Have you ever had a project that was so big, you just didn’t know where to start? My garage is like that. It was a mess before we moved in and it’s only gotten worse. It absolutely drives me nuts. Several years ago, when we lived in Mississippi, I had a beautiful tool shed. I had pegboard on the walls and everything had a place. I never knew how many different kinds of pegboard hooks there were, but I had them all. Everything was neat and clean and in order. So how in the world could things have gotten from that to the way they are now? I have no idea. But it drives me crazy. Any time I need to get some work done, it takes me at least twice as long to do it, because I have to spend all that time looking for stuff. It drives me crazy and I know I have to fix it. I know how well it will work when I do. So why don’t I fix it? Because in order to fix it, I have to get started. And when something is as much of a wreck as my garage is, getting started is a chore. Getting started is a chore, because as I stand in the midst of that mess, I don’t know where to start. Many times that’s the way we are in our Christian walk. It’s real easy to see all the messed up stuff around us. We can see all the work that needs to be done. All the work that needs to be done isn’t hard to see. If we open our eyes, we can see the sin and degradation all around us. We can see all the people that need to be reached with the Gospel. We can see all the children who have no hope without Jesus. It’s like we’re standing in the middle of my garage. We’re just looking at all the stuff that needs to be done and we get overwhelmed. We get overwhelmed to the point that we don’t even know where to begin. And many times, because we don’t know where to begin, we don’t. We do like I have done with my garage. We turn the light off, close the door and leave it to a better time. Except there never is a better time. It would have been very easy for Ezra to feel that way. He had just brought the second remnant on the 1000 mile journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. That had to be a hard journey. But verse 31 said the hand of God was upon them and He provided for them and safely delivered them. And when they got to Jerusalem, verse 32 tells us that they stayed there three days before doing anything. Now, what did they see during those three days? They saw the temple. It was really just a shadow of what it had been before. But it was there and it was standing. But it was the only thing that was standing. The wall around Jerusalem was down. All of its buildings lay in ruins. Other than the temple, it basically looked like a bombed out war zone. And the remnant who was already there? Ezra was able to look around and see that they were fine with it. They had their building. They had done their work. They were done—so they had quit. And now, they were so used to the ruins, they didn’t even seem to notice them. It was just the way things were. So Ezra saw a city in ruins and a people in complacency. And it was his job to fix it. Can’t you just picture him walking around all that rubble for three days, thinking—“Where in the world to we start?” Well, that’s where we should be tonight. We’ve walked around the rubble long enough. We’ve been shaking our head’s wondering where to start long enough. We just have to get started. So we’re going to look to our passage tonight for how to do it. We’re going to see three ways we need to prepare to get started. First, we need to prepare in the temple.
After Ezra wandered around Jerusalem for three days, it was time to get to work preparing for the tremendous task at hand. First, he had to prepare in the temple. Notice that verses 33-34 speak of all the gold and silver they had brought with them from Babylon. Were these temple furnishings that had been in Babylon that the first group hadn’t been able to bring with them? We don’t know. But we do know they were tremendously valuable. And this group had made a thorough accounting of them before they left Babylon. And now that they were at the temple, they made another thorough accounting. And, despite the long hard journey, everything was accounted for. Everything was accounted for and now the temple was thoroughly stocked. Whether it was stocked with temple furnishings or just simply gold and silver—it doesn’t matter. The point is, Ezra prepared in the temple by completely stocking it with resources. Ezra prepared in the temple.
He also prepared in the people’s hearts. Verse 35 tells of the great burnt offering they made. Notice who the offering was for. It was for all the people. Even the people who were already there. All the multiples of 12 signify the 12 tribes of Israel, so the offering was made for all the people. The sacrifices and the burnt offering were made as a sin offering to prepare the people’s hearts. They were made as a blood sacrifice so the people’s hearts would be clean before the Lord. Ezra prepared in the temple by stocking it. And he prepared in the people’s hearts by cleansing them. But there was one more preparation Ezra had to make. He had to prepare in the world.
That sounds funny doesn’t it? But look what he did in verse 36. He handed out all the king’s decrees to the local authorities. He submitted to the authorities just like Paul commanded us to do in Romans 13. Romans 13:1 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” And when Ezra submitted to the local authorities, God honored that. God honored that and the local authorities actually supported the work of the exiles and stayed out of their way for a while.
Getting started requires preparation. It did for Ezra and it does for us. Just like Ezra, we know what our mission is. Ezra’s mission is back in 7:10. “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Ezra’s personal mission was to seek God’s will in His Word, to do God’s will as found in His Word, and to teach God’s Word to others. That was his personal mission and he knew it. Our mission is the one that was given to us by Jesus Himself. Our mission is the Great Commission. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ everywhere we go. Just like Ezra, we know our mission. And just like Ezra, we know that the good hand of our God is upon us. He says it over and over again in this book. And as we look back on our lives, we should see it over and over again. We know our mission and we know God’s hand is upon us. And just like Ezra, it would be easy for us to get overwhelmed by the size of the task before us. He saw a broken down wall. We see a broken down society. He saw houses in ruins. We see lives in ruins. He saw complacency and satisfaction and apathy. We see the exact same thing. So if we are so much like Ezra in all of those areas, that probably means we need to prepare the right way like Ezra did.
That probably means that we need to prepare in the temple. The gold and silver Ezra stocked God’s house with were the resources needed to do the work of the ministry. While gold and silver would be nice, that’s not primarily how we need to be stocked. As a matter of fact, if we’re stockpiling gold and silver, we’re not using it the way we’re supposed to. When God blesses us with financial resources, He intends for us to use them. I can think of three churches in our area who at one time were given tremendous financial endowments. And rather than use those financial resources for God’s glory, they hoarded them. And each of those churches has been dying a slow and painful death from that point forward. They each have plenty of money in the bank and they will take it to their grave with them. So we don’t ever need to be stocked with gold and silver in order to stockpile it. But the resources this house needs to be stocked with are things like facilities. Things like leaders and servants and workers. Things like programs. The sad thing is that many times, that’s where we stop. We think that those are the things that make us a church. You remember that the first remnant had things they stocked the temple with. When they finished the temple and started having the regular services there, they quit doing anything else. They thought that was it. They thought they were done. So many times, we think the same thing. We spend all our time and effort trying to stock this house. And when we finally get it to the point we think it is stocked enough, we think we’re done. We get well-stocked with facilities and programs and workers. And then we think we’ve arrived. We think we’re done. But getting our house stocked is really just the beginning of the preparation we’re called to do. Because once we’ve prepared this house, we’ve still got to prepare our hearts.
Once we’ve prepared this house of God, we need to prepare our hearts. Ezra prepared the hearts of the people by offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. Of course, because of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, our Great High Priest, we don’t need to make those kind of sacrifices. Because Jesus shed His blood on our behalf, we no longer need to have a priest offer animal blood for us. But that doesn’t mean that sacrifice is no longer needed. As a matter of fact, sacrifice is still very much needed. Except instead of it being an animal sacrifice, our personal preparation now requires self-sacrifice. Romans 12:1-2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We need to prepare by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Jesus. That means daily dying to ourselves and daily living for Jesus. That means daily laying aside our selfishness, our personal preferences, our complacency, and our comfort. That means daily laying them on the altar and burning them before the Lord daily. It means daily emptying ourselves so we can be filled with His Spirit. It’s not superficial. And it’s not easy. It requires letting the Holy Spirit expose things in our hearts that we want to keep covered up. It requires humbling ourselves and opening up and confessing to people we harbor bitterness toward. It requires having the mind of Christ that is talked about in Philippians 2:5-8: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” That’s what it means to prepare our hearts.
And when we’ve prepared in this house like we’re suppose to and when we’ve prepared in our hearts like we’re supposed to, it will be easy to prepare in the world. Because once we’ve prepared this house and prepared our hearts, people will notice. They will notice that something is going on here. And when they notice, we don’t need the authority of the government to reach them. Because we have the authority of Jesus Christ Himself. Instead of the authority of a king like Ezra had, we have the authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Remember what our King told us right before He gave us our mission in Matthew 28? He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” And then right after He gave us our mission, He finished with “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” With that commission… with that authority… with that power… our mission will be furthered. And when our mission is furthered, we will be prepared.
So, let me ask you—what goes through your head when you look at what’s going on in our world today? What goes through your mind when you see the drugs and alcohol that run rampant in our streets? What goes through your mind when you see children who are abused and neglected all around us? What goes through your mind when you see sexual promiscuity and homosexuality promoted in our society? What goes through your mind when you see false religions and the occult growing like wildfire in front of our eyes? What goes through your mind when you see people all around us who could care less about the Lord? Does it seem overwhelming? Do you feel like you’re standing on the rubble pile with Ezra? Like your looking around thinking, “How can we ever even begin to make a dent, much less make a difference?” Do you feel like that? Well, if you do, there’s good news. There’s good news, because the good hand of our God is upon us. And since His hand is upon us, we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. All we have to do is get prepared. We need to quit standing on the rubble pile and prepare. Prepare this house, prepare our hearts, and prepare the world. Are you preparing this house by using the gifts that God has given you to serve? Are you preparing your heart by allowing the Holy Spirit to daily purge it of selfishness? Are you preparing your world by showing them the authority you live under? We need to be prepared. Even though the task might seem overwhelming, that’s where we need to start. Are you ready to start tonight?
