The Gateway Church

What do you need courage for this morning?
* sort out a relational conflict
* face a medical diagnoses
* ask the boss for a raise
* start a new business
* talk to a friend about Jesus
* sort out a sinful habit
* get out of a relationship - or maybe into one!
Write it down!

Do you see the hand of the Lord upon you?

Ezra has finally arrived on scene - some 57 years after chapter6
God has been squeezing hearts
Zerubbabel and Jeshua to organise rebuilding the Temple
Nehemiah to come and rebuild the city and its walls
And now Ezra to rebuild the Spiritual life of the people. That's going to need some courage and the hand of the Lord upon him.

Ezra 7 main theme is "the hand of the Lord was upon him" - 7 times in this chapter and the next v6,9, 29; 8:18, 8:22 and 8:31

The hand of God upon you is a sense of God's anointing
God's power to do what is more than humanly possible. Not a let go and let God - he worked hard. But a supernatural anointing on what he was doing.

Who wants courage? Who wants the Lord hand upon them?

I started by asking about what you need courage for this morning. Lets look at v28 to see why

I took courage
Courage is there for the grasping. We take it. Someone once said courage is fear that has said its' prayers!
Ezra took courage FOR - for the Lord's hand was upon him.

Courage is there for the taking when God's hand is upon us - and we will see how that is gained in a moment. And when we are in team. I took courage for... I gathered leading men of Israel to go with me.

We are bolder when God's hand is upon us
We are bolder when we are in team
Team helps us both ways - crowds do stupid things you wouldn't do alone. And teams can be more effective doing what the Lord wants.
Paul upped the pace in planting the church in Corinth when the team arrived to help.

My God
Note Ezra took courage because the hand of MY GOD was on him.
Vital to have your own personal relationship with God.
Living in a Christian country doesn't do it!
Coming to Church doesn't do it
R/C background - going to the priest doesn't do it. You need your own personal relationship with Jesus.

So why was the hand of the Lord up on him?
Need to go back in the chapter to v8-10 to find out why.
Ezra arrives in Jerusalem and begins to get going. The good hand of The Lord was upon him, FOR.
There's that word again FOR. The reason the hand of the Lord was upon him follows from the FOR.

Ezra had set his heart
The heart is pretty important - not just a physical four chambered blood pump, but the word we use to describe our centre, our core, our very essence and being.
We believe with the Heart Rom 10:10
We think with the heart Matt 9:4
It's the source of what comes out of our mouths Matt 12:34 - the good and the bad
It's where we love 1 Tim 1:5
God knows our hearts!
So set your heart like Ezra - choose to do something, to make it a good habit, even when other things seem easier.
An example is exercise - Paul tells us it is profitable and we know it helps the fight against heart disease and strokes and makes us feel good. The other eve was cold, dark, I was tired. But with the help of Janet I set my heart to go to a core session rather than watch TV.
When we don't feel like it, going to life group, gathering together on a Sunday - that's when we need to have set our heart, because it will do us good.

Ezra set his heart to study the Word
Actually says the law - that's OT speak for the first five books of the bible, which is all the scriptures that had been written down and in the canon of Scripture at that point. We have more! We have the whole of the OT and the NT

At this point exhort you to set your heart to read the Bible every day. Make it a habit. Set your heart to do it.
To feed on God's word matt 4:4.
Someone this week said but I cant remember what I read! Do you know what I can't remember what I ate for lunch on Monday. But it fed me. It nourished me. I don't remember most of the meals I have eaten, but they fed me and nourished me. I remember some of the feasts, the fist ever 7 course meal I had at 10 years old, Janet's grandparents 50th wedding anniversary feast in Tuscany, our wedding breakfast - so many potatoes!
But if I only ate when it's a feast, I'd be dead! We eat every day, we need to feed on God's word every day.

We have daily bible readings as a church - you can get the email if you want, or they are on the church app. If you are a newbie - use 42!

Ezra studied the bible - that's more than a daily feeding. That's studying to learn more about the Lord, to deepen you relationship with God.
If you are looking for courage - maybe you need to study that topic.
As I was preparing this I felt the Lord highlight anxiety - some of you are just so anxious in life. Study the Bible on that and find help from it.
Nowadays we have some many resources to help us.

Paper Bible's have a concordance at the back, that's a list of verses for different words. Like a dictionary, but instead of telling you the meaning it tells you the verses for that word. The one at the back of the bible is not very big, so it is not exhaustive. You can get book size ones. And they are on the internet too
biblegateway.com, the You version app, or if you are geeky and want to get into the original languages biblehub.com

So let's say you are looking for courage to conquer anxiety.
Study the word on that topic - search Anxious 5x, Anxiety 7x, Worry 15x,, Cares 15x
Write them down, print them out
Read them over and over again
Meditate on them - if you are someone that worries, then you already know how to meditate, just on the wrong things.
Most of all learn 1 Pet 5:7 "Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you"

Takeway no 2 (No 1 was write down what you need courage for!). Takeaway 2 is set your heart to study the Scriptures on a that topic.

Ezra set his heart to study the word and TO DO IT
It's all well and good looking up 1 Peter 5:7 and learning it, but you need to do it. You need to cast all your anxieties on him!
Easy to get fat on knowledge and be a flabby Christian that doesn't do anything - we need to do it!
James 1:22 is pretty strong "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, thereby deceiving yourselves"

If you don't do it, you are deceiving yourself. Got to put our bible reading into practice.

That's why we ask the life groups to put the sermon into practice - to go over the questions on the news sheet, so that we are not just hearing a sermon but working out how to apply it!

Lastly Ezra set his heart to study the Word, and to to do it and teach the his statutes.
If you really want to know something, try and explain it to someone else!
When we pass on what we know it is cemented into our being.
Ezra studied, Ezra put it in to practice and he taught others to do it too - that's integrity. Do as I do, not just what I say.

That's our discipleship strategy with 42 - that as you do it, you try and pass it on, so we are not just disciples, but making disciples.

As we come into land
What do you need courage for this morning?
Are you living with the hand of God upon you.
set your heart to study the Word of God, to do it and to pass it on.
Tha hand of God upon us, is about the anointing of teh Spirit too.
Isa 61 The Spirit of God is upon me, because he has anointed me.
Hearts have been squeezed by the Lord, calling you to restore, to take courage to get up and do. Need the power of God for that!