What it is, is I've been asked to preach, well actually preach and teach at a pastor's conference for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, which they host in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is for all their pastors to come. Not all go, but it'll be probably a couple hundred or more. And it's a two-day event, and I've been asked to teach. This is the challenge part. 15 minute segments four of them. That's a challenge on the saw syndrome So I would you know the saw syndrome we've done here There's no way of course y'all know that just by being part of it that I would be able to do fulfill that. So it's going to have to be something toward almost like some sermon nuggets, just to give them something to take, to chew on, and then go back and maybe share with their congregations. But I'll have four sessions that are 15 minutes long, and then I think an opportunity for them to preach a 30-minute message as well, which is a great opportunity. That's a great door open, no doubt. But it poses a major challenge. for me, specifically, to take that material, which has got a lot with it, and then reduce it down to just four 15-minute segments would be tough. As a teacher, throwing in a 15-minute segment of teaching, if that's all you got, you have to really refine on what you're doing. And so I need you praying for me. And from that, it could open up other doors down the road as well. So we give God the glory for it and the praise. All righty, take your copy of the Word of God and look in Ezra. Y'all, we're in Ezra right now, right? Y'all reading in Ezra? What'd y'all find in the first few chapters of Ezra? What was that genealogy about? Did y'all try to pronounce all those names? I didn't try to pronounce them all. I'd just frustrate myself if I did that. You ever just do things that just frustrate you? There's just some things in life that you don't, you just can't. And the more you try to do, the more it just frustrates you, so you just leave it alone. Capitalize on your strengths and don't try to, sometimes we do that. We try to perfect our weaknesses and that just don't work. That just frustrates you. If we'll just do what we can do and do it well, that will be a good thing. Some of these names, I just don't know what it is. I don't know if it's my tongue or my mind. What y'all think? Yeah. Or if it was my upbringing, you know, the phonics or whatever. What do you think? My phonics, my tongue, or my mind? My thought with this was that we spend a lot of time today with genealogy. they kept it up now what we find in that is is how does the scripture help us understand who these people are or why this was recorded what does it say who were they? poor folks what we find here is is the people that actually went to babylon and came back it makes it it specifies that doesn't it let's say where is it say that i look in uh... verse one a chapter two that's something to keep in mind because it's not telling us everybody possibly came back in essence it's it's really given us a record of those who were in jerusalem before the captivity who went to babylon and then those that came back to jerusalem if i'm reading that right in my reader right he says in verse one now these are the people of the province who came back from the captivity of those who had been carried away by nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon had carried away to babylon and who returned to jerusalem and judah everyone to his own city those who came with zero was a ruby or let them back he was he was part of the the leadership that that brought them back so if i read that right i think what this genealogy is doing is telling us about the people who who were in jerusalem when in the captivity for how long 70 years The first part of it of Ezra tells us that right? Let's see doesn't give us this specific time Listen what he says in verse 1 of chapter 1 now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdom and also put it in writing saying so Jeremiah tells us how long they were going to be there He tells us they were going to be there in chapter 29, I believe it is, that they were going to be there for 70 years. So, this is according to the Word of God. They went into captivity for 70 years, but why did they go into captivity? Why was it 70? Why was the number 70 specific? What was all that about? Every seven years, God had called on His people to give the land rest. In the seventh year, they would give it rest. Remember, they were to sow in the sixth year, and they would reap enough for the sixth year and the seventh year. And God would make sure of that. But the Scriptures teach us that there were 70 Sabbaths that they missed. So if they missed 70 Sabbaths, that would mean how many years Did they go without participating in a Sabbath? 490 years. Yeah, 490 years. They actually did not give the land rest for a 490 year period as a whole. Now you think about that. 490 years. I mean, how long have we been a country? In America, per se. 200 and what? 1776 237 years 490 that's quite a bit of time, isn't it? So double the amount of time that we have existed as a nation, they did not follow the ways of the Lord. That would take us back a few years. That would probably bring us back to some people that we're familiar with that were some pretty good leaders who actually didn't act on what God told them to do. And as a result, God says, okay, for every year you missed, Every seventh year you didn't do what you were supposed to do that totals up to 70 of those You're gonna be in captivity for 70 years And I'll bring you back Well, this is what we have those people whom God had promised that he was gonna return them back Here's a record of it that God gives us an account of this event of them coming back but there's some neat things that we see in this book that sometimes we may just easily miss or overlook. I like those words stirred up the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Now who was Cyrus? He was a king of who? Persia. Now was Persia of a nation that was under the covenant promises of Israel? It wasn't. Would that mean that Persia was a pagan in its heritage? Was it? Yeah. So in the midst of paganism, in the midst of God doing this, God says that he was going to raise up a king, even called him by name. tells us in the prophecy of isaiah some hundred and fifty years before hold your spot there and go to isaiah i think it's somewhere around isaiah forty four let let's see if we can find this we'll dig and look around god told him he was going to do something look around forty four miss if i can locate it verse twenty eight 4428 now this is approximately a hundred and fifty years before Cyrus would have been born It is before the northern ten tribes were taken by Sennacherib, and it is quite some time before the Babylonian captivity. Obviously it is, because they spent, what, 70 years in captivity. God raised up Cyrus. Cyrus is the one who delivered them. So we're talking about 70-plus years before that took place, we have this prophecy. Listen to what he says. 44 28 of Isaiah who says of Cyrus he is my what and He shall perform all my pleasure Say unto Jerusalem you shall be built and to the temple your foundation shall be laid verse 1 of 45 thus says the Lord to his anointed and to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him, to loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places. for what purpose that you may know that I the Lord who call you by your name and the God of Israel for Jacob my servant's sake and Israel my elect I have even called you by your name and I have named you though you have not known me man that ought to just bless your socks off right there here is a man who was brought up in and paganism of persia who had no idea no seeking no nothing of god almighty but god is telling as i had a prophesy of what he's going to do with him when he is born and that god's gonna raise him up for his purpose he called in his annoying pity called in his shepherd he said that i'm gonna open up doors for you double doors for you and no man's go stop you from doing what i'm gonna do why because god was raising up a delivery to get his people out of babylon He told him, you're going for 70 years. And God predetermined to raise up a king from another nation and to give him all the resources he needed to overthrow Babylon, to release his people, finance them, give them all they need to go back and build his temple. And we find in Ezra, listen to what he says over in Ezra. Go back to Ezra chapter 1 and verse number 2. Listen to his decree. Now keep in mind, do you think that his people thought he was crazy? I guarantee you they did. The Persian people. Do they think they had a lunatic for a king who is serving God Almighty? Somebody that they didn't know who he was. Matter of fact, Cyrus didn't know who he was until God invaded him and interrupted him and called him by name and showed him all these things. Once this happens and he goes on a mission to deliver Israel for God's sake, he says, and he writes this, verse 2 of chapter 1 of Ezra, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. who is among you of all his people may his god be with him and let him go up to jerusalem which is in judah and build the house of the lord god of israel he is god which is in jerusalem and whoever is left in any place where he dwells let the men of his place help him with silver and gold with goods and livestock besides the free world offerings for the house of god which is in jerusalem that that that that is that is amazing of a pagan king over a pagan nation a world power who says i want you to free the jews and send them back and i'm going to give them all the money and all the resources they need to build god's house and restore the wall and rebuild jerusalem that'd be like the iranian prime minister or whatever you want to call him over there that israel's having so much trouble with and everybody's having so much trouble with all of a sudden he stands up and says look jesus is king of kings and lord of lords he laid his life down and gave it for me let's take all our resources that we have as a nation and we start funneling it toward restoring the kingdom of god and preaching jesus you think the world would be in shock think they'd start doing flips thinking how nuts and crazy they thought he was crazy already they'd really think he's crazy then fell off his rocker right well this is what we have here all because of a sovereign god who fulfills what he starts, amen who's gonna finish out in spite of his people Look, his people weren't in a position for all this to happen. It happened because they belonged somewhere. God had a place for them. They only went into captivity as a result of God's wrath and judgment of their disobedience to Him and not following Him. God could have kept them there, but He chose not to, put them over in Babylon for a period of time to infiltrate Babylon with His message and those around them, and now He's sending them back And I love how the scripture says, as we keep reading in chapter 1 and verse 5, Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. See, it was a timing thing. When God was ready, he stirred the spirit of Cyrus. When God was ready, he stirred the spirit of the people, the leaders of the Jews. And they all stood up a rose and they went. And that's what we wait for. That's what we pray for. God, when you stir in the hearts of your people, who can stop them from doing your work? who can prevent them from going in the direction that you want them to go. Now we find in the book of Ezra there was some people, you get into chapter four, how they tried to hinder them and they tried to get in the way and they hired people to overthrow them and they tried to distract them and frustrate them and fragment them. And there was a time frame that they did. They gave in to the culture rather than doing what God told them. I mean they had all the blessings and favor of God upon them. But they started using things on themselves rather than fulfilling the mission that God gave them. And as long as they were building their own houses, doing their own thing, there was no trouble. But when they started doing the work of the kingdom, the enemy and the avenger begin to rise up to fragment their purpose to distract them from doing what God called them to do. I tell you, you get busy about God's purpose, even when we have favor upon our life, the enemy is going to try to distract you from doing that. We don't have to let him though. We have authority. Amen? We have the authority of the king to do his work. God is building a temple today. He is tabernacling among us. and we just need to be busy about what he's called us to do. I just, these things just thrill my heart every time I read through all this stuff and how God worked and how he prophesied what he was going to do and then you get over in chapter three as we look at this we see how God moved and And when he did move, how they came, they came for worship, they came to praise God, they began to build and anticipate. And you get down in the later part of chapter 3, we find that the people that came back with the people that were new, that remembered what was before you see this this contrast job pick up on that how one group of people were weeping and one group was praising one group was pal and then the other group was praised and i've told you that you can't pout and praise at the same time can't can't do it and we see that in this passage right here what watch what we have verse eleven of chapter three And they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel. And then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the Father's house, old men, who had seen the first temple, they wept with a loud voice when the foundation of the temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shouting of joy from the noise of weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. You had powders and praisers, but the praisers outweighed the powders. Amen? And you can't praise God and pout at the same time. Just always remember that. Why were they pouting? Because the glory of the new temple wasn't as majestic and as big as what they had before. And it bothered them. But see, this was all part of God's plan, though. This is what God was doing. This is the measurements that God gave. And we have to remember that. Just because things may not seem as glorious as they did in days gone by doesn't mean God's not involved in it. For an example, turn to Zechariah. These are around these time frames. This is what we're dealing with here. Zechariah, which is near Malachi, which is the last Old Testament book. Look in Zechariah chapter 4. dealing with this mindset let's just start reading verse number eight moreover the word of the lord came to me saying the hands of zarubial have laid the foundation of this temple his hand shall also finish it then you shall know that the lord of hosts has sent me to you for who has despised the day of what small things. For these seven rejoiced to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbiel. What are these seven? They are the eyes of the Lord which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth." You see, God was pleased with what he saw, but the people Despised the day of small things they took it lightly because it wasn't quite as big as what it used to be and They failed to fall get in harmony or in touch with what God was doing that day We got to keep in mind what the scripture says we believe by faith That the worlds that were framed were framed by what? the Word of God Now what does that mean? That means the world, the cosmos that we have, it means the age, the day. You see, God was behind this. Remember, He let them destroy the temple. He brought them into captivity. He raised up Cyrus. He gave him what was needed to rebuild all this. He gave Zerubbio and him the measurements and the plumb line to measure it all out. They laid what God gave them. And then the people had a problem with what God gave them, the ones who remembered the old way, they had a problem with it and they begin to despise the day of small or insignificant things rather than being enraptured with what God was doing today. And we can get caught up in the same thing. We remember back when, or what it used to be like, or how it was, and we fail to what? Praise God. And we start pouting about the past, rather than where we are right now, in blessing the Lord. Today, God had framed all. Today, we live in the day. Amen? We know that the society we live in is predictable. It's going to be perilous. It's going to get worse. But God's still in control, ain't He? Can He still raise up Osiris? Are we looking for Osiris? don't need to be a man uh... we've got a task already to do and it may seem like it's meager and insignificant and little we're not accomplishing much but when we're doing what god called us to do faithfully to it like zero bill did he's delayed the foundation he's going to build on and finish it we just got to keep doing what god's called us to do And God will bless it. Why? Proverbs 10 29 says, for the way of the Lord is strength for the upright. You see, when we're doing what God's called us to do, that's what He would call them to do at that time. It was their strength. It wasn't something for them to take lightly. It was strength for them. You go back to Nehemiah. Nehemiah's dealing with what's still yet to come. But remember in Nehemiah 18, which says, the joy of the Lord is your what? That's your strength. What's the joy of the Lord? It's the way of God. What's the way of God? It's the will of God. And when it's God's will, and it's God's way, and it's God's joy, no matter how little it may look, it's still our strength. We can praise Him for it. Amen? And give Him glory because He's going to use it. to touch people's lives in the day that we live right here right now we just got to keep that in mind because i i know like for my own sake it it we i i can look at things and i can look back at things and i can say boy i sure felt like maybe god used me more here than he did here or he was doing more here than he did there or or we did more here back then than we do today Well, the key is, is just evaluating, of looking, well, am I in tune with the Spirit? Am I listening to Him? Do I feel like I'm following His leadership? If I am, whether it's more significant today or even in the past, it's important to do what He called me to do today, right here. No matter how little it looks or how big it may seem, if it's the way of God and it's the will of God, something that we need to rejoice over and praise God for amen and he will bless it and use it to influence and impact this kingdom it's amazing how number one that God would even use this isn't it think about it for a minute I mean he's using you and he's using me that's an amazing thought that he would desire and delight to use any of us and he does number two It's an amazing thing that he can use something so little and so simple that we do to have an influence or an impact on somebody else's life. And how that can be used by him, that one little seed, that one little seed planted, the harvest that may come off of that one seed. We have no idea. Amen? We really have no idea. simple see today of going now we looked in second corinthians of how paul kept referencing how It was on the account of the other people when they would go and minister, messengers from the churches. The seed that was planted today, we don't know the harvest that's still yet to come off of that, that you have fellowship with and partnership with. The little stories, I preached out of Judges. Have I ever preached out of Judges chapter 331 about Shamgar here? Have I ever told y'all about Shamgar? I preached about Shamgar, he was a deliverer. One verse about him in the Old Testament. Scripture says that Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad and delivered Israel. That's all it says. Shamgar the son of Anath slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad and delivered Israel. You've heard me say this before, he did what he could with what he had for the glory of God. Well, I teach those principles out of that passage of scripture and shared it with this church this morning. And just what can we do? What can we use? Are we doing it for the glory of God? And I just shared there was a lot of gray heads out there. And there was a lot of young people. There was kids and children, mix of everything. Church full. You don't know if you could have put anybody else in there. And I shared with several of them, I said, we got a lady out in our community, 76 years old. Am I right? Is it 76, Mama Ron? I was shocked by two. I think they would have done flips in the aisle if I said 78. I said, she goes and goes and goes. I mean, she washes clothes, she irons clothes, she waters plants, she feeds, she this, she that. She feeds dogs and cats and horses and walks them and this and that every day. such as doing what she can with what she has for the glory of god a man never know that a little bc what it might do to to that young boy young girl maybe that more senior adult who who's been palin rather than praise that it's easy to get in a row it you can't do what you used to do bush and it's promising things you can't do that you used to be daven he's getting older has promised some things that we can't do that he used to do but he can do more things that he used to not be able to do so we can do something right just use what you got for the glory of god and this is the same thing he's telling his people that don't despise the day of small things may not seem a lot to you but it's what i'm doing do what you can with what you got and he'll use it. Amen? For his glory. Well, amen. Anybody have anything you want to add or say or shout about before we go? You know, and I said those things not to boast and mama Rob, but to encourage somebody else that may have just needed a little pride You know, what did Shamgar, if you looked at that, it's Judges 331, what did he use to overthrow 600 Philistines? He used an ox goad. An ox goad was a simple stick that had a point on the end of it that would poke and penetrate an old stubborn ox. Kind of like a modern day hot shot. Made them get up and move. Sometimes we need to be prodded with the gold to get up and move. New Testament refers to it like this. Remember when Jesus came to Paul and he said, Saul, Saul, it's hard to kick against the gold, isn't it? Hurts, painful to rebel, kick against what God's wanting to do in your life today. Sometimes we need to prod him.