A Reason to Remember

Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full Gospel hour right here on Global seven, my prayers that you will be blessed, you would be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless. Um today I’d like us to focus on the topic called a reason to remember, A reason to remember from the book of Ezra Chapter three, Ezra chapter three, I’m gonna be reading verses 10 through 13. Can we give God praise for the praise team and the band? Let’s give God some praise, thankful for their continued dedication and service to the Lord and through the ministry and thankful that they’re able to lead us in praise and lead us in worship. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s always a blessing to be able to enter his prayers with thanksgiving, enter his courts with praise, enter his, his gates. Yeah, there we go. And I was like one of those words, isn’t there twice? Thank you. Um, and so it’s, it’s, it’s interesting because whether that be physically entering or whether it be, you know, now in the digital age us being able to log in and, and or go online and worship virtually mhm. To be able to realize that hey, I’m able to connect with the Lord, I’m able to worship the Lord and I believe that something so important that many times we take for granted the ability to connect with the Lord through praise and through worship. So I just want us to just remember that fact that it’s it’s it was We have access to the throne room. We have access that was paid for by blood, right. And uh it’s something that we should not forget or take lightly. So let’s let’s take our turn our attention to the text. The reason to remember Ezra chapter three verse 10. Ezra chapter 3: verse 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets and the Levite. It’s the sons of assaf with the Cymbals to praise the Lord according to the directions of David, the King of Israel and they sang responsively praising and giving thanks to the Lord for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and the leave icts and the heads of the fathers houses, old men who had seen the first house wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid though many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping for the people shouted with a great shout and a shout. And the sound was heard far away. Oh Lord, I thank you so much for this word. I thank you for your people. I pray Lord, that as we Mhm. Hear this word, Father, that you would be glorified and everything that’s said, everything that’s done. Lord, I pray Lord that you would strengthen us, that you would continue to equip us, that you would help us to remember rightly with the right reason. I thank you and I praise you for all that’s sad and all that will be done in jesus name. We pray amen. Amen and amen. So if you know me with uh you know that one of maybe my favorite movies of all time, animated or not would be the classic, The Lion King, Right Disney classic. You can’t go wrong there. Um and I think it’s, it speaks volumes and is a great film that transcends generations right, and goes down the generations and it continues to spark joy in life into the many people that watch it. And basically the premise of the movie, for those who maybe have not seen it. Um you know, you need to do that, right that wrong. You know, see the movie. Um and uh basically this this young Lion Simba is running from the pain of his past, he’s running from a traumatic event, right? Um and he’s running from responsibility because he’s embracing a lifestyle with these new friends that he met of. No worries, Hakuna Matata right? Embracing this lifestyle of No worries. It’s a carefree life. It’s a wonderful life until reality comes and finds him and he realizes that he can’t run anymore. He has a vision and a conversation with his father and in this conversation he’s confronted to confirm, he’s confronted with the fact that he has to confront his past and take responsibility. And he says something interesting. He says, how can I go back? Because I’m not who I used to be, How can I go back? I’m not who I used to be. And the answer to this question is you have to remember his father says, remember who you are and through remembering he gets the, the, the, the, the energy, the motivation, the gumption to go back to go into, to, to run back and and uh he’s speaking with this, this wise sage before he runs back rafiki this baboon, right? We’re supposed to help him along this journey. And he says, oh you know, going back means I have to face my past and rafiki says, hey, well you know, the past can hurt sometimes, but you either have to run from it or you learn from it. And so he chooses to learn from it, go back and to face his past, fight his uncle and rebuild pride rock and none of this would have happened if he did not take the time to remember if he didn’t take the time to heed his father’s instructions. And remember, he didn’t remember just to reminisce, he didn’t remember just to think of the young times he had saying, I’m going to be a mighty king, things were going to be great. He didn’t uh remember uh, so that he could fall in love, he remembered so that he could have the strength to go back. And today we find ourselves in the book of Ezra and we realized that there’s a way that you can remember that can be either beneficial or not beneficial for you in your season of rebuilding Ezra. Some background for the book of Ezra, especially with where we are, because it’s important to to understand this. So we can get a full picture of what’s going on here and what’s taking place. Ezra and Nehemiah are two books that come 11 right after the other, but they were written together and they’re they’re detailed books that’s one book that details similar and related events. The rebuilding of the temple in Ezra and the rebuilding of the wall in Nehemiah. The book of Ezra records two separate events in this rebuilding of the temple period uh, after the the years of captivity in Babylon Ezra, chapters one through six covers the return of the jews from captivity and uh we realized that what uh what we see is they were charged with going to rebuild the temple rebuild the temple according to scripture. We realized and we see that Israel was a unified country before the book of Ezra was was written, Israel was a unified country under three kings under Saul. And then after Saul’s reign, we have King David. After King David’s reign, we have King Solomon. Now due to King Solomon’s disobedience later in his life by bringing idolatry into the nation, the Lord said that the kingdom of Israel would be split into two. So after Solomon’s death, the northern kingdom kept the name Israel and the southern kingdom changed their name to Judah. And so we read about this in the Book of Second Chronicles, 1st and 2nd chronicles, person taking king’s. Uh that’s where the, these these stories take place. Um but each new nation, each new nation, so you have Israel and Judah. Each nation, they would have different kings that rule and some of these kings would be obedient to God. Some of them would love God wholeheartedly and others would reject God and and turned to idolatry and lead the nation into wickedness and despair. And during the time of the reign of each king, profits would rise up because God is not going to leave his people without a word right. So God is gonna have profits rise up and they’re going to speak to the heart of the king and and speak to the people of Israel and preach repentance and preach turn from your wicked ways. Each prophet would speak the word of the Lord to Judah or to Israel and some wrote larger works and we call those books and major books or major profits today, like Isaiah or Jeremiah and others wrote smaller works like hey Guy or Zafaraniya. Now uh each prophet wrote different length of books for different purposes but had the same goal ultimately to preach repentance and to bring the heart of God’s people that turned away due to idolatry back to the heart of God to say look, turn away from idolatry. Turn away from your wicked ways. Turn away from the things that grieve the heart of the Lord and turn back to God before it’s too late. They would say, hey uh God’s judgment is coming. God swift judgment is coming, turn back, turn back, turn back and they failed to heed the word of the Lord. They failed to listen to the word of the Lord. And as a result, god sent judgment through nations similar to the book of judges. Whenever the people of Israel would rebel, god would send a nation to oppress them and when they get in trouble they turn to God right, say, God help us in this case, uh the northern kingdom of Israel Assyria came and conquered Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah Babylon came and conquered Judah and these nations what they would do when they came and conquered, they would capture or kill the king and they would kill or kidnap these people and and kill or kidnap their Children. They would burn their cities, burn their homes, burn their villages and burn and destroy their temple. And so now we see the people of Israel who were uh not a united nations but divided to Israel and Judah. Now they’re even more so split into what they know as the exile when they’re taken into captivity by the nations of Assyria and by the nations of Babylon. And in these captivity, we have wonderful books of God’s faithfulness in the midst of displacement. So like Jeremiah or like Daniel where God still uses someone in a foreign place to speak to a foreign king and turn the heart of the king to God right or Esther right? Someone that God uses and rises up or lamentations where we see the broken heartedness of one that’s been through trauma, bring through grief or in some of the major prophets talk about this time like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. And so we see all throughout the text, throughout these portions of the text, this is where we find Israel, we find them in captivity in exile. But then how many of you know that even when things are bleak, God is still in control, God is still sovereign. So we see that Babylon Judah is taken over by Babylon. Right? And now Babylon loses power to a country named Persia Persia comes in and is over Babylon. So now Israel, Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay. They weren’t just they weren’t just submitted now and to one power, but another greater power came and oppressed them even further. But God moved in the heart of this king, King Cyrus and he said, look you guys can go back, show them favor, go back and read build, go back and rebuild God. He uses this king to declare a decree that the people of Judah can go back and rebuild. And these two books in Ezra and Nehemiah detail this point in their history detail this point of what it’s like to go back and to rebuild. So they go and they do just that they go back and Ezra says, okay, we’re gonna go back and we’re going to rebuild this temple. The word of the Lord speaks to a man named Zaruba Bell, who you know, so ruby bell try saying that three times fast, right? He goes back to to rebuild and to lead this charge of rebuilding the temple and they’re going to do that. And this is where we find ourselves. And in uh chapter three. Now before we jump to our main text, I want to look at verses eight through nine. Uh and it says now in the second year after they’re coming in the house of God in the second month, Zaruba Bell, the son of uh shell tl and the and Joshua the son of Zodiac made a beginning together with the rest of their kinsmen and the priest and the Levite, it’s and all who had come to Jerusalem from captivity. They appointed the Levite. It’s from 20 years old and upward to supervise the work of the House of the Lord and Joshua with his sons and his brothers and cam model and kat, excuse me and carried me away and his sons and the sons of Judah together supervised the workmen in the House of God along with the sons of henna dad and their leave Icts and the sons and their brothers. So we realized that this rebuilding was a process. It didn’t happen by accident. It didn’t happen without oversight. It didn’t happen without strategy. It didn’t happen without planning. It didn’t happen without the right people on the committee. Right. This was this was a great task, a great undertaking. And if we are going to rebuild some areas of our lives, if we are going to roll up our sleeves and do the work, it’s not something we’re gonna fall into. It’s not something that’s going to happen without a proper plan in place, no one rebuild something revisit something by accident. Mm hmm. No one says, Oh, I’m just wake up today. I’m just gonna rebuild. You know, these broken pieces in my life? No one just says, okay, I’m just gonna do that. And you wake up and oh wait, everything fell into place. No, no, no, no, no. Similarly to Israel, you have to have a plan in place, you have to have people to help you walk through this thing, you have to have individuals that are skilled in different areas to help you come to come alongside you and to walk with you through the process of rebuilding. And we realized that Israel Israel during this time of coming back and of rebuilding, they had a system of those 20 years and older, they were overseeing the work and there was a system to rebuild. There was an order to rebuild because it didn’t happen by accident. You have to be intentional you have to be intentional with what it is that you’re trying to rebuild, you have to be intentional with what it is, the Lord is laying on your heart to rebuild brick by brick, it does not happen on its own, They do not fall into place on its own, you have to be the one to do it. And oftentimes we see here that you may not be the one to do it by yourself. You need a team, you need individuals around you maybe to help you uh rebuild and get this thing, whatever it is, that’s God’s laid on your heart off of the ground. And so the text says that uh you have to have in order to, to, as we read through these first two verses, you have to have a system that works a good system to help you rebuild. And now if we move to verse 10, it says when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with the trumpets and the levi levi puts the sons of acid with their Cymbals to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel and they sang responsively praising and giving thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel. Now, it’s important as we’ve stated, to praise God. It’s important as we stated, to give God the praise that is due his name. But before we jump into that and focus on the praise piece, I want to look at how a people in exile. We’re able to remember the instructions of King David. It was years before. According to the, the direction the Book of the law was something that was uh, that was preserved. And we see here that they understood these directions of what David said. Now listen, what does David have to do with this temple that they’re trying to rebuild? Well, you see, David had a wonderful thought. He had a wonderful desire, a beautiful desire and his desire was to build a temple for God, a temple that the Lord could dwell in a temple, that the people of the Lord could come and and worship and David wanted to build a temple. But God said, no. Right. So in its first Chronicles, chapter 17 verse one, we realized that it says David lived in his house and David said to Nathan the prophet, remember there was always profits that came to the kings. And David said to Nathan, the prophet behold, I dwell in the house of cedar. But the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, the power of the Lord, the authority of the Lord is under a tent. I’m in this house of cedar but God is still in a Tabernacle in this tent. And Nathan said to David, do all that is in your heart to do for God is with you. So David says, look, I I want to do something great for God. I’m here in the house of cedar and Gods in a tent. I want to build a Tabernacle. I wanna I wanna build a, excuse me, a temple, a place where we can come to worship God in a place where God’s presence can dwell in the ark of the covenant can be kept. All of these wonderful things can happen in this temple. It’s this vision that I have that I want to see come to life and Nathan, the prophet of God says, God is with you because God is with David. Do what you gotta do. It’s okay, do what everything you said to do. But that same night, Nathan is trying to get some sleep. It’s like, okay, wonderful day prophesying to King David, we’re going to get some rest now. Right. He puts his head down on the pillow so as to get sleep. And God says, yo Nathan, not not so fast. I know you’re trying to get some sleep at all, but you need to, you need to recant your statement. You need to go make that right right as he’s about to doze off that same night. The same night. God says, uh, go and tell my servant David. It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in. It’s not going to be you. Ultimately, he goes back and tells David and he says the reason why you won’t build the houses because David, your hands are too bloody. Your hands are too bloody now. What does this mean? Why? What does this mean? I thought God forgives sins. I thought, you know the sin of David and everything was was behind him with him. Uh, going, going after another man’s wife and having that man killed. What does he mean? Is that what he’s talking about? No, no, no. He’s talking about the season of David’s kingship. It was a season of war. It was a season of battle. Was a season where he had to put his skills as a warrior that same met young boy shepherd boy that killed Goliath became a warrior king, one that paved the way one that that that uh, got his hands dirty. Got his hands bloodied doing the work and getting things accomplished and, and expanding Israel’s territory and defending against enemies? All of these things. And God said it’s a wonderful thing that you want to do for me. But it’s not your responsibility to do that. It’s a wonderful vision that you have. But David, I’m, I’m, I’m gonna honor you in this way. You want to build me a house. But it’s not for you to build me a house. Your son is going to be the one to build this house because my house, my house shall be called a house of prayer and your hands are, are sullied with the blood that you’ve spilled on the battlefield. And I want a man of a different man for a different time to build this house? And David could have taken this extremely personally. He could have like we often do when God doesn’t answer our request, the way we want him to hardened his heart and turned away from the things of God. One of the things that God said was instead of you building me a house, I’m gonna build you a house. I’m gonna make your name great. And your son is gonna be the one to build the house for me. And so David said, what do you mean? David could have said, Excuse me, could have said, what do you mean? I’m not going to build you this house. What do you mean? I’m not going to build you this temple, it’s my vision. It’s what I want to do for you. God, how how could this not? How could it not? It’s a good thing. It’s a good thought. It’s a wonderful vision. I want to be the one to execute it. And he could have taken that that rejection or denial from the Lord and been very and been very bitter towards God. I have been very angry towards God. But instead we see his response in First Chronicles 17. It says uh and now O Lord, God, you are God and you have promised this good thing to me, your servant. Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you. For it is you who or Lord who has blessed and is and it is blessed forever. So he’s saying, God, look, even though you’ve told me, I can’t do this, I’m still gonna give you honor. I’m still gonna give you glory. I’m still gonna give you praise. Even though it’s not working out the way that I thought it would. I’m trusting your hand in the midst of it that my son is going to be able to build. So David does what many have learned to do during this pandemic. He pivots when his plans got canceled. When the door was shut right in his face. He said, okay, let me adapt. Let me just let me do something else in the meantime. So he prepares, puts instructions, put people put things in place so that when his son is ready, all he’s gotta do is wave his hand and say, okay, let’s get to work. My dad took care of everything. My dad prepared everything and I think it’s important for us to to know and to realize that for us in our lives when certain doors are shut and when God says no, not later, not maybe sometime down the line. No. Our response is, is telling in our response, though difficult, should be one of gratitude for the gratitude to the Lord. But then also a willingness to be able to pivot and adjust knowing that God is still with us in the new plan, God is still with us. Even though our old plan uh didn’t work out or uh or or the door was closed for that particular thing, even though it wasn’t what we initially wanted. And so David gives some instructions. He gives some directions. He says, look, I’ve given you this amount of material, Go and build. I’ve given you this go and do. But then something else that David does, which I love because it speaks to his heart is that he organizes musicians. He brings musicians together in First Chronicles 25 it says David and the chiefs of the service set apart for the service, the sons of assaf and of Herriman and of Jonathan who prophesy with liars and with harps and with symbols. Now he says, look, when you lay this foundation, when you get this temple situated, you need to worship God. See, David may have been a warrior, a warrior, but he was also a worshiper. You know, David may have been a warrior. He may have had his hands bloody because of the battles he had to face in the ground, he had to cover. But you could not take away his worship. That’s why at his heart, he wanted to build a temple for the Lord so that God could be praised not just in a Tabernacle, a tent, but a permanent dwelling place for the spirit of God and for the people of God to connect with God because at his core he had to be a worship. He had to be a warrior, but at his core he was a worshiper and David said, look, I want to be able to worship the Lord and for us today. Do we have any worshipers in the house that are able to say, look, no matter what the circumstance, no matter how difficult I want to give god praise, I want to give God glory. I want to continue to lift up the name of jesus christ. I want my life to be a temple of the living god where he can come and dwell and I can give him praise. Glory and honor. That is due his name. We need to be gracious, we need to have gratitude and we realize now that was why they followed those instructions. They that was why when the when the foundation of the temple was laid all the people, they shouted with a great shout and they praised the Lord because the foundation of the heart of the, of the house of the Lord was laid and they sung praises to the Lord. They said for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. To realize that the love of the Lord endures forever. You have to realize that the love of the Lord is with you in the past. And it wasn’t just something that fizzled out. But God’s love is with you from the past to the present and will remain with you. You have to remember remember and so we realized now that they were giving praises to God, giving worship to God, giving him glory and honor that was due his name and and worshiping him because they were excited because the foundation of the temple was laid when they laid this foundation to say, okay we can now build now we have something to build on. The foundation is firm, the foundation is wide, the foundation is long, the foundation is deep. Now we can build on this foundation because it’s firm. Now we can build on this foundation because it’s a firm foundation that we’re able to build uh this this temple to the Lord on and it was a wonderful thing, a beautiful thing and they were praising God the building wasn’t even built yet. They were praising God because the foundation was laid. The temple was not complete yet. They were praising God because the foundation was laid. Can you praise God at the beginning of the journey? Can you praise God before it all works out? Before your plans are all done before? Whatever you’re working on is completed when you’re still working on the necessary steps, when you’re still getting the those those key uh things that need to get done established. Can you praise God before your journey is complete? This is this is a principle that we see here when the foundation is laid we have to give him praise and the foundation is laid, we have to give him glory. When the foundation is laid we have to be thankful when the foundation is laid, we have to be grateful. So when the builders of the of this temple laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with their trumpets. The Levite, the sons of assaf with their Cymbals to praise the Lord according to the directions that David wrote all those years ago. Now the first temple was completed. This is the second temple they’re working on. Remember the first temple was completed and destroyed. So now they’re revisiting this, this temple that was once great, that was once grand and they’re starting from the ground up, They’re rebuilding it. And the people worshiped when the foundation of the Lord, it was late when the foundation of this temple was laid, they shouted with glory. They gave God praise. It would be a wonderful thing. And one thing if that was the only reaction, but that was not the only reaction. But wait, there’s more. And all the people shouted with the grouch, a great shout and they praised the Lord because the foundation was laid, Verse 12. But many of the priests and leave fights the heads of the fathers houses, old men who had seen the first house, the first temple. They wept, they wept, they wept, they wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid. Though many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the joyful shout. The sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping for the people that shouted with a great shout and the hurt and the sound was heard from far away. So they’re rebuilding the temple, They’ve laid the foundation and you get mixed reactions from two groups. The majority of people, possibly the majority of them that maybe hadn’t seen the first temple are excited, they’re excited about what’s to come. They’re excited because the foundation is laid. They’re excited about the glorious uh potential that’s in the air when they’re laying down brick by brick. They’re excited because this first chapter is concluded. And then they can continue to build their excited about this accomplishment. The foundation is laid, let’s give God praise. And then at this great shout at this great uh jubilation, this great time of happiness. There’s an older group that remember what that first temple was like. And first chronicles chapter 22 when David has given his son Solomon instructions on building the temple, he says to Solomon, he says, with great pains, I have provided For the House of the Lord, 100,000 talents of gold, a million talents of silver and bronze and iron beyond weighing. Don’t even bother putting it on the scale. Right beyond when, for there is so much of it. I provided you timber, I provided you stone to these. I have provided to these. You must add, you have an abundance of workmen, stone cutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number skilled in working gold and then silver and bronze and iron arise and work the Lord be with you. This was at a time when Israel was rolling in dough, right all about the benjamins. They had not a care in the world, top of the world, everything was great. Israel was chilling. They weren’t worried about a thing. They had a great king. They had a succession. You know, everything was wonderful. David’s spared no expense prepared all of these things for the temple to be built by his son. He says, I don’t even bother putting the bronze and iron on the scale. It’s beyond weighing 100,000 talents of gold, a million talents of silver. This, this this this this temple was was was gonna be absolutely magnificent. Grand, huge, this was a massive undertaking. And so imagine your your a kid when this is being constructed and then by the time it’s done, you know, you you but you’re able to to see and witness the grandeur of this temple, the the just the scope of it and it’s amazing your jaws on the floor. And it’s a wonderful sight to see. And you have such great joy worshiping and going to, you know, do sacrifice and all these different things that you would do with this temple and it’s a wonderful time. And then you have your kids and those kids have kids and those kids have kids and those kids have kids and nations begin to split, some idolatry comes in, but the temple is still there. Some of the kings lead Israel astray. But the temple is still there. Some of the kings that are there still have a heart for God. And so they try to draw the people back to worship and open up the temple. It’s a wonderful thing. And the temple is still there and finally you reach the generation that is around when the Babylonians come And let’s say, you’re about 20 years old and you’re used to this temple being grand being a place of worship, a place where you could, you know, fellowship with God. But one of these kings doesn’t relent, doesn’t repent in Israel as a whole is still in idolatry and Babylon comes and drags you out of your home, drags you away from your family, dragged you away from your loved ones. And you see this temple being ransacked, being destroyed and you carried away in chains into exile. It’s been roughly 50 years since the destruction of this temple. So if you’re about 20 when you’re taken into captivity about 70 now and you saw the grandeur, the scope of this first temple. And then Babylon is, you know, uh taken over by Persia and you hear a decree that says, hey, go back and rebuild, go back, rebuild, you go, you get a chance to go back and rebuild what was once lost. They’re excited at this, this prospect. They’re excited. The fact that they get to do this. We get to do this. Our God is with us. My father prayed for this moment. My grandmother prayed for this moment and she told me that her mother prayed for this moment and I’m living in it. We get to go back and rebuild. The foundation is laid, tears were welling up until you realize the final brick was laid About 70 years old now and you’re looking at this foundation because based upon the foundation, you realize how high you can build how wide you can build. You realize the scope of what you can do and you begin to weep. These young guys are all celebrating. They’re excited about what they’ve done but the O. G. S. They’re sad. They’re miserable. I said wait a minute. This this this can’t be it, this is it because they’re restricted by what they’re remembering. They’re restricted. They cannot be joyful about what’s being rebuilt now because they’re so focused about what was built back then. They don’t realize that the same God that was faithful then is being faithful to them now, allowing them to even be in a place to rebuild. That’s why we as believers. We have to monitor our perspective, the power of perspective. God does want us to look back. What does he say to Joshua? He says look before you cross over the Jordan build up these stones these stones of memorial so that when your Children ask you, what do these stones mean? You can tell them that I was with you. You can tell them that I kept you. You can tell them that I sustained you. I was with you as you crossed the jordans and you can tell them what the stones meant. God wants us to look back but not to a point where it stops us from moving forward. God wants us to look back. He’s all about remembering, he wants us to remember but not so that our present can live in constant comparison with our past. There’s a reason to remember though. Many shouted aloud for joy. Other people were weeping and crying with a loud voice and wailing so that people could not distinguish the sound of joy from the sound of mourning. The sound of joy from the sound of weeping couldn’t distinguish it. That’s why you have to understand that what you bring to the table is important. The the the, the energy or the attitude that you bring is important. Your voice, matters, your opinions matter. The words that you say have a weight especially these people because they should have known better. These weren’t just, oh some some regular guys that have been, you know with Israel for a while. These were the priests, these were the leave lights, these were the head of homes, these were the older men, the spiritual leaders, the people with some level of spiritual understanding and connectivity to the Lord I should have known better than to to rob these people of their joy in the present because they were mourning over something that took place in the past. They were morning because they held this new temple. This we just got permission from the king that we’ve been over because we’ve been in sin for all these years that temple and God suddenly shown us favor temple to the we’re at our height and nothing can can can touch us temple there comparing the two and they’re weeping at the vast difference. They’re weeping at the fact that the current temple pairs, it pales in comparison to possibly the temple of the past. And for us, we have to realize we have to realize that the things that we remember and how we remember them, we have to choose to remember them in such a way that God gives that God gets glory and that we’re not only edified, but others are strengthened. The things that we choose to remember, that that are a part of our past. That how we, how we approach them, you can either keep us stuck or help us to move forward. And especially when we’re rebuilding something or visiting something that maybe we’ve been able to accomplish before. And God says, I want you to revisit that again. We can always compare it to such a way where it maybe has us feeling down because we weren’t in the season that we were before, We’re in a new season. Now when God calls us to revisit something again. But I believe it’s important for us to say, you know what God, I surrender And that if you’ve given us this favor to get this accomplished, if you’ve given me this favor to get this accomplished, I’m going to thank you for this. And I’m gonna remember that if you did it before, you can do it again. That if you did it before, even though it looks differently now, I’m still going to give you glory because you’re the same god, that was with me the same god that had the resources to build this temple when David was when Solomon was king and David gave the instructions is the same god I was with them when he gave them the favorite to go and rebuild the second temple with Ezra. And so these, these individuals that were crying and weeping and they’re there negativity. They’re they’re tears of mourning. We couldn’t distinguish between the two. We have to remember saints of God in a right way. In the right perspective. There are reasons to remember as I’m as I’m closing. There are reasons to remember remembering the right way allows us to be thankful for what god has done. You have to be thankful for what god has done remembering the right way with the right perspective. It’s one thing to mourn and be sad because the temple is no longer there. That’s okay. That’s fine. The temple is no longer there. You miss the temple that god is uh that that that you had or that you remember growing up with. It’s one thing to be more careful about that. But it’s another thing to have that temple in your mind as a comparison to the new thing that god is doing and have that be the reason for your morning or have that be the reason for your pain. And so we have to now switch gears and remember in a way that allows God to be, allows us to be thankful God, I thank you that you were the one that allowed us to have the resources to build the first temple. And because of that, you’re going to continue to allow us to have the resources to not only build build the foundation for the second temple, but finish it as well, and we can apply that to whatever area of our lives we choose God. I thank you that you know, that you provided the resources for me to be in this one bedroom apartment. I thank you for that. It’s a blessing. It’s an honor and it’s a privilege. And and I thank you for moving me out of this one bedroom into this two bedroom. And if if I was to, you know, compare what what the situation is. You know, it may be a little different, it may not be the same, but I’m not going to mourn because it doesn’t add up the way that I think it should allows us to be thankful for what God has done. God, I thank you because you’re keeping God, you’re a good God. I thank you for sustaining me. I thank you for protecting me. I remember when I could have lost my mind, I remember when things didn’t go according to my plan. I remember when things were extraordinary, difficult. Extraordinarily difficult. I remember, and I thank you the reason to remember remembering rightly and the right way allows us to be thankful for what God has done, secondly, remembering the right way allows us to know what God can do because he’s done this, he can do this because he has accomplished this in my life. He can do this in my life because he’s gotten me through this toughest test, that I didn’t think I’d pass this toughest trial, this most difficult storm. He brought peace to my life when the waves were crashing through when I thought that I would drown and my grief would take me under when I thought that I would drown and this anger and resentment would grab hold of me and never let go. God was the one that pulled me out and brought me out of the mire of clay and please placed my feet on Iraq to stay because he’s done that. I know that he can do this in this situation that I’m facing, in this, this situation where my back is up against the wall, where I don’t know where my next meal is gonna come from, where I’m facing so much pain and adversity, where I’m feeling so much heartbreak as a result of my present being different from my past, me feeling like I accomplished so much more back then and now look where I am now God, you’ve you’ve called me to downsize, How could I downsize at a time like this, things were going so well and then this pandemic hit and I had to shift God how, how, how how can how can you still, how can you show me favor in this way? Are you still with me? Because he was with you in times of plenty. Does not mean he’s gonna forsake you when things are difficult. Our God is a provider of God is a protector or God is a sustainer remembering God rightly allows us to know what God can do. And third, and finally remembering the right way allows us to be an encouragement to others. We realized that there’s nothing that is more difficult or maybe takes the praise out of you by looking next to you and maybe seeing somebody that’s just that’s just uh but not not locked in with you. And if you’re praising God, you want to see people that are praising and worshiping. But then you see someone that’s in mourning and grief, not in the morning and grief that you need to comfort them because of the sorrow but a mourning and grief because there comparing it in the wrong way. And I’m saying, how can we worship God for this? How can we give God praise for this? Woe is me. If I worship God for this, this pales in comparison to that, this wasn’t nearly what I expected. But instead if you remember the right way and you say, okay God because you were with us then because you sustained us then I know you can do that now and you can encourage others in their worship and their prayers to hate this foundation that was laid. It may be different from the one before but great job I was there when this foundation was laid prior when this foundation was laid down before I was there and I saw the scale of the great temple and you your eyes haven’t seen what was but I saw it and even though this isn’t the same thing, God is still doing a new thing. Even this isn’t even though this isn’t the same thing. God is still doing something fresh. I don’t want to encourage you in that and it says the elders were the ones that were weeping, the ones that had the the experience to look and to see with their eyes the goodness of God to look and see where their eyes, what God had done in times of plenty, they were the ones that were comparing and and ah you weren’t able to weren’t able to distinguish the morning from the, from the joy and so as elders they have a responsibility to influence and to uh shape sometimes the mindset of those that are younger. You can either say man this this temple that’s going on. This temple is being built. No, no I don’t support this or you can say you know what even though this temple that’s being constructed is different. God is still in the midst of it and so for us as believers, we have to take responsibility for how we remember take responsibility and what we choose to do with what we remember, Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you, would I not have told you? You said I go to prepare a place that preparation was him laying his life down, laying his life down so that we could find life, he says do this in remembrance of me if the disciples only remembered the cross in light of them forsaking him and fleeing and how could they truly find the forgiveness and grace that comes with salvation? Because remember they had, they forsook him and fled, they left and before that happened, Jesus said do this in remembrance of me. So when they move on and go throughout life, after Jesus departs to take communion for them as the initial 12 or 11, they have to remember the departure, the fleeing that came with that moment for them but remember that that fleeing was covered by the blood of the lamb and so for us, how we remember, can either keep us trapped or transform us to be able to rebuild and move forward even better. So let’s remember today, remember today the goodness of God remember today the fact that God is not going to leave us, he’s not gonna forsake us remember in the right way, maybe some of the things that God is causing us to revisit, let’s remember and get, let’s, let’s remember that. We need a reason and the right reason to remember. Let’s give God praise. Thank you. Lord, Thank you father worthy to be praised. So dear Lord, we thank you so much for this time. We thank you for who you are and who you’ve called us to be. We pray Lord that as this word goes forth, as this word has gone forth, that would have fallen on good soil, good ground and you would bless us, your people father help us in this time and this season, Lord of rebuilding to surrender to you, surrender to your will surrender to your way. The things that you called us to rebuild to revisit, that will look different from the ways of the past. Father. I pray that you would be our strength in this time of rebuilding as a ministry of rebuilding as a people rebuilding as individuals. God. Mm hmm. Yeah, there’s some relationships that you’ve called us to rebuild. There’s some differences you called us to make amends with father. I pray Lord. That as we are obedient in this way that you caused us to remember in such a way that gives you glory that gives you honor. That gives you praise and gives us the strength to move forward in victory. Thank you. We praise you. If you praise honor and glory, We ask these things in jesus name. Amen and Amen. Um before I uh, we transitioned to the and close out. Um, one thing I forget, I forgot to mention in the message is that the church of today looks very different than it did three years ago, sitting here with masks on, the majority of individuals are primarily worshiping from online now and the church not just Bethel Gospel Tabernacle, but the capital C church, the church is going through a lot of shifts and changes and we can, you know, look back at the way things were and reminisced and miss it and look at the way things are and say, oh what, what is, what’s happening? I can’t believe things are this way or we can say, look the same God, that was with us before, Covid Bc right is the same God, that’s with us right now as you worship from your screen, as you worship from right here from your seats as you’re tuned in and, and, and really seeking the heart of God God’s mask is off, right? He’s able to connect with us, be open with us and and relate to us still today, even in the midst of a changing landscape. So let’s be mindful of that and carry that strength and that hope and that reality of the right reason to remember with us into the week. God bless you guys, thank you, hello again and thank you so much for tuning in to the message at Global seven. Once again, my name is Roderick CAESAR the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text B g t f I 277977 again, you can text B g t f I 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you as you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much.