How to live in the Promised Land

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Strong and Courageous: How to live in the Promised Land
2. Elements of success from Ezra – 7.29.7 Dennis Mullen

It has been 18 months since we occupied this new building, and I'm still grateful every time I walk in here. To be able to host Group Work Camps, to have VBS here, just to have space to worship and to visit after worship – these are blessings we waited for for a long time. But this building has never been just about us. It's a tool for ministry, and it is used as such (as the other buildings are) nearly every day of the week.

And some of you who are new here may not realize that this building is meant to be the first step in a three-phase plan (the other two which will provide education space, space for recreation ministry, etc., are to be taken as tentative suggestions, not firm plans).

The point is that we have started a journey with God, and in a sense when we moved up the hill almost 18 months ago, we entered the Promised Land. But like Israel when they entered the Promised Land, we still have a long way to go. The journey is underway, but we need to keep on walking with God.

I was overly ambitious in planning this sermon. As the bulletin reflects, I planned to cover all of the books of Ezra AND Nehemiah. Well, we're going to stay in Ezra, and the main lesson God led me too isn't about opposition, but instead...”Elements of Success...” Succeeding in a project with God is a very different thing than succeeding in the manner of the world.

Last week, we looked at the first part of the book of Joshua and the very early days of Israel living in the Promised Land. That happened 1300-1400 years before Christ. God’s people occupied the land for a long time – 700-800 years in fact, more than three times longer than the age of the USA. Part of that time, they were a UNITED kingdom. But during much of that time, they were divided into TWO nations: Judah to the south, with Jerusalem as its capital; and Israel to the north, with Samaria as its capital. But around 606 BC, the northern kingdom fell and most of the people were forced to leave their homes and farms and to go live in Assyria as slaves. The southern kingdom lasted another 20 years, but it fell in 587 and 586 BC, and the people had to leave their homes and farms and go work as slaves in Babylon. And when the southern kingdom fell, the wall around Jerusalem was knocked down and the beautiful temple that Solomon built was destroyed.

(It may surprise you to hear that all these many centuries ago the Middle East used to be a place of conflict, but take my word for it…  )

OK, so right around 550 BC, or 70 years after the first Israelites were pulled off their land, a remarkable thing happened. A man by the name of Cyrus II consolidated power in the region and formed the Persian Empire. Now Cyrus looked around and saw all of these Israelites who were living in his territories as slaves, and do you know what he did?

A thousand years earlier, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, faced the same situation and when Moses came and said on God’s behalf “Let my people go,” Pharaoh did the natural thing: He fought it tooth and nail. “I’m keeping my slaves” he said (in effect). “I’d be a great fool to let them go”.

EZR 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

" `The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Anyone of his people among you--may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.' "

And that brings up the first element of success in Ezra. A successful project is a God thing. This wasn't the people's idea. They wanted it, they longed for it and prayed about it, but they had no power to make it happen. And truth be told, when you read about this time of captivity in other parts of the Scripture, God makes it clear that this captivity was his plan also – the time of slavery was a God thing too, sent to punish his people for their persistent disobedience and rebellion (and if that makes God seem harsh, remember that he put up with 700-800 YEARS filled mostly with rebellion before he acted with 70 years of captivity, or a tithe if you will of all the time they had spent in the Promised Land.

But then, God's grace: “...the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia. It's a God thing.

What about us? As I make each point this morning, I want to show you where we stand in relation to it. I started preaching at MHCC in 1988. Our average attendance that year was 80, but because we were growing at the end of the year, we began holding two services in 1989. In 1991 we hired a youth minister, John Pryor, one of the best moves ever. Along the way we grew through 100, 120, 150. Along about 1997 we knew that we needed to do something drastic about our little church building, so we began having 3 services AND we began researching what it would take to build what we needed to continue God's work. I remember that we put a lot of stress on the fact that 3 services was a temporary solution, and it was – it lasted about 8.5 years, but we FINALLY went back to two!

It took us most of seven years to decide to build this facility we now enjoy. Along the way we drew up and then rejected two ideas, and that was discouraging, but we learned a lot from that process, not just about building, but about listening to God, waiting for God.

Now anybody can read the NT and see that God's plan is for his church on earth to GROW as his people share the good news of Jesus Christ with their neighbors and people find salvation. But beyond that, a couple of significant events convinced us where God wanted us to go.

One was the famous tornado meeting of '02. We had a congregational meeting in the Fall of 2002 to look at and vote on our second proposed plan. Things got negative. Not mean and nasty (or not VERY mean or nasty) but no one seemed to like the plan. The problem was that we were short on good ideas about what to do next. We had three acres of land, and a total relocation would be WAY too expensive, and besides we had hunted all over the area for acceptable land and had found few possibilities. As we talked and talked to no good conclusion at that congregational meeting, Tom B. came in and said: “Tornadoes have touched down in Morgan Co. I think we better dismiss.” So we did, and it was discouraging, but it proved to be a blessing (and I don't believe God sent tornadoes to Morgan county to break up our meeting, but rather that “all things work together for good for those who love him: as one version of Romans 8:28 says).

The second event was that, after that meeting, we said: “Let's look around again at land. Maybe relocation is all we can do.” Now for 18 years, we had known that there were 17 undeveloped acres attached to MHCC property. We had pursued it before, and to say that we had gotten nowhere was an understatement. We could never get the owner, a Knoxville developer, to take our calls or respond to registered mail or give us ANY kind of indication of what it would take to get at least some of his land. We only heard rumors that he would never sell it to us (and we had persisted in our requests on and off for 18 years). But only a few days after the tornado meeting, we contacted the family of this developer (who had passed away) and they got back to us immediately with a price of just over $200K for the whole 17 acres, which was exactly the kind of price we were finding elsewhere, except here we could still use our old buildings and build in phases. I can't tell you how unbelievable this was if you didn't walk through the “18 years of silence” with us! We had enough money in our building fund at the time to pay cash for it, and so we put it to the congregation for a vote and we had a unanimous vote to go forward (and if you've been around churches very long, you might think a unanimous vote is a sign from God itself!)

We actually had another unanimous vote a few months later – when we held a meeting to decide to hire Rick Cox Construction to build the building. What was supposed to be a Q and A time turned into a testimony time about what great work Rick did for this member of the congregation and that one!

I want to throw in another fact. Of course we asked people to pray for this project, but one group of people formed a prayer team and they met faithfully from a very early stage right through the completion of the project, and the prayer group you see advertised in your bulletin grows out of this team. These women and men consistently took this thing to God, and that gives me as much confidence as anything to say that this is a God thing.

So all of this convinced us that this was a God thing we were in, which (if you think about it) really puts a lot of responsibility on God's people. After all, if this is just my idea, I can do it or not. But if we say that God led us here and God answered this prayer and God provided land...we'd better act.

Back to Ezra for a few minutes: Here's what happened next. EZR 1:5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites--everyone whose heart God had moved--prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. 7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. Here's even more evidence that this is a God-thing. Nebuchadnezzar, whose name you surely know from Sunday school, when he captured the Israelites, took the temple articles (the golden lamp stand, etc.) and put them in the temple of an idol, a blasphemous thing to do. Now Cyrus is just going to give them back? Why would he do this? Because God moved his heart to do it.

That's not the primary thing I want you to see though. The main thing is that when God moves in a project, those who are his people respond with purpose-driven generosity, the second element of success. It happened in Exodus 36 when Moses and the people set out to make the tabernacle that would be God's meeting place with them. THAT was a God thing; God actually gave them the building plans in some detail. And then this: “And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."

6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.” Exodus 36:3-7

When God is in a project, his people respond with purpose-driven generosity. In the summer of 2004 the preliminary plans for this building were ready, but the price-tag was huge - $2.25 million dollars. We'd been saying that God led us here (and not just me – I heard it all the time). Now we would find out whether people believed that or not. We had a big dinner and meeting at the Roane St. cafeteria, and showed everyone the plan and told them how much it would cost, and then we said: “We still have about $250,000 in our building fund. The ...Bank will loan us $1.5 million based on our income and our property. They will only loan us the remaining $500K if MHCC members with good credit guarantee that part of the loan with their own personal signatures. So what we all need to do is to go pray to God with our families, asking him 1) how much he would have us give over the next three years to this project, over and above our tithes and offerings, AND if he would have us guarantee some portion of the $500K”.

We all went away for a week or two and prayed about that, and then we turned in our commitment cards. As far as the guarantee, 28 families said they'd be willing to guarantee part of the loan and the total wasn't $500K but well over $800K! Each person's obligation was therefore reduced.

Just as importantly, many members made anonymous pledges to give $482,832 over the next three years. As it happens, TODAY is three years later, and whatever offerings come in to the building fund TODAY will be the last ones counted as part of the old campaign, and through last Sunday we've collected $527,815.

The encouraging thing about this is that it shows that we believe that God led us here and we're willing to respond accordingly. It isn't just a lot of God-talk when we say that God led us. We mean it and we will follow it.

And in addition to everything I've said already about signs of God's leading, I also want to add that the move up the hill here was remarkably smooth (thanks in no small part to David Pryor and his volunteer cleaners) and our first 18 months here have been days of remarkable unity. We've had problems, as all humans do, but more prominent than the problems has been the unifying fruit of the Spirit.

EZR 3:1 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled as one man in Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices. The very first thing they built was the altar, the heart of their worship upon which they offered sacrifices to God. We don't have to offer sacrifices for our sins. Our sacrifice was completed at the cross. But maybe a comparable image for us...what makes a church? What one piece of furniture turns an ordinary room into a holy sanctuary? A table with the Lord's Supper spread upon it, the centerpiece of OUR worship.

EZR 3:10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD:

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple (remember, SOME of the Israelites had been in captivity for 70 years, but the temple was still standing 35 years previously), wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

That shows us the third element of success in a project: Worship takes priority. Worship, after all, is the essence of putting God first. One common trait between OT religion and NT Christianity is worship. The key difference is that we have freedom in Christ to use different forms. But read Revelation or read Paul's letters and you'll be impressed by the times when John and Paul and the heavenly creatures in Revelation burst forth in spontaneous worship.

And that is why WORSHIP is first among our priorities at MHCC, and I don't simply mean singing, but the whole act of turning our hearts to God. What we do in here on Sunday morning should, if we do it right, direct our lives for the rest of the week.

Worship is a priority here, and I believe it shows. I'm not saying that we're the best at it or that other churches don't emphasize it. But I'm saying that we work hard to make it what it should be – an offering to God – and if you view it as an optional activity or something that comes third or fourth or fifth in a series of possible activities, you just haven't gotten it yet. We worship here because God is worthy of it, and we'll continue to make that our priority.

There is a lot more from Ezra I'd like to cover – the persistent opposition that God helped them overcome; the need for purification and repentance which we talked about last week. I may return to Ezra a little later.

As for our journey, we aren't finished yet. We've completed the first stage of the journey. As I said last week, we've entered the Promised Land and we've begun to settle in. But we haven't taken it all yet. We haven't completed this vision, this God-thing which he gave us to do. In fact, we're now at a crucial point in the journey. We've done some hard work, some heavy lifting, and we've reaped some benefits. This is a point where the Israelites sometimes “sat down to eat and drink and got up to engage in pagan revelry.” For us, will it be indulgence...or faithfulness? That's the reason for next Sunday...

Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-5205