SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you to open your Bibles tonight to Ezra chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Ezra chapter 5, which in many ways is a chapter, as I referenced earlier today, about government bureaucracy.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of those bending under life's weary load.
SPEAKER_01: Ezra chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: It picks up where we left off last week.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the Lord together one more time in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we do pray for your grace, mercy, wisdom, a work of your spirit to take place in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We do seek to conform our minds not to the worlds, which so vis for our attention.
SPEAKER_01: So vise for our conformity.
SPEAKER_01: We know the only hope of us not being conformed to the world is for our minds to be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray tonight that you would use the time in your word to transform our minds from darkness to light, from the shape of this world to the shape of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That can only happen when our minds are renewed, when they learn to discern the difference between good and evil, between this world and holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And so help us see your perfect will, your good will, your pleasing will through your word tonight and use it to transform our minds.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, tonight we pick up a story that we left last week.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, if you recall, the Israelites had started building their temple.
SPEAKER_01: They had been kicked out of the land.
SPEAKER_01: They had lost the ability to worship God, they lost the ability to sacrifice, they had lost the ability to celebrate their feasts, and in their minds, they had lost the ability to approach God with boldness and confidence.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that we as believers take for granted.
SPEAKER_01: Through faith in Jesus Christ, we understand that we have the ability to approach the eternal throne, that we can approach the throne with boldness, because we have a mediator there in the person of Jesus Christ who hears us and who receives us, that the sinner, the one with unclean hands and an impure heart, is not able to approach God and ask for forgiveness, is not able to approach God and ask for anything really because of our own sin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God has given us a mediator.
SPEAKER_01: And that mediator makes our way clear for us and leads us into the presence of our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: We know that we have confidence to approach the eternal throne because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: No, we don't approach the throne of God based upon our own efforts or our own standing, even.
SPEAKER_01: We approach the throne of God based upon the standing of Jesus Christ, and we come in Him, adopted into His family.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have boldness in how we worship God and a freeness in how we worship Him.
SPEAKER_01: We have confidence that when we pray to Him, He hears our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: This is very different than the Israelites who approached God through this idea that the Spirit Himself dwelled in the temple, and I'm sure the Spirit had left by the life of Manasseh, at least, if not earlier.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Israelites saw their nation peeled away, tribe by tribe, they lost their land.
SPEAKER_01: Tribe by tribe, family by family, block by block, really starting in the north where Dan should have been, but never really took up residence.
SPEAKER_01: They saw their land peeled away by the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually Samaria fell.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually the whole valley of Armageddon fell to the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually Galilee became Syrian.
SPEAKER_01: As the Assyrians took over the coast and the Philistines held on to the Mediterranean basin, the land was peeled away.
SPEAKER_01: And then the tribe of Judah and Benjamin held out for another hundred, hundred and fifty years.
SPEAKER_01: And finally they too were peeled out of the land, the temple taken apart brick by brick, and the people scattered into exile.
SPEAKER_01: And from that point on, there was this depression.
SPEAKER_01: How could they dare approach God?
SPEAKER_01: And there really is no similar American analogy to this.
SPEAKER_01: It would be as if the United States were defeated in war and we watched our enemies burn the White House and tear down the Washington monument brick by brick.
SPEAKER_01: But even that doesn't cut at the idea of messianic hope.
SPEAKER_01: You know, our White House was burned before, and it was simply rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: If not more so.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God showed them mercy and grace, allowed them back into the land, allowed them to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_01: They did so with fanfare.
SPEAKER_01: We read about that in Ezra chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: They did so with rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: There was now confidence.
SPEAKER_01: God even gave them Zerubbabel to be their leader.
SPEAKER_01: They had somebody from the line of David.
SPEAKER_01: He was grafted in, as we learned this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He was a his father, he was adopted into the line of David, but there he was, a representative from the line of David.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't their king, but he had the Persian government's approval to be there and to be kind of their governor.
SPEAKER_01: And there he was.
SPEAKER_01: But then in chapter 4, we saw that the building was stopped, that opponents rose up against what God was doing.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't tolerate God's people making a place there.
SPEAKER_01: And remember, it was all about exclusivity.
SPEAKER_01: We saw that last week.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites were saying they had to worship God through the temple.
SPEAKER_01: The Samaritans, those who had been taken captive by the Assyrians who had managed to stay in the land.
SPEAKER_01: They were syncretists.
SPEAKER_01: They worshiped their own gods and said that the God of Israel could be one of their gods, and they wanted to worship with the temple also.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to partner with the temple.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites told them no, and so their building projects got shut down.
SPEAKER_01: Shut down.
SPEAKER_01: And you could see the hope starting to erode.
SPEAKER_01: And decades went by.
SPEAKER_01: Well, at least 16 years went by, and the Israelites did not restart the building process.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, at the end of chapter 4, it was just saying that it would the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 24 says.
SPEAKER_01: It ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: And so there was quite a period of time that went by here.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites, it seemed, had lost their focus.
SPEAKER_01: New arrivals came back to the land, and instead of working on the temple, they worked on their houses.
SPEAKER_01: They began to build suburbs to Jerusalem when the temple was just still in scaffolding.
SPEAKER_01: And so God had sent them prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Prophets in exile.
SPEAKER_01: They had Ezekiel in exile, they had Daniel in exile.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel prophesied a new and glorious temple.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 40 through 48 is about a new and glorious temple that will come, bigger than the old temple.
SPEAKER_01: It's described even the ocean as coming from it, the sea coming from it, a river coming from it.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, taking you mind back to the river of life, and it says it will flow from the temple again.
SPEAKER_01: It will be like a new world order coming from Jerusalem when their new temple is made.
SPEAKER_01: That's Ezekiel's promise.
SPEAKER_01: As a side note, because people often ask about this, I think the Ezekiel temple that's described is still future.
SPEAKER_01: It's not uh even going to be a temple that is gonna, there's gonna be another temple rebuilt that the Antichrist will uh be unveiled in in Jerusalem, and he'll sign a uh a peace treaty there bringing peace to the world.
SPEAKER_01: He'll break it and he'll um worship idols in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even that temple, but it will be a different temple the Lord will make in the millennial kingdom and in the millennial reign there will be sacrifices there again, sacrifices not for the forgiveness of sins, but sacrifices that point backwards towards Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Just like our communion points backwards to Christ, the Jews will have some form of sacrifices that do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's Ezekiel 40 through 48 describes that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Jews here in Ezra's lifetime, they didn't have a full picture of that.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't understand a future millennial kingdom or anything, but they had this promise in their mind that God would build this massive temple, and all they have is this lame concrete foundation, so to speak, and they're weeping about how small it is.
SPEAKER_01: They're excited that it's back, but it's so small, nothing at all like Ezekiel described.
SPEAKER_01: And so they just stop.
SPEAKER_01: They just stop.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where Ezra and Nehemiah, the books, come in.
SPEAKER_01: The Persian king Cyrus gave an edict for them to go back and rebuild the temple, which was not easy.
SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, they began it in Ezra III and then they stopped when persecution came.
SPEAKER_01: We learned last week that while the wicked may win for a while, they won't win forever.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked got the building project stopped temporarily, but they couldn't get it stopped permanently.
SPEAKER_01: Tonight we see how the building returned, and we see how God was going to move his promises forward.
SPEAKER_01: There's a line used in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: I took it as the sermon title, sort of He Sees You and You're Sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: It's a you know a little bit of an advent series right there.
SPEAKER_01: Um Santa Claus or God, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But there's this line in Ezra chapter 5 that the eye of their God, look at Ezra 5, verse 5, the eye of their God was on the elders and the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: That's just a wonderful promise right there.
SPEAKER_01: The eye of their God was on them.
SPEAKER_01: If I got to title Bible books, I wouldn't have titled this as Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: Ezra's not even here yet.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to see him until chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: The book is named after him, but he doesn't step in for another few chapters.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, this is, if I was in charge of giving this book of a title, I would choose this title, The Eye of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is a book about how God's eye is on his people at all times, even when they have stopped working, even when 16 years have gone by, with no evidence of obedience in his people's life, just apathy, God's eye is still on them.
SPEAKER_01: And God is going to minister to his people in four different ways.
SPEAKER_01: And that'll be your outline tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You have it in your little booklet, but I'll put it on the screen for you as well.
SPEAKER_01: Four ways in which Yahweh keeps watch on his people.
SPEAKER_01: Four ways in which you see the eye of the Lord in your life.
SPEAKER_01: God's covenant-keeping eye is on his people, and you see four different very practical manifestations of it tonight in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: The first way God keeps watching his people is through his prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Through his prophets, look at chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Edeh, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who is over them.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his people to prophets, and these prophets stand out because they had not had prophets in a long time.
SPEAKER_01: They had not, and the prophets in Acts, I mean, Daniel, is he even a prophet, or is he in one of the history books?
SPEAKER_01: The Jews are divided on that.
SPEAKER_01: But God had not sent them a real, you know, authentic prophet in a while.
SPEAKER_01: And here, interstage, right, comes two together, Haggai and Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: God sends both of them to restart the building process.
SPEAKER_01: There's a huge break between verses one and verse two.
SPEAKER_01: Verse two, then Zerubbabel, the son of Shiltiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jehosedak, rose and began to rebuild the house of God that was in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: There's a huge break there.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse two tells you why there was a break.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
SPEAKER_01: It took several years for what happened in verse 1 to impact what happened in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: It took several years for the prophets to light a fire under the people's feet, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: Those two prophets, if you're familiar with them, they're contemporaneous with each other.
SPEAKER_01: They preached together.
SPEAKER_01: Very, very different.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah was younger, Haggai was older.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai likely had seen the first temple that was destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: He was in his 80s.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai preached over a period of four months.
SPEAKER_01: He preached from one holiday to another.
SPEAKER_01: You know exactly when he was preaching.
SPEAKER_01: He dates his book, Haggai chapter 1 and Haggai chapter 2, four months apart.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we know about him is that preaching right there, and then what you see here in Ezra chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai was very practical, very confrontational.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah, on the other hand, preached for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: He had longer sermons.
SPEAKER_01: More my style, I think, Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: He had profound imagery.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody told me that recently they thought the book of Revelation was the hardest book in the Bible to interpret.
SPEAKER_01: And my response to that was, no way.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Revelation is easy to interpret if you've already gone through the book of Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah is where the action, everything that's difficult in the book of Revelation, is coming from the prophet Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you're stumbling over the four horsemen in the book of Revelation, and you're like, well, what are these going on?
SPEAKER_01: What do these represent?
SPEAKER_01: Well, just stop for a little bit and think, have I seen these people before?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: Go back to Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Zechariah is tough to interpret, I'll grant you that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you need the MacArthur Study Bible or something to help you out.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah is a harder book to interpret.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah is this grandiose language, and it is a prophecy for all time.
SPEAKER_01: From that moment forward, all the way through the kingdom, all the way about the coming Savior, he covers.
SPEAKER_01: He covers the final conversion of Israel, the final rebellion of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: He has all of that in there.
SPEAKER_01: It's the book of Revelation condensed down.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas Haggai, much more direct.
SPEAKER_01: And you can remember it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah, lofty and prophetic, and Haggai is more like, hey guy.
SPEAKER_01: It's a seminary joke, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I thought it would work here.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Hawley's giving me the look.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fired.
SPEAKER_01: But Haggai is very direct and in your face.
SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, Haggai steps in the scene, work had stopped for 16 years.
SPEAKER_01: And the people were building their own houses, and Haggai confronts them for it.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah confronts them with imagery of the robes that angels wear, but Haggai comes to them and he says, Look at your houses.
SPEAKER_01: You're living in paneled houses.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get in trouble with the building inspector.
SPEAKER_01: And Haggai says, Okay, but you're building your houses.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you see the contradiction there?
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to build God's house.
SPEAKER_01: It's the person that says, you know, I can't give to church.
SPEAKER_01: I can't support missionaries.
SPEAKER_01: I can't give offerings to the Lord because things are just too financially tight right now.
SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, they're putting on an extra bedroom in their house.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's Haggai's image.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_01: And Haggai says, put your hands in your pockets.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have any money there because you've got holes in them.
SPEAKER_01: You put money in your pockets, and the money just falls right out.
SPEAKER_01: So the more you want, the less you have.
SPEAKER_01: That's Haggai's principle.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, they were in a deplorable situation.
SPEAKER_01: There were housing shortages in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: There were disappointing harvests.
SPEAKER_01: God wasn't blessing their harvest.
SPEAKER_01: They had a shortage of supplies.
SPEAKER_01: Their livestock was dying.
SPEAKER_01: Inadequate funds.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps as a result of inflation, is what many commentaries and haggis said.
SPEAKER_01: They were just dumping money into, uh, you know, building out their houses and the driving up inflation, and meanwhile, nothing of value is happening.
SPEAKER_01: And that is just the lie of materialism.
SPEAKER_01: The more you have, the happier you'll be.
SPEAKER_01: But of course, the more you have, the more you want.
SPEAKER_01: And you never cross the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: You never do.
SPEAKER_01: And so God gives his people prophets to confront them on this.
SPEAKER_01: And the prophets do come and they do confront.
SPEAKER_01: They do acknowledge there's a time to sow and a time to reap.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time to fight and a time for peace.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time to build and a time to refrain from building.
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon said that, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's the one who wrote that.
SPEAKER_01: There is a time to build and a time to not build.
SPEAKER_01: And Solomon wrote that right after he built the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a bit of an irony for the Israelites to quote that verse to justify why they're not building the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Saying, oh, we can't build a temple.
SPEAKER_01: Now now's not the time to build the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Ecclesiastes 3.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Solomon wrote that after he finished the temple, and Haggai lets them know that.
SPEAKER_01: There are obviously seasons of life and seasons of plenty and seasons that are leaner, and all that's from God's providence.
SPEAKER_01: And God gives his people prophets to energize them through those seasons.
SPEAKER_01: God sends them Haggai and Zechariah and they confront the people.
SPEAKER_01: They confront the people.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai comes with yelling.
SPEAKER_01: You're telling me it's not the time to build a house for God, but it's time to you for you to live in a two-camel garage?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: And the prophets confront the people.
SPEAKER_01: They don't just confront them for sin, but they use their confrontation to encourage them towards obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai 2, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai says, Be strong, Zerubbabel, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehosedak, the high priest.
SPEAKER_01: Be strong, all ye people of the land, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Work, for I am with you, declares Yahweh of hosts, according to the covenant I made with you when you were coming out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: My spear remains in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the crux of Haggai's preaching.
SPEAKER_01: He confronts him on sin in chapter 1, chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Be courageous, don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you see how God encourages his people through sending them prophets in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament, this is the role of preaching.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that I am preaching not to the actual choir, to the Sunday night choir.
SPEAKER_01: You are those that come back on Sunday nights because you love worshiping with God's people and you want to hear the word of the Lord preached, and so you understand this.
SPEAKER_01: But I hope from this you just take a little reason why you like hearing the Bible preached.
SPEAKER_01: You like it because that is one of the ways God energizes you.
SPEAKER_01: God confronts sin in your life, but he also energizes you through it.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you come away from hearing the word preached with this idea that you should not be timid.
SPEAKER_01: You should not be kind of mambi-pambi in the world.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room for half-hearted Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And the word of God, no matter what chapter it is, Ezra 5 or wherever, should inspire you to be strong and courageous because you know the Lord is watching out for you.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai T verse 5 applies to you as well.
SPEAKER_01: My spirit remains in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not.
SPEAKER_01: So one way God works through his people is through sending them prophets, or in the New Testament time, pastors who teach the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's a main theme in Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see again in chapter 7 when Ezra himself shows up and he devotes himself to preaching and teaching Ezra 7, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Ezra sets his heart to study the law of Yahweh, to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: That's going to be a pattern that is repeated in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That God sends prophets who study the Word of God, who preach it, and then the people apply it.
SPEAKER_01: Big difference between Ezra and the earlier prophets, between Haggai and Zechariah, even in Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: Haggai and Zechariah are giving new revelation, whereas Ezra is taking revelation, studying it, and preaching it.
SPEAKER_01: And that becomes our model in the New Testament as well.
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's so misplaced for in the New Testament era for people to call themselves prophets and say, Oh, I'm a prophet, I have new revelation.
SPEAKER_01: No, that was of an earlier time.
SPEAKER_01: The way God inspires people today is not through new revelation, but through people like Ezra who preach and teach old revelation.
SPEAKER_01: One way God ministers to his people is through prophets.
SPEAKER_01: A second way is through punishment.
SPEAKER_01: It's through punishment.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets of God were supporting them, but then persecution rises up.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, verse 3, Tetzaneah, the governor of the province of Beyond the River.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, that's just the fancy name.
SPEAKER_01: And Beyond the River doesn't sound like a good name for a state, but maybe in Aramaic it flowed better.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We have similar states like that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, North Carolina, like I say, you know, it's Carolina, the north one of the two.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's to a non-English speaker, it's a weird name for a place, but we just roll with it.
SPEAKER_01: Beyond the river is like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's the state that's on the other side of the Euphrates River.
SPEAKER_01: It's the state that Israel is part of.
SPEAKER_01: Their governor.
SPEAKER_01: And Sethrabenzai, and so I'm going to say that word, and I'm never going to say it again.
SPEAKER_01: And their associates came to them and spoke to them.
SPEAKER_01: Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?
SPEAKER_01: That's what they want to know.
SPEAKER_01: Who's allowing you to do this work?
SPEAKER_01: Persecutions rising up.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, we saw that last week in chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: And God is using this to purify his people.
SPEAKER_01: God uses persecution to purify people's hearts.
SPEAKER_01: It causes you to refine your focus about what matters in life.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Haggai is so important as background for this.
SPEAKER_01: What mattered to the Israelites, very similar to the United States today, the Israelites were pursuing materialism.
SPEAKER_01: They were pursuing wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And they thought it would make them happy.
SPEAKER_01: And so God gives persecution to purge you of that kind of mindset.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the lie of materialism, that you materialism lies to you and says if you have what you want, you will have enough.
SPEAKER_01: But it is feeding money into a black hole.
SPEAKER_01: You never have enough.
SPEAKER_01: The person who makes$20,000 a year says, I'm just barely putting food on my table.
SPEAKER_01: $30,000 a year says I've got to pay for the kids' soccer team.
SPEAKER_01: $50,000 a year, oh I can't give.
SPEAKER_01: I've only got one car.
SPEAKER_01: $80,000, oh, I can't give.
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen the house I'm living in?
SPEAKER_01: I need a better neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: $100,000 a year, you've got to put oil in your airplane.
SPEAKER_01: And so Haggai tells the people turn around and look at the empty houses you're living in and be broken by it.
SPEAKER_01: And people don't do that though.
SPEAKER_01: They don't look at how they're using their resources until difficulty comes in their life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the next paragraph in Ezra comes in.
SPEAKER_01: As persecution rises up, listen, abandoning the work didn't stop the persecution.
SPEAKER_01: Working on their houses just drew more attention.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, God gives them leaders, they start working, they get more persecution.
SPEAKER_01: It's forcing them to choose sides here.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, are you gonna get pushed around?
SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna say, oh, I'm not gonna, I can't witness to this person because what if they complain about this or that or the other thing?
SPEAKER_01: There's so many excuses to keep from doing.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's will in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why the New Testament tells you you have to conform your mind to the image of God, not to this world.
SPEAKER_01: You have to be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to use discernment to know what is the will of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And it's you have to test yourself, is actually Paul's word.
SPEAKER_01: You have to test yourself through discernment to know what is good and what is wicked, what is worldly and what is pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_01: And persecution has a powerful ability to make you do that.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord disciplines those who he loves, and when he disciplines his children, the important things come into focus.
SPEAKER_01: I've told you this before, but I want to put it on the screen again.
SPEAKER_01: There's the big three lies of materialism.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is in your book if you have it, so you don't need to write it down.
SPEAKER_01: But the big three lies of materialism here is that you have it, your possessions, you have them, and so you've earned them.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, that is just a that is the American dream right there.
SPEAKER_01: That is the Protestant work ethic, and there is good parts of the Protestant work ethic.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you do work hard, it's the part of the Protestant work ethic is described in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: When you work hard, you can provide for your family.
SPEAKER_01: You're a blessing for your family, you're a blessing for the needy, you're a blessing for those in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's a benefit of the so-called Protestant work ethic.
SPEAKER_01: That's the good part of it.
SPEAKER_01: But the negative side of it is this idea that what you have, you deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Which is just often the case, not true.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a land of plenty.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that we deserve more by virtue of being in this country than somebody who is working just as hard, if not harder, than you are in Rwanda.
SPEAKER_01: But our mind gets colored by thinking, I have it, so I deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not so I earn it.
SPEAKER_01: That's not really the way the world works.
SPEAKER_01: It is true that when you work hard, you can provide for your family.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: But just notice the seed of the lie in there, that it's about what you have earned, which is about what you deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And notice where that feeds.
SPEAKER_01: If you think that you earned it and you deserve it, therefore you can do whatever you want to with it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, not really.
SPEAKER_01: Because remember, the Bible says that you are a steward, that everything you have is not really yours.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas materialism teaches that if you get enough, that's the key to happiness.
SPEAKER_01: And so God uses persecution, he uses punishment to purge his people of that mindset.
SPEAKER_01: As Haggai says, Haggai just confronts them and says, Consider your ways.
SPEAKER_01: Consider how you're living your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's often effective.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the third way God keeps watch on his people is through providence.
SPEAKER_01: Through providence.
SPEAKER_01: And that comes out in verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: The eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius, and his answer be returned by letter concerning it.
SPEAKER_01: God, through providence, is ordering all things in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, providence, remember, is different than a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle is where God sets aside the natural course of the way the world works, interrupts the world's affairs to change something, to produce something supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: That's a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is the way God manages every detail of everything in life.
SPEAKER_01: Both of them are examples of sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you leave here and you, you know, the car in front of you is too slow coming out of the parking lot, and so you miss your window and the whole light cycle goes by, and then you go to turn into the Starbucks parking lot, and you know, a car just flies by that would have killed you had that other car not slowed down in front of you earlier.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: That kind of scenario.
SPEAKER_01: And you think, oh, it's a miracle I didn't get hit by that truck.
SPEAKER_01: No, not a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: It's providence.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean it's any less cause for thanksgiving to God.
SPEAKER_01: God is equally sovereign over providential things as he is over the miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: That's the main point here.
SPEAKER_01: And the way Scripture describes God's providence, here it's in the eye of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's eye is on you.
SPEAKER_01: Last night I was talking to my daughters about the, you know, the three omnis, that God is omniscient, he knows everything, he's omnipresent, he's everywhere, and he's omnipotent, he can do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And one of them asked the question: what is really the difference between omniscience and omnipresence?
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, there's not really a difference when you're dealing with God.
SPEAKER_01: That God is everywhere because he knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he is everywhere through his knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: He's not physically everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And this is important when you're explaining omnipresence to kids, because if you don't make this clear, they think, you know, God is physically everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if omnipresence is true, is God in my sandwich?
SPEAKER_01: Am I eating God?
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's where a kid's mind goes.
SPEAKER_01: And so you need very clear lines with omnipresence.
SPEAKER_01: God being everywhere doesn't mean he's physically everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: It means all things are before him in his knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: There's nowhere you can hide from him because his knowledge is exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: You tie that to omnipotence, and you have the doctrine of providence that God can do all things in the world through keeping his watch on you.
SPEAKER_01: He sees everything.
SPEAKER_01: Hence the title.
SPEAKER_01: He sees you when you're sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just know when you awake, he is sovereignly in control of it.
SPEAKER_01: And so God is working on all of the details here.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not just confined to Ezra 5.5, but it's other places.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 33, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: Job 36, verse 7, he does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of even Gentile kings.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in the world falls under what I called this morning the meticulous sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: And providence is the main way God orders the affairs of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Non-Christians call it coincidence.
SPEAKER_01: But we have a better word than coincidence.
SPEAKER_01: Providence.
SPEAKER_01: God is in charge.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't notice this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't notice it.
SPEAKER_01: But there's probably a hundred verses in the New Testament that describe this, I mean the Bible that describe this, which I won't take you all through, except to say that God orders the events so that his will is accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: And that the request of this so-called governor of the land beyond the river will not be acted upon through God's providential intervention here.
SPEAKER_01: It says that they will not act on it until the king gets to intervene.
SPEAKER_01: This is Proverbs 16, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of a man plans his ways, but Yahweh directs his steps.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how does God direct steps?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here, God directs his people's steps through what I'm going to call government bureaucracy, which you get the rest of the chapter on, even into chapter 6, or I'm bringing it to our fourth point here, protection.
SPEAKER_01: God keeps watch on his people through prophets, through punishment and purging their sin, through providence, and then finally through protection.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a copy of the letter, our governor friend from the land beyond the river, and Seth are Bazenae.
SPEAKER_01: I said I wouldn't say that again, but there it happened.
SPEAKER_01: And his associates, the governors who were in the province beyond the river.
SPEAKER_01: This is the letter they sent to Darius the king.
SPEAKER_01: So you're getting a little bit of a window in here.
SPEAKER_01: I know many of you work for the government, so this should be kind of fascinating here.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting a window here into an official letter.
SPEAKER_01: We know this is what it is because it's it's not the letter itself is not inspired.
SPEAKER_01: The letter is not infallible.
SPEAKER_01: The letter is one government governor to the emperor, but this is what the letter really was.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you understand inspiration when you're dealing with an extra biblical letter in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Is that making sense?
SPEAKER_01: The letter is not inspired, it's written by a governor, it's not inspired, but its existence is truthful.
SPEAKER_01: This really was the letter.
SPEAKER_01: We know that because it is in the scripture, and the scripture says this is the letter.
SPEAKER_01: It was written, verse 7, says as follows.
SPEAKER_01: So you're getting a window here into an email between a governor and the emperor.
SPEAKER_01: This would get subpoenaed for sure today.
SPEAKER_01: To Darius the king, all peace.
SPEAKER_01: You might start your email.
SPEAKER_01: Dearest Emperor, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how they're even describing Yahweh in here, this governor.
SPEAKER_01: Because this governor, you get the sense is feeling this out.
SPEAKER_01: Is the emperor really on the side of this?
SPEAKER_01: Darius, the king, by the way, is in his second year of king, being emperor right now, his second year.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a rebellion in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Things are going crazy in his world right now.
SPEAKER_01: And so this governor, he doesn't want to provoke him too much, he doesn't want to cause problems here up the chain of command.
SPEAKER_01: He should be able to take care of affairs in his own province, but he doesn't like the temple, and they're saying that the emperor knows about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I kind of do have to ask the emperor if he's a fan of Yahweh, if he's a fan of their God, I don't want to cross him too much.
SPEAKER_01: So he refers to him as the house of the great God.
SPEAKER_01: It's being built with huge stones.
SPEAKER_01: The timber is laid in the walls.
SPEAKER_01: This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands.
SPEAKER_01: He might be even exaggerating here a little bit, because remember, notice his perspective.
SPEAKER_01: This thing is massive, and the Jews' perspective is so tiny.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Then we asked those elders, and we spoke to them thus, who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?
SPEAKER_01: We also asked them for their names, for your information, that we might write down the names of their leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's ominous, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: You know, the the governor says, hey, who's working on that building?
SPEAKER_01: And can you write down their names and socials for me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to do a quick background check.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is persecution.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just Americanize it very much for you.
SPEAKER_01: That would be the equivalent of the government saying, Oh, we would like the names and social security numbers and all the information of everybody that gives to your church.
SPEAKER_01: No, well, that would be a problem.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a problem because we just want to make sure that those that work for you know government agencies are part of, you know, churches that tow the right line socially.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a huge problem.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I have a friend who works for uh Americans for Prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: They got sued in the state of California and it went all the way to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER_01: And the California Supreme Court ruled that they had to divulge the names of all of their donors.
SPEAKER_01: All of their donors.
SPEAKER_01: And the LA Times got a hold of some of them, started running them under stories about businesses that are opposed to same-sex marriage, and it was it was a huge deal.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, the whole company just pulled out of California.
SPEAKER_01: They don't allow any of their employees to live in the city of California anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Um, which some of you might think, well, that's a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: What California meant for evil, they turned out for good.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: We want the names of those building the building to let the emperor know.
SPEAKER_01: Yowsers.
SPEAKER_01: Look at how the Jews responded.
SPEAKER_01: This was their reply in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this is in the form of a forwarded email.
SPEAKER_01: We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: That is a bold response.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jerusalem is up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody accidentally goes through it.
SPEAKER_01: And they were they're talking to the emperor of the world's largest empire.
SPEAKER_01: And the Jews say, Hey, we're serving the God of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: We're rebuilding the house that was built many years ago with such a great king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He built it and he finished it.
SPEAKER_01: Again, those are fighting words to the emperor.
SPEAKER_01: You can tell that this letter happened after the arrival of Haggai and Zechariah, because there's no way the Jews would have written this a few years before Haggai and Zechariah got there.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12, but because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldean.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the Babylonians have fallen now and are replaced by the Persians, who destroyed this house.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the shrewdness of the Jewish answer here.
SPEAKER_01: That yes, the house was destroyed by a Babylonian king.
SPEAKER_01: We don't even like them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: However, in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, Cyrus the king, now talking about the Persian king, he made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Shesh Bazar, whom he had made the governor.
SPEAKER_01: We met him back in Ezra 1.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple that's in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Shesh Bazar came and laid the foundation of the house of God that's in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been building and it's not yet finished.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it seems good to the king.
SPEAKER_01: Let a search be made in the Royal Archives in Babylon to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the King for the rebuilding of this house of God and in Jerusalem, and let the king send his pleasure in this matter.
SPEAKER_01: Warmly.
SPEAKER_01: This is a rubbable.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever I read an email that signs off with warmly, I can tell the person's upset with me.
SPEAKER_01: Warmly.
SPEAKER_01: What did I do?
SPEAKER_01: Just marvel at the amazing confidence they have here.
SPEAKER_01: Our God is the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Israel is a speck, a speck on the map of the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01: A tiny speck with 60,000.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be generous now.
SPEAKER_01: Another 40,000 people have immigrated and repopulation.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they've got 100,000, 120,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: It is a speck.
SPEAKER_01: And they have confidence to say, listen, this is bigger than you, Darius.
SPEAKER_01: It's bigger than you.
SPEAKER_01: Even the previous emperor, Cyrus, and there's an emperor between Cyrus and Darius, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And we just skip right over him.
SPEAKER_01: He's going back.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in the United States, it would be the equivalent of, you know, some kind of executive decree has more credence to it if it's gone through a White House with two different parties.
SPEAKER_01: Like President Obama put this in action and President Trump has agreed.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it's legitimate.
SPEAKER_01: That kind of attitude.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they're doing here.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus signed off on this.
SPEAKER_01: So, Darius, you have authorized it as well.
SPEAKER_01: Check the records.
SPEAKER_01: You can't undo this.
SPEAKER_01: There have been several emperors that have approved this building construction.
SPEAKER_01: So we appeal.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that they are leveraging the legal system available to them while claiming God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: That's going to be a theme we'll see later on in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that sometimes it's hard for us to understand as believers.
SPEAKER_01: We sometimes think that taking advantage of the legal mechanisms God gives us is a lack of confidence in God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true.
SPEAKER_01: God in his providence allows legal protections, allows an appeals process.
SPEAKER_01: It allows the Israelites to say, search the records.
SPEAKER_01: Search the records, which is going to take a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we'll look at how the work turns out next week.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're thankful that you have given us the same confidence that these Jewish workers had.
SPEAKER_01: Confidence that you are a sovereign God, providentially in control of the details of our life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, keep us from living as atheists, as practical atheists.
SPEAKER_01: Help us see your kindness and goodness in every area of life.
SPEAKER_01: Even when we find ourselves in difficult situations, Lord, help us rejoice that you are the one that has sovereignly allowed them into our lives to purge our own hearts of wrong expectations, to sanctify our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're thankful for the building of the temple here.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful for the joy that the Israelites had in their quest to worship you in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_01: We today don't worship you through a temple that was built by human hands.
SPEAKER_01: We are the temple.
SPEAKER_01: You are the temple, and we have been grafted into you.
SPEAKER_01: We are the body of believers spiritually united together, Jews and Gentiles, in one spiritual unit.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful that we worship you with boldness that the Jews only looked forward to.
SPEAKER_01: And we can do that through the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful for Him.
SPEAKER_01: How He is our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He gave us His life so that we could have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, before we sing tonight, I did want to give opportunity to answer any any questions you might have.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about Ezra so far, this would be a good time to ask them.
SPEAKER_01: But also about the genealogies that we looked at this morning, because I know that could be kind of confusing.
SPEAKER_01: And if I said anything that was was weird, um that would be a good time to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Um if there's no questions, that's great too.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to give you a chance as we kind of wrapped up that series this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Michael?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: In a land of abundance, how do we what are some of these questions we can ask ourselves about what you can learn this now that's to be currently?
SPEAKER_01: That's a very practical question.
SPEAKER_01: A land of abundance, like the Lord has blessed us with, what are some questions that we can ask ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: You know, a big part of it is contentment.
SPEAKER_01: Um, are you content with what you have?
SPEAKER_01: Because contentment doesn't change with circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not content with little, you won't be content with more.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not content with plenty, you're definitely not going to be content as it as it grows.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think the the missing virtue with American consumerism is contentment.
SPEAKER_01: Um really ask yourself, are you happy with what the Lord has given you?
SPEAKER_01: And then have a spirit of generosity to you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, generosity is a gift, a spiritual gift in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And so try to cultivate that in your own life.
SPEAKER_01: Take a delight in giving to others that are in need, uh, giving to others that don't have as much as you do.
SPEAKER_01: And when those become priorities in your life, they're passed on to your children if the Lord gives them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they just learn to grow up with that.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the difference between people that grow up with generosity and people that grow up with entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: You know, because if kids grow up in a house of plenty and abundance and their parents are not generous, they learn that very quickly too.
SPEAKER_01: Um so the Lord has blessed Emmanuel with families that are are are wealthy and families that are so generous and really do represent.
SPEAKER_01: I f I feel awkward ever talking about money at Emmanuel, because you know, the the people at Emmanuel, the Lord has just blessed our church with people that are so kind and generous with how they live.
SPEAKER_01: They um they they flee materialism even with plenty.
SPEAKER_01: Um nevertheless, it is a theme of scripture, so it presents itself.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great question, Michael.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like David is counted twice.
SPEAKER_01: Um that it goes up to him because the fourth one breaks at the Babylonian exile.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, sorry, the third gap breaks at the Babylonian exile.
SPEAKER_01: So I was hoping nobody would actually do the math on that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: But I had the answer ready.
SPEAKER_01: You're just the first one that is asked.
SPEAKER_01: Um so David uh count counts twice.
SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, David was exiled and did come back.
SPEAKER_01: He does have two different children in the line, also.
SPEAKER_01: Uh thinking of an American analogy, the only one I can have is, you know, the Grover Cleveland.
SPEAKER_01: Do we keep you when you teach your, you know, when you were a middle school student, you had to number the presidents, did you remember him twice?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Did he count twice?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Is he counted in the list?
SPEAKER_01: I don't really I haven't done the math.
SPEAKER_01: I don't actually know.
SPEAKER_01: Um but that there's that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so David functions that way in the in the genealogy.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Brennan.
SPEAKER_01: Where the the land behind the hills, that's actually where you want to run.
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, Brandon's question for those that are are watching.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what uh what should a Christian's involvement in politics be?
SPEAKER_01: You know, you want to be a voice for for for life.
SPEAKER_01: You want to use your vote to protect those who are oppressed and to protect um the unborn, which is the you know the main the main issue in our day.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else kind of flows out of that.
SPEAKER_01: Um kind of living in the midst of a Holocaust and that.
SPEAKER_01: But you I mean your vote in many ways is so inconsequential in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in fair fair, I went I voted at that election.
SPEAKER_01: There were no Republicans on the ballot anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the only Republican to be seen there was wearing all red uh make America Great Again regalia, smoking a cigar and heckling all the commies that were going to vote, according to him.
SPEAKER_01: Um it was quite a sight to behold at Holmes Middle School.
SPEAKER_01: It was quite quite the rodeo.
SPEAKER_01: Um I think the great danger for us is putting faith, as Jeremiah would say, in horses rather than in the Lord, and thinking that God's kingdom advances or falls based upon any election.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is on his throne no matter who wins an election.
SPEAKER_01: The more hope you put in that, the more you get sidetracked by what is actually important, which is the advancement of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, nevertheless, voting is a stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Simon, I would I would encourage you to to vote.
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, use whatever little voice you have, but I would also encourage you to not make much of that because it is it is so little.
SPEAKER_01: And even friends that are in in politics, again, the Lord has blessed Emmanuel with so many people that I think have the right balance.
SPEAKER_01: That I'm grateful for those that work in politics and government because they are using their ability to bring justice and show mercy and to make a righteous nation as best as they're able.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm so thankful for that.
SPEAKER_01: I know your question started with one of ignorance, so that's why I'm talking to you as not as one who's in government.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody who's in government, I would say use go full bore, man.
SPEAKER_01: Use everything at your disposal to be a voice for righteousness and to advance righteous uh uh laws and to help um protect those who are are vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: But for those who are spectators, so to speak, and are living under the freedoms purchased by others and procured by others, I would say don't put hope in those things, put hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's my my two-mouthed answer.
SPEAKER_01: Which does, it's a great question to come from the book of Ezra, because just notice how they responded.
SPEAKER_01: They did not respond with a political campaign, but they did respond by taking advantage of the political mechanisms given to them.
SPEAKER_01: All right, let me invite you all to stand and let's uh close tonight by singing hymn number five, all the way my savior leads me.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for being with us today.
SPEAKER_02: And now, a parting word from Pastor Jesse.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, emmanuelbible.church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_01: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_01: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.