Living Outloud: Back Home and Backsliding

We trace Ezra’s return from exile to show how faith, fasting, and consecration rebuild a people from the inside out. We talk candidly about bragging on God, holding Scripture in awe, and drawing lines that protect holiness over cultural peace.

• Ezra’s commitment to study, obey, teach
• Faith under pressure and public trust in God
• Fasting and prayer as integrity, not theater
• Awe for Scripture shaping a biblical worldview
• The danger of unequal yoking and drift
• Consecration as modern cleansing and focus
• God’s truth over “my truth” and shifting norms
• Healthy separation from rival ideologies
• Identifying footholds and closing open doors
• Practical steps to return to God’s terms

Join me next week as we read Nehemiah

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Transcript

Faith, Provision, And God’s Reputation

Prayer, Fasting, And Real Dependence

Awe For Scripture And Worldview

Consecration And Drawing Clear Lines

Holiness, Promises, And Separation

Footholds, Compromise, And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and this is our weekly episode of Living Out Loud, where we take what we read earlier in the week on this podcast and talk a little bit about how do we live this out? How do we actually do something about this? My wife Kelsey's not able to join me on this episode today, but I did take notes. I was telling you what, when we were reading through Ezra, I was just taking notes of, oh man, this could be a thinking out loud thought for the day. This could be a thinking out loud thought for the day. And there's just enough of them that you're like, you know what? Let's just make this the Living Out Loud as we take a look again at the book of Ezra. I love the verse. This is why we're here. This is almost like a life verse for Living Out Loud. Ezra 710. Now Ezra had dedicated himself to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching its statutes and judgments in Israel. This is just the kind of guy Ezra was. He decided, you know what, I'm going to give my life to the study of the Bible. And I'm going to do what it says, and I want to help other people do the same thing. What a great testimony and a great legacy for him to have. And I've heard from multiples that they, you know, hey, look, if the Bible wasn't real, or if if I didn't believe that this mattered, if the Bible isn't true and isn't worth following, then I have wasted my life. I've wasted a good many years about something that doesn't matter. But of course, arguably, the Bible is the most important thing that we can do with our time, to learn, to read, to study, to live out. It provides a whole framework. It's not just summer reading. It's not just something to read before bed. It provides a whole framework, a whole worldview to live by. And uh we get to see the effects of that in Ezra's life here today. Let's um let's get into this, but let's let's just pray. I think it's good to pray before we we go into this even more. God, thank you so much for my friend listening here with me today and and being able to have this conversation. Thank you for the word that you give as an example of sometimes what not to do and sometimes what to do. And through it all, we get to hear your heart and learn more about you. I pray that in this conversation, just uh protect people from my own opinions. Uh, but uh God may the words that uh come through this episode and through this conversation be ones that reflect your heart in the book of Ezra. And uh we love you and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So if this is your first time here and this is the first episode you're listening to, I might recommend go back and listen to uh the a couple of the episodes regarding Ezra. I'm not necessarily going to take time to recap the whole story here, so there if if there's a gap, you might want to go check it out and check out those episodes and come back to this one when you're ready. But that said, Ezra here, he is leading a group of people back to the Promised Land after having been exiled for a while and ready to go help bring about a, yes, support the building of the temple that's been happening, but also bring about a bit of a spiritual revival here. And it's a great metaphor. This whole story uh is a great, not only history of Israel, but also a great metaphor for how we can go about reviving our putting God at the center in our life. And so Ezra had gotten the permission of the king, the Persian king, to go back and lead this group of people there. And it's interesting in Ezra chapter 8, verses 22 and 23, he says, I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had said to the king, the good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger is against everyone who forsakes him. And so we fasted and prayed to our God about this, and he answered us. I think that's I think that's so relatable because we tend to do that, right? We we want to act in faith and live out our faith, and so we'll talk God up to somebody, right? We'll we'll say, No, like I really believe that God's gonna come through in this. I've seen him come through in this area, and so just you watch, you you'll see, you'll see God come through. And then you're all of a sudden you're like, oh, wait, I can't actually now ask this person for anything. Maybe maybe it's something like financial. Like, no, I believe God's gonna provide. And uh, I've I've been in this position before where it's like, no, I God's been faithful to provide our needs. And I I just I think we're supposed to live as an example of what it looks like to actually trust God with finances and trust God with money and uh seek the kingdom first and let him take care of everything else, like he says in Matthew 633. I've told our our story about that a few times here on the podcast, and uh, and so I'm happy to to talk God up. I I don't think I'm inflating anything, that's that's just how I see him and the relationship I have with him. I trust him. And so then it's like, oh, but now I can't go ask that family member or friends for money because it's like, oh, I just I just said I'm I'm trusting God to come through for me. I don't want that friend or family to become an answer to my prayer because I I feel like if I'm supposed to live as an example, I don't want them to be able to take credit for any good thing that happens, right? So Ezra's the same way here where he's like, uh yeah, I just said how how much God protects his people and and he thwarts the attempts of the enemy to uh when we're going about our work for him. It's like, well, I now I can't ask for the king to provide security because I just how that's I just said how God's our security. And so Ezra's response is great. It's it's simple, but it's so important. We fasted and prayed to our God about this, and he answered us. Now, what did he exactly pray? We don't have that recorded, but when you go to God and say, Hey God, this is your reputation on the line. If you don't come through after I've talked you up, or if I if I go back to that person and they have to kind of bail me out of this, then it's just it doesn't bring you any glory from what I can see. So I I really need you. I I feel like that sort of prayer is a prayer that God's gonna answer, right? Now he doesn't need to defend himself and we don't get to put him on the spot. Uh, so that's not what this is about. But when we act out in faith and we make a bold declaration of faith, and then we go to him and say, Whew, okay, I just expressed some pretty scary faith. And God, I need you to to fill in the gap and and and make this happen because I've taken myself out of the equation, and I just need you here. I feel like that's a that's a great prayer, and I I think God's gonna answer that. So sure enough, God protected them so that Ezra's words praising God and giving glory to God and placing his faith in God were able to be witnessed and serve as a good example of what faith in this God is. So, when was the last time that you bragged on God a little bit? When you talked God up, I'm not saying saying anything that you don't believe, I'm just saying you're expressing your faith to someone else. Kind of talking God up and saying, nah, I I think God's got this. Again, not to put God on the spot and we're not being stubborn and you know refusing other help necessarily, but it it's just uh talking God up to someone. When's the last time you you even find yourself in that position? And maybe you're in that position right now. Have you prayed about it? Keep going to God. We we sometimes think, well, I I said the thing I needed to say. All right, we'll see what happens. I mean, that's great, but let's keep going to God in prayer. Fast and pray if we need to. I just love that little section of Ezra there, a little bit of transparency, a little bit behind the scenes of his relationship with the God. And uh, I think we can I think we can learn from that as well. I want to move on to Ezra chapter nine here, where we've got a situation where some of the leaders of Israel come to him and say, Hey, we've only been back for a little while, but the exiles here, they're starting to intermarry with the local people, and it's leading them away from God. Like we've got a big issue. It's not just like, you know, random guys, it's like leaders of Israel just shacking up with all of these pagans. And so Ezra is like, Oh, this is not good. Like, we've not like God just brought us back to this this promised land. He just brought us back. We just got out of exile, which was punishment for being unfaithful in the first place. We cannot do this again. And Ezra 9 4 says, Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. Everyone who held the words of God of Israel in awe gathered around me. Holding the words of God in awe. I think that's a really great phrase. If you if you dedicate yourself to holding God's word in awe, if you honor the Bible, you use it to craft and hold a biblical worldview. You know what I mean by biblical worldview, like we've all got a worldview, how we see the world and a and kind of a whole network of beliefs and understandings and things that we hold as assumptions and true, and we see the world through that. As Christians, we have a responsibility of letting the Bible be our worldview. But if it's not, like there it you have a worldview. You're gonna see the world in some way. It's it's built by your parents, it's built by your culture, it's built by your education, it's built by things you read and and the the websites on the internet that you frequent. Like all of these things contribute to building a worldview. We have to help hold a biblical worldview that's crafted and sustained by the Bible. But if we do that, then you'll I start to identify others who do the same. Well, honestly, that's true no matter what your worldview is, you start to recognize and identify with people who see the world the same way you do, right? It's easier to have conversations, it's easier to believe what you believe when there are other people who believe the same thing. It doesn't make it all true, but it is how it works. But if you identify others who have a biblical worldview, you can surround each other, you can support each other. And this is what we see here. It's everyone who held the words of God in awe gathered around him because of the unfaithful acts. Israel wasn't the only one who was seeing the state of the situation, right? There were other people who are like, I've read the words of God, I've read the scriptures, and what I see does not line up with that. And they all gathered around to support him and figure out, well, what are we going to do about this? When you hold the word of God in awe, it helps you see issues the way God sees them. I heard, oh man, I wish I could quote it or cite it, but the quote is truth is God's opinion on the matter. Right? We all have our opinions, it doesn't make anything true, but when God has an opinion, that's just what's true. It's not like God has an opinion and you have an opinion and you get to pick which one you like more. No, no, no. If God has an opinion about something, it's true. If God's opinion was that this was wrong, then that's what's true. It was wrong. And it's freeing. It's freeing when you hold the word of God in awe and you see issues the way God sees them, because we live in a culture that regards your truth or your perspective as what matters most, and you've got to embrace your truth, and well, you know, that's your truth, and well, that's my truth, and I guess we just have to coexist with each other's truths. Because ultimately what we're gonna do is we're gonna see the same issue in different ways. And then arguments come up and divisions happen because no one's agreeing on a standard outside themselves. It shouldn't be arguments. If you really, if there was really a thing as your truth and my truth, then there shouldn't be arguments at all. Yet it's very inconsistent and it falls apart very quickly because we end up quarreling over well, your truth is inconvenient to me, and and your truth makes me feel bad, so your truth must be bad, and my truth must be it's it's nonsense, but it's everywhere. And so everyone just fights because no one has an agreement on some standard outside themselves, which is what the Bible offers. And so it's freeing to decide that, you know, God's opinion on the matter, that's what's true. And so you can see sin and other issues for what they really are. Sin or other issues. If you see that it's sin, then we get to do what Ezra did, and the other leaders who are on the same page as him, and you pray. And you take steps to consecrate yourself. Is really what they're doing. Consecration, that that comes up uh throughout the Bible in terms of uh consecration was a very set in standard process set in in motion with the law of Moses, and so the the Israelites would have known the process to consecrate themselves. It was took a couple days and they had to abstain from all these things, they had to clean and wash all these things. Literally, it represented the state of their heart to be able to be consecrated for something that God was going to do. Today we don't have to consecrate ourselves the same way exactly, but the concept is still true. I mean, let's see what what they did in Ezra 9 through 12. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters in marriage for your sons, don't ever seek their peace or welfare, so that you may be strong and may eat the good of the land and may leave it as an inheritance for your children forever. Sounds kind of exclusive, doesn't it? That's not very tolerant of God. No, it's not. Because God knew the danger of yoking up and and pairing up with people who do not respect and honor the Lord. It had already started to lead them astray, and God's people are supposed to remain God's people. Isn't it wild what God says there? Do not ever seek their peace or welfare. Do not ever seek their peace or welfare. I feel like we're supposed to be at peace with everyone. You know what? Ah, this is not popular, not a popular opinion, but I don't think God wants you to seek peace with everybody who has a worldview that's completely different than yours. Because even Jesus himself says, I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword. I I didn't come to bring peace and unity so that everyone can coexist on earth and just have happy feelings about each other. No, I came here to live a certain way, to teach a certain way of living, and to give an example to follow. That is it loving? Yes. Can you have peace with God the Father? Absolutely, praise God. But are you gonna be at peace with everyone? No, because if someone rejects Jesus, then they're gonna reject someone who follows Jesus. And that's not peace. We Christians run into so many problems, we make so many compromises when we seek the peace of, seek the welfare of ideologies that do not line up with the Bible. I'm not saying we don't seek the peace and welfare of individuals. Like I do, I do want them to experience God's peace, and I do want to maybe meet people's needs so that they can experience the love of Jesus, act it out, providing for their needs and caring for them as Jesus cares for them. However, we do not seek peace with a whole way of thinking. We don't seek peace with with every notion, whether it lines up with the Bible or not. No, we're gonna have to draw a line, and that's going to cause division. That's going to get us unliked, that's gonna get us unfollowed, and it's gonna get us hated. But it's not us, Jesus says. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. And if they rejected me, they will reject you. If you're living the right way, right? If we're living the way Jesus said, then we have to also fall into the same category that he's saying that there's gonna be people that don't like you because they don't like me. And if we seek to try to be at peace with them, that's not the solution, because you know what, we're gonna make the compromises, not them. Now, if God works on their heart and they come around to seeing their life and their sin the way God sees them, that's great. Then they're at peace with God and we can be at peace. However, if they don't want to be at peace with God, then they're not gonna be at peace with us. And the more we try to be at peace with them, the more compromises we're gonna make. And so that's why consecration is still an important concept today. Consecration of separating ourselves from just the the way the world works, separating ourselves from the worldview that kind of gets warped. The biblical worldview gets warped as it's kind of intermingled and borrows some ideas from the cultural worldview. And uh, as we just kind of accumulate some of the dust and some of the the grime from living in the world, a place that is very temporary and we don't fully belong as as children of God, as as Christ followers, this world's not our home, but we live in it, and so some of it gets on us sometimes. Consecration is just taking the time to separate ourselves from those things. And no, we don't have to do all the physical requirements that are laid out in Exodus, Leviticus, but we do have in this post Jesus era that we live in, Paul says, 2 Corinthians 7, 1, because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit, and let us work toward complete holiness. Why? Because we fear God. Let's work toward complete holiness because we fear God. Now we can't obviously find holiness through our works. We can't become holy because of the work we do, but let's strive to be completely holy. Not so that we can earn God's favor, but just because we fear God and a fear of God is one that isn't like, oh no, I'm afraid of God and what he's gonna do. But a fear of God is a fear of God of like, oh, I'm afraid of hurting the relationship I have with God. So that's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 1, because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. That cleansing, that's what consecration looks like today. And it should be a response to, well, these promises. What promises are we talking about? It's a good question. Let's go back. And just to just go back a few verses, we read this in 2 Corinthians 6, 16 through 18. As God said, I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among unbelievers and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things, and I'll welcome you, and I'll be your father, and you'll be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Okay, now look, I know there's a number of phrases here in this passage, and it can get us stripped up and it can upset us. The passage is not saying don't hang out with unbelievers. It's not saying, oh, unbelievers are dirty and you should keep your distance. No, like we watch how Jesus lived his life, he how Jesus interacted with unbelievers. We know that that's not what it means. But what it is saying is God wants to live in us and He wants to walk with us. And He wants everyone to know that we're His people and that He is our God. That's that's the kind of relationship that He wants. He wants others to know that He is our Father and we're His children. And those are promises that are rooted in the heart of God, which brings us back to what we read earlier in 2 Corinthians 7:1, because we have these promises, promises of this relationship with God and his desire for us, our heart and his heart to be aligned. But because we have these promises, let's cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let's work toward complete holiness because we fear God. The goal is complete holiness. That's the finish line. Why? Because like Paul said, because we fear God. I'd be horrified if someone got the wrong impression of God by looking at me. That's the sort of holiness that we're after. That's the sort of that's that's the purpose of consecration today. And we see it demonstrated with Ezra, with the leaders there who were having unions and making peace with all of the pagan people who had no interest in honoring the God of the of the Jews. They weren't interested in that. Satan used them as footholds to get access to God's people. Satan's most powerful tool is when you give him yourself. It's a foothold. One unrepentant sin, one compromise, one unresolved outburst of anger, one inappropriate relationship, one person you're not willing to forgive. That's all Satan needs to walk right back into your life, no matter how much other righteous-looking stuff you do. Ezra realized the danger that they were in the danger of making compromises with the surrounding nations. And that's why he went to God, fasted, prayed, and took drastic steps to consecrate the people once again before they fell into the same old patterns. What footholds have you given Satan? What compromises have you made? What peace have you made with other maybe people or ideologies, other lifestyles, other opinions that are not God's opinions and therefore are not true? Maybe it's an actual relationship that you need to cut off and back away from and undo. And yeah, that's gonna that's gonna hurt you and it may hurt others. It may not be peaceful, but where are you fighting for peace? Are you fighting for peace with other people so that you can get along? Or are you fighting for peace with God, which is gonna require some division in other areas? We gotta ask ourselves these questions. Ezra's story is an amazing story that provides wonderful parallels for our own return back to God. What steps are you taking today to get back to God on his terms? Something worth considering. And that is living out loud here in light of what we've read in the book of Ezra. Join me next week. We're gonna spend all next week reading the book of Nehemiah. It's one of my favorite books. I know that just came out of my mouth and I I say that a lot. Uh well, it's true. It's one of my favorite books. I'm excited to share it with you. Join me next time on the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. We'll see you then.