(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're up to Ezra chapter three. Ezra chapter three, look at verse number 10. It says, and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. The title of the sermon this afternoon is laid the foundation. Laid the foundation. Of course, before we start to build, whatever it is that we're gonna build, a temple, a house, we need to make sure that the foundation is laid. Now, as I've been telling you, as we've been going through the book of Ezra, yes, we are learning about what took place when the Jews returned back out of captivity. We are learning about the construction of the second temple. This second temple that they're going to start to construct is the same temple that the Lord Jesus Christ would visit when he came to this earth 2,000 years ago. But we also wanna take applications for us today. And as we, just a reminder, we know that the temple of the Old Testament was called the house of the Lord. Well, the house of the Lord in the New Testament is our local church. And so we wanna take out the spiritual truths, the applications that we can then apply for Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Let's start doing verse number one. Ezra 3, verse number one. And when the seventh month was come and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. So what is the significance of them coming together at the seventh month? As we keep going through the book of Ezra, you're going to notice that they started to come together for the Feast of the Tabernacles, the Feast of the Tabernacles. Now, you don't have to turn there. I'll quickly read to you from Leviticus 23, verse 33. Leviticus 23, verse 33. The Bible says, and the Lord spake up to Moses saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the 15th day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. And so as we know in the Old Testament days, they had this feast, they had these different holidays they were to frequent and be part of. And even before they construct the new temple, before they lay the foundation, they already understand, okay, this is the seventh month, we have to have this celebration, this Feast of Tabernacles. Now, I'll explain to you more about that feast in a moment, but let's keep going there. Ezra chapter three, verse number two. It says, then stood up Joshua. Joshua is just a variation of the name Joshua, but Joshua here is one of the priests. He must have been a pretty prominent priest because his name gets brought up many times. It says here, then stood up Joshua, the son of Josadak, and his brethren, the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltil. Okay, so Zerubbabel is the governor of Judah here, okay? He's part of the royal lineage, he's part of David's family line. And so you've got the royal line is where the governor, and you've got one of the main priests here, Joshua. And what we see here is this great example of leadership. Okay, as they come to establish God's house, to build God's house, it's always important that we have good leaders. You know, when it comes to the church, you know, I'm the pastor of the church, I'm the leader of the church. And even though we have leadership, even though a lot of that responsibility and burden falls upon the leadership, one thing I want you to notice as they build the house of the Lord, that everybody gets involved, okay? And it's just like the New Testament church. You know, I mean, a lot of my life, I thought church was just the pastor. Like I turn up, I sit in the pew, I listen to the preaching, I sing a song, and I just go home and forget about church. One thing that I started to learn in my life as I started to get myself into good church and good preaching is to understand and appreciate the fact that every member is an important part of the church. We are all there working together, where they're supporting the leadership to ensure the house of the Lord is effective for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's keep going, verse number two. Actually, let's just start again. Then set up Joshua, the son of Jozadak, and reverend the priests, and to Reubenbeil, the son of Shealtiel, and his reverend, look at this, and builded the altar of the God of Israel to offer birth offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And so, as I said to you, reverend, the title for the sermon today was lay the foundation. Lay the foundation. One thing that we see that's wonderful is that they built the altar, okay? Now, I want you to think about this. They're building the altar, they're offering sacrifices. This is before the Old Testament temple has been constructed. You see, even before God established the temple, and even before God established the tabernacle, you were able to bring your offerings. If you set up an altar, a burnt offering for the Lord, we see this play out multiple times in the Bible, which is quite interesting, because the Jews today, they don't offer burnt sacrifices, do they? And if you were to ask the Jews, why don't you offer burnt sacrifices? They say, well, we haven't got a temple built yet. One day when we build a temple, we'll start offering the burnt sacrifices. Listen, it's not necessary to have a temple to offer your sacrifices. We see another example here of the Jews, they understand the importance, this feast, this celebration they're gonna have, they build the altar. And again, this whole thing is sort of the first step to make sure that they're right with God. And again, they're being led by good leadership, by Joshua the priest, Zerubbel the governor. So we have this example of, maybe for us, for many people, they don't have a good church to be part of, right? They haven't got the house of God, as it were. You know, maybe they're in a rural area, they just haven't got any good churches in the area at all. You know what, they shouldn't stop anybody from offering their sacrifices to the Lord. We can still serve the Lord without a church. Now look, church is important. God wants to be part of a local church. God wants us working together with brethren, serving the brethren, but I understand there are people throughout different places in Australia or throughout the world where they don't have a good church. But if you're listening to them today, if you're online listening and you haven't got a church, you know what, you're still required to have an altar to bring out your sacrifices. Not a burnt sacrifice in this sense, but we offer our sacrifices of praise, of worship, of service to the Lord God. We are still required to worship God, even if we're without a church. All right, let's keep going to verse three. Now, obviously they're going to build that altar. What do they do with this altar? It says, and they set the altar upon his basis. As I said, the total summon was laid the foundation. You see, even the altar needed a foundation. The altar needed a base, which they were to build on. It says, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. So the base that this altar has been built upon is the foundation, okay? It's a foundation. So it's so important that we start to establish ourselves on fundamental truths of God's word. You know, when it comes to being a Christian, if we want to grow in Christ, we want to serve the Lord, we must ensure that our foundations are laid, okay? You know, we're an independent, fundamental Baptist church. The word fundamental has the same thought of, you know, the foundation. You know, we're established on God's truth. You know, we're not a church that's going to be tossed to and fro with every ring of doctrine. Having fundamentals in our life are important. You know, the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian life is salvation. You know, salvation by the grace of God, the sacrifice of Christ, our faith upon him without works. Amen? That is a fundamental truth. And if we're going to be established as Christians, we have to just lock that in, have our trust upon Jesus Christ, and be able to move on and establish ourselves in other fundamentals of the truth. This is part of growing as a Christian. If you learn a truth of God's word, lock it in, see where it's in the Bible, reinforce yourself in that truth, and then you'll be able to build on that base. The altar was going to be built upon his base. I believe when it says it's built upon his bases, I believe what it's saying here is that the altar they built is in the same location that the altar was before, before the temple was destroyed. It's in the same location, the same foundations. And this is so important, again, as a church, you know, I'm not here as a pastor trying to reinvent the wheel. You know, we're not trying to be some fancy, you know, church with brand new ideas that nobody's ever done before. We're not a church here that's interested in listening to brand new doctrines. Reverend, we establish ourselves on the truth, on the fundamentals of the faith, the fundamentals of the Christian life. And you know, I'm not interested in building something new. You know, I want to know what is the old paths, what are the old ways, how has God established things in the past? How has God done things in the past and continued doing the work that God has left us to do? As I said to you, we are a fundamental Baptist church. And so, Reverend, it is definitely a priority to make sure that we establish our fundamentals, whether that's our church, our fundamentals in our Christian life, et cetera, okay? Because if you want to do something great for God, you need to be unmovable. You need to find strong foundations where you can then go and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what they're doing here by bringing the altar, they're getting themselves right with God. They know what God's requirement is in the seventh month, the Feast of the Tabernacles, they're offering their burnt sacrifices, they're doing what is right according to the Old Covenant, the Old Testament laws. And again, they're doing this, this shows a picture that they're going to be unmovable from the truth. They're setting the altar on his basis. Now, what's quite interesting as well is, why is it so important that we have fundamentals? Why is it so important they set the altar upon his basis and offer these sacrifices? Look at the investment of free again. It says, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. Isn't that interesting? So it says they built the altar upon the basis because of fear of other people. Now, Brethren, it's so important. Why is it so important that we have fundamentals? Why is it so important that we stay established on God's truth to overcome fear? That's why. You know, there are going to be people that want to attack us. There are going to be people that want to mock us. There are going to be people that want to persecute us. There's going to be people that want to cause us to be unbalanced and shaken in God's truth. But if we establish our foundations, we have no reason to fear. If we offer our foundations and our free and our sacrifices before God, we will be unmovable. No matter who comes to try to stop us, no matter who tries to come and stop our church or stop us in our preaching life, that's why the fundamentals are so important. So we can overcome any kind of fear, any kind of destabilization that people are trying to cause in our lives. Back there in Ezra 3, verse number four. Ezra 3, verse number four. It says, they kept also the Feast of the Tabernacles. And as I said to you, that's why they're doing this on the seventh month. As it is written and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the custom as the duty of every day required. Now keep your finger there and please go to Leviticus 23. Go to Leviticus 23 for me please. And I just want to show you just a little bit more about the Feast of Tabernacles. What is this Feast of Tabernacles? What is it to represent? Why are they celebrating this? Why does God want them to keep this Feast? Please go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse number 41. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse number one. Give you a moment to turn there. Leviticus 23, verse number 41. The Bible reads, and ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year, for a whole week. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. So what are they to do? Verse number 42, ye shall dwell in booths seven days, all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths. Isn't that interesting? So even if they've got a house, even if they've got a permanent dwelling place, one week a year, they have to come to Jerusalem for this feast and dwell in booths. That's why it's called the Feast of Tabernacles. You know, a Tabernacle is kind of like a tent. Well, the booths is the same thing. The booths is basically a temporary accommodation. It's not a fixed place. It's like they're all to come together into Jerusalem and the surrounding city and just establish themselves in tents. It's like a big camp out. You know, they're just camping out. You know, it's a church camp for a week, for example, okay? Why were they to do this though? Why are they to move from a physical location to a temporary accommodation? Well, it says in verse number 43, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths. When I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. So this is a reminder, to remind them that they were taken out of Egypt, God delivered them out of slavery, and we know they took them sometime, you know, especially because they didn't want to go to the land of Canaan, 40 years in the wilderness, where they would dwell in booths, they would dwell in Tabernacles. So this is a reminder of God's deliverance and what took place in the past. You know, when we talk about building our foundations, we should also be appreciative for the things that occurred in the past. I appreciate my parents. You know, I appreciate that I grew up in a Christian home. I appreciate that my mother gave me the gospel. You know, these are things that I'm building my life upon, the great Christian teaching that I received from my parents. Well, this is just a reminder for the current generation, as they come out of Babylon, to remember that God has delivered their forefathers out of wicked Egypt, and that God provided all their needs in the wilderness to bring them into the promised land. Look at verse number 44, it says, and Moses declared unto the children of Israel, the feasts of the Lord. Now you say, well, Pastor Kevin, how does that apply to us? You know, this idea that, you know, being in booths, being in Tabernacles, being in a temporary location, what is the application for us today? Well, I'm glad you asked. Please go to 1 Peter chapter two. Please go to 1 Peter chapter two and verse 11. 1 Peter chapter two and verse number 11. You know, not until COVID. I could say that I never really appreciated the verses that we're about to read. You know, I've always known that this is our world. I've always known, sorry, that this is not our world, I should say. You know, we're living here. I've always known, you know, my world is to come. My kingdom is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've known that, but sometimes it's hard to detach yourself from the world because we're here, we're physically here. We have to operate in this world. And one of the greatest blessings that I received through COVID is to become less attached to this world. Detached as it were. You know, nothing excites me in this world anymore. You know, I see the corruption. I see the wickedness. I see a spiritual Babylon amassing power for itself. I see the governments of the world renewing freedoms from individuals. And I just think, you know what? Yeah, I don't like this world anymore. That there's nothing here that I'm really looking forward to and it's helped me. COVID, this COVID world has really helped me to set my eyes on heaven. Because it says in 1 Peter 2, verse 11, "'Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims "'of staying from fleshly lusts, "'which war against the soul.'" And that's what we are, brethren. We're strangers, we're pilgrims. We're not of this world, really, brethren. We're strangers of this world. We're pilgrims, we're just passing by. But the feast on the tabernacles is to represent that same truth. That the Old Testament is right, they're just passing by. You know, they're not here to remain on this earth forever. They're to find a temporary place and to remind themselves of God's great blessings, to remind themselves how God delivered them into the promised land. And as I already preached, I think it's Ezra chapter one, I made a couple, was it Ezra one or Ezra chapter two, where I covered that, the parallel that we can see as the Jews come out of Babylon, as they come back into Jerusalem, is similar to how we experience this earth as a Babylon, as it were, and we're looking forward to the time that we can return back home, that we can be in heaven with the Lord God, where we are no longer strangers and pilgrims, but that is our place of residence, our permanent residence, the new heavens and the new earth. Let's keep going to verse number 12, 1 Peter 2, verse 12, having your conversation or your behavior, your lifestyle, honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil against you as evil doers, that they made by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme. And that's been really hard, hasn't it? Submitting yourselves to every ordinance of man. And I've had people say to me, yeah, but Pastor Kevin, is it a law? Has it been put into law? Well, it doesn't say obey every law. It says submit yourselves to every ordinance, that's every order. You know, these health orders, well, it says to submit yourself to them. Every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, and it keeps going on, okay, about obeying government. Now, I don't want to go rehash all that again, but you know what? It's much easier to obey governments, kings, even weakened, corrupt ones. It's much easier to obey them when your heart and your mind is on eternity, okay? I mean, if you're just focused on this earth, and you know, you're going to want to resist, you're going to want to, you know, you say, no, I want my freedoms on this earth. You know, I want to be able to live the life that I want to live on this earth. You know, the truth is, when your focus is less on this earth, when you're not attached to this world, brethren, and you have your attention on Jesus Christ, it's just much easier, okay, whatever. Wicked government, I know you're going to be judged by God. You know, I know that if I submit and I do things in accordance to God's way, that God's going to give me patience. He's going to help me through this. He's going to give me the ability to work through this. And you know what? If I just obey God and walk in his paths, then I know that I'm going to be rewarded in heaven for all eternity. You know, having your eyes on eternity is so important. It really helps you walk in this life, you know, and even to be obedient to every ordinance that we may disagree with. And so this is a picture of the beast of Tabernacles, a temporary place. This is not our permanent dwelling place, okay? The earth, you know, Australia or the Israelites, that land, now God's going to create a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem, and that's the place that we ought to be focused upon. Back to Ezra chapter three, verse number five. Ezra chapter three, verse number five. And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated and of everyone that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. It says, from the first day of the seventh month began a day to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord, but look at this, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. And I already, I kind of stole my phone a little bit earlier. You know, I was basically saying this, look, these people were willing to have their feasts to offer the burnt offerings upon the altar, even though not even the foundation of the temple was not yet put in place, okay? And I said to you, the Jewish today, they say, well, they don't offer burnt offering because they haven't got the temple. Well, these people don't even have the foundation of the temple in place, and they're still serving the Lord. They're still doing what is right. And again, just encourage me because I know we have a few online listeners, and I know many of you don't have a good church to go to. Don't let it be an excuse to not serve God. Oh, I didn't have a church, therefore, you know, I can't go soul winning. You can go soul winning. Oh, you haven't got a good church, so I can't read my Bible. You can read your Bible. I haven't got a good church, so I can't really go to the Lord in prayer. You can go to the Lord in prayer. I haven't got a good church, therefore I can't walk in the path of righteousness. You can walk in the path of righteousness. You can serve the Lord, you can sing your praises. You can pretty much do anything because you have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling every believer. What's wonderful about the New Testament is that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. We don't need a physical location. We don't necessarily need a church, so it's important, it's vital to have a church, but we're a temple of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost is working in our lives and he wants us to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. So we don't need, don't let, don't let, you know, I'm following the online listeners here. Don't let the excuse of having no church be a reason where you don't serve the Lord. You know, please try to find like-minded believers. You know what, and if you don't have a good church, there's a good church up here on the Sunshine Coast. Actually, we're in Sydney, so there's a good church in Sydney as well. Blessed old Baptist Church, but you know, actually, Sunshine Coast is a little bit better. Actually, just recently, the Sunshine Coast has voted as the best tourist place in the entire world. So why don't you come here, come to the best tourist place in the world and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in your life Baptist Church. But listen, if Sydney is an easier place, hey, we've got blessed up. You know what, there are other good churches. I'm not trying to say that the churches I pastor are the only churches. No, there are many good churches. Forever, it just requires a bit of humility. You know, not every church is going to preach exactly the same. But look, if you've got a safe pastor, you've got the clear presentation of the gospel, you've got them preaching from the King James Bible, and they're not against Solomon, that's probably a good church for you to get plugged into. You know, I'd rather, you know, rather than the online listeners listening to the preaching from this pastor, I'd much rather you be in a good local church serving him in the house of the Lord, all right? Let's keep going there. It says in verse number seven, verse number seven here. It says, they gave money also unto the Masons and to the carpenters and meats and drink and oil, and to them in Zion and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Jubbah, according to the grants that they had of Cyrus, King of Persia. Now, I recently covered this with New Life Baptist Church, because we were kind of looking at the construction of the first temple of Solomon. And one thing that I preached to New Life Baptist was basically that God used Gentiles, okay? And we saw specifically the King of Tyre to come alongside Solomon, to bring the resources, to bring the trees, to bring the workers to construct the house of God. And I think this is so wonderful, because again, I hate that teaching that, you know, the Old Testament, this is the Jews, God just cares about the Israelites, and it's only in the New Testament that God said to care about the Gentiles. No, God used Gentiles to build his house, even the temple of Solomon. Not only was Tyre involved in the first temple, you can see here, now Zion, or Zion's another Gentile city, and again, of them of Tyre. So again, we have Tyre, again, helping, bringing the cedar trees, bringing the timber, and being a help to the Jews as they come about building the second temple, okay? And so, it's just that reminder that the Gentiles are involved in the work of God. And, you know, God didn't just become like the God of the Gentiles in the New Testament. He's always been a God of the Gentiles, even in the Old Testament. They could come and worship God in the temple. And let's keep going there, verse number eight. It says, actually, before I move on, just the last thing, you know, the reason Tyre and Zion are sort of helping out here is, again, it just says at the end of that verse number seven it says, according to the grant, or I guess, the commandments that they had of Cyrus, king of Persia, because remember, Cyrus, king of Persia, had taken over Babylon. It's no longer really the Babylonian, right? It's the Persian, middle Persian empire, and Tyre and Zion, the cities that are under that power, under that authority. Let's keep going, verse number eight. I think verse number eight is interesting to me. It says, now in the second year of their coming, unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubel, the son of Sheltiel, and Jeshua, there's that priest again, the son of Josadak, and the remnant of their brethren, the priests and the Levites. And those next words, and all they that were come out of captivity went on to Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. So what do we learn here? It's, we're already into year number two now, and now they're starting to plan to build the house of the Lord. Say, what's taken so long? Two years, and they haven't started the work. Well, what did we learn here? Obviously, you need to remind yourself, as they've come back into Judah, they've come back to Jerusalem, don't forget that it was a place of destruction, it was a place of desolation, okay? The whole city has been burnt down, I'm sure there's debris everywhere, there's probably, they probably have to just clear out the place, clean it up. What I'm trying to say to you, brethren, is before they started to work, they prepared themselves. They prepared themselves for a couple of years, until they were ready to build the house. And so the key to establishing, or the key to succeeding in a great work for God, is number one, preparation, preparation. Listen, if it takes two years to prepare, so be it, as long as they're able to accomplish a great work for God. Can you please turn to Proverbs 21 for me? Keep your finger there in Ezra chapter three, please turn to Proverbs 21. Preparation is the key to success in the Christian life. You know, if you wanna be a soul winner, before you go out and knock doors and preach the gospel, you know what you need to do? You need to prepare, you need to prepare. You need to figure out your plan, or your gospel presentation plan. Figure out your verses. I highly encourage that you memorize the verses that you wanna go through. You know, do some role playing. We'll do it in front of you if you're embarrassed to role play in front of the person doing it from the mirror. You know, pretend that you're giving it, you know, the gospel out to someone. Come as a soul partner. You know, experience what it's like to go soul winning, and learn from the soul winner. This is all part of preparation. If you wanna do something great for God, you have to prepare. You know, if you want to read through the Bible, cover to cover, I'd encourage you at least to read through the Bible once every year. But you need to prepare. You can't just think, I'll just pick up my Bible and I'll get through in a year. No, prepare, have a plan. You know, figure out how many days you've got left. Figure out how many chapters you gotta get through. Work out how many chapters you need to work through every day to get through the Bible. Have a plan, and that's gonna be the key to success. If you don't plan, you're going to fail. And so they've got a couple of years here, planning, clearing a place, getting themselves ready to begin the work in the house of God. Now I know you're in Proverbs 21. I won't read that just yet. I wanna quickly read to you just a very familiar passage in Luke 14, Luke 14, verse 28, Luke 14, verse number 28. These are the words of Christ. He says, for which of you intending to build a tower, sit if not down first and counter for cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it. Amen. Before you build a tower, before you build a house, before you do a great work, what do you do? You prepare, you sit down. You say, do I have the resources? Do I have the manpower? Do I have the finances? Can I get the job done? You do that first, and then you build. You do that first, then you succeed in the Christian life. He then says, Jesus Christ says in verse 29, lest happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that beholdeth begin to mock him, he is saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Brethren, I want to keep building Blessed Old Baptist Church. I want to keep building New Life Baptist Church. I want to get to the finish line. Say, what does the finish line look like? Well, right now for Blessed Old Baptist Church, the finish line in my point of view is that there'd be another ready pastor to take over that church. And I can hand the church over to a pastor that's going to lead the church to even greater works than what I've been able to accomplish for the church. Then for me, as far as I'm concerned, that work is finished, amen? And I have a work to do here on the Sunshine Coast, serving the people here, serving the local community, Lord willing until Jesus Christ comes back, all right? But we need to prepare. We need to understand, have we got the ability? Have we got the manpower? Have we got the resources to do a great work of God that requires preparation? And again, I want to speak to the people that potentially want to be pastors one day, potentially want to start a church one day. You know, we have Brother Tim, who's gone down to Victoria to do some soul-winning. You know, they're a Brethren in Victoria that would love to have a church like ours. You know, maybe the Lord's got it in your heart to go to Melbourne. You know, it requires preparation. It requires to get down there, to meet the Brethren, to do the soul-winning marathons, to try to get something happening, to try to get a fellowship, get soul-winning, whatever it is, Brethren, get something happening. Work on preparing yourself, preparing yourself to preach the gospel, preparing yourself to maybe have your own resources, your own finances, knowing full well that it might take a while for you to be able to take care of yourself through the offense of the church. And so everything requires preparation. You're in Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21 in verse number 31. Proverbs 21, verse number 31. It says, the horse is what? Prepared against the day of battle. Let me just stop it for a moment. You know, if you're going to go to war, you're going to go to battle. You know, these days they had horses. You have to prepare your horse. Can you ride a horse into battle? Have you tamed the horse? Is it going to be your loyal companion? Is it strong? You know how to ride it fast and hard. You know, have you got it armored up? Have you got your armor? Have you got your shield? Have you got your sword? Are you prepared for the time of battle? Are you prepared to serve God? Brethren, it requires preparation to do a great work for God. But notice what it says at the end of the verse. But safety is of the Lord. So at the end of the day, you know what? It's in the Lord's hands whether we succeed, but we have to do everything we can to prepare ourselves, prepare our horses for the day of battle. But at the end of the day, we're not trusting the horse. We're not trusting the armor. We're not trusting our weapons. Our trust is upon the Lord God that he's going to see us through as long as we prepared ourselves for the great work that God has commissioned us to do. And let me remind you, brethren, blessing of the church is a great work for God. You know, going sovereignty, leading people out, out of that church, it's a great work for God. Preaching the truth is a great work for God. Cleaning up our lives to live a whole life for God. It's a great work for God. It's so great when we can have a church that is motivating, encouraging one another to serve the Lord with our lives. Back to Ezra chapter three, verse number nine. Ezra chapter three, verse number nine. It says, Then stood Jeshua and his sons and his brethren, Cadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah together, and set forward the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Hanadat, with his sons and their brethren, the Levites. Now it seems like if you just look at verse number nine, it looks like it's just the Levites. It's just the priests that are working for the house of God. But I just want you to notice, just sorry, remind you back in verse number eight, it says, All they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem. So it's everyone that is coming out of captivity that has been put to work for the house of God. And again, just that reminder, because I had those thoughts Brethren, when I was a young Christian, I had the thoughts, it's not my job to help the church. You know, I'll put my $10 in the offering plate if I have to. You know, I'll fill one of the pews, but you know, I never thought that it was actually my responsibility. Again, it wasn't until I got myself into a good, independent, fundamental Baptist church, that I realized, oh, I actually am part of the church. Like I'm actually a proper member of the church. And there are things that I can provide the church that other people cannot. And Brethren, you're all valuable. You know, some of us have more talents than others. Some of us have more abilities. You know, please find a place that you can serve. The Lesser Health Baptist Church is so important. Don't forget that this past is going to return back to Queensland. And you know, I've been obviously lifting a lot of the weight there, but I need others to come alongside and continue doing work for God. This is your opportunity to serve. You know, when we serve the body of Christ, we are serving the Lord God. He's going to reward you in heaven for the things that you do to help support the church there in Fairfield. Can you keep your finger there and turn to Romans 12. Please turn to Romans 12 for me. Romans 12. Romans 12 and verse number four. Romans 12 and verse number four. Just as a reminder for you, it says, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office. Reverend, there's not going to be another pastor Kevin, but we don't want another pastor Kevin. You know, if one day God is able to bless us with another man who can be a pastor, you know, we can all, we all have different personalities. We all have different abilities. We all preach differently. As long as we're preaching the truth of God's word, but we all have different offices. We can all serve in different ways. Even though we're many members of one body, this one body of course represents our local church. Verse number five. So we be many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. We're all members one of another. I'm not just a member of a local church. I'm a member of you. And you're a member of me. We're a team. We're one body, the body of Christ. Verse number six. Having then gifts different according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Hey, some people have the gift of prophecy, prophecy is preaching, okay? Then if you have the gift of preaching, then prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Verse number seven. All ministry. Some ministry is just a way of service. You know, we can find a way to serve in a local church. Let us wait on our ministry. What, however you can serve. Serve God, okay? Or he that teacheth on teaching. Or he that exhorteth. You say, look, I can't teach Pastor Kevin. I don't have the ability to open my mouth. It says, or he that exhorteth on exaltation. You know what that is? To build someone up, to encourage. Hey, are you able to encourage your brother? Are you able to encourage your brethren? The Bible says this is a gift of the Lord. You know, I've been here in Queensland and we've got a little girl here. And every time I come to preach, she comes up and she hugs my leg. She really appreciates her pastor. You know, she hasn't seen me in a little while. She's, I think she's two years old. And Micaiah, you know, she comes up and you know, you know, the family's kind of like, oh, you know, she's bothering you. But actually she encourages me. Like, you know, I haven't been in the house, you know, I haven't been here in your life ever since for a long time. You've got this little toddler coming up and appreciating the pastor, you know. You know, hi pastor, bye pastor, hugging my leg, you know, but you know what that is? It's exaltation. I'm being encouraged by a little one. Amazing. You know what, just these little gifts that we can just serve one another, please use the gifts that God has given you to serve your local church. It says, he that giveth, let it do it with simplicity. You know, there are people that can give more than others as far as the financial resources, method, whatever you can give, you know, give it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. There are some people that are organized, that can organize, that can lead, you know, to do it with diligence. He that showth mercy with chiefliness. You know, showing mercy to the brethren is a gift from God. You know, we ought to be able to show mercy to our brothers and sisters of the Lord, to be an encouragement. You know what, just doing these basic things, showing mercy, you know, is a gift. Do it with chiefliness. Do it to serve one another. Please remember that blessing up at the church is not pastor Kevin's approval of his church, it's our church. Where he working and serving one another as we serve the body of Christ. Back to Ezra chapter three, verse number 10. Ezra chapter three, verse number 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, amen. Before they can build a temple, they laid the foundation. They finally got the job done. It says they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the son of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord after the ornaments of David, king of Israel. Now, can you please keep your finger there and go to first Corinthians chapter three, go to first Corinthians chapter three and verse number 10. First Corinthians chapter three and verse number 10. So they laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord. Let's take a spiritual truth here in first Corinthians chapter three, verse number 10. First Corinthians chapter three, verse number 10. You know what? You also have a foundation that has been laid for you, okay? In first Corinthians chapter three, verse number 10. It says, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. So Paul is saying about himself that he's a master builder, a wise master builder. According to the grace of God. He doesn't say, I'm such a great master builder, look at me, I'm saying all these churches. He says, because of God's grace, he's given me the ability to be this wise master builder. He says, I have laid the foundation and another builder thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon. Let me just quickly apply this to blessed up at this church. You know, as it were, God has given me the grace to be a wise master builder, to lay the foundations for blessed up at this church, and we could start and get that church planted. But you know what? I have no problem, as it says there in verse number 10, if another buildeth thereon. I have no problem if there's another man ready to pass this church and to move it forward and build upon the foundation that I've laid. I've got no problem whatsoever. We're here working together for the kingdom of God, okay? We're here to support one another. But this foundation that we're reading about here is not just a physical foundation. It's not even necessarily a foundation of the house of God. It says here in verse number 11, an other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, amen. Jesus Christ is our foundation. Listen, even if you're without a church, if you're an online listener, you have a foundation. That foundation is Jesus Christ. If you've come to Christ in faith, you've believed on his death, burial, resurrection, you're only trusting Christ, you know you received eternal life, and you know that salvation is not with works or anything else, then the foundation has been laid, the foundation of Jesus Christ. Then it says in verse number 12, now, if any man build upon this foundation, should we build upon the foundation of Christ? Yes, it's wonderful that you're saved. It's wonderful that you have the foundation. Now what does God want you to do? Start building upon the foundation. What does he want us to build? If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stars. Of course, it's symbolic of the work of God. If we serve the Lord, we are building gold, silver, precious stones upon this foundation of Jesus Christ. But sometimes we also lay wood, hay, and stubble. Obviously, this wood, hay, and stubble is not as precious as the gold, silver, and precious stones. But then when Christ comes back and judges us for our works, not for salvation, but our works for a reward, it says in verse number 13, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And so the fire of God's judgment is gonna pass upon the building that we've laid upon the foundation of Christ. It's going to reveal to us what kind of work was it. Of course, the gold, the silver, the precious stones are going to stay upon the foundation, and Christ is gonna reward us in like manner. But when he comes to the wood, hay, and stubble, hey, the fire's going to destroy that. You know, there are things that we do that are not necessarily sinful, but they've just got no eternal value. God's not going to reward us for those things that have no eternal value. He's going to reward us for the things that have eternal value, the gold, silver, and precious stones. But the foundation has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, brethren, what are you going to do with that foundation that Christ has given you? God wants to lay his gold, silver, precious stones, and do a great work for God. Back to Ezra 3, verse 11. Ezra 3 and verse 11. You know, once the foundation is laid, it says here, and they sang together by course in praising him, giving thanks unto the Lord. They rejoiced him, the foundation is laid, praise God. They're singing praises because he is good for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praise the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Brethren, we ought to be excited when the foundation is laid. You know, we looked at the foundation of Christ. That foundation is laid the moment you've believed on him, the moment you're saved. Brethren, you ought to rejoice in your salvation. The Bible says in Psalm 35, verse nine, and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. Amen. Boy, God has saved us from our sins. God has given us everlasting life. He saved us from hell. You know, brethren, before Christ, before we trusted him, we were on our way to the lake of fire. We were on our way to a place of torment, torture, day and night, forever and ever. Christ has come and saved us. He's put that foundation in place that we can go home to heaven, and we ought to rejoice over that. But you know, in life sometimes we grow cold, don't we? We grow cold toward the things of God. You may even grow cold about your salvation. You know, maybe you've been saved for several years and you just don't give it kind of any thought. And you might say, oh, Kevin, that's never occurred to me. It's gonna occur to you one day. I mean, I've gone through all the emotions. I've been like, you know, I'm not boasting again, just I've been saved for a long time. I've been through the times when I've been excited for the Lord, been excited to read my Bible, you know, excited to learn more, to listen to preachers, done soul winning. And there are times when I've just sort of dropped, you know, and I've just been distracted with whatever, you know, just not willing to pick up my Bible. You know, I've lost that joy. And again, you know, I love the Psalms because we see these emotions of man. You know, it's not unusual to lose your joy of salvation. It's not unusual to stop rejoicing for the foundation that has been laid. And I'll quickly read to you from Psalm 51, verse 12. Psalm 51, verse 12. These are the words of David. Even King David got to the point where he got a little bit cold with his salvation, with his foundation. He says in Psalm 51, verse 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. You know, King David is basically saying, Lord, help me to rejoice once again at the foundation that has been laid in Jesus Christ. And look, if someone like King David can get a bit cold in his spiritual life, then so can you and I. And there might be a few of you today, I don't know, might be a few of you today that have grown cold. You just don't rejoice in the foundation of Christ anymore. You've lost that joy of salvation. Well, let me encourage you just like King David to go to God in prayer and ask God, God, can you restore unto me the joy of thy salvation? We ought to be rejoicing, praising God for the foundations that God has laid in our life. And of course, that key, that core foundation is Jesus Christ's salvation through him. Ezra chapter three, verse 12. Ezra chapter three and verse number 12. It says, but many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house. The first house is Solomon's temple, okay? So you can see some of these that went into captivity, they were able to return back, but they come back as ancient old men, okay? They see the laying of the foundation once again. When the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the peoples. For the people shouted with a loud shout and the noise was heard afar off. We learned a few things as the foundation's been laid. Those that remember the good old days as they were, they remember Solomon's temple, they remember the beauty of that temple, they remember the foundations and they see now the new foundation's being laid for the new temple. Some of them are rejoicing, some of them are excited, some of them are like, yes! Others are weeping. Now, the Bible doesn't say exactly why they're weeping here, but you know what? It can be emotional. You know, to establish a great foundation, we get to see sort of mixed emotions, you know, joy, excited for the future, and also weeping, also the sadness. You know, you could give several reasons why maybe number one, they're just sad about all these years of captivity, they're sad all these years of letting down God, being judged by God where they've not had the house of God, and now they're weeping and just finally return, you know, weeping and maybe regret all the mistakes of their past, how they turned their house away from God. Well, just, you know, sometimes you can weep out of joy as well, can't you? You know, I remember my first, my very first service here on the Sunshine Coast for new life at this church. I remember, you know, the years of sacrifice, years of preparation to get up here to start a church, to move my large family from a place that we were comfortable in, you know, coming to our, you know, not knowing where we were gonna live at the time, not knowing we were gonna have church service, and slowly everything's coming together, and we're able to have our first service. I remember I couldn't even get through the first service. I think I was so lean, I think I got to someone on the two or three, and I just started to weep. You know, I'm trying to be like this excited pastor, trying to show everybody, you know, trying to be a good example, I just started to weep because I saw the foundation of new life at the church being established, and I was so overwhelmed with emotion. You know, that so much work was put into the church to make it happen, and it's finally here. And so I can understand the mixed emotions that are here, the joy, the sorrow, all of it, you know, as you see these foundations being laid. And, you know, I'm also emotional for blessing up at this church. I love the church, I love you, brethren. You know, it's gonna be a bittersweet for me to return back to Queensland. Sweet, I can't wait to be back here. I can't wait to be, you know, back on the Sunshine Coast, just a beautiful part of Australia. You know, the wonderful brethren, brothers and sisters that I miss very much, and my family's excited to be back up here, but also bitter because we're not gonna be able to see you guys as often, be as influential to you guys as often. You're not gonna be able to see my family. We're willing to be able to travel every week. Hopefully the borders remain open. Maybe you wanna keep that in prayer as well. But I promise you this, when we return back to Queensland, it's gonna be a bit of a bittersweet moment for us all. And it's fine, it's fine to get emotional. It's fine to weep or to have joy in the things of God, because this is what matters for eternity. This is what God came for. Christ came and he bought this church with his blood. You know, and we're here as servants of God, as witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're here to serve in a powerful way. You know, this is why we're here, we serve. If God just wanted us in heaven, the moment we get saved, he'd just rapture us all individually to heaven. He's got to work for us, brethren. He's given us a church to serve faithfully for him. Please be thankful for the foundations that have been laid. We're going for three and a half years, I think, for Blessed off at this church. I hope there's many, many more years to come. I don't know, it's down to you guys, brethren. You know, I've tried to be as best of a leader as I can be for you guys. I've come down to Sydney to help you lead through all the restrictions and lockdowns and struggles that the church was going through. But brethren, I need each one of you to step up and say, this is my church. You know what, if we want this church to continue, I need to find a way to serve. You know what, and there are going to be some challenges, there are going to be some teething issues as pastor and his family get back up there. But you know, I'm excited to get involved in the work because there's a great foundation laid there in St. Felix. And I want Blessed off at this church to be a church that shines the light of Jesus Christ. Please be excited. Please have joy for the church that Christ has given us. And again, yeah, appreciate what you have. We've got online listeners and they wish they had a church like ours. Appreciate what we have, brethren. All right, brethren, that's it for Ezra chapter three. I hope you can see why I decided to go for the book of Ezra. You know, we're still working on these churches. We still need to get to the point where we have a full-time pastor, make free service to the weak, et cetera, et cetera. We want to grow that church, not just numerically, but also in maturity, you know, growing ourselves to be more like Jesus Christ, to have a greater knowledge of the Bible, to do greater work for God. And please keep all these chapters in mind as we keep going through them. You know, don't just apply them for the Old Testament. Just think about how you can relate to this. We bless it up that this church. Let's pray.