"Level Ground" Part 1 (1st service) - Pastor Derrill Corbin (September 20, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today, and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. Would you welcome

Pastor Daryl Corbin as he comes and takes the

pulpit this morning. What a privilege. What an

honor to be here today. Man, I love your pastors.

Man, I love your pastors. Come on, how many love

your pastors today? I'm pretty emotional this

morning. And it's my first time here, just hearing

the journey. Could we just thank the Lord? Come

on, one more time. Could we just thank the Lord?

Beautiful. Can we just sing quietly, I want Jesus.

Can we just do that? I hear the spirit of the

Lord saying, because that has been the cry and

the marker. I see a day where this house in the

spirit took a stake and drove it in the ground

and said, all we want is you. The priority of

presence and the priority of discipleship, the

priority of his word, the priority of the supremacy

and the lordship of Christ is. marked upon that

stake in that moment as it was driven in the

ground even in the spirit says the lord i i took

you up on your word you fought the good fight

you've stood the test you've continued even in

layered battle times where the enemy and even

demonic forces that have ruled and gained foothold

and And even gain legitimacy within the conversations

of even high -ranking officials in this county.

There's legitimacy given to mindsets and ways

of doing things, but this house put a stake in

the ground and said, we're going to be committed

to King Jesus. Even as that stake was driven

in the ground, there was... An outcry in the

spirit of demonic forces that said, we've got

to withstand this work that's beginning. For

even 25 years ago, as that stake was driven in

the ground, there was a shattering in the earthly

realm and in the heavenly realm at the same time.

As you broke in and begin to declare in the natural

what God would do in the spiritual, there was

an outcry in the heavens against the work of

God. A strategy and a plan was laid and even

layer upon layer the enemy has tried to come

and buffet and withstand the people of God and

the progress that would unsettle and unearth

and return back this region to the way it was

intended to operate. But you've withstood. the

trials. You've stood against it. And even today,

the Lord is coming to bring a word of commendation

and a word of promotion, says the Lord. For I'm

coming to take that which is broken, that which

is battered, that which is bruised, and not just

restore it to functional living, but I'm coming,

says the Lord, to advance into a place of prosperity

and abundance. My work in this kingdom, where

you will stand and coming days and be literally

amazed. You stand amazed today, but I'm telling

you, you've tasted nothing in comparison to what's

coming, says the Lord. For I will raise up education

in this house and I will raise up discipleship

and I will raise up a level of leadership development,

says the Lord, that's only been dreamed about

in past days. But I'm here to tell you that it

was in the heart of God when you drove the stake

in the ground in the beginning. There are things

yet to unfold in the coming days, as has already

been prophesied, that will amaze you. I see enlargement

of properties. Even the natural borders of this

property, says the Lord, will increase. It will

enlarge. It will increase. It will enlarge, says

the Lord. And not only will the borders of this

property, and I'm here to tell you, this prophetic

word is an announcement against the waters that

have tried to make the property smaller. I'm

coming to make it larger, says the Lord. enemy

who comes to steal, to kill, to destroy, to devour.

But I'm coming once again, says the Lord, to

announce in your hearing enlargement of capacity,

enlargement both naturally and spiritually, says

the Lord. For even that stake in the ground still

rattles in the heaven, says the Lord. For I'm

going to cause promotion to come not from man.

It's not going to come from the north or the

south. It's going to come from the Lord himself.

He's going to come and bring a shout in this

region and continue to shake even the foundations

of this place. And as I began that day to believe

and link together with you, says the Lord, so

I'm linking together with you again. And greatness

will come to this region. Greatness will come

to this region. And I'm continuing to withstand

the enemy. I've overcome him, says the Lord.

Stand in my victory. Stand in my authority. Stand

in my power and see what I will do. For yes,

I will raise up leadership development in this

place at a level that you've not yet known. People

will even come here from other nations to be

trained. And they'll even be handed certificates

and degrees on this platform, says the Lord.

They'll go out equipped. They'll go out with

authority. And they will do the same in other

places. Because you said, all we want is Jesus.

You put the stake in the ground, says the Lord,

and that stake is still bearing fruit and will

bear much more fruit in the days ahead, says

the Lord. Come on, do you believe today that

God's at work in some way? Amen. Thank you. If

you keep playing, I'm going to keep prophesying,

all right? So we've got to stop this and get

on with the Word. We're done at 11, right, from

this service? I'm just kidding, 10 .30. I said

to the leaders yesterday, I'll have you out of

here at 4. I think they got scared. I got him

out on time. So I want you to know I'll do the

same. Man, what an honor and a privilege to be

here. I love your pastors. I love your church.

I love the Smucker family. I got to go to India

with them a number of years ago. So anyways,

love them. I don't know where they're in this.

They'll probably be in second service. But it's

just a privilege and an honor to be here. I not

only love your pastors, but I love the work that's

been done here. I'm a pioneer at heart. My wife

and I planted a church out of the time Bible

Temple, 1997. I was 24. My wife was 22. We'd

been married a year. And we went north out of

Portland up to Centralia, Washington. And we

founded a church that over the next 16 years

would become a multi -site church. And God really

favored us and carried us through a lot of very

difficult circumstances. Interesting, we were

talking with your pastors last night. God has

a way of maturing leaders as you serve God's

people. We don't just, oh, there's the smuckers.

I see you right there. I did. I did see you.

No, God has a way of working on us in the process.

And we grew, we developed, we enlarged, but we

had to overcome a lot. We had to overcome brokenness

in our own lives, abuse from people that just

perpetrated violence against us in our youth

and in our journey. We had to learn what it was

to be married and build a healthy marriage. We

had to learn what it meant to overcome natural

disaster. We had a trial and a flood hit our

facility and wiped out everything that we had

built over 10 years in the natural. But the next

Sunday, we stood in a facility that was a Seventh

-day Adventist building. The pastor of the Seventh

-day Adventist church was in the back trying

to make sure we didn't speak in tongues in his

building. We didn't have our own building anymore,

but the room was full of people. And I knew that

the house of God was the people of God. That's

what I knew. The building wasn't the issue. The

natural things only speak to spiritual things.

The external points to the internal. This is

how God works in the kingdom. God carried us

through, gave us a new facility. We went multi

-site, and we had no idea that we'd go back and

eventually succeed Pastor Mark Estes and become

the senior pastors of Manor House. And it's just

a great privilege. We've been in that role two

years. When you're the senior pastor of Manor

House, you're also leading the college. And I

took on this task, and I have literally felt

in over my head. I actually think that that's

where God wants us all to be. In a space where

it's not about you. It's about God's work in

you. And it's about a team. It's about a family.

It's about everybody's gifts being pooled together.

He might put his hand on a man and a woman to

lead and to champion the cause and to set out

the pattern and the model and the DNA. But there's

got to be a team that rallies to it and a spiritual

family begin to form. And over the last two years,

a new chapter for us of family being formed and

a new season of visitation, a new season of revelation

and insight into the future has started to come

to the house. And it's been a beautiful thing.

We've had to clean up some things. If you're

going to be together for a long period of time,

you're going to have to clean up some things

in the house every once in a while. If you're

natural parents, you know that with your own

kids. When you raise them, sometimes... They

bring mud into the house on their shoes. Mom

and dad make mistakes. There's challenges that

have to be dealt with. And you've got to clean

up some things at different seasons. But if you

respond right, you take the mess and you turn

it into something beautiful. It becomes part

of the story. It becomes part of what God's doing.

And so the word that the Lord started to give

our church was rise and rebuild. Rise and rebuild.

Actually, don't just allow the pressure of even

what's happened in a broken down city. The city

of Portland, you probably heard about it maybe

the last few years. We faced some challenges.

The Oregonian wrote a story about the city of

Portland, said it's in a doom loop. There's five

criteria of a doom loop, and we got all five

of them working not in our favor. A doom loop

is actually working so against the economics

and... And the civilization of the city that

it's going backwards. And it's going backwards.

It's headed towards bankruptcy. The Oregonians

saying, hey, wave the flag. Something's wrong

here. Other cities actually end up destitute

when they're on this path. It's a very interesting

thing to take the leadership of a 75 -year -old

church that's actually also kind of coming under

the cloud of the region. And dealing with, hey,

are we going to be able to reinvent and refresh

ourselves in the next chapter? Or is this it?

I pastored in an impoverished city. I'm now pastoring

again in an impoverished city. And this is what

I've come to realize. God sends people to impoverished

places because he wants to reverse the downward

draft. He wants to turn things around for his

glory. And he tends to work in cities and in

regions in stages. And what he does in one stage

is preparation for the next stage. And if we'll

build line upon line and layer upon layer with

him, I don't believe there's any end to the glory

that God wants to reveal in his house. I think

it's just a matter of whether the people of God

will join him in what he's doing. I also have

come to realize that just because you start a

rebuild doesn't mean you're going to finish the

rebuild. Darrell, what do you mean by that? Sometimes

people get tired. Sometimes people get weary.

Sometimes people settle back into the status

quo. And what God wants to do is actually take

one layer and build upon it and establish the

next and the next and the next. In order to really

get this in my spirit as a leader, as a person

who's called to a part of our region, I had to

begin to immerse myself in truths of rebuild.

truths of seasonal working of God, how he works

to come into a region and plant something and

begin a journey, but then continue that journey

into the next stage. So I started to study the

work of Nehemiah, and I studied the rebuild of

the wall in Jerusalem. And I studied it from

one end to the other, ended up preaching in our

church on it. And I realized the unbelievable

feat of how God worked in Nehemiah's life to

get him to not only go to Jerusalem. I say go

because he went there. He didn't return. He never

had been there. He was raised in captivity. And

in that place of Babylonian captivity, he sovereignly

was led by the Holy Spirit. into a place of political

power and authority and influence to be the cupbearer

of the king and one day sovereignly god had the

king and his wife sitting in the presence of

nehemiah and they noticed his sadness and his

sorrow what was his sorrow his sorrow was that

he heard from his brother the state of jerusalem

he went back to jerusalem and when he got there

He saw the devastation of the city and God gave

him not only strategy, but means and people and

team. And in 52 days, he rebuilt the walls of

Jerusalem. It was an unbelievable feat. But I...

come to the conclusion after not only studying

Nehemiah's life, there were other builders at

other seasons that also built parts of the city.

And the wall was one part of the story. And this

is what I'm trying to get to. I believe your

first 25 years is one part of the story. But

it's not the entirety of the story. Whatever

God has done up to this point has been beautiful.

The walls of Jerusalem. If you go read the book

of Nehemiah, it had to do with the identity.

Had to do with security. Had to do with principles

and policies and order and celebration. It was

a beautiful part of the building. But its purpose

was to contain the presence of God. The walls

were not about the walls. The walls were about

the presence within the walls. The walls were

about the presence within the walls. Before there

was ever a wall to be rebuilt, the presence of

God had to be welcomed into a temple that needed

to be built. Before Nehemiah, there was Ezra.

Before the fortification of the walls, there

was the foundation. And the foundation was the

temple. And before the Lord sent Nehemiah to

rebuild the wall, he called on the people, I

want you to build the house of the Lord. This

is what I'm sensing from the Lord and why I felt

to go down this road today. Because I feel like

in this season of this house, God is wanting

to put a word into this place. He's wanting to

put a word into this house that whatever... obstacles

you would face i heard this in the prophetic

word this morning whatever obstacles you would

face are meant to be building materials the obstacles

might look like a mountain but the mountain is

going to be made level ground level ground and

this is a prophetic word i want to give you um

and and so I'm going to preach two messages here

this morning, one in this service, one in the

second, and they're going to be different. One's

going to build on the other one. And I want to

call them both level ground. Would you say level

ground? Level ground. Zechariah chapter 4. Listen

Zechariah 4 · chapter mention

to what the prophetic word that came through

Zechariah to the people of God as they got ready

to build in a stage. You've already built one

season stage. You're going to build in another

season in stage. Zechariah 4. It says, not by

might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the

Lord Almighty. What are you, mighty mountain?

Before Zerubbabel, you will become, everybody

say it with me. Level ground. A mountain, whether

it's in a church or in a region or in your own

family, can actually represent impossible circumstances.

There are situations that seem impossible. All

of us face mountains or delays or calamity or

sickness or economics. It's a river taking your

property. It's lost ministry. It's dreams that

you had. It's children that maybe you prayed

for and something didn't work out the way that

you thought it would. Zerubbabel is the governor

tasked with rebuilding the temple. And the work

had been stalled for years according to Ezra

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. It had been buried under bureaucratic

opposition, discouragement and scarcity. There's

something about the building that got stuck.

How many in the room have ever felt stuck before?

Stuck. I don't know why, but I just can't seem

to get past this economic limitation. I can't

break through into the next barrier. Some people

get to a 25 -year mark and it becomes a limiter.

They spend more time celebrating the past than

thinking about the future. Churches get stuck.

People get stuck. Regions get stuck. They start

to build mountains. What do they build mountains

out of? The mountain that Zechariah is prophesying

about is the mountain of rubble that used to

be a temple, but now it's a trash heap. This

is what the enemy likes to do in the life of

a person, a church. pummeling a church in a season,

just extracting $2 million from its wealth and

its ability to prosper and to flourish. The enemy

comes and he likes to take what is a strength

and begin to tear it down one stone at a time

and not just tear it down. According to Nehemiah,

the stones that were torn down were torched by

fire when they were overrun by Babylonian captivity.

And so the stones were not only dismantled one

from another, but they came under the heat of

fire and then they carried a smell to them that

reminded them whenever you got in proximity to

the wall. There was an odor or a sense that took

you back and people's nervous system would actually

begin to tense up because that's what the enemy

likes to do. He likes to take you holistically

back through memory and smell and recollection.

So you come into a house that's healthy and orderly,

but you remember the house in which the stones

of your life were pummeled by something that

was inappropriate and wrong and you come in and

you start to... relate to the new like the experience

of the old. The reason why Zechariah had to prophesy

this mountain would become level ground is because

he was saying, I'm going to use everything that

the enemy has ever tried to tear apart in your

life. I'm going to use it and I'm going to build

a foundation out of it. on which i will construct

a new chapter i will construct a new season and

when i construct the new season the presence

of god will come and inhabit it and when my presence

comes and inhabits it the people will be restored

the identity of the walls will now contain the

beauty of his presence because i'm the god who

takes a rubble that looks like a pile and of

ash heap and i'm going to make it the foundation

of a new season of building i believe and i I'm

putting a word in your spirit today. This house

is going to be known not for its losses, but

for what God does to take losses and make something

beautiful out of it in the next chapter. Give

him glory in this place. Give him glory in this

place. Give him glory in this place. Thank you,

Jesus. 16 years of accumulated rubble and debris

sitting where the temple should have been. Can

I tell you, some of you have carried rubble for

30 years, 40 years in your life. And you're trying

to find a way to get the presence of the Lord

into that space. The mountain is most actually

the sum of everything that blocks the rebuild.

Your past, Though good. 25 years I saw it, it's

been good. But it could become a blocker to the

future. Daryl, what do you mean? I'm telling

you, as somebody who leads a church of 75 years,

I started to hear it in the ranks. People talked

about yesterday more than they talked about the

future. They talked about past breakthroughs

more than they talked about present warfare and

potential victories that could begin to break

out in their life. And when you begin to look

at the pile of rubble more than you do what God's

going to do to take that and build something

out of it, you have come under a cloud of poverty.

But I'm here to tell you prosperous people look

at the pile of rubble and they say God's going

to make something beautiful out of this ash heap.

To a discouraged builder standing at the base

of a mountain. It might feel immovable. It might

feel mountain size. But God's word before you

is that that thing will become like a plane.

I'm going to take every valley and lift it. It's

going to become flat. It's going to become passable.

It's going to become buildable. Lord, I don't

think I could really build a home again. I've

gone through a divorce. I've gone through loss.

I've gone through trial and tragedy. The second

you start declaring the size of the mountain,

you've missed the prophetic word. I'm going to

make a level ground out of your life. This thing's

going to become passable. I struggle to just

take steps, Lord. I don't know how we're gonna

get through this. I don't know how we're gonna

pay the bills from the river. I'm not quite sure

how we're gonna get there. When you begin to

just confess that over and over and over again,

you're missing the prophetic word. The prophetic

word is I'm gonna make the land passable. It's

not gonna be a ditch that swallows you. It's

going to be an opportunity that you're gonna

glide over the top of. The house would be built

where the mountain is. Now, it's no longer an

obstacle. It's your greatest opportunity. And

I want to prophesy to you today, even what you've

navigated this last year is your greatest opportunity

yet. It's your greatest opportunity yet. It will

become the platform on which the house is built.

You were known for financial strength up to this

point. You're going to be known for a level of

prosperity and abundance. And by the way, with

it, restoration of everything that the enemy

tried to take from you in violence. That's what

this house is going to be known for. According

to Zechariah, mountains don't become level ground

in your own might or in your own power. Something

of this magnitude could never happen in your

own strength. It would be by the power of God

working in them. Listen to how the rebuild starts.

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, this

is Ezra chapter one. Zechariah is part of the

post -exilic prophets. Ezra is part of the post

-exilic prophets. These are words of the Lord

that are coming to recount the story and the

journey of another stage. Everybody say another

stage. Another stage, another phase, another

era. Ezra chapter 1, in the first year of Cyrus,

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word

of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved

the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a

proclamation throughout his realm and also put

it in writing. This is what Cyrus, king of Persia,

says. The Lord, the God of heaven, has given

me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he's appointed

me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in

Judea. Why was Cyrus called upon by God to build

a temple? Any of his people among you may go

up to Jerusalem in Judea or Judah and build the

temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God

who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with

them. And in any locality where survivors may

now be living, the people are to provide them

with silver and gold, the goods and the livestock,

and with freewill offerings for the temple of

God in Jerusalem. Then the family heads of Judah

and Benjamin, priests and Levites, everyone whose

heart God had moved, prepared to go up and build

the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. If I took

that portion of scripture and put a title over

it, I'd call it when the word went out, when

the word went out, the word of the Lord went

out. That's what's happening over these weeks

of this anniversary celebration month. Prophetic

word. You're just rehearsing what it is God is

saying. Babylonian Empire had come against Jerusalem,

torn down their walls, and here the word of the

Lord comes. But it wasn't the only time the word

of the Lord came. God had been speaking for decades

about what would happen. And that's the thing

you've got to begin to understand. You enter

the story of God when you're born, but he actually

wrote your story into his story before you were

ever born. You're actually joining him in a journey

that's eternal. And in your season, whatever

that season is, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years,

100 years, whatever it is, God gives you the

opportunity to help advance his story in the

earth. And so whenever you see a prophetic timetable,

you've got to understand God actually appointed

the time this church would be born. And he said,

I'm going to enter in Harrisburg. I'm going to

usher a prophetic word in, and I'm going to stir

a heart. I'm going to move on a man. I'm going

to do what I want to do in that region, but I've

got to raise up a people, and I've got to stir

up something in that era because I'm trying to

restore a temple. I might use somebody else to

build a wall, but right now I need to do this.

And I've got to raise up a particular kind of

people. The people up to this point have been

carried a thousand miles away into exile into

Babylon. They sat down, according to the Bible,

by foreign rivers and they wept because they

remembered the glory of Jerusalem and they said,

how can we sing the songs of foreign lands here?

How can we sing our home songs? How can we sing

the beauty of what we experienced in Jerusalem

while we're sitting by these rivers in Babylon?

Interesting, even though it was years prior to

Cyrus, being stirred by the Lord to send these

saints back to build the house of the Lord. God

spoke. Everybody say God spoke. Jeremiah 29 says,

when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I'll

come to you and I'll fulfill my good promise

to bring you back to this place. God carried

them away into Babylon, but he spoke the word

and said, I'm not going to leave you there forever.

God is a rebuild God. Even though you might have

spent a season in Babylon and had to sing by

foreign rivers, you won't have to be there forever

because I'll complete that era to bring you into

another era. And when I bring you into the other

era, I'm going to have taken care of everything

to get you into that next era. 70 years, not

forever. He said, I may have carried you away,

but the abuse, the evil, the oppression, it's

not the end of the story. And I want you to just

get this into your spirit today that the Lord

actually puts a timetable on our lives. He puts

a timetable even on evil. He puts a timetable

on seasons in churches. He actually works cyclically

and orderly. And when he says it's done, it's

time for another chapter, we just simply have

to join him in what he's doing. Daryl, abuse

happened in my life. I don't understand the timetable

and how God works. I don't want to lower God

down to the standard of being the one who perpetrates

evil. He doesn't do that. He's not a thief. He

doesn't kill. He doesn't steal. He doesn't rob.

He didn't design you to have to be pummeled by

the enemy. He's actually, his part in the story

is to say, there's going to come a day I'm going

to put an end to it, I'm going to interrupt it,

and then I'm going to save you from it and restore.

That's the story of God in the midst of his timetable.

More than a hundred years before Babylon fell,

God had already been so specific to name the

man he would send to his people to fulfill Jeremiah's

word. Isaiah chapter 44. How many are with me?

Isaiah 44 · chapter mention

How many are staying with me here? I'm just kind

of going back in a little history. Isaiah 44.

Who says of Cyrus, he's my shepherd and I will

accomplish all that I please. He will say of

Jerusalem, let it be rebuilt and of the temple,

let its foundations be laid. This is Isaiah the

prophet. Now, prophet saying a hundred years

even earlier than the Babylonian captivity. Isaiah

45, this is what the Lord says to the anointed,

to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to

subdue nations before him. So we've got a century

and a half before Cyrus of Persia was born. The

prophet Isaiah calls him by name, calls him God's

shepherd, calls him God's anointed, and says,

I'm going to use that king to restore what's

going to be taken from my people. So he saw in

advance the pain that the people would come into,

and he prophesied their redemption and didn't

just prophesy. their redemption he said i'm going

to use a persian king to accomplish it which

tells me a lot about how god works god used the

systems of the world to turn people's captivity

around and bring them back into blessing again

because his will will not be stopped his will

will not be stopped in 1879 Archaeologists digging

through the ruins of Babylon actually uncovered

a clay barrel covered in handwriting. And now

they call it the Cyrus Cylinder because as they

studied it, they actually found Cyrus's decree

of turning other nations' gods. back into their

hands, allowing those nations to go back into

their homeland and repair their temples. And

archaeologists now show how God worked. And by

the way, now prophecy aligns. with archaeology

and there's nobody that can question the authenticity

of the move of god it's actually in britain in

a museum and you can walk in and see the beauty

of prophecy unfolding in the timeline of history

and i want you to know as the people of god we

should begin to expect when god speaks there's

not only a timetable but he watches over his

word to perform it and when you stand the test

of time and you resist the you will see with

your eyes what was prophesied in the sanctuary.

You will see the fulfillment of what God said

in presbytery meetings and in the secret place

of your own prayer closet. You will actually

see the fulfillment of what God says to you because

he will watch over his word until it's complete.

I'm getting blessed. I would say it this way.

God does not react to history. He actually writes

it in advance. He's not a reactionary God. He

writes it in advance. He sees it. He knows what

the next 25 years already looks like. He sees

it in advance. When I read through Ezra chapter

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

1, I understand several things. And I'm just

barely getting through my introduction. So you

got to go with me here. But here's... Here's

what I see. I see that God initiates before we

act. God initiates before we act. Listen to this

scripture. I read it a minute ago. Ezra 1 .1.

In order to fulfill the word of the Lord, spoken

by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus,

king of Persia, to make a proclamation. The word

move is very important in the scriptures. I actually

wrote a book on it, and you can pick one up in

the lobby. called made to move, because God is

a God of movement. I want you to see here, God

initiates, God moves. He actually steps into

gaps and into spaces where the prophetic word

hovers, but it's not fulfilled. This might be

one of the most important things I could say

to you today. If you've been pummeled by the

enemy and you've been dealing with brokenness

for a long period of time and you're waiting

for the fulfillment of the prophetic word, I

want you to know that between proclamation and

fulfillment, God is actually at work. You see

that in the book of Genesis. He hovered over

the face of the deep. He began to move. And I

want you to know when God initiates, he actually

starts to pull on kings and resources. buildings

and land and people's hearts. God is the one

who initiates. Cyrus was not a believer. Cyrus

was not a man of faith. Cyrus was a Persian king

who had conquered Babylon and actually believed

he was God. But somehow God showed him, you're

not God, I'm God. I'm going to speak to you and

I will reorder. Everybody say, God initiates.

If you act before God initiates, that's called

pride and arrogance. We've got to get behind

his initiative. God, where are you moving? God,

what are you doing? God, what are you saying?

Where is the spirit of God at work? Notice the

order of the sentence. Before there was a proclamation,

there was a plan. And before a single exile packs

a bag to go... back to Jerusalem, the Lord was

already at work. The first move of every move

of God is God. He initiates. He speaks to somebody.

He sends his word. He heals disease just with

one word. The word moved that's used in Ezra

chapter one, verse one, it means this. I'm going

to put it on the screen. It means to rouse, to

awaken, or to stir up. It's the word that you

would use if you were waking somebody from their

sleep. It's the word of stirring a dying fire

back to life. You take the coals, the embers,

and you get up near them and you begin to blow

on them and you start to say, I want to move

on your heart, Cyrus. God did not wait for the

political conditions to be right. This is what

I preach to my church. God is not waiting for

Portland to be in order before the house of God

is in order. God is not waiting for the mayor

of the city. He's waiting for the saints within

the city. God is not waiting for some financial

turnaround. for me to sow some seed. He's asking

me, what do you have in your hand? Get in the

game. He reached into the heart of the most powerful

man on the earth. A man who didn't worship him,

a man who didn't know him, a man who didn't sign

up for this, a man who didn't get up that morning

and think today's the day my heart's going to

be kindled for something divine. The same God

who set the timing through Jeremiah, named the

king through Isaiah, is the same God who stirred

things in the heart of Cyrus and caused him to

write a check and send the leaders back to the

city to rebuild the house of God. Talk about

a God who not only sees, but a God who plans.

And a God who plans is also a God who declares.

And the God who declares is also the God who

provides. And the God who provides also sends.

And the God who sends also fulfills. There's

something about the God that we serve. He is

the initiator. It's not by might. Go back to

the words of Zechariah. Not by might, not by

power. It's by my spirit, says the Lord. You

know what's key to the next 25 years? It's not

working harder. It's working in the power of

the Holy Spirit. It's realizing God is the one

who wrote this story. God is the one who moves

on Cyrus' heart. God is the one who initiates.

God is the one who brought you here. God is the

one who sees the brokenness of your life and

already has predestined not only your redemption

from sin, but the restoration to take the rubble

and make it a foundation, make it a platform

on which you build. When you look in the mirror

and you see shame, the Lord is saying, I'm going

to take the shame and the reproach of yesterday

and all your years of Babylonian captivity, and

you're going to walk past those stones again.

And the next time you walk past them, you'll

be standing on top of them, worshiping in the

presence of God. That's what I'm going to do

with the house of the Lord. Man, God is good.

I'm just going to say whenever it's time for

me to be done, the keyboard players should come

up because I'll just keep preaching until it's

over and done. What I realize when I read Ezra

Ezra 1:1

chapter 1, verse 1, God moves first, and he often

moves through unlikely people. Cyrus, this Persian

king, ruling from the Aegean to the edge of India.

Would have had his heart bent around a defeated,

temple -less, nobody tribe. This is so important

to understand. We think that our hearts have

to bend around activity. But God builds, bends

kingdoms around his prophetic word. You are the

straight arrow. I feel to prophesy this. You

are the straight arrow. In the hand of the Lord,

the one who he shoots out over nations. You've

not been bent by the trials that come your direction.

The Lord bends the heart of Cyrus to fulfill

his word. He doesn't bend his will to accomplish

Cyrus' purpose. This house is a straight stick.

It's a straight arrow being shot. God will bend

Cyrus before he bends his house. I want you to

know that Cyrus was called to do exactly what

the prophet had said. And in doing so, he reversed

two centuries of imperial precedent. No king

of Persia said, I'll pay the bill for somebody

to go rebuild their temple. But somehow that

king's heart was bent. And I declare even nations

and national leaders and regional leaders will

bend their hearts for the purpose of God. Bend

their hearts for the purpose of God. Syria and

Babylon scattered the conquered peoples. Cyrus

went and picked up the people of God and sent

them home. It landed right on schedule. It landed

right on schedule, right on time. And the normal

logic of a kingdom that overpowered another one

was to take the temple and use it for their own

treasury. And Cyrus gave it all back. I feel

to prophesy to you today, every dollar that you

feel has been taken in this river project, the

Lord is going to pay it back. Unusual means,

unusual means are going to release the funds

back to the house of God. We call that debt.

Paid in Jesus' name. I feel the authority from

heaven to declare over you. We declare this today

in Jesus' name because God writes the checks

in advance. So God's initiative should never

end or should end, excuse me, our delaying. God,

you're at work, you're speaking, you're initiating,

you're moving on King's hearts, but I'm just

not sure. I don't know that I could get in. I

don't know that I can trust you, Lord. I want

you to know when we keep waiting to feel ready,

you'll never get involved in what he's doing.

The past trauma is too much. The overbearing

size of the wall, it's too much. I don't know

what to do with this pile of rubble. The valley

in front of me is too great. Waiting on the resources,

waiting on perfect conditions, waiting on the

right season, waiting for the moment to make

sense. I'd like to suggest if God's moving, just

get in, get in, get into what he's doing. The

first move is God's and he already made it. He

made it 25 years ago when a stake went into the

ground. I want you to know that day was not the

beginning for God. God had written things in

generations past. The destiny was already scribed

in heaven. It was written in his books. Now you're

walking in the blessing that God has bent nations

to unleash and unravel in this region. I'm not

standing here asking you to manufacture an emotion.

I'm asking you to trust the character of God

for the next 25 years. I'm asking you to trust

the character of God. How he has worked in the

past is just a foretaste of what he's going to

do in the future. God's character is already

proven. He's already come through. I'm telling

you, he already started a movement, and the invitation

is get in step with what he's going to do in

the next 25 years. You're not being asked to

start something. You're being asked to join something

that he already started. So what do I do? I simply

recognize that a stirred heart is the first foundation

material. It's the first building material, a

stirred heart. Not just Cyrus, but listen to

this. Ezra 1, verse 5. Then the family heads

Ezra 1:5

of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the

Levites, everyone whose heart God had moved,

prepared to go up and build the house of the

Lord in Jerusalem. You've got to watch this closely

because the exact same word God used on the king,

he also uses on the people. God stirred Cyrus'

heart, but he also stirred the people. And I

want to say to you today, this is a day not just

to believe that pastors Brad and Jen are going

to be used by God in the next 25 years. Oh, I'm

grateful for the elders. I'm grateful for the

staff. No, no, no. God's looking at the house.

He's looking for the people. He's looking for

the whole tribe. He's looking for Life Bible

Church, the whole family. He's looking for the

old. He's looking for the young. He's looking

for anybody who will... sense the stirring and

the movement of heaven upon this place and say

I'll find my place in the building of God in

this chapter and in this generation God's going

to bring a Nehemiah along at another time to

build something else but God's doing something

here in this house and God I want to join you

in what you're doing in this season I can't worry

about other other mountains. I can't worry about

other piles of rubble. I can only deal with what

God is doing here in this house. So God, I'm

going to fix my focus, and I'm going to be used

by you, God, in whatever way. That same word

moved that was used of Cyrus is now upon the

people. The God who stirred the spirit of a king,

that same spirit is now moving among the people.

God, I think I'm lesser. I'm not a king. I'm

not a prophet. I'm not a leader. Yes, but you're

the people of God, and God can considers you

just as important as any other leader in the

building story. God considers every door greeter,

every servant, every giver, every individual.

Doesn't matter whether you've been here a long

time or a short time. People disqualify themselves

on a Sunday like this because they say, I wasn't

here in the beginning. I only came five years

ago. Stop disqualifying yourself from being involved

in the house of the Lord. Stop disqualifying

yourself from being part. Well, you don't know

what I've overcome. don't need to know what you've

overcome the whole tribe was in bondage sitting

by rivers in captivity we all have the same story

and we're all in need of the same savior let's

find ourselves on the level ground of needing

god to take the rubble of our lives and make

something beautiful out of it The Bible says

the spirit stirred Cyrus and the spirit stirred

the people. The word spirit that's used there

is the word ruach. It means breath, wind. The

word becomes so important in the study of how

God's work because the spirit of God breathes

into the spirit of man. It sounds like a recreation

miracle. God took the dirt and he formed a man

and then he breathed into him the breath of life.

That's what God does. He takes dirt and he reforms

it. He builds platforms. He builds temples. Adam

was the first temple living in Eden. The one

who carried the presence of God is what he's

doing at Life Bible Church. He wants to breathe

into every man and every woman something extraordinary,

something beautiful. The Ruach of God is stirring

the Ruach of ordinary people. God supplies oil

for the lampstand in Zechariah 4. and he stirs

the heart of the builders in Ezra chapter 1.

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

God will always supply what's needed so that

it's not by might and not by power, but it's

by my... Spirit, says the Lord of hosts, oil

flows from the olive trees. There was a prophetic

word, and this is where I land. I want you to

come back to the keyboard. This was so powerful

this morning in pre -service prayer. Somebody

that sees prophetically opened their mouth and

said, I walked into the sanctuary and I saw two

olive trees and a golden lampstand with oil flowing

into the lampstand. And I said, there it is.

That's the prophetic word for this house. It

is not by might, it is not by power, but it is

by my spirit. says the Lord. God wanted to remind

them and he wants to remind you today. This house

is meant to be a place where the Ruach of God

is breathing upon the people of God. He's stirring

you in the same way that he stirs nations and

kings to accomplish his word. And what is he

going to do when he stirs you? He's going to

take rubble and make it into a temple. That's

what he's going to do. And this house will be

known as a place where the presence of God will

dwell. Glory be to God. Glory be to God. Thank

you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on,

lift your voice. Lift your voice. Just let there

be a sound of victory and a sound of praise coming

from the house. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want

to deal with this in the second service because

as they actually finally got the foundation laid,

they stood there and some wept and some laughed.

I feel like the sound of the house going forward

will be both filled with tears and weeping for

those who realize what was torn apart and they're

going to grieve and they're going to let the

loss go. I'm going to deal with this in the second

service. But that grief will turn to laughter.

And that grief will turn to joy. And this house

will always be listening and bringing people

through their grief. and then releasing them

into a sound of joy. That's what's going to be

happening in the sound of this house. And there's

going to be this sound that is just melded together

with both tears and joy, tears and joy, tears

and joy, tears and joy. And you're never going

to get out of the tear portion, but you're going

to help people get into the joy portion. There's

going to be something that's so beautiful that's

going to unfold here. I had to lay the foundation

here so I could come and actually start to build

on it in service too. So if you want to stay,

just go ahead and stay. We're just going to keep

digging and keep going after this because the

Lord has something he's releasing in this place

today. If you feel like you needed this word

today in your own life, maybe it has to do with

your family, your business, your finances, your

marriage, maybe your own mental health, your

well -being, but you knew, Daryl, I needed this

word today. I want you just to lift your hands

straight up. I need this word today. I need this

word today. Lord, you see, this is a people in

need, God. We're all in need. And so we come,

we lift our hands to you. And I pray, Father,

that you would begin to initiate a movement in

this place. Begin to breathe upon every individual.

Lord, breathe by your spirit. Let the Ruach of

God begin to breathe upon the people in Jesus'

name. Breathe into our spirits. Bring the breath

of life. Stir us to be builders in this place.

Father, we resist poverty thinking. We resist

victimization that the enemy has perpetrated

against the people of God even for decades. Come

on, we withstand it today. And once again, on

this 25th anniversary, we put another stake in

the ground and we say what has begun is foundational.

It's the beginning point. But we're going to

see a whole new generation arise with healing

in their wings. There's going to be something

that is established and released in the sound

of this house. It's going to be the people of

God among a city where people wonder, how did

that happen? It happened by the Spirit of the

Lord. It is not by might. It is not by power.

It is by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Come

on, give the Lord a big hand in this prayer.

thank you for taking the time to listen to this

week's message we are so grateful for those who

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