The sermon titled 'God's Right Way' by James Lundquist focuses on the significance of fasting and prayer as depicted in Ezra 8:15-23. The speaker emphasizes two primary purposes for these practices: to humble oneself before God and to seek His guidance or 'right way' for life's journey. Ezra leads the Israelites in a fast before embarking on a 900-mile journey to Jerusalem, highlighting the importance of trusting in God's provision and direction. The sermon contrasts the right approach to fasting and prayer with practices like asceticism and flattery, stressing that these spiritual disciplines are not about manipulating God but about aligning one's heart with His will. The speaker also addresses the importance of humility, emphasizing that true trust in God involves seeking His wisdom and guidance, even in mundane aspects of life. The sermon concludes with a call to make fasting a regular habit and to prioritize seeking God's right way in all circumstances.

Good morning. For today's sermon text we will be in Ezra 8, verses 15 through 23. Ezra 8, 15 to 23. Now I gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camp there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests, and found none of the sons of Levi there.

Then I sent for El-Yezer, Ariel, Shemiah, El-Nathan, Jerib, El-Nathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Moshulim leaders, also for Joyarib and El-Nathan, men of understanding. And I gave them a command for Ito, the chief man, at the place of Caciphia, And I told them what they should say to Ito and his brethren, the Nethanim, at the place Kassiphia, that they should bring us servants for the house of our God. Then by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Malai, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely, Sherebayah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men, and Hashabiah, and with him, Jishiah, of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty men. Also of the Nethanim, whom David and the leaders had appointed for the service of the Levites, 220 nuthinim. All of them were designated by name.

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him. But his power and his wrath are against all those who forsake him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. Good morning.

It is a privilege to come back from vacation and be able to stand before you and open God's Word. And may it be a help. May it encourage us. May it enable us, will God use it, as the title says, to encourage us to seek God's right way. When we were in Ezra, it's been eight years.

A little over eight years. We started it in April 2014. So most of you here weren't here, or you were too young to remember it, what it was. But if you happened, if you don't, to remember that message, this is much different than eight years ago. Eight years ago, we were expository going through Ezra and Nehemiah, and we threw Esther in there.

We were going through it sequentially. And when I preached that eight years ago, it was a much different message than this morning. This morning it's really gonna be more of a little more topical, but using this, since I had already studied this out and haven't been on vacation, to use that as a little bit of a launching point. So it'll be quite a bit different. If you happen to look at the length of the one eight years ago, thankfully this one will be shorter.

And it will be. And it won't be hard to beat that one. But that's where we were. And so I'm here because I was looking back over messages to do it this time. And looked at this one.

Said, yeah, fasting, fasting, prayer, seeking God's right way. That's always helpful for me to think about. So I primarily want to think about it. And here we are. A little bit of background to where we are in Ezra.

So Israel has been in Babylonian captivity for 70 years when we get to Ezra 1. They are finishing up that 70 years that God told them they would be in captivity. They are. And in Ezra chapter 1, God stirs up King Cyrus. Now, God turns his heart.

It's not that King Cyrus is a godly king by no means, but he stirs his heart, turns his heart, and he directs then Zerubbabel to lead a first wave to go build the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Go build the Temple in Jerusalem. That first wave heads out in those first few chapters of Ezra. Then, if you remember it, they had a lot of opposition during that time. Then between chapter 6 and chapter 7 of Ezra, there's 57 years.

Between chapter 6 and chapter 7. And there's now a new king. There's King Artaxerxes. So King Artaxerxes, God stirs up. Once again, don't think of this king as a godly king.

God stirs up. God turns the heart of the king. And now he goes to Ezra, or Ezra comes to him, and there's a second wave that goes out. Because now, although the temple's been built, there's people in Jerusalem, there needs to be more people there. The Levites, as Riley read, they're lacking in Levites.

They need the Levites there to help with worship and the work of the temple and to teach the people. And so after 57 years of the temple being there, God turns the heart of this king and Ezra leads people in this second wave with huge provisions from this king. We'll see here in a little bit. So where are they right now? Is they're preparing to go to Jerusalem, the second wave, Ezra leading this, they're at the River Ahava.

We don't know where that is, where that's located, but they're there for three days. And before they take any further step on this journey, it's 900 miles. 900 miles. It's not just like they're crossing the Jordan River. It's 900 miles with little ones, older ones, lots of riches that they need to make this journey on.

You want to try to put your mind around 900 miles. When we go to East Texas, that's 1, 100 miles. So somewhere in Louisiana between here and there, going the South way, That's 900 miles. It takes us 24 hours to drive it. It took them several months to walk it.

So that's where they are. And Ezra's chief concern is that they would seek God's right way. We'll talk about this. It's not just that they would know the path to take, but their hearts would be prepared for whatever God would have for them. Ezra's most concerned with his heart and Israel's heart, as Gary just read from Joel 2, that's God's concerns that they would rend their heart.

The concern isn't just that you would fast and pray, the concern is the effect it would have on your heart. And Ezra's highest concern is for his heart, for Israel's heart, concerned with what matters most to God would matter most to them, about God's right way. So as we go through here, think, how concerned am I of seeking, of following God's right way? I say it, But what am I doing to express that I really do want your right way, God? I really am seeking.

I'm going to do things to show that I am seeking, not just to say it, just so I can tell people or anything, because we'll talk about fasting, We'll see what Christ says in Matthew 6 about that. But it's, I really am seeking the right way. And I'm going to do things. I'm going to put praxis in my life that show, that demonstrate God out of your love and mercy to me. I want to seek your wisdom, your power, your glory, your help, your encouragement.

I need your right way. So Ezra has people fast and pray. Let's pray. God, please, would this time looking into Your Word enable us to... Would it stir up our souls, God?

Would it stir up our souls to desire to seek You and to put practices in place to seek You, to seek your right way, to seek your wisdom, to humble ourselves and put myself aside. Do that now through the preacher, through the listeners, would we humble ourselves, put ourselves aside and seek you in your right way and practices that would encourage us to know your right ways. Thank you for this time. Please bless it. Amen.

So I only have a couple points. The first one is going to be way longer than the second one. It will be the vast majority of this. But the first one is fasting and prayer. Fasting and prayer.

Ezra has a couple things. He's encouraging them. And the main things are fasting and prayer. Let me read verses in Ezra 8, verses 21 and 23. Then I, then Ezra, proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer. You can look all throughout Scripture, and you will not find a specific command to fast. But what you will find, what you will find are a lot of people that fast, and you will find, well, Matthew 6, we'll go read that here in a moment, you will find in Matthew 6, Jesus says, when you fast. When you fast. And He gives instructions for how your demeanor especially should be when you fast.

That's as good as a command. When Jesus says, when you do this. When you fast, when you do that. And the more we understand our desperate need, the more we should understand our need to fast and pray. To seek God.

To seek His right way. Fasting is not this lever that you pull to make God do anything. Ezra's not pulling the fasting lever that God would protect them, that God would give them wisdom, that if we do this, therefore this will happen. That's not what He's doing. That's not the purpose of fasting, to pull any kind of lever to make the sovereign King of all the universe, eternal King, the one that knows the beginnings from the ends, can't make him do anything.

It's to humble ourselves to seek his right way. Now Fasting is skipping a meal, usually a day, maybe several days like we see here. But the main point of it is to set aside time for deliberate, intentional, undivided, wholehearted seeking of God. That's the time. It can be individual.

It can be a church. We do that once a year. It can be a family. It can be you and somebody else. But it's time set aside.

Here we see a corporate and national setting for it in Ezra, but it is a time set aside for this deliberate, undivided, wholehearted seeking God and praising God. That God may cause circumstances like we see here, big circumstances that would seem to make the decision to fast an easy one. Of course they're going to fast. Of course they are. We've all been through big circumstances where we didn't fast, where We look back and say, oh, it should have been so evident.

It's not so evident. Yeah, it makes sense, and they should. So we look at these big ones, but it's not just these big ones, these easy ones that make that. Other circumstances come about at times, Not just because of this big trip or dangerous trip it could be. It could be because of deep sorrow.

There are deaths. There are financial distress, church issues, self-examination. You need wisdom for whatever it might be. How to spend your money. What meals to make this week.

Just the mundane, you might call it. Don't get so self-sufficient in what we might call the mundane, either. Guidance for self, for others, for the nation, for the world. You can fast on behalf of the world because You want to seek God's wisdom and cry out for the world. No matter what is happening, big circumstances or common everyday life, we always have this desperate need for God.

And we need to feel that weight at times. And God brings these trials, these things around us to make us feel this weight. Primarily the trials to test us, but to test us in what? Our faith, James says. Our trust in God.

To see where we stand with Him and His wisdom and His provision. Do we trust in Jesus as the bread of life, as if we're saying this more in our firm foundation? If we understand our constant need for Jesus to shepherd us, to preserve us from our sinfulness, from this devil that is seeking to devour us, then we will want this intentional time, this wholehearted time, this undivided time to entreat, to pray, to seek God's right way, to guide us, to change us, to mold us, to shape us, to grow us, to conform us to our Christ, preparing us for that day. You know, Nehemiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, they're books that continue the history of Israel during this time. Nehemiah said in the first chapter, Nehemiah, so it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days, I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

He was mourning over Israel's sin. He was mourning over his own sin. And he was crying out for mercy. He fasted and he prayed. No matter why you're fasting, there are some common characteristics to it.

One, it's worship. It is to be a worshipful time. It's to be a humbling of self. Prayers of confession, maybe repentance, Maybe there's urgency involved. Maybe it's just a quieting.

I'm going to confess because I need to quiet and meditate, seek God, and I need to be quiet for once. Maybe that's part of the characteristic that needs to be there. Sometimes there's passion involved. It's a focus, though, on God and His right way. It's not ultimately a focus on me.

It's a focus on God. It's humbling myself, putting myself aside, to focus on God and His right way that He would direct our paths. It will often include mourning and weeping, as it did with Nehemiah. Sorrow over sin, but can also be full of joy as we just spend time contemplating the wonderful mercy and grace and provision, the help of our God towards us, that He would save us, redeem us, redeem anybody. And it can be times of joy.

It can be. We often see it though of not that. There's joy wrapped up here in Ezra. They're getting to go to Jerusalem. These people have been in captivity for 70 years.

Not all of them go. Some stay. This is the second wave. There'll be more people with Nehemiah. But There's joy there.

There's great anticipation here as well as they are seeking God's right way in their fasting and prayer. Israel is about to embark on a 900 mile journey. The king has so... God, listen now, God turned this heart of this king to provide for them with almost four tons of silver, 18 tons of wheat, the equivalent of 3, 000 bottles of wine, 600 gallons of oil, and It says here, all the salt they want, that's what it says, all the salt they want, and there are enemies along the way. God's provided, this is a big journey.

They better feel their desperateness. What do we need? What does God have to do to show us our desperate? Sometimes He has to hit me over the head hard for me to humble myself and realize my desperateness and get out of my self-sufficiency. Here God is leading them and Ezra's concern is don't be self-sufficient, don't boast of who you think you are going back to Jerusalem, anything like that.

They need to better feel their desperateness, and they better know their need to humble themselves before God, the one that knows the right way, and by His mercy can get them there safely. Ezra has two primary purposes for this fast, seen in verse 21. The first purpose of this fasting and praying is that they would humble themselves before God, as we see in verse 21. It is that we might humble ourselves before our God. That's His first purpose, His humility in it.

And it's not something to overlook. Before God. Where are we doing this humbling? Before God. Not just before men, not just to say I'm humbling myself, but it's before God.

It's not before Baal. It's not before the gods of the Babylonians. It's not before whoever the king is at that time, forget, it's not before King Cyrus or our exerxes here, it's not for that, it's before God. We're humbling ourselves before God. This is ultimately not about skipping a meal or meals, in their case, for a few days.

This is about humbling ourselves before God and using fasting and the seeking, this entreating God to encourage us to help us humble ourselves before God. Just a simple thing of a stomach rumbling and needing food, being hungry humbles you because He's the God that needs no food. And I can't have any food if God doesn't provide it. I can't have any sustenance I need to live unless God... So just that right there starts humbling you.

But it's meant to humble us. It's not about ultimately skipping a meal. It's the refocused time to entreat God, verse 22, to petition, to seek, to implore. This earnest, intense prayer should be part of that fasting. Not the fasting in itself, but what's with that?

To humble themselves. Other translations say afflict themselves or be bowed down. So if you read those or if you have those translations, this is not a groveling before God. This is not flattering God. You understand what it means to flatter, especially children?

Where you say something nice or do something nice towards somebody else, say something complimentary to somebody else, that they would do something back for you in return. I'm going to give somebody this gift that they would give me a good gift back later. I'm going to treat this person nicely because I really want them to do this for me later. This isn't flattery to God. God doesn't need anything from me.

He doesn't need my fasting and my praying that He would then bless me. I'm not pulling once again this fasting and prayer lever that God would then bless me. That's not the purpose of it, but it's to show submission to the sovereign one, the King of Kings. God tells us in 1 Peter 5, be clothed in humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." God, do you believe it?

We talk about this especially in Ephesians. God gives abundant grace, lavish grace. God gives abundant and lavish care. I want more of that grace. I want to know more of that grace.

I want to understand and learn more of that care. Humbling myself, a time of fasting and prayer will encourage me to learn more of His grace, learn more of His care, see more of it, encourage me, and grow me in that. Now back to this, and this afflicting yourselves also. I talked about how it's not flattery. It's also not asceticism.

Now asceticism is this idea that cults have, that other people have, of harming yourself to gain the favor of God. When you think of this, think of the priest of Baal with Elijah. What did they do? It says they were cutting themselves. That that would appease their God, their dead deity, try to appease and get his attention to do what they want.

Now that's not it. It's not what monks would do today, or monks have done in history, of saying, I am going to forsake all of this worldly stuff, wealth and treasure and whatever else, phones, technology, whatever, that I can be more holy. That's not what fasting is. It's not that. God takes no delight and is not glorified in His children intentionally harming themselves to try to get His attention.

You're His child. You're the Bride of Christ. That's not what this is about. It's not about boasting either. Boasting can be a form of this.

Look at me. Look how good I am. So if you want, you can turn to Matthew 6 on this and see Jesus' instructions on this in Matthew 6, 16-18. Jesus says, Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." This affliction of the soul, this fascinating is where one is humble before God, pours out their heart to God confessing specific sins. Maybe there's mourning or grieving. Maybe there's repenting. Maybe it's a time of great joy. The purpose is humbling ourselves to be pointed in God's right way.

It's not to make people think about how holy you are. Fasting is really between you and God. Now I know if you're fasting in your house, your spouse is going to know you're not eating that day. Your family may know that you're not eating that day. So that's not what it's about.

Make sure that nobody knows that you're fasting. But what's your intent in this? What's your intent in this? Now, even when our once a year fast, I get a little uncomfortable when we gather on Wednesday night and talk about how hungry we are. I get a little uncomfortable with that.

But we really are hungry. But we have fasted as a church. It's not wrong, because we have called for a fast at church for us to come together and talk about our fasting. But let's talk about also what we've done, what we've entreated God, and how God has helped us that day, how God encouraged us, how God grew us through that time. As well, we're gonna know we fasted, but it's not a contest, see who did and who didn't, how long and this and that.

There are medical reasons why people wouldn't fast. Hey, You might not be able to. If you're pregnant, I'm not up here telling you to fast. You and that baby need some food and some strength. There's other medical reasons too.

But when you fast, it's really mainly between you and God. Ezra knows Israel's history. He knows why they were captive. He told them, and we see in Ezra 5, because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Because of their pride.

They didn't humble themselves. So now his concern is humble yourselves. Humble yourselves. Demonstrate your humbleness. Let's take these days and let's fast and let's entreat, let's pray.

Humble ourselves. He understands. He knows why they were there in the first place. Because They did what was right in their own eyes. They did what was right in their own eyes.

Humble yourselves. You're from dust. Your father Adam was created from dust. Humble yourself. By nature, you're a child of wrath.

Humble yourself. By nature, you despise Jesus. Humble yourself. By nature, you're an enemy of God. Humble yourself.

You are only a Christian because of God's perfect work, Jesus' perfect work, to come to earth, to humble Himself, live the perfect life in Your place, die the death You deserve, conquer the last enemy of sin and death, raise from the dead, and for all who humble themselves, have faith in Christ alone, believe in Christ alone, repent of their sins, will be saved, will have the Holy Spirit indwell, and will be sealed for all of eternity, will be raised to new life, both physically and spiritually first, and physically, resurrected to new life. New bodies, perfect bodies, to live eternally with perfect humility, perfect seeking God, perfect knowing God in heaven and then on the new earth. So his first purpose in fasting, and his call for fasting and prayer, was to humble themselves before God. The second one we see in verse 21 is that they would seek from God the right way. Seek from God the right way.

As we're talking about a safe journey, as some translations say, or, and I'm not trying to go against the translations. Hopefully that will be clear. I'm not saying they're bad translations. I want to make our thinking a little bit deeper on this. Or like we have in Proverbs 4, let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you, ponder the path of your feet, and let your ways be established.

Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your feet from evil. Or Psalm 119, 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Is this about ultimately a safe journey? Just give us protection, let's get everybody and everything there safe, or is it about a right heart?

The right way, a heart, and it's both. You cannot, You cannot seek the right path without having the heart first. You have to have the heart. Because I can say for whatever reason, God says, James, you and your family are to move here. And I know that's what, but unless I trust God, I'm not doing that.

Unless the people trust God with this 900 mile journey, it's more than just knowing how to get from point A to point B. In Joshua, it was way more than knowing, okay, we go to Jericho first, then AI, and then on and on and on. It was way more than just having the map laid out of how to get from point A to point B to point C safely. It's their heart. You have to have the right heart to want God's right direction.

You can't have it without it. They have 900 miles to go. They have lots of decisions to make. It's not just somebody laying out a map. There's lots of decisions to make.

You have all these people with children, livestock. You think over the months There's not going to be family issues, children issues, how we divide up food, people disagreeing from here to there. There's going to be a lot there that they're going to have to work through over months of walking to Jerusalem. There's going to be a lot there. How will they decide the right way to go?

Seeking God, seeking God's wisdom. This word, right, can also be translated righteous. And it is translated righteous nine times in the Old Testament. You're seeking God's right way, physical way, and His righteous way, His heart way. Fasting and prayer.

May we be seeking His right way when we do that, not just going through the motions. Going through the motions is not meant for anybody else anyway, but you and God, as we read in Matthew 6. Will they make these decisions that they have based on feelings? Right? Talk about how well did it go for them and judges.

How well did that go for them when they first tried to go in the Canaan? 10 of the 12 spies said, not us, those giants are too big, those people are too big, too numerous for us. Their feelings lie to them. Now God gives us feelings, you know I talk a lot against feelings, how they lie to us, but God does give us feelings. Jesus had plenty of emotions.

But you want them directed as God wants them directed in His right way. When faced with tough tasks, hardship, trials, Where are you going to turn first? What's been your practice? What's been my practice? And so I know where to turn.

Where's my help come from? Maker of heaven and earth or myself or somebody else? No matter what our situation, whether we're working through the common parts of life or we just can't see past the current circumstances, humbly go before God first and often and seek His right way. And fasting and prayer is a great way that we've been encouraged to, to center us, to reorient us, to spend that undivided, focused time towards God. It's not going to be by the might or wisdom of Ezra that they arrive safely with their hearts directed to God.

It's not going to be. It's not going to be by the wisdom of me or Jason that this church is set on the right way with right hearts and encourage one another and build each other up. It's not. Now, may God use us to encourage us all to teach, to train in righteousness. But your salvation is an individual salvation too, right?

Seek God. Seek God in His right way. The Lord is my shepherd. He will guide me with his counsel. Now, I want to look at verse 22, the second half here of 22.

Where it says, The hand of our God is upon all those for good, who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all those who forsake him. We don't have much of a problem with the second half of this, right? His wrath is against all those who forsake him. We have no problem, theologically, as reformed people, connecting the sowing of forsaking to the reaping of wrath, right? The wages of sin is death.

We preach that we have no problem with that part. But we do sometimes have a hard time with the connection between seeking God and his good hand behind us, good hand on us, right? James, you just told us it's not a lever to pull. It's not a lever to pull. But God does say there is a sowing and reaping.

Father's daughters will be talking about this this next week. And there is some sowing and reaping here of seeking God, That the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him. We have this tendency to push backwards. We know Romans 3. There is none righteous.

No, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. Well, yeah, there's none before they're saved, before you've been given a new heart and a new spirit, new desires, new loves, new hates. Then when God puts His Spirit in you, He saves you, He's redeemed you.

Yes, you seek God. Lamentations 3. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Jeremiah 29. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you.

And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Matthew 7. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened." God's talking to His children.

Seek Him. Seek the right way. And fasting with intense prayer, intentional prayer, focused prayer, enables, helps us in that. To seek Him. Take specific times aside to seek Him.

We do it throughout the day, but having these intentional times to do that. But be fearful still at the end of 22, as power and as wrath were against all who forsake him. Israel knows this truth because Ezra knows this truth. That's why he was concerned about the people before God, that they would humble themselves by fasting and praying. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

God, not Ezra, not the king or the exerxes, God is the source of all that is good and right. Not myself, not anybody else. Ezra's concern is that they fast, humble themselves before God, and seek God first for the right way. Ezra wants God's gracious hand upon them, His favor upon them, and not His wrath. God wants God to be glorified and honored.

Ezra wants God to be glorified and honored. So, let's put aside a time that's fast, that's intrigued God as a big group, and spend these days doing this, that we would know, that we would seek, and that God would give us favor, to give us the right way, all along those months of 900 miles, step by step by step, with young ones, old ones, all in between. So Ezra's two primary purposes in this fast is to humble themselves before God and seek from God the right way. Now second point, relatively quick point, is this middle part in 22 of title, Trust in the Hand of God. I want to leave without looking at this.

For I was ashamed to request of the king and escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him." Ezra is not trusting in their fasting and prayer. That's not what he's trusting in. He knows that it's a means that they would seek God, that they would trust God, that their faith would grow. But he knows also that the king would have given him his request. He's not sitting here like, oh, the king won't give me...

The king would. In Ezra 7, 6, the king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. This is a dangerous road. They have the king's treasures. They have little ones.

So why would Ezra not make this seemingly obvious request? Just take the help. Take the soldiers. Take the horsemen. Guard at least the king's treasures.

Why would he not take this? Is he being foolish and presuming upon God? No, that's not. We see that from the end of 23 and the rest of Ezra. We know it's not presumption.

We know it's not foolishness. God has the right to order everything in the way he wants to accomplish his will. He's not pulling this fasting lever, this prayer lever, to make God protect him. God has the right to do whatever, and this is the way God wants this done. In Nehemiah, Nehemiah takes the king's protection.

So is one just has more faith? Ezra just has more faith in Nehemiah? Is that what's going on? One has more faith? And we can tend to fall off those cliffs.

And this is the way we tend to do this. Fall off one cliff for the other. This is not Ezra and Nehemiah. They're following God. They're obeying God.

And God is ordaining one not and one having it. But we do tend to fall off these cliffs and look at things. We'll use scripture to back us up, we'll say, well walk by faith, not by sight. I have the sufficiency of scripture. I don't need all that counsel.

I don't need church. I don't need this. I don't need that. Just walk by faith, not by sight. And that can get you off a cliff.

Now, we do believe in Christ alone by faith alone. And that's not a blind faith. We talked about that before. You've struggled with that. We'll talk about what faith is later.

But you have that. Then the person on the other side, the other cleft, is saying, well, Christ says to count the cost. In Luke 14, he says, like a king preparing for battle, or a builder preparing to build a tower, count the cost before becoming a disciple. And that person will sit there and have all their ducks in a row. Everything has to be in a row.

Put out one fleece, put out a second fleece, put it out a third time, and that person may not be able to get off square one. So it's dangerous to be in any of these two camps. Say Ezra was more faithful and Nehemiah wasn't, whatever it might be. The bottom line is, I know what both of them did. They both fasted and entreated God for God's right way.

That's what they did. They sought wisdom from God. And in Ezra's case, they sought wisdom as a nation. Nehemiah reads that it was him doing this fasting. In Ezra, it was them as a nation, counseling together, seeking God together.

Both of them are good. Both of them are right. It's not about one having more faith than the other. God ordains the ends and the means. God is sovereign over the final outcomes.

So how to know when to use these human means, or not to use human means? First of all, nothing is purely human means, right? It's all from God. However He determines the beginning from the end. But the bottom line that we need to consider is the honor of God and the going out of the Gospel.

If I do it this way, is it going to dishonor God and hinder the Gospel? I need to consider that. That needs to be my filter. And to help with that filter is not my human wisdom. I need to entreat God.

And you have times of fasting of entreating God. That by humbling myself at God, I need your wisdom. My wisdom, I'm not trusting my wisdom. I need your wisdom. And that wisdom often is going to come through my wife.

It's going to come through my brethren. It might come through a book I read. Definitely is going to come through the Word of God. I am humbling myself to say I need your wisdom and my desire is to honor you and the Gospel. Paul appealed to Caesar, didn't he?

He used human means, the law. And what did he get? Oh, he's still in prison, but go read the letters. What happened during his time in prison? House arrest.

He preached the gospel that everybody would walk through that door and that guard chained to him all those days. Each one of those guards got the gospel. But he appealed to Caesar, trust God for the means and the end, fast, pray, seek God's right way. A couple applications. You could probably get the first one.

You wouldn't have to think too hard. Make fasting a regular habit. Make it a habit. It's not the habit such as eating, Right? That's something that you're going to do every day.

You can't do it every day. You can't be sustaining by fasting all day every day. You know that. But it needs to be a regular habit. It's essential.

You've got to see that it's essential for spiritual warfare. It's essential for growth. It's essential for conformity. It's essential for knowing God's right way. For knowing His righteousness.

For our dependence on God. And don't let our schedules be an excuse. I'm there. I let my schedule be an excuse. My schedule's pretty simple.

It really is. I can laugh about the simplicity in my schedule at times. I'm not physically laboring. Takes me just a few seconds to walk up to my office. Don't let your schedules be an excuse.

Where you work or don't work or I have to watch the children and I have to give them meals and stuff. As I said before, I understand medical reasons. Understand medical reasons, but seek something then in that case. A medical, seek something that you can do to set aside time of this, this habit, this regular tendency. Make it, When we talk about habits, we tend to think of bad habits, which are hard to break.

So how do you make this a good habit that's hard to break? So try to make it a habit, a regular thing on your calendar. And if you make it a regular scheduled, planned activity, plan for it. I'm talking about something spontaneous. Sometimes things happen, like I'm fasting now.

But plan for it. And if you're planning for it during what we can call the regular day-to-day activities. You make a part of that. When the things happen, that you're just, God, I've got to stop. Then it'll be a regular place.

Have you ever been, just thinking about this, just now, ever been in that place where all of a sudden you've got that desperate need, I'm going to trust, I've been there, I don't think I'm the only one, where something happens and you realize, I have a need to cry out to God. But then comes to your mind going, I haven't cried out to God recently for anything. Who am I to cry out to God? Now I'm just going to Him in my time of need and all that. Where was God when this was happening or that was happening, or self-sufficient and all that.

I've been there. To help with that, then, don't wait for that time. Fast, pray, and treat God while things are well. Seem well, where the trial is much minimal. And let that be.

And you can have time of fasting for joy, in that case, maybe. It happens. But make fasting this humbling self-seeking. And plan now even to set aside a time. Think in your mind now when a time might be coming up, even this next week maybe, where you might think about this.

Now I do know, let me say this, two things on this. One, I know it's maybe it's a fad, maybe it's not a fad. This intermittent fasting thing is part of a diet, which is fine. I'm not against that. I've seen some things on that.

But don't cheat yourself or don't say, well, because I do this, I've been fasting. No, you're not. You're just dieting. You're just doing something with what you eat or don't eat. Now, you can take that time, though, and say, I'm going to take that, intentionally use it for this.

That's fine, you've already got that built in, fine, but shift the focus more to a health reason to a heart health reason. The other thing on fasting, don't do it on Sunday. I implore you, I know Jason and I both agree on this. I implore you, I don't command you, but I implore you, do not fast on Sunday. Don't.

Sunday's a feast day. It's a day of delight. I really don't delight much when I'm fasting, although I should be, right, in some ways. It's still, I remember my hunger, this and that. Don't use Sunday.

Make it a feast day. Make it a day of delight. Eat here with your family. Fellowship here. Don't let it be Sunday.

Be humble in this. Number two application, seek God's right way. The goal of this is to seek, the desire of this is to seek His right way. That God, I say this often, because I need to be reminded of it often, May God be the first one I turn to in everything and the most. He has been so merciful to save me from my greatest need, from His just wrath for my sin.

I should be the most humble man on earth. We should be the most humble people on earth, just knowing the truth of the gospel. It's the basic truth of the gospel. It should make us the humblest people. Keep humbling us.

The more we study, the more we learn of the gospel keep humbling us and make us keep seeking the one That would save my soul Seeking his wisdom his guidance his right way his righteous ways He loves you you know that through the cross. His care for you. Seek Him in His right way. Let's pray. Our God, thank you so much for your word.

It'll be used as history here. This history you had recorded to tell us about Ezra, to tell us how they sought you, humbled themselves. We would learn from that, oh how gracious of you to give that. So God, please through the power of your Holy Spirit, make us continue to seek you. When we were saved, we sought you, we lost hope in ourselves.

We'll humble us to seek you. We use some of these means you have encouraged us in, in fasting and prayer, to seek your right ways. On behalf of ourselves, others, our family, our friends, our nation, our state. Would you be glorified? Would you grow us?

Would you conform us through these times? Thank you God for your word. It's all sufficient. Amen.