Take your Bibles tonight. We're gonna go to our series Ezra chapter 3 verses 1 to 6 and Kind of ran the batteries out of this thing here tonight, but we are going to preach about restoring worship Ezra chapter 3 verses 1 to 6 we learned some lessons from a list of names and Last week, and I hope you remember that you don't just pass over the genealogies. There can be some nuggets in there, some truths that we need to dig in and find from God's word. So we're going to get into one of the most important months of the worship of Israel. Amen. The seventh month. And we'll talk a little bit about what's going on there in that month and how important it is to restore worship. So we're talking about restoring worship, and we need to do that in our personal lives and in a public way as well. And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and his brethren, the priest, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the feast of the tabernacles as it is written and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the custom as the duty of every day required. And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons And of all the set feast of the Lord that were consecrated and of everyone that willingly offered a free will offering unto the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. Let's ask the Lord to bless our time together. Father, again tonight, we want to thank you for this passage of scripture. We want to thank you, Lord, how you call us to restore worship as well in our lives and in our church, in this nation. Father, help us to learn some lessons out of this passage tonight. Thank you for the leadership of these men, the priest and Zerubbabel and men of God. And thank you that they follow the word of God. And we're faithful to do what you called them to do. Father, we want to be found faithful as well. We know we live in a world of opposition. We have many enemies on the outside of this church trying to destroy the work of God here in this country, trying to destroy churches and preachers. Father, we see it around the world. We see it encroaching upon us as well. So, Father, tonight, we just want to make that vow that we would be faithful until the end, we would stand like these men of God and stand strong and stand up and be counted for you. So help us, Lord, to have that courage, to have that boldness. And we know it comes from your Holy Spirit in us. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, just think about this group of people as we see they came a thousand miles back. They were in that foreign land. And you think about their time away, living thousands of miles away in a cultural and religious setting that was so worldly and pagan and drastically different from their own. Plus, they were living in oppression in that land. They had to learn to think, act, and even worship as that other godless culture. And that's a sad thing, you know, and that's, isn't that the sin nature of man? You know, when you start drifting from the Lord, our nature is to pull us down and make us like the world. Not bring them up, but when you get away from God's house, get away from God's worship, you're just on a downward spiral. That's where they were. There were some, though, that went to that captivity of 70 years who knew true worship. They knew the presence of God. They knew the power of God in worship, but they were a dying breed. I don't know if you know that there was generations of preachers in this land that Some of them were great heroes to me and mentors. They're with the Lord now, they're gone. They passed on. And we are a new generation and the generation in which we're living is a generation characterized more by apostasy than by faithfulness unto the Lord. So you had these men also that were dying off, and I don't know how many were even left. It'd be interesting. I'm sure we can come to that. Maybe there were a handful that were able to make it back and instruct them, right, on the true model of worship. And so they tried to pass that on, but remember, that they couldn't worship in that foreign land. We read Psalm 137. Remember at the beginning of this, how that the people requiring them to song unto the Lord and they hung up their harps. They couldn't sing unto the Lord in that foreign land. And so when they got back, we know there's many difficulties. You know, everything's burned down and weeds and overgrown and But we find what they did today in this passage, what they did in that when they first got there, what did they do? They wanted to restore worship because it has been neglected so long. We thank the Lord that we have instructions here for us, even today, to restore worship in our lives or reorder the worship in our lives. Think about Israel, what they lost in that time. They had no place to worship. The house of God was gone. Psalm 137, as I mentioned, gives a good summary of their emotions, how they felt, what flooded their hearts while they were in exile. It's interesting, important to kind of get that context of how they were feeling over there. There was no place of worship. There was no practice of worship. There was no feast days, no holy days, and there were no sacrifices. Everything was just as a fading dream. Remember, they talked about that dream. There was no propitiation for worship. They didn't have the altar. They didn't have the temple. They could not atone for their sins because God met them in that holy place on that day of atonement and the Holy of Holies on the mercy seat. And that was gone. That Holy of Holies was gone. We're going to see that all restored, but not yet. What's the first thing they do? We see here in our text the prerequisites to worship. And I see here in the Word of God, verse 1, And when the seventh month was come, the children of Israel were in the cities. They were in the cities. They had settled, remember in chapter 2, they settled in the cities You have that all listed here, the places throughout Judah. So they knew, here they are coming back about 50,000 and now they had all these neighbors and wondering, okay, what are they coming back for? And what are they here to do? And obviously they would raise the hackles of those nations around them. But they had to leave their home now. They had to leave their homes by faith and trust God. Amen. They had to trust God that he's going to protect them. And as they go to Jerusalem and restore worship, God had to protect their homes. They were living among the enemies. And so they had to trust the Lord, just like they did when he promised them in Exodus 34, when he promised to protect them. Amen. There's a promise way back, and they had to exercise that faith. I think it's the same as the principle that we see today. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. That's the principle of faith We need to operate on the same principle. We need to trust God. We need to put him first and We need to know that yes, if we put him first he is going to take care of our lives. He is going to provide Everything that we need and they had to trust him it requires faith, but We also, as you mentioned in our singing tonight, in our testimony time, it requires unity. Not only faith, but unity. Amen. We heard some verses, heard some testimonies. It says in verse one, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. There's a whole emphasis of unity in this chapter. Don't miss that. How important is unity? Verse one, they gathered together. Verse nine, the Bible says that the sons of Judah together set to set forward the workmen in the house of God. And so there they are in verse nine together as one man, they work together. Verse 11, they sang together. Amen. There was unity in the work. There was unity in their worship. There was unity in their praise. And you can see we're going to see throughout this chapter, not tonight, but as we develop this chapter about building the foundation of the temple of God, that they all had different tasks. They all had different responsibilities, but they even in those responsibilities, there's only one goal. That is to glorify the Lord and rebuild his work, to work for him. Brethren, that's the church. That's a picture of the church. We are called to be one. In fact, Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians 2, verse 2, make my joy complete by being like-minded. Amen. It brings joy not only to one another, but to God that we are like minded. He says having the same love. Amen. Having being one in spirit and purpose. We need to be one in spirit and one in purpose. So these are the prerequisites to worship requires faith. Are you willing to step out? and trust God and put him first. Are you willing also to be unified and to really be under this banner of God's glory and the work of God? Make that one purpose in your life for the church, for the glory of God. Number two, we see in this passage as well, the priest or the preachers of worship. As with everything, there needs to be leadership. That's something that's important, and we need to keep that before us. It says in verse 2, So the priest, the preachers had to stand up and be counted for God. Jeshua was the high priest. He's the son of Josedach. Josedach was the son of Saraiah, who was the high priest at the time when the Babylonian captivity took place in 1 Chronicles 6. And so we see that Josedach had died and Saraiah Um, now Jeshua, the son comes on. Amen. Praise God for that. And how we need, you know, replacements. We need our families. I'm really concerned about surrender to the ministry, call to preach, call to minister. That's what we need today. We need a generation of preachers. We need a generation of young people to surrender to God and go into the ministry. Yes, it has to be the will of God, but God does the calling and he's faithful. He's he does that. It's that we're not answering. That's the problem. So here's a son. Here's one of the preachers. We see his duty. Get this thing. We see his duty. as the priest, as the minister of God, but we see his dedication. He stood up. We need to be counted for God and we need to work for God. He built the altar. This is dedication. Again, These men had to be faithful in their spirit. They had to be fervent in their spirit. They had to be fearless because, again, they're doing it in the midst of enemies. It's not like everyone's cheering them on and supporting them in this work. No. They were doing this. There were so many non Israelites who dwelt in the land and who oppose. You're going to see opposition in the work of God. Let me tell you something. You want to do something for God? You want to stand up for God? You want to be faithful to God? There's going to be opposition. It's not it's not if it's when there will be opposition. So we see a man who is fulfilling his duties, who's dedicated. And that's the same that we need today. Number three, we see the priority of worship. This is in this context. I want you to see they're making it a priority. You see, they didn't even have the temple yet. But what are they going to do? The first thing they're going to do is build an altar. The first thing they're going to do is restore worship. And I think of, you know, reading back, you read about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the first things they did was build altars under the Lord. They built altars under God. That's worship. And they realized this, they could still worship the Lord, whether they had a temple or not. And that's where We need to understand the priorities in our lives. We as a church, we don't depend, and I want to put everything in context, on this building or a bigger building. The church is not the building. And I know we want to glorify the Lord by having a bigger building and a better building, but that isn't the church. That's not gonna make us more holy. That's not gonna make us more spiritual. And that's not gonna, you know, what God wants from us is what we see here. A priority to worship him. And we see some of this priority play out here. And I want you to see some things about worship that we need to focus in on in our lives. Number one, worship requires work. Worship is work. You know, it's not just, okay, let's just throw this together. No. We need to seek the Lord. We need to seek direction. We need to seek the Holy Spirit and leadership in the word of God and be filling our lives with the word of God and having God's mind on these things and direction and wisdom to preach his word. We come together. We're here in the services. We want it to be God honoring in our services. We want the order to be God honoring. We want to do things that please the Lord, you know, and sometimes it doesn't match up with the traditions like one, two, three. It doesn't matter. That's, you know, it's we don't have to be said in the same thing every day and every Sunday and every service. I'm not saying be disorderly, but brethren, we need to worship God in spirit and in truth. And sometimes it's just not, you know, traditional in the sense of not music or anything, but The way we order our services, sometimes it becomes dry and dull and, you know, no one responds. No one's saying anything. No one's opening their mouth and praising God. And that's not pleasing unto him. So that's why we change a few things from time to time where you can stand up and praise God, where you can worship the Lord with your lips and you can be a part of this. There's just little things like that. Maybe our prayer lives, you know, the prayers of the church isn't what it ought to be. And maybe we need to change that order and do some other things to make God happy with us and please him more. So all these things require work, amen? And that's what these men were about. Verses two and three, they built the altar of God to offer burnt offerings. It is written in the law of Moses the end of verse 2 they set the altar upon its bases his bases So brethren All of this requires work, but yes, it requires the word aren't you thankful we don't have to Make things up We don't have to follow the world and and And that's the thing, you know, sometimes when I was in Africa and you look around, okay, and you look at all these other churches and they're all the same and they're doing the same things. but things like crazy things, you know, like, you know, everyone's speaking in gibberish and everyone does that in the service and, you know, and women are up front and prophesying and all these churches were pretty much all the same. And I'm like, and, and, you know, and then you got these guys, well, I want my church, you know, like this is a job, you know, a vocation, I want my church. And so they're going to make it just like these churches. Why? Because they had no knowledge of the Word of God. You preach to them that women ought not to be pastors and preachers, and they just look at you and they hear you, but they don't hear you, even though you're preaching it right out of the Bible. And so, you know, everything we do should be out of the Word of God. And it should be a foundation in the word of God. And that's what these men were doing. They were going back as it was written in the law of Moses, the man of God. So our worship, yes, it requires work, but it should be according to the word. And too much churches let the world dictate what the church does, not the word. Let's not program our ministry by looking out around and seeing how everyone else is doing it. Let's say, what did Jesus do? What did the apostles do? What's the word of God teach us about worship and singing and praising? Let's follow God's word. Amen. So it requires work. When they set that altar upon his bases, they had to dig. They had to dig around and find the original foundation where that altar was located. And they built on that foundation. Amen. They want it to be right there. And they built the new one. That's what they did. They built the new one on that foundation. And this altar, like the brazen altar, was located outside the temple. OK, this was outside the temple. Therefore, it was not necessary for them to build up the temple and have everything before they could worship. Amen. And that's what I believe, like us as a church, what God's working on me. And I hope you understand. in the proper context is. Brethren, we're called to reach people for Christ. We're called to bring people in the church, whether we have a big building or not. Let's get busy and do the work of God. And if we're faithful in doing that, God will meet our needs if we just grow out of this building. Amen. Let's try to do that. So let's not get caught up in the fact Maybe there's a test here. God wants to know what we're going to do in that test. Are we going to be faithful to him? Are we going to get discouraged and, you know, kind of lose course because we don't have a new building or $3 million? You understand what I'm saying? Let's seek God and not a building, let's seek God and not money. And in seeking God, he will bless us. Amen. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things will be added. So I trust that you can learn as well. Put your eyes on the Lord in the midst of difficult times and trials and setbacks. If not, we're just going to be spinning our wheels anyway. I don't want to do that. Amen. So I was talking to my wife, you know, on the way over here, we got to get busy. We got to get out and preach the word and get, get people, uh, get them the gospel, see people saved and bring them in the church. I mean, that's what we're called to do. So let's get busy. Amen. I thank the Lord for that. So this worship requires work requires the word. It requires witness. In this sense, look at what it says here. Verse three. And they set the altar upon his basis for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries for fear was upon them. And this is actually meaning. And I hope you can see this by their spirit and what I laid out before this. The word is speaking of, though there's fear. They did it. In spite of fear, they did it. You see, they didn't let the fear keep them from God, serving God and building the altar and worshiping God. Brethren. Oh, they didn't do it because they feared the people. Amen. They did it in spite of the fear. And they were a witness. They didn't cower to the fact that they were in a hostile neighborhood. And I thank God for preachers. I did mention last week, and I failed to even do anything that I thought I may do in the service, but there were preachers all over this country, maybe some independent Baptists, maybe not all independent Baptists, but they took a stand and they made a statement in their churches about that law that was passed in Canada And they made it clear, that's in that news out there for you to pick up and read as a family, one per family, if you will, so we get them around, that we see it coming to America. And so as we see it coming to America, we must understand they're coming after the churches. They're coming after the preachers. They're gonna try to start passing laws that we cannot counsel people to remain, to, to, to, uh, not become a homosexual, uh, to not change your gender identity. They're going to be coming after us for preaching the truth, but we have to be like these folks right here. We need to be a witness in spite of the fear. Amen. We need to stand up and preach the word of God. And even if they put us in jail, we'll be in good company. Like Jeremiah the prophet and Daniel and the apostles. I think we'll be in good company if we preach the truth, not because we're looking for trouble, but because we're preaching the truth and we're not going to back down from anyone. No government. No officials, doesn't matter who they are. Presidents, kings, monarchs. We're gonna preach the truth no matter what. That means paying a price. But you're gonna be a witness. They were a witness. You know, the witness is the word martyr in the Greek. That's the actual word. Literally, martyr. So all of this, all this opposition, we'll see it coming on in chapter four in the book of Nehemiah as well, should not deter us from the work of God for God is all powerful and he will be honored in all the opposition. Amen. So we see this here, the priority. Don't worry, it's only 10 points. We're on number four. Joking. The propitiation of worship. Brethren, when we think of worship, let us think of this sacrifice. Sacrifice. There is no worship without sacrifice. Look what they did. Verse number three. And they set the altar upon his basis for fear was upon them because of the people of these those countries. And they offered burnt offerings there unto their own unto the Lord, even burnt offerings. Look what it says there. Morning and evening. Verse four, they kept also the Feast of Tabernacles as it is written. You see, they had to go back to the word of God. as it is written. The altar was for burnt offerings and sacrifices. You cannot worship God apart from sacrificing. And aren't you thankful today that worship is possible because of the greatest sacrifice of all? And that greatest sacrifice of all is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. And these burnt offerings foreshadow his death in his offering. Amen. So we have the true sacrifice book of Hebrews. And. We must understand, brethren, that this all this worship requires sacrifice. Listen from you. From you. See, it was the people who provided the offerings. You understand? When you come to God, you come with that sacrifice. There's no difference today in what God wants from us. It requires steadfastness. Why? It says, burn offerings when? Verse three, the last part, mourning. And evening, verse four, they kept also the feast of the tabernacles as it is written and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the custom as the duty of every day required. and afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons and all of the set feast of the Lord that were consecrated and of everyone that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. So this is a steadfast thing, brethren. Don't think this is a one day a week thing. That's where we understand This is religion. This is, you know, a lot of denominational churches, a one day a week service. And, you know, let me just do my time at church and go on with my life. This was a daily thing, morning and evening. This was an everyday occasion as prescribed by the word of God. This isn't something that they just came up with. You know, we want to put these burdens on you. No, God said, I want you every day to sacrifice. I want you to bring your offerings every day. I want you to put me first every day. Are we steadfast? Are we sacrificed? It requires surrender. Obviously surrender of everything that we possess. unto the Lord, knowing that He's the one that blessed us anyway, amen? Because it says here, they did it willingly. Amen? That's a surrender of your will unto God. Verse 5, afterward offered, continue burnt off in both of the new moons and all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and have everyone that willingly offered a free will offering to the Lord. Brethren, Here's my opinion. 10% is the Lord's. The tithe is the Lord's. Above that is what you give. Please understand me. The tithe is already His. Above that is when we start giving. Willingly. And that's why, you know, we believe in missions and It makes a distinction in our church because we give above the tithe to send missionaries around the world. But we give, you know, we have other offerings. Thank the Lord. And I'm not getting on anyone, but I'm just saying, keep it in the right perspective. It's above the tithe is when we really give into the Lord. Amen. We have those opportunities when we have, you know, benevolence fund and end of the month offering, we're gonna get that going. I keep forgetting about it, but next week is the 30th and next week is our benevolence offering. Amen. Keep that fund filled up and so that we can bless others. So it's a surrender. And when we get before the Lord, when he comes back for us and we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, God's going to look at all of our motivations, brethren. Why do we do what we do? So let's do it out of love. Let us do it willingly unto the Lord. Let's sacrifice, surrender our wills unto him and do it out of devotion, willingly speaks of that devotion. Amen. Just that affection you said upon the Lord. Sacrifice, steadfastness, surrender, and last of all. Submission. In what? They had to go back to the Word of God and learn the Word of God and say, you know what? We need to do it just as Moses told us. We need to do it as it is written, verse four. And according, it says, to the custom. Amen. According to the custom, verse four, as the duty of every day required. They kept the feast, brethren, according to the commands of the word of God. The seventh month. That's what we're talking about. Verse one. And then when the seventh month was come, this was an important month. The seventh month, according to their calendar, was late fall. It included one of three major feasts that all male Israelites were required to attend, according to Deuteronomy 16, 16. This feast here is the feast of the tabernacles that we're going to get into. And the other two feasts that were required was the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring and the Feast of Weeks in the early fall. During this particular feast, the people live for seven days in booths. It'd be like, okay, brethren, bring your tents. We're gonna go out back here and have an old fashioned revival week. You're gonna stay in your tents and we're just gonna worship God out here in the prairie. Preacher, you're crazy. That's what they did. Because they submitted unto God. and they knew how important it was to humble themselves, even when it cost them luxury and comfort and sacrifice in their personal life. That's the principle, brethren. God taught them. But as they sat in those booths, what were they remembering? Oh, I think it was not missionary that we support, But I just read a testimony of a missionary over, the wife of a missionary over in Ghana, Africa, and she said, and I don't have all the words, it was very good, but it went something like, they lost their lights, okay? And as she sat in the darkness, she just sat there and thanked God for everything that she had. and just thought of every goodness of God and all the blessings of God that she did have, not focusing on the fact that she didn't have lights at the time. And that's what this exercise was. They had to sit in these booths, and they had to remember, remember the days when God Bless them and protect them during the exodus and all the wilderness journeys. That's what this was about to the promised land that God loves and cares for his people. He overshadows them during times of hardship. Remember how God bore them up on eagles wings and carried them. And as they sat there, it spoke to their hearts. And they remembered these blessings of God. And then they could say they identified, look, we just came a thousand miles and look what God did and God brought us back here and God protected us and God provided for us and God is giving us this opportunity to worship him again. And they were thankful. Amen. Think about us. A person who truly believes in the Lord is given a permanent relationship with him. God's spirit is placed within his heart, giving assurance of God's presence, his love, his care, his guidance, his protection, his provision. As a result, the believer worships the Lord. praising him and seeking strength to conquer all that the trials and temptations of life may bring. And the genuine believer develops his relationship with the Lord through both personal and public worship. Brethren, that's why we are admonished and we should be to worship God personally. And you say, well, how do you do that? You do it in your time with him alone in the word. through personal Bible study, through personal prayer. Amen. Isn't that what God tells us? Just like those continual morning and evening sacrifices, you take time before the Lord morning and evening, if that's what God leads you to do. David said morning, noon and night. Daniel prayed three times a day, man. Jesus. Set the example, the apostles as well. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Study, to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing psalms. Amen. So what does that word say about personal worship? These are just how many? Probably four verses out of a hundred. Amen. What does the word say about public worship? Why do we come together? Because God tells us to come together. The Bible says very clearly, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves. together as the man of some is but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching brethren Jesus is coming back. You don't we don't want to be less faithful. We want to be more faithful. Amen. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering. Come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Let us stand.