and I want to. Now look how they gave money. The king gives because he wants to. In chapter 7 and verse 15, the Bible says, To carry the silver and the gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered.
[21:57] Freely offered. It's interesting in the chapter. How many times God's going to say they wanted to, freely offered. The people gave. Look how the people gave in chapter 7 and verse 16. And the silver and the gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, and the free will offering.
[22:11] The free will offering of the people. And the priest offering freely. They gave because they wanted to. They gave because it was in their heart.
[22:21] They were in love and it came out of them to want to do something for God. They're in love with God. They want to serve God. They're in love with God. They want to give to the things of God. It was a free will offering.
[22:32] Are you a giver? Are you a generous giver? Are you showing your love for God by giving? Has it born in your heart to say, man, I love God. I want to serve him. Do you live all week long thinking his hand's on me.
[22:45] I'm serving him. I'm giving him my time. I'm giving him my life. Here's what was going on. The preacher of their day wasn't Ezra. Ezra's just kind of leading things here.
[22:55] He's a scribe. He's a priest. But the man, the preacher of the day, one of the two main preachers of Haggai. You know what Haggai told them in Haggai chapter 2 and verse 8? He told them the silver's mine.
[23:06] God said the silver's mine and the gold is mine. In other words, king, you might have gold in the bank, but it's my gold. Say, you might have silver in the bank, but it's my silver. Hey, people, you might have gold and you might have silver, but it's mine.
[23:20] You see, the people began to realize that you don't own this earth. You're really not in charge of very much. And the piece of land that you claim is your own was owned by somebody else a few hundred years ago.
[23:33] And we don't even know who they are. And we're just going to be here for a short time. And we're moving on. We're going somewhere else. But it all belongs to our God. Do you recognize that everything belongs to God?
[23:46] Including you. And including me. I'm not my own. I'm doubly his. He made us. And he purchased those of us that are born again. We're not our own.
[23:56] Do you acknowledge that you're only an administrator, a manager of God's goods that he's placed in your hands? Because they're going to give this money freely and willingly. You know, why would I give so freely?
[24:07] Why would I give my money to the things of God and to do things for God? Because I love him and because I want to. And because it ain't my stuff anyway. That's not good English, but it's true. It's not mine.
[24:19] I want to honor God with what is his. Are you faithfully managing God's goods? Do you realize that it's not about you and what you want? But it's about him and what he wants.
[24:30] It's not about you and what you want. It's about him and what he wants. As a Christian, do you live life surrendered to his will? Because in the book of Ezra, Ezra's God's man.
[24:44] Ezra's seeking God. God's got his hand on Ezra. Ezra's doing what God wants him to do. The people are giving their money. The people are giving their lives. And they're all doing it because they want to. They realize it's about God.
[24:55] In Ezra chapter 7 and verse 18, they're seeking God's will for their life. It says, And whatsoever shall seem good to thee and to thy brethren to do what the rest of the silver and gold that do. Listen, after the will of your God.
[25:07] What's God say? What's God say? When's the last time you asked that? When's the last time you sat down with your money and said, what do you say, God? When's the last time you sat down with your calendar and said, what do you say, God?
[25:20] When's the last time you sat down with your life and said, what do you say, God? Can we be honest? I'm afraid we don't do that very much. They were seeking God's will. In Ezra chapter 7 and verse 23, it said, Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let that be done.
[25:35] So these people, the king and Ezra and these people all knew one thing. It's all about God. And that brings us to the last thing.
[25:48] It's the hand of God, the good hand of God on us. The whole chapter, the hero's not Ezra. The hero's not the people. The story's really not about the offering.
[26:00] And to be blunt honest, the story's not even really about the temple. The story's about God. He's the hero. He's the one who's raising up the money. He's the one who's touching their hearts to make them want to do stuff.
[26:12] He's the one who's saying, worship me. It's about him. First off, I see that because in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 9, we started with this. Ezra said, I'll just tell you what's going on here if y'all would like to know.
[26:23] It's God's hand on me. If you want to know what's happening in our lives right now, Ezra said, Ezra chapter 7, According to the good hand of his God upon him.
[26:34] God always has a man. God always has a people. It's not the person, but it's the hand of God on God's man. Pray for God's hand on your life.
[26:46] God, work in my life. Pray for me that God's hand will be on me and God will work in my life. Pray for our church that God's hand will be on our church. It's all about the God of heaven.
[26:57] Amen? Amen. We're here serving him. We want to serve him. The king sent them because of the word of God. They are going to go build this temple, but it wasn't an earthly king's idea, and it wasn't Ezra's idea, and it wasn't the people's idea.
[27:11] Look if you went in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 14. The Bible says, Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, sent of the king and of his counselors, according to the law of thy God.
[27:24] Here's what's going on. Well, we're just respecting God. We're just doing what God wants. Our lives ought to be based on what the word of God says. Our lives ought to be based on serving him, studying him, looking for him.
[27:38] The Bible's our only rule of faith and practice. It's all about God. Ezra, God's hand on him. What's really going on with the people? God said, y'all do what you want to do.
[27:48] God worked in their lives. Temple, all about God. Now they're going to worship in Ezra chapter 7 and verse 17. That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God, which is in Jerusalem.
[28:05] Offer them on the house of your God in Jerusalem. Ezra, why are we going back to Jerusalem? Because it's our home country?
[28:15] No, no, no. To worship God. Why are we going to build a temple? To worship God. Why are we going to give money? To worship God. Why have God had on me? To worship God. It's all about the Lord.
[28:26] It's all about God. We should live wanting to worship him and please him no matter what it costs. In Ezra chapter 7 and verse 20, they were told, do whatever's needful for the house of your God.
[28:40] And in the story, Ezra finishes chapter 7 and he says, and by the way, in case you don't know whose idea all of this was, it was God.
[28:53] Look at Ezra chapter 7, if you would, in verse 27. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart.
[29:05] Now, earthly, you're looking at it and you see this king and this king's over here saying, I got an idea. Let's build the temple of your God. And you're like, well, what a good king. And then you got all these people and they give all their money and all their time and everything and they go build the temple and they go have an offering and they go worship God.
[29:23] And you got Ezra and everybody says, man, they're such good people. And then Ezra says at the end of the chapter, he says, no, not really. All the way back over here, when the first idea came, it was God.
[29:36] It was God. It was God that put it in his heart. It was God's hand on me as I did my stuff. The people weren't made to do this by the king. The people did it because they wanted to. It's God.
[29:46] We got to Jerusalem. It's God. We offered sacrifices. It's God. Now, here's a question. Do you realize you're a human being and you're going to die and it ain't that long till you do?
[29:56] Do you realize that after this death, something else is going to come along? And the Bible says you're not going to get reincarnated.
[30:07] You're not coming back to something else. The Bible says pretty clearly you're either going to go to a place to be with God in heaven and joy and comfort and abundance, or you're going to go to a place of eternal suffering.
[30:21] Now, man always comes up with ideas to kind of soften that. Well, you don't really go to eternal forever suffering. Other things could happen. Maybe it would be a place called purgatory where you could get cleaned up and then go to heaven.
[30:34] Or maybe you'd come back in another life to pay for what you did wrong in this life. But the Bible said none of that's true. The Bible said none of that's true. The Bible makes it clear.
[30:45] Everything about your life revolves around this. Does the God of heaven know you? And do you know the God of heaven? The one and only true God.
[30:56] Do you know him? If you know him, you'll go to heaven. How do you know him? You know him when you admit humbly like Ezra did at the start of the story.
[31:07] And Ezra said, man, I've got to prepare my heart. And you came this morning. Maybe your heart's not prepared. Maybe you came just a little bit proud. Maybe you came just a little bit defending yourself.
[31:17] Maybe you came just thinking about how good you are. But you prepare your heart and you say, I need God. I need what only God can do.
[31:28] I don't need what that God for talking can say or do. I need God. When you get to that point and you prepare your heart, you'll be ready to hear him. And when you hear him, here's what he's going to say. You're in trouble.
[31:40] But I love you. You're headed to a horrible future. But I don't want that for you. I've already done everything for you so that you can go to heaven. I've already done everything so you can enjoy now and then.
[31:53] I've already done it all. I've paid the sin debt. I died on a cross. I paid your sin debt. I was buried. I rose again. You can be saved. I invite you this morning. If you're here and you never trusted Christ, today's your day.
[32:05] Today you accept the free gift that God offers you through what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. If you're not saved, if you're not born again, if you're not, sins aren't forgiven. If you don't know God, today's your day.
[32:17] But then if you're a Christian here, some of you are kind of like the Jews wandering around in the desert in the wilderness and you're not enjoying the Christian life. It's not what it's cracked up to be. You're like, this ain't what I thought it was going to be.
[32:29] But that's not God's fault. That's you. Because you need to prepare your heart to seek him. You need to humble yourself and say, God, I need you. And I'm here for you to speak to me and teach me.
[32:41] And then you stand up and do what he says and he'll bring that joy in your life. So today's the day to get right. Today's the day of God to work in your life. God bless you.