# 4 Things from Ezra

Key Passage: Ezra 7:9-10
Date: June 7, 2024

We’re over in chapter number seven, verse number nine. We’re in chapter number seven, Ezra chapter number seven. We’re in number nine tonight. And we’re going to read just two verses, point out a couple of things as we read the verses, verse number 10. And then we’ll pray. We’re going to try to just point out four things in chapter seven, eight. We’re going to try to cover two chapters in about 35 minutes. And so hang on. We’re going to try to go quick.

And here’s the thing tonight. We’re just going to mention several different things. Would you ask the Lord to take some of these things and the thing you need and to put that in your heart tonight? We’re going to go quick over these things. So if we’re not careful, we’re just kind of skimming over and get in our heart. Would you ask the Lord the thing you need tonight to give you strength to continue shining? Would you ask you to kind of drive that one in your heart to do that? And let’s stand if you’re able. We’ll read verse number 9 and verse number 10 from Ezra 7. And here we go.

For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon. And on the first day of the fifth month, four months later, came he to Jerusalem according to the good hand of God upon him. For Ezra is a wonderful outlook.

A sermon, verse number 10, we’re not going to preach you on allow, just mention them real quickly. Verse number 10, for Ezra, here it is, number one, had prepared his heart to seek the law of God, the law of the Lord. In times, whether their philosophy, got to appeal to their head, no, you’ve got to get the heart. God gets the heart. Step number one, he had prepared his heart.

So many people when you witness to them and they come up a little excuses and arguments so often it’s not the head thing it’s the heart thing and verse saying Ezra he says Ezra had prepared his heart. You get the heart, God gets hold of the heart, the head comes along.

But the heart, and he had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. Number two, just a great outline here, to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. That’s number two. A lot of people know the Bible. There’s a ton of backslidden preachers, got a head full of knowledge. Probably know more Bible than me and you both put together. But backslidden has a hound dog.

Now, I don’t know how backslidden the hound dog is or not, but they’re backslidden, you know. And it’s more than knowing the Bible, it’s doing the Bible. See, okay. And he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. And there’s difference in just knowing the Bible. A lot of people know the Bible, they’re not living in it. Okay. And he prepared his heart to seek it and to do it.

Then the last thing, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. By the way, a healthy Christian ought to have a desire to share. I remember Sarah, our daughter, she was, I don’t know if it was four or five when she got saved. Now, she went to camp years later, made assurance of it. But she had a hard time admitting she was a sinner.

This is a little girl. By the way, when they’re that little, we don’t push them. We just kind of keep the gospel in front of them. And when their heart is ready, when they’re that little, you know, we kind of let them come a little bit, and we’ll make sure they understand what they’re doing and whatnot. Sarah had the hardest time admitting she was a sinner. But when she admitted it, that same day she got it, man, I’m a sinner. She knew the next step because she’d been told her from day one: hell.

She wanted to get saved. I mean, she came. It was just a little before John had a little league baseball game. I think it was coach pitcher, you know, T-ball, whatnot. Sarah’s just a little, but she wanted to get saved. And she admitted earlier the day she’s the sinner, so, man, everything else just, boom, that was the hard part. And she got it, and she wanted to get saved. So Tammy and John went to the ballgame. They had been, go ahead and go, you know, we stayed, me and Sarah.

We lived in a trailer, went to her bedroom, and we just sat. We talked for a while. We didn’t want to rush. And she prayed. She had, she understood. She wanted to pray, and she prayed. And, of course, we’re both wondering: Did she understand? Did she get it? Did she know what she was doing? And the wonderful thing, we went to the ball game. Tammy and John was up. So let’s go to the ball game. She was saved. She had prayed. Man, she went to the ball game. She ran to Mommy: Mommy, I got saved!

And she went to all the other kids of the ballgame on the sideline. Hey, I got saved! Even the other parents, hey, I got saved! And we thought, well, pretty good sign. She understood what she did. See? And that’s natural. He prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. And I wanted to teach: you wanted to share it with others. It’s a good thing. This man in Israel, let’s just try to glean about four things from Ezra tonight in chapter 7, chapter 8 of the book of Ezra.

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Pray, ask the Lord to speak to your heart tonight.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. There’s four things we want to briefly hit real quick. I want you to notice, I’m going to just say what this is, Ralph of the Baptist. We’re going to read several verses here, and I want you to notice how much Ezra was associated, and he did this on purpose, and he was associated with the Bible.

Now, they didn’t have the completed canon of scriptures, the 66 books, but they have the law of Moses, those first five books. They call them the Pentateuch. We think he had the book of Joshua, at least that too, maybe others. But it says the law of the Lord, that’s what he’s told about, the Bible that he had.

All right. So I want you look at a couple of verses. I want you just notice it. Look in chapter seven, look in verse number six, chapter seven, verse number six. This Ezra went up from Babylon and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses. Hey, he was ready in the word of God, if you will, which the Lord God of Israel had given, and the king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord, His God, upon him. Now look down if you will up to verse number 10. We’ll read a couple of verses here, verse number 10, chapter 7, verse 10. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. It’s the Bible, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments—the Bible.

Now this is a copy of the letter that the king of Artaxerxes gave him to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel. I mean, he wasn’t just a scribe or copier of him, maybe decrees and things, but no, very specific, of the Bible.

Just notice over and over again, even when others talked about Ezra, they talked about him and he had his Bible. Look in verse number 11. This is the letter. He’s talking about the letter that the king had sent back and gave very much favor and said, yes, don’t mess with him to build the temple, and we’ll fund it, and we’ll give him the taxes of the land and so on and forth. Verse number 12: Ardazerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra, the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven. Perfect peace, and at such a time. Even the king is talking about Ezra being a scribe of the Bible. Verse number 13: I make a decree that all they of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. He said, they want to go, they’re welcome to go back and build the temple and to beautify the temple, actually, what he says. Verse number 14: Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king and hast with thee seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of thy God, which is in thine hand. He said, Ezra, you always got that Bible in your hand. Is that what it says or not? Which is in the hand. He said, that guy, he said, I pretty much write a decree and no, he’s going to have that book in his hand. He’s always got a Bible according to the law of thy God, which is in thy hand. This is the king talking about. Jump down verse number 23, verse number 23, if you would. Here he gives a very favorable letter to them. And verse number 23: whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven—how does it know what God of heaven commands? The Bible—let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? Also, we certify you that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims. By the way, when you see Nethinims in the Bible talking about, that’s temple servants. They did much work in the temple. So that’s when you read that. The Bible is what that means. Nethinims are ministers of this house of God. It shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom upon them. By the way, our founding fathers in America knew about that verse. And that’s one reason why we have churches that are tax-exempt. The preachers aren’t taxed, but churches are. I understood that’s what’s going on right here. They knew that, our founding fathers, not all, but most part knew that. Verse number 25: And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, watch this, that is in thine heart? No, that is in thine mind? No, that is in thine hand. What’s it told me? The Bible. Ezra, you got wisdom of your God. You got it in your hand—the Bible. Set magistrates and judges with me to judge all the people that are from the river, all such as know of thy God. Ezra, you got the Bible in your hand. I want you to pick out leaders over there that know the Bible, God’s laws. Watch this. What else he says? Teach ye them that know them not.

Now that’s pretty good. You’ve got a heathen king, if you will—I don’t know if he’s saved or not—but a Gentile king telling this preacher, I want you to go over there and I want you to pick some people, according to the book in your hand, pick some people that know the laws of God. And if they don’t know the laws of God, I want you to teach them—teaching the Bible. That’s pretty good for a king to tell them to do that. But I want you to kind of just see how much Ezra was associated with the Bible. Okay? Now let’s just take that thought. Let’s apply it to us. How much am I really in the Bible? If I didn’t have to preach a lot, how much would I be in the Bible? Really? How much would I be in the Bible? Really? How much do I really am I in or thinking about or talking about or dwelling on? How many times a day do you think about something from the Bible?

How many times do you do something and say, I’m doing that because of the Bible? And sometimes you’ve just been doing it so long, we often kind of forget about the truth of the Bible. And how much am I really, how many times the day does my mind go to the Bible? And we’re just trying to help us a little bit with this, maybe just real briefly here.

We have a grill on our back porch. This spring, some bird or a mama bird got inside that grill. And we were going to use it one afternoon. I think John and McKenna was going to come over, and we were going to use it. But Tammy said, no, no, there’s a nest in there. And she said, there’s eggs in the nest. And sure enough, and so we couldn’t use our grill for, I don’t know, a couple weeks, maybe a month. And so one day I said, man, I don’t know out there. And she had already told me that the birds were hatched.

Sure enough, I went out there, and I lifted the hood up, and you had to kind of look, you know, kind of down in there, small, tiny little birds. And there’s maybe about five little bitty baby birds in there. And when you opened up, I don’t know if they just, the movement they thought was mama coming or what. But, man, their mouths are just wide open. Just kind of a little bitty, little bitty tweeting for a worm. I just, all you can see is mouths, just five mouths, just wide open down there, waiting for food.

Now I say that to say, when I’m hungry for the Bible, it’s amazing how God speaks to my heart from the Bible. When I’m nonchalant, I’ve heard all that, I know all that, and I don’t get much out of the Bible. Am I hungry? I don’t do it as, and I wasn’t doing it for a little bit, but it didn’t kind of drop at all. But for a while after I seen that, I’d tell the Lord in the morning time as I remember, Lord, I’m like one of those birds, I’m hungry, I need something from the Bible today. The Bible, are you hungry for it? As newborn babes, they’re newborn babes, man, they desire the sincere milk of the word. That’s not for newborn Christian. Well, it’s not for a baby. No, no, no, no. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that’s what the verse says. Like a baby desires it. That’s why all of us, no matter how long we’ve been saved, we’re supposed to desire the Bible. God will speak to us from the Bible. Are you hungry for it?

Here’s something that helps you, helps me be in the Bible: talk about it. Talk about the Bible. You know, there’s two different passages where God says, whatever you are trying to accomplish, you’ll prosper at it: Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1 through 3.

And here’s the thing, and it’s right, it’s in there. We’ll talk often about those two passages. It uses the word meditate. And that’s right, that’s Bible. But sometimes we miss over there in Joshua 1:8. He says, this book of the law—help me out, somebody, you know the next couple words? Just say it if you know. Shall not depart. We’re supposed to be talking about it. We talk about everything in the world and ball games and hunting and fishing and—hey, I don’t mind. That’s nothing wrong with that. I like to talk about all that. I talk about food. Somebody with me out there? We talk about everything. But talk about the Bible. Talk about it.

I like it. One of our men, yesterday, he texted me a Bible verse. He said, man, this is a good one. It gave me what I needed this morning, something along my life. I like that. For a while, I was sending out a lot of it. When I’d send out a text, I was trying to put a Bible verse in there a lot of times with the Jews to our people. But just trying to get me and us thinking about it, talk about it. Husbands and wives talk about the Bible. Talk about it. What did you get out of this verse? What did you get out of your devotion? I’m reading through the book of Job again. I’m going to tell my wife what I’ve been getting out of it this year. But talk about it. Talk about it. I like it when I go in a home when a sweet old lady, she’s got Bible verses up on the wall. And you don’t have to—I’m not saying, but everybody’s different in the decoration. I’m not trying to say, but I like that. But just the Bible, being in the Bible, it’s good for families.

We didn’t have family devotions every day. We’d have it occasionally. And I think it’s a good thing to do. We probably didn’t have it as much as we should when the kids were little. But you don’t have to sit down and for three hours preach the message out of the kids. They’re not going to get it. They’re going to be sleeping, okay? But it may be sitting around talking about the Bible. Let me talk about the Bible. I remember years ago, Brother Dylan sharing with me a verse before we ever moved over here. Share with me a verse. We’re walking out back here about what sort of things I’ll do, you’ll do in greater than these over in John 14. I still remember that. But talk about the Bible.

And being in the Bible, here’s something: memorize the Bible. Just work at it. Get your little system. My system is I have three to five cards in my truck and in the morning when I leave from the house and I go to work, go to church, wherever I’m going, that’s my time. And I’m tempted. I’m tempted to make phone calls. I got my hands free now. Amen. Amen. Come on now. Y’all with me out there? You know what I’ll talk about, yeah. I got called. I didn’t know it was the law. And I was talking to Ms. Joe Williams. Oh, it’s been several weeks ago right after it became July. And I was talking to her and said, I’m driving to the dump, Miss Joe, and he didn’t get you to be missing, whatnot, you know. And she said, you’re driving. Are you hands-free? I said, no way you mean by that? She said, oh, it’s the law. She asked me, I think Sunday, she said, Pastor, are you legal now? And I said, I’m legal now. I’m good now. I’m working on it. Amen, you know. But I’m tempted to make the phone calls. But now, morning time, I spend time to get those three to five cards that and go through them. Memorize verse. Are you with me? Many of you like that, too. Rememorize the ones that you knew, but you forgot. Amen. But it’s been so good this morning. I went back through Psalm 23. Man, I got such a blessing out of it, just quoting it. In the Bible, Ezra, everybody said, that guy’s always got the Bible in his hand. And he was a ready scribe. He was ready to teach and train and preach if you’re up in the Bible. He had been preparing himself to go back when they rebuilt. He believed God. They’re going to rebuild the temple. He said, I’m going to be ready to do it. He had been in the Bible about how they’re supposed to sacrifice and so on in the temple. He’s been in the Bible.

Number one, just how much is in the Bible. We’ve got to hurry along until we get all four. Something else real quickly here. Won’t you just kind of see this? Look in chapter number eight, chapter number eight. And he brought back these—oh, about 5,000 people there. They just left Babylon, a little bit outside of Babylon’s this river we think it is, just a little bit outside. I want you to see this, verse number 15, Ezra 8:15. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Hava, and there we abode three days. So about three days out of Babylon. And I viewed the people and the priests and found there none of the sons of Levi. Then sent I for Eli-ezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and we told them what they should say unto Iddo and to his brother, the Nethinims at the place of Casiphia, that they should bring us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, and Sherebiah with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; and Hashabiah with him, and Jeshua, of the sons of Merari, his brethren, twenty; also of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims, all of them were expressed by name.

Now here’s my thing: won’t you just notice. Ezra knew he needed help. They got three days out, they kind of paused, and they stayed over by this river before they took the long journey. And they did a couple of things. We’re about to read about it. But first of all, he looked around and he said, I don’t have any Levites. Remember it said the Nethinims, the servants that served in the temple. He said, I don’t have enough of them. He needed some of them. He ended up with over 200 of them. And here’s the thing you just want to say: He knew he needed help, and he needed a certain help—qualified people.

Can I just stop here for just a moment and say thank you for everybody in our church that gets involved? There’s no way a pastor can do everything in the church. That church is going to be so limited if the pastor tries to do it all. Man, I appreciate nursery workers. Praise the Lord for nursery workers. Wow, what a great task that is. So important. Think about a visiting family that comes in. And they say, well, do we have a nursery? Does there a nursery at this church for our little one? Well, they don’t have a nursery. Well, they’ll have to go to another church. Or they’re trying to bring that baby in the service. They don’t get much out of it. And everybody around doesn’t get much out of the service, you know. I mean, the nursery workers, I think about Ms. Barb and Brother Larry, and all the hours Ms. Barb is here practicing on the piano with somebody that’s going to sing a special. I mean, just always practicing, you just pretty much name it. They’re here early typically, and she’s preparing for someone going to sing a special. Brother Larry, nobody knows all the brother Larry goes through medically so he can be here to lead singing. I mean, but that’s necessary. And people involved in the music and choir and ushers, the media ministry. That’s so important. And we were talking a little bit before service, and Brother Marlin keeps up on it. We can kind of monitor who’s listening in the United States and who’s listening in, and he’s good. He knows what parts of the world they’re listening and where, and praise the Lord, there’s got to be somebody there to keep that going. I mean, Brother Marlin’s trying to keep it going. Brother Kevin’s trying to pull up football or basketball or hockey back there. They couldn’t find anything, so they’re recording the service tonight. They’re still on it, you know. But all the jobs: Sunday school teachers and bus workers, hospitality ministry, deacons. I think about Ms. Jones that comes early Sunday morning and she makes the coffee for the senior citizens every Sunday morning. I mean, it’s all the jobs. And it takes a whole lot of people just for friendliness. I mean, praise the Lord. And so many people say, man, that’s a friendly church. Pastor can’t make this a friendly church. You make it a friendly church. And I can’t do that. I do my part and do my best I can’t. But I can’t do it all. And all the jobs. And I think about picking up kids over the years and where their parents don’t come to church, but children don’t come to, and teenagers don’t want to come to church, and how many different people over the years have picked them up and brought them to church. That’s wonderful. All these jobs, that’s got to be cleaning the church, the buses. What a wonderful thing, and just being faithfully involved as renewed. I’ve got to have some workers here. If the job’s going to get done, let’s just stop everything. I got to have more workers. He’s a wise man. You got to. I just want to say thank you to all the people in our church that’s involved. It’s crucial. I mean, you have a part in every life that gets touched. You do doing your part. And Ezra knew that. He knew that.

Let’s try to get at least one more thing in here. We’re going to run out of time. But this is a good one here, a sweet one. We probably won’t get the last one in. Look in verse number 21, chapter 8, verse number 21. And they’re about three days out of Babylon, got this long journey over to Jerusalem. Took him about four months. They stopped. He said, they need some more workers. And look what else happened, verse number 21. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Aheva, that we might afflict ourselves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.

Now, remember he’s already checked out who’s there, who’s not there. He said, man, we’ve got a bunch of kids around here. We’ve got a long journey. There’s a lot of dangers. Wow, we’re kind of vulnerable. Then he talks about the substance. Remember, the king gave him all kind of gold and silver. We got a lot of money here. Man, somebody, we’re pretty vulnerable. And so he calls a fast, let’s fast and pray. Watch what he says. He just kind of notices what’s going through his mind. Wow, I didn’t know we had so many kids. We could be in trouble here. Look at verse number 22. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken unto the king saying, The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted, we sought our God for this, and he entreated of us.

Here’s what’s going to do. There’s a little different angle on this, but I think it’s so true. It’s easy to talk it up: God’s got it. It’s all in his hands. It’s under control. God’s going to take care of us. When he looked around and said, man, we’ve got a bunch of kids. I’d hate to see those kids hurt, slaughtered. We’re pretty vulnerable here with all this money. I’m ashamed to go to the king. I’ve done opened my big mouth and stuck my—I’ve already been bragging.

Can I say this? He doubted a little bit. He had some fear there. Now, he did the right thing. He said, let’s have a fast. We need to get a hold of God here. We need to seek God’s blessing. But here’s what I want to point out, just real briefly here: you see his humanity? He’s just like me. God’s going to take care of us.

I remember before when the last door front, and everybody come—they come to me time and time: Pastor, we got to have a new building. Man, it’s packed out on Sunday morning. What are we going to do? We got to have a building. I don’t know how many people. We got to have a building. I said, God’s going to provide. God’s going to provide. Then I go along when nobody else is around and say, God, we got to have a building here. We’re all human. Ezra was. He did the right thing. He asked. We got to get a hold of God. I’m ashamed. He said, I’m ashamed to go to the king. I thought about it. He was thinking about it. He said, I’m too embarrassed to do that. Hey, friend, God knows you’re human. Can I just say this? And I’m not trying to justify us in him tonight. I’m not trying to do that. Don’t beat yourself up over being human. Ezra was human. I think Ezra, he was ashamed to go to the king and he said, boy, I’m looking to see in all this money and all these kids. We need to get a hold of God here. He had some fear.

Look if you will over in Psalm 103, a great passage about God knows you’re human. God knows that. God doesn’t love you because of what all you are. He loves you because he’s a loving God. I want you to see this, just a wonderful passage about God, he knows your humanity. I’m not trying to justify sin, but he knows you got flaws. He still loves you. Look at this, Psalm 103. Look at verse number eight. Psalm 103, verse number eight. Verse number eight: The Lord is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. I’m so glad about that, aren’t you? Especially when you’re human like we are. Next verse, he will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. You say, I’ve asked him to forgive me about 10,000 times, Pastor. He forgave you. Your heart might be condemning you still, but not God. He will not always chide. His anger is not forever. Verse number 10: He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. If it did, we’d be in hell tonight. For as high—excuse me—for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. I’m so glad it didn’t say towards those that are perfect because none of us are there. But you respect to reverence of fear. And God says, just as far as heaven is above the earth, that’s how great my mercy is towards those that fear him. You try and honestly sincerely fear him. He’s a merciful God. He’s not up in heaven with a baseball bat, just waiting for you to mess up one time. Boom! I got you! That’s not our God. Not our God. Let’s keep reading a little bit here. Verse number 12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. He didn’t say north because there’s a North Pole, south because of the South Pole. You can go as far east as you want to, you’ll never end up in the east. You just keep going, going. Same of the west. In other words, you’ll never face those transgressions again. That’s how far God removes you. Look at verse number 13: Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

Oh, Ezra, he said, I’ve opened my mouth. I’ve been over there bragging to the king: God’s got it. It’s all under control. God’s got his hand on me. He said, I’ve been looking around seeing all these kids and all this money. He did the right thing when his humanity showed up. Can I say this? When humanity—you’re triggered if you don’t go back to the past things. It’s so many people, that’s when I went back, that’s when I fell back, Pastor. And we all do some. Go to God. That’s what Ezra did. He knows, he understands. By the way, God didn’t say, what in the world are you doing? We already prayed about this, Ezra. I already told you what to do. Why are you keep asking me about this thing? No, God said, all right, Ezra, I’m going to give you a reassurance in your heart. He did. Just the humanity of Ezra. By the way, you’re not going to be perfect going through trials. Job wasn’t. But he kept fearing God, he kept trying. God in the end said, I listened to Job. And it’s quote-unquote, not going to talk to you, tell Job to pray for you. I listened to Job, blessed him twice as much. But Job didn’t do 100%. I had a lot of self-righteousness in there. And when you go through tests, you’re not going to do everything just right. But God, he pities you. Pities me. And he was entreated by their fasting and prayer. Gave them assurance in their heart.

I love this verse, Psalm 86:15: But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, gracious, longsuffering, plenteous in mercy and truth.

I’ll tell a little story, we’ll just be done. We won’t get the last thing. Philip Bliss, great songwriter, a lot of the hymns we sing. If you look at the author and sometimes the musician, Philip Bliss, just God, God used him any of the time. They say when he was younger, and it was out—oh, like an evangelist, but he was a musician also—but they say he was really big, he was kind of known for him: “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” a great soul.

But they say as he got older—in fact, he wrote the song—he wasn’t still singing that, but he kind of changed over and his big song became, “I’m so glad that my Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible. I say this is the dearest: that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me.”

And here’s them getting at: It’s important we love God. I’m not trying to take away from that at all. In fact, we love him because he first loved us. But at the end of the day, it’s not because we love him so much. It’s because he loves us so much. Ezra had humanity just like me and you. And he doubted and worried, but God, God was so gracious. Ezra did the right thing when he said, man, I don’t know about this thing. Man, we’re about to go on a long trip here. This is going to be dangerous. I’ve done opened my big mouth. Easier to speak it than to live it. But God was honored, and God was entreated. He pities his children.

Let’s bow our heads, if you would, please. We’re just going to be almost done tonight, a little bit longer than planned. But you say, preacher, I want to get my Bible. I want to get my Bible more. God spoke to my heart about that. That should not slip ahead. It won’t be long. Anybody? I want to be in my Bible more. Good, good, good, good. I want to memorize. We want to talk about it. I want to talk about it, my family. Just want to be known as a man or lady of the Bible. Good, good, good. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God, you’re here tonight. You say, preacher, I want to stay involved in the work of God. Whatever, whenever, however way God has, I just want to be involved. I realize it takes a whole lot of hands to make the work lighter, and I’m going to be involved in the work of God some way, somewhere, some way. God spoke from the heart about that. That’s your night, slip your hand up, preacher. You want to stay involved in the work of God. God bless you. Take so many. Take so many. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you for letting the Lord speak to your heart. And you say, preacher, I want to deal with my humanity properly: trusting, relying, going to God, looking to God up. And God spoke to my heart about that. I’m so human, so human. And I want to deal with my humanity properly, as Ezra did. God spoke to my heart about that tonight. Matt, you not slip your hand up if anybody like that? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. I’m there too. God bless you, me too. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let’s all stand if you would, please. We won’t be alone. Our instruments will play. Let’s just have word of prayer. If you want to come spend some time, God spoke to your heart, just come spend some time. Let’s make valuable this time in the next few minutes. Father, thank you for this great servant, Ezra. Thank you for giving us insight into him. Lord, help us to follow Ezra’s example of being in the Bible, about so many people getting in your work, get involved in your work. And then just help us to deal with our humanity. Thank you. You’re so patient with us. Bless our people tonight in the invitation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Would you just be obedient to the Lord? Let’s make valuable this time. Amen.

Original File: 4 Things From Ezra - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 73119