LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2021 am
EZRA 1 VERSES 1 - 6
Over the past number of weeks we have been looking at our motto verse found in Jeremiah 29 verse 11. The context of that verse was that the people had rejected and rebelled against God. God had allowed the king of Babylon to carry them captive to a foreign land. Psalm 137 shows they were in a state of sorrow and shame. "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept." Remember Peter when he denied knowing Jesus, we read "he walked afar off." Maybe for you there is no song in your heart today. Maybe there was a time when you knew God personally but now you have grown cold. In Psalm 126 when God came in to the midst of that people they began to sing again. When God allowed them to return to the land of their birth they said "the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad." Let us look this morning at what God had done for these people living in Babylon. He can do the same for us even today. Let us trust him for the future he has before us.
There is a response to the voice. These people had been 70 years away from the land of blessing given to them as a gift. Remember when you were given the gift of savlation through God's own son, when he accepted you as his child, gave you eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit? Maybe you are still in your sin today, have never accepted that gift today. On Calvary he shed his blood to pay the price of your sin. Are you his child today? One of his family? God is speaking here through Cyrus. Isn't it wonderful what God can do. God would use this man, mighty in authority and position to bring revival to his own people, to take them into the land of blessing where they should have been living. Maybe God is looking for one person to surrender their life to him, to be a blessing to others. God stirred up the heart of this man. Remember when God called Abraham out of Ur of Chaldees. God called Nehemiah out of Shushan to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls again. God wants to reach into your family and community. He wants to use you there. This was the first year of Cyrus' reign. He did not settle. God moved on him. Maybe you feel you are not long saved and could not step out in faith for Christ. Or maybe you feel you have been saved for a long time and don't feel you have much to offer God today. Remember the little boy with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He was willing to surrender all he had to feed the people. The woman with the alabaster box used it to anoint Jesus' feet. Serving the Lord with everything she had. Have we given the Lord everything we have today? When Daniel prayed he knew the time was almost up for the people to return to Canaan He set his face to pray with sacklcoth, ashes and repentance. Is it possible that Daniel discussed with Cyrus what God had placed on his heart? Did he explain God's plan for the Israelites? Did Cyrus know that 100 years previously Isaiah wrote about him and what he would do in sending the Israelites home to Canaan again? "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Jesus said "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3 verse 16) He was wounded for my transgressions, he was bruised for my iniquities. He took the form of a servant in dying for you and I. Cyrus believed that God was speaking to him. There was an urgency in this call. Are you listening for God today? For the call of God on your life? In the Old Testament scriptures Elijah the prophet was sent to the brook Cherith. He had spoken to King Ahab and challenged him. Then he ran from the kings presence to the brook Cherith. The birds fed him and he drank water from the brook. One day the water dred up. God came and spoke to him (1 Kings 17 verse 9). God was paving the way for the prophet. God would use a poverty stricken woman to take him in and give him what he needed in the midst of trying circumstances. She was listening for God. Have you come to listen for God today or just to listen to another sermon. Are you hearing God's voice through the sermon? Cyrus would be the champion of that day. He was assured of the call of God - Ezra 1 verse 5. Maybe God is just waiting for you to say yes to him, to surrender your life to him.
The revelation of the vision. Cyrus was called to a work. Has God blessed you, placed you in the position you are in to use you today? There is a work to be done for God today. Not every captive returned to the land of Israel. The people were put off by what Cyrus said - to build again the temple. This was a great distance to travel back to Canaan. The people thought of the many battles they would face on the way. They said the cost was too great. Maybe we are counting the cost of serving the Lord and it is too much for us. God is asking something great of you today. Many of the people after 70 years had invested in business. They had settled down in Babylon. It was too much to leave behind. Maybe what God is asking you to do is very difficult. The task is challenging. perhaps you are being challenged about the salvation of your soul, to come to the cross of Calvary. Here were a people getting a vision from the Lord. Where there is no vision the people perish." Maybe we have become too complacent and content today. Are we asking God to open to us the great need of people around us? These people were to build a house for God. Maybe God is asking to build in your own life. Nehemiah challenges us in the first chapter - he was the king's cupbearer, a job of great significance. Nobody could see the king without Nehemiah allowing them to do so. On his heart was the burden of Jerusalem on his heart. The work of God was on his heart. He met 2 friends coming up from Jerusalem and asked them what was happening in the city. They told him the situation. Nehemiah fell to his knees and cried. He was broken hearted over God's work. Have I that same vision today? Am I stepping out for God as I did all those years ago? Have we lost the vision today? Have we become content, complacent with our lives? These people were in Babylon, they had built homes and lives and were now being asked to give it all up and return to Canaan. For Nehemiah it would cost him great hardship, many difficult decisions were to be made. The people started to respond to the voice of God. Will we respond to the voice of God today? God is asking us to step out, not to perish but to gain victory through him - are we willing?
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