Desiring God's Presence
The Work of Revitalization • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Work of Revitalization
The Work of Revitalization
Well good morning everyone and welcome to Burr Oak. If you are visiting for the first time today or viewing this online I am Pastor Ben and it is so good to be with you today. If you are visiting we would encourage you to fill out a visitor card so that we may connect with you.
Well we are in to our new series “The Work of Revitalization.” Last we we looked at how the hope for restoration or revitalization is grounded on the premise of God’s character. That for moving forward what we need to do is start by looking back to see how Yahweh is the God of promise, provision, and providence. Ezra paints for the reader that for rebuilding to happen, there needs to be an understanding of who Yahweh is. As we move into our message for today we are going to begin to see what the work of revitalization really is.
We have already stated that revitalization is really heart surgery. It is taking a good long look into our own hearts to see what it is that motivates us. To see what is lurking in the dark corners causing us to live for ourselves rather than for God. Because this is the case, let us do our heart work by reciting our focus verse for this series.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Please pray with me.
Father this is your day and your service. May you bless this message. May those that hear it be drawn closer to you. Open our hearts and minds to receive your word. Lord we humbly come before you this morning just seeking to be in your presence. May you be amongst us this morning. Through your Spirit may you encourage us. May you guide us. And if need be may you convict us. We give all this over to you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
In my time at Liberty University one of the most impactful assignments that I had was to watch a secular movie and look for the biblical truths that were presented within it. That assignment helped with looking at the world and seeing where God’s truths are present as a way to begin to present the gospel. The second time I was assigned this project I opted to watch the 2014 movie staring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore titled “Blended.” The premise was sort of like a modern day Brady Bunch.
Drew Barrymore was a single mother of two boys, whose ex-husband, the boys’ father, was constantly finding excuse to skip out on doing things with his sons. Adam Sandler was a single father of three girls. Through a mutual friend Sandler and Barrymore are set up on a blind date that ends horribly. Through the movie Sandler and Barrymore’s character keep crossing paths. While they cannot stand each other, they come to realize that they have some shared ideologies. Namely, that a parent needs to be present in the life of their children for the child to have the best opportunity to succeed.
This point is mostly clearly presented through the character of Barrymore’s youngest son. Her youngest son love baseball and is on a local summer team. Yet, it is obvious that his dad has not invested anytime into him to help him improve his game. He strikes out in a game and goes into a screaming and kicking tantrum that he seemingly is known for.
There is a point in the movie were Sandler and his girls and Barrymore and her sons happen to end up on a joint vacation together. While on this vacation Sandler helps the young boy with his baseball skills. The movie closes at another game for this young boy. His dad has failed to show up again and it appears that there will be no relationship between Barrymore and Sandler. The boy ends up with 2 strikes, at that moment Adam Sandler and his girls show up to root him on. Sandler gives the boy a few quick reminders and ends up hitting an in park home run.
Sandler’s presence brought both a calm and a courage to this boy to be able to accomplish a task that he had yet been able to complete. This is what Yahweh’s presence is to do for his people. And that heart work of revitalization is to produce this within us. Lord do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. When we talk about revitalization we are talking about the Christian and the Church desiring nothing more then more of the presence of Yahweh amongst them. We are not to desire a new or re-freshened building that is teeming with people. We are not to desire a balanced budget and a cushioned bank account. We are not to desire the ability to keep holy commands. These are all good things but they are not to be our desire. Our desire is to have more of Yahweh’s presence.
This is because Yahweh’s presence is the answer to all of man’s issues.
A.W. Tozer states,
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.2
A. W. Tozer
This brings us to our message for today. Today’s message is titled “Desiring God’s Presence: The Priority of the Chosen People.” And we will be looking towards Ezra 3. If you brought your own Bible or want o follow along on your device please turn their now. If you are using the blue pew Bible it is on page 430. Or you can follow along on the screen.
Let us hear the word of the Lord.
1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.
3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.
4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required,
5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord.
6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.
9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
As we consider desiring God’s presence today, there are three biblical truths that we are going to look at: the pathway to presence, God’s desire to dwell amongst us, and when presence is not our focus.
The Pathway to Presence
The Pathway to Presence
As we turn to this first point we see a couple things taking place int he first half of our passage for today. We begin by seeing a time marker.
1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
The seventh month. What was special about the seventh month? Well as Derek Kinder indicates if was the climax of the Jewish year. What was it about the seventh month of the Jewish calendar that made it a climax? This was the month in which they celebrated the feast of the booths or feast of the tabernacles.
It was the time when they remembered Yahweh bringing them up out of Egypt. For seven days starting on the 15th day of the month all Israelites would descend upon Jerusalem and live in tents so to remember all that God had done for them while int he wilderness. This would be similar to our 4th of July, but instead of an hour of fireworks for one night, we would have 7 days of celebrating the accomplishment of no longer being under British rule.
Leading up to the feast of the tabernacles was the Jews most religious day of the their year, the day of atonement. This day was celebrated yearly on the 10th day of the seventh month. This was the day all of Israel came before Yahweh seeking atonement for all their sins. It was to be a day of deep reflection. Such a deep reflection was to be done on this day, that if anyone was not afflicted by the sins that they had committed they were cut off from the people. Besides keeping religious days and festivals we see another aspect as well.
We are told that after they all came together in Jerusalem, that a selection of priests led by Jeshua and Zerubbabel rebuilt the alter in which the sacrifices were to be given. Yet they did not build it just anywhere they wanted. They built it in the place it was to stand according to the Law.
2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.
As we continue reading through this first half we notice something about these events that are taking place. If we remember from last week the reason that they are returning is because Cyrus gave a proclamation that they could in order to rebuild God’s temple. Yet, we see that their keeping of the ordinances of God was their priority.
6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
Peter Adam comments on this section stating,
Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words The Rebuilding Program
They acted despite their fear of the people around them. They wanted to obey the instructions found in the Law of Moses (the five books, Genesis-Deuteronomy).
Continuing he states they,
Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words The Rebuilding Program
wanted to do everything ‘by the book’, to ensure the purity of the means of worship, and the purity of God’s people.
See what the Jews understood was that the pathway to God’s presence amongst them was for them to walk in holiness. That when they walked in his ways, he walked with them. We say the warning in Leviticus from Yahweh saying if you disobey my commands, I will walk contrary to you. Walking in holiness is necessary for God’s presence to be among his people.
Andy Davis in his book Revitalize states regarding holiness,
“Any church leader who desires to see his church revitalized must learn to melt inwardly in the presence of such a holy God, simply because of God’s infinite majesty.”
The reference here to church leader is not simply just the pastor. This is all who are involved or desiring to see the revitalization of their church. Davis goes on to states,
“All church revitalization must be done with a sense of the perfect hatred of the almighty God toward sin.
The zeal of God has for a universe free from all moral darkness should be the driving power behind every sermon a revitalizing pastor preaches, every prayer a revitalizing church member prayers, and every work a revitalizing strategist contemplates.” - Andy Davis
If we want God’s presence amongst us, we can not leave any room for sin. We cannot be complacent with our sins believing that we have none, or being to prideful to not confess them. Yes, when you fail to confess your sin it comes from your pride. From the protection of your ego and self image. You leave yourself as the central figure of your world, not Christ. You leave your idol crowned and enthrone upon your heart, not Christ. We have to desire holiness amongst ourselves. We can not leave any room for sin to rule in our lives.
Now your response back to me might be, “But Pastor Ben isn’t all that living by the commands just legalism and moralism?” No holiness goes beyond that. C.H. Spurgeon writes,
Holiness is better than morality. It goes beyond it. Holiness affects the heart. Holiness respects the motive. Holiness regards the whole nature of man.
Charles Spurgeon
Holiness does not merely address your actions, it address the motives to your actions.
Desiring holiness means you desire to know what is going on in heart, you desire to know what is your sin beneath the sins. Desiring holiness means that you seek to understand these things and to change them to reflect Christ. For as John Stott says,
What is holiness except Christlikeness?
John Stott
What we need to understand is that this is not a work of our own. Our growing in Christlikeness, our growing in his image is a work of the Spirit.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
And the reason all of this takes place is because this is God’s desire.
God’s Desire to Dwell
God’s Desire to Dwell
Moving to the next section of our passage today we see them begin the rebuilding of the temple. We read at the end of this section that after the foundation was laid there was a celebration.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
Now who here has ever built their own house? I do not mean paid a contractor to build it, but rather from ground up built it yourself? The house that I grew up in my mom and dad, with the help of family and friends, from the ground up they built themselves. From the first shovel full of dirt to dig out the basement, to the final finishing nail on the trim. My dad has always told me that if you want to know if a marriage will last, build a house together.
Now if you have built your house, how many of you stopped to rejoice after the foundation was laid? That is just the beginning, why celebrate at that point, why not celebrate when it is finished? We read in 2 Chronicles 5 that after the first building of the temple, it was upon completion that the celebration took place. Why this time would it be at the beginning?
Kidner states,
Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary Climax and Anticlimax (3:10–13)
This time there is no ark, no visible glory, indeed no Temple: only some beginnings, and small beginnings at that. But God is enthroned on the praises of Israel, and these could be as glorious as Solomon’s. Perhaps they were more so, for while they matched the earlier occasion, word for word and almost instrument for instrument (2 Chr. 5:13), they were sung in conditions more conducive to humility than to pride, and called for a faith that had few earthly guarantees to bolster it.
The early onset of their praises came from the fact that they had been humbled into realizing that they needed Yahweh, that they could not do this without him. But even with this, why celebrate at all? What exactly were they celebrating? The hard work that they had accomplished to get to this point? For this we need to understand the significance of the temple.
What was the purpose of the temple? Was it just a place where the priests worked and sacrifices were given? Was it simply to replace the tabernacle once Israel became settled in the promised land? What was the intended purpose of the temple and for that matter the tabernacle? These two structures served as a place where God would come and dwell with man. This was the reason that it needed to be consecrated. This is the reason that those who entered into it needed to be consecrated. See after sin infected the world, God’s holiness required a place that he could dwell. For this reason the tabernacle and the temple both were built. Because it has always been Yahweh’s desire to dwell with his people. This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
The Garden was Yahweh’s sanctuary on earth. When Adam and Eve sinned they were no longer undefiled beings and could no longer stay in the presence of God. Yet, Yahweh did not cast mankind off. He instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. He instructed Solomon to build the temple. And if you read through those sections what you will see is that the interior decorations of both structures resemble a garden. Yet, both pointed to something greater, they pointed to when God himself would dwell with man through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That is why when Jesus said tear this temple down and in three days I will raise it again he was referring to himself. He was God dwelling with man. The temple was no longer needed and continues to be no longer needed. Why? As Karen Jobes states,
The Christian community is portrayed as a temple, implying that now it—not a literal stone building—is the place of God’s earthly dwelling by the Holy Spirit, a place of true worship and of acceptable sacrifice.
Karen H. Jobes
Through the Spirit, Yahweh dwells within us, we are his temple. We need to understand the significance of this and why this is different than any other religion. It is God’s desire to operate in relationship with mankind that has caused this to be. His relentless pursuit, his willingness to leave the 99 to go after the 1. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, it was a fulfilling of the promise that “I am with you always.”
In all other religions the path to salvation or the path to enlightenment, comes through how much man can do. When you love god enough. When you sacrifice enough. When you earn enough. When you are kind enough. All other religions put the weight on the individual to earn their salvation. In Christianity, God says you cannot do it. You are incapable of showing enough devotion. You are incapable of sacrificing enough. You are incapable of caring for others enough. But, I desire for you to be with me so I will make a way.
God’s desire to dwell with mankind in close relationship is the sole driving force for how all events play out through the course of history.
Why?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
And when it was time for the Son to go back to the Father he still did not leave us.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
And he has promised that one day he will return and that a new heaven and new earth are coming where we will dwell with him. It has always been God’s desire to dwell with his people. At the current time that is done through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit unites us with God and with each other. The Spirit guides us in understanding truth. The Spirit empowers us to live in holiness. See it is not us earning our way before God. As the born again Christian, the Spirit of Yahweh invades you. His presence has come to dwell in you. This is the indicator for being a believer we need to understand. As Tozer stated,
The filling of the Holy Spirit brings a sharp separation between the believer and the world.
A. W. Tozer
See if you believe you are a Christian because you were born in America and may have been raised going to church and so it has always been a part of your life, but you have never concretely affirmed your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you are not a Christian. The qualifiers you have laid for the foundation of your faith, means that if you were born in Tibet you would be a Buddhist. If you were born in Iran you would be a Shi’i Muslim. Your faith is built on cultural influence rather than the reality of God’s pursuit of you.
You need to ask your self, am I really a Christian? Do I really believe this stuff? If you answered yes to that question, then why is Yahweh’s presence not your main focus?
When Presence is Not Our Focus
When Presence is Not Our Focus
The last two verse of our passage for today present us with a unique situation. In the midst of this humble celebration of the work that God has done to bring the people back to their land and the foundation of the temple laid indicating that Yahweh’s presence is with them, there rises us a loud cry that matches that of the shouts for joy.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
Ezra shows us that it is the eldest generation that this disparaging cry comes from. The generation that remember the previous temple and all of it’s glory that it stood in. Running parallel in the biblical timeline to this portion of Ezra is the prophet Haggai. In his book Haggai addresses this loud wailing.
‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
The eldest generation remember the master piece that was Solomon’s temple. The intricate work down by the craftsman through wood and stone and precious metals. They remember the Ark of Covenant that now we read nothing about. They remember the material beauty of the former things, and in the midst miss the thing of glory that is occuring before them. In his rebuke Haggai goes on to tell them that the glory of this later house will be greater than the first one.
The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
What causes us to miss the glory of Yahweh’s current working? What causes us to not desire his presence however it may show up? When our hearts and minds are focused on things of this world. As we learned from Gospel Treason the things that capture our thoughts and affections are ultimately what we worship. This older generation worshipped the temple. Not who the temple housed, not what the temple meant, but they worship the temple.
This becomes a point of caution for us as we work through the revitalization process. Do we long for God, do we long for Yahweh’s presence? Or do we long for how things used to be? Solomon, ironically the builder of the first temple they worshipped so dearly, gave his readers this warning.
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
What do we long for? Do we long for a returning to the way things used to be? Have we idolized a previous time in our minds and anything short of that would leave us devastated? Or do we long for the presence of Yahweh? Do we desire for him to be here amongst us regardless of what that may look like? And how would we know if his presence is here?
Well that comes back to those markers I have mentioned.
Hearts soften & desire to grow in Godly wisdom
Repentance of sins
Growth in knowledge and understanding
Increased attacks by the enemy
New conversions & baptisms
As we navigate this path of revitalization we need to be asking ourselves where is my heart set? Where is our corporate heart set? What is it really that we want? Are we desiring God’s presence? And as we navigate through these questions and we see these markers taking place, we need to stop and say.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
END IN PRAYER