Some Resolutions for 2010

For our time of study in, in the word this morning, I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezra. Ezra, and yes, there is a book called Ezra in your Bible. if you can find the Psalms, just go to about halfway point in your Bible and find the Psalms and then And then about 4 books in front of that like Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms. So find Psalms and then start working your way backwards.

And you'll come to Ezra. And Ezra chapter 7, which you'll find right in between situated in between 6 chapter 6 and chapter 8. So find 8 and then work backwards to 7. we're going to next week be getting into, back into our study of First Timothy and we'll be hitting 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 3, and following, but today I've got New Year's on my brain, so I want to talk to you, just have a meditation this morning on that topic, and if you want a title to the message, it would be some resolutions for 2010.

Some resolutions for 2010. I'm going to submit to you three resolutions that I could very heavily commend to you for your consideration this morning. I think probably most of us are like this. I know for me there's something really neat about reaching the end of an old year and standing on the threshold of a new year.

You look back at the previous year and yes there are many moments of God's faithfulness and you can cherish those. and give thanks to him for those things. But also as you look back over the previous year, it's full of a multitude of failures and sins, right? It's a stained year, as it were.

But as you stand on the threshold of a brand new year, it is fresh, it's new, it's, as of yet unstained by sin and by failure. And of course I'm talking about a couple of days ago. Now we've probably already A messed that up. But, but even still for me today, this new year has a fresh feel to it, and it's, it's during this particular time where many people in our culture, Christian and non-Christian, take some A time to give thought to their life and how the previous year went and lessons that they learned sometimes the hard way and how they want to be different and they try to voice those desires to be different in the form of resolutions that they make and almost every year the last week of the year there's someone putting out an article that from surveys that have been done that identifies here's like the top 10 resolutions that people seem to be making.

this year and I came across one of those this week. Look at these resolutions that people are making this year. Number 1, the most common was to spend more time with family. In fact, over 60% of people surveyed said that this was at the top of their list.

Number 2, to be more generous in giving to the poor, giving to charity. Number 3, to get fit and to lose weight tied to that. Number 4, eating. Right.

And so, especially after the holidays, with all the eating that people do, many people are like resolving, starting now, I'm going to eat right. Number 5, quit smoking, quit drinking, and other such habits that people are bound by. many people have resolved over the last couple of days to, To quit these kinds of things. Number 6, for students to concentrate more on studies and get better, better grades.

Many are resolving to do that this year. Number 7, to get out of debt and to save more money. This is given the economic circumstances we find ourselves in. This is fresh on the minds of many people who are resolving.

to do this. Number 8, to reduce stress. I don't know how they're going to do that, but there's, there's some are just resolving. I'm going to reduce stress in my life.

Number 9, to learn something new, some skill or a hobby of some sort. And number 10, my favorite, to be less grumpy. I didn't make up that wording that was actually in the article, but what I love about it is whoever is making this resolution, they're still saying they're going to be grumpy in the coming year. Technically they're just saying I'm going to be less grumpy in the coming year than I was the previous year.

So if you want a resolution and set the bar really low, that would probably be a good one. for you, just let everyone know in your life, I want to be less grumpy than I was last year., these are just, this is from a totally secular, news article. This past week, for us who know the Lord, we may make other resolutions in addition to some of these, to maybe read through the Bible in a year, to read the Bible daily, and to maybe set aside a particular time of the day to be more disciplined about that, to pray, more faithfully.

I know for me, one of the things I really want to do better at this year is to, to lead my family, especially to lead my family in the worship.

of God. I want to do that closer to every day than I was able to do in 2009. So we make people in our culture and even we as Christians this time of year we reflect and and we make various kinds of resolutions. Every resolution that we ever make, our goal is ultimately to improve our life, whether that means, improve our life physically, circumstantially, or to improve our relationship with God.

No one makes a resolution saying I want to achieve this because if I achieve this, it'll destroy my life in the coming year or it'll make my life worse. No one wants that. We all make resolutions if we make them in order to improve our lives and make them better. And if that's where your mind has been over the last few days, then I think you're going to find a lot of help in our passage for this morning.

Essentially what we're going to observe are 3 resolutions that if you would make them, will position you to experience the good hand of God upon your life. in this year 2010 we're going to see these resolutions essentially being made by a man named Ezra. Now to set it up, I want to give you a little bit of history, but I'm not going to get bogged down in this, all right, so if you can hang with me for just a minute or two, I don't think you'll be bored. You guys know in the Old Testament there was the northern kingdom, southern kingdom.

The southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah. And in 586 BC, because of the rebellion of the kingdom of Judah against the Lord and against His laws, God sent the Babylonians into Judah to defeat the Jews in Judah, and the Babylonians carried away many of the Jews back to Babylon with them, and many of the Jews were in Babylon. for a period of approximately 70 years, and that is often referred to as the Babylonian captivity. Well, near the end of that 70 year period, the Jews began to return, but not all at once.

It happened in three stages. There was a guy named Zerubbabel who returned with some Jews to rebuild the temple, and that's recorded in Ezra chapter 1 all the way through chapter 6. Then there was a 2nd stage, and that stage was led by Ezra. That's what we're going to focus on.

This morning Ezra returns with about 1700 Jews. His goal is essentially to bring a revival to the practice of the true religion of Israel based on the Old Testament law. And then shortly after that happens, a guy named Nehemiah returns with some Jews, and his goal is to rebuild the walls around. The temple around Jerusalem.

So it happened in 3 stages. The events that we're focusing on today happened during the 2nd stage under Ezra, and that story is essentially recorded in Ezra chapter 7 through the end of the book of Ezra. Now that's pretty much all the history, all right. all I want to focus on is regarding Ezra's departure and his arrival in Jerusalem and how the writer of this chapter, Ezra chapter 7, chooses to describe what happens and why.

All right, look at Ezra chapter 7, verse 6. If you don't have your Bibles, you can see it on the screen behind me. It says this Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all he requested.

This is actually an amazing thing. Ezra is a man of God. He's living in a pagan land. The king does not.

He's not, a worshiper of the true God of Israel. Ezra's going to need a lot of provision to make a 900 mile journey from Babylon to Jerusalem for himself. and for 1700 people. Imagine all the provisions that would be needed for that and all the provisions that he would be needing once they get back to Jerusalem in order to bring about a revival to the practice of the true religion of Israel at this time.

And so Ezra comes to this pagan king and says, Well, here's what I'm going to need for the journey and for once we Back to reestablish the religion of Israel. And guess what? This pagan king gave Ezra every single thing he asked for. That's a staggering thing.

But why did the king give this to Ezra? Look at the explanation at the end of verse 6, because the hand of his God was upon him. wouldn't you love for 2010 to be a year where the hand of God is upon you? Wouldn't you love that?

At the very least, this means that the blessing of God was upon Ezra. It's as if God had reached his massive, powerful hand from heaven and has placed it upon Ezra. And the writer of this verse is saying Ezra came to the king. Gave him this huge wish list of all the things he would need.

This pagan king gave him everything that he asked for, and the reason the king did it is because the hand of God was upon Ezra. So Ezra takes all of his provisions and begins on his journey. And as you see on the screen behind me, Ezra is here. He didn't go straight to Jerusalem.

That would be the shortest route. And the reason he didn't do that is because he'd be going through desert, so travelers would try to avoid that. So he would have traveled along what's called the fertile Crescent here, and this is about a 900 mile journey down to Jerusalem. All right, now look at what the writer of Ezra says.

In verse 8 of chapter 7. It says Ezra came to Jerusalem in the 5th month, which was in the 7th year of the king, for on the 1st of the 5th month, he began to go up from Babylon, and on the 1st of the I'm sorry, on the 1st of the 1st month, he began to go up from Babylon, and on the 1st of the 5th month he came to Jerusalem. So Ezra leaves and he embarks on this 900 mile journey and he arrives safely exactly 4 months later to the writer of this verse. That's a significant accomplishment to arrive safely and in this amount of time.

Understand with this large of a group of people traveling, going through some hostile territories, anti-Semitism was very common in this day, along with whatever dangers from robbers and, and, and so forth and even weather conditions, it is a pretty significant thing for someone to leave where Ezra was and exactly 4 months later arrive safely with everything intact in Jerusalem. But now look again at how the writer of this verse chooses to explain why he arrived safely. It says in verse 9, for on the 1st of the 1st month, he began to go up from Babylon, and on the 1st of the 5th month, he came to Jerusalem.

Why?

Because the good hand of his God. was upon him. There's that expression once again, only now the adjective good is inserted there in describing the hand of God. It was the good hand of God.

God had obviously determined to do good unto Ezra and to prosper him in. This journey to bring him success in what Ezra was seeking to do, and Ezra got what he wanted from the king and arrived safely in Jerusalem from Babylon because the good hand of his God was upon him. By the way, the Hebrew word that is translated hand, there's really not an exact, well, there is an exact equivalent, but the word for hand is the Hebrew word yad. Which sometimes is translated arm, other times hand.

The word ya basically spoke of the, the part of our arm from the elbow to the tips of the fingers. OK, so it's the hand, including the forearm. And so often this word has the idea of power in the Old Testament. There are even times where you see the word power used as a translation.

Of this term in Job 27:11, it says, Behold, I will instruct you in the yad of God, which is the power of God. Proverbs 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and this is the word that is translated hand. In Ezra chapter 7 in Jeremiah 16:21, God says, This time I will make them know my yah and my might, my power and my might, and he's using yah synonymously with might clearly indicating. His power.

So part of what this is saying is the, the good hand of God was upon Ezra, the blessing of God was upon Ezra, the power of God was upon Ezra. God took his omnipotence, and he put it in the service of Ezra, as Ezra made request of the king, and then as Ezra led 1700 people on a journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem. So the explanation in both of these verses, verse 6 and verse 9, is these things successfully happened because the hand of Ezra's God was upon him. That raises a question in our minds as readers, and that is, all right, these things happen because the hand of his God was upon him, but why was the good hand of God upon Ezra?

Well, the writer of this chapter figured that we might want to know that, and he is kind enough to provide an answer for that in verse 10. And what we find in verse 10 is essentially a break from the narrative and an explanation as to why it is that Ezra experienced the good hand, the good power of his God upon him. Look what it says in Ezra chapter 7, verse 10. He has just said because the good hand of God was upon him in verse 9, then verse 10, 4, or because here's the explanation as to why the good hand of God was upon Ezra, because Ezra had set his heart That is an expression that means he had resolved.

He had determined in his heart, and then established his heart in a certain direction. He had made a decision to do certain things, and then he pointed his heart in that direction, prepared his heart to go in that direction, and he became fixed in that position. And that resolve. And so we could even translate this.

Ezra resolved in his heart to do 3 things. Look at this, to study. To study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. Three resolutions that Ezra makes.

He resolved to study the law of the Lord. He resolved to practice the law of the Lord, and he resolved to teach. The law of the Lord. So let's just take some time with these three resolutions and meditate upon each of them.

First of all, God's hand was upon Ezra because he had resolved to study. The word of God. We're going to say word of God because yes, it was the law, Genesis, X, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but that was his written Bible in his day. And so whatever the written word of God was in his day, he determined that that's what he was going to be a student.

of. Now, the word that is translated study in the new American Standard, I think some of your translations may have the word seek. he had determined to seek. The law of the, the Lord, and that's a good translation also.

This word can mean to seek, to consult with, to inquire into, and to investigate. I want to pull out 22 nuances here. This word at the very least means to consult with. Back in this day when a king was trying to make a decision about should I go to war or not, he would call for a prophet of the Lord or maybe a priest, and he would pose the question and hopefully get an answer from God through the prophet or through the priest.

And what that king is doing in that moment is he is consulting with the Lord through the prophet or the priest. In that way, and this word would be used to describe that. So at the very least, Ezra is resolving in his heart to consult the word of God, to consult the written word of God. He's pretty much deciding whenever I am faced with any dilemma and I don't know what to do, I'm going to consult with my Bible.

I'm going to consult with the written word of God. I think Ezra. Also say whenever I face a circumstance, even in those circumstances where I think I know what I should do, I'm still going to consult with the word of God. I will always run to God's word, consult with God's word to determine how I live my life and respond to whatever it is that I am facing.

Ezra would have said, I want to be a good husband. to my wife. And so how do I learn how to do that? I will consult with the word of God.

I want to be a good father to my children. Where do I learn how to do that? I will consult with the written word of God to learn how to be the father that God wants me to be. Whenever I, want to learn things about God and when I'm trying to figure out what do I do with my sin that I've committed, how do I find atonement, I will go to God's word and I will see what God has revealed regarding Those things.

Ezra was a man who made God's written revelation his first and final authority for his faith and for his practice, and the writer of Ezra says that's one of the reasons why the good hand of his God was upon him. Ezra resolved to consult with the written word of God, and I would suggest that we, if we want to experience God's blessing, Do the same. If you want to know how to be a good husband or wife, consult the word of God. If you want to learn how to be a good father or mother and to bring up your children the way that God wants you to.

Consult with the written word of God. If you're discouraged right now and feeling hopeless and despondent, consult with the word of God. if you're a young person and you're trying to decide which direction you should go as far as a career choice, consult with the word of God. Now, you're not going to open your Bible and it's going to say, be an accountant.

As opposed to a medical doctor, you're not going to find that. But what, you're going to find a lot of principles in God's word that will serve to direct you in certain directions and protect you from going in other directions and help you to even understand your motives that may be involved in that. So go to the word of God. Be in the word of God every day so that it's informing choices.

Like this, if you're involved in a relationship, and you want to know how, how should this relationship be, well, go to the Word of God, consult with the Word of God. If you're in a relationship, and maybe things are happening and you're not sure that they should be happening, consult with the Word of God and see what God has to say to you. If you're in a relationship, and you're not sure you should even be involved in that relationship, consult with the Word of God. Ladies, if you're trying to figure out how to dress, Consult with the word of God.

Don't consult with Glamour magazine. Any other resource out there, outside of the faith is essentially going to scream at you to be immoral in the way that you dress. Yourself, consult with the word of God. God actually speaks to you and tells you, principles that should guide you in how to dress.

If you're trying to make entertainment choices, what should I watch? What should I listen to? What should I download onto my iPod? Consult with the written word of God.

Guys, listen to me. We as Christians, we make so many unexamined choices unthinkingly, because everyone else, maybe even in the church, is making those same choices. We say that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, the Lord of everything. And yet do we think through His lordship regarding every decision that we make?

Does his lordship impact what we download onto our iPods, the videos that we rent? The movies that we see, consult with the word of God. That's what Ezra determined to do, and he experienced the hand of his God upon him. The list is endless.

You guys can complete that. this word doesn't just mean though to consult with. It also has the idea of investigating thoroughly, which tells us something about Ezra, that Ezra was not just a guy who Who would just read his Bible. No, he wouldn't just read a verse.

He wanted everything that was in that verse. He wanted to understand it. God, I'm not content to just know one or two things from this verse. I want to know everything that's in this verse.

He was driven by a holy greed and was not content with a surfacey understanding of the text of the Bible, but he wanted to go deeper. He wanted Understand everything God was saying, every truth, every promise that was explicitly stated or that was even implied, along with thinking through all of the applications of what it is that God's word was explicitly stating. He was a student, a disciplined, earnest student of the text of the Bible. What really strikes me about this resolution.

That he has made is that Ezra, according to verse 6, was already a monster expert in the law of God. He was already tremendously skilled. In fact, in verse 6, it says he was a scribe. That right there tells us this guy had Genesis, Xis, Leviticus, numbers.

To completely memorized word for word in the Hebrew text. He understood and he could just quote this. He had it in his mind and in his heart, but it also says he was not just a scribe, but he was skilled in the law, and the Hebrew word that is translated skilled is the word for quick or speedy. He was fast.

In The law He was the guy who you could come up to him and say, Hey man, I'm having some marital problems, and here's what's going on. And as he's listening to you, just scripture is coming to his mind very quickly and it's forming, and then he has an answer that's ready on his tongue at the right time and to bring truths to bear and you're, you're hearing truths from Ezra and you're like, Man, I guess I knew of that verse, but I didn't think that had anything to do with my marriage, but I guess it does.

And he's unfolding applications of that. He was just very skilled, very quick.

With the law. Our children and their math curriculum when we homeschooled them and our two youngest were still homeschooling. One of the philosophies of this particular math curriculum is that we want you to understand the algorithms and the formulas and the methodologies not just well enough to get a right answer eventually. We want you to understand them well enough to be able to find the answer quickly.

And so there's 30 problems in each lesson. And they say the goal is that you should be able to complete all of these problems and get them right within an hour. And if it takes you longer than an hour to get them right, you're not mastering the concepts the way that you should be. They want the students to understand.

These formulas, these methodologies, and to be able to look at a problem and process how to solve that problem and go from one step to the next without a lot of wasted motions or strained thought in between those steps, and that's, that's someone who becomes proficient at the material that is being taught. That's the way Ezra was in the law. He was fast. With the law.

When I was a kid, we had to memorize verses for Sunday school and And so we'd show up for Sunday school and a lot of us, had the verse memorized, so our teacher had to determine who knew the verses the best, so he brought a stopwatch to Sunday school and he would time us to see who could say the verse verses the fastest, and whoever would say them the fastest, he thought, well, that person probably knows the verse better than anyone else, so that person got a silver dollar and And I remember this teacher showing up at our door on a weekday and I opened the door and he said, First Peter chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, and I had to stand there and quote it for him like on a Wednesday or something.

And but that's, he was really he wanted us to not only just be able to quote a passage after a lot of strained thought, he wanted us to be quick at it, to just so know it and be so proficient at it that we were fast, and that's the way Ezra was. So this guy was already beyond an expert in the written word. God, and yet to hear him, he's like, what, I'm resolving, I'm resolving to study the law of the Lord.

I want to know it better. I want to consult with God's written word and every circumstance and allow my train of thoughts to emerge from there. I want to study. I want to investigate what he's saying is, as much of an expert as he already is, there's so much more to know.

He's not content to know a little. He's not even content to be an expert. He wants driven by a holy greed to know all of what God reveals. God says, hey, that's One of the reasons my hand a blessing.

is upon Ezra. There's a second resolution. That we could make that Ezra made that. Explains why the good hand of God was upon Ezra and why the good hand of God could be upon us, and that is that Ezra also resolved to practice the word of God.

So if we want to walk with the good hand of God upon us, let us resolve not only to study God's written word, but also to practice the written word of God. Ezra studied not with the intention. Of fattening his brain and knowing more, he studied with the intention of allowing what he studied to shape his life and to affect his behavior. He came to the text ready to do.

In fact, look at what it says in verse 10. Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and the word it is not in the Hebrew text to study the law of the Lord and to do. All right, to study the law of the Lord and to act. That was his mentality.

He came to the scripture poised and ready for action. And it was like, God, just, just tell me what you want me to do. And I'm ready to take off and to do that. what, someone like that, you think God will close up His word to someone with that heart?

What I love about this is that Ezra was a teacher in Israel. He has many others that he intends to teach, but it doesn't say Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to teach it. If that's what the text says, I don't think any of us would have thought anything strange about that. But Ezra, it's like, I want to study the law of the Lord.

I want to do it myself. And then I want to teach others. And it's so easy for those that are in ministry. I've been guilty of this myself, where I've got to, I've got to speak, I've got to prepare a sermon, and so I study to teach.

Ezra studied to practice. To teach. One writer says that a A preacher should never preach a message to other people that he has not first preached to himself, and Ezra would say amen to that. In fact, not only should a preacher not preach a message to others that he's not preached to himself, but he should not be in the business of continuously preaching messages to others that he does not practice.

Himself. I want to, I want to bring out something from verse 10 that I think is important and, take, take another look at verse 10. You're going to miss something if you think that all this verse is saying is that Ezra studied the law of the Lord and practiced it. Ezra did that, but that's not what this verse is technically saying.

It's not just saying he studied the law of the Lord and then practiced it after he studied it. What this text is saying is that Ezra resolved. To study the law of the Lord. And he resolved in advance to practice whatever he would discover from his study.

Do you understand the difference? Here's the difference. Sometimes we're like, oh Lord, I please reveal your will to me in this matter. And what we really want is God to reveal his will to us so that we can then contemplate whether or not we want to obey it.

And then we wonder why he's not revealing his will to us. But Ezra was the man who said, Lord, reveal your will to me, and I don't even know what it is yet. But I'm telling you right now, whatever it is, I'm going to do it. He's like, Lord, I'm going to study your law.

I'm going to study your word. I don't even know yet what I'm going to learn tomorrow. But whatever I learn as I approach your word, I'm telling you right now, I'm going to obey whatever I see that you say to me. That's crazy.

That's a good crazy, but. That's why the hand of God was upon Ezra. Because he was surrendered, he didn't just study and then decide whether he wanted to obey. He had already made up his mind to obey before he studied.

And we need to resolve, to not just be students of God's word, but Lord, I don't even know what all I'm going to learn in 2010. I don't know what I'm going to learn tomorrow from your word, but whatever it is, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it You guys know of little Samuel in the Old Testament, you've got the period of the judges where, the, the mantra, the, the refrain that you see in the book of Judges is that every man was doing what was right in his own eyes, which is a very, amazing thing because God had revealed Himself and his laws to them.

They promptly took his laws and set it aside and did what was right in their own opinion.

Really sad. And First Samuel begins at the very end of the period of the judges, so everyone's still doing what's right in their own eyes. So we're not surprised at the beginning of First Samuel 3 to observe in the text where it says that visions were infrequent, word from the Lord was rare in those days. In other words, God was hardly speaking to the Jewish people.

And is it any wonder that he's not speaking to? Them because they're not even doing what he's already revealed to them. So of course he's not going to be giving out new revelation to them. However, little Samuel is faithful to the Lord.

During the night, the Lord begins to call him. He doesn't know who it is at first, but Eli tells him it's the Lord. And then when the Lord calls him again, look at what Samuel says in First Samuel 3:10. Speak.

Speak. Man, it had been a long time since Jehovah God had heard that word from someone among his people to say, speak. I'm actually interested in hearing what you would have to say to me. I want you to talk to me, reveal yourself and your will to me.

He says, speak for your servant. That's the word for bond slave. You own me. I am your slave.

My will is swallowed up in your will. Speak to me. You own me, he says, and look what he says. Your servant is listening.

And the Hebrew word that is translated listening is a word that over 90 times in the Old Testament is translated as obey. In fact, later in Samuel's ministry, he's rebuking Saul for Saul's disobedience, and Samuel says to obey is better than sacrifice. You guys remember that that word obey is the same Hebrew word that Samuel uses here when he says to God, I'm listening. He's not just saying I'm listening with my ear, and I'll think about what I should do with it after you're done speaking.

What he's saying is, speak, Lord, I'm your bond slave, and I'm obeying. That's what he's saying. And so what, God spoke, and he told Samuel of judgment that is coming to the house of Eli and very difficult revelation that he gave to him, but Samuel was faithful with it. And so by the end of chapter 3, read through 1 Samuel 3 this week, by the end of the chapter, it says, and the word of the Lord came again to Samuel, and the word of the Lord went to all Israel.

Suddenly now God's speaking and revealing Himself again. why? Because he found his man. He found someone who wanted him to speak.

Someone who is fully surrendered and someone who even before God spoke had already told God, I will listen with the intention of obeying everything that you say. Jesus in John 7:17 says, if anyone is willing to do God's will, he will know of the teaching. I call this the hermeneutic of obedience. you come to the word of God with an obedient heart saying, God, I don't know what you're going to say, but whatever you say, I'll do it.

I'm, I'm already committing myself to obeying. Whatever you reveal to me in your word, you come to God's word with that disposition, God will never close his word to you. God is looking for people like that to just dump his truth upon and to give insight to This is why the hand of God was upon Ezra, because he had made a resolution to consult with and investigate the word of God and to practice the word of God. And then a third resolution that Ezra made and that we should make also if we want God's hand, a blessing upon us in this coming year is he had resolved to teach the word of God.

By the way, let me clarify, we're not saying if you do these things you will earn God's good hand a blessing. What we're saying is if you resolve to do these things, you will locate yourself in the spot where God's hand of blessing is. That's really what we're saying here and this is how Ezra located himself in the spot where God's power was and his good hand of blessing was. He resolved to teach.

Look at verse 10. Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. By the way, statutes is the word that speaks of when a king would come to power back in this day, statutes would be written saying, Here's who I am, and here's the laws that you are to live by now that I am king. That's what a statute is.

And all ancient kings, when they came to power, they, they would change laws, and it was under a new administration completely, and they would deliver statutes to all of the people that would be read to them. So statutes refers to God's kingly rule over His people and the way they are to live under His kind, benevolent kingly rule. Ordinances speaks of righteousness. Here's the way to live in order to be righteous in Doing what God expects of you.

He resolved to teach. Ezra loved other people. He's like, I'm not going to be content to just take what I study and keep it to myself and practice it myself and then let everyone else go whatever direction they want to go. I love other people.

I want them to know what it is that I'm learning from God's word. I want to teach them. I also love God. I want him to be honored.

And so I want people to know of this God and of His law so that they will honor Him with their lives. Now real quick guys, don't say. Looking at verse 10, that, well, I can see how Ezra resolved to study the law of the Lord. I can see how that applies to me.

Ezra resolved to practice the law of the Lord. I can see how that applies to me, but teaching, he was a scribe. I'm not a gifted teacher, so that resolution really wouldn't apply. To me, well, be careful before you conclude that again.

Consult with the Bible on any thought like that and see what the Bible says. Yes, in James 3, James says, let not many of you become teachers, but he's talking about teacher, capital T, elder slash teachers and positions of spiritual authority. Over congregations, but when you look at what else is revealed in the New Testament, you find teaching everywhere as the responsibility of every believer. The Great Commission were to go into all the world, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, and Matthew 28, teaching them.

To observe all that I've commanded you. We are all to be evangelistic teachers. If you are a father or a mother, you are to be an instructor, a teacher of your children. Ezra or Ephesians 6:4.

Fathers, bring up your children in the discipline and the instruction of the. Lord in Deuteronomy 11:18, the Jews are told, you shall teach them these laws to your sons and talk of them when you sit in your house, walk along the road. Colossians 3:16, write that reference down. Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you, teaching.

And admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, every believer is to open his mouth and teach. Every believer is responsible to let the word of God dwell richly inside of him or her, and then to open their mouth. in relationship with others and to speak, we are all to be teaching each other. You say, Pastor Milton, I have failed royally so many times in my life.

There is no way that God would ever want me to be involved in teaching any single person anything. Well, again, consult with the Bible before you conclude that David, after murdering Uriah, committing adultery with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, is writing a prayer of confession and he's asking God have mercy upon me and forgive me and blot out my transgressions deep into that Psalm. He says to God, restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and then look at what he says. This, this man who has sinned, he says, then I will teach transgressors, your ways.

It's the very same word for teach. It was found in Ezra chapter 7, verse 10. Here's a man who was deep in sin coming out of that, and he's now suddenly got a burden for other people that are sinning and transgressing as he did. He's like, Man, Lord, just restore to me the joy of your salvation, grant me this forgiveness I'm asking, and man, I just, I want to minister to other people.

I want to teach them that are in sin now of your ways. Write down Hebrews 5:11, and this is the last verse I'll show you. The writer of Hebrews is agonizing. He's got some things he wants to say to the readers, but he's limited because they can't understand it.

He says concerning him, I have much to say and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing, for though by this time you ought to be teachers. You have need of someone to teach you. In the, in the mind of this writer, the writer of Hebrews, he thinks that a person gets saved and as they mature, they reach a point where there is a moral obligation for them to be teaching other people on one level or another. That's just a normal contour of a Christian life and yet these readers had not Achieved that.

You say, well, I can't teach anyone. Well, who told you you can't? Where'd you get that? Did you consult with the Bible and it told you that?

I can't leave my children, I can't teach my children, I can't leave my wife, my wife, who told you that? Are you, are you getting this stuff from consulting with the word of God? Go to the word of God and see what it says and be encouraged and directed by what it reveals. Well, we are out of time.

Let me just put this on the screen. Let me, let me just wrap it up with this. I, I bought myself for Christmas a new Bible. to replace my Rry study bible that got run over on Iowa.

A few years ago, I'd left it on top of my car. And came back looking for it and found it. but Ezra, he was a passionate student of the Bible. And this is, this is how thick his Bible was.

OK. And he was like gung ho about this revelation. This is, this is how thick our revelation is. And a lot of what's revealed on the fat part here that Ezra didn't have is like about a Messiah coming, God, the second person of the Trinity, leaving heaven, coming into this world as a baby, completely fulfilling the law of God in every way, suffering and Dying and then enormous explosive glories that follow that of the Spirit coming down and people believing in this Messiah and having all of their sins once and for all forgiven.

They're made children of God, to where now they can look at God in heaven, and call him Father, which people did not do in the Old Testament. They have Christ inside of them, the Spirit inside of them. We learn in First Peter chapter 1 that the ancient prophets, as they wrote down their revelations from the Lord, they studied as they looked ahead, saying, what does this stuff reveal about this amazing day that is coming. And if Ezra had any clue what's in this fat part that he didn't have in his day, he would be beside himself with amazement.

And yet if Ezra watched the way we operate from day to day and how many times we may go day after day after day without being passionate students of God's written revelation that reveals these incredible glories, he would be beside himself with amazement. At us, profoundly disappointed. Guys, this revelation is glorious revelation. It is good news, the message of salvation through Jesus.

Let us resolve to be students of this written revelation in which we find this pearl, this gem of the gospel. By which we are saved. Let us resolve to practice it, to not only believe the gospel, to believe the truth of God, but to be a living embodiment of the truth that is revealed in Scripture, and let us resolve to open our mouths and speak it. To other people.

If we do these things, if we resolve to do these things, God's blessing will be upon us in ways similar to what Ezra. was privileged to experience. Let me ask you to bow your heads. I want for you as an individual, I want for us as a church.

Like as a pastor, I've been thinking over the last few days, how I want the hand of God upon Cornerstone. I want the good hand of God, the good power of God upon Cornerstone, where he blesses our way as he did Ezra's. What do we need to do to position ourselves where this power is located And I think we have help in this text. May we be a congregation full of people.

May our leadership here at Cornerstone, may we with a reckless holy abandon, just Surrender to God and say, God, what we want to consult with your word, receive direction from your word, be students of your word, and we want to do what we learn and what you reveal to us in your word. And then Lord, we want to open our mouths and teach this to each other and turn to a lost and a dying world and teach them of these things. That are radically changing our lives. May this be our church's destiny.

And the days of this year in which we find ourselves now, Lord, help us, help us. To see as you see. that a year from now we are a different people. Having been reshaped.

By what we have learned from your word. And whatever we set about to do, Lord, we don't say to you, we just want to do whatever we want to do and please bless us. No, no, you will bless and put your power behind us as we seek to do your will. May we discern that and experience your blessing.

Lord, we thank you for the privilege that is ours right now at this moment to give of our offerings to you. And we ask that you would take these funds that are given and use them to bring great gospel blessing to many in this body, in this community, and around the world. We just commit ourselves to You, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,