I have a question, Pete. Isn't the guy that's heading this, he's got a vision for planting like 700 or more churches? I mean, it's really, really super exciting that we get... We're allowed to be a part of what God is about to do in Poland. This guy's got a grand vision, and we get to be a small part of it.
Let's pray.
Father, we, once again, we're always so thrilled, so amazed to see the way you get in people's hearts, you get in people's minds and their lives, and you start to move them in directions they would have never gone had they not met you, had they not heard your word, felt your spirit stirring them. They go to places, they do things, they meet people they never would other than apart from you and your working.
And I ask personally that you would surprise each of the people that are making this trip, that they would... that they would... they would get a glimpse of you that they are not expecting, and that they would pass on that glimpse and the impact of it to those they interact with in Poland. Thank you for each and every one of these dear people who care so much about you and your kingdom and your people. We pray your blessing and protection on them in Christ's name. Amen.
Well, each week I've introduced a series trying to give people context, particularly those that might be here for the first time. Turning Points are those times in our life. We don't always know when they're occurring, but the trajectory of our life is starting to shift. It's starting to change. It might be going in a positive direction. It might be going in a negative direction.
These Turning Points are usually catalyzed. They're usually started by perhaps a new person coming into our life, and maybe their influence is very positive, very Christ-like. Maybe it's not, but they start to change the direction that our life is moving in. It could be some experience we have. Once again, the experience might move us in a positive direction or a negative. It could be, and more than often is, based on decisions we make that start to change the trajectory of our life.
And sometimes it's just out of our control. Things occur in life, occurrences that just kind of blast us, and we react. And it can change the direction of our lives.
Now, what we want to talk about today is opportunity, but I want to introduce it to you in what I hope is to be a fun way, and it will test your ability to seize opportunities carefully and wisely. So I'm going to show you something that you've probably seen before.
So let me present this to you. I could offer you a penny a day for 30 days, but the penny would double each day. Let me see. I'm going to ask somebody. If I offered you $75,000, check, right now, and you knew it was good money. Elon Musk is backing it. Would you take the $75,000, or would you take the penny doubled every day for 30 days?
You taking the cash and running? Okay, he's taking the $75,000. What if I offered somebody in here $300,000? Can I see takers? $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. $300,000. You could risk a penny a day for 30 days. The penny is doubled, though, every day.
So how many $300,000? I'm taking that money and running, Randy, right now. Can I see your hands? Go ahead. You're not going to look greedy. You're just going to look decisive. You're sure you want to stick with $300,000. You're sure you're making a good decision. You're sure you're seizing this opportunity for all that it's worth.
All right. All right. Let's look at this. So here's a penny a day. You can see day one, day two, day three. And you get up to day 10, and that penny has now turned to $5.12. Eh, not that impressive. Let's look on.
All right. Let's cut right to the chase. On day 20, it's still looking pretty bad. You with the $75,000 and them that grabbed $300,000 are looking pretty wise on day 20. But let me show you what happens. Look at the way this keeps doubling. And when you get down to day 30, $5,368,709.12. $5,368,709.12. $300,000. You cheated yourself. You had a bigger opportunity than what you thought.
Sometimes opportunity is hard to discern. It's not easy to see, much less to seize. So the title of today's message is this: Could opportunity be knocking? And I ask that personally to you because here's the truth. I said this in the first service, and I mean it again from my heart. Absolutely. Absolutely today will be a turning point in some of your lives.
Absolutely. This is a divinely orchestrated opportunity that you're going to have an opportunity to see it and then to seize it today. Your life, the trajectory of your life, some of you whose hearts are moved, you'll look back and you'll realize that that was the day that it all started to go in a different direction.
So that's the context. Now we're going to take back to the Old Testament. We've been looking at these demarcation points, these turning points in the nation of Israel. Some of you probably haven't exactly tracked with this, but we started like three weeks back with the time when the kingdom of Israel that was united, the 12 tribes were united for 120 years under Saul and King David and then King Solomon. They split with King Solomon's son, Rehoboam.
So in 930 B.C., the kingdom split 12 tribes. We think in terms of states, 50 states in the United States, there were 12 tribes or 12 states in Israel. When they split, the 10 northern tribes became their own kingdom. The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, they became their own kingdom.
And then last week, we saw that after 208 years, the northern kingdom went into captivity in Assyria because they refused to trust God, obey God, manifest his kind of life to the nations, which was part of the agreement they entered into with him. He allows them to be overrun by the Assyrians. The 10 northern tribes are absorbed into the Assyrian empire, and we never hear of them again. They're gone.
After that, about 136 years after that, the southern kingdom that had at least nine good godly kings, nevertheless, it still departed from God, even though he sent his prophets pleading with them to return to him to align their lives with his will, his ways, his word, so the nations could get an accurate depiction of God. They wouldn't listen, so he allows the Babylonian empire to overrun them.
And they're taken into what's called the Babylonian captivity, 586 B.C. The Babylonians come in, they burn the temple of God to the ground, they destroy it, and they are taken away into Babylon. Now, Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah chapter 25 and chapter 29, he predicted in advance that they would be in Babylon for 70 years, and then God would allow them to return.
In Daniel chapter 9, verse 1 and 2, Daniel also recognizes that God had predicted 70 years, and then they'd be allowed to return. In 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 21, you have the same thing, 70 years, and then they're going to be returned.
When we come to the portion of Scripture today we're looking at, that 70 years has gone, and the Israelites now have an opportunity, a divinely orchestrated opportunity, to return to their land.
So, let's look at the text, and then we'll kind of dig into this on a more personal application level. In the first year of King Cyrus, and this is 538 B.C. when this is taking place, in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, remember I told you it was prophesied, predicted way in advance, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia.
Pause for a moment, Cyrus, king of Persia. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 44, and then again in chapter 45, 175 years before Cyrus becomes the ruler of Persia, God prophesied, predicted through Isaiah, that he would raise up a Persian king named Cyrus, who would restore the temple of God after it had been destroyed. 175 years in advance.
A little word about the Bible. This is what distinguishes the Bible from every so-called religious or holy writing on the planet. The Bible predicts the future with specificity, specificity that can be marked, checked on, and those prophecies always come to pass.
We have, at least some of us, we've lived to see some of those prophecies come to pass even in our day. For example, Israel went out of existence as a nation in 70 AD, when the temple was destroyed yet again for a final time, until its rebuilding yet to come. But in 70 AD, Israel ceased to exist. It'd be like the United States was defeated by an enemy and we no longer existed.
But the Bible kept predicting Israel would become a nation in the last days. 1948, Israel, after nearly 1,875 years, is reborn as a nation, just like the Bible predicted. But the Bible also predicted they would regain their capital, Jerusalem. 1967, they regain their capital, Jerusalem.
So, the Bible also predicted that Israel would become a nation in the last days. The Bible stands alone, showing that it is the one true revelation of the one true God, and the predictive prophecies are one of the most compelling evidences of the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Okay, that was all on the side. So, the Lord, it goes on, the Lord moved. Now, this is important. This is a Persian king. This is not a worshipper of the God of Israel. The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout Israel, throughout his realm, and also to put it in writing.
This is what Cyrus, the king of Persia, says: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.
It goes on. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver, gold, with goods and livestock, freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose, what does it say? Heart, everyone whose heart had moved him, prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.
Now, we'll stop there. Now, I will say this. Next week, we're going to dig deeper into this story. There's another turning point that has great application to our lives, and we'll get that next week. But for now, we'll stop here.
So here's the situation. After being in captivity for 70 years and that time passing, now the time has come. God is saying to his people, I'm going to see to it that you are free to go back to your land and to rebuild the temple. And he moves the heart of this pagan king, and this pagan king gives this decree which allowed the Israelites that wanted to, whose hearts were moved, to go back and rebuild the temple.
Now, the passage in Ezra tells us a little bit more in the third chapter. It says about 42,000 of the Israelites actually went back and made this journey. But what I really want to talk to us about, and this is where it gets personal, is this. There are divinely orchestrated opportunities that come about in our lives. They don't come regularly. I have to be honest. They're actually pretty rare.
They are divinely orchestrated. In other words, it's the perfect storm of circumstance and the moving of God's spirit and his word and his will. All these things converge. And it is critical that you and I see these opportunities because they don't come much, and they are big. They are trajectory-changing turning points, that we see them, but seeing them is only the first step because to see and to see them, an opportunity is quite different than seizing that opportunity.
And seizing the opportunity is always, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable for us because what we see as opportunities are very different than what God sees as opportunities for us. And we'll get into that as we get into this passage a little bit.
So I want to start by doing something for you. I want to give you an outline, kind of, some context on how you, I, we can recognize divinely orchestrated opportunities. What are some factors? We'll get into more detail about this, but just to start us out, keys to discerning divinely orchestrated opportunities.
Here we go. First question I need to ask, does this align with God's will as revealed where? In his word, okay? I have to have substance. I have to have the word of God that's assuring me this is the will of God. They had that. Cyrus, this pagan king, he says, you know, the Lord, the Lord of Israel, he's put on my heart to rebuild his temple. They had the word. The word of God had come to Cyrus. The people knew it was the word of God. They knew that God had already predicted through Jeremiah after 70 years they would return.
So they knew this was a divinely orchestrated opportunity because it had the backing, the crystal clear support of the word of God. I meet people occasionally that say, Randy, I'm about to do this, thus, and the other, and I think it's the will of God. And I say, but that contradicts the word of God. Well, I don't know. I just have this feeling. Do not trust a feeling or an impression or a dream or someone else's comment that's urging you to take some pretty significant action unless you have the support, the crystal clear support of the word of God.
So they had that. Does this align with God's will as it's revealed in the word? Second, does this have a unique and sufficient circumstantial support? It did. Cyrus was saying, God told me. God spoke to me. And I'm going to see to it that you guys have what you need to get on with this journey. The circumstances were agreeing with the will of God as it was revealed in the word of God.
Third, does this stir desire in my heart to do this? It says in that text that the people whose hearts were stirred by God, they made this journey. So let's think this through in a personal way. So I got this decision or what I think is a divinely orchestrated opportunity. And I'm looking at it. It aligns with the word of God. The circumstances are all converging nicely. Plus, I want to do this. I feel moved. I feel motivated. I feel energized to do this thing.
Fourth, does this have obvious potential for what does it say? Great good. Not just immediate good as I think of good, but great good. They were set to rebuild the temple. This temple was going to stand for about 500 years. It was going to serve hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. It was going to communicate the truth about God and the truth about life to generation after generation after generation.
Divinely orchestrated opportunities. You're not going to like this part. Divinely orchestrated opportunities rarely are immediately beneficial to us personally. They generally are long range in their impact, and they benefit multitudes of others long term. But for us, frankly, they can feel a little challenging. We'll get into that a little bit more.
But anyway, this is giving you kind of a guideline to start with. So that if you perhaps now you are considering that maybe you have a divinely orchestrated opportunity before you, this will give you some guidelines.
Now, here's what I do believe. I believe for sure this day God is absolutely giving to some of us in this room a very unique opportunity. You will mark this day down, some of you, that you did or did not respond to the unique opportunity. In other words, God is getting close enough to everyone in this room today that He's kind of whispering in our ear and saying, are you willing to hear what I have to offer today?
That's the context that I believe the Spirit of God is creating in this room today. Ephesians chapter 5, it says this. It says, Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, doing what? Making the most of what? Every opportunity.
So we have to get clarity on this to make the most of every opportunity. Here's the first question we have to ask. In other words, if I'm going to seize this opportunity, I have to see it. But then after I see it, I have to be willing to seize it. And it comes to this question. Am I willing to take the journey?
Cyrus was saying to the people, you can go back. You can go back to Judah. You can go back to Jerusalem. You can rebuild your temple. They were free to go after 70 years of living in Babylon and Persia. So there was no problem there. But the question was, are they willing to go?
It's not unusual for us to sense that God wants us to take a journey. The journey is always toward closeness with Him. The journey is always aligned with His Word and His will. But the journey often involves our willingness to leave some things behind. In other words, He gives us a picture of what He's calling us to. And what He's calling us to is valuable enough, is meaningful enough, is important enough that it starts to tug.
And we have to consider, will I let go of what I have in order to gain what God wants me to have? Think about this. These people had lived in Babylon all their life. Most of them that would make this return, the 42,000 or so that make the return, they were born in Babylon. They had never been in Jerusalem. It was, in essence, kind of their home, but not really their home.
It meant they had to leave behind their homes, their families, their businesses, their friends that they had accumulated during 70 years. All they knew was Babylon. That's where their significance and security and satisfaction was coming from. And yet God was saying, for some of you, I want you to make this journey with me.
Now the journey, it had no guarantees it was going to be an arduous, dangerous journey. It was a 900-mile journey, 42,000 people making a journey like that. They could easily be attacked. They had no certainty that they would have sufficient supplies of food. When they got to Jerusalem, what are they going to find? They're going to find a temple that's been a debris field for 70 years. They're going to find chaos and poverty in Jerusalem.
It's going to require them to have to figure out, how do we survive? How do we start working? How do we build our own houses? And then how do we build this temple? And we've never built a temple in our life. We don't even know how to build a temple.
So this journey that God was calling them on, it was not a comfortable journey. But here's the key. Every journey that God asks us to partake of, it has one critical component, one potentiality in it. And that potentiality is this: If I'm willing to take the journey, I guarantee you it will deepen my trust in God.
And that is one of the most important things we can ever develop in this life. We come back to God by putting our trust in Christ and becoming His followers. But then for the rest of eternity, our trust in God is just going to deepen. He's going to be constantly teaching us to live as He Himself lives and love as He Himself loves.
That's why trust is so critically important to God. He knows when we really trust Him, now He can teach us. Now He can lead us. Now He can guide us. But we've got to let go before we can reach out and get what God wants us to experience. And that calls for trust and strength. Strength and trust that will go through the various twists and turns with no guarantees.
When I was a little kid, I never learned how to skate until I was nine. So, like, they took me to a skating rink. I'm just curious. Probably nobody in here remembers this place. PG County, there was a place called Bladensburg Skating Rink.
Anybody on the first service there, there were a few that did. Okay, in PG, you do remember. Okay, so I learned to skate in Bladensburg Skating Rink, nine years old. Well, I'm going to tell you, man, when I put the skates on my feet, it was like having a bar of soap on an ice rink. I could not stand up at all. I mean, I was down and down, and so I ended up holding on to the rail.
How many of you have ever been through that drill? You're in a skating rink, and you've got to hold on to the rail, okay? So, I'm holding on to the rail, scooting along, and, you know, I'd let go for a while, and then I'd fall down again. And I'm trying to learn to skate, but, man, I am not doing good.
Now, there's people at the rink. You ever see the people that bounce? They're bouncing, you know. And they're flying. I kid you not. I could hear the sound of their wheels and the wind as they whip. Some of them, it was three of them together. You ever see them do that thing, the trios? And they whip around, and I'm like holding on to the rail, and I'm looking at those people, and I'm like, man, you're cool. I want to be you. I want to be doing this, you know, bouncing around and going fast.
But to do that, I had to let go of the rail. And if I let go of the rail, I fell down, and that hurt. So, I had this dilemma. Do I let go of the rail and try to do this very poorly and very imperfectly and with some pain for a while and with some uncertainty? Because if I'm ever going to get to do it well, I've got to do it poorly with some uncertainty, and I'm going to have bumps and bruises, and I'm going to trust I'm going to have to let go.
Right now, you know who you are. The Spirit of God is telling you with crystal clarity, there is something in your life you've got to let it go. You've got to let go of it if you're ever going to experience what God wants you to have. And as long as you're holding on to it, you won't have what God wants you to have.
You've got to let go, and you've got to take this journey where you're going to say, you know what, God? I'm done calling the shots. I'm going to actually trust you. I'm going to actually get into your word, and if you say in your word, stop doing thus and so, I'm going to stop it. And if you say in your word, start doing this and thus and so, I'm going to do it. And if you say go, I'm going to go. And if you say stop, I'm going to stop. You say learn, I'm going to learn. You say love, I'm going to love. You say give, I'm going to give. You say forgive, I'm going to forgive.
Whatever it says, that's a major decision. That's a journey with some uncertainties and some difficulties and some discomfort, but it stretches and develops our trust because here's what I know that all of you in here know, or at least the vast majority of you know. Our God is absolutely faithful. He doesn't do what He says to do. No matter what circumstances we encounter, He somehow gets us through and we come out of it better.
We come out of it a little bit more Christ-like, that is if we're really clinging to Him in trust, staying faithful to His word as well. How many of you, you've gone through some things, you didn't know how it was going to end, you trusted God, but somehow, somehow He got you through and you felt like it was perhaps the end of something really important in your life, but God instead got you through it.
I'm just curious, how many of you experienced that? Yeah, first service is the same way, so we know God is faithful, but you can't seize the divinely orchestrated opportunity unless you make the journey. And the journey is usually difficult with twists and turns and uncertainties, and that's the way it was going to be for these people.
We kind of glamorize it, but 42,000 people going 900 miles through wilderness and going to a place they've never been to inherit a mess that they did not make, that was a great deal on the surface, but man was it an opportunity because they're going to build that temple that's going to serve hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people for like a 500-year period and tell the truth about God and truth about life and change multitudes of lives.
They didn't experience the initial blessing. It was just a lot of scary journey and hard work. But the blessing was given to others because they made the journey. Are we willing to take the journey?
Acts chapter 22, the Apostle Paul, the Lord said to him, Then the Lord said to me, Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Now understand, Paul's a Jewish guy. He's always been immersed in Jewish culture. That's who he was familiar with. That's who he knew how to talk to and deal with. But God says, no, no, no. I don't want you to go where you're comfortable. I want you to go where you're going to be totally uncomfortable.
I want you to go where you're going to feel awkward with. You're going to feel like you have nothing in common and you're going to have to learn who they are, how they live, how they think, how they feel. But that's who I want you to go to. I don't want you to go where it's comfortable.
God will often lead us on a journey that initially does not feel comfortable. Right now, if some of us were to leave behind that thing that we know he's calling us to leave behind, we would be very uncomfortable. We would think, man, I don't see how I could ever be happy if I didn't, if I didn't have that going on in my life. If I didn't cling to this, I don't know how I'd ever be fulfilled.
And yet God's saying, no, you will. You'll be fulfilled in a way that you can't even quite imagine now, but you've got to let go. By the way, that skating rink, Bladensburg Skating Rink, where I learned how to skate, that thing burned down. And Braddock, how many went to Braddock Skating Rink? I went there too. It burned down. If you own a skating rink and you're going to invite me, get your insurance boosted because evidently I bring fire.
But we have to let go. And God will often take us on a journey that is uncomfortable, but the discomfort strengthens our trust because it's like, wow, God, I am really afraid about this, but I'm going to trust you and I'm going to do what you say in your word.
Let me go to another scripture that kind of enforces this. I'm going to go to Jerusalem once again. He says, And now compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. But look what he says afterward. Not knowing what will. What does it say? That's the way God always leads. He says, come follow. I love you. You know I love you. I created you for myself. I suffered and died on a cross to show you how much you can trust me.
I gave you forgiveness of sins and all I needed from you was your willingness to trust in me and follow me. So he assures us that he knows what's best, wants what's best, knows what will bring our highest happiness and well-being, and he alone can lead us into that, but he needs our trust. But from our side, it's like, I don't know where this is going. I don't know what twist and turn next, being obedient to the word of God because I trust God is going to bring.
And it's very uncomfortable, but it stretches our trust because he brings us through faithfully again and again, and each time our confidence and our reliance in him grows and grows and grows. Not knowing what will happen to me, I only know, now listen to this, I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and what's the next word? Hardships are facing me.
This was God's number one guy on the planet, the Apostle Paul. The Spirit of God used him to write 13 books of the New Testament, and this is what his life looked like. How many have ever read 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 29 through 40? Just read the list sometime in your spare time. That was only after about 20 years of following Jesus. He followed him about 30, 32 years. And he lists out all this series of hardships that he had endured.
So my point is that this journey that God wants us to go on, it can be very adventurous and very uncomfortable, but well worth every bit of it. Jesus said this in Matthew 28, after he had risen from the dead, he said, Jesus came to him and said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore, God has always taken us on a journey. Go, go, go, and do what? Make disciples where? Of all nations, anybody, anywhere.
Jesus is always pushing us out, calling, let's take this journey. Jesus wants us to aggressively, intentionally seek to persuade others to open themselves at least to considering the truth about God and the truth about life as it centers in the person of Christ. So we are to intentionally do this, but we're going, we're always on a journey and it's uncomfortable.
Anybody that's ever actually tried to do this, tried to create a conversation or a relationship with someone for the purpose, or at least one of the purposes being to persuade them to trust in Christ and follow him, you know this is not comfortable and it's more and more uncomfortable in our day and age today because we're looked at as these narrow-minded bigots that have no tolerance for anybody and all we're trying to do is share the truth about God and the truth about life that we've learned for ourselves.
But it's always go, it's always go. Now, inevitably somebody's sitting here probably feeling, Randy, man, I just, you know, this thing of taking this journey with God and all like that, I don't know, I just don't feel qualified for it. I don't feel equipped for it. I mean, I don't know if I have what it takes, if I'm just being honest.
Somebody's thinking. It's like, yeah, I know, leaving behind and looking ahead and all that, but. So, you're right. You may not have what it takes, to be frank. Not everybody does. But, there is one qualification that if you have, you are completely qualified and quite capable of fulfilling going on this journey that God wants to take you on and fulfilling this job that he has for you to fulfill.
So here's the qualification. 2 Chronicles 16:9, it says the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those and here's the condition, the qualification, whose hearts are, what does it say? Fully committed to him. This is saying God is literally looking, he's always looking through the population of mankind to find individuals that he can empower, that he can strengthen, that he can empower to succeed, to live life the way it was meant to be lived.
And it says there's one qualification, there's only one, only one, you can fulfill that qualification. I can, any of us can. If we're willing to have our hearts fully committed to him. Now, if I left it right there, that's rather comfortable. You say, yeah man, that's what it teaches. That's not where I'm going to leave it though.
Is your heart, when God looks in your heart, sir right there with the cap on, does he see a heart? It's fully committed to him. You don't have to respond. But that's how intensely personal God wants each of us to hear this. Is your heart fully committed to him? And if it's not, why not? And what would it take?
I mean, the creator of the universe suffered and died on a cross to communicate to us how much he loves us, how much he wants what is good for us. What else can he do? The truth is he can't do anything else. He died and rose from the grave. He showed that he is for us. He's not against us. He wants what's best, knows what's best, but he can't do a thing unless we trust him. That's what it means, fully committed to him.
So we're all going to leave here today. I think, anyway, unless something terrible happens. When we leave, some of us are going to leave without our hearts being fully committed to him. You'll know who you are. But some of us will leave today, this was a turning point. We said, you know what? I'm going to be that person. I am going to be that person.
God's looking for people like this. The only qualification is my willingness to be fully committed to him. I'm going to be that person. By the way, I made that decision at age 23 and I have never regretted it. I've regretted a lot of things, but not that.
So we'll all make that decision before we leave here today. So, am I willing to take the journey? Would they be willing to go back to Jerusalem? 900-mile journey, lots of uncertainties in it, and the purpose being to rebuild this temple that's been laying in ruins for 70 years.
So, the second question becomes this. Am I willing to do the job? God wanted them to take a journey and God had a very specific job for them to do. He wanted that generation of people to take the journey back to Jerusalem, roll up their sleeves, do something they had never done before, something that was going to be hard, and by the way it was something that they weren't specifically responsible for. They didn't make the mess. Nobody likes cleaning up other people's messes, right?
But that's the challenge. God often tells us to go take upon ourselves a job that we may not find exactly enjoyable initially. So, am I willing to do the job? Jesus said this. He said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, or the councils of Hades, will not overcome it. I will build my church.
Now, we read the word church, you know, typically we think of, you know, bricks and block and steel buildings and all that, but you know, if you've been around here for long, that's not what the word means. The Greek word is ekklesia, New Testament written in Greek, Old Testament Hebrew and some Aramaic, but that Greek word, it means assembly. Jesus said, I am building my assembly. I'm gathering together my assembly. Nothing will stop it.
And here we are, nearly 2,000 years later, and that assembly of Jesus is still being built. So, those Old Testament people were called to build a physical temple. God was manifesting himself in a geographical, a singular geographic location, but now he's not doing that. He's manifesting himself through a scattered people, the ekklesia, the church, the assembly of Jesus all over the world.
It's a much better way that God can make himself known as opposed to a singular geographical location, but Jesus is building it. Listen, this church now is 32 years old. October 27th will be 33 years. Yeah. It's only for one reason. Jesus is building his church. He has built this church. He has sustained this church, and by his grace, he'll continue to sustain it.
So, we're not building physical buildings, although physical buildings are helpful. We're building an assembly. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. For you that are here at FCF Church now, this time, this season, in our history, you are here at a good time. That has not always been the case. There have been times when FCF, frankly, was missing something.
And, fact, to explain this a little bit better, what I mean by FCF's missing something, let me ask you a question. How many of you have been here for a year, about a year's time? Okay, can I just see hands of people for about a year? Okay. All right, all right. How many have been here for about six months? Can I see your hands? Okay, cool. Thank you. I'm going to bring it down. How many have been here for about three months or less? You see? That's really neat.
Now, I'm going to tell you what FCF was missing. FCF was missing you. FCF is not FCF without you. FCF is Jesus' church that He is building. And He wants to bring new people into His edifice, into His temple. The New Testament says that now we are the temple of God. We are living stones, it says in 1 Peter 2. Jesus is gathering the stones, but the stones it's you and I.
Your unique experiences in life, your talents, your struggles, your hang-ups, everything about you, you that have come here in the past year, three months, six months, what was missing in FCF was you. And FCF would not be and will not be what God intends it to be without you. But there's still some pieces missing.
And our role is to go find the missing stones and to help them find their place. Listen to this verse. You'll see what I'm getting at. In Him, meaning Jesus, in Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a what? A holy temple in the Lord. But it's a physical temple or not a physical temple now, it's a spiritual temple. You're a part of the temple if you're a follower of Christ. I'm a part of the temple.
You knew, folks, FCF was missing something tremendous until you came. And we'll continue to miss something. Picture this in your mind. When you think of the temple of the Lord, the church of Jesus, picture this. Imagine walking up and seeing a stunningly beautiful edifice, a real building, a physical building. And you're walking around from the outside because it's tall and it's magnificent. Beautiful stonework. Every stone is kind of matching but it's kind of different.
And you're just wowed by this thing. But then you walk to the perimeter and you realize, oh, oh shoot. You look at the sides and there's missing stones. There's big holes. There's big gaps in this beautiful edifice. That's the picture that Jesus wants us to carry in our heart of His church. And that's why He says, go, go, go make disciples. Go invite them in. Bring them in because my church, my ecclesia, my assembly, my temple in which my presence will be manifest, it's missing stones still.
And it's not carrying the palpable beauty that it's meant to carry until all the stones are in and the temple is finished. So every church should be actively seeking to build the temple of God. Just as they were called to build a physical temple for that time and age, the Spirit of God now is calling us to build a temple. But that happens as you and I, we go. We take the journey. We go into the lives of other people and we love them and we invest in them and we serve them and we share what God is doing in our life with them and we invite them in to sample, as it were, the truth and the love that He offers to every human being.
Acts chapter 20. The Apostle Paul, once again, considering the job, you know, because they were called for a journey but they were a journey, ended with a job to rebuild this temple. He says, however, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and do what? Complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.
You have a task. I have a task. I have a God-given, God-orchestrated task. You have a God-given, God-orchestrated task. Ephesians 2:8 says there's literally a set of good deeds that God has foreordained for you. They got your name on them. Nobody else can do them but you. And for me, I'm the only one that can do them. And we are all perfectly equipped to do those.
But there are opportunities that if we don't seize, they won't happen. And everybody loses. Everybody loses. So, let me ask this question. Would you recognize a divinely orchestrated opportunity if, if, if it required you to, and here we go, first of all, go where you've never been. These people had been in Babylon for 70 years. They had never seen Jerusalem. They knew about it but they had never seen it.
So, would I recognize it as a divinely orchestrated opportunity if it required me to go where I've never been or to do what I've never done? They had never built a temple. They didn't know anything about it. To work harder than they ever had, they were going to have to work plenty hard to accomplish this task.
And we're going to fill in next week just how hard it really was and how long it actually took. What if it required us to endure intimidating opposition? Would we still recognize it as a divinely orchestrated opportunity? Usually we see opposition as something we go, that can't be God's will. If it was God's will, everything would fall into line. No, it wouldn't.
It's always been a source of amazement to me. People come and they say, you know, Randy, sorry to tell you, man, but I think it's the will of God. We're going to move to California. I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable here. I say, oh, really? That's, wow, that's a big move. Why are you going to? Well, I got this job offer and it's almost double the money that I'm getting now. So, I know it's God's leading. He's giving me this opportunity and I think, okay, that maybe, but maybe it's Satan's trap.
Is that possible? Could it be Satan's trap? I'm going to give you more money because I'm going to get you in California and I'm going to mess your head up, man. I'm going to get you so seduced by persons, places, and things and experiences and I'm going to wreck your life. I'm going to wreck your family too. You think the money is indicative of God's leading? No, not necessarily. Could be. Could be, but not necessarily.
So, are we ready to endure intimidation without doubting? I'm still in the will of God. I've got His Word that I'm being supported by. What if it's this? What if I have to resolve problems and clean up messes that you didn't make, that I didn't make? I'm going to tell you something. I don't like cleaning up my own mess. I really don't. If I can get somebody else to clean up my mess, I'll get them to do it. I sure don't want to clean up your mess.
How many say amen to that? Right? We don't want to. You made the problem. It's your problem. It's your mess. But that's exactly what God often calls us to and it is an opportunity, a divinely orchestrated opportunity that we can learn to love the way God loves to live the way God lives.
It stretches us. It can be a transformational experience. We've got to expand our horizons to understand that what God sees as opportunities are not the same things that we may see as opportunities. God is always looking in this regard. Anything that expands my trust in Him, deepens my trust in Him, He sees that as opportunistic for me.
Anything that has the potential to transform my character, to stretch me to learn to love like God loves, live like God lives, God sees that as a cherished or an opportunity I should cherish. Anything that will accrue to my benefit eternally. We don't think about this stuff enough. The Bible talks about rewards for faithfulness. The Bible talks about judgment, very specific judgment.
We're all going to go through judgment. And for many of us, it's going to be a delightful surprise because the faithfulness that we have lived with will be disproportionately rewarded by God. And don't think about, oh man, I'm going to live in a big mansion in heaven. I know that's what Christians say, this goofy stuff all the time. No, reward is going to be expanded opportunities to serve God and to serve others throughout eternity and expanded capacities.
In other words, when we show ourselves faithful, He'll expand our capacities in eternity. I don't like to use the word power. I'm going to use the word capacities. But we'll have larger capacities, entrustments of power, but it will be to serve others because our heart's purified. But when God looks at opportunities, He's looking at it long term. We look at it short term. We can't do that. We've got to stretch our minds to embrace long term.
All right, I said when we started this, and this is getting long, so I'm going to get ready. The landing gear is coming down, so relax. You'll get your lunch. But I said that for some of you, personally, this is a grand opportunity for divinely orchestrated turning point in your life. Zechariah chapter 1 verse 3 says, Therefore tell the people, this is what the Lord Almighty says, Return to me, declares the Lord Almighty, and I will, what does it say you tell me? I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty.
This is some of the best news we could ever have. Now, I want to be very personal, intensely personal and specific with you. Some of you know exactly who you are, that this is God's word, and I want to be very personal with you today. You have drifted, and you know you've drifted. And God is saying, I love you. I know what's best. I want what's best. I just need you to get close to me again.
If you'll return to me, no matter where you've been, no matter what mistakes you've made, no matter what mess you've made, if you'll return to me, I'll return to you. And He's pleading with some of you today. It's time. You have this divinely orchestrated opportunity. You have this moment. You feel it. Just like they were moved, it says that those whose hearts were moved by God, they went back to Jerusalem. You are moved. You sense it.
But maybe there's a battle going on. I plead with you. Yield to the Spirit of God today and say, I'm done playing fence life. I'm going all the way home to the Lord. I'm going to embrace His will fully in every area of my life. No more out of balance signs in my life for God. It's going to be His will, His way, not my will, my way, in any area of my life. I'm going to return to the Lord Almighty.
Three questions. We'll close quick. Might this be a unique, divinely orchestrated opportunity for you to return to the Lord? You know who you are. I'm not trying to be difficult with you. This is God's love gift to call us back. He has to call us back frequently to Himself.
Question. Might this be a unique, divinely orchestrated opportunity for you to rebuild something God wants rebuilt? He sent them to rebuild the temple. They didn't tear the temple down, but they were sent to rebuild it. Somebody else had messed it up. They were sent to fix it up. Is God maybe this morning, and you know exactly what it is, if He's calling you to rebuild something, man, take that energy of His Spirit that is palpable to you, if it's personal, and run with it now.
And say, yes indeed. Sign me up. I'm going to rebuild what needs to be rebuilt. Third question. Might there be challenges that you must accept before you can seize this divinely orchestrated turning point? And some of you know what I'm saying. They had the challenge of taking this 900-mile journey with no certainties at all, and a lot of difficulty in surviving.
But you know that if you make your decision to align your life in various areas with God's will and His Word, you know, oh man, that means I'm going to have to have this conversation and I'm going to have to face that, or I may have to put myself into counseling, or you are anticipating some difficulties. You're thinking, man, I'm going to have to do the hard work if I really return to the Lord. I'm going to have to do that soul-searching work. I can't skate anymore. I can't fake it anymore. I'm going to have to get real.
And that's difficult for some of us. We're like, I'm going to just put this off for a little while longer. Don't do that. Don't do that. Today is the day we have. Today is the day that God lovingly has drawn real close, like I said, close enough that He's kind of whispering in our ear. We can almost feel His breath on the side of our cheek. That's the time to respond to His call.
Will you pray with me? We are so exceedingly grateful that You are God that chases us down many a trail, always calls us back to Yourself, always offers us mercy, acceptance, and grace. Please help us this day to determine. We're going to take the journey with You, and we're going to do the job that You have allowed us to do. That others will be blessed, that Your name will be honored, and that our lives, too, will be built.
Help us to make decisions, firm decisions today that we'll be so glad we made in eternity. I ask You things in Christ's name. Amen.
on Aug 11, 2024
