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Hey, man. Amen. As a chapter number eight, and we're going into basically the furthering of chapter number seven, chapter number seven, we were introduced to the character of Ezra. And Ezra specifically is been stirred up by God to return to the land of Jerusalem and to help them and the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. The house had already been built. It was built in chapter number six. We took a little bit of time to refresh ourselves last week. And chapter number seven, we're introduced to Ezra. And it's been a long time since the beginning of Ezra chapter number one. And in Ezra's journey, it starts out here in chapter number eight by giving us a list of the people that went with him specifically from Artaxerxes back, you know, from Babylon into Jerusalem. It says in verse one, these are now the chief of their fathers. And this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon. So we're getting the perspective. It's like Ezra's talking, right? It's kind of like first person from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes, the king of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel of the sons of David, Hatish of the sons of Shekiniah, of the sons of Perush, Zechariah. And with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males and hundred and fifty. Now, just pause for a second. It's interesting. Somebody said, you know, whoever wrote the Bible must have been from the south because he got words like, I reckon. Hey, they were wrecking. You know, maybe we should throw in an accent. And we're wrecking by genealogy of the males. But I just think that's interesting. All right. Keep reading. Verse four. And of the sons of Peath, Moab, Elioenai, the son of Zeruiah and with him two hundred males and of the sons of Shekiniah, the son of Jehezel and with them three hundred males. And of the sons also of Aiden, Ebed, the son of Jonathan and with them fifty males and of the sons of Elam, Jeshehiah, the son of Athaliah and with him seventy males and of the sons of Shevetiah, Zebediah, the son of Michael and with him four score males of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel and with him two hundred and eighteen males. And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josephiah and with them one hundred and three score males and the sons of Bibi, Zechariah, the son of Bibi and with him twenty and eight males and the sons of Asgad, Johanan, the son of Hakatan and with them one hundred and ten males and the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these, Lephileth, Jael and Shemaiah and with them three score males of the sons also Bigvai, Uthai and Zebed. And with them seventy males. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Hava and there abode we in ten three days. And I viewed the people and the priests and found there none of the sons of Levi. So we have a huge list of names. And again, I don't think that this list of names is necessarily critical for us in the New Testament. We don't necessarily need to know who, you know, Bibi is or who Bigvai is and some of that. But what I think is really important here is this verse that we have in verse 15, which gives us some information about these people, because we don't really know who these people were. We don't really know the intricacies of who they are and what they look like. And, you know, all the little details about them. But it gives us the perspective of Ezra. And he's telling us something significant about this group of people. He's looked at all these people and he's noticed that there's something missing. He noticed that there's something lacking. He noticed that there's something that he would need and he doesn't have. He says very clearly there's no one of the sons of Levi. Now, why is that important? Well, they're going to return to Jerusalem and return in the sacrifices of the Lord and the services of the Lord. And if you don't have all the specific Levites there, then they cannot perform all the sacrifices according to the law. So they're actually in need of something in order to fulfill God's commandments. Now, when I look at this chapter, chapter number eight, I don't know that, you know, especially from a New Testament perspective, that it's super important to dig into all these details as much as it is to take what the story is teaching us and just make application in the New Testament. You know, in First Corinthians, chapter number 10, it says that these things are in samples unto us. They're written for our admonition. So when we look at stories in the Old Testament, oftentimes they can tell us how we're supposed to behave in the New Testament. And give us some kind of an example of what we're supposed to do. One of these examples would be the fact that when we notice something lacking in the service of God, we ought to make an effort to try and fix that. We ought to try to identify holes in our ministry and make full proof of our ministry. Make sure that we're hitting on all cylinders and we're identifying things that are needs and then trying to create solutions for those needs. Look at verse 16. Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah and for Elnathan and for J-rib and for Elnathan and for Nathan. I don't know the difference between Elnathan and Elnathan. That's, you know, for you to decide. And for Zechariah and for Meshulam, chief men, also for J-rib and for Elnathan. It's like three guys in Elnathan. It's really popular back then. Men of understanding. Now, what's significant again? You don't know the difference between Elnathan, Elnathan and Elnathan. OK. And again, when you study some of these names, you'll find those names in other places of the Bible. But we can't be certain that that was the same person. We don't we don't know. OK. And again, I don't think that God is giving us all these names so that we can know everything about that person. It's more about the context in which he's giving this to us. OK, look at verse 17. And I sent them with commandment unto Ido, the chief at the place Cazaphea. And I told them what they should say unto Ido and to his brethren, the nephronyms at the place Cazaphea, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. Now, before we dig into this, let's let's pick apart this verse for a second. Verse 17. Who are the nephronyms? All right. It's like, I don't know, right? Well, look at chapter seven and look at verse 24, chapter seven, verse number 24. It says, Also, we certify you that touching any of the priests and Levite singers, porters, nephronyms or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute or custom upon them. So in verse 24, he gives us a list of people and included in that is the nephronyms. But what's significant about this group of people is they're all in service to God. OK, they're all pertaining to the service of God. So the nephronyms in some way have some kind of relation to the direct service of God. Look at verse number 20 in chapter eight. We're going to skip ahead just for a second. It's going to give us more information. It says also of the nephronyms, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites. Two hundred and twenty nephronyms, all of them were expressed by name. So it tells us who the nephronyms were. It says whom David and the princes, meaning the rulers, had appointed for the service of the Levites. So even though they're part of the service of the Lord, they're almost like the servants of the Levites. It's like the Levites who are serving God had their own servants who are like the nephronyms, a group that's similar to this, which I don't I don't know. I don't believe it's the same group necessarily. But the inhabitants of Gibeah, they come on to Joshua and they trick him. They deceive him. They lie and say that they came from a far country. Well, after it gets found out that they lied unto him, basically, Joshua declares, hey, you're going to be servants. You're going to be hewers of water. You're going to be hewers and drawers of water. Who is, you know, of the wood? And you're going to basically just be in service to us and service to those that serve the Lord. So a lot of times when David is going out and conquering and taking huge nations, it'll say like by two lines, he destroyed them. And by another line, he made some of them just be servants. It's very likely that some of these heathen nations or some of these heathen people, David had turned them into servants under the Levi. That's who these nephronyms were. OK, they were just in bond, servants or some kind of indentured servants under the Levites. That's who he's talking to. It also says in because Cassiophia now Cassiophia is mentioned twice. It's in verse 17. So if you can figure out where Cassiophia is, according to verse 17, you're smarter than I am. All right. So again, I don't think the location matters. And the the nephronyms we get a we see through a glass darkly of kind of who they were. I don't know that that's super important. It was a name mentioned multiple times in the Bible. But again, I don't think you can necessarily say definitively that this ito is another ito mentioned anywhere else in the scriptures. I looked at all the mentions. You could make that argument is probably not. It's probably not any other ito. But what's significant here? What's significant is that when Ezra is returning back to the house of the Lord, he's asking of another priest, of another chief priest specifically, OK, to give him some of his ministers. Right. Isn't he declaring unto another guy, Hey, I need some of your guys in order for me to fulfill the service of the Lord. And that's what's really important is the fact that he's asking for some kind of ministers. Now, this is a very biblical concept that we see all throughout the Bible of asking other people to come and help you or to be your minister or to bless you or to do these type of things. Go view it in your Bible to accept number eight. Act seven or eight. And again, you know, we're going to take the stories and the examples set in Ezra, chapter number eight, and we're going to look at some of that through the New Testament lens of, OK, what did Ezra do? He was in need of some Levites, and he asked specifically to ito and the nethanans, Hey, can we have some of your Levites? We need some of them to perform the service of the Lord. And arguably, I mean, you could say that the service of the Lord and Jerusalem is more important than wherever they're at. I mean, didn't we start out with Cyrus making the great proclamation of all the Jews returning back into Jerusalem and the service of the Lord? It's really important for the service of the Lord to return back in Jerusalem. I mean, we still haven't had the return of the Messiah. We haven't had Messiah come. We haven't had Christ come. We need Jerusalem to get set back up and to be rebuilt so that David, you know, the son of David can come and return and be the Messiah. OK. So it's very important what they're doing. And throughout the Bible, you know, in all kinds of different places, we have men that are called to a particular service of work that they weren't necessarily thinking about someone just making a call. Look at Acts, chapter number eight, verse number nine, Acts chapter eight, verse nine. There was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. So in the story of Acts here in chapter number eight, we have Philip has gone out from Jerusalem through persecution of Stephen through the death of Stephen. And when they're going into these Gentiles, him going and preaching the gospel, it's very effective. A lot of people end up getting saved and they displace the bad preacher. Simon Simon was a sorcerer. Simon was going around just bewitching people. And through his bewitching, he caused people to think, Oh, this guy is so great. This guy, you know, he's like God, he's like the power of God, man. It's so great. Then they hear the Bible and they're like, Wow, that's way better. Yeah, this guy is not preaching the Bible. This guy is just a sorcerer. And so they reject him. A lot of people get saved. And through that preaching, through the preaching of Philip and the evangelism of Philip, look what it says in verse 14. Now, when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them, Peter and John. So notice what was the precursor to them sending Peter and John. They heard about, hey, all this great need. It says in verse 15, who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money. Now, what's significant about this? Without Peter and John, they were not going to receive that gift of the Holy Ghost. They got the preaching through Philip. That was great. Philip was very needed here. Without Philip, they wouldn't have gotten evangelism. They wouldn't have gotten saved. They would have still been under the sorceries of Simon. But notice they still needed some other people they were lacking in some area. And then what happened? They sent unto them John and Peter, and then they got the Holy Ghost, didn't they? So they needed John and Peter, and John and Peter needed to be sent. It was a mutually beneficial relationship for them to send Peter and to send John. So we see the same biblical principle of sometimes there's a great need to send somebody out to do some kind of a work. You don't want to just hoard Peter and John under yourselves. I mean, what's the Great Commission? Is it just a preach to Jerusalem or is it a preach in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth? Isn't that what Jesus Christ didn't? Didn't he clearly say that? Look what it says in Chapter 10. Let's see another example of this now in Acts, chapter number eight. They perceive the need and they go ahead and supply John and Peter. And would God that would be the best case scenario is that we perceive needs in certain areas and we just help in that area. But maybe another model would be the sense of somebody realizing they have a need and they're asking for that. That's more like what we had in Ezra chapter number eight, isn't it? Ezra is identifying the need and he's asking for some kind of help. Look at Acts chapter number 10, verse number one. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers in thine alms are come up for memorial before God and now send men to JOPA and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. So in this portion of scripture, we have a man named Cornelius and God tells him, hey, you need to call for a certain person. You need to call for Peter. You need to ask for this man's help. And it says in verse six, he lodged with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. So notice they needed Peter. Cornelius needs Peter, and he's going to ask for Peter specifically. Now you would say, well, yeah, but I don't have God just visiting with angels in the night and telling me what to do. But is there any difference between Cornelius having an angel of God come down and give him the word of God directly or Ezra just reading the Old Testament law about how certain Levites are supposed to be needed for the service of God? No, it's still God speaking to him. It's still God committing. And is it any different than when I read in the New Testament about going into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? No, it's just the same as if I had an angel come down to me at night and say, Hey, Jonathan, you go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. God speaks to us through his word. You don't have to have an angel come and speak it to you. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Just as much as Ezra reading the Bible is the same as Cornelius hearing that angel come and speak to him audibly. OK, so we ought not differentiate those things. It's the same calling. You're just as called whether you have an angel come and tell you the Bible or you just read it on your own or you have some, you know, sinful man stand by in a pulpit and preach of the word of God. It's the same. God is speaking to you right now. It's a living word, is what the Bible says. It's quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. Don't take the preaching of God's word as well. I don't know if that's for me. It's for you. It's everything's for you. Every verse, every line, even all the El Nathans. OK, they're all for you, all three of them, OK? But let's keep reading in this chapter. Look at verse 19 now. When Peter thought on the vision, the spirit said unto him, behold, three men seek thee. So we skip for the sake of time. Peter sees this great vision of all these beasts, and it's a carnal truth of a spiritual truth. Just like in the Old Testament, you know, they had some kind of a dietary restriction. That restriction is going to be lifted in the New Testament, not just the carnal truth, because that's great. I love bacon, OK? But also the spiritual truth that signified those unclean beasts pictured the heathen. They pictured the Samaritans, they pictured the Gentiles and how we're supposed to go and preach them the gospel. And it says in verse number 20, Arise therefore and get thee down and go with them, doubting nothing for I have sent them. So we have the calling. We have men coming under Peter and asking for Peter. And what does Peter do? It says in verse 21, Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said, Behold, I am he whom you seek. What is the cause wherefore you're come? And they said, Cornelius, the centurion adjustment, one that fear of God and a good report among all the nation of the Jews was warned from God by a holy angel to sin for the end of his house and to hear words of thee. So we have Cornelius sent men to Peter. Peter's was told by the Holy Ghost, You need to go with these men. Then they tell him specifically and he goes with them. Look at verse number 42. Then he preaches unto them, says in verse 42, and he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead, to give him all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. So we have Peter preaching a great sermon, preaching the gospel of these people. They hear the gospel. They're believing in Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost falls upon them, OK? So we see the need for Peter. What if Peter had never gone to them? They would have never heard the name of Jesus Christ at this point, they wouldn't have heard about the death, the resurrection that he had witnessed, and they would have not received the Holy Ghost, the full manifestation that God had for them at that time. So we see the need of people of Peter. We see the call of Peter and we see Peter responding to that call. He answers that call and he goes and he does the work of the Lord, just like in Ezra, chapter number eight. We have Ezra making the call for the need of these Levites and for them to what they need to respond to that call. They need to go and take advantage of that calling that the Lord has for them. Now, Govee would to. Let's go to First Corinthians seven first. Let's go to First Corinthians seven. I think sometimes people, they have a lot of questions about this word specifically, the calling. And a lot of Baptist churches, they'll say, Oh, I'm called to do this and I'm called to do that. And there's a lot of mystery, you know, clouding this word. And what does that really mean to be called? But I think that it's it's it's really plain, really simple. You know, if I were to get my phone out and dial your number, that would be me calling you. OK, and it's really that simple. What is what is a call? It's just someone asking something for their they're getting your attention. They're going to get some kind of they have some kind of a task for you or they have something in need of you, whether it be your attention, whether it be information. You know, it's obviously different depending on the calling. But, you know, if I have a missed call, someone was trying to get me to do something, weren't they answer, talk to them, go see them, whatever. And there's not really any difference when it comes to the Bible's definition of the calling. OK, and at First Corinthians chapter seven, the Bible says in verse 24, Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. Now, I'm not going to forsake your time, go through the whole context of this. First Corinthians seven deals with a lot of subjects. Mostly it's dealing with the subject of should a wife or a husband depart for any reason? And the answer is obviously no. And the answer is divorce is always wrong, period. But it's just saying wherever you find yourself, whatever position you end up realizing you're at, you know, you have to understand that if that's where God has placed you, there's a reason why God has placed you and where you're at. OK, so if you are a free person, if you're a bond, if you're a servant, wherever you're born, who your parents are, a lot of these circumstances that we find ourselves in. That's where God has placed you for a reason. God is not just going to place you, you know, in a particular family, in a particular state, in a particular, you know, situation that he doesn't want you to be in, even per se, in a bad marriage. Right. Because that's the context of First Corinthians, Chapter seven. It's saying, hey, if you find the Lord, if you're trying to serve God and let's say your spouse is not saved. OK, you're still supposed to abide in that calling. You're still supposed to be in that marriage. OK, you're still supposed to be the best spouse that you possibly can. Hey, if you find yourself a slave or free or whatever, just you're supposed to still abide in whatever calling that God had for you. OK, whatever position you're in. Now, obviously, you have the liberty or the ability to serve God more. Perhaps you can forsake some of your earthly carnal things and serve God more directly. But you might not just immediately forsake your calling just to forsake it. OK, a lot of place, a lot of times God has a particular calling on you for a reason. Go to Romans chapter number one, Romans chapter number one. And the reality is all of us are called. Every single person in this room is called. What was that calling to get saved? God is calling every single person to get saved every single second of every single day. Everybody is called to be saved. How many people answer that call, though? There's a lot of people that have a lot of missed calls when it comes to the gospel. Hey, you know, Jesus keep knocking at their door. We're literally knocking at their door and they won't answer. People are giving them the gospel and they still won't answer. But look, God is calling the whole world to be saved today. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come under repentance. He says, if I be lifted up, you know, I'll draw all men unto me. Jesus Christ is constantly trying to draw constant trying to call every single person. Calvinism is a lie today. The lie of irresistible grace. Oh, it's just so irresistible lie. We have free will. People do resist the Holy Ghost. People do resist the gospel. People do not want to get saved. That is why they split hell wide open. OK, because God's calling for every single person is that they be saved. God wants every single person to be saved. He's constantly calling. He's constantly ringing on their phone, but they reject it. OK. But, you know, not only are we called to be saved if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are saved. The Bible says that he's ordained good works, that we should walk in. You know, there's also a lot of good works that we're all called to walk in. And God is constantly calling at that door. So how you live your life is still very important. God has a calling for your life. And let me help you out. If you're a woman, it's not to be a pastor. If you're divorced, it's not to be a pastor, right? Hey, you know, there's certain things that are in the Bible. God's not calling you to be a pastor, Joyce Meyer. Oh, I got this great calling from God in my life. That was the wrong phone number. That was the devil calling you. OK, that wasn't God calling you because remember how I explained calling again? Did it have to be an angel coming down and just whispering to you in your ear in the night? That's not it. It's hey, what does this book say? And if this book is not saying what you're saying, you're lying. God is only calling those that this book says. But hey, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desired the good work. A man that desires the opposite bishop that meets all the qualifications. I believe he's called. He's called to be a pastor. Hey, the person that wants to go out and preach the gospel, he's called to be a soul winner, which is every person that saved. Hey, let me let me see the qualifications of you being a soul winner, saved and a heartbeat. You know, faith that works is dead. OK, that person's exempt. All right. But everybody that's alive, this still has breath in their lungs. They're called to be a soul winner. You say, I don't know if I'm called to be a soul winner. Pastor Shelley, you're called. But are you answering that call? Are you taking heed? Hey, I'm called to be a deacon. Well, do you meet the qualifications of a deacon? And here's the thing. If you're called to be a deacon, then why are you trying to be a pastor? You should you should be a deacon. You know, what is your calling? Well, what does the Bible say? What does the Bible describe as the differences? What are what is the Bible teaching us? You know, whatever the Bible is teaching us is the calling in which we're supposed to walk in for our lives. Hey, I'm a woman. What is God calling me? Well, you know, guide the house, you know, bear children. Those are the type of things that he's calling you to do. And you ought to abide in that calling. Whatever God has instructed us, that's the calling he has for your life. The more you know what the Bible says, the more you're going to actually understand what God's calling is for your life. It's not walking down an aisle and just getting a special feeling and then deciding now I'm called. Now, I'm not against a special feeling. Hey, if you read, you know, a passage of scripture and it's talking about going out and preach the gospel and you're saying, man, I feel really convicted and called to go out and preach the gospel. Amen. Amen. All day long. But, you know, it's not just that feeling. It's got to be matched with the word of God. It's got to be matched with the Bible. And to me, I don't have some special feeling to become a pastor. I didn't have this special experience. I didn't have this moment where an angel came down from heaven. Jonathan, you need to be a pastor and you need to know. And in fact, the being pastor of this church, it was not any kind of special circumstance like that. To be the pastor of this church, you know what call that was? It was a call to a person named Pastor Steven Anderson. Hey, how can I help? I'll do anything. How can I help the church? I said, I'll do anything. Anything? I said anything. And I knew what I was saying. I knew what I was saying. But I thought I think the first time I encountered this, I said that I offered, but that's what I meant by saying it. OK. And he was like, what about be the pastor? I said, if that's what we need to do, I mean, you know, whatever. That's the calling of God. OK, don't don't make it some mysterious thing. Hey, there's a soul winning marathon on February 22nd in Dallas. You're called to that soul winning marathon. God is calling you. OK, don't make it some mysterious thing today. It's God is using men to call people into the ministry. That's what it means to be called. Look at Romans Chapter one, verse one. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated in the gospel of God. Now you say, what does that mean? He was called. Well, Jesus Christ came down and told him that he was going to be an apostle. Now, did Paul have to be an apostle, though? He could have just said, that's that I'm not doing that. He decided to walk in that calling. But God had called him to be an apostle. So don't think, oh, well, what if he didn't do that? Well, there are lots of people that don't walk in a calling. There's lots of people that are disobedient to God's word. There's lots of people that don't fulfill the job that he has for them, that don't endure until the end. I mean, when we read Second Timothy, the apostle Paul, it makes it seem like nobody did, except for him. He's like trying to tell Timothy, you stick with me, buddy. Nobody else is sticking it out. However, the demons have forsaken me. You know, he didn't continue in that calling. He didn't stay faithful to the calling that God had for him in his life. And, you know, you say, well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Pastor Shelley. In my life, well, there's a prepared place for a prepared person. This is why I think you should do. You should just try to be the best Christian you possibly can. And then you know what? Be wait on the Lord. Be patient. And then when the calling comes, when Ezra comes knocking at your door and saying, you know, we got we need some Levites here. Wasn't it great that we already had some Levites ready to go just right in the box and just say, all right, let's take this Levi and let's just let's plug and play. Right. Isn't it nice that when Cornelius needs a guy? How about Peter? He's ready. He's good to go. How about Peter and John? Whenever we're talking about needing some apostles lay hands on people. Hey, they're good to go. We got a couple of people here. Let's just send them. But notice that is the calling of God in their lives. God is calling these people. The Apostle Paul, he's one who God is going to call and use greatly for the service of God. And he wasn't as prepared as he could have been. He was going to have to start working on that, preparing. He had to get saved first. Then he had to start realizing, hey, I need to get plugged in my local church. So he goes to Jerusalem and he submits to the leadership in Jerusalem. Then he goes to Antioch and he's there serving with them. And then eventually you'll read in Acts chapter number 13, which we'll get to in a moment in our sermon. Then he gets sent out. He started preparing himself. And you know what? There's a prepared place for a prepared person. But your job is to read the Bible and be the best Christian that you possibly can and then wait for that calling. You know, I've heard this joke and I kind of like it for this reason, but it's like there's this big flood. OK, think of Houston, right? And there's these people and they're on the top of their house and they're praying and they're saying, God, please save me. I need a sign. And then a boat drives by like, hey, we're going to help you. And he's like, no, I'm good. I'm waiting for God to give me a sign. And then, you know, a helicopter comes by and it's like, hey, you know, grab the ladder. We'll rescue you. And he doesn't take the helicopter. I'm waiting for God. God's going to call me. God's going to give me a sign. Well, nobody else comes and he drowns and dies and he stands before God. He says, God, I was asking for a sign. He's like, well, I sent a boat and then I sent a helicopter. And then I just took you home because you're too stupid to answer the call. Hey, that's most Christians today. They're waiting for some angel to come down from heaven and give them some special call. Hey, how about the guy in the boat? How about Ezra? How about Peter? How about Cornelius? How about these people in your life that are coming to you and saying, hey, where's the call? You say, well, I want a big call. I can't wait for that big call. You know, five churches. Where's that one? Well, are you even showing up to the soul winning time that your pastor called you to? Why would God want to give you a big call when you're not even answering all the little calls that your pastor has already given you? Why would you not? Hey, if you're not answering all the little calls, all the small things, then why would God want to give a big phone call to you? You know, God is looking for the people that they're answering every single call is given to them. He's taking advantage of every opportunity God's already given him and then say, you know what? I want to give him the big call. And at the end of the day, you say, hey, what do you think about, you know, church leadership and these type of things? Hey, it's taking heed to the calls that are given to your life. I didn't decide I want to. I want to be a pastor of a church in Dallas, Fort Worth. I never thought that. But you know what? I just decided to answer the call. I decided to seek God and say, hey, I'm here to just serve and help people. And then when someone gives me a call or I give them a call and they find out, hey, there's a need here. There's a great need here. You can fulfill that need. I say, all right, I'll answer that call. And I believe that is exactly how the calling of God works. You study the Bible just as much as I do. That's exactly what I see from Genesis to Revelation. Go back to Ezra, chapter three, Ezra chapter three. Don't make a calling something that is not. It's not this mystical voodoo. It's not having just some special experience or something like that. Now, of course, when we read the Bible, we see a lot of those, OK? And so I don't want to discount that didn't happen in the Old Testament. But you and me, we're not going to have these special euphoric since, you know, situations and all the people are like, oh, Jesus came and talked to me. That was a devil. That was a demon that you were talking to at night when you were on LSD. I mean, I used to preach in this addiction recovery center and they would come up to me. Jesus, you know, Jesus took me to heaven and hell last night. I was like, that was a devil. OK, I was not Jesus Christ. And they're like, will you pray for me? And I just pray they get saved. I was just like, you know, please, Lord, help them just be sober enough to just believe the gospel and to get saved. And, you know, because those people are crazy, you know? And look, you'll go to fundamental Baptist churches where they make the calling of God something weird, something voodoo. And, you know, I knew I was called to be a pastor when I was five. And, you know, and then, you know, it's just that's what God just wants me to do. Even though I'm on wife seven, that's what I've been called to do since five. It's like you were never called, buddy. You're just lying for your teeth. Why do they say that? Because if God called them, then they don't have to step down when they break the statutes of First Timothy, Chapter three. That's what they try to do. They try to say that they're called against scripture to try and justify their position. Well, but here's the thing. I was just I was called. And you can't argue with that because it's this mystical experience that they had that's just personal to them. You know, I have the whole council of God. I have the mind of Christ right here. And he already told me that you're not called. He already told me to step down and step aside and let a real man of God that's not interested in serving himself, but serving the people. Let him lead the people. Let him be the shepherd underneath Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18. And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought unto us a man of understanding and the sons of Mali, the son of Levi, the son of Israel and share a bayah with his sons and his brethren 18 and Hashem by and with them, Josiah of the sons of Mariah. His brethren and their sons 20. Also, the nethanim whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites. Two hundred and twenty nethanim. All of them were expressed by name. So notice they answer the call, don't they? They send them some sons of Levi. And this is great. And let's go to Acts chapter 13. Let's go where I wanted to go. But how does this relate in the New Testament? OK, well. In the New Testament, you know, we have a lot of pastors, you know, that, you know, mention that's that's one of the offices that we have. And I feel like some people, some churches, they want to hoard all the talent of their church for themselves. And usually it coordinates with Bible college. A lot of times you'll have these big, independent, fundamental churches. And why are they so big? Because they have a Bible college that everybody's just kind of pumping in all their youth to this particular Bible calls. And then from the Bible college, they just kind of pick out all the really good pastors and teachers and they just kind of hoard them for themselves. And then that church just grows and gets bigger because it has all the talent and has all these people. And really, in my view, it's just to make themselves look better. Look how big my Bible college is and and look how big our church is and look, look at all the talented people that we have. And it's really about them getting recognition. It's really about them getting some kind of praise. You know, it's not about what John the Baptist says when says he must increase. I must decrease. They're more like I must increase for him to increase. No, you need to decrease for him to increase. And this church, you know, I would love to have talented people in our church. I'm not against that. You know, if we have a bunch of talented people that could be used better or more in another place, we ought not be selfish with the talent that we have. We are not just hoard all the talent that we possibly have. And look, people like Pastor Anderson, my sending pastor, he's had a lot of talent come to his church. He's had people like Pastor David Burzins come to his church. You know, he could have just hoarded him and let him just be his deacon or be an assistant pastor there, just serving and just be his right hand man. I'm sure that would have been really easy. That would be really nice to have somebody as reliable and stable as Pastor David Burzins and his church. How about Pastor Bruce Mejia? I mean, this guy is a huge asset. He's great at building churches. He's really knowledgeable. I mean, imagine just hoarding all the talent that Pastor Anderson has. In fact, how about the fact that he doesn't even advertise for people to come to his church? He's saying, just find the best local church that you have. How many great people have found Pastor Anderson instead of just moving to his church? Just try to get plugged in in their local area. What if he was constantly nonstop just saying, you need to come to my church and you need to come to my Bible college and you need to get plugged into our church? I guarantee you would have a lot more people come and a lot more talent get plugged into that particular institution. And then you can just see, look how big we are. We're running thousands. And look at all my group of pastors that I have on staff. I have Pastor Burzins and I have Pastor Mejia and I have all these great people that are here in this institution. We're so wonderful. But that's not his vision, is it? His vision is actually to reach the whole world with the gospel. You know, you do that by sending people out, by getting the talent out, by not just hoarding all of it in. And this is one of the problems of the apostles is they're hoarding all this talent in Jerusalem. I mean, when you're a church member, I think about this. You can only have one person preach at a time. So at times you have, you know, John sitting in the audience, not preaching, OK? You got James in the audience. You got all the other apostles just sitting in the audience. They're not even preaching. They're just sitting and listening to Peter preach or something. They listen to somebody else get up and preach the Bible. Wouldn't it make sense to say, hey, John, you're a pretty good preacher. Let's just send you out to go preach to some people, you know? Or, hey, let's send James up. Let's send all these other apostles out because they're great. They're talented. Well, you have that next chapter 13, look at verse one. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manion, which had been brought up with Herod, the tea shark and salt. So you have five guys here, Barnabas, you have Simeon, you have Lucius, you have Manion, you have Saul. Now, the Apostle Paul tells us very clearly in First Corinthians Chapter 14, you have one preacher at a time. That means four of these guys are not preaching. Now, what sense would it make if in the New Testament, all we read about was the Apostle Paul, how he sat in church for the rest of his life? Or how bad is it good to send him out? And he I think he is a pretty good preacher. I mean, in my opinion, he's a pretty good preacher. I think I would want to hear a sermon by the Apostle Paul, right? Look at verse two. As they minister to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work hitherto I have called them. Notice they're being called again, right? And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed under Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Solomus, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John to their minister. Now, again, we're noticing a few things here. First of all, the Holy Ghost is the one calling them, OK? But that's on purpose. First of all, these Gentiles, they don't know what they need. They're unsaved. They're worshiping false gods. They're not going to call up the church at Antioch and say, Hey, I think you need Barnabas and Saul to come preach to us, OK? So in the Old Testament, I'm not in the Old Testament, but in the early stages of the New Testament, in the beginning, obviously, the Holy Holy Ghost is doing the majority of the calling is the Holy Ghost is the one instructing them where to go. But in the New Testament, we have churches all over the place. We have people all over the place. And, you know, I think that God is using them for a lot of these callings saying, hey, we have a need here. We have that Macedonian call of people that, hey, we need someone to come be sent here. We need a church here. We need people to preach us the word of God. We're not just going to always have the Holy Ghost spell it out for us and say, hey, Dallas, Fort Worth, you know, Houston, Oklahoma City. He's not going to just spell those things out. We have to actually let people instruct us and look at those callings through what the Holy Ghost is teaching. OK, through the Bible. But notice that they sent them out to do this work. You know, in Romans chapter number 10, it says that, you know, they he was found of them that sought him not. Right. So obviously, at the beginning, the Gentiles, they're getting a lot of people sent to them that they didn't ask for. OK. But we understand that a lot of callings in the New Testament are going to be that of somebody calling them. Go to Matthew or go to Philippians chapter two, go to Philippians chapter two. The Great Commission, you know, go into all or teach all nations, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even at the end of the world. Amen. So Jesus Christ is telling us to go and teach all nations. That's our calling. But you say, well, where? Isn't that a pretty broad statement? Teach all nations. OK, do I start in Nigeria? Do I start in Mongolia? Do I start in India? Well, how about I just start abiding in the calling where I'm at? Isn't that we saw in First Corinthians, why just start here? Why just start instead of just saying, I think I'm called to Japan. Do you speak Japanese? No. Do you know anybody in Japan? Not at all. But I just feel called. Isn't that what a lot of people do? I mean, independent of Nevada, they say I'm called Japan. I'm like, why can't you just abide in the calling where you're at? Like First Corinthians chapter number seven said, why aren't you getting people saved here that speak English? Well, but I'm called to the Japanese people, though. So I'm going to spend the next five years learning the language, hopefully. And maybe eventually I can invite somebody over and eventually they'll fall on their knees and ask me how to get saved. And maybe I'll get one person saved my life. Well, that wasn't God's calling for you. God's calling was different. You're not actually taking heed to what God's calling truly was. And it's very biblical when people have a need to send people under them. When someone has a need, they call out to somebody else to say, hey, I have a need. Will you send somebody to me or opposite? Someone identifies a need and says, we're going to send people to you because we've identified this particular need. And this guy is ready to supply your need. Not Pablo to Japan. OK, bad idea. Let's send Pablo to Mexico City, right? Let's send Pablo to Fort Worth. I mean, let's send Pablo to Houston. I mean, you go to Houston. It's just like Spanish speaker after Spanish speaker, right? Why can't Pablo get him saved? Well, look at Philippians Chapter two, verse number twenty five. Yet I suppose it necessary to send you a papparditis. My brother and companion labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants for you long after you all and is full of heaviness because he had heard that he'd been sick. For indeed, he was sick, nine to death. But God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also. Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful receiving therefore the Lord with all gladness and hold such reputation, because for the work of Christ, he was nigh on the death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me. So notice the apostle Paul is sending this guy a papparditis under these people, a papparditis feels like I need to help these people. He has a great longing to help these people. And in fact, he's not regarding his own personal life. It's nothing personal about him. He's not like, I just want to be where you guys are at. I just want to live in Philippi. You know, I just want to live in this particular part of the country. You know, he's he's even putting his own health at risk just to make sure that their needs are being taken care of just to supply your lack of service on my part. He's like, You guys are not getting the job done. I need to send a papparditis under you guys to make sure that the job is going to get done according to the scriptures. OK. Go to Romans Chapter 15, go to Romans Chapter 15. And the reality is we have to get a balance from the scriptures. I'm all for you being steadfast, you know, in your heart. You got the shirt. You know, don't get the tattoo. All right. But you know, I love my local church. I love steadfast Baptist Church. I hope I die here. OK. But at the end of the day, it's not about steadfast Baptist Church. Sorry to burst your bubble. We need to get a biblical perspective. We need to be more focused on the saints than steadfast Baptist Church as a whole. OK, look at Romans Chapter 15, verse 25. But now I go into Jerusalem to minister under the saints. What's the saints say, people? You know, I want to minister to these saints here, but you know, it's it's really just about the saints. And we ought to have a heart for all saved people, not just the ones in our local church, you know, not just the people that are in this room with us physically, but also, hey, if I meet a brother and sister in Christ and they're going to the non-denominational hellhole, you know, they're still a saint and I just don't want to minister to that person to love that person and try to love them into a better church. OK. Love them into serving the Lord a little bit more. But at the end of the day, you know, my job is not just to minister to one group of people. We see constantly throughout the Bible. The thought and the heartbeat of Christians is to minister to the saints. It's not just about the one church. I mean, that way, the New Testament's not written to one church. It's not just about Romans. It's also about the Corinthians. It's also about the Philippians. It's also about all these other churches that the apostle Paul's going around and ministering unto. Look at First Corinthians, Chapter 16, First Corinthians, Chapter number 16. We need to have a heart for the saints. We need to have a heart for the saved and for the unsaved, both. And you know what? Every lost soul is precious. All of them. I want them all to be saved. Says in First Corinthians, Chapter 16, look at verse number 15. I beseech you, brethren, you know, the house of Stephanus, that it is the first fruits of a chia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of only the Corinthians. So just the just the Corinthian church, no to the saints. It's about the saints. It's about the saints, about ministering under the saints. Go to Second Corinthians, Chapter number eight, Second Corinthians, Chapter number eight. I want our church to have a heart for the saints, and I believe that we do. Why else would we plant a church in Oklahoma City? Why else would we plant a church in Jacksonville, Florida? Why? Because we care about the saints, because we want to minister under the saints. And you say, hey, if we have a good person, not a devil, let's send him to minister under the saints, right? Not one out for his own selfish ambition. One that's been taken heed to the callings that he has. One that's raised up in the Lord. Hey, if we got a superstar, let's send him to minister under the saints. Let's not just hoard him. But, you know, everybody abides in their own calling. Some people, they're called to be a deacon of a church, to be a pillar of a church, to be a mother of a church, to be whoever in the church, you know, and to support that local church and love that church to the bitter end. You know, some people are just, hey, they're going to keep serving and serving. And they're such a great minister. It's like, we probably just need to kick you out. You're too good. You're just you're just just you're just a superstar, man. I mean, somebody else needs you. And we see this great need. Let's just put him there and let's have him serve over there. Why? Because he's addicted to the ministry and specifically of the saints, not just steadfast at this church, right? Says in second Corinthians Chapter eight, look at verse one more. We're brethren. We do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How then a great trial affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded on the riches of their liberality or their power, I bear record. Yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. So notice they're begging and praying and asking them to take on this gift so that they can also be in fellowship of what the ministry of the saints. They don't just care about themselves. They also want to be a minister under the saints. And he's saying, hey, even if this church is poor, they still want to be able to support other people. Saying it's not just the abundant churches that are supporting people, even the poor churches, they say, hey, we still we have five bucks. We'll give it just because we want to be a fellowship with you guys ministering to the same. We just want to help you. You know, the apostle Paul could just say no. But if he says no, now they don't get to be a partaker in the fellowship of the saints. But he wants them to be a partaker in the fellowship of the saints, says in verse five. And this they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. So notice he's saying, I don't want to get from these people. They're just trying to serve God. They're dedicated to serving God. Please just dedicate yourself to God. Please dedicate yourself to this book, not to this building, not to the pastor, not to any particular person. No, dedicate yourself to the person of Jesus Christ and addicted yourself to the Ministry of the Saints serving God. Hey, well, I'm supposed to be in Casa Fia with it. Oh, no, you're not. You're supposed to go and take the heat of Ezra and go to Jerusalem and restore Jerusalem. That's what you're supposed to do. You say, how do I know that? Because you're called. You're called to do it. Wait for the calling. You say, I don't I don't feel called. Well, it's probably if nobody's calling you, then you're not called. OK, why don't you just start abiding by the callings that you already have? Just take heed to the things that you've already been called, already been asked, already been instructed with. And then you know what? Bigger calls will come. God is going to continue to use those people that have been faithful in him. Go back to Ezra. We're going to try and finish this quickly. I have a few more things in this chapter, but I think that's one of the biggest points that we can take from this chapter is we need to take heed to the callings that are given to us and be ready. We need to be prepared for that calling. What if the Levites weren't prepared, weren't ready? They can't go. They're ready to go. I mean, they're ready. You know, we see other opportunities throughout the Bible. How about when we're looking for a wife for Isaac? Rebecca's ready. I mean, that was a quick transition. It was like, hey, you ready to be the wife of Isaac? We're going now. And it's like, sure. And then the first time she meets him wife. I mean, that was a quick transition. But you know what? It was a great union, wasn't it? And I'm sure there's some hard times. I mean, if you get married to a lady overnight, like you're going to have some rough spots. I mean, you're going to have to figure a lot of things out. OK, but you know what? God was in that marriage and God can bless that union. And you know what is according to God's will. And she was ready to go. She's ready. She's packed up. I mean, she's good. She's good to go. Look at verse 21. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to acquire the king, a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken of the king, saying the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him. But his power, his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fast and we sought our God for this. And he was entreated of us. Keep your finger here. Go to Psalms 118 quickly. Psalms 118. I love this because he's faced with reality. What is he saying? He's saying, well, our journey is really dangerous. There's a lot of enemies ahead. And it'd be nice if we just called our dessert season said, Hey, will you give us your entourage? Will you just go ahead and just guide us into Jerusalem so we can make sure that we're safe? But he's saying, I can't do that because I already already said how the Lord, you know, is hands upon us. I've already said that when we trust the Lord, he's going to deliver us. So if I call him up and like we kind of need some troops over here, it makes God look bad. It makes it makes us look bad, like we don't really have enough faith in God or he's not faithful enough for us to deliver it, deliver into Jerusalem. And he's saying, so we decided to do instead was just to seek God more. Hey, whenever you're you're struggling in some kind of difficult situation, don't appeal to the flesh. Seek God more. That's what you should do. What does it say in Psalms 118, verse eight? It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Say, hey, I'm going through a physical difficulty. Would that be financially? There's a lot of enemies out there. There's all these difficulties out there. Well, you could trust in man or you could just seek God more. You could start praying and fasting and saying, God, please deliver me. You know, get Psalms 23 on your heart. Yea, do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death? I will fear no evil for thou art with me. That's called faith. By faith, you can continue to walk down that dangerous path. By faith, you can say, you know what? I'm just going to trust in the promises of God. And no matter what, you know, billboard they have out there, I'm safe. All right. I don't need to trust in man. I don't need to call the cops and say, will you please protect us from them? Will you please protect us from all these sodomite freaks or whatever? I'm just gonna let God take care of us. I'll just seek God a little bit more. I'll just make sure that I'm right with God when I show up to church, not with man. I don't need to call the cops and be like, will you pretty please save us? I'm sorry. Anything negative we've ever said about you? We love you guys. Will you please protect us? No, I'm saying God's going to protect us, right? Go to verse 24 of Ezra eight verse 24. Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, cherubiah, hashabiah and ten of their brethren with them and weighed unto them the silver and the gold and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. I even weighed under their hands 650 tons of silver and silver vessels and 100 talents and of gold 100 talents. Also 20 basins of gold of a thousand drams and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold. And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord. The vessels are holy also. And the silver and the gold are a free will offering of the Lord God of your fathers watching and keep them until you weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites and the chief and chief of the fathers of Israel at Jerusalem and the chambers of the house of the Lord. Now, what we see here is a few different things. One is the fact that they have this money and they're going on a dangerous journey. And I like what Ezra does here. I think that it's a good example for us to learn from. But notice he doesn't decide, well, let's just try to pick the most faithful guy here and give him all the money, does it? He ends up dividing it, doesn't he? He divides it under 12 different people, and these 12 different people all have a specific portion and they're going to all go. So that way, it's kind of diversifying, right? It's separating their goods, their assets, because if one person goes bad. Well, you didn't lose all the money. We just lost the 12th of the money, didn't we? So think about the 12 disciples, right? If one of them goes bad, well, you know, he was a devil in the beginning. But it's good thing that Jesus didn't pick one disciple and it was just Judas. That would have ruined it, wouldn't it? The three and a half ministries would have been all in vain. It would have been worse. It would have been wasted. Instead, he's investing into 12 different people and some are going to do better than others. But notice it's not in vain because he diversified his goods. And I think that that's also an important point. When we understand the New Testament, go to Acts chapter number 14. Acts chapter number 14 is that we're an independent, fundamental Baptist church. You say, why are we independent? Well, a lot of reasons. But one really good reason is that the New Testament, I don't believe the model or what God wants is for all of the Christianity to be bound up into one person. We're not the Catholic Church. We don't just have a pope and the pope just declares whatever he wants and whatever, you know, comes from the Vatican is, you know, thus saith the Lord, essentially. No, we believe in separate, completely independent Baptist churches. And hey, if one of them goes bad, too bad for them. Folly on them. Shame on them. Shame on them for going bad. Folly on them for going bad. But you know what? I don't have to go bad. You don't have to go bad because we're independent. Like what it says in Acts chapter 14, verse 23. And when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord on whom they believe. You know, it's a better model for Christianity is just to give it to as many godly pastors as possible and let them just be committed under the Lord. Because there's one goes bad. Well, you didn't. It's not a total loss. It's not like we just gave all the money to one guy, gave him all the truth, all the keys, all the doors, he makes all the decisions. No, everybody's independent. Hey, we got 12 guys. Let's all give them 12 the gold. And it's their responsibility to get to Jerusalem with that gold. And that's what every pastor should look at it as. Hey, I've been entrusted with these resources, with these goods, and I need to make sure I take them all the way in Jerusalem safely. It's on me to get them in there. I've been entrusted with these goods and I need to be faithful that I've been given. You know, every man has his own wife. Every man has his own children. You've been entrusted with those things. What are you going to do with those things that you've been given? Are you going to make it into Jerusalem with those goods? You know, I'm I'm sure glad that I'm not the parent of every single child in this room. That would be terrible. I'm not interested in that. I don't want that responsibility. I like the fact that it's been divided. I like the fact that it's every man has his own opportunity. I like the fact that I'm not tied in with some kind of, you know, denominational hierarchy where if the upper management says, you know, jump, I have to just say how high I like that. This is the hierarchy. I like that this says jump and I'll say, sure, I'll jump. I'll keep jumping. You know, let's just go. Right. I like that because it's actually safer. It's actually a better model. And we got to look at that as, hey, in your life, you could take this principle and apply it to every area of your life. Don't put don't put all of your eggs in one basket. If your retirement program is the Social Security and that's your only egg, you know, that basket is going to probably break. You're in trouble. You ought to just diversify. You ought to have a lot of, you know, options. That's why I want to diversify. You know, I have stock Clayton and I have stock Jackson and I have stock Abby and I have stock James. And hopefully I've got a lot of stocks in the future. They just haven't had their public, you know, offering it. OK, but when they have that IPO, I'm going to be investing as much as I can in that new stock. And I like that plan. Now, you know, obviously, if you don't have, you know, those type of stock options, you know, you got to find some. And again, we ought to invest in the Lord, right? I mean, that's a good stock you can invest in because you know that the moth or rust are not going to corrupt on that one. But at the end of the day, diversification is good. We want to diversify things. We don't want to put all of our stock into just one person and one thing. You got to realize, hey, I have a lot of options here, and that's a good thing. Go back and we'll finish this chapter. But even when the Judas goes bad, well, hey, we still got 11 disciples, don't we? And that's a good thing. And, you know, even in this church, you know, we're not just investing in one person here, we're investing in everyone. And if one person becomes a flat earther and goes away, well, so be it. You know, OK, that was a bad investment, but hey, we're investing a lot of other people. And you know what? Who cares about them? You know, Jesus washed Judas feet, but he washed a lot of good people's feet, too. You know, and so we ought to just invest in multiple things, not just in one. Look at what it says in verse 30. So took the priests and Levites, the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels to bring them to Jerusalem under the house of our God. Then we departed from the river Ahava on the 12th day of the first month to go into Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us. And he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of such as lay in wait, by the way. So notice God delivered them. They put all their trust in who? God and God ended up delivering them. And notice all 12 guys are faithful. They all get in there. And you know, one thing that we can learn from this is that we should pray that God would deliver us. You know, in the Bible talks about being lead us not into temptation. Most of the time, when we think of the word temptation, we think of sin. We think of like, God, please don't lead me into adultery. You know, please don't lead me into lying. Here's the thing. God's never going to lead you into that period. I don't care what you pray. God's never leading you into sin. That's never that's not what it's saying. The temptation there is harm or evil. OK, in the context of, hey, God, if I don't have to be persecuted when I go soul winning, I would rather that be the case. I'd rather the cops not harass me when I go into white settlement. OK, I need to pray that God would lead us not into temptation when I go there. I'd rather spend more time preaching to the loss than preaching to the cop how it's not illegal to go soul winning. OK, who's not interested in the gospel? Every time you try to talk to them, they are not interested in the gospel. OK, so I'd rather find someone that is interested in the gospel and preach to him. That's what the Bible is teaching for you to pray for. So for our church, we ought to pray for God to not lead us into harm, into evil, into those type of temptations. I'd rather not be tempted to the fullest extent that I can be tempted. You know, there's people in this country that even naming the name of Christ, they can be put to death. I'm glad I don't have that temptation every single day. I'm glad that I'm not, you know, worried about someone busting through the door and murdering my whole family because I'm a Christian. Where there's people in certain parts of the country where that's a fear, a constant fear that they have to be and, you know, fear of their lives. And you know what? Those prayers probably mean a lot more to them than us. And when we're thinking about, you know, if we're going to eat it, you know, Taco Bell or Wendy's when we leave or whatever. Neither. OK, ask your wife to cook at home. It's much better. OK, I'll pray for you. Look at verse 32. And we came to Jerusalem in a boat there three days. Now, that is a temptation, though, right? Now, on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Merrima, the son of Uriah, the priest, and with them was Eliezer, the son of Phinehas, and with them was Jezebad, the son of Joshua and Nodaya, the son of Benuei, Levites by name, number and by weight of everyone. And all the weight was written at the time. So notice would they get there? They also didn't just say, did you bring it all? Yep. Got it. No, they waited, didn't they? They measured it. So we need to provide things on us in the sight of God and in the sight of men. OK, so and you know, the person that's honest is not afraid of being accountable. The person that's honest isn't afraid. Measure it. OK, great. Measure it. He's not afraid of it. When you start asking questions like where are the books? Oh, someone else has them. It's like, what? Yeah, I don't keep books. Yeah, I'm good. I've never done anything wrong. Well, do you have any records to prove that? No, I've none. You know, the person that's honest is like, yeah, here's where I wrote it down and here's where I put it in here and here's all the documentation. Why don't you just look through it? Because I've done nothing wrong. The person that done something wrong is like, there's probably no need to look at this, you know. Let's just burn this. Let's just get rid of this. Why? Because they're guilty. That's why. And so we need to provide things honest in the sight of men, not just God. Look at verse 35. Also, the children of those that have been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings in the God of Israel, 12 bullocks for all Israel, 90 and six rams, 70 and seven lambs, 12 egotes for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering of the Lord. And they delivered the king's commissions under the king's lieutenants and the governors on this side of the river. And they furthered the people in the house of God. Go back to Philemon, chapter one, last place I'll return this evening. Go back to Philemon, chapter one. But notice they furthered the people and the house of God. You know, I think of the word that comes to my mind when I think is reinforcements. You know, reinforcements and honestly, reinforcements are such an encouragement. They're just they refresh you. They make you feel better when you have a bunch of reinforcements, when you have people, when you've been fighting the battle and then all of a sudden just new recruits come in. You're just you're just like, yeah, woo. We got some new blood. We got some new people to stand in the, you know, the gap with us. And honestly, that's, you know, the whole picture of the chapter. As you're saying, hey, we need we need some people from Levi and they show up. Great reinforcements. Yeah, we got some more guys. And you know, when people have a great need and you can send somebody unto them, you've got to realize the blessing you're giving them. A lot of times they're saying, great, this person's here. Now we got some reinforcement. Now we got this person coming in. Says in Romans Chapter 15, I'll read for you verse before I get to where we're going, verse 32, that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed. So he's saying, hey, when I show up, we're going to be refreshed. Look at the Lehman Chapter one, verse number seven. Verse number seven reads, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by the brother. One of the good things about the Lehman is the fact that he refreshed the brethren. And, you know, when you have people coming in or being sent unto you or you see somebody, it's a great refreshing. Now, I personally get to experience this a lot. And, you know, it's a lot of fun. You know, when I go down and I visit pure word Baptist Church, you know, it's like a refreshing every time I get to come down there and I get to see them just because I'm not seeing them as much on a regular basis. You know, when I go up to Oklahoma City and I get to see them, it's a refreshing because they get to see me there. You know, when I go into Jacksonville, it's a refreshing when I get to see them. And, you know, when you have reinforcements coming, it's a great refreshing. And we ought to realize that we need to just, you know, addict ourselves in the ministry of the saints and realize sometimes when we send somebody somewhere, it's going to be to refresh them. You know, it's hard to depart, but nothing's going to last forever. You know, I'm not you know, unless Jesus comes, I'm not going to be the pastor of this church forever. And frankly speaking, I'm not going to be the pastor of Oklahoma City and Pure Words and Jackson. I mean, there's an end in sight. Things are going to change. And, you know, the people in this room, they're going to change. People are going to change. People are going to go here and there and do these things. But, you know, when you show up into a place that has a great need, you can be a great refreshing unto those brethren. And so that's why we ought to be, you know, purpose in our hearts to just serve God, because if it's just one church. Well, what happens when I leave this church? Well, I can't serve God anymore. No, you go to another church and you refresh them and you encourage them and you bless them. And we need to take heed to the callings that God has given to us in our life. Ezra is a great refresher to these people that have gone through a hard time. I mean, they've been in Jerusalem trying to set up the service of the Lord, trying to do these things. And I'm sure when Ezra and the Levites and all these extra people just show up, all of a sudden it's like, yeah, now we're going to serve God. Now we've got a great group of people. I mean, just imagine if like 40 independent, fundamental Baptist, red hot, soul winning people just all of a sudden just said, Hey, we're at steadfast now. I mean, that'd be great, wouldn't it? I mean, that'd be a great refreshing if you had something like that. And, you know, you on a personal level, you can do that to people. You can go around, you can refresh the brethren. And we ought to have this attitude of it's not just about me and my church. You know, it's about the brethren. It's about serving the Lord. It's about ministering to the saints. And that ought to be our heartbeat is the ministry of the saints. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for this great chapter, for this example of Ezra returning back to the land and refreshing the brethren with new reinforcements. I pray that we would just have this heart and this mindset that when we have opportunities to refresh the brethren, we have opportunities to be a reinforcement and to just minister unto the other saints, that we would take heed of those calls that you've given us in our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.