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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good evening, thank you for joining us this Thursday evening. Let's all find our seats and open to page 413. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Page 413, your green hymn books. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Music Page 413 Now allow it with me on the first. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead. Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord in need. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. Forth to the mighty conflict in this his glorious day. He that our men now serve him against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer. Where duty calls for danger, he never wanting there. Great singing this evening. Brother Sean, you want to open us with a word of prayer? I would honor and thank you for this day. I thank you for all the believers that were able to make the return of today. I pray that you feel fast to talk to us with your spirit, Lord. I pray you give us ears to hear the message. We love you and pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Let's turn to page four. Page four, the way of the cross leads home. Page four, the way of the cross leads home. On the first, I must needs go home by the way of the cross. There's no other way but this. I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross I miss. The way of the cross leads home, the way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way, the path at the Savior trod. If I ever climb to the heights sublime where the soul is at home with God. The way of the cross leads home, the way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. On the last, then I bid farewell to the way of the world to walk in and evermore. For my Lord says, come and I seek my home where He waits at the open door. The way of the cross leads home, the way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know as I onward go. The way of the cross leads home. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements real quickly here. If you need a bulletin, just lift up your hand. The ushers will bring you a bulletin. Anybody need one? I know the kids all do, but any adults? All right. Kids never fail. They always want one. All right. On the front cover, we have our verse of the week. It says, therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 8. And our service times for Sunday are 1030 a.m. for the Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m. And Thursday Bible study is 6.30 p.m. Tonight we're in Ezra chapter number 8. And Solanin is listed below. We had Solanin tonight. Did anybody have a salvation? One salvation tonight, so praise the Lord for that. And we're having a great month already so far in the month of March. I think that leads to, I'm not sure how many we've had this week so far, but I know that at least makes 13. We didn't have any, I think, on Sunday. Was there any other salvations this week? I can't remember. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We'll count them all up at the end of the week. Let's see, the rest of the stats are on the page there, at the end of the page there, for the week before last. The new ones will be out this Sunday. This, tomorrow actually, Deacon Oliver Gonzales is going to be preaching in Spokane, Washington, for kicking off the fifth anniversary for the church plant up there. And that will be at 6.30 at night. I know a bunch of people were planning on going. Is anybody going for sure? Or are some people still maybes? Who's maybes still? Anybody still maybes? Is anybody for sure? All right, cool. All right, so we have some people going up there. It's great. I don't think my wife's going to make it, so she hurt her back yesterday somehow, and she just, she is down, so she's having a rough time. But if you would pray for her, I'd really appreciate that. So anyway, but the weekend will go on. So Soul Waning Saturday, it's planned as a Soul Waning marathon. I did see some snowflakes in the forecast, but that's with an Android phone, which is usually right compared to Apple, because Apple sucks. But what? Couldn't even get your directions right for years. What are you talking about? I'm just kidding. But anyway, Steve Jobs is a queer. Everybody knows it. Anyway, Samsung, Koreans are not queers. We all know that's true. I'm just joking. I'm really kidding. Okay, let's move on. All right, Samsung versus Apple. That's the sermon tonight. No. So yeah, I'll be preaching Sunday there at the church there, and we're going to have, we're definitely going to feed people twice, three times there. So in between the service on Sunday, lunch on Saturday, and also like a light breakfast and coffee and donuts or whatever on Saturday morning before the Soul Waning. So I think that's going to be meeting at 10 a.m. So 10 a.m., normally we do the 9 o'clock for coffee and donuts, but if you're going, don't go there at 9. It's going to be at 10 a.m. The reason why I did that is because I know it's going to be colder there, and I just wanted it to get maybe a little bit warmer. The temperatures are looking like it's going to be like freezing, so in the morning, but in the afternoon and mid-morning, it'll be around 50 degrees. That's not too bad. So anyway, that's like picnic weather, right? So anyhow, so that's going to be a great weekend up there. I'm very excited about that. So pray that that all goes well. And Usher's training is going to be next Saturday after this, and that'll be at 10 o'clock in the morning from 10 to 12. Launch will be provided afterwards, and so if you're going to be in Usher, if you are in Usher, please show up for that yearly training that we do. And if you're wanting to be in Usher, then please show up for that also. It is required. So March 23rd, we are going to do our portion of the mega marathon, and we're trying to – I was messaging with Pastor Stuckey about this today, and we're trying to get it relaunched to where we're doing it all. We're kind of divided on doing it on one day. I know he really likes doing it on the day before Easter. At first he wasn't really – so we're kind of having a conflict about that. That's how Baptists do things, but it's not a conflict. I'm just kidding. But I really just don't want to do it on the day before Easter, but that's just me. I know Pastor Mendez doesn't like doing it on the day before Easter, so that's kind of why I put the 23rd and the 30th. But I don't know why it makes a difference. Some people esteem one day above another, and some people esteem every day alike. So let every man be persuaded in his own mind. That's kind of what I think, a little Baptist soul liberty there. But either way, I still want to have the mega marathon. We're going to do it in Kelso, Washington. And so any other church that wants to be involved with it is more than welcome to join up. We're going to count it all up. On Easter we'll reveal how many people got saved for those two separate days. So I think Verity Baptist Church, Manila, he's covering basically all the Asian countries, so he's probably going to have some huge numbers like usual. And all of our churches are going to be participating in it. And then also in London, and I know in Poland they're going to be participating. So we're trying to get it back to where we can get all 50 states covered and things like that. But maybe we'll have to have a sad song playing at the Red Hot Breaching Conference or something and do like a video where some of the states didn't get covered, you know, like those old missionary videos where they're like, here am I, I will go. Get people's hearts right again for the marathon. Anyway, so that's planned. And then, let's see, the Lord's Supper is going to be Sunday evening, March 24th. And Easter Sunday there will be a potluck between the services. Please sign up to bring aside, or if you can cook a ham, please sign up for that. It's in the WhatsApp group. If you aren't in the WhatsApp group and you need to be in there, just please see me or my wife when she's here for getting in that group. Pastor Tavener is going to come preach for us April 7th. The Next Generation Youth Conference is going to be Fair to Baptist Church April 8th and 9th. So the sign up and everything is on there. To get a T-shirt, you're going to have to sign up early for that. So all the other stuff is par for the course. Everybody knows all the rules and stuff like that. And I've been reading them for seven years and I kind of got tired of it. So at the bottom of the page is the ties that came in so far for the month of, well, all the ties that came in for the month of February. So happy birthday to everybody. Today the 6th, yeah. Happy birthday, I think we sang, to everybody on Sunday. That's all I have for announcements. We are going to not do the prayer request time tonight. We just had a few prayers that came in. So just make sure that you look at that and pray accordingly. I know that Ms. Sheila's brother fell down, went boom. How's he doing? Is he okay? Okay. And did I know? Oh, he did, okay. He did the prayer today. He cracked his rib. Okay. So I thought there was a couple more that were on there, but just look and just make sure that you don't forget to pray for them. And then I have one more thing. Brother Nick, will you come up here, please, just real quick? I have something for you. It's your Certificate of Baptism. Brother Nick got saved not too long ago and he came in Believer's Baptism. He took the polar plunge. Congratulations, Brother Nick. All right. That's all we have for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. All right, let's go ahead and turn to page 41 in our Green Him books. Suite by and by, page 41. Suite by and by, on the first. There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar, For the Father waits over the way, To prepare us a dwelling place there. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. We shall sing on that beautiful shore. The melodious songs of the blessed, And our spirit shall sorrow no more, God aside for the blessing of rest. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. To our bountiful Father above, We will offer our tribute of praise, For the glorious gift of His love. And the blessings that hallow our days. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the suite by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore. At this time, we'll have our ushers come forth to receive the offering for us. And Brother Sean, can you bless it for us, please? Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, so much for our church. I pray that you would just bless it, Lord. And I pray that you would just bless this offering, Lord. Bless both the gift and the giver. In Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, good evening. Would you turn with me to the book of Ezra, chapter 8? The book of Ezra, chapter 8 this evening. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter, starting in verse 1. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of you. Ezra, chapter 8, the Bible reads, These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me 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, Hattush. Of the sons of Zechaniah. Of the sons of Pharosh, Zechariah. And with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males in 150. Of the sons of Peyhath-Moab, Elichone, the son of Zerahiah. And with him, 200 males. Of the sons of Zechaniah, the sons of Jehaziel. And with him, 300 males. Of the sons also of Aden, Ebed, the son of Jonathan, and with him 50 males. And of the sons of Elam, Jeshiah, the son of Athaliah, and with him 70 males. And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of Michael, and with him four score males. Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel, and with him 218 males. And the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josephiah, and with him 103 score males. And of the sons of Bibi, Zechariah, the son of Bibi, and with him 20 and 8 males. And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakatan, and with him 110 males. And of the last sons of Adonakhem, whose names are these, Eliphelet, Jehiel, and Shemaiah, and with them three score males. Of the sons also of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zabud, and with them 70 males. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava, and their abode we intense three days, and I viewed the people and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. Then sent I for Eliezer, and for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshulam, chief men. Also for Joarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. And I sent them with commandment unto Ido the chief at the place Cassiphia, and I told them what they should say unto Ido, and to his brethren the Nephinims, at the place Cassiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mali, the son of Levi, the son of Israel. And Cherubiah, with his sons and his brethren eighteen, and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshiah, of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons twenty, also of the Nephinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nephinims, all of them were expressed by name. 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 require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him. But his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us. 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 unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels and hundred talents, and of gold and hundred talents, also twenty 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, and the vessels are holy also, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers. Watch ye and keep them until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers of Israel at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord. So took the priests and the Levites, the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God. Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go unto 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. And we came to Jerusalem and abode there three days. 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 Merimoth the son of Uriah the priest. And with him was Eliezer the son of Phinehas, and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadia the son of Binuy, Levites. By number and by weight of every one, and all the weight was written at that time, also the children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering unto the Lord, and they delivered the king's commissions unto the king's lieutenants and to the governors on this side of the river, and they furthered the people and the house of God. Brother Jesse, would you pray for us? Lord, thank you for being able to gather here this evening. Thank you for the salvation earlier today. Pastor Philip, Pastor with your spirit, we appreciate your message. It was interesting to hear what you say to your friends. Amen. Amen. All right, we're in Ezra chapter 8. The title of the sermon tonight is Faithful Laborers Needed. And the first point of the sermon tonight is The Genealogy of Those Who Returned with Ezra. So the alternate title of the sermon is Apple versus Samsung. Who's right? No, I'm just kidding. Well, when I said something about Apple, I heard people like rend their garments, and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. It got pretty crazy in here. I was like, well, that's the most controversial thing I've said in a long time. Anyway, so I don't know if you caught this, and maybe I didn't mention it in previous sermons, but there is a big time lapse in all of this. Like from chapter 1 to chapter 8, there's been multiple years involved in all this. This isn't just like a story that's told from like 1 to 7 years or something. This whole, the Medes and the Persians, that empire was about 111 years. And so this goes for a period, well, I, again, so I did mention this, though, that secular sources aren't always right, obviously, about things. So it's kind of hard to pinpoint some of this stuff. So I did have like a screenshot of something that I had, there it is, let's see, I'm sorry. Take me just a second here. Now I can't find it, all right, great. Anyway, we'll have to bring it up in the next sermon. Anyway, so I just wanted to point that out really quickly, though, that there's a lot of time, because you notice it's mentioning names of different kings, you know, and so that means that time has gone by, multiple years have gone by. But Ezra's recounting here, when he came up, when he returned, so Ezra returns, he goes, he comes back, and remember in the last chapter the letters were written to him by the king and said basically you can have whatever you want up into a certain amount of resources and gave him all these resources and the king was fully behind him and Ezra was a ready scribe in the ways of the Lord. He was a very powerful preacher, he was a very powerful man of God, and he really had the admiration of the heathen kings and specifically that king even gave him power to implement all the laws of God back in the land of Israel, which was under the jurisdiction of the Medes in the Persian Empire. So, now Israel stopped being able to be self-governed when Babylon conquered them and they never got that sovereignty back. So, even though they still were allowed to go back in land and build the temple and all those things, they still never ever had their sovereignty back. They were ruled over by the Babylonians, by the Medes and the Persians, then by the Greeks, and then by the Romans when Jesus came, and then they ceased to be a nation basically in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the other temple. This temple that's being built right here gets destroyed. Now, there are people that will say that there's three temples and that Herod's temple is the third temple. Now, I don't believe that that's true, but I know there's people that say that, but Herod's temple is just like an upgrade of the temple that was built here. There's no record of the second temple being destroyed. So, it's just an upgrade of what was already previously done. And remember that this temple here didn't have the splendor of the first temple that Solomon had built. So, now Ezra here, he's going to name this big genealogy of the chief fathers that came back with him. If you look at verse number one, the Bible says, These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. So, they're the chief fathers. So, he's only naming the top, you know, the most famous people or the heads of these families, right? And notice in the first verse also it says that went up with me. So, who's specifically writing this? He's writing in the first person, isn't he? Ezra's, you know, he's writing, he's saying with me, so this is the example of him writing himself. So, and then that timestamp gives you that it's Artaxerxes, okay? So, now look at verse two, it says, Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel of the sons of David, Hattush. Now, I like going through genealogies, and I like going and digging out nuggets of truth. Out of the genealogies, I find it interesting. I know most people get bored going through genealogies, but I actually have grown to like them. When I first started reading the Bible, I would just be like, okay, let's just, you know, move along now. But, you know, I just didn't see the prophet in them. But there's prophet in every word of the Bible. Every word is there for a reason. And so, obviously, some of it, you know, we can still glean things out of the genealogies today. And I just wanted to kind of take, I'm not going to go through every single name, obviously. We'd be here all night, and I don't want to do that. So, but I do want to kind of focus just maybe on this one verse and maybe a couple other names here. But it says, Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. So, this writing style, it's kind of different. But it might make people think, well, who's talking, or who's it talking about here? Well, Phinehas is, you know, one of the sons of Aaron, right? And then it says Gershom. But then it says, Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. So, you might think, well, is that talking about Daniel, you know, Daniel and the lions then? Well, he'd be pretty old by then, don't you think? So, it's not the same Daniel. So, one thing you got under, when you're studying the Bible, you do have to do line upon line, precept upon precept. You have to understand what time period you're looking at. And Daniel would be super old at this point. You know, 70 years go by, you know, just for the prophecy of Jeremiah, and Daniel went out before that 70 years even started, the timeline even started. So, he was pretty old by the time that happened. He was an old man. So, this, I mean, unless Daniel's just like 200 years old or something, or 250 years old, this isn't the same Daniel. And then it says, Of the sons of David. Now, I believe that this is talking about one of the sons of David himself, but not his actual son, because he'd be pretty old too, wouldn't he? So, now, but if you look in 1 Chronicles 3, 22, which I'm not going to have you do, but in 1 Chronicles 3, 22, it names him as one of Solomon's sons. So, it's in the line of Solomon and David, it's in the line of that. So, you know, he's just kind of name dropping some of these more well-known people here. So, it's not Daniel the prophet. David also has a son named Daniel that was of Abigail the Carmelitis. If you remember his wife that was, you know, he got, you know, God killed her husband and then David married her. So, there's, you know, a few different Daniels in the Bible. So, you do kind of have to do your due diligence, do some cross-referencing, because you can trip yourself up and do some bad studying where you're thinking, Well, this is Daniel. Yeah. No, it's not that Daniel. No, it's not that Gershom. It's not that David, you know. So, it's a good lesson in studying the Bible that you have to just do a little bit of due diligence and you can figure out who some of these people are and just make sure that you are right when you're, especially if you're going to study and preach a sermon. You know, you don't want to embarrass yourself. Now, I'm just going to hit the highlights through the rest of this. It's, you know, Shekiniah is a pretty popular person in the scriptures in verse five. Verse seven, it says, Jeshua the son of Athaliah. Now, I'm not sure if this is talking about Athaliah, the one, the queen, the wicked queen that took over, but I thought that all of his sons got killed, her sons got killed. Maybe one escaped, I'm not sure, but it could be a completely different Athaliah too, but I don't know who would want to name their, you know, another person Athaliah after that, but she was pretty evil. But then you got verse nine, you got of the sons of Joab, Obadiah. I'm not even sure if that's the same Joab, could be a completely different Joab, but you know, some of these, some names are just used over and over and over again because it's a popular name, like Mary or Miriam is a really popular name. It's still a really popular name, and it's because obviously it's the, you know, Miriam in the Bible is Moses' sister. Mary, you know, Miriam in the New Testament is Mary, and that's the mother of Jesus. So, then let's see, yeah, so I mean, basically the rest of this whole genealogy path here is basically the chief fathers that he brought with him. Now, the Bible talks about avoiding genealogies in the New Testament, and you're like, well, aren't you breaking that rule, Pastor Thompson, right now? Well, wouldn't God just say minus all the genealogies out of the whole Bible if that was true? I mean, are we not supposed to have anything to do with any genealogies ever again? I mean, let's go ahead and turn to Titus chapter 3 verse 9, and just see what the Bible actually says here. So, because sometimes we can say, well, yeah, the Bible says avoid genealogies, but what is it talking about specifically? Because in Matthew chapter 1, you're going to get a genealogy of Christ. Is that genealogy important? I mean, it kind of is, isn't it? So that we know where Christ came from, that's why it's in there. That's why it's in the New Testament. So, but in the context of Titus 3, 9, it tells us why we're supposed to avoid genealogies. Look at what it says. But avoid foolish questions, so that's the context, right? Avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. So, we're supposed to avoid foolish questions, and then it says genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law. So, we're supposed to avoid these contentious questions about genealogies. So, we're not supposed to use genealogy as a way to contend about things. And really, if someone's trying to say, well, I'm from this tribe, then that's kind of what it's talking about. Because if you're some Israelite from time, if you're trying to say you're of the tribe of Levi right now, which is probably what people will do, what people still try to do, people say that there's lost tribes right now. Oh, we found the lost tribe of Reuben. You know, there are these white people that live over here or whatever. I think I saw on like, maybe it was some 700 Club or something one time, and it was like these white, they looked white, but they were like albino black people or something. And they said, this is like the tribe of Asher. We found them, and I was like, what are you talking about? This is before I knew all that controversial stuff, and I don't know. This is the kind of stuff that you should avoid, though. I mean, how would they know that? I mean, if at this time a bunch of them had to get thrown out of the priesthood because they're polluted, because they couldn't prove their genealogy, how about when the whole dysphoria happened when the legions of Rome came and just completely crushed Israel, completely crushed Judah, and just sent them into all nations of the earth, like the Bible says? There's no more genealogies to go after, because they were all put to the slave trades, and nobody was able to stay in that land. They're gone. So nobody can prove what genealogy they're from. So I think that obviously this is talking about questions about the law, strivings about the law, things that are unprofitable. We're supposed to avoid foolish questions. Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it? That's a foolish question. So we shouldn't entertain those questions. Even when we're out sowing, people will ask us foolish questions. And maybe take a couple of those things, but after the second and third admonition, we should reject those heretics. Sometimes people just want to play games with us when we're out there and stop us from getting to that next door. Lying for the Lord is a Mormon doctrine. They'll lie to you and try to stop you from getting to that next door, because they feel like they're serving their master Satan and trying to stop you from getting to the next door. So look at Proverbs chapter 30 verse 5. So I just personally don't think that this is a commandment to avoid reading them, or studying them, because they're the Word of God. So if they're the Word of God and they belong in this book, and we're supposed to read every Word of God, then how could we? So the command to avoid genealogies isn't to avoid reading them, or to avoid studying them. It's to avoid stupid questions about genealogies. Like, what tribe are you from, bro? You don't know. Nobody knows. We might have some Israel tribes in this room. For all we know, we probably do have some. From way back to your 163rd pair of grandparents or whatever, we don't really know. But it is a foolish question. And if someone comes and they go, this is my genealogy, no it's not. You don't have that. I can't even go past the 17th century, really. The 16th century with my DNA. I can only find people, markers, back to Norway, to some town that some of my Norwegian family members went to, or are from. I can't find, you know, I'm 40% Scottish. I can't really, maybe it's just because I won't pay for that part of the service. Because maybe the Jewish part of me doesn't want to do that or something. I don't know. But maybe that 1% Jew that I am just doesn't want to do that or something. But they revealed that part of Norway to me. But we're not going to be able to find that kind of stuff out. And it's really just, it's interesting to kind of know where you come from. And that's about where I want to stop. I don't really care that much. We can't use it to get Indian money or anything like that. So it's pointless, right? I'm just kidding. But you can't. You can't even use it to go to Israel anymore. I mean, you could say, well I'm half Israeli. And then you go and try to use that to get in. It's not going to happen. You still have to say, I'm an Israelite. You couldn't say, well I'm a Christian and I'm half Jewish. Let me in. That's not going to work. They're not going to let you in. If you go over there and say, I'm a Christian missionary. Let me in. I'm going to proselytize. They won't let you in. They just won't. So I know that people have tried to say that that's not true. But it is true. So look at Proverbs 30, verse 5, where I had you turn. It says, every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. So every word of God is pure. So every word of this Bible is there and meant to be in there, including the genealogy that I just skipped through. But I'm only skipping through it for time's sake, okay? But, and also it's just like, this is something that you'd probably want to, if you want to study who all these people are or try to just find it, you know, boil it down. But there's a lot more profitable studies that you might find. But, you know, as you read through the Bible year by year, you might just kind of chew on a bone. You know, there's a, you get a hankering for something and you're just like, well, I want to find out who this person was and, you know, track this family or whatever. You know, I do stuff like that. You know, I mean, it's just, your ladies are like, what are you talking about? Well, guys are like that. Aren't you guys? Huh? Anybody? You just got to start studying something and you're just like, you can't stop and you kind of just want to find every verse. I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but I do. So, Matthew 4, go ahead and turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. I'm going to read Matthew 4, 4. Matthew 4, 4 says, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So, every word of the Bible is important. And so, to avoid genealogies, just to take Titus 3, 9 at face value, just say, avoid genealogies, we're not supposed to read them. No, you're still supposed to read them. You're still supposed to read them and you are going to get some profit from studying because it says, in 2 Timothy 3, 16, it says, All Scripture, so that means everything in it, right, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So, it's profitable for doctrine. So, you can get good doctrine out of genealogies. I've done it lots of times. And you can get good stuff out of there. You can get good principles. You can get good preaching material out of it. You can figure out that Samuel the prophet was in the line of the priest and that's why he was able to do sacrifices, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the book of Chronicles because it doesn't really spell it out for you in the book of 1 Samuel or 2 Samuel. It just doesn't. So, you know, you might be like, Well, why is he able to come and do a sacrifice and Saul got in trouble for it? Well, you wouldn't know that if you didn't read the genealogy and understand that Samuel was a special guy. He was not only a prophet, but he was also a priest who was able to do the sacrifices and he was also a judge, so he was all three. He ruled, he was a priest, and he also was a prophet at the same time. So, which is a rare thing in the Bible. But, so it says, So, why is all scripture given by inspiration of God and profitable? It says in verse 17, That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So, everything is there for us and God supplied what we need in the Bible. You're like, Well, what about this book that the Catholic Church banned? Why don't you worry about the books that are in the Bible and stop worrying about the books that are not in the Bible. God is the one that preserves his word. If it's not in the Bible, it doesn't need to be in there. Because God's going to make sure that he keeps what's supposed to be in there, in there. And the book of Enoch is garbage. It does not belong in the Bible. It's not part of the Bible. And all the Catholic editions don't belong in there either. So, like the extra long Daniel chapters and, you know, there's, I think there's a book called Esdras or something. And it's basically just like a combination of Ezra and Nehemiah basically saying almost the same exact things. But obviously it doesn't belong in scripture, so God doesn't put it in there. So, anyway. So, if it's in the book, it's meant to be in the book, therefore it's important. And there's still profit from reading the genealogies, definitely profit in studying them. But I would also say this, don't start studying, deeply studying the Bible until you've read through it at least three or four or five times. Because you're not even going to get, like, you're not going to get your bearing in the Bible until you've probably read it at least three times. And about five times you're going to really start to know it a lot better. But say you read it five times and then you stop reading it for five years, everything that you read, you're just going to have to start over at scratch. You're like, really? Well, think about books that you've read in secular, your secular books that you've read. Unless you're Bill, you're not going to remember those books, okay? I'm sorry, brother Bill. Bill's like, but in this book, you know, he can just pull it up like a registry. But I've read books, I read books when I was a kid and I remember the book, but how much do you really remember of the book? I remember my teacher read The Chronicles of Narnia to me, you know, our whole class, when I was in fifth grade. And I love that book. But do I remember the whole book? No. I've read the book myself. Do I remember the book? Not really. I mean, I remember the basic story of it, but I don't remember everything in the book. So when you don't use something, you lose it. So, I read The Hobbit. I don't remember anything of The Hobbit. So, I don't remember any of the stuff in The Hobbit at all. But, you know, obviously if you read a book a lot of times and you keep reading it all the time, you're going to retain that stuff, but it's just like verses. If you memorize a lot of verses and you don't keep up on the verses, your mind is going to push that out of your brain. Because the stuff that your brain is designed to dump things that it doesn't need. It's just like when your computer gets a lot of data on it, and then it kind of clogs it up and it needs to get defragged. And our minds need to get defragged sometimes when we have too much information in there. And it's going to dump stuff that it doesn't need anymore. You know, when you have a lot of apps on your phone, this app is going to sleep because you haven't used it in so long or whatever. And some apps, it used to give you notifications all the time, but then you didn't use it for so long. It's just like, this app's been sleeping for like 45 days. You're like, I forgot all about that app. That's kind of how your brain works too, though. You're like, oh, I remember that book, but what do you remember? You don't really remember it. So, the point I'm making here is that you should just continue to read the Bible and get to know the Bible, and when you study the Bible, study it, yeah, go ahead and study it, but reading the Bible is the most important thing because you're going to retain more when you continuously read it than you are if you just study one subject and say, I'm just going to study the book of Matthew for five years. Then you're losing everything else that you know about the Bible. It's just not a smart way to study. So, why avoid genealogies? To stop arguing and striving about them. Jesus has come, genealogies stopped mattering the moment that the veil in the temple was rent in twain. The only reason it matters is who Jesus was, really. Obviously, for us to know deeper stuff and who this guy was, who was Barzillai, why does he matter, who was Ahithophel, and how was he connected with Bathsheba, and why was he so upset? Why did he betray David? Well, if you look through the genealogies, you'll understand that he was related to Bathsheba, and that's probably why he was so mad and why he betrayed David in the first place. Because he was his trusted advisor for many, many years, and then, so obviously he was upset about that. I mean, it's not said, but it is implied. Number two tonight, Ezra sees the needs for Levite laborers. Look at verse 15. It says, and I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava, and there abode we in tents three days. And I viewed the people and the priests and found there none of the sons of Levi. So he brought all these people back with him. Where's he going? He's going back to Jerusalem. He's going back to the temple, and he didn't find any sons of Levi to come with him. That's a problem, isn't it? Because if you know anything about the sons of Levi, they're the kind of, you know, obviously some of them are the priests. Some of them, you know, there's one that's the high priest. There's these three brothers that were the sons of Levi, and the divisions of them come from those three sons. So it's kind of important because they're the ones that pick up everything and move it, but now that the temple's in one solitary location, they don't have to pick up the stakes and all that stuff, but they still have to care for the things that are in the temple. They still have to probably clean everything, wash it. They're responsible to replace things that are damaged. They're probably responsible for maintenance and whatever else needs to be done around there. So church work or ministry work can't get done without physical labor being taken place also, and so it's a big problem when he finds out that there's no sons of Levi. It says in verse 16, Then sent I for Eleazar, and Ariel, and Shemaiah, and Elnathan, and for Jerib, and Elnathan, and Nathan, and Zechariah. There's a lot of Nathans in that, yeah. And for Meshelim, Meshelim man, and then chief men also of Joarab, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. So chief men, so he sends for these guys, and he's sending for chief men of the Levites, right? And it says men of understanding. He needs someone of understanding. So, and it says, And I sent them with commandment unto Edo the chief at the place Cassiphia. And I told them what they should say unto Edo and to his brethren the Nethinims at the place Cassiphia that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. Now, who are the Nethinims again? Do you remember who the Nethinims are? Anybody? Anybody. The Nethinims are the Gibeonites from Joshua when they, remember they pretended that their clothes were all messed up, and they acted like they came from this far country because they didn't want to get killed by the children of Israel because God said to destroy everybody, and the Gibeonites were smart enough to try, so to get out of being killed, they pretended to be servants from a faraway country that wanted to believe in their same God. Now, so in reality though, they're Canaanites, and they're from Gibeah. Now, they, you know, Joshua without consulting the Lord pardoned them and allowed them to come in, and since Joshua gave his word that he wasn't going to do anything to harm them, they became, you know, water bearers and hewers of wood, basically laborers for the children of Israel. So people go like, well that sounds like slavery. Well, it sounds like better than dying, doesn't it? That's what it sounds like to me. So, and it doesn't sound to me like he's necessarily mistreating them here. You know, when Saul was killing some of them, if you remember, David had to hang some of Saul's, you know, some of Saul's sons and some of his family members because he broke the oath that was for the Nethinims and he was killing some of them, and so that debt had to be paid because when you make a promise, when you say that you're going to do something, you know, in God's mind, you're going to do it to your own hurt. You know, when he swears to your own hurt and don't do it, that's a problem with God, and he doesn't just say, well, sorry God, I shouldn't have said that. It's like, no, you already said it. You already said you were going to do it and that's why we should do the things that we say we're going to do. But, so these Nethinims that he's trying to, so what's the problem here? Ezra doesn't see any sons of Levi. These are the guys that do a lot of the laborious work of the temple and before it was the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, so he's contacting this chief of the Nethinim at this place called Cassiphaea, which is basically by this river in the country that they're in and, you know, apparently this is the place where they're kind of stationed or whatever when they were taken out of the land. So, he's trying to get some men of understanding and to get some, he's sending for men or ministers to go to the house of God. Now, the Levites again, they're of the tribe of, they're one of the tribes of Jacob and you've got the high priest that come from them, the priest and the Levite. So when it says the Levites generally, sometimes it's talking about those laborers, sometimes it's talking about the whole tribe but, you know, sometimes it is just talking about generally the laborers that aren't the priests. So, or that aren't the high priests if that makes sense. So, he's not just calling for the, he's not just calling for the children of Israel, the Levites, but he's also calling for the Nethinims which are not of the children of Israel. Does that make sense? So he needs laborers, this is the problem, he needs laborers. Why does he need laborers? Why does he need laborers? Because he doesn't have enough. So, Ezra needs laborers that are also allowed to serve in the house of the Lord and I don't think that they're allowed to go in, the Nethinims I don't believe are allowed to go into the house of the Lord. Now look at Numbers 18 and we'll see the divisions of the priest here or of the tribe of Levi, it spells it out for us what their jobs were in Numbers chapter 18. So, Numbers 18 two, the Bible says, and thy brethren also the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee that they may be joined unto thee and minister unto thee, but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of the witness. And they shall keep thy charge and the charge of the tabernacle, only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar that neither they nor ye also die. So why was it a big deal that Korah tried to rebel and tried to say, hey we're all holy, we all can be in the priesthood because they were gonna die, everybody was gonna die basically if they allowed this to take place. Everybody has their job to do and you should be just happy for the fact that God's allowing you to serve anyway. But not everybody can do the same thing and that's where that American mentality sometimes, it permeates in sports it permeates in the workplace, everybody's equal. Nobody can rise above anybody else, it's kind of communism has just basically crept into this country so bad and you see it in sports where in sports there's MVP, in big boy sports you have MVPs, you have the best players on the team and nobody's afraid to say that but if it's kids sports and you try to say there's an MVP on the team, oh that hurts their feelings and then everybody gets a trophy. When you say everybody gets a trophy that is a real thing. I put my kids through sports, they played sports and when I played, you were allowed to have MVPs, best offensive player, best defensive player, all that stuff, most improved. But now you can't do that or people will lose their minds and everybody thinks their kid should be the quarterback, everybody thinks their kid should be the running back and it's like as a coach nowadays half your problem is trying to deal with parents that think that their kid is the all star of the team. It's like hey, I really just want to say, hey your kid sucks, they're not good, that's why I don't put them there. Or your kid just is better at this position, that's the nice thing to say, whatever. But people just can't handle when someone else is elevated because they're doing better. But this really has nothing to do with it, this is just how God said to do it and so he has his reasons why he did. So look at verse four, it says, and they shall be joined unto thee and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation for all the service of the tabernacle and the stranger shall not come nigh unto you. So would the Gibeonites be the stranger? I mean they are the stranger when it comes to they're not of the children of Israel, they're not Levites, so they can't go into the temple. So I would guess to say, and I'm probably right about this that someone had to bring the wood up, someone had to bring the water up from the wash and it's probably the Nethinim's. You know and God allowed, I mean obviously Joshua made a mistake, God said kill all these people, but they were spared and because they were spared, they said well you know what, we should have killed you but instead we're gonna make you do this. And it's like I'm sure that their families, I mean because this is years and years later, I'm sure their families were thankful for the fact that they got to be spared. And they got to actually do service that meant something. They couldn't go in the temple, they couldn't be the Levites, but you know that's just the way it is. But they still got to serve God in some capacity didn't they? And it says, so the stranger shall not come nigh unto you and I behold I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel to you they are given as a gift for the Lord to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. So it is a gift when people work for the Lord in the congregation and you know this was a priestly tribe, they were designated, they were picked, they didn't have any kind of inheritance. Their inheritance was God, their inheritance was the tithes, their inheritance was the food that got brought forth and the sacrifices, their inheritance was to just work for God, that was their job. So in numbers three it breaks down each individual family's duties by the father, you know the division of Levi's sons. Go ahead and turn to numbers three, I'm not gonna read the whole chapter, I'm just gonna read the verses pertaining to each son. So Gershon, which is where Moses and Aaron came from, in numbers 325 it says in the charge of the sons of Gershon and the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle and the tent, the covering thereof and the hanging of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, the hangings of the court and the curtain for the door and for the court, which is by the tabernacle, by the altar, roundabout and the cords. I'm sorry, that's not, that's not the right, that's not the right, so that's not Moses' parents, I don't think, no. Kohath is the right one, I think, right? So anyway, so Gershon, that's what he was supposed to do, he had, who was in charge, anybody who was of that division, that's what their job was to do all that stuff. Now Kohath, in verse 31, it says, and their charge shall be the ark and the table and the candlestick, the altar, so yeah, that is the priestly one, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister and the hanging and all the service thereof. Then Merari, it says in verse 36, and under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari, shall be the boards of the tabernacle and the bars thereof and the pillars thereof and the sockets thereof and all the vessels thereof and all that serveth thereto and the pillars of the court roundabout and their sockets and their pins and their cords. So what's the application for us, though, in all this? You're like, well, what does this have to do with us? Well, today the work of the Lord can't get done without volunteers and laborers either. We need laborers to work for the church and obviously not everybody can get paid for that, but the Lord promises to take care of you and to pay you in this life and in the life to come for future rewards, but he also takes care of you in this life in more ways than you can probably actually really think about. If you sit down and think about it, you probably can really count your blessings. You know that song Count Your Blessings? Name them one by one. If you actually sit down and think about how blessed your life really is because you're saved and because you're in a great church, well, there'd probably be a lot of blessings that you just don't even realize or think about, and a lot of times, as sinners, we tend toward negativity sometimes, and sometimes we can be like, well, we start looking at the morals of everything and we start thinking about how tough life is and we can start being a complaining type of people, which God really gets irritated with, by the way, but look at Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, verse 23. The Old Testament had the priestly tribe, but the Levitical priesthood is done in the fact that Christ is the eternal priest and he's from the tribe of Judah. We are kings and priests under God, so really, essentially, we're all servants of God in that way. We're all supposed to work for God, right? So there's no tribe that you have to be a part of. If you're saved, you're a servant of Christ. That's what the Bible teaches in the New Testament. Look at Colossians 3, 23, it says, and whatsoever you do, whether that's cleaning toilets, unplugging toilets, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming floors, cleaning up somebody else's pew that left all their stuff in there, whether that's hauling water back and forth and putting it on, whether it's cleaning up after, whatever it is that you do here in this church, in this church, in this building, whatever labor you do here, whether it's soul winning on a hot day, soul winning on a cold day, soul winning on a rainy day, soul winning on a perfect day, which rarely happens, right? But sometimes it does. You know, whatever you're doing, what's it say? Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, that means with your heart, as to the Lord. As to the Lord and not unto men. And if more people had this attitude about working for God, you know, this world would be a better place, our churches would be better places if they thought, well you know, I'm gonna clean this toilet for Jesus. Instead of, well I can't believe that this kid peed on the floor, or you know, I can't believe that this, I can't believe that this family just keeps leaving their stuff in the, you know, and they know, the pastor said so many times from the pulpit, whatever, but if your attitude is this, is that I'm not doing this for them, I'm not doing this for myself and my own accolades, I'm doing this because I'm supposed to be doing it for Jesus. If that's your attitude as a laborer and as a servant, you'll never have a problem or a thought in that way. Because, it says you're supposed to not do it unto men, but as unto the Lord. So, you know, and here's the thing, when you do something, you should do it right. So, when you're cleaning, clean for the Lord, you know, I mean if God actually just, if Jesus showed up at our church, which obviously I know this is not gonna happen, but if he, you know, he does in spirit though, right? If Jesus showed up at our church and he said, will you go clean the bathroom? And it's like, one kid forgot to flush, the toilet's plugged up, it's just the worst mess it ever was. You know, would you be willing, after you were done cleaning it, to eat off the floor? Would you be willing, after you clean that bathroom, to eat off the toilet lid? Is that how clean it would be? I mean, I know that's a gross thing to think about, I know you guys are probably, you lost your appetite, you're welcome. But, but, when you use bleach and cleaning products that clean something so good, that, I mean, would you eat off a table after you bleached it? I mean, obviously, you know, I'm just trying to get you to think, you know, do we do things as unto the Lord? Because, you know, if I asked you to do something, or if Jesus asked you to do something, what would be the difference? Would you do it more, would you do it better for Jesus? Because if I'm asking you to do it, I'm asking you to do it for the same reason. For the same Jesus. It's, you know, I'm not saying I'm Jesus, I'm just saying that whatever you do for the Lord, if you have the attitude, whether it's at your work, you know, whether your boss is a jerk or not, whether, you know, you know, whether your workers suck or not, whether, whatever the situation is, whatever, however hard it is, if your attitude is always, I'm doing this for Jesus, then you should never really have a problem. Never really have a problem. Right? If you're doing it heartily as to the Lord, if you're raising your kids like you're raising them for Jesus, because doesn't the Bible teach that? The children are a heritage of the Lord? You know, I'm sick of all these kids, I don't know why I talked, got talked into having all these kids. That's a bad attitude. Jesus said, be fruitful and multiply. Oh, you know, this is just too much. I can't believe. Raise your kids for Jesus. That's what the Bible's talking about. Whatever you do, do it for him. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Who do we serve today? Who are we serving? Are we serving the Lord Christ? Isn't that what it says? So we're all like these Levites that Ezra's asking for, but are we working, are we doing for the Lord like we are supposed to? And look, this isn't supposed to be a guilt trip. I'm just saying, you know, this should help us to put things in perspective, whether it's our job, whether it's working at home, whether it's working at church, whatever we do, if our attitude and if our mindset is that we're working for the Lord, then that should change fundamentally how we look at things. Right? It says, but he that doeth wrong shall receive the wrong which he hath done. There's no respect of persons. I mean, when you do something for the Lord and it's half you know what, then you're the one that's gonna have to deal with those consequences, not me. You know? So, if you get fired, you get passed over, you get less opportunities, if you're looking, you know, look, you're gonna get, you know, things might happen like that. You're like, oh, I don't understand. I thought if I did all this that God was gonna bless me. He is gonna bless you. He is gonna bless you. But, maybe he's just not gonna bless you right at that time. Think about Jacob. I mean, he got tortured by his boss basically for years. Lost sleep. Every time an animal got killed or sick, he had to pay for it out of his own flock. And then in the end, what happened though? God blessed Jacob, and Laban was rebuked. So, I mean, just because things don't happen right when we think they should, like, my boss yelled at me yesterday, so now, God, you gotta get him tomorrow. It's like, no, that's not how it works, right? You know, we want things right away, but God doesn't really work in right aways. You know, and we should think about this, the grace that we want him to give us, you know, he gives to other people too. And as graceful as we are with some people, you know, how graceful he is with us, you know, we want him to be graceful with us, so we should want him to be graceful with other people. So, keep that attitude in mind too. But, if we're gonna get, you know, if you wanna be, if you wanna be in the ministry, if someday you want to be a pastor, you have to learn to do things now as if you're doing it for the future. You can't just say, well, when I'm the pastor, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna work really hard, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Look, you gotta do it now. You gotta show what you are now. God doesn't just, you know, wake, walk up to the person that's sleeping at three o'clock in the afternoon and go, I'm gonna make you a pastor. You don't see that in the Bible. You don't see that in the Bible. You see him picking people that are plowing with oxen, he's plowing with them. You see Gideon, he's threshing wheat. You know, he walks up on people that are already working. He's like, I want that guy. I don't care what skills he has. I want that guy because he's a hard worker. And so if we work on our regular jobs, you know, and you want to be a pastor someday, just work like you're, you know, in the future, God's gonna look at you right now and he's gonna say, if he's working like this now, he's gonna work like this in the future. Look at Ezra chapter eight, back in the text there. Verse 18 says, excuse me, it says, and by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding. That's a good thing. It's good to have people that you can count on in the ministry. And we have a lot of guys and ladies at this church that are able to be counted on to do a lot of things, a lot of labor around here. It says of the sons of Mali, of the sons of Levi, the sons of Israel, and Cherubiah, and the sons of the brethren, 18. And Heshabiah, and with him, Jeshuaiah, of the sons of Merari, his brethren, and their sons, 20. So, notice that it's like the sons of Mali, Merari, you know, these are the Levites, and then it says, also of the Nethanims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites. So, the Nethanims at one point were hewers of wood and drawers of water for the nation, but David appointed a certain, it seems like a certain amount of them, and a certain portion of them to be appointed to the service of the Levites. And do you think that their job was pretty? You know, look, service isn't always a pretty job. You know, the day before flushing toilets, they had these things called chamber pots. You know what those are? Yeah, you know what they are. And you had to go to the bathroom in those. And I'm sure that not everybody dumped their own. If you're a servant, that goes along with the job. So, I'm sure that, you know, some of this was ugly work. You know? I'm sure that it wasn't always pretty. But, you know, God looks down on the person that does even the ugliest work, and he's gonna, I think, you know, those people are just as blessed as anybody that's chopping up the sacrifices and, you know, doing the service of the Lord in the tabernacle. You know? That's what I believe. I believe that God is gonna, you know, people are gonna be amazed at who God picks to be, you know, with him, standing with him. And the people are gonna be like, oh, I thought that guy was somebody. And it's like, no, he really wasn't. He was doing all this stuff to be seen of man. You know? It's just like, not him. Yeah, him. He's the least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, what's he doing sweeping the floors? Well, you know, we don't wanna talk about that right now. But it says he had appointed the service of the Levites. 220 nethanems of all of them were expressed by name. So David did pick, like, an upper echelon of these nethanems. And do you think he picked the laziest ones, or do you think the laziest ones? You know, David had an eye for talent. You know, all those guys that came to him, the mighty men, they were just like regular dudes. All those that were in debt. All those that had problems. The next thing you know, they're like David's mighty men. You know? So, he turned chicken, you know what, into chicken salad. You know, he turned these guys that just weren't, you know, they're in debt. They're having problems, and then he turned them into the greatest fighting force of all time. So, David had an eye for people, and obviously these nethanems, they answer the call again. So, David's been long dead at this point. And so, Ezra's like, hey, go to Edo, get me some nethanems, get me some men of understanding, get me some Levites. And then, who can he count on? The nethanems that David had appointed are still around. And what do they do? They jump on the service as soon as he calls them. So, it is a great blessing to have a multitude of laborers to do the physical and spiritual work. Because we get to do both here. And you know what, we're blessed for both. And as long as we have the perspective that we're working for the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're never gonna get bitter. We're never gonna get upset. And, you know, every time, you know, you're cleaning the toilet, or you're doing, I keep saying the toilet, but, because that's like the grossest thing I could think of that you'd have to do. But, or cleaning up some kid's puke, or just whatever. You know, whatever the hardest job that you hate the most that you could think of, you know, when you do that job, and you're saying, and you're just saying, I'm doing this for Jesus. And if that's your attitude, then you're not gonna have a problem. And you're gonna have the right frame of mind when you're doing the service. Any, any service you're doing in life. Number three tonight, fasting and prayer for protection. Look at verse 21 in our text. It says, 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. Now that term there when it says afflict ourselves before our God, it's talking about fasting. And, so like, in, when it talks about the bread of affliction, it's talking, you know, in the feast of the Lord it talks about a bread, the bread of affliction. That bread of affliction is the unleavened bread. But, when you afflict yourself, you're, it's talking about the fact that you're withholding from yourself something. Now, some people, you know, obviously Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus are the only ones recorded in the Bible for the 40 day fast. And there are people that have done it, and people that have tried to do it, and there's people that have gone insane from doing it. So I wouldn't necessarily recommend the 40 day fast. You know, obviously, it was a miracle that Moses didn't drink water or eat any food for 40 days. He was up on the mountain, he was with God, you know, God sustained him. God sustained Elijah. And the Lord Jesus Christ is God. And even with the temptation of him being able to make his own bread out of a stone, which he probably could have done, very easily, he didn't do it. But any one of us, if we had the power and we'd been starving for 40 days, we'd probably go, Stone! Turn to bread right now! And it would happen, right? So, most of the time, and, really I was kind of thinking about this, like, where in the Bible does it command us to fast? And I can only find one place in the Bible, and maybe I'm wrong about this, where it actually does say you have to fast. This is in the Old Testament, and we don't have to fast. Now, the Bible says, you know, it talks about how, in the New Testament, it says, why does John and his disciples fast, and your disciples fast not? And he said, while the bridegroom is with us, you know, they're not going to fast, but when he's gone, they will fast. But he didn't, you know, there's no place in the New Testament that demands you to fast, but fasting is a tool that is to be used for us, for specific things, and it's, you know, because obviously prayer, we pray to God on a normal basis, but if you want special actions, special things to happen in certain situations, then fasting is something that you should do. Like casting out some kind of a devil, there's a certain devil that the disciples could not cast out, remember that story? And he says, how be it, this kind cometh not but by prayer and fasting. He said there's a specific type of devil that only can be cast out if you're praying and fasting, alright? So, now, here, Ezra is seeking, what, a right way for us, you know, and most fast in the Bible, or a 24 hour fast, or like a whole day fast, or something like that. So, it says in verse 22, I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way. So, remember, they have this treasure hoard from last chapter that they're gonna be bringing, this big offering that's gonna be brought, remember, it's just, you know, all these multiple talents of treasure from the king, from all the princes, and all this stuff that he's giving them, and they're taking this caravan with them, this is what this chapter's about, and they're taking all this stuff to Jerusalem, and it's a long journey, and all the thieves in the world are probably like planning this, we're taking all this for ourselves type of thing, right? But, so he says, I'm ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king saying, the hand of our god is upon all them for good that seek him, but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So, he's kind of regretting that he said that to him because he's also thinking, well, it'd be kind of stupid for us to go out in the wilderness and not have anybody to protect us. But then he said, well, God will protect, you know, it's like basically saying we're not afraid because God will protect us, but then he's like, hey, can you give us a band of soldiers to help about this? So, he calls this fast. So, it can kind of seem contradictory to say stuff like that, but the Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of the battle, but safety is of the Lord, so it's not wrong to be prepared. Like, there's times when God says, I'm going to kill all those people for you. All you have to do is just stand here in a ray and I'm going to fight for you, right? There's battles in the Bible where he just does it all. He kills all the Assyrians himself, right? Remember, the lepers go out and they're like, hey, all these people are dead. Like, what's happening? And God killed them all. So, there's times in the Bible when that happened, but God still required them to be in a ray. Why? They were required to have their swords and their spears and all their battlement on them because he just wants them to show themselves ready, not hiding in some kind of a closet someplace, right? He just wants that, you know, obviously, we should be prepared against something, but we should also rely on the Lord for our safety. So, don't be an idiot when you have multitudes of treasure with you and just be like, hey, we got all these women and children and we're just kind of, you know, going down the desert and like, Alibaba and the 40 thieves are coming to steal all your treasure, right? Because he said, against, let's see, against the enemy in the way. So, the enemy's gonna come and try to steal this treasure. So, and you think about the times in the Bible like Hezekiah foolishly showing the Babylonians all the treasure and Isaiah's like, what did you show them? He's like, I showed them all the treasure. I showed them everything. It's like, when you meet somebody for the first time, do you come in and show, look at all my guns. Look at, here's where I keep all my money. You know, here's my most valuable treasures. Like, you know, that's just foolish. And, you know, the Bible commands us to put on our armor. To put on the whole armor of God. So that what? We're prepared and that we might stand in that evil day, right? So, we're commanded every day to have that armor of God on us. We should always be ready for a battle, but obviously we count on the Lord for our protection. So, he's kinda like this, this guy's probably thinking like, yeah, you're talking all tough to my soldiers? You know, so like, he kinda feels weird about it. That's kinda what I'm getting out of the passage there. But it says, so he fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us. So, now there's this popular diet that's going around, it's called intermittent fasting. And a lot of people are doing it, and I'm not against it, I'm not saying it's wrong or anything like that. And apparently it works really well and people are and I think that sometimes people get confused and they think like, well, my intermittent fasting counts as my spiritual fasting. And it doesn't, okay? It doesn't count, you don't get a double dip on the spiritual and the intermittent fasting, okay? I know that people like that, like, well, God's hearing my prayers extra and I'm losing weight! You know, it's just like, I don't think it works like that, okay? You know, just let it be known also that the Bible calls this afflicting your soul. So when you're doing intermittent fasting, it is afflicting your soul. It's like, you know, you're like, well, it's just really easy, it's like, okay, yeah, starving yourself for hours is easy. It is easy for some people, but it's not as easy for other people. And, it's not as easy for health reasons as you're fasting for spiritual reasons. And the Bible talks about not doing it to be seen of men. I've told this story before how this kid from youth group one time, I was, I think I just saw him at church and he was like, he had this, like, look like this on his face, he was pouting. I was like, what's wrong? Fasting. It's like, I did nicely tell him about it, but it's just like, but that's, people just automatically do that kind of stuff. But you lose your reward, so it's like you just put yourself through all that misery so that you could just lose every reward that you just got. Fasting's only spiritual when you're doing it for a spiritual reason not to be seen of men. You know, Jesus actually says don't disfigure your faces like the hypocrites do. Actually, I do have time to go here. Let's go to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58 says in verse 3, and God kind of explains to us what fasting's for in this chapter. It's kind of a good chapter to kind of understand what fasting is, but while you're turning there, I'm gonna read a couple verses in Leviticus chapter 23 because it talks about Leviticus because I did tell you there's a place where it's commanded in the Bible. I didn't want to show you that. So, Leviticus 23 and 27. I'm gonna try to hurry and get this done really quickly though. So, keep your finger in Isaiah 58 verse 3 and in Ezra chapter 8 and Leviticus 23 verse 27. It says, also on the 10th day of the 7th month there shall be no work in that same day for it is the day of atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. And whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. Whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest and ye shall afflict your souls in the 9th day of the month at even from even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath. So, that specific Sabbath is from even unto even it's the 9th to the 10th and obviously the blowing of the trumpets also is before that on I can't remember and then this is the day of atonement. So, but, when it says to afflict your soul that is what it's talking about. That's the only place I can see where it's actually commanded to do, but it's still a good idea when you're seeking spiritual purposes. Now, go ahead go to Isaiah 58 verse 3. So, and again I'm not just trying to dissuade you from fasting. I just am saying that there's no commandment to do it. So, Isaiah 58 verse 3 says wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seeest not wherefore have we afflicted our soul see how it's connecting the fasting to afflicting your soul you fast for strife and debate and to smite with your fist of wickedness you shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. So, he's saying that some people fast for the wrong reasons, right? For debate for to smite of wickedness you know whatever spread sackcloth and ashes under him wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness so that's one purpose to undo heavy burdens oppression from demons you know oppression from sin the purpose is to afflict your soul to pray to the Lord and hopefully undo some of these heavy burdens that you have or heavy burdens that other people have and it's something you know obviously that's why Jesus said this kind goeth out not but by prayer and fasting because it's talking about loosing the bread it says is it not to deal the bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seeest the naked and thou cover him thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine and if thou take away from the midst of the yoke and putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the new day and the Lord shall guide thee the fasting is for spiritual reasons to loose the bands of oppression for God to hear you because your soul is afflicted because you're denying yourself that basic nutrition that you need now to go on these month long or 40 day long fast you know I mean a 24 hour fast is afflicting your soul I mean that's what it says in that so you know and we should do these things in secret don't have a sad face don't disfigure your face when you're doing it fast by all means hey if there's somebody that you want to get healed if there's somebody that you know that you want to get saved or whatever you have some high purpose and then the last portion here is in verse 24 the priests are commissioned to guard the offerings then I separated the 12 of the chief of the priests Sheberiah Heshebaiah and the 10 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 you know that's a monetary value and the vessels of fine copper as precious as gold that must be some pretty refined copper and he's basically he's saying he makes this division of 12 to guard that the weight and all those things that they brought with them and then they all weigh it after they've been there for four days and everything matches up to count everything and to weigh everything and everything was brought into the house of the Lord like it was supposed to be and I would just say this in closing that you know bringing the tithes and offering in is still biblical today and it's still important as it was back then to count and account for what comes in and what goes out by number and then you have the let's see the king's commission you know all the stuff is counted everything was given that was supposed to be given and there was the great sacrifice that kind of happened afterwards so that is the close of chapter number eight and let's close on a word of prayer heavenly father we thank you Lord so much for anything that we do I pray that we just have the right mindset and just realize that we are serving the Lord Jesus Christ and not for any other reason not to be seen of men not for our own purposes but Lord if we just do everything for the right reasons then we will get all those accolades from you and all the rewards from you and Lord that we would feel to serve you in whatever capacity we are able to do pray these things in Jesus precious name amen amen let's turn to our last song this evening page 301 in your green hymn books sweet hour of prayer page 301 sweet hour of prayer page 301 sweet hour of prayer page 301 sing it out loud with me on the first sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne make all my wants and wishes known in seasons we will be one and we will be one and we will be one sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour my wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless since he bids me seek His face believe His word and trust Now cast on him a every care and way for thee, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation share till from Mount Pisgah's law be high, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. And great singing this evening, and we'd love to see you back here Sunday morning. Brother Bill, you want to add us with a word of prayer this evening? Thank you. Thank you.