So, in Ezra chapter 6, of course, kind of bringing it up to speed, they're attempting
to rebuild the house of God here, and I don't want to go on and on and belabor the point,
but if you're familiar with the story, some of God's enemies have brought the work of
the house of God to a standstill, and they say, you know, the Jews replied, say, well,
you know what, you need to go back and go through your records back there and see what
Cyrus had to say, see what Cyrus decreed, the king that originally initiated the restoration
of God's house, originally initiated the resettlement of God's people after they came out of Babylon,
and that's where we find ourselves in the story, and I want to preach to you this morning
about the wisdom of Cyrus, the wisdom of Cyrus. We see several of Cyrus' words there in the
beginning, and I think there's some things that we could learn from from Cyrus and apply
to this church and apply to ourselves as individuals. Of course, we're in our second
year now, and I think there's some good things that we could learn from Cyrus, the things
that he made a priority, we need to make a priority, the things that he said to do, we
should do, we should apply to our own lives and to this church. Now, if you look there
in verse 3, it says, in the first year of Cyrus the king, that he made a decree concerning
the house of God. So, what we see first of all is that it's important for us to put God's
business first. People need to learn to put God's business first. That's what Cyrus did.
It was the very first year of his reign. The first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus
the king, made a decree. So, the first thing he does when he gets into office, first thing
he does when he takes the throne and says, we're going to let the house be builded, and
this was concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. And I think this is something that we could
learn from Cyrus. This is some wisdom that we could apply to our own lives, that we need
to make church a priority in our life. And, you know, this isn't something new. To be
perfectly honest, a lot of what I'm going to say this morning is not new. In fact, it's
quite basic. It's pretty fundamental. But often it's those basic things, it's the fundamental
things that people choke on in the Christian life. It's these simple things that they don't
nail down that cause them to never grow as a Christian, to have problems, to never get
things resolved, to never move on and do something for God. It's that they don't put the simple
things, the most basic things, first. But that's what we see Cyrus do. And, you know,
that's a wise thing. I think Cyrus had some wisdom here when he said, hey, I'm in charge
now. I'm going to make some laws. I'm going to rule. And the first thing I want to do
is to, and of course we understand God was moving and working and put it in his heart
to do these things, but he didn't resist that. You know, he went with it. And I would probably
say that right now there's probably some people that just, you know, hearing me say, you know,
you need to be in church, you need to make it a priority. God might be moving in your
heart. You know, you need to be like Cyrus and not resist that. We need to, we need to
not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. The Bible says there's
some people, that's their manner. They get into a habit of forsaking the assembly. You
know, and it's been two years now and you know, those, how many people just out of curiosity
were here from the very first service? Just two people. Okay. Now were there only two
people in the very first service here? Was that it? Just two people? Were there more
people? There were more people. Well, where are they? You know, where'd they go? You know,
and the two years we've been here, we've seen people come, stick around and go. And look,
I'm not saying you have to be in this church to be right with God, but you need to be in
a church. You need to be in a King James independent fundamental Baptist church, whether it's this
church or another church in town or another state, wherever it is. But the point is you
need to be like Cyrus and make God's house a priority in your life. And you know, there's
in two years, you know, we haven't been running two for two years. There's been a lot of people
coming and going, you know, and I'm kind of getting ahead of myself a little bit, but
you know, some people it's best that they moved on, but there's some people that have
moved on and I look around and I say, well, where are they now? What are they doing? Why
aren't they here? And I already know why they're not here because they haven't, they don't
have the wisdom that Cyrus has to say, to put first things first, to make God's business
a priority in their life. We need to make church a priority, not an option. I mean,
this is like, this is the most fundamental, just basic thing in the Christian life. And
yet people struggle with this. And if we would just, you know, I remember early on my Christian
life, I just made a decision. I'm going to be in church. I'm going to be in church unless
I'm sick or there's some, you know, outstanding circumstance or something out of the ordinary.
I'm going to be in church. If I go travel to another state, if I'm on vacation, I'm
going to make a point to get my family, to get myself in church. I made it a priority
in my life. It's not even a question. I mean, do you think when we woke up this morning
in our hotel across the street and said, you think I should go preach tonight, honey? Should
I go over there and run services? You know, and you know, you say, well, you're the deacon,
it's your job. And I understand that, but you know what, leading up to that, you know,
in the 17 plus years that I've been in church, I've only been a deacon for two of them, you
know, the other 15 years or so or whatever. No one was paying me to come to church. No
one was twisting my arm. No one was, you know, you know, no one was going to be, you know,
coming to knock on my door and say, Hey, where were you? They didn't need to do that. You
know why? Because I made it a priority in my life to be in church. It wasn't even a
question and it's not a question. And some people just need to get to the point in their
life where they're not, when they're not going to wake up every Sunday morning and go, am
I going to be in church today? It's, it's a, it should be a silly question. It shouldn't
even enter your mind. You need to make church a priority and not an option. So many people,
they just, they think church is optional. You know, the church for which Christ died
that shed his blood, that he purchased with his own blood. That's optional. Wasn't optional
for him. Cost him his life. You know, he died for the church. I think it's pretty important.
And again, whether it's this church or another church, we need to make church a priority
in our life. If you would go over to keep something in, in, in Ezra there, or go over
to Romans chapter 12. I mean, think about all the other things we make a priority in
our life. I guarantee you tomorrow, Monday morning, several men in this church are going
to get up and go to work without even thinking about it. Some of them, you know, they're
going to get up, they're going to get dressed. They're going to brush their teeth. I hope
they're going to drink some coffee. They're going to, you know, eat some breakfast. They're
going to kiss the wife and kids go by and they're going to go out the door and they're
never going to, they're not going to wake up and think, should I go to church or should
I go to work today? You know, there's some moms in this room. They're going to wake up
tomorrow and they're not even going to think about it. They're just going to get up. They're
going to start taking care of the kids. They're going to see their husband off. They're going
to homeschool. They're going to clean. They're going to do all the duties that a mother has
that a wife has to do. And they're not going to question whether or not they should do
any of them. It's just instinct. They're just going to do it because they made it a
priority in their life. We go to work, we teach our kids, we raise our families, you
know, and not, and you know what? And quite honest, and honestly, you know, it's not optional,
but I mean, the world would tell you it's optional today. You don't need to go to work.
You could just collect a check, you know, go on employment, collect welfare. You don't
need to teach your kids. You could send them off somewhere else to have them taught. They
don't make it a priority. They say it's not an optional, but you know what? There's still
people that have the character to get up and do that. Think of all the things that we do
in life that we just do because we've made them a priority in our life. You know, those
are things that, you know, responsible adults do that we're supposed to do, but think about
all the things that really aren't that important that we make a priority. There's some things
in life that just, they don't benefit us at all. I'm not saying they're sinful, but I'm
just saying they're just frivolous. They're a waste of time. They're really not benefiting
us, but we make them a priority. You know, we're not going to miss this certain show.
We're not going to miss this game. We're not going to miss this activity. It's a priority.
I'm going to be at the bowling league every Friday because I've got a team and we've got,
you know, a silly shirt and, you know, and whatever. And I've bought shoes and a ball
and everything else, right? And I'm not against anybody that goes to a bowling league. That's
your thing. You know, have fun. But I'm just, what I'm trying to make the point is there's
things that we make a priority in life that aren't even, don't even benefit us at all.
That might even cost us something, you know, hobbies or activities that we do. We just
do it because we like it. Look at Romans chapter 12 verse 9. He said, let love be without dissimulation,
abort that which is evil, cleave that which is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another
with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another, not slothful in business. You
know, you need to make business a priority. And you know, church is business. Jesus said,
I must be about my father's business. You know, we get involved in a lot of other business
in life. Some of it's important, some of it not so much. Well, you know, there is some
spiritual business that we all need to attend to. You know, and there's a business meeting
every Sunday right here. There's also a midweek, you know, I don't know if you know that either.
You know, and I'm not going to say, you know, three to thrive. I believe that, I live that,
I have lived that, I preach that, I practice that. And I'm not I'm not down on people that
can't make it to every single service. You know, I understand. But I mean, out of three
services that we have here a week, we should we should have enough spiritual character
to say I'm going to make it to at least one. I'm going to go to God's business meeting.
And I'm going to hear what the CEO in heaven has to say, what are the what are the plans
this week? We need to make it our business is not slothful in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord. Well, we get fervent about so many other things, don't we? You got we
get fervent spirit, and we serve so many other things. But I want to ask us this morning,
have we decided to make church a priority? I mean, that's what Cyrus did. He said, Look,
we're gonna build a house of God, this is important. We're gonna it's the first thing
he took care of when he got in office. So that's the you know, that's the first point
from the wisdom of Cyrus, we need to get busy serving the Lord. Say, Well, I come to church.
Well, great. I'm glad you know, you're faithful to church are coming. But now it's time to
serve God. Because, you know, just showing up and sitting and staring at me and try to
keep your eyelids open and, you know, and nod when you're supposed to nod. You know,
that's not really that hard. I've done it for I did it for a while. You know, it's not
the most difficult thing. I'm the one working up here this morning. Okay. But it says there
that you need to be serving the Lord. You know, and I, I definitely believe that coming
to church, that's part of that. But you know, there's more to the Christian life than just
coming to church. You know, there's the soul winning that needs to take place. There's
the Bible reading that needs to be done. There's all these other things that we need to do
to serve the Lord, we need to get fervent about it. But we're never going to do any
of those things, if we don't make them a priority, if we don't have the wisdom that Cyrus had
to put God's business first. So you say, Well, we're doing that, you know, obviously, I'm
kind of preaching the choir this morning, you're all here, you know, hopefully that
continues. But look, go back to Ezra chapter six, Ezra chapter six, he said in verse three,
in the first year of Cyrus king of the king, the same Cyrus, the king made a decree concerning
the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be builded and the palace wherewith they offered,
and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid. He said there, let the house be builded,
let the house be builded. You know, I want to kind of just make this point. This is kind
of the might be a little bit, you know, just kind of make an application as we go. But
I think these are all things that are important for us to remember, especially on our second
anniversary as we're moving forward as a church, we're thinking about the future and what we've
accomplished already. But, you know, we need to let the house be builded. I think sometimes
in church, we get so worried about the results, we get so worried about, you know, numbers,
say boy, you've been here two years, and this is all the bigger you've gotten. You know,
this year on our average attendance actually went down a little bit, to be perfectly honest.
Say, does that get you down? Nope. It doesn't. It doesn't bother me at all. Because, you
know, and again, I'm getting ahead of myself again, because it's about quality, not quantity.
I mean, yeah, we could drop the standards around here and bring in a crowd and knock
down some walls, move to a bigger facility, get some purple lights. You know, we could
be just like that church up the road that, you know, has a thousand people show up or
whatever. We could get a rock band, and I could just, you know, put on a graphic t-shirt
and some jeans with some holes in it, and I could just get up and rap with you guys
and jive. I could just share with you, and I could soften my voice. See, I have the ability.
I can get breathy, and I could talk like this. And some of you guys wouldn't, you know, I'd
probably lose some of you, right? Any man with hair on his legs would be like, I'm out
of here, right? I'm not going to listen to that guy talking like that. I can't stand
it. I don't know how they'd listen to some of these guys. They sound so effeminate. But
that's what's popular today. And if we wanted to go that route as a church, oh, we could
do it. I mean, obviously, we're under Pastor Anderson's authority, but we actually couldn't
do that on our own. Not that we're waiting in the wings to do that either, but I'm just
saying, you know, using it as an example, is that churches do that all the time. Baptist
churches. I mean, I remember I was watching an independent fundamental Baptist church
service. I mean, an independent fundamental Baptist church. And there, I watched their
song service, and it was just like that. I was like, are you sure this is a Baptist church?
It sounded, because I've been in some of these contemporary churches, where it's just,
As the deer panted for the wild. Just this breathy, soft, emotional singing. You know,
I'm thinking, where's the march? Where's the, Faith is the victory. Stand up, stand
up. That's the songs I like. The strong, bold, march-type songs that encourage us to live
for the Lord, not just have this emotional experience. So we need to understand something
here at Faithful Word Tucson. We're going to preach out of a King James Bible. We're
going to preach all of it, the good, the bad, the ugly. And if people don't like it, there's
other churches in town. This isn't going to be the most popular place. We're not trying
to be. But you know what? God will build his church. He said that. That's what he told
people. He said, upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Because it's quality that matters most, not quantity. You know, and
if people come in, and it turns out they turn out to be bozos, or bad, or just no good,
or whatever, they're just here to cause disunity, I want them to leave. And I don't care if
that brings the attendance down. I don't care if the offering drops. It doesn't bother me.
Because it's about quality, not quantity. You know, people will come, and here's the
other thing. We want quality people, but they don't have to walk in quality. They don't
have to walk in, have it all put together, saying all the right things, doing all the
right things. All I want is people that have a tender heart, and are willing to hear the
word of God, and get themselves pointed in the right direction, and start making steps
in that direction. That's all I care about. Because I've seen it time and time again.
People that come in, boy, they got it all together, they're serving God, they say the
part, everything they're supposed to say, they look the part. You know what? A year
or two later, where are they? They're gone. But then you have somebody else, maybe they
don't have it all together, but they want to learn, they want to grow, they want to
stick around, they want to be faithful. You know, they don't have to be quality when they
get here, but if they're pointing in the right direction, and they have a tender heart, give
it time, and they will be quality. By the grace of God, God's power will work. If you
would, go over to 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1. So what I'm saying is this, let
the house be builded. Don't get so caught up on numbers, don't get so worried about
whether we're growing or whether we're shrinking. Don't worry about that. Just serve God. And
here's the thing, it's amazing, I've been thinking about this, people come to churches
and they look out, they say, well this church is small, and they stick around and it gets
smaller and they get discouraged, and then they leave. Well if you're worried about the
church getting bigger, why are you leaving? It's kind of ironic. But look at 1 Timothy
chapter 1, and you want to talk about somebody who didn't start out that great, is the Apostle
Paul. And he said in verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that
he counteth me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did an ignorant unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, worthy of all the acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. We're not trying to build churches with perfect
people in it. We're not trying to go out and have the perfect church that doesn't exist.
We're not going out in the community and knocking doors and inviting people to church and saving
souls to try to find people that have it all put together. That's not what Jesus said.
He came into the world to save sinners. That's everybody. And he says there, this is a faithful
saying worthy of all the acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause, he said, this is the reason that he obtained
mercy for this cause. I obtained mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth
all long suffering for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. You say, look, God chose me for this purpose. He showed this mercy. Why? To
use me as an example, as a pattern to people that would live after me, to the generations
to come. That, look, it doesn't matter how out of sorts with God with somebody is, if
they're willing to, you know, admit that they're wrong and get right with God and start living
for him, God will use them. And I don't care where they're at in life. I don't care how
bad their situation is. If a person will just get right with God and start living for him
and being faithful and put first things first and make God a priority, God will use that
person more than the guy that's got it all put together. And look at the, look at the
result is, you know, when somebody like Paul, who was a blasphemer and a persecutor and
jurious, when God showed him grace and mercy and he took that and he started to live for
God, you know who ends up getting glorified? Not Paul. Paul's not the one that gets glorified.
It's the Lord. Look at verse 17. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the
only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. You know, he's the one that
gets the glory. When somebody else, when somebody comes in, Paul, you know, comes in and gets
right with God. That's what I'm, what I'm trying to say is this. Let the house be builded
and let God add to the church who he's going to add to the church. Now I understand that
we, we definitely do, we have our part to play. You know, we got to go out and knock
the doors, invite people out, do follow up where it's appropriate, you know, and try
to bring people, invite them out, let them know that we're here, you know, and not get
cultish about it, you know, but we want people to come out and join us, of course, you know,
but the first part of that equation is to go, you know, to go knock the door and invite
them out and let God build the church. And you know, who's going to be glorified and
not, if we don't get someone caught up and like, well, I, you know, I, I really like
so-and-so I want them to be part of the church, but I really don't like this person. I wish
they weren't part of the church. It's not up to you. I guarantee you there are some
apostles who are like, Saul? Really? That's who your pick, Lord. He's going to be the
light to the Gentiles now. He's going to carry your message. That guy who was consenting
to Stephen's death, that guy, they probably, I guarantee you there's probably some apostles,
some early believers are like, I don't, I don't know about Paul. I really don't think
he fits in here. I don't think he's our stripe. It's not up to you. It's up to God. And when
God adds somebody to the church, you know what? He's the one that's glorified because
he's the one that's doing the work. So let the house be builded, you know, and don't
get so hung up on the numbers, but do your part to help to grow the church. You know,
people, they want the, they want the church to grow and I'm saying God will build the
church, but that's not, you know, I don't want to get this attitude either. We just
sit back and just don't do anything. Well, God will add them. We're not Calvinists. We're
not just, you know, I believe God will put it in people's hearts to be here and if they
want to, you know, obey the moving of the Spirit and come and join us, great. But we
still have a part to do. You know, and that starts with us being here, as I kind of talked
about a minute ago. The irony of people are like, well, I really want the church to grow
and since it's not, I'm going to quit going, you know, do your part by just being here
just by showing up. Okay. But how about going out and doing a soul winning, handing out
the invite, preaching the gospel, inviting them out, you know, encouraging new converts
to get baptized, you know, and this is something that we'll, you know, we'll talk more about
in coming months, you know, something to think about how we can, you know, do more follow
up and things like that. Do the invites, do the follow up, you know, and just since we're
kind of talking about the church and our second anniversary and kind of what's laying ahead,
you know, I don't, I don't think it's wrong for me to just kind of let folks know that,
you know, my plan for that right now, you know, Lord willing is for me to move down
here in February, you know, and live here, hopefully right around the corner. You know,
I've got a couple of neighborhoods, you know, within walking distance and I'd like to say,
that's what worked for me, Lord, you know, and once that happens, you know, we can, you
know, it's, cause here's the thing, it's kind of hard for me to go, you guys need to do
more follow up, you know, when I'm an hour and a half away and I'm not doing any, you
know, and I'm not saying that, don't let that stop you, don't let me be your excuse, but
it's kind of hard for me to get up and bring the hammer down on that or, you know, try
to teach that and, and, and, and lead by example when I, you know, I'm not really able to do
that as well as I could if I lived here. So all I'm saying is this, you want to help the
church grow, you want the church to grow, well then do your part, you know, and I'm
excited about what lies ahead of us at the beginning of the year when, you know, once
I am down here, Lord willing, and you know, we can, we can get together, we can talk about
that, we can develop, you know, some ideas about how to bring people in, you know, but
do your part to help the church grow. That was the wisdom that Cyrus, he had, he said
let the house be builded, the place where they did what, where they offered sacrifices.
You see, the house of God is a place where you offer sacrifices. Now, here's the thing,
church, church is a give and take relationship, you know, and, and here's, you know, it's,
it's fine if we're in that, if we're in that needy type of place in life where we need
the church to do more for us than we can do for it, that's fine. You know, we all probably
start out there, you know, we need the preaching the Word of God, we need the fellowship, we
always need that, but we should grow to a place where it's, you know, we're also giving
back too, you know, through our service, through being here, through participating in the program,
you know, it's a place to offer sacrifices, you know, sacrifice your time, sacrifice your
ability, sacrifice, you know, offer something to God in the house of the Lord. Because here's
the thing, a lot of people today, they, they want a Christian life that's not going to
cost them anything, but, you know, I would submit that that's not really a Christian
life at all then, that that's not the calling of the Christian life. Paul said, yea, all
that, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You know,
if you're really going to live the Christian life, if you're going to take a biblical stand,
you are going to suffer persecution. You know, be it from family or co-workers or the world
in general, whatever. But I'm trying to make this point as this, is that, you know, be
prepared to sacrifice in the Christian life. Let, understand that the Christian life, the
house of God, is a place of sacrifice. It's not all just take, take, take what's in it
for me. I understand there's things that we need to get from the house of God, from
the, the, the, from, from fellowshipping together and the preaching and things like that, but
we also got to get to a place where we're giving back. Where we're sacrificing of our
time, our energy, our abilities, to go out and, and, and to live the Christian life.
Go over to Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3. The Bible says in Luke chapter
9, it says, and it came to pass that as they went in the way a certain man said unto him,
Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto them, foxes have
holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his
head. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me to go and bury
my father. And Jesus, Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou
and preach the kingdom of God. And also another said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let him
for, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said
unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom
of God. I think one of the things that people don't want to give up is sometimes it's something
from their past, you know, good or bad. Sometimes people get involved in the Christian life
and then they let these external things, you know, family, whatever, kind of keep them
from keeping their eyes forward where they belong. You know, and this is every time I
read this, I always think about this analogy and I've probably preached it more than once
too. But if you ever, you know, there's this thing in Michigan called grass. Okay. And
we have these things called yards, right? Which are bigger than, you know, the house
is down here. It's like, it's like a litter box in the back. Like, I'm like, is that for
the cat? You know, I have children, you know? Anyway, I'm just picking on the Southwest
a little bit. But we had the big yard, you know, the house we left in Michigan. We had
a big front yard. I mean, it wasn't massive. It wasn't like in a state or anything. But
you had to get the lawnmower out and mow that thing, you know, every so often. And it was,
you know, half hour, 45, maybe an hour. But I remember, you know, it was a long yard.
So, you know, you had to make sure that you mowed it with straight lines. You didn't want
to be that guy that when everyone drove by could see the, you know, the wavy lines. You
could get real fancy. You could start doing the crosscut so you'd have the patterns and
stuff like that. But the point I'm trying to make is this, is that if you wanted to
cut a straight line, you had to look way down at the end. They say, they teach you that
in driving. When I drove for a company, they said you should look eight to 12 seconds down
the road and learn to keep your eyes there. And that will actually center you in the lane.
Not just look right in front, but you need to look ahead. And that's kind of what the
Christian life is like. You know, if you want to have nice straight lines, if you don't
want to get caught up by some obstacle, you can't, you know, we don't drive a car by
looking in the rearview mirror. Say, oh, what did I not hit? You know. Oh, I missed that
too. Great. You know, we look ahead. And the Christian life is like that. You need to not
look behind. You need to put your hand to the plow. You need to look forward. You need
to look ahead. What's ahead of you. And so many people, they end up kind of looking back.
You know, and they get these, they get messed up. They get concerned about all these other
things. Now, of course, in Luke chapter nine, it's a very unique circumstance. You know,
Jesus Christ is here on the earth. That's the time to kind of, everything else kind
of takes a backseat. But look there in Philippians chapter three, where you are, it says in verse
seven, what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dunk that I may win
Christ. You know, I love Paul's attitude here. He said, I suffered them loss, but then he
said, and he said, and I thought about him every day. And I thought about everything
I gave up for the Lord. And I thought about how much the Christian life has cost me. So
you know what I gave, I counted them with loss, and then I count them as done. He said,
I didn't look back on all that stuff I gave up and go, sure do miss that. He went, man,
I'm glad that's over. That stinks, that past, all those things I gave up. I've met
more than one Christian who they just, they lament everything they left behind. You know,
some lifestyle, some place they lived, whatever. He said, oh, it was just so much better here,
it was so much better when I could do this, or when I was involved in that. You know,
you might have counted those things lost, but you know, you need to count them as dung
too. And that's what he calls it there. I do count them but dung that I may win Christ.
You know, the Christian life is going to cost you, it's going to cost some things, but
you know those things that it costs us, we should also be able to look at those things
and say, you know what, they don't even compare to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
If me having to give up these things or forsake this or forsake that or whatever or be uncomfortable
means I get to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, I'll take it. And everything
else is dung. You see, the house of God, you know, we need to make it a priority and
understand something, that it's a place of sacrifice. But don't come in with the attitude
of like, I'm giving up so much, I've sacrificed so much. We should say, I've given all those
things up and they're dung, they don't even matter to me. Cyrus, he goes on, if you want
to go back to Ezra chapter 6, he said that, let the house be built and the place where
they offered sacrifices and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid. Let the foundations
be strongly laid. He said, look, when you're building something and you're starting out,
you want to make sure you have a strong foundation. Because without a strong foundation, it doesn't
matter how nice you make it look, eventually it's going to start to droop, it's going to
start to fall, you're going to start to get cracks in the walls, you know, you'll see
that in houses sometimes. You'll see these in really nice houses, you'll be in a house
and you'll have this giant crack running up a wall. So what happened there? Well, the
foundation settled, it moved, it shifted. So how do we apply that to the church? Well,
I think the foundation, of course, that it's talking about is the Bible. It's God's Word.
We need to have a foundation that's laid upon God's Word. We need to preach and implement
biblical preaching in our lives. You know, not just to be hearers of the Word, but doers
also. It's not enough just to hear the biblical preaching. You must put it into practice.
It's not just enough to show up and say, yeah, I agree with that. You need to walk out the
door and do something with it. Apply it to your life. Lay the foundation. I should have
had you go to Matthew 7, but if you want, go over to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy
chapter 2. We all know Matthew 7. Jesus said, therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
But notice he said it's two things there. It's the guy not only that hears the sayings,
but also does them. You know, the contractor doesn't go to the house to build a house and
say, well, that's where the foundation goes. The blueprint says it right there. And then
doesn't lay it. And say, well, let's get the sticks up and put a roof on. Well, did you
lay the foundation? No, but I looked at it in the blueprint. I know exactly how wide
it's supposed to be and how tall, where it's supposed to go. I know how much rebar it's
supposed to go in every so many feet. I know how dense the concrete is supposed to be,
what kind of mix it's supposed to be. I know all about the foundation. I've got it all
figured out. Well, did you pour it? No. Oh, okay. Well, yeah. Proceed. That house is going
to crumble and fall quickly because it has no foundation. You need to let the foundation
be strongly laid in your life. I mean, you need to just, you know, hear the biblical
preaching and then start putting it into practice and make it a habit and make it such a habit
in your life that it becomes second nature. It's just who you are. It's woven into the
fabric of your being like church attendance, Bible reading, you know, the basics. Like
I said at the very beginning of the sermon, the simple things that everybody just chokes
on and trips on in the Christian life, the things that cause their spiritual house to
begin to crumble. They start to get cracks in the wall. The doorway starts to do this.
The door doesn't close the same anymore. You know, just little things. Look, if you paid
a bunch of money for a nice house like that and that started to happen, that would drive
you nuts. You'd be calling the contractor. You'd be trying to work something out here.
But do we have that attitude in our spiritual life? Some people, I think, I don't think
they do. I think they're perfectly fine with a big crack in their wall in the spiritual
life. Like, yeah, that's where the crack goes. No, I planned that. This is on purpose.
So I could put a nail in it without having to pound it and then hang a picture. And the
picture gets crooked. No, I meant to hang a picture that way. It's abstract. It's modern.
You wouldn't understand it. It's all up to interpretation. But that's how some people's
spiritual life is. They've never taken the time to lay a spiritual foundation. They're
so worried about where the plants are going to go or what kind of furniture, what color
the wall's going to be. It's like, well, why don't you start with the basics? Why don't
you start with laying a strong foundation in God's Word? Because that's what's going
to help you. That's what's going to cause you to make it in the Christian life. Because
here's the thing. We're coming into two years of this church, and two years is that's when
the honeymoon ends for people. Now, some people, they haven't been here. Maybe you're
only a year in. Maybe you're only a year and a half in. Whatever. Maybe even less. When
you get to about that two year mark, that's when you start to see where the excitement
wears off, like in marriage. We're just being honest. Anybody who's married knows this is
true. I'm not saying it turns into a drudgery at that point. But the newness wears off.
That's not all the excitement and all that. There's other things that are nice, too. But
the two year mark is, okay, now this is work. Now this isn't just about feeling and emotion
and excitement. This is actual work that we have to put into this. It's the same way in
church. Right around that two year mark, a lot of churches, that's where people stick
around for about two years, and it's like, well, people you think, oh, they're going
to be here for a long time. We're going to grow old together. Two years into it, they're
going to be here. That's usually how it goes. And I don't want to be total pessimist, because
the opposite is true, too. There's people that hit that two year mark, and they've laid
the foundation, and they just keep right on trudging along. They've just made a habit
out of these things. They've made God's house a priority. They've laid the foundation, and
they just keep chugging along. And they're there two years, four years, ten years, twenty
years. There's people like that. There's people like that in this church. So I don't want
to be a total pessimist, but that is a wake up call to some people. That should be a warning
to some people. When the excitement wears off, when it starts to fade, and the Christian
life turns into actual work. Soul winning, again, yes. Bible preaching, again, yes. Well,
what else? That's it. It's more of the same. That's what we're about here. We're just going
to keep doing that, and doing that, and preaching, and going out, and preaching, and going out
until Jesus comes. And if you don't have a foundation laid, you know, you might not make
it through. And just life itself. He said there that you build your house upon a rock
when you do, when you hear and do His sayings. You've got to hear them. You've got to be
here to hear them, by the way. You've got to be in the Word of God to hear it, by the
way. You've got to pull out the blueprint and look and say, there's where the foundation
goes. Then you've got to actually build it. You've got to pour it. You've got to actually
implement it in your life. And that way, when the rains descend, and the floods come, and
the winds blow, and beat upon that house, it's not going to fall. It fell not. Why?
Because it was founded upon a rock. It didn't fall because of the color it was painted.
Because of the type of siding it had. Because it had a 30 year roof on it. No, all those
things are nice, but the only reason why it stood is because of the foundation that
it was standing on. That's what's going to see you through the storms of life. That's
what's going to keep you going in the Christian life. You know, regular church attendance
is a foundation that must be strongly laid in your life if you are going to make it in
the Christian life. If you're going to make it in the Christian life, and again, it doesn't
have to be this church. People get this idea, it's like, well, it's got to be faithful word
or bust. No. It's not true. That's not the right attitude. Are there some things it needs
to be? Yeah. King James. Salvation by grace through faith. And ideally, some form of outreach
where they're actually trying to publish the gospel in some shape or form. Ideally, door
to door. But even if anything, bus route something. It doesn't have to be this church. It has
to be a church that has some basics down. Let me move on from that. Let's go back to
Ezra chapter 6. And he said there, let the house be builded. Where they offered sacrifice
is let the foundations thereof be strongly laid. The height thereof three score cubits
and the breadth thereof three score cubits. So, you know, he starts to get actual measurements.
This is just going to be a quick point. But, you know, we do want to leave room to grow
numerically. Now, we'll get, you know, because people often wonder when they come to church,
they see this, they're like, well, how long are we going to be in this building? As long
as we can fit in it, right? You know, we just got done, you know, having the walls painted
and the trim put up and redecorating back here. And those things are fine and great.
You know, but the reason why I went ahead with that is because I realized we're going
to be in here for a little while. This is going to be a slow burn in Tucson. And I'm
all for it. And I don't mind it. Because here's the thing. You know what grows fast? Weeds.
Weeds are the things that grow up quickly overnight. And they're worthless. Nobody likes
weeds. And dandelions aren't weeds. No, no, that's not what you mean. Okay. I don't want
to go off on that. But anyway, I'm trying to say is this, is that, you know, I'm fine
with this being a slow burn down here. I'm fine with Tucson being a slow growing church
because that means you're growing the right way. You don't want to do any churches that
springs up overnight. But we're going to be in this building until we need a bigger one.
It was funny. I, you know, I talked to Brother Adam about the remodeling here. And we got,
I was like, gave him the thumbs up that Sunday. And I walked out to leave Sunday night. And
I noticed that this, this suite right across over here in the corner, both, both of them
just opened up that day, like that, that week. So I was like, Hmm, maybe I need to call Adam
and tell him to never mind and talk pastor and get in this bigger facility. And I started
looking in there and they got the big tall ceilings and they got the over, I mean, it
just, you know, it's like three or four times the size of this. And then I thought we would
be swimming in there, you know, that would be pointless. It would be better to just invest
a little bit in here and get cozy in here, make the place look a little nicer. You can't
do anything about this, right? But we can do something about that. Right. And I mean
the walls, I'm not talking about you. No need to change out there. No need to change
what's going on. Right. But we're going to be in this facility because here's the thing.
The facility is not our focus. You know, yeah, we did these things and they're nice because
we're going to, we are going to be here for a little while, but we're not, you don't want
to be in one of these churches where it's just like all about getting land and building
a building. I've done that. I've been there and I've done that. You start out with 60
people. And I remember there was a guy in my life at the time. He wasn't a member of
our church, but he was a Christian. He went to another church and he said, just be careful.
And he'd been around a while. I mean, he was already, you know, he'd been a Christian for
longer and I'd been alive. And he's saying, look, I've been through this more than once.
People are going to leave. Whenever you build a building, people get disgruntled. They start
to argue about the color of the pews. They don't match the curtains and the carpet and
blah, blah, blah. And people get petty and vindictive and malicious and bitter and they
split churches. I said, nah, not our church. We had 10 acres outside of town, 10 acres.
And we built a 12,000 square foot building or something like that with huge vaulted ceilings.
Beautiful building. Probably the biggest independent Baptist church in Northern Michigan. We had
60 people. And we had a bus route. You know, we were bringing in, you know, 50 to 100 kids
every Sunday. There was a lot going on on Sunday morning. But you know, on Wednesday
night before we left, there was 12 people. There's enough room for everyone to have a
thousand square feet to themselves. And where did most of those people leave? They left,
there were people leaving right as the church was getting finished. I mean, they were there
putting up drywall, mudding, painting, sanding, putting in the lights. And then they're just,
they're not even there for the grand opening. And I said, you know, I would rather go back
to the little UAW hall we started out in with the plastic chairs and have to go in and Sunday
morning and clean up after all the drunks and clean up the beer and the cigarette butts from
the, you know, the line dancing or whatever they were doing in there the night before. It's Northern
Michigan folks. That's what they do. I would rather do that and have all the people back.
Have all the families back because it's not about facilities. It's about the people. That's not our
focus. The building. A lot of churches, that's what they get up. That's what they're about. They
just want to make sure they have this ornate, immaculate, you know, just beautiful pulpit that
God just sent from heaven. You know, look at this pulpit. You know, you need further proof. There you
go. And I love this pulpit, by the way. I think it's great. I love that it's falling apart and it's
sanded and it's beaten up. It's distressed, right? It's got patina. But he said there,
look, he said, let the height thereof and the breadth thereof, you know, leave groom to grow
numerically. And he said, let there are three great rows of stones and a row of new timber. He said,
let there be three great stones and a new row of timber. Look, they don't lay all that at once. You
got to lay the first row and you got to lay the second row and you got to lay the third row. I
mean, I've never, I'm not a mason. You know, I mean like actual do masonry work. I'm not the other
type of mason either. Okay. They won't see me doing this. If I'm doing this, it's because I'm
scratching. All right. You know, I've got an itch somewhere. That's all that's going on there.
That's the only, but I've never done, you know, masonry work that I can remember anyway, where you
laid brick, but I've seen guys do it. And I'm pretty sure you lay the bottom brick first, right?
And then you lay the second row. You don't lay the top row and then build down, right? You got to
start at the bottom and work up. You know, that's how growth is going to be in a church. You got to
lay the foundation first and you get a core of people. And I feel like we've got that core in
Tucson. You know, we've got people who kind of went through a little storm here this last early
spring or late spring, summer, whenever some things went on, whatever, you know, we need to rehash all
that. Some people went, that's fine, you know, but we ended up with a core of people. And I said,
now we got our core. We got that first row laid. You know, now it's time to lay a second row.
And then we'll lay the third, you know, and we'll get the fresh new timber later. So that's how it's
going to grow. Growth is row upon row. It's a slow growth. He goes on, he says, and I'll wrap up
here. And he says in verse four, with three rows of great stones and a row of new timber, and let
the expenses be given out of the king's house and let the gold and golden and silver vessels of the
house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple, which is at Jerusalem, and brought
into Babylon be restored and brought again unto the temple, every one to his place. So he said
there, let the vessels be restored, every one to his place in the house of God. And that's how you
build a church. You know, what are the vessels? You're the vessels. Are you in second Timothy?
Look at verse 19, second Timothy chapter two, verse 19. Excuse me. Yeah, second Timothy two,
verse 19. He said this, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Look,
the foundation's laid, folks. The foundation of God is there. No other foundation can any man lay
than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. That foundation is there. Foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. You know, there's some vessels, some of God's vessels out
there. They're still out there. Nebuchadnezzar still has them. I mean, they're vessels that,
you know, God wants to save and fill, but they're out in the world. You know, Nebuchadnezzar still
got them in possession. And we got to go find those vessels and bring them in and clean them
up and polish them off and not just insist that, you know, we only get the best vessels right away
and just say only the most polished vessels here. No. You know, I imagine when they, I don't know
what Nebuchadnezzar was doing with those vessels. I know what his son did at one point, you know,
drinking wine and praising the gods of stone and other things. But, you know,
many of those vessels have been put in a storage closet for a while. And he said, what were these?
You know, it's like the Christmas decorations box or something that just you bring it out once
a year. Oh, those are the vessels from the Lord's house, from that place in Jerusalem that we took
over 70 years ago. And they've been collecting dust. And you got to pull them out. You got to
get the cobwebs out, put the polish on them, put a shine on them. And that's what we need to do.
That's how we're going to grow this church. You know, each vessel is going to be brought in,
restored, and it's going to be put in his place in the church, in the house of God. He said,
Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house,
there are not of only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth,
and of some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these,
he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared
every good work. Now, I know I kind of preached about this a couple of weeks ago,
but, you know, that's what we want to see happen in people's lives, is they begin to purge
themselves from these things. And look, they're not going to do that right away. They're not just
going to walk in here and be like, I'm a, I'm a, you know, I've got it all together. You know,
they've just, their life is perfect. Everything's lined up, but that's not who we're looking for.
You know, if that happens, great. Come on in. We'll take that too. But I'm saying, look,
we want to use vessels that will purge themselves from these other things. That will be vessels
that will be made unto, to meet for the master's use. Because God doesn't want to use a dirty
vessel any more than you want to eat or drink out of one. Now, I was a bachelor once, and there
might have been a few times where, you know, that bowl could have been a little cleaner.
That's another story. But generally speaking, right, you wouldn't want to, you wouldn't want
to eat out of something. Like, if we're going to have a taco up sewn here this afternoon,
and what if I just pulled all the plates from yesterday out of the trash and said,
here you guys go. What's the matter? We don't like tacos? Oh, we love tacos. The plate's the
problem. You know, it's that, it's that crusty fork you're handing me. Another Corbin. And let
me just go off on sweet tomatoes. You know, that's, there's, finally I, finally I can use
that place as a sermon illustration. I mean, there's a place that's disgusting. I heard they
went out of business. I'm so glad for it. This message was not brought to you by sweet tomatoes,
by the way. You go in there, and they have the crust, you've never been to the buffet that has
the crusty handle? Everybody else's food and fingers have been on it, and it's just like,
yo, who's going to want to eat that? You know, here's the thing. What, what, why is God going
to want to use the vessel that the world's had its hands all over? You still got, you know,
you still got some crusty sin on your, on your, in your vessel. God doesn't want to use that. You
know, you should come to church. You should be in the, you should be in God's house, you know,
making sacrifices, laying the foundation, and getting yourself polished up. You know,
start to work out that, those crusty sins, and get them out, so God can use you. And I'll close
on this. He said there at the end, if you would, in verse 7, he said, let the work of this house of
God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God and
his place. He's saying, let the rulers rule. He said, let the governors and the elders build this
house. And, you know, this is just, I'm going to close on this thought, is that, you know,
you need to let leadership lead in a church. You need to let the leadership lead. And, you know,
leadership's not going to be perfect. And if you would, go over to Hebrews chapter 13. They're
going to make mistakes. But, you know, I'm not trying to lift myself up or put anybody else down,
but, I mean, who do you think's thinking about this place more than anybody else?
You know, I hope somebody else can say it more than you, Brother Corbin. I am,
every day. And I'm sure people out there, they think about this place, think about our church,
and they pray about it. But, I mean, I'm eating it. I'm sleeping it. I'm dreaming it. It's every
day thinking about this place. What I'm trying to say is this. I have Tucson's best interests in
mind. That's what I want. I want the same, hopefully the same thing everybody else wants,
this church to grow as God sees fit for us to win souls, for us to, you know, shade in the map,
and not just because I like coloring, you know. I got, I mean, I got stacks of those books at home,
my kids, you know. I got boxes of crayons, right. But I like shading that in because it tells me,
look, we went to that neighborhood. We knocked every door there. Maybe somebody got saved. Maybe
they didn't, you know. But we went, and we did our part. We went into all the world as God
commissioned us to go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
every neighborhood, every street, every door. That's a big goal, I know. That's why we need
more help. That's why we need more people. That's why we need to be more consistent at it
and do more of it. But what I'm trying to say is that's where my heart is, and I trust that's
where everybody else's heart is, and that's the type of church we're running. So let me lead,
you know. And I've got Pastor Anderson, you know. He gives me a lot of leeway and lets me do things,
you know, and ultimately he's leading. But, you know, trust the leadership to lead in the right
direction. And if they do something wrong, you know, that's not like, well, I knew it.
I could have done better. I mean, come on. Does that really look gray to you?
And yes, it does. It finally does, you know. I think you've been in here long enough,
it finally starts to look gray, you know. When you first watch, you're like, that looks a little
purple. Didn't want to say the other one, you know, pink. Too much. Who picked that out?
Whatever. Well, I did. I think it turned out okay. I think it looks nice. But that's just one little
thing, you know, but people get bent out of shape with that kind of stuff. You know, we might make
mistakes along the way. You know, we're going to talk about how to do follow-up and stuff like
that and things like that in the future. You might not agree. And you know what? I'm open to ideas,
but let me just put this out there. Don't ever suggest an idea if you can't handle being told
no. Just don't do that to yourself. And you know, if you say, hey, I think you ever want to try
this, and you know, there might be something to say, yeah, that's a great idea. And I love
new ideas. We could try something. But maybe you say, you know what, that sounds good, but you've
got to think about this, and you've got to think about that, and that's just not the way we do
things. Let the governors and the elders build the house of God. Let them lead in that, you know.
He's not saying there, let just those guys take out the shovel and the trowel and do all the work
while everybody else just stands by and watches them. He's saying, but let them lead. Let them
dictate and say, this person's good at this. That person's good at that. We should do this. We
should do this then and do this there. Let them lead. You know, trust the leadership of this.
And I'll just end here. It says there in verse 12. He said in verse 12, and the God that hath
caused his name to dwell. I'm getting, I don't know, I'm losing my spot here. Oh yeah, yeah.
Verse 12. And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there, destroy all kings and people
that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God, which is at Jerusalem.
I mean, God takes church pretty seriously. He's taking this house of God pretty seriously.
He's saying, look, if they do anything, tear down their house and hang them with the timber and then
make it into a dung hill. That's a pretty severe punishment, but that is something I'm going to get
at. He said, I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with speed. Let it be done with speed.
Look, you need to apply the wisdom of Cyrus to your life with haste. You know, some of us are,
you know, kind of like what I did, you know, came into the Christian life a little bit later in
life. We have some catching up to do. You need to let it be done with speed. Don't hesitate to
employ the wisdom of Cyrus in your life. So I've been out of church for years. I've never been in
a church. I'm backslidden. You know what? Get it right today. Start today. I don't go soul-witting.
I haven't been soul-witting in a long time. I'm inconsistent. Fix it today. Let it be done with
speed. I don't read my Bible anymore. I quit reading. Don't wait till New Year's. Don't wait
for the New Year's sermon where I try to motivate you to read again. Do it today. Now. Let it be done
with speed. You know, today is the day to get back in the fight, and if you know what you say,
well, I'm already in the fight. I haven't fallen out. Then today's the day to determine not to fall
out of the fight. So I've laid the foundation. Today's the day to say, you know what? I'm going
to lay the next layer. You know, I'm going to stay on the foundation. You know, we need to apply the
wisdom of Cyrus to our church and to our personal lives with speed. Let's go ahead and pray.