Ezra 4 - Roadblock

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Thank you so much Michael and the team thank you to the guys off the back as well keeping the tech running we appreciate you all great to be able to lift our voice and song and sing God's praise all right amen he's so worthy of our praise if you got your Bible there if you could open that up to Ezra chapter 4 as Pastor Doug mentioned already we're going to be in Ezra chapter 4 this morning and we're going to be working our way through that if you haven't got one of these I think Doug mentioned that already welcome desk is where you can get one of those and look our prayer is as you dig into that during the week whether that be on your own in your daily Bible reading times when you meet with your discipleship group midweek or as you're taking in these messages here on a Sunday our prayer would be that like the exas it wouldn't just be about building a building that it would be actually God working in our hearts as we submit to his spirit and that he would actually do that deep work in us as as we submit to him yeah as Doug said we're now third week this week first week we did chapters 1 and 2 and we saw that God moved the heart of this pagan king Cyrus and he allowed the exiles that had been in captivity for 70 odd years to head back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple God had stirred the hearts of some of the exiles to go back and be a part of that rebuilding work what we saw in that first week was that God hadn't forgotten his promises even though it seemed like God was far away even though it seemed like it was all trouble God was at work he had been faithful and continued to be faithful to his promises even though his people had wanted after him God called them back lovingly into right relationship with him last week Duncan helpfully took us through Ezra chapter 3 and we saw the beginning of that rebuilding the people rebuilt the altar they restored the sacrifices they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Booths as they laid that foundation of the temple and what we saw at the end of chapter 3 there last week was everybody's celebrating except some of the older folks who'd seen the greatness of Solomon's temple in all of its grandeur that was the temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar many years earlier so most of the people were rejoicing and singing praise to God some who'd seen that former temple were a bit sad but there's this mix of joy and tears and there's worship and it seems like progress everything's moving in the right direction and then we get to our chapter this morning in chapter 4 and we read about as Dave and Kaylee have pointed out for us a roadblock something that threatens and frustrates the work that the people were doing for the Lord so much so that by the end of chapter 4 we see that the work grinds to a standstill up until this point it seems like everything's been going great but then we get this abrupt halt this roadblock of opposition and discouragement I reckon that one of the assumptions that sometimes we can make when we face the roadblock of opposition or discouragement it is that if we're obeying God if if we're following him if we're kind of seeking after him we kind of think sometimes the things should go smoothly we feel like that that if God has called us to do something for him then he's going to remove all the obstacles the doors are going to swing open people are going to support us resources will appear and the plan is going to come together and it's all going to be obvious it's not always the way is it when those things don't happen when we meet that roadblock in the way we could begin to wonder hey have I taken a wrong turn did we misunderstand God has God changed his mind or well has he abandoned the work as refer teaches us this morning that a roadblock doesn't necessarily mean that we're traveling on the wrong road sometimes opposition comes precisely because God's people are moving in the right direction faithful obedience doesn't mean an opposition free life in fact throughout the Bible faithful obedience often attracts opposition the big idea this morning if you're taking notes this is the big idea that when we faithfully pursue God's work we should expect opposition but opposition cannot overturn the promises or the purposes of God when we faithfully pursue God's work we should expect opposition but that opposition cannot overturn the purposes of God with that big idea in mind I think there's three lessons that we can learn from this chapter about how to guard our hearts against opposition and discouragement they're up there on the screen for you if our slides are going too fast this morning they'll be up on our website later in the week you can grab them there if you need them earlier than that just contact us in the office we can get those sent out to you but there's the the three lessons we can learn about how to guard our hearts against opposition and discouragement let's quickly pray as we come to God's word heavenly Father we thank you for your word father we thank you for what it speaks to us so honestly about opposition discouragement delay and even disappointment father as we come to this chapter in Ezra this morning would you by your spirit show us the condition of our own hearts father if our hearts are divided would you unite them this morning where our hearts are fearful would you strengthen them if our hearts have become discouraged Lord give us hope maybe Lord if our hearts become complacent would you awaken us to faithful obedience as we encounter you in your word this morning give us hearts that are responsive to your word and dependent on your grace and resolve to follow in obedience to you we pray this in Jesus name amen let's have a look at Ezra chapter 4 we'll work our way through this we'll pause along the way our first lesson this morning we need to be aware of compromised cooperation have a look at those first couple of verses there in Ezra chapter 4 we read this that when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord the God of Israel they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said let us help you build because like you we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of a Saradon king of Assyria who brought us here sounds like good news the people in the surrounding areas have have come to these exiles who have this massive project ahead of them and they're offering some help these helpful locals are saying let's pitch in we worship your God too we've been offering sacrifices to him we want to participate with you in the building sounds like a pretty generous offer often more workers are useful we're regularly calling for more workers as our ministries grow and as things expand some more workers are often helpful surely people should welcome those that that want to help but verse one has already told us something important Ezra doesn't introduce these people as friends as neighbors or fellow worshipers Ezra calls them the enemies of Judah and Benjamin notice that they're in the beginning of verse one the offer sounds friendly though even though they're described as adversaries or enemies but we can see that they're clearly not friends when we see the response in verse 3 let's keep reading but Zerubbabel Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered them you have no part with us in building a temple to our God we alone will build it for the Lord the God of Israel as King Cyrus the King of Persia commanded us now pause there for a second hold on you've got God's people seeming to respond in a really harsh and mean way to these people of the surrounding nations why do they come down so hard on them why do they reject this offer of help you know you think more hammers would be better maybe there's some skilled craftsmen amongst this people why not build bridges with the surrounding community why not include them in the work to understand the response we need to understand who these people were and what they meant when they said we seek your God there's a bit of helpful background that we need to understand from Bible history in 2 Kings chapter 17 you might like to keep your finger in Ezra and flip over to 2 Kings chapter 17 if you like that way you can follow along for yourself that the verse will be on the screen but that's always good to look at it for yourself many years earlier we know from the captivity of God's people the Assyrian Empire can't conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and as we saw as we went through Daniel the Assyrians followed this particular strategy when they conquered a nation they removed many of the local people from the land and they resettled them in other parts of the Empire so in Daniel we saw Daniel taken out of Jerusalem and shipped off to Babylon but not only that they then brought people from the other nations that they conquered and they moved them in to some of these lands that had been emptied so they're kind of mixing everybody up and the idea is to break down somebody's national identity and to reduce the likelihood of rebellion it was their military strategy was a way of keeping the people suppressed their idea was if they were separated from their homeland their traditions their communities and their leaders well they're the less likely to organize a response or a rebellion against Assyria and that's what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel 2 Kings chapter 17 and verse 24 tells us that the king of Assyria bought people from Babylon, Cuthath, Ava, Hamath and Sefa Vim and he settled them in the towns of Samaria read what it says these people brought their own gods and practiced their own religions it wasn't a good situation you can read on it in 2 Kings 17 verses 27 to 29 the king of Assyria gave this order have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back and live there and teach the people what the God of the land requires see what had happened was as all of these people are ignoring the worship of Yahweh the living God even his own people who were left there God sends some lions to kind of take out some of them and kind of get their attention and the king of Assyria hears about this trouble and he's like man we got to do something about this we've offended this this Israelite God we've got to bring in one of their priests to teach them all what it means to to live rightly with him again and so that's what happens verse 28 one of the priests who'd been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord nevertheless each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places so what they're saying is even though this this priest of God came in to teach them the law and what it meant to relate to God in the way in which he had ordained they all just did their own thing and they took that worship of Yahweh and they just added it in to the worship of their pagan gods they took it back to their high places where they did all of the worship to these other foreign gods they didn't abandon their false gods they simply added Yahweh to the list second Kings 17 verses 32 to 33 says they worship the Lord but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places they worship the Lord but they also serve their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought and you can hear the contradiction can't you they worship the Lord Yahweh that's in all caps in the Old Testament so we know that's the covenant name of God they worship the Lord but they also served their own gods they didn't turn from their idols they didn't submit themselves to the covenant God of Israel they didn't worship and serve him alone they just included Yahweh within a wider collection of gods their worship was syncret syncretistic syncretism is is just when you you mix different cultures and beliefs and forms of worship and you kind of blend them all together that's syncretism and it says that we can have the Lord we can have Yahweh and we can have all of the other gods we can worship the Lord but we can continue our old religious practices we can use the Lord's name without having to surrender ourselves to the Lord's authority you see the danger of syncretism they were happy to give God a spot on the shelf right next to all of the other gods friends that's not faithful worship God is not going to share your heart he's not going to share my heart with anything or anyone else he desires our whole hearts the problem wasn't the ethnicity of these people around the exiles the Old Testament gives us lots of examples of people from other nations being welcomed into God's people when they genuinely turn to the Lord so it wasn't a ethnic thing we can think of Rahab or Ruth classic examples who seriously desired to serve the living God the issue in Ezra 4 is not race or or nation of origin it's the condition of their worship they weren't turning away from idols to worship God alone they were just trying to worship God with everything else and ultimately this type of worship speaks to the state of their hearts towards God he wasn't number one he wasn't given the place of priority in their hearts and that's evidence by the fact that they didn't obey his commands when that the priest of God came in to tell them how it was that they were meant to relate to God they just did all their own things everyone just did what he what he wanted God had actually given them pretty clear instructions in Deuteronomy chapter 12 about what they were meant to do in order to worship him God said when you go into the Promised Land you're to destroy all the pagan worship sites he warned them against doing what they thought everything was as they thought seemed fit he said there's a right way to approach me there's a right way to worship you're going to seek out a place that I'm going to set for for my name and you can go there you can meet me there you can sacrifice there you can worship there and eventually God identifies Jerusalem as that chosen place which is why the exiles now in Ezra are so keen to get back and rebuild the temple because they want to restore right relationship with God they want to get back to meeting with God and worshiping God on his terms they want to worship him with their whole hearts as he had instructed so you can see now why this offer of help from these enemies these so-called other worshipers of God is a really dangerous one they use the Lord's name but they resisted the Lord's word they wanted cooperation without any conversion or commitment they wanted to participate without any of the covenant faithfulness that went along with it they wanted to be involved in the building while refusing to submit themselves to the God for whom the temple was being built there's an important lesson here not every offer of help is faithful help the temple wasn't just a construction project it was the house of God it represented this the place of God's presence with his covenant people it couldn't be rebuilt on a foundation of compromised worship that's the point when I was in Bible college we did a week of mission in a country in New South Wales church as part of our studies and part of the trip I was great we got to ask the pastor all sorts of questions about life ministry and everything in between and we were just chatting one time over a meal about gospel opportunities in the community and the pastor shared that they used to do this big combined Christmas carols event with a few of the local churches in this little town where they were and as the event got bigger and bigger each year as the churches started collaborating and people started coming the local church council offered to come on board as a sponsor for the event they offered a fairly generous amount of money to help with covering some of the costs of running the carols program and it sounded like an answer to prayer however the council wanted a large amount of control over the program and the advertising for the event they wanted no mention of sin or that Jesus was the only way but instead wanted the Christian message presented as simply one spiritual option among many the offer looked generous but accepting that offer would have undermined the very purpose of the event because the sponsor wasn't just offering assistance they were seeking control and so we need to be careful help that requires us to abandon faithfulness is not really help sometimes the most dangerous opposition doesn't begin with someone saying stop it begins with someone saying let me help but on my terms not on God's terms and that can be dangerous that's what's happening in Esra for here there's a pressure in every generation isn't there to that for the church to make compromises in order to appear acceptable we can be tempted to soften the uniqueness of Jesus or minimize the seriousness of sin that we can avoid parts of God's word that our culture finds confronting or begin to measure faithfulness by popularity influence or public approval friends the Bible says that can't be we've got to resist the temptation to compromise or water down the gospel message in order to make it more acceptable or less confronting God's work must be done according to God's word I think we got to be careful of compromising in our own hearts as well too like those enemies who added God in with everything else we can add Jesus into our already crowded lives just kind of sprinkle a little bit of Jesus alongside our ambitions and our desire for comfort maybe our pursuit of success or relationship or wealth status possessions reputation whatever our plans are I'll just have a little bit of Jesus but I'm gonna kind of control everything else and call the shots and live my life as I see fit it's a danger we can claim to follow Jesus but in our heart of hearts we can resist allowing him to rule and reign in us that's what these enemies of God had done that's what some of God's people had done Jesus doesn't merely come to occupy one part of your life it's not just Sundays and and midweek discipleship group it's every day that he wants your heart that he has a plan and a purpose and a mission for you to be a part of but you've got to be on board with him he can't just be one influence among many in our lives so we can ask ourselves some diagnostic questions there I've got them on the screen have I merely added Jesus to my life or have I surrendered my life to Jesus are there loyalties in my life that compete with my loyalty to Christ am I trying to hold on to Jesus while holding tightly to something else is there some other thing that I'm worshiping instead of God my worshiping God in the way he says is right or just by what seems right to me we need to be aware of compromised cooperation let's keep reading that Ezra chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 we won't read the whole chapter this morning verses 4 and 5 then the people around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building they bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus King of Persia and down to the reign of Darius King of Persia the opposition changed tactics first they want to help because they want to get involved and maybe control when that fails they set out to discourage to frighten to work behind the scenes and they're bribing officials they're deliberately trying to frustrate the rebuilding that word that's translated discouraged there in our English Bibles in the original Hebrew language it carries this idea of weakening somebody's hands the people of Judah had begun this work in earnest they begun with energy they rebuilt this altar they laid the foundation and they're celebrating the faithfulness of God but now their opponents are trying to weaken their hands they're trying to drain their courage they want these builders to put down their tools discouragement works a bit like that doesn't it friends it doesn't always destroy something immediately it works slowly the criticism here a threat there at the lay a disappointment a closed door another problem or another setback over time hands that were once strong and ready to serve the Lord hang down people who are once enthusiastic begin to wonder whether continuing is worth it verse 4 says the surrounding people made them afraid to go on building fear becomes a weapon the exiles may be wondered what if these people attack us what if they influence the Persian authorities what if the king withdraws his support they've been in exile they they knew what it was like to be under a foreign rule it wouldn't have been difficult for these enemies to awaken their fears as they use that to frustrate their plans it's not just a emotional though it's organized you see that in verse 5 they bribe the officials and they're kind of working on this kind of political campaign they're writing letters and they're they're working hard behind the scenes to really mess this up to put this roadblock in place and this continued for a long time Dave and Kaylee mentioned that already verse 5 says it continued through the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia down to the reign of Darius king of Persia all up I mean the period of opposition initially five years then it's at least another ten years before that that work gets going again there's probably 15 years or so that this is going on it's not just one unpleasant conversation it's not just one little intimidation attack it's a sustained opposition over a long period of time it's not just one roadblock it's men they were dealing with roadblock after roadblock after rope and from verse 6 onwards Ezra gives us further examples of opposition and the chronology of what's the timing of things here gets a little bit confusing so let me just try and clear that up a little bit the verses we've read from verses 1 to 5 and also if you go all the way down to the end of the chapter verse 24 where it says that the the opposition ceased so verses 1 to 5 and verse 24 all of that is describing the opposition that happened during the reigns of Cyrus and Darius when the temple was being rebuilt so that's all about the temple building over those period of time that 15 odd years or so and verse 1 to 5 and verse 24 but then verses 6 to 23 Ezra kind of moves forward in time to the reign of Xerxes and out of Xerxes and these are later events like a hundred years later and they're particularly relate to the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and its walls and you can read about the opposition that happened in the city and the walls here in verses 6 to 23 but also in the book of Nehemiah because Ezra writes the book of Ezra and Nehemiah he wrote them together they're originally one one scroll and he's writing about this whole entire time period so he's got the benefit of history looking back and and he's making a point I think that's why he writes the chapter this way it's a bit confusing for us because we don't know these names these kings are just weird sounding names on the page to us but to the readers of this original scroll they would have known their history and they would have known that this is a really long span of time Ezra is showing us that this opposition was not an isolated event it was a continuing and consistent pattern of determined opposition different kings had come to power different accusations were made as each king comes into into play different parts of Jerusalem were being rebuilt but the hostility continues throughout the whole lot governments changed the circumstances changed but God's people continued to face opposition let's have a look at verses 6 to 8 of Ezra chapter 4 this is part of the opposition to the rebuilding of the city and the walls at the beginning of the reign of Xerxes they lodged an acquiesce accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem and in the days of art of Xerxes king of Persia Bishlam Mithridath Tabreel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to art of Xerxes the letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language Reham the commanding officer and Shemshai the secretary wrote a letter against Jerusalem to art of Xerxes the king as follows and you can read during the week verses 9 to 16 about the letter they wrote to art of Xerxes and then you can read in verses 17 to 22 the reply that the king gives them it's a determined opposition it's a coordinated attack and it progresses right throughout the rest of the chapter chapter it began with a compromised cooperation then discouragement and fear and political maneuvering now it's into false accusations lies and then finally in verse 23 we see it's it ends in physical force as soon as Reham and Shemshai had a copy of Arta Xerxes response to them he writes a letter back and says oh these people sound terrible but we may make them stop tell them to stop as soon as they get that letter in their hands they grab their associates and Ezra tells us they compel the Jews by force to stop the rebuilding this pattern of a determined opposition to the work of God and to the people of God shouldn't surprise us it's not an old just an Old Testament pattern in 1 Peter 4 verse 12 Peter writes this way he says dear friends do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you what he's saying there is Peter is saying in the New Testament that this shouldn't be something strange or surprising to God's people there's a pattern here Peter's not saying that every difficulty or every roadblock or every opposition proves that we're faithful sometimes we face opposition or roadblocks or trouble just because we've acted foolishly sometimes criticism is justified we need to listen to that and repent and change but what Peter is saying is the if the opposition comes because we belong to Jesus and seek to obey him then we shouldn't be surprised faithfulness to God doesn't guarantee approval from the world in actual fact Jesus said faithfulness to God will bring us into conflict with the values of the world James says something similar in James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4 James writes consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything it's a challenging command James is saying not that pain is pleasant or that we need to pretend that suffering doesn't hurt he's not telling us to put on a fake smile and act like everything is fine what he's actually doing is saying consider the trials a joy because you know something that God has revealed you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance the trial in itself is not joyful but what's joyful is the fact that God in his grace and is in his sovereign mystery he can use these trials to produce something within us within his people something in our hearts that honors him perseverance steadfastness and endurance the opponents in Ezra chapter 4 wanted to weaken the hands of God's people but God could even use that long season of opposition to expose the hearts of his people and teach them perseverance so opposition seeks to weaken the hands of God's people but God can use these trials to strengthen our faith don't know if you've ever ridden a bike into a strong headwind you keep peddling and your legs are working your heart rate goes up using more energy than usual and sometimes in that headwind it feels like you're hardly moving the road might be flat but it feels like you're climbing a hill and you look ahead and you kind of think I should be getting further along than this the road just seems like really long that's what prolonged opposition can feel like those moments when you're still praying and serving and caring and trying to be faithful but then everything feels harder than it should using more energy and you're seeing less progress it's a danger in those times to interpret slow progress as no progress or to interpret resistance as proof that we're going in the wrong direction a headwind doesn't mean you're going in the wrong direction sometimes it just means the journey is going to require perseverance because that's the wind you just got to keep riding I think when it comes to our service for the Lord our hands can be weak in many different ways the scriptures encourage us not to be surprised faithfulness to God is sometimes like riding into that headwind it can be hard going it can even be difficult Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 that in actual fact it's really easy to go the way of the world that road is wide and everybody finds their way on that path but the road to life the road that follows Jesus is a narrow way and only a few people find for following after him we need to know that it might be difficult he tells us that but he says if we stay the course it'll be worth it in the end so what has whatever it is that's causing your hands to become weak what is it the criticisms that you might be replaying what disappointments have drained your courage what road block has caused you to start to wonder whether faithfulness is worthwhile I would encourage you to pray and ask for God to help you to stand firm and to remain faithful when that opposition comes because we know that he can use that opposition against the work of God to produce steadfastness in those that hold on to him brings us to our final verse which is that verse 24 that I mentioned about before a final verse a lesson and a quick warning verse 24 says thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia that's in a chapter 4 the work stops it seems like the enemies had won but as Dave and Kaylee kind of gave us the spoiler there earlier it's not the end we'll go to chapter 5 next week and we'll see that God raises up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah and they speak the word of God to the people the leaders begin rebuilding again and opposition still continues because it's always there but the people return to the work and then in Ezra chapter 6 a week later we'll see that the temple is completed the opposition delayed the work friends but it didn't defeat God's purpose Ezra chapter 4 verse 24 it's a pause it's not the conclusion of the story we need to remember that even though there was these years of delay God hadn't forgotten his promise he hadn't let go of his people in actual fact we see this character and nature of God right throughout the scriptures and in Hebrews chapter 6 the author of Hebrews reminds us that God's promise to Abraham way back in Genesis chapter 12 God promised Abraham to give him many many descendants that wasn't a promise that was fulfilled immediately it would be many many many years later before that promise to Abraham was fulfilled and yet he waited he had faith he experienced years of uncertainty and moments of doubt he even had some attempts to bring about the promise through his own means instead of relying on God's plan and yet through all of that the Bible tells us that Abraham trusted in God to complete the work and Hebrews chapter 6 verse 15 says that after waiting patiently Abraham received what was promised is a good example for us he couldn't see the whole plan he didn't know the whole timeline just like these exiles didn't know the whole time but God remained faithful and so there's a important truth there that a delayed promise from God is not a forgotten promise God's timing is not always our timing his methods are not always what we would choose God's work doesn't God doesn't always explain the the reason why the work stops delay doesn't mean that God has lost control and so what do we do in in light of that well Romans 12 12 gives us a wonderful summary of how we're to live in seasons like Ezra fool we're told to be joyful in hope patient in affliction and faithful in prayer because the ESV says rejoice in hope be patient in tribulation be constant in prayer we rejoice in hope ultimately because our joy is not based upon the visible progress our joy is based on the character and the promises of God we we are patient in tribulation not because the waiting or the delay is easy but if we remain faithful without giving up it means that God will actually do something in us that is going to help us understand him more and maybe bring us closer to him if we hold on to God if we're constant in prayer we pray to God because prayer reminds us that this is God's work it reminds us that we're not sovereign we're not in control our hope doesn't rest in the plans or the resources or our strength or influence prayer says Lord we can't do this without you so Lord would you strengthen our hands keep our hearts soft show us that next faithful step accomplish what only you can do I think about those roadworks that are going on around the place and from time to time a major roadwork project can seem completely abandoned you see the barriers up everywhere maybe the the roads closed or the detours and sections of the road have been dug up machinery sits silently behind fences half finished bridges the kind of lead to nowhere and you drive past week after week after week and you wonder have they given up as the company ran out of money is the government arguing over some sort of zoning like what's happening here with this road ever be finished but the project may not have been abandoned maybe the engineers are resolving a problem maybe materials are arriving maybe approvals are underway work could be happening somewhere that us as passing drivers can't see we see the unfinished road but the project managers they see the whole plan and in Ezra chapter 4 the people saw this abandoned work site God saw the whole plan what appears to us as an abandonment may only be a pause within God's larger purpose now bear in mind that every illustration has its limits God is not simply a project manager working through unexpected problems nothing catches him by surprise he is sovereign and in control and overall he didn't suddenly just wake up one morning and see the opposition he wasn't wondering about how we could complete the project he had it all in his hand but I think the illustration in its flawed way helps us to understand that our perspective is limited we can see this chapter as a chapter 4 we can't see the whole story thankfully this side of salvation history we've got the whole book we've got the whole scroll so we can kind of read ahead and see some of the just be careful there's final warning before we finish the people here God's people weren't completely innocent in the delay you can read in the book of Haggai and discover that the people eventually become so comfortable with leaving that temple unfinished that they just leave it there and and the opposition had stopped this work the roadblock suddenly becomes an excuse and the people focused on their own houses while the house of the Lord remained unfinished and the Prophet Haggai took them to task for this he said you're living in these paneled houses the house of God remains a ruin that they'd let the roadblock become an excuse and I think that there's a warning there for us just because God's delayed something don't let it become an excuse biblical patience is not inactivity Abraham waited but he continued walking with God Romans 12 told us earlier to be patient in affliction in affliction but it also said to be faithful in prayer and so in those times are waiting when we're not sure what's going on when it feels like there's a pause or the opposition is is just too much we need to pray we need to pray pray pray ask the Lord to strengthen our hands that we'd be rejoicing in hope patient and tribulation and constant in prayer it's amazing it isn't when you think about the communion we celebrated this morning the cross is another example of like what looks like a roadblock Jesus had taught he had healed he done all these wonderful things he claimed to be the Son of God and then he dies and his disciples are probably thinking what's going on did we did we follow the wrong guy like they're all scared and worried whether they're going to be arrested and what's going on and and that looks like the enemy has won but it was just a pause we know don't we that three days later Jesus died and he rose again God's plan was fulfilled and that's why Jesus can say to us in John 16 33 in this world you'll have trouble but take heart I've overcome the world we're going to finish our service right here I'm going to pray and just invite you as I pray to to just pause and examine your own heart there's something that God has been saying to you this morning about all of this about how you can guard your heart in the midst of these roadblocks of opposition and discouragement let's let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the sovereign God no enemy can defeat you no opposition can outrun or overturn your purposes there's no delay that causes you to forget your promises no power in heaven or earth can separate us your people from your love in Christ Jesus Father would you forgive us for the many ways that our hearts become divided forgive us for trying to add you to our lives while continuing to serve our own items Lord unite our hearts to fear your name teach us to worship alone Father I just pray for those here today whose hands have become weak for those who are discouraged Lord would you give them courage for those who are afraid would you give them your peace look maybe there's some who are facing opposition because they belong to you give them perseverance Lord as your word encourages us we know you use these trials that we face to make us mature and complete so help us Lord to not be surprised when faithfulness is difficult help us to be patient particularly those who are living through seasons of delay when the work appears to have stopped help us to trust that you have not stopped working teach us God to rejoice in hope to be patient in tribulation and to remain constant in prayer keep us from using these roadblocks as an excuse for complacency and Lord today would you just speak clearly to us show us what that next faithful step is that you want us to take in obedience to you today give us dear Lord the strength to take it by your Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus amen thank you for joining us this morning feel free to join us for morning tea we'd love to have you and if you haven't registered yet for Christianity explored and you'd like to I think you can still do that on the website otherwise just come and see me we start over there at the office at 2 p.m. today love to see you