0:13 I was so encouraged this morning and I think the first day I came to this church and number of years back until now, the one thing that I treasure in CFC is the the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, maybe some of you children, boys and girls, 0:37 you may not understand what I'm saying but how you can smell a good flower, one day you'll be able to smell God's presence in our midst. One day God can touch your spirit and you can taste like honey and you can say, come and taste our Lord is sweet like honey. 0:58 So his mercies are new every morning, his loving kindness is everlasting and all the songs that we sang about our Lord, God of heaven and earth, mighty king, he's our heavenly father. We can turn a verse in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 9. I don't know when 1:19 we think about ourselves, what comes into our mind or when we get up in the morning, what are the thoughts coming into our mind, what are the voices that we hear in our ears or in our spirit and more and more I want to learn to listen what God speaks about me, not what my mind says, 1:45 not what devil try to murmur or put into our minds. Here it says, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 2:10 We are God's precious possession on this earth or you know we keep the most precious things inside the locker and like God passionately looks after his church, loves his church and that's the reason God blesses with his presence and I also want to 2:32 learn to look at the church in the way God looks. Now we, the way God looks at the churches, we know in the bible it says God has given honor to the hidden members of the body. This is God's heart. God has given honor for the hidden members in the church. We don't know who is that, 2:56 maybe some of you sitting here who has the purest heart, who has the greatest deepest longing in your heart is to see the Lord's name to be honored, the Lord's name to be glorified and there was says about the man you can turn to Luke chapter 3:15 2. Luke chapter 2 verse 25 says there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 3:36 Says he was righteous and devout and he was longing to see God's glory in Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. We don't know much about him, not about his preaching or not about his gifts or talents but he was looking forward to see God's 3:56 glory in Israel. So I believe many of us, our brothers and sisters, we have a spirit. Lord we want to see your name honored, we want to see your name glorified. We are not like that when we come but God is able to make us like that and that was just 4:13 an introduction. Something which is in my heart to share today is from book of Ezra. You can probably turn to beginning of that book, book of Ezra. Last week brother Vincent was sharing about God's people's movement. One is from Jerusalem, 4:39 towards Jerusalem from Babylon and the other from Egypt to Jerusalem and he, I have not seen that before and that kind of put a desire in my heart to go and read Ezra after I heard brother Vincent. He was mentioning God chose them and God called them and when they were in Egypt, 5:01 God promised them the land of milk and honey and they were going for that to enjoy the land but when God's people and they've experienced so many miracles but when God moved his people from Babylon to Jerusalem there was not a single miracle and God was, not seems to give too much 5:30 of material blessing and but they faithfully went and fulfilled God's promises in their lives. It's a great encouragement for me. I look back on my life, initial days of my salvation. I here and there I experienced some miracles in my life, immediate answers to the prayers 5:50 but over a number of years now I've not seen too much miracles are happening in my life. I pray sometimes but nothing seems to happen and I even went and asked one brother, am I backsliding and that brother encouraged, no it is as you go matured, God expect you to trust 6:09 him when you don't see any sign and that's what encouraged me when I heard brother Vincent. So here it's a small book, book of Ezra and name of, the meaning of the name of Ezra is help. The same name which is given to the Holy Spirit, the helper, the comforter. So his name was Ezra 6:35 but a few things in a very high level I would like to share from that book which will, which was encouraged and challenged me. I hope it will encourage you. So this is God's people was taken captive in Babylon and when the time, the appointed time 6:54 was over God, God touched the spirit of a king and he started that movement and if you could first turn to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 44. So this is written almost 100 years before the book of 7:19 Ezra was written. That means more than a century or 140 years ago book of Isaiah was written and there it mentioned about this man Cyrus who was the king, he was a king of, who was mighty king. Let me read this verse from Isaiah chapter 40 verse, 44 verse 28. He, he is, it says, 7:48 I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and he will perform my desire and 45 verse 1 it says, thus says the Lord to Cyrus his anointed whom I have taken by the right hand. I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. 8:18 I will scatter the doves of bronze. I will cut through the bars of iron and I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of sacred places so that you may know it is I the Lord of Israel who calls you by your name. God knows our name. 8:42 God knows why God has called each one of us and he leads us. He don't just call us and ask us to go. He goes before us. It says he will shatter the doors of bronze and he will cut through the iron bars and he will hold us 9:02 by his right hand. If God has called us for a plan and purpose, he will fulfill it and he will do the tough job. When we take our children, you know, small children, we don't give them a heavy bag. We carry the heavy bag and sometimes we carry them. If they mature to walk alone, 9:23 we probably will hold their hand and lead them. So the Lord knows how mature we are, how much faith we have and God will lead according to our maturity and he will come to our level. We don't have to try to reach to his level. He will come to our level and 9:41 walk with us and see this man Cyrus. I looked at the way the Lord dealt with him. I felt so blessed how God can use a heathen king and it's quite possible that he had known these verses. Probably Daniel would have told him, you know, 10:05 your name is written in our book. I am a Jew. There is a prophets have written books and your name is written. Probably that would have encouraged him and let's turn to that word in the beginning of the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 it says, The Lord stood up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia. 10:36 We didn't just read that God stood up the Cyrus, stood up Cyrus king of Persia but it says he stood up the spirit of the Cyrus king of Persia and again in verse 5 it says, there were other people, people of Israelites who were living in 11:01 Babylon and there some people whose spirit God has stood up to go and rebuild the house of the Lord. I thought like this, the spirit is the deepest part of man and many things that we seek to do and say and speak. Probably we can try up to stir up your emotions maximum or stir up your feelings 11:30 but God can stir up the spirits or God can revive your spirit and there'll be long lasting results in our lives and like we read in the Acts of the Apostle, God could open the heart of Lydia. There is no heart is too hard for God to open. There is no heart is too hard and 11:54 that God cannot open it. Any heart, any heart which listens to the voice of God can be opened by God if we yield our will, yield our spirit to him and here it says, that says in verse 2, the Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of 12:13 the earth and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah. A very humble king, though he was a king, he was a mighty king of one of the biggest superpower that is, he knew it is God who has given the kingdoms. Not like Nebuchadnezzar who said, 12:36 see the kingdom which I have, you know, I have built with my own power but he could see God's glory. He could recognize God's plan and purpose for our, his life. May none of us feel that our, we are like a self-made man. If we are self-made man, it must 13:00 be destroyed and so that God's glory can be upon us. So here we see God stood up the hearts of the king, stood up the hearts of people and they put a burden in their heart to build the temple and just a word of warning, every stirring up of the heart may not be necessary from the Lord all the time. 13:24 We can get a lot of idea, we see even King David, we read about him, the Satan, the devil stood up his heart to take the number of people, take the count of the people. So it is wise for us when we are young, when we get ideas and thoughts, we take godly counsel, 13:44 we wait on the Lord, we don't jump and go and do whatever we feels like doing. I remember a number of years back, I felt, I thought it was a burden, I felt I should go to such and such a place and leave there and I thought I will make a sacrifice and go and leave there. 14:03 So I went to CFC office and met brother John. So I spent some time with him. I realized it was foolishness that was in my heart. So it is wise to take counsel when it is available. God may not always speak to us directly because God is not going to make any of us a mighty man standing alone. God want us 14:25 to make dependent on others, dependent on the Holy Spirit, just like the members in a body. So here we read God's treat of the people's heart and then they moved, they've taken and all the offerings and gold, whatever they had and it costed 14:47 something. They settled in the land of Babylon and they were established, their families were living there. It was not like a slavery in Egypt. If they had to sell all that and then go, it would cost them something but they did that. 15:08 But it was not like that when the people of Israel moved from Egypt to Jerusalem. There was a word in Exodus that says, they stripped Egyptians of their wealth. That means they literally plundered Egyptians of their wealth when they left Egypt. But here they 15:28 had to empty themselves. Probably some of them had to sell their land and property and then move to this place and you know when you sell something in an urgency, you may not get the price. But those who decided I'm going to go, they took that risk. They would 15:46 rather obey God and they moved there. It's wonderful and then in chapter 3, chapter 3 when they came and they built an altar, you can see in the beginning of that chapter, they built and first thing they did was to build an altar and they made offering. 16:04 They made the offering. It says there was a burned offering and then there was a continual burned offering. So it began well as like in every moment and they built the foundation. They sang praise and they were thanking God and giving glory to Him and something happened 16:25 in Ezra chapter 4. We see some people came, it was their enemies. Ezra chapter 4 verse 1 to 5, you can read that. There were some people they said, let us build with you for we like you, 16:46 we would like to seek your God and have been sacrificing to your God. They knew different things, building, seeking God, sacrificing. They knew the language but Jeroboam and Joshua, they had the discernment. They said there is nothing in common with us. 17:10 It's not that we want to judge those who come to the church in different ways but we must judge our own hearts that we see if we are more happy that we have learned the language here rather than getting to know the Lord, we are in danger. And 17:30 then in chapter 4 verse 4, this enemies, it says they tried to discourage the people who are building. People of the land, they discouraged and frightened those who are trying to build. We see two giants there, discouragement and fear. I thought of brother Ian's words, 17:50 he often reminds us, the fear is from the pit of hell. We must never take a decision by fear and brother Zach often reminds us there are two roads which is a no entry for us Christians. One is the road of discouragement and the road of self-condemnation. So anyway here 18:12 we read but the enemies, they went to the next level. They got a stay order. They got influenced and got a stay order and the work of the temple was stopped. They could build only the foundation and the work was stopped. So if you, 18:34 you know God was using this man Zerubbabel and Joshua to lead this work and we don't know how many years, maybe number of years around 10 years or the work was stopped. So if you would meet Zerubbabel that time, what do you think his face would tell you? I believe 18:52 he would have discouraged probably. He could say, he would say probably brother I left everything. I left everything and came, we did sacrifices but when we came, started building, God didn't support us. We thought God would do some miracle and destroy our enemies but now they are overpowering us and 19:16 there we read God sent two of us faithful servants Haggai and Sakaraya to encourage and through the encouraging words of Haggai and Sakaraya, he gets the courage, they get the faith. Maybe we can turn to this, you know Haggai about the promise which he gave. Chapter 2, 19:42 it says so the word of the Lord came by Haggai and they spoke to Zerubbabel, Joshua and the remnant. Take courage, take courage, take courage for I am with you and he calls by the name Haggai chapter 2 verse 23 it says, I will take you Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel my servant declares the Lord. 20:12 He knows your name, he knows your father's name, he knows where you come from and says, he says my servant declares the Lord I will make you a signet ring for I have chosen you. Yes God has chosen us dear brothers and sisters whatever may be the little responsibility God has given to us maybe 20:36 to pray for others or to help in Sunday school so many things which we seek to do it is we have to believe it is God who called us by his grace his mercy and he will equip us he will strengthen us and as we there may come situations in our life we may see things dark we don't we may not see any 20:55 any evidence of fruit in our lives of ministry but God will take us through God will carry us through and then we see the result of encouragement so this they started building the temple again and now see the testimony of this man Zerubbabel Ezra chapter 5 verse 11 Ezra chapter 5 verse 11 they 21:24 asked about them what are they doing or who gave you this authority he said we are the servants of the God we are servants of the God of heaven and earth we are building the temple that was built many years ago which a great king of Israel built and finalized suddenly their eyes are open 21:44 to see it is we're not just here to do our own things it is the God who sent us God who sent us and commissioned for this task which you've given to us and that changes a lot of things brothers and sisters when we think it says Abraham was going to a place and he didn't know who was 22:07 where he was going but he knew who was going with him so we must remember it is the Lord who sent us commissioned us and sent us with this authority to build and to work with him and and we see the temple is completed and it took almost 20 years we read that when it comes to the next chapter 22:28 chapters were six chapter six and wonderful we sometimes God's work in our own life may not go fast in the way which we expect we hear a message we hear the testimonies of brother sack and brother Ian or sister some of godly sisters we feel we want to be like them but 22:57 we hit the reality we are so behind but we just need to make sure we are standing in the same direction brothers and sisters we just need to surrender and trust the Lord the Lord who take took them by the hand the Lord will also take them no matter how far you are standing as long 23:14 as you are in the same direction as long as your heart is set before the Lord he will fulfill his promise and it doesn't matter it takes 10 year or 20 years the matter the things that matter is the Lord should complete his work in our lives and and there in when we come to a stretch 23:34 up in nine something interesting which we can see this is the second movement we read in Ezra chapter eight and nine so the temple was built and it and the second batch under the leadership of Ezra they start after almost 80 years from the first movement they took 20 years to build the 23:54 temple and then another 60 years passed by that's the time then Ezra is preparing but it was God who's preparing Ezra for a need he saw the people of Israel yes the the building of the temple was completed and and they started mingling with the people they're mingling in the sense they started 24:16 intermarrying we read I'll just go through that very fast you can read that there's only eight chapters in that book so they even the priests we read there in the priest they were kind of and the Levites they intermarried something which God warned them very strongly that you shouldn't 24:35 you shouldn't do you shouldn't do when you when you are in this promised land that God has given them the warning in Exodus you can read in Exodus 34 you don't need to turn there and then when Ezra came and he got this news it's really blessed or really challenged the way he responded to this 25:00 that is in Ezra chapter 9 verse 3 when he came maybe he came with much passion and desire to see God's temple in his glory he he came with much longing but things didn't go in a way which he expected it says when I heard about the matter the matter where he recognized this people are 25:20 mingled with the people of the land they were giving their daughters to the people who lived there he said I tore my garments and my robe and pulled some of the hair from my head and beard and sat down a pile I never remember reading anything like that in the Bible he said he tore my robe and 25:46 pulled some of the hair he had such deep burden and sorrow when he saw God's people in God's people in that condition so maybe you could think Ezra is too hard why it's quite possible that there was no good boys and girls or good godly children in among them so that they could marry 26:13 somebody outside we can think that but no I felt Lord what's the difference what's the difference how he could see things differently there were also religious leaders there were priest Levites and they couldn't see the things because we don't see them reading we don't see we don't read them 26:33 doing this the way Ezra responded to it you know what I felt the people who the Levites and priests they knew the commandments of God they knew God has given a commandment God has given you should not intermingle with the people but Ezra knew God he also knew God he knew God's heart he know how 26:53 God could see these these things the brothers and sisters you know one of the greatest danger I believe that us including me is that we can learn doctrine free of cost we can understand we can judge we can discern but if you don't know God it won't help us one bit and it won't 27:15 break our heart but when we have the heart of God the things will you know a lot of questions in our heart can I do this can I do that and when we know the Lord you will get the answer by yourself you know God has given his commandment in the new covenant you should not unequally with 27:34 the unbelievers so I don't know brothers young people how many of you feel God is too strict on this matter but as we see God's heart we we take this thing seriously and even children boys and girls you're fortunate if you are in the church to hear this truth and even now as you hear this you 27:57 can say in your heart Lord this matter I want to commit into your hand no matter I am tempted when I see a beautiful face I don't want to forget the crucified face I don't want you forget your face so take a decision in your heart and ask the Lord to seal it brothers and sisters so this man was 28:20 broken and you continue to read in that chapter I mean we see his heart is broken he's not going in condemning and he's not going ahead doing in a judging spirit and he's also not going into depression when seeing the need you know so many things can happen to us when we see a need a lack 28:44 in our midst it can either we can be like the pharisees we stand aloof and judge or we can be burdened and we can it can lead us to depression that's not what the God did through Ezra and he cried out and he he stood in the gap there is a beautiful promise brothers and sisters in in 29:06 Psalm 126 verse 5 we can turn to that word Psalm 126 verse 5 it says those who sow in tears will weep with joy not just joy weep with shouts of joy those who sow in tears will weep with shouts of joy so brother sister are you praying for something are you saying praying for something 29:31 for different things in the church with much burden and and desire to see God's name you will see God's name glorified you will see God's name glorified in your lives this book of Ezra start with a list of people he moved they moved from uh Babylon to Jerusalem and and in the last 29:53 chapter of this book there is an again a list people responded to God for his dealing through this man Ezra they were willing to pay such price they were even willing to give up their families and they're willing to set right the things which they were convicted and they didn't bother how 30:14 much it costed all through God's promise God fulfilling God's promise through God's faithful servants so we can find much encouragement from this book so we I pray that brothers and sisters all of you sincerely love the Lord and find encouragement from this man and from 30:34 these men which we mentioned may God bless us and challenges yeah brothers and sisters it's good for us to really think about what we heard and this journey and ask ourselves if we are also on this journey from Babylon a place of seeking greatness for ourselves to Jerusalem a place of sacrifice 31:04 of worship where the Lord is holy and exalted as brother Danish was sharing I was thinking of this verse yeah we we can look at look at Ezra um let's let's start with that the book of Ezra 31:29 and in several places in the book of Ezra it says the good hand of the Lord was upon him it sort of gives you an explanation for why Ezra was able to do what he did says for the good hand of the Lord was was on him and this is in this is in more than one verse that that it says this 728 thus I 32:04 was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord upon me yeah the good hand of the Lord was on me it's it's there in more than one place and uh see I was just thinking of what Ezra means as brother Danish was sharing how God knows our name he see it's not uh it's not a complicated thing that 32:28 God is able to give us appropriate names uh if we look at the Bible there's so many characters Ezra is just one example so Ezra's name means help or helper so when we say help or helper we think of the Holy Spirit right it's we know that we when when we have the benefit of the new covenant we 32:47 think of the Holy Spirit and uh and then we think of Nehemiah's name Nehemiah's name is comforter or builder once again we think of the Holy Spirit and Ezra and Nehemiah work together and um how did God choose such a good name for Ezra no his parents could have named him anything but God knew 33:14 the story of his life and he put it in his parents heart to give him an appropriate name and you look at so many names in the Bible it's remarkable it's like oh how did that happen how did he get such a perfect name Abraham Noah uh many many many many names you know and uh so Ezra is help or helper we 33:39 see a picture of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is the one who wants to take us out of Babylon and lead us to Jerusalem lead us to a place of true worship and who wants to build the church and uh he recognized Ezra recognized that the good hand of God was on him and because of that he was able 34:02 to take this journey he was able to get favor from the king and I was just thinking of that verse that we know or we should know where it says James chapter 5 James chapter 4 verse 10 humble yourself in the presence of the Lord he will exalt you and in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 6 it says humble 34:32 yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time so just recognizing that it's the mighty hand of God that is humbling me that is working in the circumstances of my life and the reason he's humbling me is because he wants to exalt me he wants to exalt me over 34:53 all these seeming obstacles and trials and that he's able to fulfill his plan and purpose in its fullness and to trust in the Lord and I and I see in James he's speaking that verse to believers and he says if we read the context read before that he says verse 5 James chapter 4 verse 5 it says 35:21 he jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us he jealously desires the spirit that he has made to dwell in us the Holy Spirit is jealous for me he wants me to respond to his love to his working his mighty working and because of that I must humble myself under the mighty hand 35:45 of God and before that the verse before that has a warning it says you adulteresses you adulteresses what happens if I don't respond to the love of God that's calling me that's drawing me I can be an adulteress who has a friendship with this world which is a hostility towards God and this 36:12 journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is where the Lord wants us to call wants to draw us out of our love for this world and the good things of this world and a church that is not separated from the world that's seeking for political power and money and where music is made much of and God 36:33 is saying I'm jealous for you and humble yourself under mighty mighty hand and Ezra recognized that this was the good hand of the Lord that was on his life not just not just in the you know the good things that happen in everything that happens when there is a pause when it seems like 36:52 we're not able to wake make progress to humble ourselves in law say Lord it's not in my control means it is in your perfect control and you know when whether Danish was saying like no we didn't see the same sort of miracles that we saw when people came out of Egypt right but clearly like 37:14 supernatural you can't nobody can argue with the fact that this was a miracle right but how was Cyrus named you know Cyrus so many years before and how did the Lord make it happen that you know somebody would bring his attention to that prophecy and that he would make a proclamation 37:33 like this there's so many miracles we see in our lives if we acknowledge it if we just open our eyes to acknowledge that the good hand of the Lord is on our lives we recognize hey that's a miracle that's a miracle I don't have to prove to the world I don't have to demonstrate to them and show 37:50 them but God is working miracles in my life for my encouragement and his good hand is on me and his spirit is jealous for me and he's saying come up come out of Babylon come to that place of worship and you know if it means personal sacrifice we know that there is there's the treasures 38:14 the treasures that are in Jerusalem for us that God has kept those for us and to have a longing for that and a burden for that I was thinking of of what Danish shared about mourning that the mourning that Ezra had um yeah once again Jesus said blessed are those who mourn 38:36 for they will be comforted blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted I think once again of the story you know we heard and I talked about where brother Ian and brother Zach were sharing at a youth camp and it wasn't their sin it was not Ezra's sin that caused him 38:53 mourning but they saw that they didn't have power and the young people were going astray that they were trying to reach and there was a mourning and the Lord met with them and comforted them brothers and sisters if this is a word for myself but if more of us can join in this journey saying Lord 39:14 I don't want to be a special person but I want to be someone who mourns over the backslidden condition of the church starting with me starting with judging myself say Lord work in me and build your church yeah and I was also thinking about Ezra and Nehemiah if we read you know in Ezra 39:37 and Nehemiah the both books were originally one book and you know then somebody separated them these are so totally different people Nehemiah was you know an official administrator very capable sort of man along those lines Ezra was a priest scholar totally different people but 39:59 both of them had a burden and the Lord joined them together he said go ahead and you know my hand will be on you to build the church what what a wonderful glorious thing it is and yeah there's a verse in Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 18 this is the verse I remember brother Zach points to 40:27 when he talks about the work that Ezra and what Nehemiah was doing Nehemiah was building the walls of Jerusalem and this verse says you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise the walls are of salvation and the gates are gates of praise yeah the Lord wants to build 40:52 that separation between the church and the world and we are saved and we come within those walls and we don't compromise and we don't have this mixture that that brother Danish was talking about in the book of Ezra where uh no it doesn't make a difference who you marry and and definitely if you 41:14 go that way it will not make a difference how you live no the Lord has called us to be holy to be separate unto him he's jealous for me and he wants to make sure those walls of salvation are built and if you don't have walls of salvation your gates of praise are meaningless what is the 41:35 point of having gates if you don't have walls yeah you should have walls and gates gates of praise are so that people can come in I will enter your gates with thanksgiving in my heart I will enter your courts with praise if we just had walls of salvation we didn't have praise in 41:51 this church nobody would feel like coming here we want gates of praise I was just thinking of Ezra and you know he's he's been a help to me uh but yeah we must have praise but if we don't have salvation first brothers and sisters if you're not seeking salvation if you're not wanting to build 42:10 the walls of salvation then there's no meaning in us praising but if we know that the Lord has saved us and he separated us from this world then we must praise God and give glory to him and let people know that this is who our God is and invite them to come into this church those are the gates 42:29 of praise yeah it's a wonderful thing that the Lord is doing I want to continue to meditate on this and trust him that he'll continue to lead us this way and to come to that place where we can be the bride of Christ separated unto him making his heart glad may God help us before we pray 42:51 just briefly like to mention what's in my heart let's read a verse in Matthew chapter 16 Jesus said in Matthew 16 verse 18 he said I will build my church and gates of Hades shall not overpower 43:18 it and then he comes to verse 21 he says for that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem so we are hearing much about Jerusalem but here what Jesus said was and suffer 43:38 many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised up on the third day the the journey what we are hearing in Ezra's time about about 450 for 60 years before 44:00 uh there was a reverence oh let's go to Jerusalem when Nehemiah heard that as the walls are broken you know he mourned see there was a mourning when they heard about Jerusalem because that's a place of sacrifice they always remember that's a place God dwells and sacrifice no self-seeking that kind 44:26 of a thing whenever all this Ezra Nehemiah who ever heard even Jeremiah was a weeping prophet spoke much about Jerusalem but here Jesus it's about 450 years later there was a different scenario where Jesus says oh in Jerusalem itself the Babylon has come but I'll go to Jerusalem 44:57 and suffer many things from the elders chief priests and scribes and be killed a little later I think Matthew 23 verse 37 he called out and said um verse 36 truly I say to you all these things shall come upon this generation oh Jerusalem oh Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those 45:25 who are sent to her how often I wanted to gather your children see there is something something has come into Jerusalem the there was a lot of sacrifice Jerusalem means inside the temple a lot of sacrifice shedding of the blood and mourning repentance but outside a lot of this Babylon 45:49 exchange of money profit seeking see Jerusalem is a place supposed to be see it's a spirit so we have heard many times where I'm saying Babylon is a spirit in this church people can have the spirit of Babylon but self-seeking there is no love for the Lord and sacrifice but what 46:14 I get out of this what I get oh brother pray for me brother pray for me I want this this this this this this and go to God and say oh Lord I want this I want this this problem this problem this problem what God is expecting God expects us to be in Jerusalem where we're so taken up with the 46:35 Lord the sacrifice which already done see even we think about family family of God or take your own family I was sharing yesterday somewhere see if parents what do they expect the parents just keep sacrificing without expecting anything you all been parents parents sucker keep sacrificing for 47:00 their children for 20 30 years without expecting anything that is Jerusalem that's home because it's a responsibility so that's how the home is that's what God God wants to be a father to us he wants to sacrifice he has done he has done but we don't have eyes to see but still we come people 47:23 came to Jerusalem and to make profit Jesus was so kind of disturbed by that I would like to read was 22 Matthew 16 22 Peter took Jesus aside he didn't like that don't tell too bad about Jerusalem maybe 47:49 he thought like that or don't tell about getting getting killed and things like that he rebuked him Peter rebukes Jesus and saying God forbid us this shall never happen to you but Jesus he knew what was happening in Jerusalem no Jerusalem is not all that we thought the spirit of sacrifice love and 48:19 commitment responsibility not that there is no mourning there's business happening there then Jesus said get behind me Satan you are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's interest see this this shows what is going from Jerusalem sorry Babylon 48:40 to Jerusalem man's interest to God's interest that is the battle for me and all of us here see then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone wishes to come after me let him deny his self if your self is on the throne and you are a Babylonian if your self is not on the throne then take up his cross 49:05 and follow me then he is entering into Jerusalem and this this will increase like we heard Holy Spirit will help us he is he is helping us to go from Babylon to Jerusalem but we should not be so naive about oh I don't have Jerusalem because I'm sitting in I don't have Babylon 49:26 because I'm sitting in CFC no it's not sitting in CFC so Jesus was pointing out in Jerusalem the Babylon has come the outside the temple is he did the cleansing twice and then verse 25 whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it 49:47 and verse 26 what will a man profit be profited if he gains the whole world forfeits his own soul what will man give in exchange for his soul his soul will be lost because his self sits on the throne there is no recognition of God's sacrifice solely always my mind is 50:11 occupied with what I need what I need what I need brother pray for me pray for me it can go on may the Lord help us to show this that he has done the sacrifice he he wants us to walk in that path of sacrifice which we have seen many godly brothers that's such brothers 50:31 such sisters can say like proverbs 14 14 says godly man's godly woman's life is exciting it's a path of sacrifice and there is the Lord with us there is a reconciliation there is a more there is mourning may the Lord help us to have that spirit of Jerusalem may the Holy Spirit help us 50:57 let us commit ourselves ask the Lord to help let's move in our heads in prayer
