Serving God His Way - Ezra 8 (Sept 1) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

It is good to be back.

Love this church, and I'm always reminded, being away from it, how much we miss you guys and the work that God is doing here.

We're so excited about it.

So when I came this morning and the doors were unlocked and they let me in, I was exceptionally glad.

But I know you guys have been served really well by one of our elders, Mark and John, preaching, and so I know you're blessed, and I'm excited to get back into God's word with you this morning.

We're gonna be in chapter, in Ezra chapter 8.

Ezra 8 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, I want to ask you this question.

If you could sit with any person, you know, you can bring him back to life, Lazarus style, you can talk to them.

Who would you sit with?

Well, my answer, I think, at least near the top of the list, would be the Apostle Paul.

And I wonder if you were to sit with the Apostle Paul, what would that conversation be like?

What would you say to the Apostle Paul?

You know, you can pick his brain about Romans 9 to 11.

You can ask him about anything.

What would you ask him?

Well, I wonder what you would ask him.

I also wonder what Paul would say.

And I think as we read through his letters, we actually have a pretty good idea of what Paul, the very first thing Paul would say to you.

You see, in three of Paul's letters, after introducing his name, Paul says this about himself, that he is a servant of Christ.

He does this in Romans, in Philippians, and in Titus in the very first verse.

And perhaps why he didn't do that in the other letters was because the churches were so familiar with Paul that they just knew this is who he was, this was core to his identity, was that he served Christ.

So then in Galatians 1.10, he writes to the church there and says, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

And he tells the Corinthian church that he was a servant for Jesus' sake.

All this to say is that when Paul thought about himself, core to his identity as a human being was that he served Christ and Christ alone.

You and I know that this is the call of every Christian.

We especially heard that two weeks ago when John was with us and preaching about Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

There, we saw the example that Christ modeled for us, that we are to be servants of other people, that those who are called to Christ are commissioned for his work.

Those who are saved, then serve.

This is who we are.

So my question for you this morning then is as a servant of Christ, how are you doing?

How's it going?

How is the work of Christ consuming your calendar, consuming your thoughts, establishing your habits?

How's it going?

As you reflect on this question, I'm sure that many of our hearts are in different places.

Maybe for some of us there's just this sense of guilt.

In fact, often that's the case, especially for those of us who wrestle with legalism, this sense of like, I'm just not doing enough, I just could be doing more, or the stuff I am doing, it's it's just not good enough.

Maybe there's this sense of despair, you don't feel worthy to be used, you wish you could do more, but you're just so busy.

Maybe it's a sense of frustration.

You are serving.

And you're even burning yourself out for the work of the ministry to try to serve God, to put others before yourself, and you just feel like you're at this point where it's like this breaking point I've had enough.

I just can't do it anymore.

I can't pour myself out anymore.

I feel so empty.

Oh, whatever it is, God wants to speak to us this morning.

And whenever God speaks to us, it's always with grace, it's always kind, it's always loving.

And he wants to speak to us about the way that we serve, and he's gonna do this through Ezra.

And through the example of Ezra, if we're able to follow this example, what we're gonna see, especially highlighted in chapter 8, but really through the whole life of Ezra, is really the godly picture of a servant.

What it means to serve God his way.

I want to see that from Ezra, what it means to serve God his way.

Before we do that, let's turn to the Lord and ask him for his help in this God.

We bow before you.

And Lord, we last time we were together in Ezra 7, we read time and time again that your hand was on him.

And we turn to Ezra 8 and we find that the story is the same, Lord.

Your good hand was upon this man.

And God, it's clear that it was because of the way that he lived.

And because he knew you.

And because he sought to serve you with all of his might.

And so laid before us we have an example of how to live, Lord, how to serve you, how to work for your kingdom in a way that your hand will be upon us.

And Lord, every child of yours here this morning that says, I want that.

And yet, Lord, we don't have the power, we don't have the strength, we don't have the ability.

And so we need your help, God.

We pray for your help.

We pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit right now as we hear your word.

I thank you for the words of grace and kindness and mercy that you speak to us week after week, day after day.

You are so good.

So speak to us now, Lord, we pray.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Well, we're gonna walk through Ezra 8 together.

I'm gonna withhold from reading it for you because there's a lot of difficult names.

I don't want to embarrass myself.

And so we'll kind of take this verse by verse, but I want you to understand this about serving God God's way, is that the first thing you must do is hear the call to God's work.

You must hear the call to God's work.

Now, last time we were together was a few weeks ago, and we were in Ezra 7, and we found that it for the very first time in Ezra 7, we meet Ezra.

Now, this is kind of shocking because we're seven chapters in, and the book is named after him.

But you'll remember that the first six chapters of Ezra really set the scene.

They concerned the return of a large group of exiles from Babylon, and in fulfillment of God's promise, they were delivered from Babylon, sort of as the second Exodus, to Jerusalem.

And there they established the and rebuilt the temple in order that they might restore the presence of God to the people of God.

And so it was a very exciting time.

It was a very trying time.

And in Ezra 7, Ezra is introduced, and we learn something very important about him there.

And you heard me mention it in my prayer, is that he was a man on whom God's hand was laid.

Everywhere Ezra went, there was sort of this footnote, and God's hand was on him.

He was one of those guys that everything he touched, it sort of, for the kingdom of God, it turned to gold.

And so what Ezra becomes for us then is this picture of a godly man that if we can look at and emulate, we can find God's blessing in our own journey.

Verse 6 of chapter 7, just flip back with me to remind yourself of where we are.

It says that Ezra was skilled in the law of Moses, that the Lord the God of Israel had given him, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord was on him, and you'll remember why that was, why the hand of the Lord was on him.

It tells us in verse 10 of chapter 7, for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

He studied God's word, he practiced God's word, he taught God's word.

It's no surprise then that as Ezra gets to the work God has set out for him, in chapter 8, again, we read twice that God's good hand was upon him.

God is looking at Ezra this morning, and he's pointing to him, and he's telling us, like this.

Follow me like this.

Truly, one of the rare examples we have in scripture of a servant of God who almost flawlessly follows the Lord is is Ezra.

So we need to watch him.

I know I've shared this with you before.

I'm not very talented with my hands, but I do get by.

If you come to my house, I can show you some things that I've done in my house, and I don't want you to look too closely because you'll see some flaws.

But the way that I get by is really only because of YouTube.

I type in YouTube the thing I need to do.

I find a 10-year-old video of an old man who is trying to get his YouTube career going with a shaky camera, and I just follow along.

I just follow him step by step.

I want you to understand that's what God is giving us as we think about our service of him and sort of a step-by-step, this is how you need to live, this is what you need to do.

Well, let's get some context here.

What's happening in Ezra chapter 8?

Ezra 8 · chapter mention

Well, in Ezra chapter 8, there's sort of another mini exodus happening from Babylon.

Ezra 8 · chapter mention

You'll remember in Exodus 1, sorry, not Exodus, Ezra 1, over 42,000 people left Babylon, coming down to Jerusalem.

And here we find, many years later, Ezra is leading another group of people down from Babylon into Jerusalem.

Now we aren't going to read all of this, but I want you to notice that this chapter is really about that journey.

But when it comes to the journey itself, the journey only really takes up two verses.

We read about it in chapter 8, verse 31.

Flip there with me.

This whole chapter is really about this journey, but it's hardly mentioned to us.

It says, Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem.

The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.

We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days.

Now, I can tell you this about you and I.

We love stories about journeys, don't we?

Like you think about the movies you love, you think about the stories you love, they're really all about journeys.

I mean, Lord of the Rings, that is one greatest story of all time, one giant journey.

Sometimes you watch a movie, and if the journey isn't, you know, if it's not enough detail, you finish it and you're like, well, that was a horrible movie.

We want to know the journey.

That's the interesting part.

And here, Ezra compacts the journey into two small verses.

And the question we need to ask is why?

Well, because Ezra wants to show us something really important about life.

That faithfulness, Christian faithfulness, is not so much about the big moments of life.

It's really a lot of the time about the small moments.

It's about the preparation.

Ezra was gonna make this journey, it was gonna be treacherous.

We're told that there's gonna be dangers of robbery, dangers of war.

Not only that, they're making this journey, we're told, with thousands upon thousands of dollars of temple treasure.

They're just marching through the desert from Babylon to Jerusalem with all of this treasure.

They have no soldiers, they have no protection.

And Ezra tells us the story in two verses.

I gotta tell you, I can make a trip to the grocery store with three kids, and there's a lot of action.

I got a lot to tell you about how crazy of a trip that was.

And so we come to understand this.

Ezra is teaching us something important here.

That much of our life will not be consumed with big, memorable moments.

Much of our opportunity to glorify God in our work and our service will be in moments that we consider relatively ordinary.

Moments that we may and probably will forget.

Moments that in many ways are preparing us for maybe that big moment that we one day will face, but are incredibly important.

We could even go probably as far as to say this: that 99% of Christian faithfulness has to do with the way that you react when nobody is watching.

The things that you do that no one may ever find out about.

It's in the prayers that you offer for that person that maybe they don't even know that you're praying for them.

It's in the small act of kindness and service you do, even when you are exhausted and it costs you.

It's in the way that you give to the Lord's work, even though you don't boast about it, even though nobody knows about it but the Lord.

You think about this in the context of our formal church ministry.

It's it's in the way that you teach a kid or you hold a crying baby, it's in the chair that you set up for someone to sit in and hear the gospel, it's in that 70th hand that you've shaken on them Sunday morning, greeting people friendly as they come into the church service.

All of these small things are so important, and God looks upon them, and so much to say that sometimes it's those things that brings him the greatest joy.

You see, I'm so convinced that Christian faithfulness is made up of these tiny moments that in heaven, I think the people closest to the throne will mostly be unnamed people who were unrecognized because their piety, their devotion to the Lord was made up of these small moments of consistent faithfulness.

It will be that sweet lady who never had the public eye, but served the Lord faithfully every day.

Much of Ezra VIII is about his faithfulness in preparation for this large, treacherous journey.

So then in verses 1 to 15, what we find here is a list given to us of the people that would accompany him on this journey.

Now you'll notice here that there are 12 families, and the head of each family is listed along with the family itself.

I want you to notice a few important things here.

This is the second list that we have in Ezra.

The first list detailed the first much larger group of people that came from Babylon to Egypt.

This is the second list, a much smaller list.

One important thing to note is this that this list really focuses on the Levitical line of priests that were coming from Babylon.

This was important for Ezra.

Read this in verse 15 with me.

Look at your copy of God's word.

It says, I gathered them, all of these exiles, to the river that runs to Ahava.

And there we camped three days.

As I reviewed the people and priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi.

And so Ezra, really in this list, especially the first two families, really wants to highlight that there are some lines of Levitical descent coming with him.

This is very important here.

Here's the second thing I want you to see.

I want you to note the second end, the end of the second verse.

Look what it says there.

There we are told that one of the families was of the sons of David, Hatush.

Now, this is this would be an incredibly important role.

The eyes of Israel were on the line of the son of David.

They were promised that a king was coming from the lineage of David that would conquer all of their enemies.

And so I'm sure you could imagine what it was like for these 12 families going to Jerusalem.

All eyes were on Hatush.

I mean, if you ever felt like you've bore weight in your life, you've never had a whole tribe of people traveling from Babylon to Jerusalem looking at you as though you are the Savior.

That was a great weight he bore.

And yet it's important for God's people that he's there.

Here's the third thing I want you to see, and hopefully for your encouragement.

That many of the families listed here were also listed in the first group of people that went to Jerusalem.

I think that's incredibly significant.

I think we could draw a great encouragement for those of us who are raising children in this day and age, and that is that often God works through the faithfulness of Christian parents.

That's why you'll notice that it is the leading men that are named, that lead the families, because where the men go, so often the families go, and yet we know it to be true that that's not always the case.

We know it to be true that you can raise up a child, you can teach them the gospel, you can give them all the opportunity, you can model it for them, but that child may not know the Lord.

They may not follow Jesus Christ.

That's not necessarily your fault, but in that scenario, what do you do?

What do you do when you've labored to show your children Jesus Christ, but they're walking a wayward path?

Well, take encouragement.

This, these families in Ezra II, they respond in obedience, they go to Egypt, and many years later, their family also then responds in obedience.

These people that are coming now, they had the opportunity to go, very likely.

And it took years of God working through the faithful example of their family that had already left to call them to go.

I'm reminded that there are many, even in this church, that are in that scenario.

You've obeyed God's call on your life, you've followed him, and you look at your children and they haven't followed.

And that's a great weight at times of probably misplaced guilt.

And the question now is what do you do?

And here we have such a good example.

You continue to serve him, you continue to hear the call that God has placed on your life, you continue to show your children exactly what you always needed to show them, that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy apart from Jesus Christ.

And day after day, in the small moments they see that, and when all hope is lost for them, there you will be filled with hope, filled with joy in a world filled with darkness, and willing to offer the hope that's found in Jesus Christ and him alone.

You keep on in the faith, trusting that God knows what he's doing in your family, and that he can work at any time.

He did it then, he can do it now.

So we need to hear the call.

This is the essence of so much of our Christian walk, is hearing God's call to faithful Christian service.

The second thing I want you to see about serving God is this doing God's work God's way requires that we fulfill the need of the kingdom.

Now, Ezra here, he has a problem.

There's no priest from the Levitical line.

Well, now, why is that a problem?

It's a problem because with no Levitical priests, according to the law of God, there can be no temple worship.

So listen, you can have a really nice sports car, but if you don't have someone to drive that car, it's as useless as a 2004 Toyota Corolla.

You need a driver.

Well, you can have a really nicely built temple, but if you don't have Levitical priests, you don't have any temple worship.

And this whole trip, all of the persecution they had faced for building this temple is wasted.

And you so you understand then what's at hand.

Well, this is what Ezra does then.

Look in verse 16.

Then I sent Elizar, Ariel, Shemiah, El Nathan, Jerob, El Nathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshelem, leading men, and for Joria and El Nathan, who were men of insight.

Now let me just make one comment here.

There are many people who say, well, this Bible thing was a fictitious thing.

It was just made up by people so that they could kind of control the masses and you know invent this religion.

And I just want to tell you, if you were writing the Bible to do that, you would not put in a verse like this where El Nathan shows up three times.

Maybe just put him in there once.

And so the silliness of there being three El Nathans among these people, well, it proves to us that this is a real account.

It's a confusion that we understand at this church, as we have two Daves on the elder board, and it's incredi, incredibly confusing at elders' meetings when you call someone Dave, and they both respond, yes.

But they knew that.

And so there's this group of people we're told in verse 16, they're men of insight.

The Hebrew word here could be translated like this instructors.

And so what we understand is these people Ezra had identified as people who were like himself.

They were skilled in the law of God.

And so this group of people then could go to the Levitical priests and the temple servants, and they could tell them how, exactly how God needed them for temple worship.

They could open to the places in the book of the law where it would be clear that they were needed and point to them how they needed to accompany them with them on this journey.

And if that wasn't enough, then we're told that in verse 17 that they're sent to Edu and the leading men at the place of Casaphiah.

This is the the Levitical priests and the temple servants.

And that Ezra told them what to say to them.

So not only do they know themselves, Ezra also gives them this perfect pitch of how to convince these men to come along with them on this journey down to Jerusalem.

Now, I want you to understand what's clear here.

It's clear that when Ezra made his first rounds in Babylon to the exiles that still remained there and tried to convince people to go, these groups of people said no.

Now you look at them and you might right now say, well, they must have lacked faith not to want to go to Jerusalem, but you could understand why.

You could understand what it would be like for a man to come and say, hey, listen, do you want to do this treacherous journey past all these robbers and murderers?

I mean, you would say no, and you'd say, hey, wait, I haven't told you the best part.

We're going to be carrying a lot of valuables with us, just wide out, plain in the open.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

I mean, I thought about modern-day equivalents, like what would it be like for us to be asked to do something?

And the best I could think of was if your spouse asks you to go to Costco on a Saturday afternoon.

There's no way.

We're not doing that.

It's too busy.

I'm going to be slammed by too many carts.

I'm just not doing that.

And so they said no.

Perhaps they hadn't seen the need to go.

Whatever it was, when these men came to Edu and the Levitical priests, they came with God's word and they came to explain that they were needed.

And these people they responded in obedience.

They went along with them.

I think this is important for us.

Here's a group of people who at first sight feel like they don't have anything to offer, but then in obedient response to God's word, they begin to serve God and they then become crucial in the temple worship of God.

That's so important because so many of us often feel like we don't really have anything significant to offer, or we feel like we're too weak to be used by God.

And those are the people that God is calling.

God comes to the weak and he says, I'm gonna use your weakness, I'm gonna infuse it with my strength so that I get all the glory.

These are the people that God is looking for.

Well, what this is what we're learning.

Faithful service to God responds to the needs that are presented to you.

In my home, one of the things that new games, I mean, it's not new in the history of mankind, but it's new to my kids, is hide and seek.

My youngest kid, this is what happens with youngest, they never really understand what's going on.

And so she just kind of runs around, and I don't think she knows exactly, but it's chaotic and she loves the fun.

And so she runs around and she's got this giant magnifying glass she holds in front of her face, and I love it because it magnifies her face and it looks crazy.

And she runs around looking for people with this magnifying glass, and I feel like shaking her and telling her, you don't actually need this magnifying glass.

It'll be a lot easier if you don't use it.

And yet I think it perfectly illustrates what the life of a Christian is to be like.

You are to have your magnifying glass out, walking around the world looking for ways that you can serve people.

You are to be in conversation with people after church, hearing about their life, hearing about the challenges that they're facing, asking this question inside, how can I serve this person?

How can I fulfill their needs?

You're to be walking around the church and seeing what areas are weak, what areas are lacking, and saying, How can I fulfill the need that's presented to me here?

This is what the Christian is to be doing.

Now, this is so countercultural to us.

You and I, we swim in consumer waters.

We are a consumeristic society.

And what society tells you is that the most important thing to your joy is that you get into a place that serves you.

And this ha this is the church is not immune to this.

So many, including us at times, we walk in, and our first question is this What can you do for me?

How can this church satisfy my needs?

How can these people satisfy my family's needs?

And I want you to understand that this is important in many ways, but if this is your mentality, if this is the fullness of your mentality, that you're just looking to be served, you will never grow.

And the sad part is that you can find all sorts of churches that will give you no opportunity to use the gifts that God has given you and get lay no expectation on your life to serve the kingdom of Christ.

They will just set up programs for you that you can plug into if you want.

There's no accountability there.

You can just kind of show up and consume, and it's nothing more than a movie theater for Christian theatrics.

You see, it's it's one of the most clear things in Scripture is that you will be more blessed when you give than when you receive.

This comes from the words of Jesus.

It's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

And so the greatest Christian growth, the greatest Christian joy comes when our eyes are open, not to what I need, but to what other people need.

This trust that because of the gospel, every need I truly have has been fulfilled and satisfied in Jesus Christ.

And so now, out of this foundation of being fully content in Christ, I can serve the needs of others.

I don't need the praise of man, I have the pleasure of God in Christ.

And so I can serve.

You see, the gospel, it shapes us in this way.

First, it shows us Jesus.

Jesus deserved everything.

Jesus was the king of this world.

And yet he told us himself he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I mean, if you're a Christian, the foundation of your Christian faith is this that you had nothing to offer Jesus, and he gave everything to you.

And still, day after day, you really have nothing to give to Jesus that's of worth to him, and yet he pours himself out for you.

Day after day, the richness of Jesus Christ is lavished on your life.

You are full.

And so you serve.

You've been served in the most significant way, so that there's nothing you could possibly need or want from anyone, so that now you can actually truly serve other people's needs without an expectation of anything in return from them.

So here's some practical things for us as we consider how to fulfill the needs that are in front of us.

If there are things in this church that you see and you say, Man, I I really wish that this church did a better job of doing that, can I suggest something to you?

That very likely that is a gifting that God has given to you and a calling that is placed on your life of something that needs to be established in the ministry at Redemption New Market.

I mean, that is so clear from my perspective because I talk to so many of you, and you're so passionate, and it just seems like every person is passionate about a different ministry in the church.

And there's no way we could do them all.

And whenever I come, whenever someone comes up to me with this unique idea of what we need to do, I praise the Lord because it's a good thing, but we just can't do everything.

And so here's a way you know one of the needs that needs to be met is that you're just passionate about it.

You feel like, oh, maybe I don't know if people are greeted well enough in this church.

Well, what you need to do then is start greeting people better, find new people after the service.

I don't know if we do evangelism well enough in this church.

Well, what you need to do then is begin evangelizing and bring a brother or sister with you and teach them how to do it.

God's placed these desires in your heart because he's placed this gifting in your heart.

And one of the ways you can serve is by seeing those things as a calling to you.

Here's another practical way you can fulfill the needs of God's kingdom.

And you know exactly where I'm going here.

You can serve in kids' ministry.

We have a great need in this church, it's an awesome need.

We just have way too many children.

We're about to put a freeze on any child making in this church.

It's just it's becoming a real problem.

It's a great problem to have, though.

It is so awesome that Sunday after Sunday we get the opportunity at such a young age to plant seeds of the gospel in these children.

I don't know if there's any more productive work than you can do.

The amount of counseling rooms I believe Sunday after Sunday we are saving those kids from is astounding if we could know it.

It is such an important work, and we have such a need for people to serve there.

And you say, listen, I'm I'm not gifted.

I'm I'm telling you, if you can breathe and you can help a kid walk to the bathroom, you are gifted.

You are gifted for kids' ministry.

You don't need to be a teacher, you can be a helper, but I want to let you know there is a need there.

There is a great need there.

Maybe God's calling you to this work.

This is what it means to serve God God's way.

We fulfill the need that's presented to us.

I want you to see a third thing here.

Service that glorifies God, it prepares the way for God's power.

This is perhaps the most significant thing about serving God that Ezra teaches us.

It requires preparation.

Look at verse 21 with me as Ezra continues to prepare for this journey.

Look what he does.

It says, I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Hava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all of our goods.

This would be a dangerous journey.

In Ezra 24 to 30, Ezra would detail all of the treasure, temple treasures that they would bring, and the weight of it alone would weigh hundreds of tons with something valuable, as valuable as that.

Traveling through a territory of no man's land filled with thieves, robbers, they were sure to get mugged, if not violently killed.

As they face this journey, Ezra asks this question what is going to make them strong?

Now, Ezra had multiple places to turn.

We're told in verse 22 that the king of Persia had offered Ezra a band of soldiers to aid them in the journey, which Ezra had refused, and we're told why he refused it.

He said this to the king in verse 22 the hand of our good God, of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.

Ezra had this confidence that God was going to keep the way, that God would make him successful.

Ezra doesn't depend on these band of soldiers.

Instead, he depends on God by fasting and prayer.

Again, here Ezra is teaching us something so important.

Why do we pray?

You ever wonder that?

I'm sure you do.

Why are we commanded to pray?

I mean, we're told that we're praying to the God who knows everything.

And you know my belief in God's sovereignty, that the days are planned before the foundation of the world.

God is sovereign over all things.

And so why pray?

Well, here's why we pray.

We pray because prayer is the language of humble dependence on God.

When you and I pray, what we're saying is this about the very thing that we're praying about.

We're saying this, God, I can't do that.

I can't do this.

It's really interesting.

You see it here in the text, don't you?

Ezra prayed, it says, and in prayer, he humbled himself before God.

So that in many ways, prayer is synonymous with humility.

The things that you pray about are the things that you truly are humble about before the Lord.

You recognize that unless the Lord works, unless his good hand will be upon this area in your life, you have absolutely nothing before him.

This is the heart of what prayer is.

It's stepping away from dependence on ourselves and placing all of our dependence on God.

This is why, from man's perspective, prayer is one of the most unproductive things you can do.

Because in order to truly pray in the heart of prayer, you need to be away from any sort of productive work of the world and before the Lord, you need to cease the work you have and take up the work of the kingdom in prayer.

You labor in prayer.

But prayer is the only way that we can say the power is in God's hands.

This is why, as some of you right now evaluate your prayer life, the reality is that you only really pray when things go wrong.

Because this is like looking in a mirror right now.

Because the reality is most of your life you're filled with this pride that you just I can do it.

I'm fine on my own God.

I don't need you for this, okay?

I got this job figured out.

I got this whole parenting thing, I got it figured out.

Okay, no one's no one's actually saying that one, but you get the point.

See, we pray about the things that we understand we need God's help for.

So you might say these, you know, you might say these words, God, do you know, you got to do the work, it's all you.

You might quote the words, you know, you can do nothing apart from God.

But until you pray, you're just flapping your gums.

There's not there's no meaning to your words.

And unless that thing is on your prayer list, unless you have labored over prayer and that thing, and I don't know about you, but but as the Spirit used Ezra to reveal this to me, I became aware of all these things in my life that I am just filled with pride with.

I mean, in a lot of ways it becomes kind of simple, doesn't it?

You want to know the things that you're kind of prideful about?

It's the things that you haven't prayed for this week.

Think about it.

Like, what has not been on your prayer list that you have sought for, that you have done this week?

Those are the things that you look at and you say, Don't worry, God, I've got this one.

Ezra looks at his life and he knows he must pray.

Couple of really practical applications for us here.

One is our worship and prayer night.

I mean, if if you want to see the mission of God at work in this church, if you want to see lost people saved, saved people matured, mature people multiplied, let me implore you to attend our worship and prayer nights.

That is the backbone of what we are doing here.

It is this belief that apart from prayer, we cannot do it.

We can't do it.

Nothing effective will happen here apart from the prayer of God's people.

It's the most important meeting.

You can cancel every other meeting.

I will take that one.

This is the backbone of productive ministry at the church, is our worship and prayer night.

One more thing I want to let you know about is a pre-service prayer that happens every Sunday before the service.

A group of people, faithful prayer warriors, meet together here at 9.30.

Is it 9.30?

To pray.

And I want to let you know that if anything has happened in your life that's been productive at Redemption New Market, it is because of those prayers.

God worked through the prayers of his people, through the humble dependence of his people.

And so maybe one of the ways that you need to apply this message is I'm gonna start coming to that.

Maybe it's once a month, maybe it's every week, whatever it is.

Your application is this.

God, I'm gonna depend on you for the service, I'm gonna seek your blessing in this.

One last thing I want you to pull from Ezra's preparation.

It's interesting here that the journey only takes two verses, and yet we read that the journey was successful, that God listened to their entreaty, and so we ask this question what was it that led to their faithful success in this journey?

And the answer is that they prepared for it.

Listen, some of some of you are gonna face treacherous journeys in your life.

In fact, all of us will.

It's incredibly frustrating building things outside because 90% of the work you do is just foundation work.

It's just digging holes and then filling those holes with other things, and like 10% of the work is actually the stuff you see.

And so, you know, when people want you to do this work and you start doing it, it really looks like you're doing nothing for a long, long time.

And so that's been my summer.

And yet, you don't have to know much about landscape to know this that if you have a really strong foundation, everything'll it'll last for a long time.

And it'll look really good for a long time.

And the foundation is incredibly important, and so it is with your spiritual life.

You cannot face trials apart from a foundation of seeking God's hand in your life, a daily, consistent foundation of that.

It's necessary.

Here's the last thing I want you to see about serving God God's way.

And when we do it, we can expect the fulfillment of God's promise.

We can expect the fulfillment of God's promise.

Look at verse 32 with me.

It says we came to Jerusalem and we dwelled there three days.

The journey's over.

They've arrived at Jerusalem.

How do they respond?

Look at verse 35.

At that time, those who had come from Pact of captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel.

They worshiped.

They clearly saw that this was a significant moment, that them arriving at Jerusalem was important.

They had been given their life.

But I want you to understand that the reason why the people of God worshiped is because I believe they saw the fulfillment of God's promise take another step closer to completion.

At that time, one of the things that the Israelites would have reminded of each other of almost daily, I'm sure, was the words of Jeremiah.

See, before the Israelites were put into captivity in Babylon, they were given this promise in Jeremiah 33.

It said this, for thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priest shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually.

Again in Jeremiah, it says, The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, thus says the Lord, if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then my covenant may also be broken with David my servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, my ministers.

God had promised Israel two things that were taking fulfillment as they made this journey from Babylon to Jerusalem with the Levitical priests and with Hatush and his family, the lineage of David.

The first thing that was being fulfilled was this: that God was telling his people that he would be with them.

That he was with them.

Levitical priests would be able to establish the temple worship, and where the temple was, God's presence was.

And I want you to understand that God has promised you something so much better than Levitical priests.

We sang about it this morning.

We sang these words.

Do you know what you are reminded of?

Whenever you sing of the truth of Jesus Christ, of his death and resurrection, you are reminded that God has dwelt among us.

God has come with us to be with us, to take on flesh, to remind us that we will never be alone.

And if that was not enough, the very last words that Jesus said before he ascended to heaven was this and behold, I will be with you to the end of the ages.

And shortly after that, Pentecost came, and the believers of Jesus Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit of God, so that if you are in Christ now, you know this that the presence of God dwells in you.

You have the promise of his presence.

He's with you.

And it doesn't matter how you feel about the way that you serve him, it doesn't matter the amount of guilt you feel about your inadequacy.

What matters is that God has promised you this, that he's gonna be with you.

It's his promise.

It's not dependent on you, it's dependent on him.

Here's the second thing they celebrated the promise of the Savior.

The line of David was with them.

And from the family of Hatush, there would come a king.

All eyes were likely on Hatush then.

And the kids that he would have.

Many years later, the apostle or Matthew would come, and he would write a genealogy that would link Jesus all the way back to David.

And Israel knew the line of David had been preserved, the promise of God had been fulfilled, that there was a king.

Until then, Hatush would be the reminder that a Savior was coming.

Jesus wanted to give you and I a reminder in his absence, and that reminder.

Was not a person.

It was the table that is communion.

As we enter into communion, we are celebrating exactly what Israel could celebrate: that God made a promise, and on the day Jesus was crucified and given new life, that promise was delivered on.

Communion then represents a reminder to us of what Jesus has done.

And I'm going to step down here like I always do because I forgot my communion cup.

And I should plan better, but here we are.

It's a reminder of what Jesus has done.

There are two reasons why you might not enjoy this.

One is because you're not a believer.

And in that case, this cup and bread is not for you because there's nothing to remind you of.

You don't have a relationship with Jesus, but I want you to know that Jesus says today is the day of salvation.

If you place your faith in Jesus Christ, this can be for you.

This is communion with him, this is relationship with him.

Second reason why you might not partake of this is because you have sin that you're unwilling to repent of.

Not that you're struggling with sin, not that you're maybe feeling really broken right now, but that you have sin that you're just walking in willful unrepentance of.

In that case, we would ask you to pass on this cup or to repent and to enter into communion with God.

You can take your cup.

If you don't have one, the ushers are going to come to the front and you can stick your, just flag them down and they will get one into your hands.

And you'll notice there's two layers here.

Top layer will get you to the bread, the bottom to the juice.

Paul writes in Corinthians, he says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup together.

Would you stand with me and pray before we worship the Lord?

Father, we bow before you.

And we thank you, Lord, that as we think about service and our service of you, Lord, we can only talk about that because of what Jesus has done for us.

Because He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

And so we give you all the praise and we thank you, Lord, for this work that you have done for us.

And I pray, Lord, truly, that you would be continuing to speak to us, changing us, molding us to be more like your son, giving us strength and courage to be like Ezra, but to be more importantly like Jesus Christ, who was able to pour himself out for the work of your kingdom because he was filled with everything he needed from you.

Lord, root our lives so deeply in this gospel truth that we truly have all every blessing in the spiritual places in Jesus Christ and in him alone.

Lord, thank you for this work that you're doing.

We pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.