Pastor Jonathan Burgess
October 11, 2015 - W1541

(Pastor Wayne Cordeiro)

We're going to be team teaching today, so let me just start it off out of the book of Ezra.

"With praise and Thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: 'He is good; his love towards Israel endures forever.' And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.  But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid while many others shouted for joy.  No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sounds of weeping because the people made so much noise, and the sound was heard far away." (Ezra 3:11-13)

Being all mixed up, that's what we're speaking about. If you think about it, some of the people were shouting "God has helped us," and the others were shouting, "Oh, God help us." Maybe we find the answer to this dilemma in verse 8 after everything was set and the foundations were put in place. It says, "They appointed Levites 20 years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord."

They were weeping because they saw the burnt remnants of what once stood so magnificently. They could never replace that, that splendid temple, because it was more than a temple. 

It contained life, their pain, their joys, memories, experiences, and thousands of hours on their faces in prayer, devotion, worship, singing, meeting, lives being changed. You see, so much had happened within those walls. It contained their lives. And now it was rubble. Now, the others were rejoicing because of what they were gaining, something brand?new, and full of potential and hope. But the others were weeping because of what they had lost.

Yet, with all of the mixed feelings, with the sundry of emotions and mixed opinions doesn't mean that what's happening is necessarily wrong. In fact, I think the lesson today is this...things couldn't have been more right. You know, just like a newborn baby coming into the world, you've got to realize some of God's best gifts come with a mixture of pain and delight, a mix of suffering and joy.

So when things in your life get mixed up, take time to remember or be reminded again of the miracles God did in the past.

When David was faced with a giant who was mocking him and the people of Israel and his God, then add to that, even his own skeptical family doubted and questioned David's ability when David said, “I'll go up against this giant.” But when he was disbelieved and when he was slandered, mocked by that giant, David did not simply say, “Okay, I guess I'm pretty bad, I guess I can't.” David instead recalled his time when he was a shepherd in the past when a lion and a bear attacked and God gave him an uncanny ability to single?handedly defeat both of those predators.

And then he says in 1 Samuel 17:37, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

This week, take some time to memorialize what He's accomplished in your life. Just write them down. In my Bible I have written down miracles and things that God has accomplished in my life.  And then in the back I write different things here with the dates on them of what God had done and how God accomplished them when I didn't have anything. I love reading these through once in a while, and I'm made again freshly aware that the God who helped me in the past will be the same God who will do it again.

On the walls in our home we have framed scriptures containing our life verses and reminders of God's faithfulness. Surround yourself with the record of His faithfulness.

But we can also learn something from the younger ones as well. I want you to read again what Nehemiah says. Ezra 3:13 says, "Many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sounds of weeping because the people made so much noise."

We can learn from the past, but we can also learn for the future. You get knowledge or experience from your past. You get inspiration from your future because that holds potential.

The joy they felt was because the foundation meant purpose, direction and single?mindedness. And although the elders could still see something that was once there before, the younger ones could see something that was never there before. They could see something even greater.

That is invaluable vision. We need both. We need a record of the faithfulness of God, but we need the inspiration to be able to see vision for what is yet to come. We thrive on both, and that's what gives us the balance.  It's not an either?or.  It's a both?and.  And that's our lesson. Ecclesiastes 7:18 says, "It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them."

(Pastor Jon)

The enemy's goal is to keep us from coming together. Because there's power in this unity. And so I love that what Pastor Wayne was teaching out of this passage is that we can come together no matter what our emotions are, no matter what's going on.

Come Together Even With Mixed Emotions.

Don't let the enemy keep you from seeing what God is about to do simply because you have mixed emotions about what's going on. Make a determination in your heart, just like many of us had to do, even when things are not going well.  

Every one of us has gifts. Every one of us has experiences that we can learn from each other, and it's never been more important that we come together in unity.  But of course there's going to be mixed emotions. However, scripture is teaching us to be honest with our emotions, but don't let it keep you from being in motion with what the Holy Spirit is building.

The moment that you and I make a decision to say that nothing is going to keep us from coming together with God's people, the enemy is going to push back. The enemy is nothing but a big old bully on the school grounds trying to prove to you and me that we don't belong here. In fact, that's exactly what we see in the narrative here in Ezra chapter 4.  They laid the foundation, and look what happens next.  Ezra 4 verses 1 through 6 says,

"Now, when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers' households, and said to them, 'Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.' But Zerubbabel and Jeshua, both very discerning leaders, and the rest of the heads of the fathers' households of Israel said to them, 'You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; for we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.'  Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and frightened them from building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.  Now, in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem."

I don't know what mixed messages have come to you, but the moment that you take a stand for God, you are going to get not only God's message, you're going to also get a message from the enemy. He's going to try and do the same thing to you and me that they did to the people of God.  He's going to bring discouragement, fear and distraction. He's going to be a bully and try to convince you that this is not what you're called to do.

Now, imagine how discouraging this must have been for the people who had decided that they're going to come together to build this temple. Politically, they were influenced to stop building the wall. For 12 long years that temple sat unfinished.

Come Together Even With Mixed Messages.

Here's what's going to happen. You're going to have two narratives going on in your life.  One is the narrative that God is writing - something miraculous, and something way bigger than you and I could ever imagine.  And then the other narrative is the one of the enemy: distraction, discouragement, fear, bullying, and intimidation. But hold onto this one truth right now, wherever it is that you're at, whatever it is that's left unfinished. 

Resistance does not mean you missed it. There's this odd theology going around in the church that says if it's God's will, it's going to be easy. I don't know about you, but I look at scripture and I see every single time God asked his people to step out in a place of faith, it's not ever easy. There's always resistance. There's always a mixed message.

In fact, speaking of marriage, you can actually apply any of these points about coming together, no matter how mixed up you feel, to any of your relationships in your life. I think about Pastor Randy Scroggins in New Beginnings church. We prayed through together as a body last week when we were following the news of the tragic shootings in Roseburg, Oregon. You can only imagine the mixed emotions and mixed messages that the Christians in that city are feeling as many of those that were shot, were shot because they admitted their Christian faith.

But Pastor Randy and so many of the other churches in the area, instead of backing down, instead of being quiet, instead of being bullied, you know what they're doing? They are shouting God's message of hope and strength and healing and life louder than ever before. 

The enemy wants to keep us all mixed up inside. But instead, we're going to hone in on what the spirit of God is saying right now. I thank each of you that are contending for a good marriage, for a good family, contending to keep your job even though it may not be fun or enjoyable, but you keep fighting so that you can provide for your family.  Thank you for not listening to the bully and the liar.

President Theodore Roosevelt said this about you:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man or woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without err and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

That's the Christian life. We have not been called to cower or fear. We have been called into the arena because what we're fighting for is eternity, not just for our families but for future generations. 

Come Together To Get Rid of Mixed Priorities.

The Bible says in Ezra 6:14-16, “So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.  The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar and the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.  And the people of Israel ?? the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles ?? celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy."

There had been mixed emotions in building the Temple. But they came together anyways, and they built anyways. Because they responded to the word of the prophet, they began to build after a 12?year idleness. 

And I want you to notice here that when there was joy, it was cross?generational joy. There wasn't a single mouth in there, not a single person in there, regardless of age or what they had known or hadn't known, that missed out on what it was that God was doing. They took God's journey and experienced God's joy. They took that place of surrender and became one song before the Lord.

But you know who needs to be reminded that they're something special? The builder generation. God is not done with you yet. In fact, He's just getting started. If you didn't hear what Pastor Wayne is saying, please hear what I am saying.  These generations, we need your voice.  Please don't let the enemy keep you silent.  Please speak up. You have seen what we have not, and you will show us where we need to go next. We need all the generations involved in what it is that God is building here. 

It reminds me of when we were moving from Seattle where we had planted New Hope Seattle and God was calling us back to the islands and we started out moving to Kona. We asked each of our 5 boys to pray so that they would know that God wanted them to move too.

God is asking you to come with Him and be a part of what He is about to do next. He is saying that He needs you and that you are special.

Questions:

Why did they appoint Levites 20 years old or older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord?

Why were the older generation weeping?

Why should we take time to memorialize what God has done in our live?

Why is it important to come together even with mixed emotions?