# Ezra Rebuilding the Temple

Date: June 7, 2024

The book of Ezra. We have been in this book for months and months. I was gone most of the month of May on winter. Very rare, really the only time in 19 years. And then last week we had Vacation Bible School. We did go back to the book of Ezra. It was not working. And so we’re back in the book tonight. And our minds going that way, and get us on board. They’re working at pulling up a map if they can. Sometimes a visual will help you kind of get on board what we’re talking about. Help me out while they’re trying to pull that up. By the way, if you get that map, you can just turn it on any time you guys got it. That’d be great. But help me out if you know the answer to this: The book of Ezra is about the rebuilding of the temple.

It begins chronologically. The Book of Ezra begins right at the end of the… 70 years’ captivity. Good, good, good. Seventy years’ captivity. And, oh, let’s see here, there was a king that… Good, good. All ready, y’all ready to go? Cyrus. He was king of Babylon. And they took over there, Persia took over Babylon, and he said, “Go rebuild the temple,” and so on and so on. How many Jewish people went back? Shy of, what’s it? Good, just shy of 50,000. Job, we’re going to get the map or not, guys? I can’t find it. All right. We don’t find it. That’s all right. If you were to go as a crow flies from Babylon back to Jerusalem, how many miles would that be? 500. Good, good, good. Now, everybody nobody really argued about it; they studied out they went up by the river there and came down, so that made it a lot longer. Anybody remember how many miles that was? Good, 900 miles. We think it took about 108 days, and they came back. They started this Feast of Tabernacles, right? It’s a little bit, if you want to remember what that feast was about—we studied the one that was down. It’s a little bit of a parallel to Thanksgiving. That will help you remember that one if you’re trying to get them down pat in your mind. We said the book of Ezra, the twin book of the book of Ezra, is the book of Nehemiah, right? Actually, a lot of the old Hebrew manuals are one book or one scroll, if you will. And this is just kind of miscellaneous or just getting their minds going that way.

In this chapter, in this verse of Ezra, they said the rebuilding was finished. In the same chapter, same verse, Nehemiah says the wall was finished in building. And you might remember that chapter and verse: one more than the fingers I have on my left hand. My left hand, six. Chapter 6, verse number 15. I’m teasing with you. We’re just trying to get us going here a little bit. Remember they had started. We got it. We got it. Good, good, good. Let’s look at this thing. I’ve not looked at it in a while. And let’s see here. Oh, here we got. Here we… It’s not to you. Oh, my laser’s not… There we go. There we go. We got Jerusalem over here, and back over here would be Babylon, somewhere along there, and there straight across will be 500 miles. They go up. Oh, what’s the river up there? The Euphrates River, believe it is. They go up there typically with the tribe. Instead of going right through the desert, they’d die. And I got another map. We can’t… I don’t know if we can pull that one up. But that’s where they’re traveling back from Babylon over here to Jerusalem. Long ways. And can you imagine 50… That’s good. I appreciate it. And can you imagine almost 50,000 people? And good. Yeah, that’s it. Good, perfect. Perfect. Just trying to get your visual here. Can you imagine that many people, almost 50,000, following or traveling that far—families, sickness, and deaths that happened on the way, and children born on the way—and they left their homes and their jobs and all going back to rebuild the temple? And that’s what the book of Ezra was about. They had started the rebuilding, and last week, those of you that weren’t in VBS or here, chapter four, the rebuilding was stopped by force. And remember another king was on the throne. They sent back a letter to him. He did a partial search, not a good search. If he had a good search, he had found out Cyrus said, “Hey, go back and rebuild it.” But he did do a little bit of search. Some of their accusations were true. Remember right at the end, when the Southern Kingdom was specific, was very rebellious? They rebelled three times against Nebuchadnezzar, and finally he just wiped it out. So when they said it’s a rebellious city, there was some truth to that. They found out that, but they did not find out that Cyrus had said, “Hey, build it.” So they stopped the building. And last week we talked about how to handle defeats. Even though you’re living for the Lord, you’re going to have some defeat sometimes.

We just discussed that last Wednesday: how to handle defeat, what to do when you face defeat. Then we’re going to go over here, chapter number five, Ezra chapter number five tonight. And we’re going to pick up the next chapter. Chapter five is an exciting chapter. They start building again. They actually, in chapter six, they’re finished with it by verse number 15. But we’re going to be in chapter 5, verse 1. Let’s stand if you would, Ezra 5 at verse number 1 of the book of Ezra. And everybody got the book of Ezra 5? Did you say amen? Good deal. Here we go, verse number one: “Remember they had to stop building. Then the prophet 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.” By the way, that word “son” there is a broad term for son. It’s actually his grandson. Sometimes, Brother Fonda, talking to a younger man or to his grandson, you might say, “Hey, son.” That type of thought is actually his grandson. We know that from other places in the Bible. But, “And Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, rose and began to build the house of God which was in Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.” So it had been stopped, I’m going to think for about 14, 15 years. Some will debate that a little bit, but somewhere along there. And now these prophets came along and started preaching. They started rebuilding. And we’re going to take tonight just really look at Haggai’s message. Haggai started preaching about two months before Zechariah. We know that, and given the message of God. And so we’re going to look at the message. What was the message these guys preached? Use that message; these messages got the rebuilding started back again. And so tonight we’re really going to look at Haggai. Jump over to that book here in just a moment and look at the message.

If you were to read these books chronologically, I’m not mentioning this, but really kind of stuck right in the middle of the book of Ezra would be the book of Haggai and Zechariah. They parallel; these are the prophets that were preaching at this time. It would be just a little before Malachi, but they would be stuck right in this book here: Ezra, Nehemiah, and really Malachi. So we’re going to pray. They’re going to jump over to the book of Haggai. All right, let’s go. Lord, we ask for a word of prayer. Father, Lord, we come. Father, Lord, these people have taken time out to be in Your house. And, Lord, we sure would like to not just learn in the head, Lord, but learn in our heart from this message, these words You gave to the prophet Haggai. Lord, send Your Spirit applying these truths to my and our hearts tonight. Father, we thank You. We brag on You and praise You for what You do. Lord, we’re asking for this in faith because we’re asking in Your Son, Jesus, and we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. And if you would look over to the book of Haggai, the book of Haggai, it’s towards the latter part of the Old Testament. It’s what we call a minor prophet, but these men were in major battles, and they stood their battle. And God used them greatly.

The book of Haggai, and we’re going to be in chapter number one. This is the message that the Bible is talking about over there in Ezra 5. We just read that Haggai and Zechariah began to give this message from the Lord who preached. This is the message over here, all right? Are you over there in Haggai, Chapter 1? How many have to look at the table of contents? No, no problem. Nothing wrong with that. There you go. I do that every once in a while, amen. I don’t tell anybody when I do it, but I do it, you know.

But Haggai chapter number one, here we go, verse number one: “And in the second year of Darius, the king…” Now notice another king is on the throne over, back over in Babylon. And in the second year of Darius, the king—excuse me, Darius the king—in the sixth month, when we go to Zechariah, maybe even next week, you’ll notice it’s in the eighth month, two months later. “And in the first day of the month came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah.” So he was the political leader, if you would, all right?

Let’s keep reading then to Joshua, the son of Josedec, the high priest. He was a religious leader, saying, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” Talking about building the temple, see. It had been paused; it had been stopped. And so the people now saying, well, it’s not time to build the Lord’s house. It’s not time for God to do something.

Verse number three: Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways.” Ye have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” saith the Lord.

This message—Haggai’s message and Zechariah’s message—is what God used to get the rebuilding started back again. Now, I want you to consider this: These are good people. These were, in some ways, the cream of the crop. They were the ones that left Babylon, almost 50,000 ones that said, “Hey, we’ll leave our jobs.” They’d been over there for 70 years. A lot of them were born over there. A lot of them were older now. And they had established themselves, but these were the crowd that said, “Hey, we want to serve God. We want to do God’s will. God wants us to rebuild. We want to rebuild. We want to see God do something.” This was the crowd.

And yet when defeat came, when the rebuilding was stopped—it was stopped by force, we read that last week—they had no choice in the matter to be stopped, at least for a while. But these are the good people. But this crowd had gotten to where they were beginning to make excuses. Good Christians, good people. But their excuse, verse number two, is their excuse. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say…” Here’s their excuse: “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” That was their excuse. Well, it’s not time. I can almost hear it from some of us, me included. “Well, 2019 America, you know, you can’t do that much for God now.” A little bit of that same thing. It’s not time. That’s what they’re saying. It’s not time.

And if we’re not careful, sometimes we’ll just spend the rest of our lives saying, “Well, one day we’ll do something for God. One day we’ll get serious about this thing. One day I’ll walk with God. One day I’ll be a soul winner.” And that was kind of their thing. And they got defined by this defeat in their life. Let’s see what he says about it. Look down and let’s just look at the condition. What was their condition?

Verse number six, a very sad verse: “He that soweth much, bringeth in little.” He said, let’s just get honest about it. He said, look, the honest truth is, y’all are working yourselves to death, but you’ve got nothing to show for it. He said, man, you’re always sowing, but you bring in a little. There’s a reason for it; we’ll talk about it in a moment here. But, you know, I see a lot of that in America. Really do. Even sometimes they might have some things to show for, but not a good marriage, not good children, not peace, not joy, not eternal things. By the way, this lifetime is just a drop in the bucket.

And the first thing he’s talking about is their condition. Look, he said, you’ve sown a whole lot. The honest truth is, you’re bringing in a little. Well, I say that so much in America. Let’s keep going. He says, verse number six: “Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm.” You know what he’s saying? You’re never satisfied. Never satisfied.

I’m ahead of myself here a little bit, but the problem, the root problem, was they got their priorities out of whack. And when I get my priorities out of whack, I’m not going to be satisfied. I’m really not. They had become focused on what they had. You’re working all the time. You’re just trying to get more and drink more and more clothes. And he said you’re never satisfied. Things never satisfy. They never do. If they do, it’s very temporary. Boy, you get that new vehicle and you love it for about six months. You know, when you first get that vehicle, you wash it three times the first week. After you’ve had it years, you wash it about three times every year, you know. And it just never satisfies. J. Paul Getty, one of the richest men in the world in his time, they asked him towards the end, “How much more money would you like?” And he said, “Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more.” The things don’t satisfy. You see, if you’re not right with God, nothing will fill that void. Nothing. You’re just not going to have that peace, that joy. Only God can give that.

Let’s keep reading this, verse number six. Verse number six, he says, the last part: “And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” Hey, look, if you don’t have God’s blessing, friend, you’re just not going to do well. God’s against you. Man, you just need to call time out and get things right with God. Better off just cry mercy. Something’s not right. It’s God. And these folks, they did not have the priorities right.

Would you do this? Oh, let’s look in verse number four, I believe it is, and let’s just look at his message here, verse number four. He says, “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” They had some material things that were not satisfied. Their ceiled houses would be maybe equivalent to, man, you live in your big brick houses and, oh, man, you got everything the world could imagine. They were kind of living in luxury, and the house of God, the temple, was just lying in waste. They had gotten their priorities out of whack. And they had moved all the way—500 miles as a crow flies, 900 miles this way—to do God’s work, and they had a defeat, and they got prideful. It’s so easy to get your priorities out of whack. All of us, myself included. Well, they had gotten to the point where they thought, “All right, we’ve got to build our houses, we’ve got to provide,” and they were successful somewhat, though they were getting these clothes, but they weren’t warm. They were getting something to drink, but they weren’t filled. They kept sowing seed, but the honest truth is, they were gathering in little. Your priorities are so vital.

Notice the one thing he says to do twice. Did you notice? Over there in Haggai, he says at the bottom of verse number five, “Consider your…” What’s the next word? Ways. Look at the bottom of verse number seven right there: “Consider your ways.” Now, here’s very nice: He didn’t say “consider your beliefs.” These are good people. I imagine if you’d ask them, “Hey, do you believe you put God first and let God take care of this?” Oh, I believe that. I believe they said that. Who should you serve first? Oh, the Lord. He didn’t talk about considering your thoughts, didn’t talk about considering your beliefs. He said, “Consider your ways.”

I think honestly, pretty much everybody here tonight—this is the cream of the crop—if I asked, “Who do you serve first?” [They’d say] The Lord. Man serves God, He’ll take care of it. But he didn’t say, “Consider your beliefs or your thoughts.” He said, “Consider your ways.” Now, think with me—and I’m not trying to dog you tonight—but have you been spending the time in the Bible like you ought to? Or are there other things getting in the way? Have you been in the prayer closet the last 24 hours like God wants you to be? That’s what he’s saying. He doesn’t say, “Consider your beliefs, your thoughts, what you preach, what you’re saying.” He’s not saying all that. “Consider your ways.” Action speaks louder than words. Someone said, “Your walk’s talking so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying.” Have you put the Lord first in the last 24 hours? Consider your ways. What’s happened in the last month to make you miss church, the house of the Lord? Who makes the decisions for you? Do you make your decisions based on, “Lord, what would You want here? What would You like here? What do You want here? Whatever You want, Lord, that’s what I’m going to put You over”? That’s this message. He said, “Consider your ways.” How am I asking you to get convicted there?

I don’t always have my prayer time like I ought to. And whatever may be in your life, I allow things to crowd into God’s place, first place. I don’t even… I don’t try to do that, but it happens. I don’t think these people here were trying to do it. These are the cream of the crop, the ones that left. A lot of Jewish people stayed over there in Babylon. These are the best that said, “Hey, we’ll leave everything. Come over here, 900 miles, and we’ll come over to rebuild the temple.” We won’t do something for God. But defeat came. And just sometimes they weren’t able to do what they wanted to do temporarily, and it became a permanent thing. And somehow or other, the priorities got out of whack. That’s easy for me. I spent the month of May traveling more than I’ve ever spent all my life traveling, you know. And I don’t think I’m back in routine like I ought to be, and I don’t know that I’ve got everything back where it should be in my life. And it’s easy to let everything else push God out of the way.

Do you ever think about this? This is a great fault here, but great things don’t demand your attention. I’ve never walked by the Bible and a hand came out of the Bible and said, “Hey, read the Bible.” Great people, if you want to spend time with them, you’ve got to kind of make it happen, you know, a little bit. A lot of people demand your attention. He’s not real great.

I’ve been in houses. I was visiting Miss Shelby last Thursday or something one night. And, you know, she’d been down with her leg, whatnot. And the news was on right there. And I was sitting in the living room. She was over there. And the news was right there. And I was there to visit Miss Shelby, try to be a blessing to her. And you know what? That dirty, rotten, stinking TV was demanding my attention. And I said, “Paul, what are you doing?” It was just the news. I’m here to visit this lady, you know, and it kept, it kept just grabbing my attention. Yeah, small things do that. Great things don’t demand your attention usually. If you’re not careful, you’ll be running around doing urgent things instead of important things. How many folk are running around spending on all the urgent things, and they’re not taking time for their marriage or their kids like that?

And somewhere along the line, we have to say, “Look, I want God to have first place.” And that still small voice, I on purpose, I’m going to tune into it and let it have first place. Because if I just let whatever happen, I’m probably going to allow the Lord to be pushed out in my life.

His message was, “Hey, consider your ways,” not just consider your beliefs. Wow. As I studied, I’ve been convicted a little bit. I’m going to make sure that… I’m apt to make a lot of decisions and never even seek the Lord. I just do what I think is best.

You know, I don’t find in the Bible people… It’s interesting. Years ago in America, all the jobs were up in Detroit, Pontiac, whatnot, up that way. Brother Jerry told me a story—I don’t think I’ve heard him tell it to me before. He said when I was a… I just graduated high school and I was living at home, and my dad came to me and said, “Hey, you need to get a job.” He said, “Well, that made sense.” He went and got a job in construction, not making much money. And he said, “But I had a job.” And he had a cousin or someone coming down from Pontiac, Michigan. He said, “Man, how much are you making over there in construction?” It was just a little bit. He said, “You need to go back to Pontiac with me. I’ll get you on at GM. You’ll make big bucks up there.” And he said, “All right, I’ll do it.” And Jerry said, “Sure enough.” Brother Jerry did. He said, “I went up there and got a good job, making big bucks in the wintertime.” He said, “It took me about three months. I said, uh-uh. Money’s not worth it. I got to get back to Tennessee, you know.” When he came back, everybody was moving up there, and now they’re moving down here for jobs. You know, and it’ll change. It’ll change. Just hang on 15, 20 years; it’ll change.

You studied that out in the Bible of Abraham and the book of Ruth. It didn’t turn out for good when people move for money for the most part. A lot might be a whole lot better off. Be careful about letting money dictate all your decisions. See, let God do that. And God will lead, and I’m not saying… I don’t know. I’m not trying to point my finger at anybody. God can lead them however. But I’m just saying, God needs first place.

Look over, you know this verse. Look over in Matthew 6, if you would, you’ll know the verse. Matthew 6:33. Matthew 6:33. Look that up real quick if you would.

Can I say this while you’re turning over there? I don’t think it was a sin for them to live in nice houses. God likes His people to be blessed. Now, the least of God’s blessings is money, but there’s nothing wrong with money. By the way, money’s not the root of all evil; the love of money is the root of all evil. And that wasn’t the problem. The problem was their priorities right away. They were all about their ceiled houses and had no time to build God’s house, the temple.

But look at this. Look at this verse. I want you to pull out—many of you probably know it—pull out, in my opinion, probably the most important word in this verse. And that could be debated, I understand. If you want to debate about it, meet me out back afterwards. If I’m not there, just start without me. All right, okay. But here, I think probably the most important verse here: Matthew 6:33. Look at this: “But seek ye…” I think probably the most important word of the verse is “But seek ye first.” Can I say, a whole lot of people seek God, but they don’t seek Him first? I’d imagine it’s almost… I’d say almost everyone seeks God at least a little bit in their lifetime. Not always, but I’d say a little bit. But there’s a difference. See, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Boy, you talk to people, it sounds like everybody’s seeking the kingdom of God. Now, the majority, the Bible books will tell you that, and there is probably some truth to that. But the key is “seek ye first.” That’s the key. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

Can I just say this: The way for you to get where you want to be—what does this whole world want? They want joy, they want happiness, they want peace, they want fulfillment. The way to get where you want to be is not necessarily money, not necessarily all that; it’s putting God first. But it doesn’t look like that. It looks like chasing all these other things will give you all this security, this contentment, this joy, this peace. I’m telling you, it’s a mirage. The way to get where you want to be—I’m not talking about necessarily getting that house, that car, all that, no—the place to get where you have peace, joy, happiness, contentment, fulfillment, the way to get there is to put God first. Everything in between, He’ll take care of that. He’s very capable.

I see so many in America, in our area, just devoting their life to the work and their career and this, to get a better house and provide all this for the kids and all that. And I’m for working. Believe me, I’m for working. But that’s just… that’s the first thing in their life. And they’re not happy. They’re up to their ears in debt. And their marriage is falling apart. And their kids are running wild. And then they give God a little bit of leftovers. And they say, “What’s wrong, preacher?” Seek ye first. And it’s going to take some faith. But that’s what’s going on here. They just working themselves to death, but they wouldn’t put God first. And the outcome wasn’t what they wanted.

Satan’s always trying to get me to put things of God down on my priority list. Sometimes Satan knows he’s not going to get… whoever it may be, Hugh the Wednesday night crowd—he’s not going to get you drinking in [unclear word] or doing drugs or whatever. But if he can just get you doing something else besides doing what God wants you to do, well, he considers that a victory because he got me away from doing what God wanted me to do. Satan is very good at getting me to do good things, but not the best thing. I’ve said this already: he’s good at getting me caught up on the urgent things instead of the important things. And I’ll get running around like a dog chasing its tail. Dixie’s about seven, eight months old now. She’s got puppy energy in her. And every now and then she’ll chase that tail. I tell you what, she’s been chasing skunks here lately. I don’t know if she got sprayed or what. She had sprayed; she wallowed in it. I don’t know. But she’d been after the skunks here lately. I wish she’d just leave the skunks alone. But I got to complain a little bit in the message, you know. But if I’m not careful, I’ll be like a dog, running around chasing things, and I’m not doing the important things, and I haven’t got a good connection with the Lord. I’m not walking with God like I ought to. And the honest truth is, I don’t have what I need to take care of the things I’m running around chasing. If I put God first, He’d give me the resources and what I need to get the job done. It’s a different way of living. It’s going to be a little bit odd to the world. It’s putting God first. That’s the key. That’s the important part. Keeping your priorities right is a matter of faith. It’s a matter of believing God. I’m just going to put You first. And you put God first. And you put God first. And you trust.

Dad wasn’t the perfect man, for sure. You hear him talk about him; you know, he had his issues like all of us. But Matthew 6:33 was his life verse. It’s on the tombstone when my dad’s buried. We couldn’t fit it all, only, but a lot of it is there.

I’ve watched Dad work at jobs making pretty good money, and they didn’t like it. Dad sold insurance for a while, and he would witness. He just witnessed everywhere, and the boss would get him: “Hey, you’re supposed to be selling life insurance, not out there telling people about the Lord and all that, preaching at him.” You know, “You’re selling insurance, not preaching at him.” And he said, “Well, I’m telling them about eternal life insurance.”

And I watched Dad walk away from jobs like that, take a pay cut. Now, I’m not saying you have to do everything like that. Same thing, pest control. “You’re supposed to go out there spraying for bugs instead of preaching at him.” And he wouldn’t stop preaching if they were living all that. We are to go with the gospel. He’d go over there and tell them about Jesus. And I watched him walk away from some jobs, believe it or not.

They never felt too rich. I mean, Mom was, but she kept it in savings. She’s got a couple million in the savings, you know. Amen. And they never had a whole lot, but God always paid their bill.

I have told you—the story wasn’t planned on telling it—but towards the end of Dad’s life here, they crossed the street. You’ve heard me tell about over there, the SWAT team that got called in. And Brother Bruce said, “No, I hadn’t heard this story.” Yeah. Ms. Tina, she was in the SWAT gear. She was in the SWAT team? No. But honestly, the SWAT team got called into the… that blocked the whole neighborhood off. SWAT team beside Mom and out across the street. Big old wooden fence. It used to be, I don’t know, six, six feet tall. You really couldn’t see in there, and nobody ever really came out in and out for the most part. Kind of a mystery to everybody. So the SWAT team got called in there one night, you know. And Dad told him later on, he said, “I had my gun.” He got his .22 pistol out; he’s a revolver. He’s ready to go. Nine shot. He’s ready to go, you know. And the SWAT team called out over there, whatnot. And kids in the neighborhood said, “That guy over there is the ex-member of KISS.” You know, the rock and roll group, KISS, you know? No. We started checking it out, looking up on the internet. Sure enough. Sure enough, it was. And I think Vinnie Vincent, I think, if I remember the name right, I don’t know. And Brother Warren told me all about it; he knows all about that stuff. I’m teasing, of course. But sure enough, and he’s just a hermit over there. He was in the middle of a, literally, of a… I was out working on a car or something one time over there, and he or she or him or whatever came up, you know, and said something to me, and I turned around. I thought it was a lady, all besides the lips. I don’t know what it is, but lips… I like those are men lips right there, I guarantee you. Everything else looked like a woman. I saw a man’s lips right there, you know, and said something about the dog, Ladybug, got out, whatnot. And sure enough, he had a lady that lived two houses down, and he had beat her up, just beat her up. SWAT team got called in, found a bunch of dogs that were cut up, trash can, just just cut up, man.

And if I understand right, after he got arrested, put in jail and all that, the house got repossessed. Now, I thought about that guy over there. By the way, Mom and Dad, we never really got just maybe a little minute here or there, you know, but hardly ever at all. But Mom and Dad were putting tracts in the wooden slats of that wooden fence. You know, who knows? The guy might have gotten saved. I don’t know. Hope so, you know. But anyway, I thought about Mom and Dad, you know, putting the Lord first. Before Dad passed, he wanted this house paid off. Never had much, but man, they were happy. And we tried to honor Dad at church here. Remember those of you around when we had Brother Dad Day? We just tried to honor Dad. We knew he was passing, you know, and he has a lot of rewards. And over here, this guy served the devil all those years. A hermit. So messed up, was having a sex change, got ended up in jail and lost his house. I’d rather put God first. Better down here, and for all eternity, a whole lot better.

It’s going to be a step of faith, though. You’re not always going to see it. It’s not going to look real good up front. But seek ye first. Haggai’s message was: You’re living in these ceiled houses, and look at the temple that you came over here to do this work for God, the house of God, and it’s just lying in waste. And he said, “Consider your ways.” And then in verse 6, he said, “You’re just working all the time and you’re not satisfied. You work and you get money in, but it’s like you’ve got a hole in the back.” By the way, when finances are tight, don’t stop tithing during that time. That’s when you need God’s blessing. But he said, man, he said, “You’re working all the time. It’s like you’re putting your money in a bag with a hole in it.” And he says, “Consider your ways.” It’s just a matter of putting God first. Hey, Lord, I will do Your will. It’s not about what I want. It ought to be about what the Lord wants.

I’m not going to take time. I didn’t get the stuff to do it tonight, but you see me do it many times. You take that jar. Somebody already shook their head, you know. And they have the bigger rocks—rocks you find on the railroad, you know, where the railroad car train goes, you know. And then the little pebbles, and then the sand, the water. And if you put the water in there first, and then the sand in there and the pebbles in there, and then the big rocks, no way. But you put the big ones in there first, and the pebbles, then the sand, then the water. It’ll all fit in there. And when you just say, “Lord, what do You want me to do? I want to follow You first. Seek You first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” All these things, God will take care of those. That’s God’s plan. And there is peace there.

Honestly, this is the honest truth. I got to quit, but you can put your head on the pillow and have thousands of dollars. You can have a couple of million in the bank like Mom does, you know, and put your head on the pillow and still not have peace. Of course, I’m teasing about Mom. Or you can have nothing pretty much in the bank, might even a buck in your wallet, maybe a penny or two in your pocket, put your head on the pillow knowing you’re doing what God wants. Have peace. I mean that. The Lord… you have been putting You first. I know, I’ve been obeying Your word, been following. You got it. And He does. It’s a walk of faith, but it’s a happy walk. Now, I’m not talking about being unwise, but I’m talking about following the Lord first.

Original File: Ezra Rebuilding the Temple - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 61219