That you might be where I am

Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. – Zechariah 1:3

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” – John 14:1-4

 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” – Genesis 3:8-10

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. – Exodus 6:7

 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. - Leviticus 26:12

Zechariah issues the call for God’s people to return to Him.  The call comes with a promise.  He does not say “return to me or else….”  While there are clearly consequences for remaining separated from God, this is rarely the primary focus of the message of God to His people.  His call always includes a promise.

…that you also may be where I am

Often, when we hear these words of Jesus, our focus is on the rooms in the Father’s house and the place that He is going to prepare for us.  However, a focus on Heaven that misses this phrase might miss the most important thing about Heaven.  The best thing about Heaven will be that we are with Him!  In fact, it is in this phrase that we see a glimpse into the plan that God had for us from the beginning.  Often, we focus on heaven and salvation as if God’s plan was always for us to get to heaven.  God’s original plan was that we might walk with Him.  Every moment that God has broken into history since “the fall” has been focused on restoring His original plan for His people.  From beginning to end, the scripture are about God’s plan to walk with His people, that we might be with Him.

Where are you?

In the first few chapters of Genesis, we find the creation story. This incredible story is followed by the story of destruction that is described by man’s fall into sin.  Immediately following the fall, we find this brief scene where God is walking in the garden in the cool of the day.  This scene shows us both the consequences of the fall and the state of things before the fall.  Adam and Eve hear God walking in the garden!  This does not seem to be surprising to them.  It was normal for God to walk with His people.  What was unusual about this scene is that Adam recognized his nakedness and hid.  Here, we find God calling to him.  Where are you?  Why are you hiding?  Who told you that you are naked?  Sin in the world has caused us to hide and to flee from God.  Still today, God’s presence leads people to feel exposed and to walk out of churches or avoid spiritual conversations.  Yet, still today, God calls out to us.  Only he no longer asks where we are.  Rather, he calls out to us “Return to me and I will return to you!”

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God…I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

The call of God to the Israelites after He led them out of Egypt was a call back to relationship.  Even in Exodus and Leviticus, God spoke to His people about a situation where He would be our God and we would be His people and He would walk with us!  The promises of blessing found in Leviticus 26 are incredible…Provision, protection, and a God who would walk with us!  What more could we ask.  And if we do not stay faithful?  There are certainly consequences, but the scripture tells us that these are intended that we would listen when we had not listened before.  His purpose is always to draw us back to Himself.  The God of all creation wants to walk with us.

Looking Forward

The next few weeks will be a description of God’s work in our lives.  Our culture has oversimplified the salvation message of God to prayer of salvation and a trip to heaven.  He wants so much more for us than that.  He wants to walk with us!  That has always been His plan for us.  If we go to heaven, then the purpose is not to live in luxury and walk the streets of gold.  The purpose is that we might be with Him where He is!

Join us as we continue to study God’s plan of salvation for our lives!

Pastor Pete

Putting it in Action

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly.  Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.  Now let us make a covenant before our God….Let it be done according to the Law.  Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath.  Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. - Ezra 10:1-6

This whole scene is set up by Ezra’s decision to get up and pray for the people of Israel.  His intercession and repentance on behalf of the people has an impact on the people who see him there praying.

They too wept bitterly.

Previously, there were people who feared the word of the Lord gathering around Ezra.   Presumably, these were people that were equally as upset with the rest of Israel because of their sin.  However, when Ezra prays, scripture tells us that a large crowd of Israelites gathered around him.  It does not say these were people who feared the word of the Lord.  Therefore, we can assume that Ezra’s prayer caused a change of heart in many people.  Perhaps some of these were people who had previously sat with Ezra upset with Israel’s sin.  Now, they see Ezra’s broken heart for his people and their hearts are also broken.  Perhaps some of these were those who had themselves been involved in breaking the commands of God.  They wept bitterly over their sin and their hearts were also changed.  Ezra’s intercession for people had an effect on the people around him.

Then Shekaniah…said to Ezra….

Unfortunately, as a pastor, I have witnessed way too much bitter weeping at the altar that has little impact on the lives of the people when they get up from the altar and walk out the doors of the church.  Youth Pastors are often frustrated by broken-hearted teens who have an experience with God at camp and then return home and reconnect with friends with little fruit from their experience.  At some point during this time of weeping, someone got up and began looking to the future.  He proclaims that there is still hope!  He proposes that a covenant be made…an agreement between two parties.  The assumption is that they are renewing the covenant that the people had with God when he delivered them out of Egypt, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exodus 19:5-6a). However, contrary to common thinking today, this was not just a covenant between them and God.  Rather, they invite Ezra to hold them accountable and make sure that they follow through with the commitment that they made before God.  They give Ezra the authority to hold them accountable and take this matter into his hands.

Then Ezra withdrew…

This is an interesting part of this text because it tells us what Ezra did when he left the house of God.  Many of us preach or teach accountability and talk about what people need to do when they leave the altar, but what is the role of the person who has been invited to hold someone accountable.  Ezra withdrew into a room and fasted.  Scripture says that he did this because he continued to mourn the unfaithfulness of Israel.  However, my belief is that he was also looking forward and praying for the faithfulness and responsiveness of Israel.  I believe that he was praying for a change and praying that, when he took the matter into his hands and called the assembly in the next section, he would find Israel as responsive as they were when they made this commitment at the altar.  It is easy for us to place all of the responsibility of follow-through on people who make commitments at the altar, but as pastors, lay leaders, mentors, and Christians who might be called to hold others accountable, how much do we fast and pray for the people who have made themselves accountable to us?  We must take the role of priest that God has given all of us as Christians (1 Peter 2:9) seriously!

Pastor Pete

Priestly Prayer

When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled.  Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.  From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

“But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.  Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

“What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.  Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” - Ezra 9:3-9, 13-15

Last week, Ezra received the difficult news that the people of Israel were still disobeying the commands of God.  We spent some time learning why God made these commands in the first place.  God really does have our best (and our relationship with Him) first in His mind when he gives us direction. 

When I heard this, I tore my tunic…

As a pastor, I have tunic-tearing, beard ripping, moments nearly every day.  People that I have discipled or ministered to do not follow the Biblical teaching that I know they’ve received.  It feels much the same way that I feel when my children don’t listen to the things that I’ve told them for their own good.  I just want to pull my hair out.  This was Ezra’s first reaction, but I like to believe that, while He sat there for a good portion of the day, God was speaking to him about the right way to work through His disappointment.

There were others who also feared the word of the Lord who were just as distraught as He was and sat with Him.  One attack of the enemy is to tell us that we are the only ones that even care.  This is obviously not true, but it feels like it sometimes.  The most notable example of this in scripture is found in 1 Kings 19, when Elijah is convinced that he is the only prophet left.

Because of our sins…

The result of God’s work on Ezra during the time he sat with his beard and hair torn out was that when he rose up, he prayed a priestly prayer for the people of Israel.  He begins by taking on the sin of all of Israel as his own responsibility.  Not only did he claim the guilt of the sin of Israel that led them into captivity, he also claimed the sin of those that led him to his current state, even though Ezra has just arrived back in Jerusalem and had nothing to do with this disobedience.  Rather than standing on the side of God in judgment and pointing to everyone who had disobeyed the commands of the Lord, he stood on the side of the sinner and cried out to God on their behalf…not just crying out for forgiveness for “their” sins, but for “our” sins.

The attitude that Ezra had toward the people of Israel after his time in self-abasement is an example for pastors who have been frustrated with the people to whom they minister.  It is also an example for all Christians, who have been called to be a Kingdom of Priests.  We must take on the attitude of intercession for our world rather than of criticism.

But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious…

Ezra was intensely aware of the grace that God had given the people of Israel.  Unfortunately, many of us in today’s culture are more likely to take the grace of God for granted because we have been taught the grace of God as if it were a birthright.  God’s grace cost Jesus a brutal death on a cross.  It wasn’t cheap and it isn’t our right!  It is a gift and we need to be thankful for God’s gift and respond with a life of thanksgiving!

Shall we then break your commands again?

Ezra’s question reminds me very much of Paul’s question in Romans 6.

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

Paul and Ezra both realized that the incredible grace of God deserved a response of grateful obedience.  We need to take this same attitude into our day.  Each day we make choices.  Are we remembering what God has done for us an responding to Him in obedience?

Looking Forward

Next week, we will address the disparity between the commitments that we make to God and our obedience.  How can we follow through with the commitments that we make at an altar of prayer?

Pastor Pete

Holy to the Lord

After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”- Ezra 8:1-2

From the beginning, this passage of scripture makes me nervous.  Ezra obviously becomes very upset after the leaders come to him about this unfaithfulness.  However, I have seen this passage of scripture and ones like it misinterpreted so often that I can feel the tension in the room as soon as I read the text.  For some, the proper interpretation eases the tension a little.  However, for many of us the right interpretation is even more challenging and convicting.

The people…have not kept themselves separate

In Deuteronomy 7:6, God tells the Israelites, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”  While we interpret the word holy to refer to righteousness or purity, these are actually the results of holiness.  Holiness actually refers to our position as separated unto God or set apart for His purposes.  When we are set apart for His purposes, He causes us to be righteous and pure, but we are first called to be holy or set apart.

This message is now the message that God gives to His people who are adopted as children through the blood of Jesus Christ.  1 Peter 2:9 calls us a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  We, too, are called to be a holy people, set apart for His purposes.

Why not “intermarry”?

Just before God calls the Israelites his treasured possession, he instructs them not to intermarry with the people in the land that they are about to enter (Deut 7:3).  This is just a portion of what God means when He calls them holy unto Himself.  This isn’t an arbitrary rule, as some of us might suggest.  Rather, God tells them that if they do marry women from other nations who do not worship God, the people that they marry will turn their children away from following God in order to serve other gods (Deut 7:4).  God is trying to protect His people from the temptation to stray.

Of course, we all have a tendency to believe that we are the exception because we are much stronger and smarter than those others who have fallen.  In case we don’t believe that God knew what he was talking about, 1 Kings 11:1 tells us that King Solomon loved many foreign women from the nations about which God had given this command.  The result, according 1 Kings 11:4 was “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”  Solomon was the wisest king in the history of Israel.  His father was the man who God called “a man after my own heart.”  However, even David was not immune to the temptation that is introduced with regard to the opposite sex.  Why do we believe that we will be any different?  Paul applies this same sort of instruction to the New Testament people of God by telling us “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14).  This is not a matter of race or national origin.  Rather, this is a matter of not compromising by establishing intimate relationships with people who do not serve our God.  In the end, we will be led astray.

Looking Forward

The response of Ezra to this infraction is perhaps the most enlightening and inspirational parts of this whole story.  Don’t miss next week as we study how the man of God responds to sin.

Pastor Pete

They will be called priests of the Lord

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
    that have been devastated for generations.
 Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
    foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
 And you will be called priests of the Lord,
    you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
    and in their riches you will boast. – Isaiah 61:4-6

Last week, we learned what God would do for His people who grieve and mourn and hurt.  “He will bestow” was the message.  He gives us a crown of beauty in exchange for our ashes, the oil of joy in exchange for our mourning, and a garment of praise in exchange for our despair.  He is the renewing and regenerating force in our lives.

They will…

For many of us, ‘they’ is a very general term.  We don’t know who ‘they’ are, but surely ‘they’ are supposed to fix our problems and ‘they’ are probably to blame for our problems to begin with!  However, in this passage, ‘they’ refers to the one who mourn and the ones to whom the anointed one came to proclaim freedom and release.  In short, if Jesus is the anointed one that the prophet spoke about (and He is!), then we are ‘they’!  We are the ones that this passage refers to.

Rebuild the ruins…restore the ruined cities devastated for generations.

Because of what Christ did in renewing our hope and giving us the crown of beauty, the oil of joy, and the garment of praise, we can now rebuild the ruins!  He doesn’t rebuild them for us.  Rather, He equips us for the rebuilding.  He calls us to rebuild!  In His power, the messes that we have made by turning away from the Lord can be made like new.  Even the messes that have been in our family for generations...addictions, abuse, attitudes, anger, and unforgiveness…can be healed in power of Christ.  The ruins can be rebuilt.  This is good news!

Strangers will shepherd your flocks…and you will be called priests

This points to a change of role.  In the past, even in the best times, the people of God were shepherds and workers in the vineyards.  God proclaims that in the future, the primary focus of the people of God will be to lead others to Christ.  For us, this means that no matter what our job is, this is not our primary function.  Even in our job, we are to be a priest!  For most of us, we cannot even imagine that we would lead people closer to God.  Rather, we are just happy to be people that are a little better than we used to be.  What is it that will make us worthy or able to lead others closer to God?  This is a testimony to how complete the change is that God wants to make in our lives.  He doesn’t just want to make us better.  He wants us to be a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come!  We are so completely and fully changed that our very lives will lead people closer to Christ as we proclaim the power of the one who changed us!  Are you settling for “better than I used to be” or are you willing to consider that “all that God has for me” may be more than you ever expect?

Looking Forward

Don’t miss next week as we begin our series “I Love My Church – NEXT” and begin to talk about all that God is doing in our church!

Pastor Pete