Beginnings, New Beginnings, Do-Overs and Second Chances

The scripture today is found in the book of Ezra, chapter 3.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

Please follow along in your bulletin.

Now, when the seventh month came, and the sons of Israel were in the cities,

the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.

Then Yeshua, the son of Yosedach, and his brothers the priests,

and Serebabel, the son of Shatiel, and his brothers arose

and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it.

As it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

So they set up the altar on its foundation,

for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands.

And they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings, morning and evening.

They celebrated the Feast of Booths, as it is written,

and offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily,

according to the ordinance, as each day required.

And afterward there was a continual burnt offering,

also for the new moons, and for all the fixed festivals of the Lord that were consecrated.

And from everyone who offered a freewill offering to the Lord.

From the first day of the seventh month,

they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord.

But the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid.

Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters,

and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians,

to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa,

according to the permission they had from Cyrus, king of Persia.

Now in the second year of their coming to the house of the God at Jerusalem,

in the second month,

Serbabel the son of Shatel,

and Yeshua the son of Yosedach,

and the rest of their brothers, and the priests, and the Levites.

And all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem,

began the work,

and appointed the Levites from twenty years and older,

to oversee the work of the house of the Lord.

Then Yeshua, with his sons and brothers,

stood united with Catmiel,

and his sons, the sons of Judah,

and the sons of Hanadad,

with their sons and brothers, the Levites,

to oversee the workmen in the temple of God.

Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord,

the priests stood in their peril with trumpets.

And the Levites, the son of Esra,

with symbols to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel.

They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

saying,

For he is good,

for his loving kindness is upon Israel forever.

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord,

because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

Yet many of the priests and Levites,

and heads of fathers' households,

the old man who has seen the first temple,

wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes.

While many shouted aloud for joy,

so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy

from the sound of the weeping of the people.

For the people shouted with a loud shout,

and the sound was heard far away.

This is the reading of God's Word.

Thank you.

Okay, we wanted to see who would be daring enough to come down up front,

you know,

and hit these chairs right here instead of kind of hitting back there.

Guys, it's an incredible honor to be here.

Let's really pray for us.

The kids,

when we started the church,

we dreamed about a church that had all the family involved,

not in worship and in as many things as possible,

not just the adults,

but the kids,

because Scripture says very clearly that kids see what we do,

and we model for them as singles,

as married,

wherever God has you,

you're modeling Christ for the younger generation.

And so let me pray for those kiddos

and for the teachers who are about to handle them.

They need a lot of prayers,

and then they will be dismissed.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for these children here.

They are a blessing to us.

They cause chaos and craziness,

but that's what your kingdom is like,

and I know that's what you feel when you see us.

We cause chaos and craziness even as adults.

And so we pray for them.

We pray that they would come to know you.

We pray that they would do mighty things for your kingdom.

We pray that you'd open their eyes to your son Christ.

We pray for the leaders as they lead and love and care for them,

that they would see Jesus in words and actions and deeds,

and that maybe not even just through the message of the time in the class,

but through the caring and the love and just the gentleness

that they would see within this family,

they would see your son,

and they would come to know him.

So we pray for these kiddos and for these teachers,

for these many blessings you've given us.

We pray these things in your son Jesus' name.

Amen.

God bless you.

Watermark kids,

you're dismissed down these stairs right here.

Find your teacher in what classroom you're in,

and they'll tell you where to go, okay?

How you guys doing?

This is the birthday.

You can say,

Happy birthday.

Great.

We're doing well.

How you guys doing?

Hey, I woke up this morning,

and my wife's going to kill me.

She always kills me when I use her as an illustration.

But I said to her, you know,

Happy birthday.

We've made it two years.

And she's like,

I can't believe we've made it this long.

So you can always pray for us and in our marriage

and things like that.

But as we've learned in a marriage video last week,

but isn't it amazing to be here on this journey

to see what God's doing in the church

and in the lives and the community of people here

on this side of the island?

And we have a very special,

where we're heading is,

I'm going to share a little bit about the sermon,

and then I want to introduce three people

that are going to share their stories

about how God's been changing their life.

We realize that as you hear their stories,

that every one of us has a story.

Every one of us,

God has come into our life.

He's speaking to us.

He's changing us.

And so our hope is,

as you hear these stories,

that you would reflect back on your story

and that you would just praise the Lord

and you would thank Him

for what He's doing in your life

because it's all about Him

and it's about giving Him glory and honor.

In my house,

birthdays and celebrations are huge.

They're massive.

They're very important.

You're terrible if you ever forget a birthday

or anybody's birthday.

There are certain members of our household

who will let you know a month in advance

when their birthday is,

and they continue to let you know every day

up until the day of that birthday.

I don't know if you have a wife like that.

I mean, I don't know if you have anybody like that.

But there's somebody in our family like that

because birthdays are very, very important.

Celebrations are important.

New beginnings are important.

It was 1979, May 14th.

It was my birthday.

I will never forget it.

My parents threw my birthday party

at a video arcade in Montgomery, Alabama.

The place is no longer there,

and none of you want to go to Montgomery, Alabama.

Trust me.

But I remember this birthday

because on this birthday,

I got my first album ever.

It was my first album.

No, Ed, it wasn't one of these big albums.

They actually had cassettes back then,

and so I'm not that old.

But I got a cassette,

and I remember the cassette.

It was a Michael Jackson cassette,

Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson,

and I played it till it wore out.

On that day, I also met this person

who changed my life

and in some ways molds me even today.

His name is Jerry.

Jerry was the owner of the video arcade.

Jerry was about this tall.

He looked Arab or Israeli.

He was an alcoholic.

He often came to work drunk.

He was a drug user.

I think pretty sure that he actually sold drugs

out of the arcade.

It's why the cops were always at the front of the arcade

checking people in as they came in and out.

He was married at least one time that I know of.

I kind of think that Jerry worked for organized crime.

I'm not sure because I was only 16 years old.

I didn't have the guts enough to ask him that.

But over the next couple years,

I took a chance

and started to develop a relationship with Jerry.

And I got to play a lot of video games.

So there was kind of different motives there

and all those things.

And as I started to pray for Jerry

because I was a young believer

and I didn't know any better,

I started to share with him

about what God was doing in my life,

how God was changing me.

And over a period of time,

I kept coming to the video arcade

on Saturdays

and sharing with Jerry

what God was doing

and teaching in my life.

I always remember those times

because Jerry's response disarmed me

and it freaked me out.

He answered in such a way

about the gospel and Jesus Christ

that me as a 17-year-old

had no idea how to answer him back.

As I shared my story,

Jerry would say things like,

God would not want me.

I'm too bad.

I'm too dirty.

I'm unredeemable.

I have made too many mistakes in my life.

My life is rubbish.

The one that always stuck to me

is he would say,

God would never give me a second chance.

And you know,

I tried everything I could

to share with him as a young Christian,

but I just could not get past that response.

And I would walk away so frustrated

and praying and not knowing

how to answer him

because no one taught me

how to do those things.

And I would walk away

not knowing what to do.

And then one day I came to that arcade

and Jerry was gone.

I asked the owner

who was his father,

said that Jerry went to Florida

and I never saw Jerry again.

And I think about that time a lot.

And as I think about Jerry

and talking to him

and about life change

and people being in a rubbish heap

and making mistakes

that they can never feel like

they can get out of

and never feel like

God's going to give them a second chance.

As I think about that,

I think about passages like today.

Because passages like today

take people who are

in the middle of the rubbish

and God changes their life.

God gives them new beginnings.

God gives them do-overs.

God gives them second chances

that Jerry never thought

that God would give him.

The passage that we read,

you heard here today,

is from the book of Ezra.

It's in the Old Testament.

It's almost at the lowest point

of the people of God

in a transition from the lowest point

to the highest point.

In Exodus 27,

God commands his people,

the followers of Christ,

to build an altar.

This altar was about five meters

by five meters by three meters tall.

And on this altar,

sacrifices were made to God.

One of the things you're going to learn

as you walk with the Lord

is that true worship

almost always demands

a sacrifice in our life.

I think some of the times

we get in trouble as a church

is we think that worship

demands no sacrifice from us.

But the Bible is pretty clear

that worship always demands

some kind of sacrifice in our life.

And so you see altars

throughout the Old Testament.

And in Exodus 29,

we are told that

as you come to the altar

to lay your sacrifice,

there God meets his people.

In Exodus 29,

it says,

as you come and you worship

at the altar,

there God meets you.

At the altar,

you're supposed to get right with God.

At the altar,

you're supposed to get clean with God.

At the altar,

you're supposed to worship the Lord.

At the altar,

God gives you second chances

and he gives you do-overs.

And the people of God listened

and they built that altar

really quickly.

And they started to worship

and they met God

and they changed

and their lives were changed

at that altar.

Hundreds of years later,

King Solomon builds

this big temple in Jerusalem.

And so he decides

to take that altar

and he moves the altar

into the temple

so that people can worship there.

And it goes pretty well

until this king,

King Ahaz,

comes along.

The Bible tells us

that he's this wicked,

evil king.

And Ahaz comes

and he's on vacation one day

and he says he's vacationing in Damascus.

He walks into the temple there

in this foreign land

and he sees this altar

and this altar looks really cool.

And he says,

well, that's a really cool altar.

And he took some designs

and he went back to Israel

and as he went back to Israel,

he basically changed

the altar of the God,

of Yahweh,

the God of people,

our God.

He changes the altar there.

He shapes it a little differently.

He makes it look sexier

and cooler.

And as he does that,

he changes how people worship.

He changes how people see God

people from that point on

worship and see God differently

because the place that they meet God

is very, very, very different.

The Bible tells us

that it's not too long afterwards

that more and more cool altars

to different idols

and different gods

start getting put into the temple.

And these new altars

get put into the temple

and the scripture tells us

that so many new altars

to idols

get put into the temple

into the temple

that people don't have time

to worship at the altar

of the true God

because they have so many

other altars and idols

in their life

that they're so busy

worshiping and serving

at those altars

that they don't have time

for God.

And as I think about that story,

I think that that story

relates a lot to our life.

That every one of us

on our journeys,

we have these idols

and these altars

that we put into our life

and sometimes they take up

so much space in our life

that we don't eventually

have time to worship

the true God.

And the Bible says

that it became so bad

that the people of God

finally took the altar

of the Lord

and they moved it

out of the temple

and they put it

in a rubbish heap.

And instead of worshiping God

at the altar

that he commanded,

they worshiped idols

and other gods there.

The scripture goes on

and it tells us

that in 587 B.C.

the Babylonian king,

he comes in

and he destroys Jerusalem.

He wipes it out.

There's not a stone

left on it

and we're told

that he takes

all of the people of God

and he takes them in chains

and he moves them

to captivity to Babylon.

Time passes

and Babylon

is taken over by Persia.

And for two generations,

over 70 years,

the people of God

aren't allowed to worship.

They're not in their land.

They're not given access

to God.

They're not given access

to the altar of the Lord.

They're just wandering,

much like many of us

are today.

And then we're told

in this passage

that you just read

that a foreign king,

King Cyrus,

one day has a prophecy

that is 200 years old

read to him

and in this prophecy

he's told

that there's going to be

a king named Cyrus

who rules over Persia

and he's going to release

God's people

and allow them

a new start,

a new beginning,

a fresh start.

And so Elijah

hears those words

and he wants

to realize

that prophecy

and so he takes

all of God's people

and he gives them

a fresh start

back into Israel.

He gives them

all the things needed

to build the temple.

He gives them

all the things needed

for worship.

He sends them back

and he gives them

a second chance.

This is a pagan king

doing that

for God's people.

And I realize

as I think

of this passage

I realize

that this passage

speaks a lot

to our lives today.

I think that many of us

in our whole life

or in certain areas

of our life

are living

in rubble

and living

in rubbish heaps.

I mean often

we come to church

and we come to people

and we realize

that there are things

that we've made

mistakes in

that we've failed

that we've been

disappointed

that we've had

all these trials

in our family

and in our life

and in our friendship

and in our work

and even sometimes

in our relationship

with God.

But this passage

says that no matter

where we are

no matter what

we've done

no matter how bad

we are

no matter how dirty

or unclean

even after we've

decided to walk

with the Lord

and we've made mistakes

and we've fallen back

this passage says

that in the end

God does

something amazing.

He speaks to us

he brings us

back to him.

The Bible says

that God has

two purposes

and it's the purpose

that we're here

as a church

the first purpose

in God's plan

of creation

is to glorify himself.

His purpose

is to make his name

great

to make his name

above every other name

because he's God

he's the creator.

the second purpose

we see in scripture

and I don't understand

how and why

I'm going to ask God

if I ever get a chance

to see him

in person

in heaven

I don't know

what that's going to look like

that's another sermon

another time

but for some reason

God has chosen

to also glorify himself

by coming into

your and my life.

He's chosen

to glorify himself

by coming into

your life today

and giving you

second and third

and fourth chances

and I think sometimes

we don't realize

how amazing it is

the fresh starts

and the new beginning

God wants to give us

but he's doing it

all the time

and so what I thought

we would do

in this sermon time

is I wanted to bring

a couple people up

to share their testimonies

of what God

has been doing

in their life

and how God

has been changing them

and the things

they've been learning

from him

in this process

some of them

have had bad experiences

some of them

have had great experiences

and they're all

just like you here

so I wanted to ask

Graham and Irina

to come on up

Graham and Irina

you guys

you're on the hot seat

first

so

so Graham

you preached

last Sunday

and people went

who was that guy

I don't know

if it's good or bad

but

I thought

we just used this time

you guys

can you share

a little bit

about yourselves

would you guys

well first of all

Millen didn't say

that to me

this morning

he had quite a few

things to me

to say about

last week

but anyway

we're

Graham and Irina

and we've got

this little guy

Elijah

who keeps us

on our toes

I became a Christian

like I said

when I was at

university

God just had

mercy on my life

and yeah

we've been walking

with him then

since then

and I met Irina

when she was

studying in Korea

and I chased her

like God chased me

and

but

it took a long time

but eventually

my charm

won through

and

yes

I got her

I convinced her

to move

and come to Hong Kong

and we got

we got married

and

yeah

that's our story

so far

and what

as we think about

you know

coming here

what brought you

to Watermark

this church

this community

this family

well

I mean

we heard about

a church

that has free

Starbucks coffee

so

how can we not come

but seriously

Irina

she was part of

the moms group

at ECC

and she got to meet

Christina

and a couple of

the other moms

and she

heard about

the idea of

Watermark

and what it's about

and we

we actually

went along

to the first

service

the 10-10-10

one

just merely

to support

right

the moms

that Irina

knew

and

it

deeply

impacted us

and after

the service

we

sat down

together

and we

asked

God

is this

a place

you want

us to be

a part

of

and

a lot

of time

and we

spoke to

the elders

and leaders

of the church

we were involved

in

and they

said

yes

this is

right for

you to go

I don't

know if

they were

just keen

to get

rid of

us

but

it was

really

right

and we

felt

God

speaking

to

us

and

that's

what

brought

us

to

Watermark

we've

been part

of the

family

ever since

Irina

you have

anything

to

so as

you think

about

what God's

been doing

in your

life

as you've

been here

would you

like to

share

something

that

he's

been

changing

in you

or something

that you've

been learning

in this

move

well I

think

for all

these

two years

that I've

been going

to

Watermark

Church

I was

really

struck

by

humility

of

leadership

and not

only

leadership

but also

serving

people

and

I

think

it

really

talks

to

my

heart

it

encourages

me

it

convicts

me

it

changes

my

heart

and

also

makes

me

also

want

to

serve

and

be

humble

and

I

think

this

is

a

great

thing

in

Watermark

Church

great

so as

you guys

have been

here for

two years

now

and sorry

we don't

have

Starbucks

this morning

so

we'll try

to get

you next

week

so

what would

you say

are some

of the

things

because

we're

talking

about

we've

always

talked

about

we're

on

this

journey

and

we're

going

with

the

Lord

what

would

be

some

of

the

things

that

you

feel

like

you've

been

learning

about

God

during

this

time

or

what

are

some

of

things

that

he's

been

showing

you

about

himself

and

his

journey

and

that

process

I'll

go

first

ladies

first

I think

it's that

word

you just

used

the word

journey

I think

for me

it's been

a real

picture

of

being

part

of

the

body

of

Christ

and

exactly

what

that

means

and

that's

a

journey

we're

on

and

we're

on

it

together

as

a

family

and

just

like

any

journey

there's

people

on

different

paths

of that

journey

and

at

different

times

but

the

most

amazing

thing

and

we keep

on

hearing

it

again

and

again

is

the

words

journey

and

family

and

I

think

those

two

things

anyone

who's

been

part

of

a

family

and

anyone

who's

been

on

a

journey

know

that

that

can

be

the

most

exhilarating

thing

and

it

can

also

be

the

most

challenging

thing

but

with

family

you

really

draw

alongside

people

who

support

you

and

who

you

have

the

chance

to

support

and

I

think

through

it

all

the

message

that

we

keep

on

getting

is

that

Jesus

is

walking

with

us

and

I

think

that's

something

I

often

forget

that

he's

actually

not

even

just

walking

with

us

he's

walking

ahead

of

us

and

yeah

so

it's

a

lesson

I've

been

learning

and

I

think

it's

definitely

something

watermark

has been

teaching

me

and

for

me

I

think

where's

who

and

I

think

for

me

I've

been

getting

a

great

message

that

Lord

is

a

provider

he's

a

provider

not

only

for

our

family

needs

but

also

how

he

provided

us

with

the

community

and

I

think

in

the

beginning

like

two

years

ago

we

specifically

prayed

that

God

would

provide

us

with

the

community

and

he

did

and

it's

not

only

in

residential

area

where

we

live

but

also

in

church

with

the

community

group

and

I

think

also

how

God

provided

for

the

church

that

we

come

to

with

all

the

people

which

sacrifice

their

time

their

resources

and

it's

been

just

great

to

know

how

God

provides

and

you

don't

have

to

worry

about

anything

Amen

so

I'm

going

to

pray

I'm

not

going

to

ask

you

an

extra

question

like

what

your

greatest

sin

is

everybody

is

worried

when we

interview

them

please

stick

to

the

script

I

would

never

do

something

like

that

maybe

later

Albert

Michelle

you're

next

Albert

Michelle

is

next

but

I

want

to

know

how

can

we

pray

for

you

I'm

going

to

pray

for

you

right

now

but

prayer

is

always

something

we

do

as

you

guys

look

at

your

journey

as

a

family

what

is

something

we

as

a

family

can

be

praying

for

you

for

in

that

process

that

our

son

will

behave

no

but

but

seriously

I

think

a lot

of

what

we've

been

experiencing

and

being

part

of

is

a lot

of

thankfulness

but

like

a

family

Irina

and I

both

our

family

members

are

not

believers

and

it's

something

that

breaks

our

heart

we've

been

praying

and

we've

been

trying

to

witness

but

I

think

it's

something

that

always

comes

back

to

us

right

there's

okay

go

to

Gasha

yeah

there

really

is

nothing

that

we

wouldn't

give

to

see

them

to

know

the

Lord

and

that's

on

both

our

family

side

so

there's

a lot

of

gratefulness

in our

hearts

for what

God

has

been

doing

but

the

one

thing

that

we

would

really

pray

for

is

that

God

would

have

mercy

upon

them

and

bring

them

to

know

himself

okay

can I

pray

for

you

guys

is

that

good

let's

pray

we

thank you

for

this

day

we

thank you

for

this

dear

couple

we

thank you

for

Graham

and

Irina

and

Elijah

my

kids

love

Elijah

and

so

Lord

we

thank you

for

their

heart

we

thank you

for

what

you're

doing

in

their

life

and

Lord

we

pray

I

think

I

can

pray

this

for

almost

everyone

in

here

for

our

families

we

pray

beautiful

and

wonderful

and

they

would

fall

in

love

with

him

and

come

into

your

family

and

so

we

pray

for

this

dear

couple

that

you

would

be

with

them

as

they

raise

their

son

and

try

to

be

salt

and

light

in

Discovery

Bay

where

you

have

them

and

so

we

pray

Lord

that

you

would

be

with

them

we

thank

you

and

we

pray

all

these

things

in

Jesus

name

Amen

thanks

I've

asked

Lincoln

to come

up

and

share

Lincoln

as we

think

about

changes

and

beginnings

and

new

beginnings

and

you

guys

you

coming

to

Watermark

and

someone

following

you

and

things

like

that

what

brought

you

here

how did

God

bring

you

here

I

didn't

give

you

Starbucks

too

did

I

no

no

but

I

came to

Watermark

because

I

think

I

was

introduced

to

the

vision

of

what

everyone

had

planting

this

church

and

I

was

part

of

Island

ECC

before

this

and

it

really

seemed

like

it

was

something

that

God

convicted

my

heart

with

and

the

vision

that

you

had

for

this

church

and

to

start

something

new

in

this

area

was

something

that

was

really

close

to

my

heart

and

so

I

felt

like

it

was

in

obedience

to

God

that

I

am

here

what

would

you

say

are

the

things

that

God

has

been

changing

in

you

or

doing

in

you

since

this

move

these

two

years

and

this

time

one

thing

that

when

I

think

about

this

one

thing

that's

really

important

that

I

realized

was

that

I

think

when

we

were

planning

this

church

and

when

we

met

together

in

your

living

room

to

pray

we

had

all

these

different

expectations

and

without

realizing

it

I

had

a

lot

of

expectations

for

this

church

and

you

know

in

some

ways

we

started

with

a

blank

slate

about

what

church

was

going

to

be

and

we

got

to

choose

what

traditions

we

like

and

what

we

wanted

to

keep

but

then

what

ended

up

happening

was

I

think

I

had

my

own

expectations

and

I

wanted

without

realizing

this

is

the

church

I

wanted

and

over

the

course

of

a

year

probably

God

really

showed

me

that

it's

about

planting

his

church

and

not

about

planting

the

church

that

I

want

and

that

was

really

humbling

and

that

was

really

difficult

but

I

firmly

believe

that

we