The Good Hand of God

What a thrill. What a thrill. Trying to sing the first song or two, I had a lot of trouble because I was just getting choked up and just so exciting what God is doing in our church and bringing us to this place. My wife told me when she was driving up and she saw the flags and banners, she just let go of the steering wheel while she was driving and started clapping.

She couldn't And somehow she got here. God is good. God is good. Bill Payne has put together, a brief video that, maybe retraces a little bit of the history of how we got here, even a little bit of footage of our first visit to this, to this facility.

So why don't we go ahead and show that, and I'll come back up. Yeah, thank you, Bill, for Not only making this video but over the last few weeks putting things together to chronicle the history of what God is doing and putting that on Facebook and showing us in our In our morning services, there's so much that we want to talk about. this morning, so much that is, is on our hearts, and these are blessed things to think about. We sang the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

This is just one of those seasons where the Lord is giving. And so we bless the name of the Lord together. I think it's very appropriate that as a church we've been reading this summer through Ezra and Nehemiah for our summer advance program. There's actually some inserts for that in your bulletin, the reading schedule.

How many of you have been reading, Ezra and Nehemiah along with us this, this summer? If you haven't started yet, it's not too late to start. There's a schedule in your bulletin along with an explanation of what this program is all about, but we've been reading through the book of Ezra. These two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, tell the story of God's people on the move.

From point A to point B and how God awakens them to embark on this move and how they arrive at their destination and how they come together, and God's people work together to build a place for them to assemble and to worship and to celebrate atonement together. This is also the story. In Ezra and Nehemiah of God's people in a secular kingdom subject to the whims and the mercies of the powers that be. In Ezra, it's King Cyrus that issues the permit for the people of Judah to return and to rebuild the temple.

In Ezra 7, it's King Darius who issues the permit for Ezra to return and to do what it is that God had called Ezra to do in Jerusalem. In Nehemiah, it is King Artaxerxes who grants the permit to Nehemiah to return and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. it's a story in these two books of the resurgence of God's people and God's cosmic plan. Ultimately to fulfill all prophecy, but it's also a story that includes mundane elements such as inventories and funding.

And occupancy permits and setbacks and memorandums and waiting for authorization from the powers that be. Just as we've been reading so far in, in Ezra, let me try to track, some of this. There are 2, In chapter one, am I controlling this or is someone else? I am OK.

in chapter one, there are two great awakenings that occur. God awakens Cyrus to allow the people of Judah to return, and, also God awakens his people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Chapter 2, there's the census that's taken of the 42,000+ people that are returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. In chapter three, the foundation of the temple gets, gets constructed and laid, and we saw how the people rejoiced and they shouted with a great shout when the foundation of the temple had been completed.

And then in chapter 4, for those of you that have been reading, we, we saw that the construction of the temple was challenged by the enemies of the people of, of God, and ultimately, they end up, issuing a protest letter to the king at that time, the people at the end of chapter 4, I believe, they're so discouraged by this challenge that they just stop building the temple altogether. But then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah began to speak to the people and encourage them, and the people began to build the temple again.

The protest letter by the enemies of God's people gets sent off to the king, and they're basically saying to the king, you better check your records. These people are building a temple here.

And we don't think they should be allowed to do this. These are dangerous people. Check your records. And so when the king receives this protest letter, it's a different king than King Cyrus.

He checks the records and they find a memorandum where there were explicit instructions to the people of God saying you're allowed to return and you can build a temple, and here's even the dimensions of the temple that we are authorizing you. to, to build. And so the people with that authorization, they continue building the temple and they ultimately get the temple, completed. what's interesting is the king, after checking the records and finding out that yes, they're authorized to, to do the building that they're doing.

The king basically in his letter to those who had written the letter of protest, he said, leave these people alone. Let them build the temple that they are building. I want these people to be able to worship their God and to pray for the king and for his, his sons. And so leave them alone, give them whatever they need in this construction project.

And then this is interesting. The king basically then says, and I also issue a decree that anyone who violates this edict, a timber, shall be drawn from his house, and he shall be impaled upon it. And his house shall be made a refuse heap. And so everyone left him alone, and the temple, the construction of the temple continued and got completed.

The people dedicated this new temple to the Lord, and then in chapter 7, you who have been reading through Ezra observe that Ezra returns. He has authorization to do so from the king, to return and to be supplied with whatever he needed to do what God had called him to do, to beautify. The temple that had just been built to set up rulers and judges in Jerusalem and in Judah and to teach the law and to exercise essentially executive powers to make sure that God's laws were being kept.

In the land of Judah.

And I feel like as I've been, been reading through Ezra over the last few weeks, like I read that story from centuries ago and then show up here. At this campus and I see a living example of the very things that I have been reading, except for the impaling part. we, the people of Cornerstone, are God's people. And we're, we've been on the move.

We've moved from the Linden Street campus to the Barnes Technology Center. There have been inventories. There have been. Counting permits, challenges, and even waiting for the decisions to be made by the powers that be.

We have been supplied. With the funding that we have needed for this move over the last few years, over the last, I think 3 years, over $400,000 has been given by you, the people of God, to the Capital Growth Fund, and beyond that, in December we launched the Buy Your Own Chair. Plus campaign in order to raise a little bit under $50,000 and within two months about $53,000 had been given. You guys are sitting right now in the chairs that you donated towards a few months ago.

What a blessing to see this come to a reality. You guys will recall in our service last Sunday that the Evangelical Formosan Church gave us a financial gift towards our move and our building efforts here. EFC is in the midst of A number of expenditures of their own. They are in transition.

They're building the fellowship hall annex building behind the fellowship hall, and they're working to raise funds to complete that project. And so they have enough financial needs of their own, and the renter that's moving in is not paying what we were paying, so they have financial needs. And yet out of the just God moving their hearts, the kindness and the love of their hearts for us as a church, the evangelical Formosan Church gave to Cornerstone a gift of $3000 last Sunday.

In addition to that, there's been at least one member of the Evangelical Formosan Church that has donated personally toward our move.

We're just so blessed by the relationship that we've been able to enjoy. With the Formosan Church and we're looking forward to establishing a similar relationship with the people here, the companies that are here renting office space and also with those who are a part of Bourne's. Here on this campus. technically, as I think has already been said, we, we don't have our certificate of occupancy just yet.

That's going to come perhaps by next Sunday or maybe more likely by, two weeks from. From today we've been granted a temporary use permit to use the building for this. Service for this Sunday and we will be having an appointment with someone from the fire department again this week to get permission to have our service next Sunday. So we have a TUP, temporary use permit, to be able to meet here today and this past week there were a couple of critical points in the journey where We were pretty vulnerable to the decisions that could have been made by city officials that could have kept us from being able to meet in this room this morning.

And because of that possibility, we had a plan B in place, which was to videotape me preaching from this pulpit here in this room and then having Everyone else, meet in 18 different homes around, Riverside and watching a video of my sermon in those settings. I am so glad we did not have to do that. But, it's been a huge blessing to see the giftedness of so many of you along with the hard work that so many of you have done. In the past several months to make this day possible, a facility is not what makes a church.

Amen. But our facility situation has provided an opportunity for the true greatness of the hearts of our people to be put on full display. Our facility situation has provided the backdrop, as it were, for the giftedness and the unity and the enthusiasm of our people to be vividly seen. And it has been a total blessing watching you do what you have done.

We have been treated to a full display of the glory of God through His people and just, we just want to deliver a huge thank you to all of you. who have labored to bring us to this, to this moment in our church's history. there are key figures in, in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. Namely Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

Take these three men away from the picture and history would be very different than it turned out to be, right? And we have our own key figures, right? Jonathan Jones is primary among them. A number of months ago, the elders approached Jonathan and asked him, To take us to Burnes.

will you carry this load and will you get us from Lindon Street to Bournes and just head up this effort and Jonathan Jones said yes, and over the last several months, he has literally worked full time pro bono to get us from Linden Street to, to Burnes. This has been a massive undertaking, larger than Anything that one man can do. This is the largest undertaking in the history, the 33 year history of our church, but Jonathan Jones identified, he set up the teams and provided the oversight, and he shepherded this process through up to this point.

where we find ourselves today, there are 3 types of people.

There are unfaithful people that you can't trust with anything. Don't ask them to do anything because they're not going to get it done, even if they say they're going to get it done. You can't count on them. Then there are faithful people.

Who you give them something to do and you can pretty much count on it being done. There's a third type of person, and that is an enthusiastically faithful person. And that's Jonathan Jones. Jonathan is the guy, I've said this to you before that you can give a responsibility to, and the next time you see him, he's carrying a notebook on that very area of responsibility, keeping track of every development in that area, and that's what he has done over the last several months.

Of no less importance, to this transition has been Carlos Cuellar. Without his, Without his giftedness and hard work, working alongside of Jonathan, we would not be where we are today. Carlos has served our church and he served all of you exceptionally well. Literally at the epicenter of everything that has gone on over the last several months has been Jonathan and Carlos, and their gifts have complimented one another.

Together, they provided the oversight that was needed overseeing. the budgeting, evaluating cost and expenditures, making sure that everything got executed the way that it should, and when they needed more money coming to the elders and, and seeking those funds, all of the rest of us, we had our own individual categories of things to focus on. They had all categories in their minds over the last, several months. And so, to Jonathan and to Carlos, we just deliver a huge thank you to both of you.

and, as I'm standing up here and I'm looking at Jonathan, Just imagining what this day must be like for him, he told me. This week he said, I'll be here Sunday morning and I reserve the right to cry. And to shout, just what's going on in his heart right now, it's just wonderful to contemplate, but Jonathan, why don't you come up? I, I believe he's got a thank you that he would like to deliver as well.

Let's express our appreciation to him. Yeah, this is, Thanks, man. I love you. You've had a few of those Yeah, site.

This is overwhelming, truly overwhelming. Bill's masterful video only gave you just a few images. what it has taken to get here. We are here because the Lord called us here.

And we are here because you all responded. You all responded beautifully, obediently, gene, generously. I'd like to ask all of you, who either prayed. or work to stand up and give yourselves a hand.

Reach out to the Lord, We absolutely do. This is a beautiful site and I have wanted to go into lists of names, but I because there are dozens Dozens upon dozens. And we are moved beyond words. Thanksgiving to the Lord for all of you.

There are 3 So that I will mention to you, That are key figures that without them, we would not be here and they are on the Bourne side of this team and that's Gordon Burns, Brad working, and Dorn working. they are two of Gordon's employees who have absolutely worked with us hand in hand, arm in arm as we have marched through this process, hundreds of hours of meetings, hundreds of hours of coordination, but it's Gordon and Brad and Dorn that have made today possible. Yeah. Gordon's here, but I'm asking for.

here's what's really cool. Brad working who is Gordon's facility's manager, he's watching this at home on his phone through the video system. There's a dome on the ceiling and he's watching us from home, so. No.

I love you. You are my heroes. your obedience, your love for the Lord, your love for Cornerstone, is the reason that we're here. So, thank you and God bless you.

Thank you, Jonathan. Jonathan also mentioned, just a moment ago, Gordon and his team, and we're so thankful to, to them because without The burden that they have carried and the efforts that they have made, we could never have reached this moment. Gordon and, and Jill, we just want to say to you, thank you for your hospitality, opening up your hearts to us, and opening up your place, to us. Thank you so much.

Gordon has been a steady hand over the past couple of years. Actually, I remember the first time visiting, this building, there was like so much room, like this wall was not here and then what is going to be classrooms that was also a part of this. It's like so much square footage that's available and yet the ceilings throughout were the height of the ceilings here and on, on the side. And the place just seemed like it had so many possibilities, but there were drawbacks, probably more due to my own.

And our impoverished imaginations than anything else when we first came to this place, this seemed like a minus plan that had promise. We shouldn't let it go. We should investigate it, but there were drawbacks. But over the months that followed, Gordon kept thinking.

And imagining possibilities, he never gave up on the idea. He encouraged us to look elsewhere at every other opportunity that came up. He was not wed to the notion of Cornerstone coming to this facility if that's not what the Lord wanted us to do. He would even go with us at times to look at another facility that showed promise.

But he would keep coming back to us and say, well, what if, what if we did this? What if we changed that? What if we raise the ceilings in here and there's catwalks, so we can't do it throughout, but, but if we raise the ceilings here, the reason that part in the middle is not raised is because there's a catwalk right there. but what if we raised the parts of the ceiling where we were able to and And then also as far as cost, what if we shared this cost and what if we shared that cost and paid half, or if our company paid for 1 1/3 of the cost or what have you, and little by little this minus plan turned into a C+ plan and then a minus plan and then a B+ plan and then an minus plan and then the really solid A plan.

That it is today, even in the lease negotiations with the Bornes team, Gordon literally just sat on both sides of the table working out a calculus for the rent that would be manageable for Cornerstone at this stage in our history and also fair and equitable. to, to Burns, and so we're just so thankful, Gordon, for your ingenuity, for your partnership, collaboration, all the thought that you've put into this, and there have been ups, there have been downs. We've walked away from meetings thinking this isn't going to happen, and, but the Lord kept pushing us forward and, someone would come up with an idea that kept us alive until it's materialized and what it is, into what it is today, and we just give God all of the glory for what he has done.

let me do a quick exercise here.

There are some things that will be different now that we are here. Let me rattle off a few of these. There is a cry room with audio visual. we did not have that before.

We have a huge lobby now over there. I think we've gone from a 12 by 12 ft lobby to whatever that monster is over there, beautifully decorated, just a lovely place for us to hang out and to be able to fellowship before and after services indoors. one of the things we noticed is that at Lennon Street, this never really dawned on us, there's no hallways there. You're either in a room or you're outside, which in the summer can be quite uncomfortable, but here we'll be able to fellowship with one another in between events before and after fellowshipping, together with God's people.

So we have a huge lobby. We also, as has already been mentioned, we are able to come together now in one service. I did some research. And I believe it's been 8 years since we as a congregation have been able to meet as one people on a Sunday morning, so we rejoice in that.

it means I don't get a practice run on my sermons. I don't have a first service group that can be guinea pigs for me, but what was really cool, seriously, I, I don't know what I was thinking, but I set my alarm this morning at the normal time I got up and it's like, wait a minute, I don't have a 9 o'clock service today. It's 10:30, so I went back to bed. I got 6 hours of sleep last night.

Which literally in 22 years of ministry ties the record for the most sleep I've gotten on an evening before I preach. So I'm loving one service and starting at 10:30. another, difference is, a better sound system. We got a brand new sound system.

How many of you noticed the difference, the improvement? Yeah, praise, praise God. We're so thankful for the crew, with the audio visual and their work, on this. another thing that is different is more vivid, screen presentations.

You may have already noticed that as well. over at Linden Street, because the LCD projector was, on the other side of the room, the images, behind me, were typically faded. and so it just was washed out, and, in fact, just to show you an example, this, this is an image from, that we took from Linden Street. This is, this is black on a white background.

It just looks washed out. You guys don't know this, but over the years, there have been artistic flourishes in my PowerPoints that You've probably totally missed because the image has been washed out, but this very slide right now, this is what that looked like at Linden Street. This is what it looks like here. So, Do you, do you see it?

Do you see it? So the artistic flourishes will be more vivid. Here at At the Bornes Technology Center. Another great benefit that we didn't plan on, guys, is a lot of covered parking.

That's just something in God's providence. That, that God brought to, to pass. it's not something that was done because we were coming, but the Lord, orchestrated that. and another difference that you'll notice is a building with adequate air conditioning.

That can actually keep the building cool during the summer months and we're so thankful, for, for that. another thing that's different is we have the ability here to reach more people for Christ. And we'll be saying more in the weeks to, to come as we're going to, we're gonna use the space that God has given to us. when I walk into some of the Sunday school classrooms, the nursery, toddler room, I just gulp really hard.

It's like, man, we've got work to do. To bring people in. And so we've been provided this resource and we now have an opportunity to show the hospitality of Christ to a greater number of people. These are some things that are different.

What's the same? Well, we got the same God as before, the same gospel, and the same people. What I love about being here in this room right now, this morning, What I love most is that you're here and just watching you, the people of Cornerstone, come in this morning, you are what makes Cornerstone what it is. And so I'm glad that that will be the same.

With the exception of the new people that God will bring. to us in the weeks and months to come. Just be praying for the remaining work that needs to be done, over the next week or two to bring us into full compliance so that we can get the certificate of occupancy. this may happen.

by next Sunday or more likely by the Sunday after, just pray for the work as it progresses. A lot still needs to be done and as has already been mentioned, we don't have access to anything in this building today other than this room and the lobby and the cry room. So this is not the day to take a tour of the facility. it's also not a day for your children to be left unattended and take their own tours of the, of the facility.

So watch your children, make sure that we stay in this area and honor the expectations of the fire department and hopefully in a couple of weeks, we'll get our certificate of occupancy and be able to get into more of, of the rooms. The good hand of God, the good hand of God has been with us as a people here at Cornerstone. And it's been a blessing to witness the arm of God working on our behalf. I want to just talk a little bit from God's word this morning with the time that we have.

if you guys want to turn to Ezra 7, you can. Ezra, at the beginning of chapter 7 begins to make his journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. And what is interesting is that the text tells us in Ezra 7 that Ezra did not just, he didn't just get what he needed, and he didn't just succeed in his journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, but the text tells us why he was successful in those ventures. Look at what it says in Ezra chapter 7.

Verse 6 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 to him all that he requested because the hand of his God. was upon him. Ezra got what he needed because the hand of his God was upon him. And then the text tells us about the journey that Ezra made from Babylon to Jerusalem.

It's about a 900 mile journey. You'll notice on the map behind me that Ezra would not have traveled a straight path because that would have been through desert, but he would have followed the contour of the fertile crescent, and that would amount to about a 900 mile journey. And he succeeded in making that journey together with about 1700 plus people, and it says in Ezra chapter 7, verse 8 that Ezra came to Jerusalem in the 5th month, which was in the 7th year of the king, 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?

Why did he succeed in making this 4 month journey? Because the good hand of his God was upon him. The good hand of God was upon Ezra. That's why he got what he needed from the king to do God's will, and that's why he succeeded in traveling from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The good hand of his God was upon him. The Hebrew word that is translated hand is the Hebrew word yad. That in some passages is translated hand, in other passages, it's translated arm, and in other passages, it's translated as, as power. We don't really have an exact equivalent of this Hebrew word in our language.

technically, the word yad speaks of the part of our arm from the elbow to the fingertips. We got the word for forearm and hand. But we don't have a word that just includes this part of the arm from the elbow to the fingertips, but because of that part of the arm that is spoken of just by this word, it often has the idea of power. In fact, just look quickly if you would at the part of my arm from my elbow to the fingertips.

It It bespeaks power, does it not? And so often in, in the Old Testament, this word is translated power. In Proverbs 18:21, Solomon says, life and death are in the power of the tongue, and it's this word in the yard of the tongue. In Job 27:11, Job says, Behold, I will instruct you in the power of God, the yo of God.

And there are other passages that you can look at where clearly the idea of power is being spoken of by the use of this Hebrew term yad. And given that one of the ways of translating this expression in Ezra chapter 7 verse 9 is this that Ezra succeeded in his venture because the good power of God was upon him. God's power was upon him, and God was taking his power and putting it in the service of doing good to Ezra to enable him to succeed in traveling from Babylon. To, Jerusalem.

And I think we can say the same thing here totally by the grace of God. God's good hand is upon cornerstone. We don't deserve it. We've not earned it, but God's good hand is upon our church.

We have grown. God has blessed our church, and this growth is the number one reason that we outgrew the Linden Street campus and we find ourselves here today. And in the last several months, God has shown His arm, His hand, His power in so many ways. We have seen the arm of God.

In recent months, the good hand. The good arm, the good power of God that has done us great good as a people. It was the same with Ezra. The good hand, the good power of his God was upon him.

But the question that we should ask in reading verse 9 is, why was the good hand of God upon Ezra? Why? Think about it. that's a good question, is it not?

if we can just have the good hand, the good power of God upon us, that's all we would want. Right, Why was the good hand of God upon Ezra blessing him and enabling him to succeed? God's hand of power has been upon us, but we want the good hand of God to be with us on the road ahead. So what do we need to do in order to ensure that this happens?

We're reading the text, we come to Ezra 7:9 and we're like, so he succeeded in doing what he was doing because the good hand of his God was upon him. But why was the good hand of his God upon him? That's the burning question. And fortunately the writer of Ezra knew we would ask that question.

Because we would want to know for ourselves. And so the writer of Ezra gives us the answer. He says the good hand of his God was upon him. Look at verse 10, for, or literally because.

Because Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord. And to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. That's why the good power of God was upon Ezra. Just with the few minutes that we have, let's ponder three commitments that Ezra made that served to explain why the good hand of his God was upon him.

Number 1, Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to study the law of the Lord, and we'll have to work out the details with the Wow, so, OK, that's study. and I can read it on my screen, but it's in small print, so we'll work out these details in the weeks to come, but that should be studied, OK. He set his heart to study. The law of the Lord.

Ezra set his heart, he determined, he purposed in his heart, this is what I'm going to do. He didn't just happen upon being a student of God's word. Like one day just going, Oh look at this, I'm studying God's word and I'm living according to God's word. How did this happen?

No, he made a decision. This is the way I'm going to live my life. This is what I'm going to do in my life and in my ministry. I'm going to study the law of the Lord.

I'm going to study my scriptures. That was the Bible of Ezra's day. Ezra is described as a scribe in verse 6, which that by itself would tell you that, that Ezra had all of the 1st 5 books of the Bible memorized. And much else of his scriptures memorized.

And in verse 6 it also tells us that Ezra was skilled in the law, and that word skilled in verse 6 literally means fast. He was fast with the law. He was swift with God's word. You could bring up any topic, any situation, any need.

And Ezra could go to any part of the Bible and apply that to that particular given situation. He was quick and swift to go to his Bible, and he was quick and swift in his understanding and his use. Of the scriptures of his day. And the text tells us that he had purposed in his heart to study.

To study the law of the Lord. This word means to, to consult. He determined, I'm going to consult the word of God in my life and in my ministry. I will always go to God's word and consult the book.

Whenever I don't know what to do, I will consult the scriptures. Whenever I think I know what I'm supposed to do, I will consult the scriptures to see if what I am thinking is really correct. Whenever I want to know, How to be a good husband to my wife and father to my children, and a good leader to the people of God, I will consult with the Bible, the scriptures of my day. God's word was Ezra's first and final authority for faith and practice.

This word also means to investigate, to look into. Ezra was not simply content to read his Bible. Or to read verses in the Bible, but he wanted to know everything that was in those verses. He was not content to get one or two things out of a verse, he wanted to know everything.

That was in every verse. Ezra was already a scribe. This man knew the Bible backwards and forwards. He was already swift with the law of the Lord, and yet he's purposing in his heart, like, what I want to do with my life?

I want to study. We'd say, Ezra, you already know this. It's like, no, I wanna, there's so much more to know. There's so much more to know, so much more to study.

I want to study the word of God and investigate it. Likewise, we as a people here at Cornerstone on the road ahead, we want to be a people who consult the Bible. We investigate what it says in our pulpit ministry. We want to consult with and investigate what the Bible says.

We don't want to consult with and investigate our cultural norms and get our cues from there and shape our ministry accordingly. Our culture may say that something is good, but our question is, what does the Bible say? Our culture may say, this is bad, but we would say, what does the Bible say? There are trends nowadays in churches.

The latest fads and church leaders are saying, come to my conference and look at this model of ministry. This is very successful and all other churches seem to be doing this. Our question is, what does the Bible say? We want to stick with the Bible because that's the plan that God will bless.

Amen. David Platt in his book Radical Together, says it this way. He says nowhere in Scripture has God promised to bless my plans or anyone else's in the church. No matter how innovative or creative they may be, neither has God promised to bless us based solely on our motives.

Sure, we are supposed to do everything for the glory of God, but that doesn't mean everything we do for His glory is assured of His blessing. There's only one thing God has promised to bless, and that is His plan. He has given us his plan in His word, and if we want the blessing of God, then we don't need to come up with something else. Instead, we need to align with the plan he has already promised to bless, and that's the plan in His word.

I honestly believe going forward, however long we are here at Bournes and wherever God leads us from here, as long as we're looking to God's word and consulting with God's word, and studying God's Word and letting God's word shape the way we do life and ministry, as long as we're doing that, we will have a successful model of ministry. Amen. This is what Ezra purposed in his heart to do. But there's another thing he committed himself to doing, and that is he set his heart to practice the law of the Lord.

He didn't just say, I want to study God's word. I want to do God's word. Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it. He wanted to live it.

Notice that Ezra did not merely want to study the law of the Lord in order to teach it. The text could have said Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to teach it. None of us would have thought anything unusual about that, right? And yet we learn here God's hand was upon him because he had set his heart to study it and to do it.

And then, to teach it. Also notice the language of the text. The text is not simply saying that Ezra studied the law of the Lord and he also practiced it, even though that's certainly true. The text tells us that he resolved to study the law of the Lord and to practice it.

We're learning something about the motive of his study. He studied his Bible in order to do what he learned. His attitude when he came to the scriptures on every occasion was, Lord, I'm going to open up your word and I'm going to study your word, and I don't know yet what you're going to show me, but whatever you show me, I will do. That was the motive of his study.

There are various motives for studying God's word, is there not? We can study God's word simply because we want to know God's word intellectually. Maybe we study God's word because we are desperate to impress other people with how well we know God's word. Maybe we're getting ready for a Bible study and we want to wow people with our knowledge of God's word.

Sometimes we can study God's word in order to prove somebody else wrong. And to prove that we are right, or maybe we study God's word in order to see what God has to say and then decide whether we're going to obey what he says or not. And our attitude is, Lord, show me, show me what you're saying in this text. After you show me, I'll then decide what I want to do with it, whether I really want to obey it or not.

Ezra came to God's word with the attitude of abandon, saying, God, I don't even know what you're going to say yet, but whatever you say, I will do, and I will practice your word. The good hand of his God was upon him because he set his heart to study God's word and to practice it. There's a third commitment he made. That explains why the good hand of his God was upon him, and that is he set his heart to teach the law of the Lord.

To teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel, Ezra studied in order to live and to do, and then from the overflow of that living to then teach other people. I love the fact that Ezra wanted to teach others. He didn't just want to, I'm going to study God's word and I'm going to live it and practice it, but I'll just leave everyone else alone. I'm studying God's word, I'm living it, but everyone else can do what they want to do.

This is just my way. It's just my way. I'm not going to go telling other people what's right and wrong. This is right and wrong for me.

OK. That's not what Ezra did. Instead, his attitude was, I love this book and I want to study it and I want to live it and I want to share its contents with everybody that I come in contact with, to bring them into the glories of what God has revealed in the scriptures here. This is the summation of our heartbeat, I think, here at Cornerstone.

in the days ahead, we want to continue to study God's word. We're a teaching church, but I think more accurately, we would say we're a learning church and we have a lot to learn. And every week, we want to come together and open up God's word and learn from God's word together and then process what it is that God is saying to us and then shape our lives and our ministries accordingly. We're a radically different church today than we were.

Decades ago, and it's the word of God that has changed us. We've studied, we've learned, and we've made changes to bring ourselves into conformity with God's word. This is our passion here at Cornerstone, and may God help us to live these, these passions out. Let me just close with this, this thought.

Ezra. And the day in which he lived. His Bible, was probably about this thick. OK.

It's the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament and some of the other prophets had already ministered, and so that was in God's revelation, the Psalms and what have you. His Bible was about this thick, OK? Our Bibles are this thick. Ezra could not have imagined the fullness of all that is contained.

In our Bibles today, right? And yet, and, and guys, the stuff that he didn't have in his Bible, it's the best stuff. It's the story of God sending His Son into the world, the God man. End of the world to live a perfect life and to die the death that we deserve to die.

And then he was raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God, where from that position of lordship he's giving out salvation to everyone who cries out to him and believes in Him for that salvation. This is, this is what's unfolded in the rest of God's revelation that Ezra did not fully have in his day. And if Ezra could come back today and walk into this room. He would look at you and me and he'd say, What's that book in your hand?

And you would say, Well, this is our Bible. He'd say, man, that's thicker than my Bible. What, what's all in it? And we would hand it to him, and he'd sit down and he would begin to read what's in this book that was not in his book in his day.

And he would be so blown away and he would say, you must really love this book. You must read it all the time. You probably have this whole thing memorized, don't you? Do you read it all the time and meditate upon it and study it and investigate it?

When you guys come together as God's people, You guys must love opening up God's word, and whenever God's word is open, you must be riveted. And Ezra would probably be shocked to find out that some of us in this room not even once opened up this book. He would be shocked to find that in churches across America, that there are many churches where people get behind pulpits and they preach sermons for 45 minutes and not one time quote anything from this book. He would find that utterly astounding.

If Ezra loved the Bible of his day so passionately, how much more should we as individuals and as a community love the contents of our Bibles? May God help us on the road ahead from this pulpit or any pulpit that ends up being here. Help us to study God's word and to practice God's word, and to teach God's word to one another and to others that God brings to us, so that the good hand of God will be with us. That's what we want.

And may God help us to live this out. Let me just read this and close our service. Let's see. James Hamilton in his commentary on Ezra says, do you want to change the world?

I have a strategy for you. It may not sound radical or impressive, but Ezra 7 shows us a man who changed the world by following this very strategy. The most effective thing you can do to change the world is to study the Bible, do the Bible, and teach the Bible. Neither the church nor the world needs more con artists, salesmen, cool guys, rock stars, or celebrities.

The church and the world need people who know God. And do you want to know God? The best thing you can do to grow in your knowledge of God is to study the Bible, do the Bible. And teach the Bible.

Let's pray and ask God to help us to do exactly this. We're going to take up an offering here in just a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you. To give, let's pray together.

Lord, our hearts are full. We are so blessed to be here. And You have given us so much, and yet with what you have given to us, Lord, comes great responsibility. Make us a faithful people.

And as we chart our course from this point on, Lord, just help us to To go to your word. What does the Bible say? And then we let that shape our life and our ministry. And then we're teaching others and what we teach them is what you say in your word, not our own ideas.

We want to impact this culture. We want to impact. The city of Riverside. The way Ezra wanted to impact your people centuries ago.

So make us students of this book and doers of this book and effective teachers of what you reveal in this book to others that they might come to know the glories. of salvation through Jesus. And the revelation that you give to us about Him in your word. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus.

And we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, and