RCCG: Place of His Presence

Text: Ezra 1

Introduction

Always, there is a call like this. God always calls us because there is real work to be done. When He calls, He gives an assignment. When He gives an assignment, He also makes provision for the success of it. This time, God has called us to build a flock that will make it to heaven. As usual, He has already made provision for the success of this assignment, even before we were formed (if you read Jeremiah 1:5). There is so much work to be done here. There are so many things we have to deal with. As in all things, God has already made a way for us to succeed in this mission. The road is straightforward, but it is narrow; and not many will find it. We pray God will grant us the grace to find it, and remain on the path. Sometimes, it may be rough riding on the way; there will be trials and temptations; we may stumble also. But, these will not necessarily make us fail; it is how we deal with these confrontations that will determine the failure or success of the assignment. It is not said that a man will not fall. It is what happens after the fall that determines if that man will fail or succeed. Whether, we will fail or succeed really depends upon the foundation we lay. Today’s message is very appropriate because we at Place of His Presence, as a church, are at the foundation stage of our life.

Let’s read Ezra 3:1 – 11. The first thing the Jews did was to erect an altar where they could make sacrifice to God, because this was very essential. As we know, sacrifice is a form of worship. The fact they did not have the walls up or a proper building standing did not deter them. They were not put off by that. From the first day of the 7th month, they began to offer sacrifices from the altar that was made. This is when the house of the Lord had not been built; even the foundation was not laid then. It was not until the 2^nd year that the foundation was finally laid. Then the people really rejoiced and praised the Lord.

After the foundation, that is when building of any structure properly starts. Though what we build is important, the type of house that will be built is determined by the foundation that is laid. The foundation is extremely vital. It is absolutely crucial that we lay the right foundation.

The foundation we build is based on the principles we inculcate. It is the principles of our foundation that develop into our character.

Sacrifice

Though God values obedience more than sacrifice, the sacrifice you make to God demonstrates how reliant you are upon Him and not upon yourself. It shows both your appreciation of Him and your trust in Him (1 Kings 3:4 – 5). It moves God’s hand in your favour. Therefore, offer worthy, selfless and clean sacrifices unto God, not something that is filthy, stained or with blemish which He will reject together with the giver (Gen. 4:3 – 4; Duet. 17:1, Malachi 1:13 -14).

Worship

Ex. 34:14 tells us that the Lord is a jealous God. He is kind, merciful and grants us grace to achieve what we want to achieve. But, we will incur His anger when we give credit to others, for what He’s done. Set your heart to worship the Lord in true holiness and give Him the glory due to Him (Ps. 29:2). Worship Him and hold Him to His word, because He performs His word when you worship Him (Ps. 138:2).

Faith

Hebrews 11:6 says without faith, we know it is impossible to please God. We know God is a spirit, we can not see Him. So are the expectations we have of Him; they can not be seen with the physical eyes until He causes them to manifest. He does not give us signed contract papers or cheques that we can see. But His promises are ‘Yea’ and ‘Amen’ (Isa. 55:10 – 11). We just have to believe that He will do what He says He will do, and give us

what He promised to give us. Certain things can not happen if we do not have faith in Him to make them happen. We have to have that resolute trust in Him. That He will accomplish what He has set out to do in our lives. Proverbs 28:20a says “A faithful man shall abound in blessings…”

Love

You can not imagine what God will do in your life, if you really love Him (1 Cor. 2:9 ). Let us love truly in deed, not deceiving ourselves by love in words or tongue (1 John 3:18). 1 Cor. 13: 1 – 3 portrays the importance of love. According to 1 John 4:20, we can not claim we love God if we do not love those who we can see face to face. If we love others, we are able to maintain that vital connection with God which ensures that things will always be well with us. It also ensures we will finish everything we started out to do and God will perfect everything concerning us.  

Conclusion

Finally, brethren, before we close let us read the parable of our Lord in Luke 6: 47 – 49 and the counsel of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3: 10 - 11. We have seen that we need to lay a proper foundation built on the principles of total obedience to God’s word; a genuine heart of worship; selfless sacrifice; complete faith in God and love for God and our neighbour. We can sum up all these by saying that the foundation is Christ Jesus. Though the body of the building is important, the foundation is more vital because if we make a mistake with that, it is finished. No one can enter heaven without having Christ. However, if we make a mistake with the body while Christ is surely the foundation we may be forgiven and still go to heaven.  Also, we can see that we have to be very mindful how we build upon that foundation, knowing that different implications follow our decisions. We know that God has planned for us to succeed. The thoughts of God towards us are of peace to bring us to that expected end -Jeremiah 29:11. And like the Jews who, with the obstacles and setbacks in their way, still reached their expected end -as we see in Ezra 6: 15 – 16, and celebrated with joy, so shall it be unto us as we diligently do His will, He will bring us to that expected end and we shall celebrate in joy, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

This is where we stand, today.