In the sermon titled 'Growing Through Times of Revival and Normalcy,' Scott Brown discusses the revival that occurred in 520 BC as described in Ezra chapter 5. The sermon emphasizes two primary elements necessary for revival: the presence of God and the inevitable opposition that arises when people turn to God. The revival in Ezra's time was marked by the preaching of prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who inspired the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem after 16 years of neglect. The presence of God, as experienced through His Word, was the driving force behind the revival, leading the people to embrace the Word with awe and love, leading them to rise up and build the temple not out of obligation but out of heartfelt commitment. The sermon also highlights how true revival is often met with opposition, both from religious figures and government authorities, and how the 'eye of the Lord' provides strength and guidance to overcome these challenges. Diligence, the ability to focus on essential tasks with joy and zeal, is underscored as a critical quality in achieving success in God's work. The sermon concludes by urging believers to cherish the presence of God, anticipate opposition as a sign of true obedience, and remain diligent in their faith despite challenges.

As the brothers said, we're going to be reading this morning from Ezra chapter 5, the whole chapter, starting in verse 1. Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Ito, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who is over them. So Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josadak, rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. At the same time, Tattani, the governor of the region beyond the river, and Shethar Bosni, and their companions, came to them and spoke thus to them, who has commanded you to build this temple and finish this wall? Then accordingly we told them the names of the men who were constructing this building.

But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them cease till a report could go to Darius. Then a written answer was returned concerning this matter. This is a copy of the letter that Tatani sent. The governor of the region beyond the river and Shethar Bosni and his companions, the Persians, who were in the region beyond the river, to Darius the king they sent a letter to him in which was written thus, to Darius the king, all peace. Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judea to the temple of the great God, which is being built with heavy stones and timber is being laid in the walls.

And this work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands. Then we asked those elders and spoke to them, who commanded you to build this temple and to finish these walls? We also asked them their names to inform you that we might write the names of the men who were chief among them. And thus they returned us an answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed. But because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and carried the people away to Babylon.

However, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to build this house of God. Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple that was in Jerusalem and carried into the temple of Babylon, those King Cyrus took from the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one named Sheshbasar, whom he had made governor. And he said to him, take these articles, go, carry them to the temple site that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its former site. Then the same Sheshbassar came and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem. But from that time, even until now, it has been under construction, and it is not finished.

Now therefore if it seems good to the King let a search be made in the King's treasure house which is there in Babylon whether it is so that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem and let the King send us his pleasure concerning this matter. Let's pray. Lord, we are so thankful that you send your word to stir, to change us, Lord, to open up our minds to how great and how wonderful you are, Lord. We see here, Father, such a change of disposition in the minds of the people to work. It seems like they're seeing you in a way they never saw you before.

And Lord, we are so thankful for that and thankful for your presence among us. We pray, Lord, that we would have a sense of your eye being upon us as we labor as we work oh Lord we pray that we would see you as these men saw you the God of heaven and earth Lord you rule you reign and you are wonderful able to change men's hearts The king's heart is in your hands, Lord. And so we appeal to you today to help us to be attentive. Lord, we pray that we would be a people moved upon by your word. Lord, we pray for Mr.

Brown as he comes to deliver these words to us. Father, we do pray that we would be a people changed by the preaching as these men were changed many thousands of years ago. And Lord, for those that are not here among us listening in, we do pray that you would unite their hearts with ours and that we would all grow and be strengthened by the preaching of your word now, Lord. So meet with us, strengthen us, and open our hearts and minds as we hear your word preached to us this morning. Lord, we ask these things in the name of your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen. Well, this great chapter tracks a revival that took place in 520 BC. And it was a time where people were in a rut, and they needed to get out of that rut. Now one of the marks of the true people of God is that they long for more. They want to be refreshed more.

They want to be improved more. They want more of God. And in this passage of scripture, there are two elements of how it is that the people of God are revived to a better position than they were before. And there are two things I want to speak just by way of introduction in order to kind of prepare us for the text. The first really is the fact of the presence of God in any revival.

This is the fundamental irreducible principle of all improvement and renewal, of getting out of any rut, and that is that God is present. That's the most important thing. And then the second is that opposition always comes when people turn to God. Those are the two things that you see here primarily. But let's talk about this matter of what it means when God's people are revived.

What this passage teaches is that the single most important factor for any awakening is a sense of the presence of God through his word. Because everything that happened here happened because the word of God was preached, but it wasn't just preached, It was embraced. Zechariah says some people shrugged their shoulders, but other people rose up. And that's always the difference in a person who is being renewed and the person who's not. It's the presence of God.

It's an awe and a love for the word of God, a longing for it. And so you see this happening here. And what you see happening to these people is that his word seems so real, it seems so beautiful, it seems so helpful, so compelling that they turned to God and they rose up and they built. And they went back to work because they saw the power of the word of God and they responded to it. And they weren't building out of obligation, they weren't building out of pressure, not out of a desire to please men.

But they rose up because they loved the word of God, it touched their hearts. This is the fundamental irreducible principle of all the renewal that we will ever need, the power of the Word of God working through the Spirit of God. And they were moved beyond their emotions, they were moved beyond their culture, They were moved beyond their patterns well worn. And they were brought into action to rebuild this temple. And this is so important for us to understand.

You know, have you ever been in a rut? Have you ever been in a rut for 16 years? Well, these people have been in a rut for 16 years. And you know, have you ever, you know, had a way of living that you just kind of got used to. Or if you're in a church and there are these comfortable well-worn patterns that you've gotten used to.

Or in your marriage there there's just ways that you function together the way you spoke to one another, the way you work together. These well-worn patterns, you just got used to them and you didn't notice that they actually were in need of really dramatic improvement. Or in your work, you had attitudes toward your work and practices that had become routine and they were a rut and you went and you just stayed in that rut for a long time and And the person that God really designed you to be you know ever ever improving ever ever being renewed you know sort of died right there on the work vine. And you knew it. And sometimes it takes bosses years to figure it out.

Or maybe it's in raising your children and you're thinking the way you think about your children, the way you speak to them, the way you lead them. And you're just continuing on at business as usual. But you've drifted. This happens all the time as parents. Anybody who's raised children knows the drift.

It happens. And you start operating the same way that you did and you get in a rut and as a result your children are right there in that rut with you. And it's not really all that helpful to them for their training instruction and the admonition of the Lord. But this was going on for 16 years. So what if you're 16 today and you've been in a rut your whole life and your heart's been hardened toward the Lord your whole life and you know it.

You might think, oh I do want the Lord, but actually in your heart of hearts you know you're just shrugging your shoulders and you've been that way for 16 years and you know it. You know, what do you do to get out of a rut like these kinds of ruts? You know, can people change? Can a church change? Like is it possible even that the wrong parts of the culture at Hope Baptist Church can be broken.

They can, but there's only one way. And there's only one way that parents can break bad patterns, and there's only one way that husbands and wives can break bad patterns. There's only one way for any living human being to break bad patterns. And it is by a work of God where your view of the Word of God changes and it's so precious to you and it's so real to you and it's so helpful to you that you change. It's the only way.

And so this is the situation that's been going on here in the days of Zerubbabel and Joshua. And so there was a revival and their feelings changed and their actions changed and they were off mission for like 16 years and they got back on mission right here in chapter five. And the word of the Lord was delivered by two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, and the people responded. Now we spent three weeks going through Haggai and Zechariah trying to understand what they were saying. Let me just summarize it.

They were saying, hey, Jesus Christ is coming. The branch is coming. The living water is going to flow. This is a temple worth building. It's going to spread out throughout the whole earth.

Get back. Trust me. I know you're being opposed. Don't worry about that. I know you have problems.

I know you've been in a rut, but you can come back. And you ought to come back because of the power and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so their hearts and their minds were turned back to the Lord. And they started rebuilding again after neglecting it for 16 years. And the prophets came and they spoke and they all lived happily ever after.

Didn't they? Well, no, they didn't actually live happily ever after because God was still refining them. He wanted them to go further, so he sent more opposition 16 years later. You know a lot of times are the things that we think are our greatest enemies are really the greatest tools in the hand of the Lord to drive us to Him, to make us pray, to help us examine ourselves, to help us to realize that we're a lot more sinful than we thought we were. And sometimes He uses hateful and abusive people to do that for us.

And so, as soon as they started back to work, the opposition raised its head again, proving again that whenever a people turn to the Lord, they should always expect opposition. And that's what we encounter in Ezra chapter 5. And you know, the question, there's so many questions before us in this chapter, but can a people change? Can the leopard change its spots? Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin?

And with the Spirit of God, the answer is absolutely yes. And so then there's this whole matter of opposition. And while they were overcome by opposition 16 years earlier, In this case here in chapter five, they're not overcome by opposition. That's encouraging. Has that ever happened to you?

You were overcome by something. It tested you, and then the next time around, you did better because you'd been there. You'd done that. And the Lord taught you, and you've been growing. And I'm so struck by this.

You know, the Lord didn't reject his people and destroy them. He waited 16 years and sent more prophets because he cared about them. They're in a process of sanctification. And here's a reality. If you're going to hear the prophets, it's going to be because the Lord opens your ears.

And that's why we should pray that God would open up our ears so that we could hear, so that we don't spend 16 years in a rut. Now I'm confident that all of us are in some kind of rut somewhere in this church right now and this is a great time to ask, oh Lord what's my rut? Where am I? Where have I fallen down in the work of building the temple of God because that's the most important thing. So the Lord does grant suffering to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

You know, we have such a wrong view of suffering in our American culture. We think suffering is always so bad. But if you read the Bible, you realize how God uses suffering. And he uses suffering for his own glory. The problem with us is we love our own glory so much and we are so disconnected from God's glory, we often get really discouraged about things that we shouldn't because we're concerned about our own glory.

You know, and I'll just have to say, you know, all my life long, you know, the greatest struggles I've had is when my glory is being diminished. Because this world, you know, in my own mind is all about me. But God is doing something greater. Sinclair Ferguson said, suffering is the friction which polishes our graces. And so if you want more growth, then you'll get more suffering.

So you'll be polished more brightly, more beautifully. You know, you've seen tumblers, you know, that shine up stones. It takes a long time. We just did that in our house a little while ago. It took us five weeks.

One it started out with heavy grit and then a week later you put in another just a little bit less granular grit and then a little bit less. I think we put four different grits in there. Finally, it was almost like just dust. But even that dust was necessary to finally finish off those stones. And that's what God does.

Sometimes He sends you a really heavy grit. And He sends you all kinds of different grit in order to shine you. Because What Ferguson said is true. Suffering is the friction which polishes our graces. And God will stop at nothing to change us because he loves us so much.

And so the single most important factor in any awakening is a sense of the presence of God through His Word. That's the controlling factor of this entire chapter. When the Word of God is so precious to you, and you change, And we won't change as long as we're shrugging our shoulders. But we will when he becomes so precious to us. And we see him as he really is.

Okay, so let's get into the text. As you can see here, there are a number of points that we'll be making walking through this text. There are four primary points. The first is how the revival begins and is sustained, verses 1 and 2. Secondly, how the opposition returned to the people, in verse 3.

And then how the eye of the Lord was upon them, verse 5, and then how the authorities reported their observations to Darius in a letter, verses 16 and 17. And there are some really critical things that were reported that tell us about what it means to be a revived people. And you can see them there. So let's begin at the beginning here. How revival begins and how it is sustained.

Well, God sent two prophets as we saw, and they preached and They also helped they stayed around to help and I believe that these prophets are really figures of The power of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant Era The God never leaves you He never leaves you or forsakes you. His Spirit continues to be outpoured and works and you have the Word of God and you have it every day of your life and the Word of God never stops helping you. Now to the extent that you get help is to the extent that you pick up this word, and often we don't pick it up. We pick up other things. We pick up our emotions.

We pick up counselors. We're picking up this, and we're picking up that, and it ain't getting any better, because we're not picking up this, the Word of God. Now, the people of God heard the prophets of God and there was an awakening. Now when the prophets spoke the most prominent phraseology of their prophetic ministry was, thus says the Lord of hosts. They spoke the word of God.

And so the word of God is the critical factor. It's the single most important factor. But it's more than just the words of God. It's the heart that appreciates the word of God. It's the heart that longs for it.

It's the presence of God. There is no revival without the presence of God. And you know, you can hear the word of God without the presence of God in your heart and not connect with it at all. But what happened here was that there was a sense of the holy and beautiful, loving, gracious, just presence of God when they spoke. And the words fell on their ears and their hearts were moved.

That's the difference between a revived people and a dead people. The people who shrug their shoulders, they they just don't see it as so beautiful and so true. It's not that big of a deal to them. And so This is preaching that really brought about the repentance and it turned these people back. Now, I want us to recognize a couple things about this revival that took place.

As far as we know, Haggai's ministry only lasted four months. At least his recorded message took, the messages took place in a period of four months and that was over. Now the prophets stayed and helped, We know that. But this dynamic preaching ministry didn't seem to last that long. Zechariah's, we think, just lasted two years.

When you get to chapter seven, they started building and Zechariah speaks again after two years of having begun rebuilding and he says a number of things really about Christ and things like that to just encourage them to keep on going. But the ministries here, this radical outpouring was only really for a short time. Now, they finished building in two years. After they rose up, there was just this unstoppable desire to do it. But they prophesied for a short season.

And this is true for all the revivals I've ever read about in history. They're always really short. I mean, do you realize the Great Awakening was only like two years long? Most awakenings where God pours his Spirit out and thousands of people come. They're very short lived and then there's life as normal.

Again, the normal sanctifying grace of God in the church. Here's an illustration of it. In Wales in 1859, there was a really, really remarkable revival. David Morgan was one of the great preachers. I mean, this was a revival where about 300, 000 people were saved, and elements of it actually spread to the United States.

This little place called Wales. This little place called Wales. And he says that he went to bed one night as David Morgan as usual. And he says, I woke up the next morning feeling like a lion, feeling like I was filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. Two years later, he says, I went to bed as a lion, and I woke up as a lamb.

And he went back to his regular, he was the same person, except the anointing that was needed at the moment was done. And the people of God had to get on with the normal means of grace in their sanctification. So, you know, we long for these radical times of outpouring, and we do. I think we should, but let's recognize something. God does awaken us in particular ways, but he keeps us awake through the constant ministry of his word.

And that's what we need. That's normal life. And These outpourings of grace are always short-lived. And then the people of God get back to that daily work of seeking the Lord. In the middle of their work, in the middle of their marriages, in the middle of their jobs, their singleness, whatever they are, this is where the Christian life is lived.

And we often long for some radical outpouring. And again, I don't think we should quit praying for that because people are brought into the church as a result of that. But that's not where the normal Christian life really is lived. And I think history proves that. Well that's what happened here.

It was a radical outpouring for a short period of time and they finished the work. And it was because there was a sense of the nearness of the presence of God. Now, the second thing that we see here in this text comes in verses 3 and 4, how the opposition returned. So you remember there was opposition before, now we've got a whole new season of opposition. Verse 3, at the same time, Tathani, the governor of the region beyond the river, and Shethar Bosni, and their companions, these were Persian officials, satraps is the technical term that describes their roles.

And they spoke to the people of God who were rebuilding the temple. And they said, who has commanded you to build this temple and finish this wall? So as soon as they started building, right away the authorities show up and they're questioning what they're doing. And persecution arises. And here's what we learn from this.

Whenever a people establish biblical worship, there will always be opposition from somewhere. The first wave of opposition 16 years earlier happened by a bunch of religious people called the Samaritans who didn't want to have their worship controlled by God. And Zerubbabel and Joshua said, that's not what we're doing. We're reestablishing biblically ordered worship among this people. Whenever you do that, there will be opposition.

Now, this opposition came from the government it came from from bureaucrats who wanted to shut this work down and and they you know, they're they're walking around the city and they look at what's going on over here. These people are working like beavers. What's this there building? This is so odd. These are Persians.

Have they ever seen a temple before? I don't think so. I remember a few years ago, I was driving around right here in Raleigh and I saw this really weird looking building. I'd never seen any building like it anywhere around here. And it just caught my eye.

And it looked like something out of National Geographic. Well, it was a mosque. Well, that's kind of what I think was happening. These bureaucrats were walking around town and they see this really weird thing going on and people are very dedicated to it. And it caught their attention.

And they said, you know, what in the world is that? And they decided that they wanted to shut it down so they tried to bring authorities from higher up in order to shut it down. Now there are in the book of Ezra there are three particular and I'm sure there were more outpourings of opposition. And the first is recorded in chapter 4, verse 4, when the people of the land and the Samaritans troubled them in their building. This was right at the beginning and they hired counselors, they were they were trying to discourage the people and and They were effective and their work ceased.

The people were talking against them. And so they said, okay, this is too hard. We're not doing this anymore. That was the first wave. And then, and they just, they fell into the pressure and they stopped building.

In essence, they were saying, God can wait. And that's why God sent Haggai to say, God really, no. You've gone back to building your houses. You've said God's house can wait. But it's your fancy panel houses that's getting in the way of building the temple of God.

And it's just a picture of how the things of this world wrap us all up. They wrap up all our time and distract us from the building of the kingdom of God and building the worship of God. And so that's what happened to them in the first. Then the second opposition is mentioned here in chapter 5 in 520 BC when the government bureaucrats showed up and they took it up with King Darius. And then there's a third attack, which was far more slanderous.

There was an escalating intensity of the attacks and it's recorded in the reign of Ahasuerus around 485 BC. And this is also referenced in chapter 4. As you know, there's kind of a confusing timeline in chapter 4. 117 years of opposition is what chapter 4 speaks about. But here we're in the second wave of opposition that's recorded.

And again, it just takes us back. When you restore biblically ordered worship, you know Somebody's going to be going after you it might be the religious people around you and it might be the government This this occasion is the government itself and what happens is that we we often slow down because of the opposition that we receive. Any attempt to obey the Lord will always be met by opposition from somewhere. And Christians need to just grow up and understand that. That Christianity does bring a sword.

It even divides families. It can set father and mother against children. And so, as the Lord's instructing us on how to understand this world and how we live in it, we need to realize that there are things that are part of true Christianity that your government will frown upon, your friends may despise, and your children may resist it. And you have to make peace with that reality. But when God is the center, His people are not afraid to obey.

In this case, they kept on building, and they were not afraid. They did not care if someone was against them. They weren't so thin-skinned, they weren't so concerned about their own glory. They were concerned about the glory of God because they'd seen Him in His beauty and power through His Word, because they had a sense of the presence of God through the preaching of the Word of God, and it was alive to them. And I think it bears witness to what the apostle Paul told the Romans in Romans 8 when he said, if God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, will he not also freely give us all things? And so if God is for you, who can be against you? Well, the government can be against you, your religious friends can be against you, and your town can be against you, but the Lord is with you. And so in these verses, in 3 and 4, you see this scene here. And then the rebels are identified, they give their names.

And I think that's really interesting. When you trust in the Lord and his presence with you, you're happy to associate with the name. And in this case, the name of this movement to rebuild the temple. And so They gave their names and they weren't embarrassed to be affiliated with the people of God who were very particular in their worship and were doing something that was strange. They were building the temple according to God's specifications.

They rejected the syncretism of the Samaritans as half religious as it was and they decided that they wanted to only worship God the way that God had designed and the way that he had ordained. And that gave them a bad reputation in the community. But they believed that only God could define worship and that it was sinful to worship according to the inventions of man. And that's what got them into so much trouble. So The opposition returned, but it was the presence of God through the power of His Word that kept him building.

They saw God as so good that they just couldn't stop. They were touched by him. And then thirdly, you see how the eye of the Lord was upon them. I love this phraseology in verse five. But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so they could not make them cease till a report could go to Darius, and then a written answer would come back regarding this matter.

So This whole matter of they're building under pressure, they're building under scrutiny of the government, the people around them don't like what they're doing that much. But you have the eye of the Lord that changes everything. When you have a sense of the eye of the Lord upon you, it changes everything. If you care more for the gaze of his eye than any other eye, it changes everything. My guess is that there are probably some people here that have been fighting with discouragement and things like that because they're so worried about the eyes of this world and not enough for the eye of God." The eye of God is an unseen power of God.

And this was the reason why the bureaucrats could not make them cease. There are unseen forces working. And there is an enabling power of the Holy Spirit because of the gaze of God. And when you have a people who only care about God's gaze and not the gaze of this world, you're going to have a temple being rebuilt. True worship will be established.

People will be refreshed. People will be saved. People will be sanctified. But it's slowed down when we care so much about the gaze of this world. But when you have when you're conscious and you love the gaze of God and you and you understand that it's power it changes everything and I believe that this this this phrase the eye of the Lord it's a two way street.

It's it's It's first of all the power of God Himself watching over you and governing everything. And it's also your sense that his eye is upon you. You know that beautiful song, his eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. It's a two-way street. God takes care of the sparrow and the sparrow knows that there's a watchful eye upon him.

He knows all of your steps before you take them. He understands all your thoughts before you have them. That's what it means to live under the eye of God And to be conscious of that is the greatest gift you can ever have any day of the week. And isn't it the most slippery thing? It's so slippery.

And if you're a Christian, you know, Because you're constantly going back to that and you're thinking, oh Lord, I want to be more conscious of you. Because it's such a life-giving thing in your life. So the eye of the Lord was upon them. Now I want to give you four blessings of the eye of the Lord from four different passages. Are you ready?

The first is, His eye is a strengthening force. That's 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth. Why? Are you ready for this?

To show himself strong. In behalf of those whose hearts, heart is loyal to him. In this you have done foolishly, therefore from now on you shall have wars." So the eye of the Lord is a strengthening force. He shows himself strong. And so what happened to the people here in Ezra is that his eye inspired them to be immovable in the work of God.

God was strengthening them with his eye. It was his presence that kept them working. It was not a human force. It was their sense of the presence of God and his watchful eye upon them. The eye of the Lord was upon them.

What a blessing. Secondly, his eye ensures deliverance. His eye ensures deliverance. Psalm 33 verse 18, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy. And then in verse 19, there's an answer to the question, why is the eye of the Lord on his people?

And the answer is this to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. His eye ensures deliverance even in times of famine. When you don't think there's enough even food to eat, it's the eye of the Lord that delivers. And then number three, His eye is a guiding eye. His eye is a guiding eye.

Psalm 32 verse 8, You are my hiding place, you shall preserve me from trouble, you shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. I will guide you with my eye. It's a guiding eye.

And I believe that this imagery of the eye of the Lord in this two-way street, it's reflective of what it means to have fellowship with God. You know, I in them and thou in me, there's a sense of connectedness. You're connected to the vine and there's a going back and forth of the love and the wisdom of the and the counsel and the guidance of God. It's a his eye is a guiding eye and then fourthly his eye is always upon his children. Job 36-7 he does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but they are on the throne with kings, for he has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

And then Psalm 33, 12 through 22, There's this phrase, the Lord looks from heaven and he sees the sons of men. Well, the eye, God's eye is always upon his children. He understands everything about our condition. He understands our troubles, our questions, and His eyes are upon the righteous. This imagery of the eye, it's reflective of so many things, of his favor toward us, you know, we actually being the apple of his eye, his love, his mercies, being new every morning, his protection, you know, His eye and His wall of fire and His sword that protects His children.

And the Holy Spirit performs many of these functions as the helper and the guide. He reveals truth to us. He convicts us of sin. He makes us conscious of His presence so that we're not just always doing our own thing all the time. You know, He catches us up in His glory so that we live for his glory not our own.

So this whole idea of the eye of the Lord is a very precious thing, being a strengthening force and a source of deliverance and a guiding eye and an ever-present help in time of trouble. And all of this has come about upon these people because when they heard the Word of God they didn't shrug their shoulders. They treasured God and his presence through his word. That is the fundamental irreducible principle of all getting out of ruts. Okay, and then fourth, they put their observations to Darius in a letter.

Now this is the longest section, verses 6 through 17, and the letter is actually printed here. There's a, this, this civil document is right here in the Bible. There are several civil documents. This one's written in Aramaic because it was the language of the civil government at that time. And so there are many elements of the importance of the letter.

I'm going to identify four reasons this was a really important letter, what was in it, Even though it was written by people who didn't know the Lord, but they were documenting things that were really critical. And they tell us about what revival looks like and how onlookers observe a revival that takes place. So these four elements, first of all, you see these words, the pattern, the pattern. They acknowledge that this temple is being built with heavy stones. It's being built the way Solomon built his temple.

And it's being built according to a pattern that they got from somewhere else. And They are building the temple after this pattern of Solomon. And the reason they're doing is because that is because they've been awakened. They've been awakened to the power and the beauty and the appropriateness of the Word of God, and they want to do the things that are there. They just want to do the stuff that's there, you know.

You remember when you were first saved? What was the first thing you wanted to do? You just wanted to do the stuff that Jesus did. That's what you wanted to do. You saw what he was like and you couldn't believe it.

And you said, I want to do that stuff too. I want to be that way too. I want to be like Christ. Well that was the heart of these people. They just wanted to do the stuff and so they were building their stuff according to the pattern that wasn't their own according to Solomon's pattern and according what Moses outlined earlier and all the imagery there all the shadows But it was because they saw the Lord as so beautiful and so compelling and so good.

That's why. And then the second word is the word diligence. The authorities, they're walking around, they're looking at this and they're trying to describe what's happening. And they use two really critical words. One is diligence.

And the next word is prosper. We'll get to that in a minute. But they show up and they see diligence happening. I mean, they are on the work. These bureaucrats, they see the zeal.

There's a joy and a vigor in it. And it's like there's, you know, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. That's what they saw in the building, in what they were actually doing. They saw people working for the glory of God, and they were working zealously. This word, diligence, is an Aramaic word that conveys a sense of eagerness and urgency.

Do you know what diligence means? Especially you little ones. Diligence. If you're 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old, do you know what diligence means? I'll give you an illustration.

We'll start with your mom. Okay, we're going to give an illustration of your mom. Maybe it's not your mom. But she goes into the kitchen to cook dinner, but she goes into that kitchen and she sees a snack. And she sits down and eats.

The clock is ticking because dinner time is not too far around the corner, and Dad's going to come home. But she sits down and while she's eating it, She looks over and there's this remarkable book about gardening and it's She's so inspired. She picks up the book. She's so inspired by the book after reading it for a while and the clock is ticking we're getting closer and closer to dinner time and so she she just can't stand it and she goes out and starts digging a garden she's gonna at least start she knows if she doesn't start you know it's not gonna happen but she's just so inspired so she goes and does the garden. And then her husband comes home, and he's wondering why the children are running around like wild Indians, and they're frantic because they're hungry, and Dinner is like a long time away.

So what is happening? Well, mom hasn't started dinner. Now, mom has been very busy. I mean, she's been using every minute of her time for something, But she was busy doing the wrong things. And this is how diligence works.

You have to learn how to focus on the right thing or else really nothing all that helpful actually happens. But diligence has to do with focusing on the right thing and doing it with all your heart and doing it with joy. And we all know work is way more pleasurable when you're aware of the eye of the Lord upon you even the simplest task is Sweetened by the knowledge that God's eyes upon you and you're doing what he commanded you to do like you're right on task You're doing what you're supposed to do now. It's really easy, you know for for six-year-olds to get distracted But and And then they end up doing things that they weren't supposed to. I mean, this happened many times in my own home.

You have this child, and their mother sends them to their room to clean it, but they go into the room and with all wonderful, perfect intentions to clean it, you know, they get distracted. Oh, they see their drawing pencils over and they sit down and draw this beautiful picture, and then mom comes up and says look, he says look what I drew and mom says yeah but your room is a wreck and we have to leave and people are coming, what is going on, you didn't do what you were supposed to do. Well it was diligence but misplaced diligence. So diligence first of all is a spirit and it's also a focus and the people here were working on the right thing. They were they were exercising their diligence in the right direction.

The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is whether they're able to focus on the right thing or not. Because guess what? Everybody's really busy. Everybody has the same amount of time every day. I've never met a person that wasn't busy.

So it matters what you focus on, it matters that if you're able to focus. And you know, you who are raising little children, you know one of the most important responsibilities you have as parents is to help your children learn how to focus on a task. And do that one task until it's done. It's one of the most critical things that you'll ever do as a parent. And if you're not able to secure it, it's gonna be really hard for that kid for many, many years.

But for the people of God, I mean, it's sinful to be busy with the wrong things but they were busy with the right things and They somehow it streamlined their life so that they were able to focus on the building of the temple of God We've talked a lot about what that means You know, we've given many many bullet points of what it means to build the temple of God. It begins in your heart. It has to do with the equipping of the saints. It has to do with missions. It has to do with discipleship.

It has to do with hospitality. It has to do with personal evangelism. That's building the temple. But a lot of times we end up with a life we don't really have much time for that. And maybe a lot of good things gobble it up.

Maybe it's family, or maybe it's lawful hobbies. Like that little person who drew this beautiful picture. Well, there was nothing wrong with drawing the picture. But it took him away from doing what he was actually supposed to be doing. And that's what happens to us before we're pulled out of our rut.

And I think we should ask ourselves, you know, are we in any ruts like that? We're spending our energy on things that really don't matter and they're not part of building the temple of God. Busyness and unfaithfulness always go hand in hand. Got that? Busyness and unfaithfulness always go hand in hand because everybody's busy with something.

So these people were busy and they were diligent to do the work. So there's much that we could speak about regarding this matter of diligence. You know, Paul talks about this in Romans 12. He says, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now, he's talking about an element of diligence that God desires his people to be involved in.

Being kindly affectionate and brotherly, giving preference to one another, to be diligent in that. Well, we could talk about so many areas of diligence that the people of God are called to. But these people were zealous for the house of God. Now there was no one that was more zealous for the house of God than Jesus Christ himself. He was zealous for his house and we read about it you know all over the place.

His zeal took him to the cross, and he was punished for the sins of sinners. It was his zeal, his love for sinners, to embrace them and to make them part of his family, to bring them to repentance, and then to satisfy the wrath of God for their sins on his own body to take their sins you know by his stripes we were healed that's his zeal for the church Jesus Christ had more zeal than anybody ever had for the Church of Jesus Christ. The word zeal has to do with heat. They had a lot of heat and a lot of diligence. And then the next word, success.

The authorities report the success of the project in verse 8. They say, this work goes on diligently and prospers. So it's a prospering work. It's happening. They're not just talking about it, it's actually happening.

It's real and it's tangible and you can see the effects of it in the world. The work is prospering. And You know, you see this illustrated all over scripture. You can see it in the life of Joseph who was prospered in everything he did. You can see it in the prophecy of Isaiah where he says, no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment shall you shall condemn.

Why? Because God is prospering his people. And it was a prosperous work. You know, we're here about a work that is designed to prosper intangible things, that begin in the souls of people and work out in the bearing of fruit. That's our work.

But these bureaucrats showed up and they said, whoa, this thing is working. And then number four, testifying. This is the fourth important thing about this letter. They were testifying about what had happened to them, and they explained why they were building, and they told the story of why they were building and it ended up in this letter. Why are we doing this?

Why are we building? Well our forefathers were disobedient. We sinned against the Lord. God sent us prophets. We didn't listen.

God told us we'd be taken into captivity. We shrugged our shoulders. He took sin to captivity. We sinned. All of our fathers sinned.

And we landed in captivity. And then God delivered us from captivity. And Cyrus gave us the money and the encouragement to come back and 50, 000 of us came back. And now we're building this. We got discouraged for 16 years and now we're back at it.

But we're here because we're sinners. And they testified to the God of heaven and earth. They confessed their sin publicly. They acknowledged their bankruptcy. They didn't testify to their pride and how great they were.

They testified to who they really were, a weak people in need of a mighty God who was merciful and who actually did rescue them and bring them back from 70 years of captivity because God loves to restore sinners. That's kind of the story they told them. So they brought out all the bad laundry and said, this is who we are. We're nothing but a disobedient people that got rescued by a merciful God. And he raised up Cyrus and he brought all of our treasures from the temple back, and he financed it all.

Here we are. Go check it out. Go check it out. And so they did. They went and checked it out.

And they found that it was true. And in chapter six, we get the results of all of it. But, you know, they were a humble people who told the story of how they provoked God. So these are, I think, the critical elements about this letter. The pattern, the diligence, the success, and the testifying.

Those are the things that are revealed in that letter. What a great letter to be written by someone else about you. And they testified to how God was working in these people's lives. It was a real work. It was a work of the heart.

And they were working for the glory of God because they had a sense of the presence of God. And that's the only way that true works of God take place, is when the people exalt the words of God in their hearts, they take them so seriously because they see they're so beautiful and so good and so life-giving and they can't live without it and so they want to rise up and build. So that's the heart of every revival and that's the heart of getting out of any rut you're in right now Or any right you've ever been in in the past. I don't know what your rut is. I know what some of mine are But I know there's only one way out It is exalting God in his presence through his word.

And that's really the only hope of this church. It's the only hope. Okay, I'm going to give you some applications. First of all, don't take lightly the days when God manifests himself through the word of God. You know, I've just been sitting here for 45 minutes or something, and we've read different phrases from scripture.

What did that do? Did you shrug your shoulders? Are you looking at the clock because you just can't wait to go do something else? Or do you want more of the Word of God? The honor of the Word of God in the heart is what makes life work.

It's the only thing that makes life work. Just recognize that there are times when the Word of God comes to you, what are you shrugging your shoulders? Secondly, be mature in your thinking about the consequences of obedience. Our friend Jason Doam said it like this, we must expect immediate resistance, questions, and objections when we step out in obedience. Just to expect it.

Grow up, it's okay. This is the way God has always worked. We often get so discouraged about it, but when opposition surprises us when it arises and it hurts us too much, it's because we're not thinking about it right. Satan always counteracts obedience. And we should anticipate opposition when we turn to the Lord.

We shouldn't be surprised about it. And we shouldn't be surprised that if you turn to something that the Lord has said is beautiful and the people around you hate it, Don't be surprised when the word spreads of how terrible you are. That's exactly what happened in the first opposition. It was the religious people that said that the temple builders were ridiculous and they brought accusations and they gave them a bad name. Christians always have a bad name somewhere.

Number three, take heed to your diligence, examine yourself. Are you full of energy for the work? You know or or are you shrugging your shoulders? You know Malachi is one of the restoration prophets Haggai Zechariah and Malachi those three prophets spoke during this time Malachi reports that so the people were coming into worship and they were saying, my how tiresome it is. They just had no heart for it.

They were there, but it was tiresome to them. It's the ministry of the clock checkers. They pretty much would rather do something else. Number four, awakenings are short lived and most of life is lived out one day at a time. Don't despise that.

You know, I think, you know, I've always longed for awakenings, but I feel a little bit differently about it now. I've turned a little bit of a corner on awakenings. I think we should pray for them, but that God would save thousands and millions, that He would fill churches with longing for him. But the Christian life is usually lived after an awakening like that, and that's where most of church life is lived. And we shouldn't despise the day of sanctification where God is taking us one step at a time, where there's one deposit of the Word of God in your heart and then another and then another and then another.

He reveals your sin to you along the way and he brings things into your life to refine you to draw you closer to him so that you would love him so that you would see the grandeur and the power of his presence in your life day to day. But as far as this passage for our church, How is the Lord using this passage to lead our church? And we believe that this text is here for us, for a reason. That we need this leadership. It's not the other people that need it, we need it.

And what we need to recognize is that the single most important factor of our awakening is a keen sense and love for the presence of God and a trembling at His Word. And that's what I pray that God would do among us. We would see His Word as so beautiful, so helpful, so profound, so full of love, so practical, that we would just want more and more and more. Now, I want to read something that Charles Spurgeon wrote. This passage from Spurgeon explains so much of what I hope to try to communicate.

Enthrone Jesus as the central son of your hearts. Bask in his beams and let him rule your entire being, enlightening your understanding, warming your hearts, filling all your powers, passions, and faculties with the fullness of his presence. Come and lay your souls beneath his divine influence. Come plunge into this sea of sweetness. Dive deep into this abyss of happiness.

This is what happened to the captives who returned. What a blessing. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this remarkable testimony that's given to us as an example, so that we might not be idolaters as Paul said to the Corinthians. Lord that you would give us such a vision of your holiness and your glory that we would long for it more than anything else.

Not to us, not to us be the glory but to you. Lord we're so concerned about our own glory and so we miss the glorious thing that you're doing. Oh Lord, we pray that you would deliver us from these things, catch us up in your glory. Lord, we are caught in many different ruts now. We pray, oh Lord, that you would give us such a sense of your glory.

Amen.