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Turn to Ezra chapter 5 Ezra chapter 5 the title of my sermon is revive us again and we're going to speak here from Ezra chapter 5 and That sacrifice that took place there nearly 2,000 years ago on Calvary is the only thing that God has ever accepted for the remission of sins Now I want you to think about something. He died to pay my sin debt. If you're saved, He died to pay your sin debt. And He had to die just to pay for one sinner's sin debt. That's the penalty. God put all of your sin on Him. And He died. And that sacrifice, the Bible says, no greater love hath a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. He laid down his life for his friends, not for righteous men, not for good men, but for ungodly men. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so he laid his life down and Isaac Watts wrote, he said, that demands my all, my soul, my all. That's what it demands. It doesn't demand four hours a week sitting in a pew. It demands our all. That's what it demands. So let's think about that as we read tonight. We're going to read verses 1 through 5, and we'll take a look at what the Lord has for us here. This is number 9 sermon. Again, I had intended to preach one per chapter, and here we are, chapter 5, and we're on the 9th sermon. So it happens, doesn't it? But verse 1 it says then the prophets notice that word then That this is from the end of chapter 4 to the end of or to the beginning chapter 5 is 20 years remember we said that so after It says after the King Artaxerxes sent the letter the enemies of God went down and stopped the work by force and power, and there were also inward hindrances, and the work was stopped. And time went by, and it says for 20 years they had been dealt with opposition, and then the work stopped. And we said the work stopped, it was like seven months or something of that nature. Because King Artaxerxes, he's the third king and he only reigned for a short while, and then Darius comes in. King Darius comes in. So in verse 1 it says, Then the prophets Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Josadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them. At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side of the river, and Shethar Bosnai, and their companions, and said thus unto them." Two people we haven't even heard from in chapter 4, so two more. And Satan's got just a plethora of people he'll stir up to oppose the work of God. Just a plethora of them. Just a whole bunch. And he don't send them all at once, does he? So here's two more. individuals named and their companions. And said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house and to make up this wall? Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building? But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease. Oh, how things had changed. that they could not cause them to cease till the matter came to Darius, and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter." Again, our title of our sermon is Revive Us Again. Now, here we are in the fifth chapter. And I want you to look briefly to chapter 1. God had already revived them. Remember there, they were in the land of Babylon. They were under the Persian reign. The Persians had taken over from Babylon. God had given them the empire. And He stirred up the heart of Cyrus, and Cyrus made a proclamation. And in verse 1, the Bible tells us, Here it says, 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, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also into writing. And you know what it was. He said, the Jews, whoever wants to go back, they can go and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. And I want you to notice, if you look down in verse 5, it says, Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. So God had already revived them, hadn't He? And they went back, and they had some opposition, and they had some difficulties within themselves, and they needed to be revived again. That song is so fitting, isn't it? For the Christian warfare and our pilgrimage. We need God to revive us again and again. I only need to be saved once. But you know, it's kind of like life. Sometimes we need to be resuscitated, if you would. Our spirits need to be stirred up time and again. We're so prone to wander, aren't we? We're so prone to get away from doing the Lord's work. And the work here had had opposition for 20 years, and then it ceased for a few months. I think it was just a little while. It wasn't really long in the whole scheme of things, but the work had stopped, and this happens in the Lord's work today as well. The Lord's work stopped, it ceases, being left off, being built, for one reason or another. Remember, they had outward opposition, but they also had inward hindrances. You and I have the same problem, don't we? Remember we said we studied the Lord's church, Sunday school, how they had been threatened? Our problem is we have the fear that we might get threatened. And we hold back, don't we? Or we have a fear that maybe our kinfolk might not talk to us, or our friends or family might not talk to us. Maybe they'll cut us off. You ever think the Lord might save them? The Lord might add them to the work? Boy, wouldn't that be a joyous occasion. Why do we always come at it from the negative side? You ever notice that? So, I want to note, first of all, that revival took place. A revival took place. There in verse 1, the Bible tells us, and I want you to notice verse 2, first of all, I apologize, verse 2, it says, Then rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God. Notice that first word, then. You know what the word then means? It means afterward. So, afterward, rose up Zerubbabel and Jesuit, began to build the house of God. What did that come after? Well, verse 2 comes after verse 1, doesn't it? Well, verse 1 tells us the prophets. Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, what did they do? Prophesied. Prophesied. You know what they did? They preached the word of God, didn't they? They preached the Word of the Lord and God gave the increase. The Bible tells us, we don't have here where it says that God stirred their spirits, but that's exactly what took place, isn't it? The Word of God was declared. See, he used in chapter 1, he used a pagan king to make a proclamation And he also stirred up the spirits of the people, and then here, he used the prophets of God. You know what your preacher and your pastor does? Declares the Word of God. You know what the prophets did? Declared the Word of God. You see, God's always used His Word to stir up His people. I'm not talking about a warm sensation, a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm talking about our spirits being stirred. And He only stirs the Spirit to do His work. You ever hear people talk about, oh, well, the Spirit this and the Spirit that, and well, this is what the Spirit told me to do. And it's not even in the Bible. That's not the Holy Spirit stirring people to do that. You remember how that the Lord, the Bible said that there in Acts chapter 8, and let me read it in your hearing. Acts chapter 8, we find that there was Philip, and he was there, and the Bible says that the angel of the Lord spake to Philip and told him to head toward the south. And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, and it says in verse 29, Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. You ever had the spirit of the Lord tell you to go and talk to somebody? He doesn't tell you in an audible voice, does he? His spirit speaks with your spirit. That's exactly what happened here, is that the Word of God was declared, the prophets prophesied in the name of the God of Israel even unto them. They preached the words of the Lord and God gave the increase. That's the order of events. That's always the order of events. You want to know why some churches have gotten away from doing mission work in their own churches, in their own neighborhoods? Because the pastors aren't preaching the Great Commission anymore. They're not being stirred up to do the Lord's work. They're getting told, well, God's going to save whom He's going to save. Well, you know how He saves them? He begets them with the Word of God, doesn't He? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And how shall they hear, except a preacher be sent?" Isn't that what Scripture tells us? It hasn't changed. You see, God's people need to go to work on His house. So what is a revival? Remember we said that a revival took place. Well, what's a revival? A revival is getting back to the work of the Lord. There used to be things called revival meetings. And you know, you hope there's a revival. And they'd have services and you know, folks might walk the aisle and different things. That's not a revival. A revival is when the Lord moves in the heart and life and moves in the spirit of His children and His church that they begin to give back to the work of the Lord that was once involved in. That's a revival. We come into the services, oh what a great sermon that was. And then we leave. We have conferences, we have meetings, there's revival services, and we don't get back or start up the Lord's work. I've been to Bible conferences. Boy, that was great. Can't wait to get home and put this into practice, and I get home and I gotta go back to work, and then nothing changes. Happened for years. I don't like it. A revival is a renewed or refreshed spirit within us to start where we had once left off, building the house of God. I wish zeal was contagious. What I found out in the years of my ministry is that it's not contagious. Rather, it gets drowned out, doesn't it? You know, they say, you know, a fire will start a fire in another place. Well, it does, but I found out that usually over here, they're so wet, you can't ignite them, they end up quenching the fire in another person. That ought not to stop us from having some zeal for the Lord. Now you notice here, they had become stagnant. They did not stop in their personal lives, just in the building of the house of God. Remember Haggai said, why is it you dwell in your finished, sealed houses, but the house of God lies in waste? Why is that? Beloved, have you ever become stagnant spiritually? Well, I have. And it takes the power of God to get moving again. It's easy to become stagnant and complacent, but it takes the power of God to get that, if you'll pardon the expression, get that ball rolling again. I'd like you to notice here that this was done by the prophesying and preaching of Haggai and Zechariah the prophet. The Bible says in verse 1, Then the prophets Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. You ever notice how God raised up prophets when the people of God weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing? You ever notice that? When was Isaiah the prophet? During the times of the kings? How closely were they serving God? Not very well. How about Jeremiah? Jeremiah was the prophet who prophesied their doom. They put him in a dungeon for it. Turn over and forward to the book of Haggai. Just for a minute, we're just going to look at some of the things he said and I want you to notice. some of the things that Haggai and Zacharias said. Boy, I tell you, if you get a chance this week or over the weekend and before we come back to the house of God Wednesday night, I'd encourage you to read over these books just a little bit. I'm going to give you some Nate's notes instead of Cliff's notes. I'm going to give you some Nate's notes about these books here. And I want you to notice this. that their prophesying and preaching got down into the everyday lives of the children of Israel. Well, I tell you, there's people today who say, well, you can't tell me what to do. That's your problem because you won't let God tell you what to do. You don't realize that the prophets were the mouthpiece of God and that God's pastors are His mouthpiece today preaching the Word of the Lord. Folks don't recognize that. They don't recognize that God gave His church's pastors to lead them and to watch over them. And that's not just a business meeting and to facilitate where things ought to go and money is supposed to be spent. That's talking about watching over sheep. You see, a shepherd doesn't just run a shepherding business, he tends to the sheep individually in his flock. I'd like you to notice here, I don't want to re-read all of it, but in Haggai chapter 1, verses 3-11, Haggai, well actually the Lord chastens them through the preaching of Haggai. He says, why is it you dwell in your nice sealed up houses, but God's house lies in waste? And he tells me, he says, you know why you've planted all this, you've sown much, but you bring in little? You know why you've tried doing all this business and stuff, but none of it comes to anything? Because you've neglected the house of God. And there's people that'll go home, they'll look in their bank account and say, I'm doing alright. How's your spiritual bank account? How's that doing? Remember what John wrote to Gaius? He said, Oh, I wish that your physical was as good as your spiritual. Is your spiritual the highest aspect of your life or is it your physical? Some people's spiritual's on life support. Been that way for years. Need to be revived. Chapter 2, let's read verse 4 and 5 of Haggai. Haggai 2, verse 4, it says, notice he says, Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedec, the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work. For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. Can you imagine me standing here calling out brethren and sisters from the pulpit? I'd tell you, people would be madder in the wet hand, wouldn't they? You start naming people and say, you need to be strong in the Lord. But that's exactly what Haggai did. That's what God's doing to you that are here tonight. He is naming you and calling you out by name to serve Him. Verse 5 says, here he is exhorting them. This is just an exhortation. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not. You know what hadn't left them those 20 years of opposition? The Lord. He said, I've been with you since I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I made a covenant with you and I never departed from you. You know, God's been with you ever since He saved you. He made a covenant between Himself that He would save you and He would never leave you nor forsake you. He said, though your mother deny you or forsake you, I won't. That's a great exhortation, isn't it? Look at chapter 2 verse 10. He says here, In the fourth and twentieth day of the ninth month and the second year, of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the priest concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer is unclean. Haggai told the people, because God gave it to him, he said, You've got a problem, with separated, consecrated living in the nation of Israel. And folks say, well, there's a problem with that in the United States. There's a problem with it in the Lord's church. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Touch not the unclean thing. Come out from among her and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord. Isn't that what the Bible teaches? Didn't brother 4 tell us to abstain from all appearance of evil? Not just abstain from all evil, but the appearance of it is what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Haggai tells the people, he says you got a problem with being separated in your living. You're not living like children of Israel are supposed to live. You're not living as brother Crowder has brought out time and again in the Psalms, according to the Word of the Lord, according to the commandment, according to the statutes, according to the law. That's the problem, isn't it? We don't do those things in order to be saved. We follow His Word because we are saved. Because He loved us and He gave Himself for us and He separated us. So Haggai tells him, boy, I tell you, he got right down into it, didn't he? He didn't leave any rock unturned. We'll go over in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 1, and again, I'm just giving you some points here to look at. Zechariah chapter 1, here Zechariah preaches in chapter 1, and here he warns the people. He warns them. And I want to start here in verse 4. Just for time's sake. Notice this verse 2, real quick. The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Boy, He sure was, wasn't He? He wasn't just displeased, He was sore displeased to the point that God brought in Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple. I'll give you this. Israel already destroyed the temple from within long before Nebuchadnezzar showed up. When they began to worship Baal and not worship God in spirit and in truth, disregarded His Word, that's the same thing that happens to the Lord's churches. We get destroyed from within. He said, O God, the Lord hath been sort as pleased with your fathers. Verse 4, Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, turning out from your evil ways, and from your evil doings, but they did not hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us. They responded. They said, listen, God was displeased with your fathers. They did evil. He sent prophets and they ignored them. And you're doing the same thing. You're about to go down that same path. He says, your fathers, where are they? Well, they were destroyed, weren't they? Your fathers, where are they? Well, they're scattered through the Persian Empire. Zechariah chapter 7. Zechariah chapter 7. I don't want to read this entire chapter, but I want you to notice here that he rebukes their formalism in worship. You ever come into the house of the Lord, say hi to everybody, sing some hymns, hear the preaching, take some notes, and then get up and leave? And you didn't worship the Lord? We call it going through the motions. God calls it a sin. Zechariah 7 verse 4, Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even though it was seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion to every man to his brother. and oppressed not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor. And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone. lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of Hosts has set in His Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts. Therefore it has come to pass that as He cried, and they would not hear, so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts. but I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned for they laid the pleasant land desolate. God says they had a form of worship. And so I did this to them. We have a form of worship today? We more concerned about the outside of the cup than the inside of the cup? Then I want you to notice here, Zechariah chapter 3, we already referenced this, but Zechariah chapter 3 verse 1, And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Remember, we referenced that. We said that Joshua, the high priest, he was the spiritual leader of the people, right? Remember we said God's pastors are the spiritual leaders of His churches? Satan's standing at my right hand. Remember? He's right here to resist me. Haggai and Zechariah's prophesying got into the everyday lives of the people God knew his people didn't He knows me, and he knows you And he raised up these prophets, and he told them what the problem was And you know the only time God mentioned outward opposition Zechariah chapter 3 verse 1 Satan standing at the right hand, Josh, you know what all the other times, all the other things God mentioned to Israel was? Themselves. He said, through the preaching of the Word of God, God said, the problem, Israel, is you. You know what the problem is? It's our flesh. It's us. The Lord took care of Satan. And all the other issues were the people themselves. Inward hindrances were far more dangerous and caustic than the outward one was. See, we're our own worst enemy. And this kind of preaching that Haggai and Zechariah did, God's people today don't like it. They flat out don't like it. They want to be told. They want to hear just, oh, we need doctrine. No, we need preaching that the Holy Spirit uses to stir people up and do the Lord's work. I've said for years that we have preached the doctrines of grace incorrectly. If you get done preaching the doctrines of grace and the people are not wanting to go and preach the gospel to their neighbors, you have preached it incorrectly. Every doctrine has a practical ending in glorifying Jesus Christ. Every one. And until you get back to Christ and what took place at Calvary, you have not reached the origin of that doctrine. The Lord took care of Satan. And he was preaching, he was teaching, he was telling God's people and they came. Haggai and Zechariah. They came in the name of Jehovah. I want to ask you tonight. We've had some messages of late. How about those messages on Bethesda? How about the messages in Psalm 119 that brother Crowder has been laboring in? How about the messages from Brother Timothy John while he was here? Remember that one? Twenty-one things we need to do knowing the Lord is coming again. How about that one? We've been doing them? How about our Baptist church messages? Messages on the church history? As of late, how about the respectable sins? How about judgment to come? The last few Sunday nights on judgment to come and then Sunday night last, the first of the five crowns on the incorruptible crown. How about Wednesday night on to build the house of God? What are all these for? So we can have just a greater head knowledge of Scriptures? No! The purpose of them is that we might rise up and begin to build the house of God. That's the purpose. In Ezra chapter 5 and verse 2, I'd like you to note secondly, that they rose up and built. Notice again, God does the stirring. It doesn't say. That's not mentioned here, but we already know that's what He does from chapter 1, don't we? How about when Jesus walked there by the seashore, and He called Simon, Peter, and Andrew. He says, follow Me. What'd they do? They left their debts and they followed Him, didn't they? How about when He called James and John the sons of Zebedee? They were sitting there in Matthew 4, verses 19-22. They were sitting there and they left their nets, mending their nets with their dad and followed him. Here he was, he had a prosperous fishing business. Probably was going to leave it to them two boys. Like I said the other night, he had 401Ks and mutual funds and life insurance and all that stuff and they followed the Lord. How about Matthew? There he was sitting at the custom table. And the Lord said, follow me. And the Bible says he followed him. Each time they were called of the Lord, the Lord stood their spirits and they responded. He's calling you. He's calling you to serve Him. And you don't have to be in the ministry to serve Him. but He's calling His people to serve Him. And it's the same with salvation. Listen, if you're here tonight and you're lost and unbelieve, God is not going to repent or do your believing. He doesn't do your repenting and He doesn't do your believing. His goodness will lead you to repentance, and He gifts you faith by His grace, and His power enables you to repent and believe, but you're the one who's going to have to trust Him. God doesn't need to repent. He doesn't need to believe anything. He's God. And you're no machine or puppet either. You're going to have to trust Him. You're clinging to something. Maybe it's yourself, most likely. Maybe you're thinking you're not that sinful, but you really are. You need to believe God. You need to trust Him. You need to rely upon Him 100%. And it's God who stirs and He calls His people, come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And those that He saves, they come to Him, don't they? He says, come unto Me, I will in no wise cast you out. And you come and you'll find out that's true. You come to Him in faith believing that Jesus Christ died on Calvary, God will save you. And He'll give you assurance. And it's the same thing in service. I told you about Matthew and Peter and Andrew and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. The Lord called them. He spoke to them. The Word of God was declared to them. And the Spirit stirred their spirits and they responded. Have you been stirred in your spirit of weight to serve the Lord? I'm going to tell you, you better jump. I'm talking about jumping. I'm talking about here you are right now, 2021, and you're standing here on the edge of the cliff, and you need to jump. Because I'll tell you this, there's more to serving God than coming to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. I want you to imagine if Simon Peter hadn't jumped. Jesus walking there by the sea says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And he just sat there. You know what we don't have? We don't have him preaching a sermon on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 souls saved and added unto the Lord's church, do we? That's not there because he didn't jump. How about Matthew? What if Matthew hadn't followed him? You know where Matthew went? Northern part of Africa. Preached the gospel there in Ethiopia. People say, well wasn't Simon Peter crucified upside down? Wasn't Matthew stabbed through with a halibird? I think that's how you pronounce it. That's what Fox's Book of Martyrs tells us, and I promise you this, they don't regret it. But if Simon Peter would have stayed there to fish and wharf, and if Matthew would have stayed at the tax collector's office, he'd have regretted it. Because they'd be before Jesus Christ, and they wouldn't have followed him. How about folks like Adoniram Judson who sailed all the way into Burma to preach the gospel? I know a missionary who went out of a Lord's church and he went over there and he said he's going to Myanmar, I think it's called now, but you go in there to Burma and there's still folks that say, oh I'm a Judson Baptist. Whether they are or not, but that's what they'll say. How about some of the folks down in Peru? You see, I didn't go down there and start any churches or preach the Gospel. Somebody went down there years ago and preached the Lord's Word. What if they hadn't jumped? What if they hadn't trusted the Lord? How about the folks who jumped and told you about the Lord? When are we going to respond to the preaching of God's Word? It says in verse 1 of chapter 5, Then the prophets, and Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. And then, if we don't jump, verse 2 doesn't happen. If we don't respond to the preaching of God's Word, Then rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and began to build the house of God. Then what are we doing? Right now, in a series of messages that have been coming out of this pulpit, from multiple preachers, God is telling this church to build My house. We need to respond to that. We need to rise up and build. You say, well if I jump I might get hurt. Yeah, you might. Isn't it amazing when we were little kids the things we would do? Never thought about getting hurt, did we? Never once thought. Boy, if I die for this football in the end zone here in the backyard, I'm going to end up in that rose bush. Never thought about that. I caught the ball. That's what I was thinking about. If you don't jump, your parachute's never going to open, is it? You know what your parachute is? All the promises of God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1.20, all the promises of God are in Him, yea, and in Him, amen. You're never going to experience His promises. I want to ask you this. Here you are, some of you in your 70s, some of you in your 60s, some of you are young, you're still young. I want you to think about this. What have you been through that God has not seen you through? Not one thing. Because if He hadn't seen you through it, you wouldn't be here, would you? So here He is telling you and I to rise up and build, to jump! He's going to see us through it. He said in Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. Don't you think His grace is going to be sufficient for you and me and the Bible Baptist Church of Plant City? As we build the house of God? I'll tell you this, one day if you don't rise up and build, if you don't jump in faith, oh, you might be safe in this life. Sure, you might not get bumps and bruises, etc. But we'll chisel on your tombstone, he or she played it safe. Never took a chance. And you're going to have a lot of regret as you stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I promise it. And I'll have the same regret too if I don't jump. I'm not talking about anything else except following the Lord to build His house. Folks talk about this with their careers and their jobs and business and investing and things like that. I'm talking about building the house of God. God is calling us to serve Him. to go to that neighbor, to go to that brother or sister, to go to that co-worker and tell them, inquire with them, are you saved? Tell me about it. Have you heard of Jesus? Can I tell you about the Lord? Can I tell you how to be saved? Or just tell them, don't ask them for permission. He's calling us. Follow me. I tell you, one of the worst things is going to be we get done with Ezra and we're still just sitting here. I'm not saying this to guilt you. I'm saying this as a minister of God to warn us just like Zachariah warned the people. He said, the prophets told the people of old to do it and they didn't do it and God scattered them. What did he do? He judged them. Well, we're going to get judged one day too. You're going to have a lot of regrets. Say, well, I was scared to jump. I was too scared to follow Jesus. What did he say? What did Zechariah tell him? He says, fear not. I've been with you since the day I brought you out of Egypt. He's been with you since the day he saved you. Hadn't he? And then I want to just share this with you as we close tonight. Ezra 5 and verse 2. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them." Do you know your pastor is here to help you to build the house of God? Brother, I went and talked to my neighbor about the Lord, and here's the conversation we had with him. And this is what I said to them. Do you have anything else I can share with them? Do you have some tracts you might recommend? Hey, I've invited them to come to services, but they're reluctant to come to services, so can you come over and talk to them about the Lord with me? Hey, was there objection about this, this, and this? I told them I wasn't sure, but I would get with them. I told them I didn't know, and I don't know is a good answer sometimes. The prophets were with them to help them. And you can imagine as you kept reading, Here it says, at the same time came to them Tat and I, governor on this side of the river, and said, Who hath commanded you to build the house and to make up this wall? And you remember what we said took place? Verse 5, But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease. Why is that? Because the prophets were there to help them. The Lord was there using the prophets to speak the Word of God to them. They might serve Him. The Lord knows what He's doing. We need to build the house of God. To rise up. Because again, I promise you one day we're going to stand before Him in all of His glory. He's going to say, Nathaniel, why didn't you jump? And the only thing we can say is, I was scared, Lord. I mean, isn't that what it comes down to? I was scared. I didn't think you were going to do what you said you would do. Now when you say it out loud like that, that just sounds foolish to tell God I didn't think you would do what you said you would. You know what that is? That's calling God a liar the Bible says. I wouldn't call God a liar if we do it every day. Every day we don't believe Him. Every day we don't trust Him. That's what we're doing. I'm guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. May God stir our spirits to build His house Because, you know, the Bible still says, that passage hasn't gone away, the fields are white on the harvest. They say, well, it's harder to go and reap, to gather in the sheaves. Well, maybe it is, I don't know. I wasn't around 50, 60 years ago. But I can tell you this, there's a lot of folks who said they were saved. You know, years ago, people said, oh, we used to have church houses, hundreds, 200, 300 people full. Oh, we had church members, you know, by the hundreds. Well, they sure didn't live like it, did they? Well, if they were saved, they didn't jump by there, did they? So I pray the Lord will help you. If it was me doing the stirring, it'll come to nothing. But if the Lord moves you, then it'll come to everything He intends it to. I pray the Lord will help us in our endeavors to build the house of God. Let's close in prayer tonight.
Revive Us Again
Series Messages From Ezra
In this message, Pastor Hille shows how the Lord's Work was revived! 20 years of opposition led to their hands weakened, the work ceased. Only the Lord could revive the work. And so He did. How? Through the preaching of the word of God! The Lord raised up Haggai and Zechariah and they prophesied to the people and the Lord stirred the spirits of Zerubbabel and Jeshua. May He do the same through the preaching of HIs word and work of His spirit in our hearts and lives that we might build the house of God.
Sermon ID | 3621152815686 |
Duration | 51:27 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - AM |
Bible Text | Ezra 5:1-5; Haggai 1:1-7 |
Language | English |
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