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to meet and hear your word preached. I pray now that you bless Pastor Shelley. Help him to preach, Lord, and help us all to listen and apply your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So we're going back to the book of Ezra, and we'd started. We've done the first six chapters, and we're now in chapter number seven, and we took a quick break into Ruth, and so I kind of want to talk about this chapter. I want to also revisit a few things just so we have the same mindset and we're thinking about these things, but look at verse one. It says, now after these things and the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra the son of Sariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah. Now in verse one it says, now after these things, I think most of us probably need a refresher of what those things were, right? So I just want to take a quick second to kind of go back and just refresh your mind of where we're at in the story of Ezra, what we've already learned, what we've already looked at, what we've already seen, but go back to chapter number one for a second. Go back to chapter number one. Where is the timing of the book of Ezra? Well, we know that the children of Israel were taken into a 70 year long captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and books that outlined this would be the end of Jeremiah talks about them entering into the captivity. We see the books of Ezekiel are taking place during that captivity. We see the books of Daniel are taking place during that captivity, and then the end of the book of Daniel. We see kind of them coming back out of that captivity. We see Darius, and we see Cyrus mentioned in the books of Daniel. The book of Ezra, chapter number one, starts with Cyrus, who makes a proclamation of them coming back then. Look at verse one. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. So that's where we start with Ezra, chapter number one, is we start with the proclamation of Cyrus. So we have the proclamation of Cyrus in his first year, and he's telling them to go back to the land. Chapter number two is still coming off that same thought. The same thought of chapter number two was it's mentioning the people that end up going to Jerusalem based on the proclamation of Cyrus. Look at chapter two, verse one. Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon carried away into Babylon and came again in Jerusalem and Judah everyone into a city. So chapter number two is basically the children of the province returning, right? So we have the children returning, and it's not really much different in time. It's not very much time has passed. In chapter number three, verse one, it says, and when the seventh month was come and the children of Israel and the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. So in a period of seven months, we have the proclamation, we have the people returning, and then in a seven month period of time, they're now there. They've gathered themselves together. They're in Jerusalem seven months later after the proclamation in chapter number three, and this is when they start doing the burnt offerings. So they begin doing burnt offerings again. So for 70 years, there has been no burnt offering. There has been no sacrifice. There has been no worship of the Lord according to the law. It ceased for 70 years. I mean, they were in complete captivity. So it's a pretty significant event of them returning back. They're doing the offerings again. They're now worshiping the Lord. Obviously, it's not to the same degree because they don't have the same setup that they had once they were first destroyed, but they're going to try and restore that. In chapter number, or verse number six, look at this. It says, from the first day of the seventh month begin they to offer burnt offerings. So we have them recorded then. In chapter number four, what happens? We have the adversaries. So now that they're starting to serve God again, yea, and all that will of God be in Christ Jesus shall what? Supper persecution, right? So we have the adversaries coming against them. They're trying to attack them in chapter number four, and it gives us kind of a timeline. Look at verse number five. It says, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose. All the days of Cyrus king of Persia. That's where we started, Cyrus king of Persia. Even under the reign of Darius king of Persia. So it gives us a timeline of chapter number four, from Cyrus unto Darius. But look at verse six. It says, in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign wrote they unto him, an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlem, Mithridath, Tabeel. So you have a couple other guys mentioned. So it didn't just go straight from Cyrus unto that Darius. There was other guys involved. So it's a period of time. We don't know exactly what that period of time is, but I'm gonna give you an idea in a minute. Chapter number five picks up with that Darius. So we went from Cyrus to Darius through all these adversaries. Chapter number five starts with Darius again, and we have the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah. Go to Haggai chapter one for a second. Keep your finger here and go to Haggai chapter number one. So we're doing a crash course refresher here, just for a moment. But in Haggai chapter one verse one, it says, in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, 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, and to Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest sang. So in Haggai chapter number one, which is mentioned in chapter number five, that's when he started prophesying Haggai and we have Zechariah preaching in those times. We see it's the second year of Darius, and that's when they decide to come back. The adversaries had stopped them from building the house of the Lord. And through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, they end up returning back to the work of the Lord, continuing to work on the house of the Lord. Go back to Ezra chapter number six for a second. But we noticed one thing in this chapter, which I want to point out and help you understand this. It said that Zerubbabel was the governor, and it said that Joshua was the high priest. Now, Joshua in the book of Ezra is known as Jeshua, so his name's a little bit different there, same guy, but those are the two leaders. The leaders from chapter one to chapter number six are who? Zerubbabel and Jeshua, or Joshua as it were, okay? So it's interesting because the book's called Ezra. You'd think of me about a guy named Ezra, but you have to understand the first six chapters have nothing to do with a guy named Ezra, nothing. The leaders were different people. It was Zerubbabel, and it was Jeshua who was the high priest. These were the leaders, and it was a very, it was a considerable amount of time that the first six chapters take place. Look at verse number 15. It says in this house, talking about the house of the Lord, was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. So in chapter number six, they finished the house. Now, I studied this not maybe as much as I possibly could, but I don't know that the Bible gives you an exact amount of years from this Ezra chapter one to Ezra chapter number six. But we do have secular history that does give us some indication, and I don't put any stock in this. I don't think that this is necessarily a hundred percent accurate, but I just want to give you some kind of an idea of how much time may have passed in these proclamations. We know it's definitely several years, okay? That's for sure, but historians, and again, depending on what historian you look at, they all disagree. I'm just going with what's kind of popular, okay? What's popular is that the proclamation of Cyrus was in 536 BC. So in 536 BC, Cyrus made this proclamation for the Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem. So that would mean the second year of Cyrus, 535 BC, if we're going with that logic, if we're going that timeline, would have been when the foundation was laid, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid in that year. But when did Darius start raining? Well, according to history, if you just go look online and say, give me the kings of the Persians and when they rained, basically, Darius had began raining. So we have that mentioned here. He was raining in 522 BC. So that was his first year, but the Bible told us in his sixth year the house was finished, right? So if we base it on their dates again, that would be, what, 516 BC. It goes downwards when you're BC, right? So it's confusing. But 516 BC would be approximately when chapter six is finished. So we're talking maybe 20-year period of time from Ezra chapter one to Ezra chapter number six, and we never mentioned Ezra. Ezra is not a part of that. And then we basically have what? Chapter number seven is talking about this. Look at chapter seven, verse eight. It says, and he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. Now that was the king Artaxerxes, okay? Again, I don't know how accurate this stuff is. It's probably not that accurate. But according to secular history, there was another king before Artaxerxes. In 485 BC, they claimed that a guy named Xerxes the first, Xerxes the first came into reign. And then in 465 BC is Artaxerxes. Now again, when it comes to the names of these Persian kings, we're not 100% certain. Even the historians disagree. They'll sometimes say, well, this was Artaxerxes or what, you know, sometimes they'll say, well, this is actually the Azahirish or whatever mentioned in Esther. So we can't necessarily know for sure. But one thing is for certain is that this first six chapters was a considerable amount of time, okay? What's going to happen after a considerable amount of time? You need new leaders because the other ones died or whatever. So we're going to have a changing of the regime essentially. You're going to have new leaders coming on the scene. And whenever you have chapter number seven saying after these things, what does it say? Hey, after all this happened, okay? After all the house was finished. So I just want you to have an idea of where we're at in the book of Ezra as we kind of tackle some of these things. So if this was accurate, again, I don't know if this is accurate or not. It said the seventh year of Artaxerxes is when Ezra was introduced. That would be 458 BC. So we're talking approximately, you know, several years here. I mean, this is like, you know, over 50 years, maybe 80 years. I'm just giving you approximations. I don't know. I don't know that it matters per se, but I just want you to have a sense of how much time has possibly passed and where we're at. Look at chapter seven, verse one again. So now after these things, after all these chapters, after the house of the Lord has been finished, it says in the reign of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, Ezra, the son of Sariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Ilkiah, the son of Shalom, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, the son of Amoriah, the son of Azariah, the son of Merioth, the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzai, the son of Bucai, the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the chief priest. So we're now talking about a new person, and it gives us this huge list of names. And some of these names probably are pretty meaningless to us because we don't really know if they're mentioned other times in the Bible. Obviously, people use the same name. How many John's are in the Bible, right? But one name that's pretty important is we have Eleazar and we have Aaron. Now, what does that signify? It signifies to us that Ezra is of the Levitical priesthood, and specifically, he's of a particular family that's very important. Go over to Numbers chapter number three, Numbers chapter number three. We have to understand about Ezra. We have to understand about Joshua. Is there not just some yahoo off the street that's coming back and is now the priest, or is now the high priest, or is now taking over the service of the Lord? Now, these guys actually have the right pedigree to fulfill the job in which they're going to take. They're special. Why? Because the priesthood in the Old Testament was reconciled by genealogy. It was reconciled by which family you were from, and depending upon who your parents were, depended on your service to God. Your service to God was dependent directly upon who your parents were, and in fact, it gave three different classifications. So, the Levites were the only ones that really did the major service of the Lord in the Old Testament, and of the Levites, there was three classifications of families, and depending on which family you were in, depended on how you serve God. Look at Numbers chapter three, and this is talking about the Gershonites. Look at verse 25. This is the job of the family of the Gershonites. And the charge of the sons of Gershom, and the tabernacle of the congregation, shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar roundabout, and the cords of it for all the service thereof. So, we have three families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merahites. The Gershonites, the first family, they're basically the curtains and the coverings, okay? So, if you're of this lineage, if you're of the Gershonites, if you're of this family tree, then your job in serving God is to take care of what? The hangings, take care of the curtains. That is your job. That's what you're designated to do. It doesn't matter if you want to do something different. That's what you get to do. That's what you're designated to do. That's your job. That's what God has called you to do. That's where you're supposed to serve, okay? Now, look at verse 27. And of Kohath was the family of the Merahites, and the family of the Israelites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzalites. These are the families of the Kohathites, okay? Look at verse 31. And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary, wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and the service thereof. And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary. So the Kohathites, their service was basically the actual service. What we would think of when it comes to the service of the Old Testament, you know, doing the altar, doing the sacrifices, pertaining to anything with the tabernacle, the candlesticks, making sure that the candlestick never goes out, making sure the light never goes out, all the things that we really think of as being really active in the participation of the Old Testament sacrifices, that's the Kohathites. I mean, they're the guys that are standing in there, and the one guy that gets to go in to the holiest of holies, he gets to enter in once a year for the Day of Atonement, is got to be the high priest. And he has to be of a specific lineage. Who's that lineage? Of Eleazar. Of whom? Of Aaron. Okay, so it's Aaron, his son, Eleazar, and then their sons. So when we're talking about Ezra, we're not talking about just some random guy. This guy comes from a very specific lineage of Eleazar, of whom? Aaron. So that's why he's going to be significant because he's going to be the high priest. We need a high priest. I mean, who's going to go in to the holiest of holies and make the sacrifice for us? It can't just be, you know, some Moabite. It can't just be some random, you know, Chaldean. It can't even just be somebody from a Benjamin. It can't be, oh, I'm from the children of Israel, you know, I'm of a Benjamin. Well, you can't go in there. You say, well, I'm of Levi. Yeah, but you're a Gershonite. You're not welcome. The Gershonites aren't welcome. You know who's welcome? The sons of Eleazar specifically. Okay, so we have to realize that Ezra is a very specific person. He's a very special person. We have a third family. Let's look at this third family. Look at verse 36, the Maraeites. These in verse 36, their job is the boards of the tabernacle and the bars thereof and the pillars thereof and the sockets thereof and all the vessels thereof and all that serveth thereto and the pillars of the court roundabout and their sockets and their pins and their cords. So, when we read a genealogy like we did in the very beginning of Ezra, chapter number seven, we have to understand it's there for a purpose. It's not there just, oh, cool, he's from Eleazar. It's there to help signify to us or trigger in our minds all the things that we've already learned in the Old Testament because we've read them and we know them, right? And we memorize them. But it's the picture of the fact that he's a special person. He's of a particular lineage. That's why he's the high priest. And what we have to understand is in the Old Testament, being a priest was dependent upon your birth. Now, the priest in the New Testament is dependent upon your birth. It's no different. It's actually the exact same. Go to Revelation, if you would. Go to Revelation, chapter number one. You know, you don't just pick a bozo to be a priest. It actually is based on your lineage. Now, the cool thing about the New Testament is I don't have to be a son of Levi. I don't have to be a son of Aaron. I don't have to be a son of any of these people in order to be a priest. I have to have a different kind of birth, a new birth. Look at Revelation, chapter one, verse six. It's talking about Jesus Christ and he hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. When you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you became a priest. You got you. You're now part of the Levites of the New Testament, as it were. Now, obviously, there's differences and we're under the order of Melchizedek and it's a different type of priesthood. But those pictures of the Levites are still for us in the New Testament of a picture of, hey, we're the priests of God today. We're the ones that get to do what? The curtains and the coverings. We're the ones that get to handle the ark and the tabernacle. We're the ones that get to handle the bars and the pillars. Now, what does that look like today? Well, the Gershneits, they did all the aesthetically pleasing stuff, right? They're decorating. They got the curtains and they got them all nice, right? They got maybe you could even look at as they got the security because the curtains made all the divisions and you could only go into certain sections based on where the curtains and the hangings and the coverings were. You know, they got all the divisions of security. So some people in a church, you know, what they decorate, they make it look nice. Maybe they're part of the security detail. They only let certain people go in certain sections. That's their role. That's their job in the New Testament church. Then you got the Marais rights. They're basically your heavy lifting crew, right? All the bars and the pillars. You got to have someone to do stuff like set up the baptismal, don't you? You have to have somebody to, you know, bring in the heavy stuff for the church. You know, every single person in the church is valuable and we're all priests here, serving God together. It's not a one man show. It wasn't a one man show in the Old Testament. Yeah, there was a high priest. Yeah, there was only one person that could go into the Holy Holy. You know what? He couldn't enter in if somebody didn't carry those bars. If someone didn't carry those pillars, if someone didn't hang up all those, you know, curtains and somebody didn't carry that tabernacle, what is he going to sacrifice to if nobody carried the tabernacle or the ark or look, it takes a whole group to come together and to play the, play the part. And everybody has a part. You know, the Marais rights, that's people that do stuff like clean the building. Oh, you know, is that important? Yes, it is. If someone doesn't clean the building, I don't want to show up if it's all gross and disgusting and smells bad. I mean, someone to pay the bills. If someone doesn't pay the bills, they'll shut us down. We won't be able to show up. We'll be meeting out at a tree. You know, we need people to set things up and move things around. What about the coethites? Now, this is usually what people think of because it's a little bit more obvious. It's more, you know, evident. The person that leads the Psalms, right? The person that reads the Bible, the person that does the preaching. But you can't do those things without the rest of the priests. You can't do those things without the rest of the team. We're all here on purpose. We all have a function. And hey, if you're a Gershon, be the best Gershonite you can be. Hey, if you're a Moraywright, be the best Moraywright that you can be. And look, God in the New Testament church has given us all different kinds of gifts and callings and responsibilities and jobs. Obviously, it's not for the woman to be the preacher. Just like it wasn't like the Gershonite was supposed to go into the holiest of holies. Okay. We all have different jobs, different roles, different responsibilities. And we ought not look at those as being, oh, that's not important. It's all important. It's all significant. Now, obviously Ezra has a specific job and it's important for him, but we have to realize that we all are important. Look at Revelation chapter five, Revelation chapter five. You have to realize that you're special. God puts you in the priesthood in the New Testament. It was by birth. You were born again. You became a child of God. You got everlasting life. You were sealed under the day of redemption. You became a king and a priest. I mean, the things that happen to you when you believe on Jesus Christ, it's, it's amazing. It's incredible. It's unspeakable. All the amazing things that happened to us. We became brethren with the Lord. We became partakers of His holy calling. I mean, we were now built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. I mean, we're now that chosen seed. We've now become Jews. I mean, you can just preach for days about all the things that happen when you believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ is great. But one of those being a priest, the priesthood of the believer, you know, some people think, Oh, the pastor is the priest. No, everybody's a priest. Everybody has a job. Everybody has a responsibility. We're all in the service of God. We need to work together and unify and be the best that we can do at serving God. Look at Revelation chapter five or six. And I beheld him low in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth in all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four bees and the four and 20 elders fell down before the land, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of voters, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals there for that was slain and as redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our God, Kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth. Hey, I don't care what family you're from. You can be a priest. I don't care what nation. I don't care what tongue. I don't care about any of those things, because when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're now a king and a priest unto God. And it's not just to serve him for eternity. It's to serve him now. It's to serve him in the local church. You are a priest and you have a job duty. And I don't care if it's so obvious, like the coethites. You know what? The Moray rights are just as important. The Gershmites are just as important. And God has placed, you know, even the uncommonly parts in the body on purpose. And they have they have great significance. Okay. Go back to Ezra, chapter number seven. So when we read about Ezra and we see that he has a special job, we have to understand he can't do his job without other parts. How about all the work of these people? He can't do his job if all these people didn't do everything they did, building the house of the Lord and returning and doing all these great things. You know, it's not really an accident that Ezra is of this family and of this tribe. He also is a really godly person. Look what it says about him in chapter seven, verse six. This Ezra went up from Babylon and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, 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, what I like about this is whether Ezra read the Bible or not, he was still the chosen guy to be the high priest, really. I mean, he's of that lineage. He's of that family. You know what? He took his job seriously. He took the calling on his life seriously. And he was a ready scribe on top of that. Not only does he have that privilege, not only is ordained to be the high priest, he also is a ready scribe. He's also seeking God. You know, we're all ordained to do great things for God. The question is, are you going to actually do the great things that God's ordained you to do? Are you going to actually walk in the calling that he has for your life? It doesn't matter, you know, what that calling is. It shouldn't matter. You should just be willing to walk in whatever that calling is. You know, some people are called to be an evangelist. Some people are called to be a deacon. Some people are called to be a pastor. Some people are called just to be a teacher. Some people are called to just be a soul winner. We're all called to be a soul winner. Some people are just called to be a godly mother. Some people are just called to be a godly wife. Some people are just called to be a godly husband, a godly father, just a blessing under the church in whatever capacity. Why don't you just walk in the calling that God has for you in the job description he has for you? And look, Ezra obviously has a really important job, but we all do, but he was ready too. He took his job seriously. He was like, hey, I'm gonna be a ready scribe. I've written the Bible. I know what it says. What's a scribe? It's one that would copy the Bible over and over. You say, why do they have to copy it? Because they don't have the printing press. You say, how did they get the Bible? Well, they had to keep copying it. You know, and I got to go to Baltimore. It's pretty close to Washington, DC. It's very close. It's like 30, 40 minutes away. And we decided to go down there. I've never been there. It's basically walk. It should be called like the devil's capital really, but. But you know, there's a lot of cool stuff there. And we went to the National Archives. And when you go to the National Archives, they have on display documents, old documents, like the Declaration of Independence, which we no longer believe in. The Constitution, which we no longer uphold. You know, all these historic documents that I would love to return to. You know, I returned to the Bible first, but I'm just saying even just that would be great. But the thing that really stands out when you look at these documents is the fact that you can't see them. I mean, if there's one thing that stands out is you look at it and you're like, that's just so hard to read because it's so fainted. It's so, even though it's basically under the most pristine conditions it could possibly end to be preserved, it's still very difficult to even see the letters. A lot of it's just kind of whitewashed away. It's disappearing. It's just, it's a used document. It's an old document. That's why the Bible had to constantly be what? Copied and copied and copied and copied and copied. Because hey, if you have a document, you write it down, you know what happens? It waxes old. It decays. It gets to where you can't read anymore. And some people want to worship the original documents of God's word, but who cares? Who cares if it's written on a cave? If it's written on a piece of paper? It doesn't matter what it's written on. It just matters what the words are, doesn't it? And you know what? That's why some people say, oh, I believe the Bible is inspired in the original copies. Well, what good is that? Because in a few years it's going to be destroyed. It was never, ever, you were never going to keep the original copy. That was never an option. It was never like God's like, let's put it on this really special paper where it'll never be destroyed. No, the scrolls are going to be destroyed. You can't preserve them. Even in America with the greatest technology ever, you know, it's not that great. But whatever, you still can't preserve these documents very well. You can't even see them. You can't even read them. That just proves the fact you have to have copies of copies if you still want to have God's word. And the ones that have been preserved have not been used or touched in any way. So when they have the modern versions based on the manuscripts that have even been preserved, sounds like nobody's using them. They were just trash. They were just garbage. It's a dumb argument to say that these were the real manuscripts because the real Declaration of Independence is really hard to read. It's really hard to see because why? It was used. It was looked at. Now it's, you know, just on display. But if I just go pick one out of the gift shop, it's no different. If I go look up the Declaration of Independence on my phone, it's no different. It doesn't matter. The original document does not matter. We don't believe it either way. OK, so what does it matter? And people, they don't believe the Bible, you know, whether it was the original or not. If I had the original book of Isaiah in my hand, people would still not believe it like they don't believe this book. OK, and you know what? John 3 16. And no matter what language, what book, whatever, it doesn't matter. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. OK, but you know what? He was still he knew the Bible. He wrote it out. And that's great. That's the thing that we should do. We should know the Bible. We should know the laws of God. And, you know, we don't have to make physical copies anymore. But obviously it was really important. Go to first Peter, Chapter three, verse Peter, Chapter three. I want to look at a verse here. But we need to be ready today. We need to be ready. And the only way you can be ready is if you actually know the Bible, if you know the word of God, if you actually searched out the word of God. You can't be ready for a test if you've never studied the material. You can't be ready for your job if you don't even know what you're doing. No, if you actually are ready for the job, you actually know the requirements. You know what's expected of you. You practiced it. You studied it. Perhaps you've even done it many times before. Now you're ready. Hey, if I'm ready for an interview, I know what job I'm going for. I know what they're expecting of me. I thought about the questions they're going to ask me. I'm ready. OK, if I just walk into a job interview and it's like, what's the job for? I have no idea. Firemen, how are you going to do? Not good. They're like, do you know the fire codes? No. Have you ever fought a fire? I mean, I put out my birthday candles every year. You know, I'm not that ready. OK, but someone that, hey, they read all the fire codes and, you know, they've studied everything about fire and how to put them out and the science and the chemistry and all the things that are involved. And they've done it many times. That person's ready for that job interview. Well, you know, we as Christians ought to be ready in the same way. It says in First Peter chapter three, verse 15. Let's sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Now, here's something that's it's really, you know, intellectual. It's very hard to be understood. But in order for you to give an answer to a question, you have to know the answer. You have to already have the answer beforehand. So, hey, if someone's going to ask you a question in the Bible, you had to have already read it and had the answer to be ready to give an answer. If someone gives you ask you a question like, hey, what must I do to be saved? I have no idea. No, the apostle Paul, he knows the answer. Why? Because he's already studied it. He's ready to give that answer. The only way for us to teach people the Bible is for us to know the Bible. We have to study the Bible. We have to read the Bible ourselves. That's how we can give an answer. You know, nobody actually gets someone saved. You know, you get someone saved, you actually study. Hey, you get ready to have answers for the questions. And, you know, the more you do soul winning, the more you run into times when someone asked you a question you weren't ready for. And then you went back and studied and got the answer. And then the next time when someone goes, hey, now I'm ready to give an answer. That's how it works. And if you go soul winning long enough, you basically get exposed to all the questions. I mean, you don't have a lot of new questions. Sometimes it'll happen. But if you go soul winning for a while, you hear the same stuff over and over and over. Same objections, the same questions, the same ideas. And you're ready to give an answer because you've prepared yourself. You're ready to do that. That's what we need to be. We need to know the Bible. We need to live the Bible like Ezra. Go back to Ezra chapter 7. So who's going to be the best person to come back and restore the service of the Lord? Well, how about the guy that's biblically qualified? That's of the perfect family tree, right? Secondly, how about the guy that knows the Bible and has all the answers? Hey, how are we supposed to do the service of the Lord? Let's ask the guy that knows. Let's ask the guy that's a ready scribe. Let's ask the guy that actually knows what the Bible's saying. You know, it's not a free for all behind the pulpit at the church. Let's ask the guy that actually studied the Bible and knows what he's about to say. You know, I get up here to preach a sermon. I'm not just like, all right, let's see what the Bible has today. I actually come prepared, ready to teach you something, okay? I don't want to just get up here and just wing it because then I'm not going to be giving you very much answers, am I? It's going to be shallow. It's not going to make a lot of sense. It makes sense for someone to study the Bible, to know the Bible, to live the Bible, and then they're ready to preach and teach the Bible. Says in verse number 7, And there went up some of the children of Israel and of the priests and of the Levites and the singers and the porters and the Nethanims unto Jerusalem. And the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon. On the first day of the fifth month came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. You know, there's a prepared place for a prepared person. Ezra didn't even know he was going to do this necessarily, but just his whole life he just prepared himself. And I don't think that this order is a coincidence. Let's think about the order. First he did what? He sought. He was seeking the law of the Lord, wasn't he? Then what was he going to do secondly? He's going to do it. Then what is he going to do third? Teach it. We don't want to get that out of order. We don't want to start teaching before we've actually sought the information. And you don't want to teach things until you've done them. And you can't really do things until you figured them out. OK, I don't want to start teaching things that I've never done and never even sought out. That doesn't make any sense. That's why you don't want to learn things from people that don't have experience in it. Hey, I've never been married. Let me give you marriage advice. What? Why? I didn't even read any marriage books either. It's like, wait a minute, what? No, how about the guy that sought marriage? OK, was trying to learn how to be a good husband, learning things in the Bible, then is a good husband and has been successful in marriage for a long period of time and then have him get up and teach you about marriage. Doesn't that make sense? Oh, hey, I've been divorced five times. Let me tell you who to marry. Doesn't sound like you're good at picking spouses. Sounds like you failed every single time, right? And look, people do this all the time. They go to the church where the pastor's divorced and guess what happens? The whole congregation is divorced every decade. They just are swapping spouses. Peter Ruckman, you know, the boy is on the next wife. The next wife jumps out of the car, you know, top another one in, you know, it's like how bad you have to be for the wife to jump out of the car while it's moving. I mean, that's intense. But see, we need people to seek the Lord and then do it and then teach it. If you want to be a teacher of God's word, please be someone who seeks it and does it first, does the word of God. Hey, I don't want to learn soul winning from someone that's never gone soul winning. I don't want to learn the Bible from someone that's never read the Bible. I don't want to learn things from people that are not seeking them out and doing them. And why would we want to have a high priest who's up there just because of his daddy? There's plenty of Baptist. There's plenty of preachers today there. You know why they're a preacher? Because daddy was a preacher, but they didn't actually seek the Lord themselves. They didn't actually do it themselves. And you know what? It's a disservice if for your children, you don't let them seek and do themselves. They need to learn how to love the Lord, the God themselves. You know, if you take your kid to church, it's not going to mean that they automatically love it. They automatically do it. You've got to teach them how to love the Lord, teach them how to seek the Lord on their own, teach them how to do things on their own. And then, hey, now they can be a teacher. Go to Proverbs 3. I had a lot of things in my notes, but I don't think I'm going to get to all of them. But, you know, there's people in the Bible that did a lot of wicked. There's a guy named Rehoboam, and the Bible says this about him, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. He says he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. You know how you do good and evil? It's your heart. It's your heart that's really going to decide. You know, why do I go to church? Because of my heart, I love God. If I don't love God in my heart, I will stop serving God. If you're in this church and you're just, it's kind of cool and it's kind of fun, you will burn out. You will quit. The only way to endure is because in your heart you love God. You know, I love this church and I never want to leave it. And I plan on never leaving it. But at the end of the day, if for some reason I wasn't in this church, you know what I'm going to be on Sunday morning? Church. You know what I'm going to be Sunday night? Church. You know what I'm going to be Wednesday night? Church. Because I love God. I'm not here just for you. I'm not here just for steadfast. I'm here because of God. And you know, the people that love God, they're the ones that continue serving God. The ones that love, oh, I just love this particular church, this particular pastor, this particular friend that's coming to my church. They're going to quit. They're going to get burnt out. And they're going to do evil. Why? Because their heart was not right with God. You know, it's the common denominator of people that quit church and stop going to any church. They don't love God. Their heart is not right with God, and they do a lot of evil. They need to fix their heart. Look at Proverbs chapter three, verse one. Look at verse five first. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. So how do I fix my heart, Pastor Shelley? Well, this is how you fix it. You stop trusting it. You just put your heart in the Bible. So whenever you say, I want to do what I want, I want to go to the football game Sunday morning, but the Bible says go to church. Then I say, all right, I'll just go to church. You know what that's going to do? It's going to train your heart to like the things of God. He's going to actually start changing your heart. Look at verse number one. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table thine heart. So shall they find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. So that's the precursor to what we saw. We said, hey, we got to keep our heart with what? With his commandments. You know what the Bible really tries to drive home and instill? The more you do God's commandments, the better your heart's going to be. The more you read the Bible, the more the better your heart is going to be. There's a direct relationship with you just doing that which is right and then having the right heart. If you want to have the right heart, you have to do the things of God. Now, here's where people go astray. They go to a church where there's not a lot of Bible being preached. It's a lot of just man's ideas, man's philosophy, man's stories. Look, there's a lot of churches where you go and it's just their story on Wednesday and their story on Thursday and their example of their brother-in-law and it's just a bunch of just hot air and it's cool and it's fun. It's exciting and you laugh a couple times and you're like, this guy is so motivating. But that doesn't cause you to love God. And you know what? They don't go home and read the Bible throughout the week. So they're just never getting any Bible and they're not following God's commandments because they're ignorant of what the Bible teaches. And you know what happens to their heart? Their heart gets turned away from the Lord. Your heart is affected by what you do. If you constantly read the Bible, I guarantee you'll like it more. The Bible is going to do one of two things. It's either make you a worse reprobate or it's going to make you love God more. There is no other option. The more you force yourself to read the Bible, the more you'll end up loving God. The more you'll end up liking God. The more you read the Bible and you're reprobate, the more reprobate you come. But there's not another option. It's not like, man, I just hate God because I've just been reading the Bible so much. No, it's the most wonderful thing on the planet, my friend. It's light. It's the glorious light of the gospel. Every time you read about Jesus, it makes you love him even more. You know why you stop loving Jesus and you stop? You forget. Oh, I forgot all the things he did for me. I forgot about his mercy and I forgot about his grace and I forgot about how wonderful the Bible is and how amazing all the stories are and how great his commandments are and the path that's lighting on my feet. You know, you go to a church and it's all man's philosophy and the world and you're not hearing the Bible. It's going to lead you astray. You need to go to a church where you're in a lot of Bible. I'd rather go to a church where it's super boring and everything's lame and I don't even have a friend there, but they're just using a lot of Bible than just this, you know, oh, there's so many people and it's so much fun. But we use like three verses in every sermon. You're just not going to learn how to love God. You need a lot of Bible. We need to emphasize the Bible. We need to read lots of parts of the Bible. We read a whole chapter before we started preaching. I mean, that's what needs to be emphasized. And look, I'm all for special music. I hope our music program only gets better. OK, but you know, you're going to really love God is word. You got to read his word and you got to do his word when you don't follow the commandments. It also causes you to stop wanting to serve them. People commit a grievous sin and instead of immediately coming back to God or getting right with God or reading their Bible, they just they just kind of want to fall away now. They just want to kind of get away. Look, you can always get right. And we always want people to get right. You know, there's never a bad time to get right with God. Don't trust in your own heart. Don't think, well, it's too late now or I don't like church anymore. Just get right with God. Go to Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16. Proverbs two says, My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline mine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge and lives up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searches for us for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. The Bible says when you study God's word, that's how you understand how to fear God. And look what it says in Proverbs 16, verse five. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord, though hand joining hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. So let's think about this for a moment. Who's the proud in heart? I don't need the I don't need the Bible. I got it. I've heard it before. I know the stories. I'm good. That person is going to become an abomination. The person that's constantly binding them to his heart, constantly meditating on the word of God, constantly studying the word of God. He's going to be reminded of the fear of the Lord. And what's the fear of the Lord going to do? It's going to help you depart from evil. Why was it that Ray of Boam did evil? Because he prepared not his heart. How do you prepare your heart? Constantly beat it with the word of God. Constantly tie the word of God down to it. Constantly memorizing the word of God. You don't realize what your heart condition is like. We don't. We have to stop trusting ourselves and just put it all in the Bible and the word of God. That's how we prepare our heart. Ezra was constantly writing the Bible and it was, you know, what it was doing to him? It was preparing his heart to seek the Lord. To do it and to teach people. Go back to Ezra. That's the order that we need. We need to seek God, then do, then teach. And when you seek God, you'll find him. When you ask, he'll open. When you want to love God, he'll let you love him. But you actually have to seek him. If you don't seek him, you won't be his friend. If you don't seek him, you won't love him. If you don't seek him, you won't have his blessings and his benefits. But notice the benefit it told us in Proverbs 16. It says it makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. That's a pretty good benefit. And when we read about Ezra, he gets intense blessing from God. And it's not an accident. Look at verse 11. Now this is a copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave on Ezra. The priest described him in a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord. And of his statues to Israel. Artaxerxes king of kings and Ezra the priest ascribed the law of the God of heaven. Perfect peace and at such a time 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. I guess the Calvinists don't like this chapter. Verse 14 for as much as thou art sent of the king and of his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God, which is in thine hand and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered under the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem and all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon with the free will offering of the people and of the priests offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem. I don't think that this this king Artaxerxes was a Calvinist. I don't know why it was just verse 17. That thou mayest buy speedily with this money, bullocks, rams, lambs of their meat offerings and their drink offerings and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem and whatsoever shall seem good to thee and thy brethren to do with the rest of the silver and the gold and to do after the will of your God. So what we're having here is he's trying to let everybody know, hey, if you want to make an offering into God, go to Jerusalem. And we don't want to stop anybody from going and making offerings into God. But specifically, he's giving all these goods onto Ezra. And whatever Ezra deems is the will of God, he is going to do with that money. He is going to do with that sacrifice. He's going to do with that offering. Why? He sought God. He's doing it. And he's going to teach people how to what? Serve God, isn't he? And now is this like a, hey, let's just get everybody's opinion on what we should do with the offerings or is it let's just let Ezra decide. Ezra is just going to decide what he's going to do with the offerings. You know, to me, this gives us an idea of how church governance should be. Let's let Ezra make all the decisions, what we're going to do with the offerings, or should we just let every let's just let everybody decide. Let's just have a church vote on everything. Bad idea. There is churches where every financial decision is decided by the congregation. How does that make sense? I mean, some people, they might quit the church tomorrow. Why do they get to make a decision on what happens in our lives? Like, why wouldn't you say, let's pick the guy that wants to do what God wants and then he makes the decision and it's still get is this Ezra's will? No, this is Ezra saying this is what God wants us to do. This is what God wants us to put our money towards. Now, you know, you might have had a bad Ezra in the past. They want to do a lot of bad things with God's money. OK, but you don't want to throw the baby out of the bathwater and say, OK, now we all need to decide. Let's let everybody decide all decisions because we could have a bad as well. Throw the bad as we're out. You know, let Hoffnien Finneas die and put Eliezer in and then say Eliezer do it. Go for it. But of course, it should be to the will of God. So when you don't things don't see things going according to the will of God, then maybe raise an eyebrow. But at the end of the day, it's not for the people to decide. It's for Ezra to decide whatever he thinks according to what the will of God. Right. Look at verse 19. The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. And whatsoever more shall be needed for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house. Now, Artaxerxes is pretty great here in this what he's saying, because he's saying not only everybody give them whatever you want of all your free will offerings. He's saying if there's anything lacking, if after all the free will offerings, isn't it sufficient? Just I'll supply it. Just whatever you need, I'll take care of it. Look at the willingness of Artaxerxes to do what? God's will. Notice it's all about God's will. Whatever God has decreed Ezra, we're going to do it. And hey, we're going to start with the free will offerings. But if the free will offerings are not sufficient, hey, we'll make sure it gets done. Whatever has to happen. Whatever you need. Why? Well, it says in verse 21, and I even I Artaxerxes the king do make a decree to all the treasures which are on the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven shall require of you, it be done speedily unto a hundred tounds of silver and to a hundred measures of wheat and to a hundred baths of wine and to a hundred baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven. Let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven. For why should it be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? So he's saying, Hey, not only is all the free will offerings, not only whatever I have, whatever anybody has, anything that anybody has that you need Ezra, it's yours. Now he does give a caveat. He says up to this much. Okay. We're not going to go beyond this much, but basically, I mean, the sky's the limit here, Ezra. Why? Because he wants to make sure that God is being taken care of. Look, the whole earth is God's everything. Go to Psalms 24. Go to Psalms chapter 24. Artaxerxes understood he should let nothing stop people from serving God. What did God would have leadership like this? Imagine Donald Trump getting up and saying, all right, whatever the independent fundamental Baptist need, whatever the pastor needs. I mean, the government will supply it. And in fact, even the Southern poverty law center, you have to help them out, whatever they need up to, you know, a hundred million dollars or whatever. I don't know. I'm just making them a number. Imagine it'd be like, let's do it. You know, let's go for it. I don't want to take anything from the government because they don't have anything. They just have debt. I don't want any of that. But imagine a nation where the government and the leadership are saying, Hey, whatever the pastors need, we're going to do it. We don't want God's wrath upon us. I mean, we want to make sure that the worship of God is going forth. Because at the end of the day, all the goods that we possess are the Lord's. We're all borrowing. You say, I own my house. No, you don't. I own my shirt. No, you don't. I own my wife. You don't own anything. You're on the borrowing program. We're all on the borrowing program of God. It's all the Lord's. Look at verse one. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world, notice this, and they that dwell therein. You are God's. You are his possession, whether you like it or not. Now, those that rebel, they'll get to have nothing in hell. Those that believe the gospel, they get to inherit all things. That's a pretty great reward, isn't it? Verse two, for he has founded upon the seas and established upon the floods. Who shall sin in the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? He that clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. So notice who is going to get it. The guy of the pure heart. Why is it that Ezra is getting these things? Oh yeah, he prepared his heart to seek the Lord, didn't he? And notice that's the person that's getting the blessing from God. And we in the New Testament creation, we have to understand that, hey, New Testament, Old Testament, doesn't matter. The whole purpose of our existence is to serve God. That's what's crazy to me. It's like people, they don't get that church is not about me. It's not about steadfast. We're here to serve God. People talk about church, oh, it's a man-made institution. I didn't make the church. The church is built on Jesus Christ. He purchased it with his blood. Oh, I guess it's not that important. He doesn't have anything for me. You know, church doesn't have anything for me. I'm pretty sure the blood of Jesus Christ has a lot for me. I'm pretty sure I'm God's. I don't even own my own possession. I don't possess myself. I'm God's possession. I'm here to serve God. Where do you serve God? In the church, in my local church. We're not here for you. We're here for God. Sorry, get over yourself. I don't like this church. It's not it's not for me. You're right. It's not for you. But you don't understand, you know, they don't have a special program for me. There is no special program for you. It's God's programs. Yeah, but what about the kids programs? It's not about your kids. Why don't I look? It's about God. I don't like it. It sounds like you don't like God. You know, I'm here to worship God. I'm here to what? Preach the everlasting gospel. I'm here to baptize. I'm here to teach all nations. I'm here to do whatsoever God has commanded me. And you know what? If you don't go to a good church, you're not going to get those things. You're not going to do those things. You know, it's not about your coffee. It's not about your ice cream. Yeah, it's great. It's a bonus. But you're not coming to church for ice cream. So I thought this was here. You're not here for your comfortability. You're not here for your friendships. You're here for God. You know, and the reason why I preach sermons so you can have a better marriage, so you can have a better job, so you can have more well-behaved children, so you can have better friends, so you can have more wisdom and instruction knowing the Bible is so that you'll serve God better. You know the people that stop serving God? They have crappy marriages. They have crappy jobs. They're really stupid. So I want to fix all those things. You know why? So you'll serve God. It's not just, oh, I just want to have the best marriage just to have it. You know, a lot of great godly people have terrible marriages. You know what? Often I see a lot of people, their marriage gets destroyed and then they stop serving God. You know, God blessed the people that still elevate God above the marriage and still elevate the things of God above their physical relationships and above their job and above all these things. You know what? We need to follow all God's commandments because the people that just ruin their personal lives, they end up stop going to church and stop going soul winning and stop reading the Bible and stop doing the things of God and their heart becomes hardened. And then they're like the fundamental Baptist. I knocked on the door today, not wearing a shirt. It was weird. He's got a beard down his nipples and he's just like, I was raised a fundamental Baptist. I went to church Sunday morning. I went to church Sunday night. I went to visitation Tuesday. I went to church on Wednesday. I went to visitation on Thursday and any special events on Friday and Saturday. We were there. And I was like, you believe his faith alone? Yeah, I believe all the right things. Done with church. I bet the church didn't read a lot of the Bible. I bet he didn't read a lot of the Bible. Why? He doesn't love God. Look, you can do all those things and that's not going to fix you. This is going to fix you. Now I'm not against all those things. I think you should be in church as much as you possibly can. But at the end of the day, if you're not applying God's word in your life, showing up in the building is not going to change it. And what you have to do is you have to actually love God. You have to prepare your heart. Now you should go to a good church because if you're going to a good church, they're going to feed you lots of Bible. And hopefully they'll start to love God a little bit more. Go to Isaiah 42. Go to Isaiah 42 for a second. We have to understand that our world has a light problem. There is no light in this world, but the gospel. There is not. It's all darkness. And the only light in the New Testament is the Christians. Is the New Testament church. And if we forsake the New Testament church, we're just turning all the lights out. And then we have blind leading other blind people into the ditch. Don't forsake church today. Don't think that church isn't important today. We need as much church as possible. But you know what's going to keep you going to church? Loving God in your heart. Following God's commandments just because you show up won't get you there. You actually have to love God. You actually have to get the right heart. Look at Isaiah 42 verse five. Thus saith the Lord God, He that created the heavens and stretched them out. He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it. He that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk through it. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people. For a light of the Gentiles. Now is this Old Testament or New Testament? Old Testament. What was the point of them going back and rebuilding the temple and doing the sacrifices and doing all these things? A light to the Gentiles, because he always cared about the Gentiles. You know what the New Testament church is? A light to the Gentiles. It's a light to everybody. We're here to be that light. And if we let our light go out, who's going to get the people saved? If our church stops, who's going to knock on all the doors out here? Who's going to knock on all these doors that aren't shaded orange? Who's going to knock up? Look at that map. I don't see any orange. And you know, the Dallas, Fort Worth area has probably the largest number of independent fundamental Baptist churches, but they're not going. Most of them are not going soul winning. They're definitely not aggressive. I've been to independent Baptist churches and there's so many programs like one guy going out. And he says, he says that he doesn't even think you can get someone saved at the door. He thinks you have to like constantly, you know, talk to them multiple times and eventually they'll get saved. And he probably does get some people saved. But not a lot. He doesn't have a big vision. He doesn't have a lot of faith. He doesn't have a lot of belief. Look, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. Don't think that your job is not important. Your job is important. The Bible says, ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Night of the men light a candle and put it on a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. If we don't go out and preach the gospel, no one's going to do it. There's so many people that are dying and going to hell because there's people not preaching them the gospel. If we don't go to the Bahamas and preach the gospel, who's going to do it? I'm not a Calvinist. I think that we matter. I think the decisions that we do matter. Even Jesus Christ himself said, hey, if the works have been done here and, you know, cause them, it would have remained. Inside him and cause them, hey, they would have repented. But nobody went and did them, did they? What if Jonah didn't really go and preach? All those people would have died. If nobody's going and preaching the gospel, whole nations will go to hell today. If nobody goes down there and preaches the gospel to the Bahamas, they're all going to die and go to hell. But it's a bountiful harvest, ready for someone to go and labor. Church is important today. Let's finish this chapter quickly. I'm out of time. You are the light of the world. Don't think that you're not important. Every single person in this room is important. And when we see with Ezra, though, he's preparing his heart. And if you don't prepare your heart, I won't see you next year. I won't see you five years from now. I won't see you 10 years from now. And not just because you moved to a better church or something. I think it's the best church anyway. So, but I'm just saying, even if you went to, you're not going to be in another church. The people that prepare their hearts and you have a whole life ahead of you, you can become that other, you know, you can become a fundamental Baptist with a beard down to here with no shirt on saying, I don't go anywhere. I don't do anything. He's got it under a bushel. He could go out and get a lot of people saved, but his heart's not right. I guarantee he's not reading that Bible. Look at verse 24. Also, we certify you that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters and ethnics or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute or custom upon them. Now that would be great. I pay like hundreds of dollars in tolls every month. Not to mention, you know, when you're a pastor, some people think, oh, you don't have to pay taxes if you're a pastor. I get double taxed. You know, when you're a pastor, you're looked at as self-employed. So all of you W2 people that get all your FICA paid by your employer, I don't get that. I get double hammered. It's just it's like it's a double just slam. I hate taxes. Okay. I hate him just as much as the next guy. But you got to pay him. I wish that our government was like this guy. All right. This guy's got my heart. All right. Verse 25. And now as you're after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hands that magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God and teach them, teaching them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the King, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment, lest it be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the King's heart to beautify the house of Lord, which is in Jerusalem and at the extended mercy unto me before the King and his counselors and before all the King's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord by God was upon me. And I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me. Now go to Matthew 28, the last place I'll return. What did we just read? Artaxerxes, I like how he doesn't think the laws of God are just for the Jews. He said, hey, if anybody's breaking the law of God, let it be executed upon him speedily. I like that. Not 10 years later, you know, not 15 years later, like in America today, but the law of God was good for Artaxerxes, it must be good for me. You know, if it was okay for John the Baptist to preach the law to Herod, I guess the law is not just for the Jews then is it? Because he's the God of the whole world. But what did Artaxerxes do? He gave Ezra full power, full authority, just any privilege, every right, no toll, no cut. I mean, he's just like carte blanche, Ezra, the sky's the limit. I've given you everything. What was Artaxerxes called? The King of Kings. You say, oh man, if I had that much power and authority, I would do great things for God. Just think of the great things that I could do if Artaxerxes gave me that much power and authority. Why don't Christians just believe the Bible then? Look at Matthew 18 or 28 verse 18. And Jesus came and spake of them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things what survive command you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Hey, just like Artaxerxes gave Ezra all power and authority, that King of Kings. Hey, we got the real King of Kings giving us all power, all authority to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Why are we limiting ourselves today? We got the King of Kings on our side here. He's ready for us to go out and take this world by the horns. He's ready for us to go out and teach all nations. And hey, he didn't say teach all of zip code 76114. Teach all of just Sanson Park, just all of Fort Worth. I'm pretty sure it's all nations. That's why I'm not just concerned with the only the people that are right over here. Hey, the people over here that rejected the gospel. Hey, I'll go somewhere else and find them where they want to hear the gospel. And let's go to the receptive first. Like, I don't know, the Caribbean, Mexico. Hey, let's find people that are really receptive and let's go teach all nations. Let's fulfill a great commission today. Let's be like Ezra and say, hey, I prepared myself. And you know what? There's a prepared place for a prepared person. When I went to Jamaica, I was prepared. I was ready. I had sermons ready to preach. I was ready to preach the gospel. And you know what? A great work was done there because a lot of people prepared their hearts. They were ready to go and preach the gospel. How many missionaries today are going to the mission field? They don't even speak the language. They don't even know how to give someone the gospel. And they every one of them email me every day and call me all the time. Hey, can I come present at your church? We're really excited. And five years from now, we're going to go over there and we're going to start going to language school. You know, it's like how many people to get saved? Well, I don't even think anybody can get saved, you know? And door to door, so any. It's like, why do I want to give you money? What is my money going to go towards? What happens after two years of deputation? You quit. Do I get a refund or like, how does that work? Like the missions program is a joke today. What we need is we need to inspire people in this room to be Ezra's day and travel and go out and preach the gospel with the power and authority that Jesus Christ gave us. We need to raise up a young generation that don't want to just reach our neighborhood with the gospel, they want to reach the world with the gospel. Because not long from now, we're going to have a lot of young people fired up for God and we want to send them out to do great things for God. And we should learn from Ezra chapter number seven that the only way that's going to happen is if we prepare our hearts. Spoken prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for this great chapter. Thank you for the example of Ezra, someone who sought the Lord. He wanted to do it and he wanted to teach it, but he prepared his heart and you used him greatly to come back to the land and restore things. I pray that you would just allow us to just continually serve you to the best of our ability, to be a great light, to shine, to give you more honor and more glory. And I pray that we'd stop worrying about ourselves.