1. Our history has been providentially guided by God
2. Our life’s journey is providentially guarded by God
3. Our mission is providentially given by God
Sam was a very dedicated pastor. But, like many who follow God’s call into the ministry, there were people who didn’t like Pastor Sam. There were even people in his own church who had sworn to be his enemies. But Pastor Sam had a tremendous sense of God’s providence. He had a tremendous sense that God was in control of everything. Even in the midst of dealing with difficult people, Pastor Sam was OK. He was OK because he knew that God was in control. No matter what his enemies tried to throw at him, they couldn’t rattle him. Things got so bad that one of his church members even set fire to the parsonage to try and discourage him. The terrible thing was, one of Pastor Sam’s eight children was trapped in a room upstairs. As the fire raged, some neighbors came to his aid. One neighbor stood on the other’s shoulders and pulled the scared little boy out of the window. Within seconds, the roof collapsed. Pastor Sam had come within seconds of losing his little 5-year old boy. When the little boy was safe, Sam gathered the neighbors and said, “Come neighbors, let us kneel down. Let us give thanks to God. He has given me all my eight children. Let the house go. I am rich enough.” Pastor Sam continued to labor at that church for 40 years with very little to show for it. Very little to show for it except for the boy who was, as he referred to it in the words of Amos 4:11, “a brand plucked out of the fire.” A boy by the name of John Wesley. Under the providential hand of God, the boy that was saved that night grew up to be one of the greatest evangelists ever. God’s providential hand guided the lives of Samuel and John Wesley. His providential hand guarded the lives of Samuel and John Wesley. And God’s providential hand gave John Wesley a ministry to millions. And gave that same ministry to Samuel through the life of his son. Things happen in each and every one of our lives that we can’t understand. I don’t understand why I have friends who treat their bodies like garbage, but are in perfect health. While at the same time I have a friend who seemed to be the poster boy for Men’s Health Magazine. He died a few weeks ago of a massive heart attack in his mid-forties. In the immortal words of Charlie Daniels, there’s some things in this world you just can’t explain. It’s hard to see the big picture when you’re living life close up, isn’t it? But God doesn’t always call us to see the big picture. God calls us to live our lives in the close up and trust Him for the big picture. As Samuel Wesley was watching all his worldly possessions burn up in front of him… as he helplessly heard the cries and screams of his five-year old boy… do you think he thought, “well, everything’s going to be OK, because little John is going to grow up to be used of God for the salvation of millions?” Of course not. I’m sure he thought about very little else but saving his boy. But when John was safe, Samuel recognized God’s providence. He recognized the fact that God was in control—even in the fire. And because of that he was able to go back and serve as a pastor to those people who had nearly killed his child. Do you see how powerful it can be to recognize God’s sovereign providence? When you see God as in control, it takes away your worries. When you see God in control, it takes away your fears. When you see God as in control, it gives you joy and peace and assurance. When you see God as in control, it gives you boldness and confidence to do the things He’s called you to do. One thing you’ll notice about our passage tonight is that Ezra had confidence in God’s providence. Two times in this short passage and many times throughout the book, he says, “God’s hand was upon him.” Do you see God’s hand on your life? Do you see it on all of your life or only the good times? That’s what I want for us tonight. I want us to see God’s hand of providence on our lives. I want us to feel the security and peace that only comes from knowing that the One who knows the end from the beginning is providentially in control. In order to do that, we’re going to look in this passage at how Ezra announced his arrival on the scene. When he announced his arrival on the scene, he showed God’s providence in three areas of his life. We have those same three areas in our lives today. The first area is that our history has been providentially guided by God. Look at verses 1-6:
EZRA 7:1-6
Our history has been providentially guided by God. They say that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Of course they also say that those who do study history will find other ways to mess things up. That may be true, but history is a wonderful thing. It might not keep us from messing things up. But it will show us something else. If we look at history with our eyes focused in the right place, it will show us one thing unmistakably. It will show us that God is unmistakably in control. In these verses, Ezra very briefly goes through his family history. As a matter of fact, it’s not even a complete genealogy. He has some pretty significant gaps in it. But his point isn’t to give a complete family tree. His point is to briefly show the history of how God got to him. As you move through all the people in all the history of the world, God ran this particular historical path all the way down until it got to Ezra. And you’ll notice that it’s the historical path of the priests. But not just any old priests. Ezra’s history traces all the way back to Aaron. The same Aaron that God gave Moses to be his spokesman. The same Aaron that was the first high priest. Ezra’s line was not just a priestly line, it was the high-priestly line. That’s big stuff isn’t it? Well it is if you were in Jerusalem. But Ezra was in Babylon. In Babylon, it didn’t mean much. It would be like if I came up to you and told you that I was related to the Queen of England. What would your reaction be? You’d look at me and say, “so what.” It doesn’t mean anything here, just like being descended from the high priest didn’t mean anything in Babylon. But that was Ezra’s history. It meant something to him. It meant that God had His hand on his family for over 1000 years. God had guided history all that time until it culminated in one man in one place ready for one task. God does that, doesn’t He? Remember Galatians 4:4? Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” The fullness of time. In our Lord’s case that meant many things. That meant the Greek language had to be practically the universal language to enable the rapid spread of New Testament Scripture. That meant that the Roman roads and Roman Peace had to be in place to allow safe travel for Paul and the other early missionaries. When you look at the history of Jesus’ time on earth, you see how many things had to take place in the world to allow the early church to take off. It’s almost like somebody planned it that way. Somebody did—God did. God’s sovereign hand providentially guides all of history. So if we can see that God’s sovereign hand controls all of history, why do we have such a hard time seeing how He providentially guides our own history? Ezra saw God’s hand as he saw where he was in history and traced back through his lineage. Had Ezra been through difficult times? I’m sure he had. His lineage certainly had. They had been through times of priestly rebellion and abuse. They had been through persecution. They had been through war and famine and strife. But God’s guiding hand was on them the whole time. Can you see that in your own history? It’s hard to see God’s guiding hand when you’re in the middle of the storm. But when you take a step back and look at your history… if you’re looking, you can see. And when you see God’s guiding hand in your history, it can give you the assurance you need to know that God’s hand will be guiding you through the storms of life too. Your history is providentially guided by God. Not only has our history been providentially guided by God, our life’s journey is providentially guarded by God. Look with me in verses 7-9.
EZRA 7:7-9
Our life’s journey is providentially guarded by God. This passage we’re looking at tonight is really a brief overview of what we see in the next couple of chapters. Ezra has finally come on the scene in this book that bears his name. And as he comes on the scene, he introduces himself and gives a quick rundown of how he came on the scene in Jerusalem. He’s writing this from Jerusalem as a history. He’s probably compiled most of this book from his personal journals and a scrapbook he’s kept along the way. And as he compiled it, he wrote little sections like this one to introduce new topics. That’s why he doesn’t spend much time going into depth about his journey here. First, he didn’t need to. The details about the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem wasn’t his focus. His focus was on what he did when he got there. But it’s interesting what he didn’t say here. I know that if I had taken a 1000 mile journey by foot, I’d want to tell all the stories. I’d want to tell you about every callous and blister and scorpion and spider along the way. And you know that there had to be some stories. Stories about heat stroke in the desert sun and hypothermia at night. Stories about highway bandits and wild animals. The stories must have been rich. They must have been rich because you know they had to come across obstacles along the way. Just the thought of driving 1000 miles would be an obstacle to me—much less walking it. But Ezra didn’t even say one word about it. Not one harrowing story along the way. All he said was “he went up from Babylon—four months later he came to Jerusalem.” That’s not exactly “must see TV” is it? We need to talk to Ezra about his writing skills. We need to talk to him about being more dramatic in his presentation. But drama wasn’t what Ezra was about. He wasn’t about being dramatic, so he didn’t give us all the juicy details. Instead, what did he show us? He showed us that the good hand of his God was upon him. See, the details of the journey kind of got lost along the way. The scorpion in the road might have been a big deal at the time, but God saw them through it. If bandits held them up along the way, it was scary at the time. But God saw them through it. God providentially guarded them along the way. Have you ever stopped to think about how God has done that in your life? When I look back over my life, the journey hasn’t been smooth. As a matter of fact there have been some pretty big obstacles along the way. I think I caused most of them myself. The temptation is to zoom in on the individual obstacles. But when we zoom in on the individual obstacles, we miss the whole point of the journey. And when we miss the whole point of the journey, we miss the One who has been with us, guarding us the whole time. I have heard people try to make the case biblically for guardian angels. That might very well be true. But here’s what I know the Bible teaches to be true. God is all-powerful so He can do anything that doesn’t contradict who He is. God is also all-present, so He is always everywhere at the same time. God is also all-knowing, so He knows the end from the beginning. God also promises that He works all things together for good. Do you know what all that means? It means that we have One who is so much better than a guardian angel. It means that you are not on your life’s journey by yourself. It means that you are accompanied by the creator of the universe. It means that your life’s journey is guided and guarded by God Almighty. That means that when that obstacle jumps up in front of you, it didn’t surprise God one bit. And if that obstacle cuts you to the quick or even takes your life, you are still guarded by God. The same God that promises that whatever comes your way will be worked out by Him for good. Your life’s journey is providentially guarded by God. Our history is guided by God. Our journey is guarded by God. Finally, our mission is providentially given by God. Look at verse 10:
EZRA 7:10
Our mission is providentially given by God. Last Sunday morning we talked about mission statements and how the Great Commission is the mission statement of the church. Well, this verse is one of the most profound personal mission statements in all of Scripture. People talk about having “life verses.” They usually pick out something like Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Or Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” or Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” or Romans 8:37, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Those are all good verses. But if you’re going to make a verse your life’s goal and ambition, why not use this one. Look at it. It describes Ezra’s life’s goal. It describes his mission that was providentially given to him by God. God gave him the mission and he prepared his heart to do it. That means he was very intentional in the way he went about it. He didn’t just let it happen. He pursued it. These basketball teams that are in the NCAA finals didn’t get there just because it fell in their laps. They had to work hard at it. They had to make basketball their personal life’s mission. Even to the point that they had to leave other things behind. They had to leave anything behind that was going to get in the way of achieving their mission in life. That’s the way Ezra was. He prepared his heart. But what did he prepare his heart to do? He prepared his heart to do three things—to seek, to do, and to teach. First, he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. He made up his mind to be very intentional about getting into God’s Word. He wasn’t content to look at an Open Windows once every couple of weeks. His purpose in life was to actively seek what God had to say in His Word. But for Ezra, simply studying God’s Word wasn’t enough. And it shouldn’t be for us either. Ezra not only sought what God had to say in His Word… Ezra did what God had to say in His Word. There are people all over this area who know God’s Word. They know it enough to quote it to the preacher at the same time they’re trying to cover up evidence of their immoral lifestyle. Or worse yet, quoting it to justify their immoral lifestyle. There is a big difference between simply knowing God’s Word and doing it. Ezra made it his life’s mission to do God’s Word. But even that wasn’t enough. Because all of that was focused on him. All of that was self-centered. And knowing and doing God’s Word requires that we not be self-centered. So Ezra was intentional in teaching God’s Word to others. He knew God’s Word. He did God’s will that was shown in His Word. And He taught others to do the same. Sounds like a good preacher, doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds like a good Christian. Because in reality, that is the mission that God has given each and every one of us. God providentially gave that mission to Ezra. And He providentially gives it to each of us here tonight. Have you accepted it?
You see, God is sovereign. God is providentially in control of everything. He providentially guides our history. He providentially guards our journey. And He providentially gives our mission. But in ways that our tiny little brains will never understand, He gives us the responsibility of making a choice. You can choose to accept the mission He gives you or you can reject it. You can choose to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you can reject Him. You can choose to faithfully love and serve Him or you can be unfaithful. You can choose to seek God’s will in His Word, to obey His will and to spread His gospel, or you can be rebellious and disobedient. The Lord gives you that choice. He gives you that responsibility. Where are you tonight? Are you seeking and doing and teaching? Or are you running and disobeying and rebelling? There’s no other option. God has providentially brought you to this point in time to face you with a choice. What choice are you going to make?
