Transcript
Hello everyone, thanks for joining with me on another "Helping You Become" podcast. I pray it's a blessing for you. Friends thank you for your company today and for joining with me around the Word of God.
Please turn in your Bibles to Ezra chapter 4 and I'll continue on with the study I started two weeks ago about beating frustration before it beats us. Frustration is a specific enemy, I believe, that comes to our life to stop our purpose and our plans.
That's its intention. That's the goal of frustration to hinder and cease our purpose
and our plans. Now, as you turn to Ezra chapter 4. I'll just pause for a moment and pray for us and pray for this study.
Lord God, we just so appreciate Your goodness, kindness, mercy and grace. Lord, thank You so much for all that You do for us. Lord, thank You for actionable intelligence, Holy Spirit, that You lead us and guide us into inside the truth of Your Word. And Lord, we ask that You bless us today. We ask that You open up Your Word to us today, Lord. We ask that You show us things where we have failed, Lord, to identify properly the type of spiritual attack that has come against our life. But Lord, to reveal that to us and Lord, show us what we can do about it. And Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, Ezra chapter 4, and I do thank you for joining with me today in part 3 of this study. I appreciate access to your heart and mind and I take that privilege very, very seriously indeed. So thank you. Ezra chapter 4, the rebuilding of the temple. They had come across out of exile and were heading back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple under the instruction of Cyrus, who was the king of the time taking this study out of the amplified Bible.
And in chapter 1 verse 2, "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of
heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build
him a house at Jerusalem in Judah." How good is that? No, he's on a mission from
God. And then we see in verse 64 of chapter 2, I think it's about 64. Yeah, the whole congregation numbered 42 ,360. So there were people, there were engineers, there were project managers, there were the tradies, the labourers, to the tune of nearly 50 ,000 people involved in this.
The 42 ,000 plus the men's servants and maid servants of another nearly 7 ,500. This is a huge production project. They all came together, they restored the altar and started sacrifices and burned offerings to God because chapter 3 verse 3 tells us why, and they set the altar in its place upon its base, for fear was upon them.
Because of the peoples of the country, and they offered burnt offerings on it to
the Lord morning and evening.
Sophia came upon them because of the inhabitants of the land at that time. These people were up against it. They had an obstacle, a major obstacle. The inhabitants of the land and the country, it said, because of the peoples of the countries. And these Jews building this temple had a major obstacle. They were afraid. The first thing that came to attack their purpose and plans was fear. That was the first thing that came along.
We see across this project that God staffed it, God funded it, then fear came. Then we look down further in verse eight of chapter three and we see that under the instruction of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtheel, and Jeshua, son of Josadak, they made a beginning with the rest of the brethren. So they started, they started building, they started work, they started, started, started, and they got this construction project actually up and going. Fear came, but they pushed through, they pushed through, and they started in on the work itself.
Ezra chapter 4 verse 1, "Now when the Samaritans and the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles from the captivity were building a temple to the Lord the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel, the newt who is now the governor, and to the heads of the fathers' houses, and said, 'Let us build with you.'
Oh yes, let us come and help. Let us invite us into your project. Let us build with you, for we seek and worship your God as you do. Well, yeah, not really. They worship the God of Israel as the God of the land, among all of their other gods,
their myriad of gods. So, you know, it might have sounded nice, it might have
looked okay, but yeah, nah, not really. Okay? "If they can't beat you, they will join you.
And when wrong people enter your life, wrong things start to occur. You might have had a program or a plan, purposes from the Lord, you're going about that, you're going about you, the instruction the Lord has given you, you've put the things in motion, God's starting to bring the people, He's funding it, the work has commenced, you've pushed on through the fear, you're thinking man who's ever to do this? How are we ever going to do this?
Like with me with radio nearly 20 years ago. I thought, who would ever listen to my program? Well, I've been on radio now for nearly 20 years. So we pushed on through the fear. Yeah? It's the same thing. After you push through the fear and you get on with the project, you get on with the project, I'll never forget that I said to one of my directors, I said, how much money are we going to need to do this, to buy the equipment. And way back then he said, "Oh, Joe, it's going to be something like $1 ,000." And I thought, "Dear God, how much money is that?" "Hooly doolly."
And a man came up to me and gave me a check. I thought, "Wow, praise God, look at that." I mean, so that was that fixed. So we pushed on through the fear and we've been on air ever since. Praise God. So As you do that, then people will come along and they'll want to join you.
They came to Zerubbabel and said, "Let us build with you, for we seek and worship
your God as you do." We've sacrificed to him, etc, etc. And you go over to verse
3 of Ezra chapter 4, "But Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the
fathers of the houses of Israel, They said to them, "You have nothing to do with
us in building a house to our God. We ourselves will together build to the Lord."
The King of Israel, as King Cyrus the King of Persia, has commanded us.
Cyrus did not go out and say, "Gather up all the Israelites that are in exile and gather up all the people in the surrounding countries, gather them all together, have a committee, form a committee, form a corporate board or whatever, and let's go along and see if we can plan this project out. None of that. None of that at all.
Then the Samaritans, verse 4, "The people of the land continually weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled and terrified them in the building." They started to attack the project, and they attacked it, and they attacked it. And they hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose and plans all the days of Cyrus, King of Persia, even until the reign of Darius II, King of Persia.
So if they can't beat you, they will try and join you. Now this is really serious because after fear fails in its attempts to derail you, to stop you from achieving God's purposes and God's plans, as I said, if evil can't beat you, it'll join you. it appeared to be nice and you know hey look we're worshiping the same God as you let's all do this together no you're still the wrong people we're different people to you you represent wrong people to us and to our culture to our belief system you attack our belief system you want to change our belief system our God is the God.
The God of heaven and earth. He's not the God of the land to be blended in with all your other gods. So they would have attempted to derail the existing belief system that Zerubbabel and all of Israel had at that time. They would have tried to derail that from the inside out. So as I said, if they can't beat you, they'll join you. They'll want to dilute your work. They'll want to dilute your effectiveness and create obstacles along the way.
And the sad thing is here, if Zerubbabel and the elders had let them in, whose fault would it have been if they'd managed to hinder the project even more than what they were currently doing? You know, you could see already fear came. They pushed through all of that. These people come along. No, we're not having anything to do with you, and then they really full on attacked.
And there's a couple of really interesting scriptures in 1st Timothy, and I'll just
turn over there, and once again I'm reading from the Amplified Bible in 1st Timothy 4. But the Holy Spirit distinctly and expressly declares, that in the latter time some will turn away from the faith, giving attention to deluding and seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach.
It's really interesting. "Through the hypocrisy and pretentions of liars, whose
consciences seared, who forbid people to marry, and teach them to abstain from
certain kinds of foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and have an increasingly clear knowledge of the truth." Now that's a kicker there that Paul is writing to Timothy to have an increasingly clear knowledge of the truth.
How do you place yourself and position yourself to be able to do that? What are your routines? What's your daily management structure for your own self and your own spiritual life like? What time do you get up? What time do you go to bed? How do you exercise? How do you take care? I mean, self -care is very, very important if longevity is important to you. These things are very important.
And if you look in 1 Timothy chapter 5, once again reading in the Amplified Bible
down at verse 19, "Listen to no accusation presented before a judge against an elder, unless it is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses, as for those who are guilty and persist in sin, rebuke and admonish them in the presence of all, so that the rest may be warned and stand in wholesome awe and fear." Now that's a big sentence there. "For those who are guilty and persist in sin, those that want to continue on in their sin situation."
Now if you're in a situation where you've let them in, you know, and you know, Zerubbabel and the elders of Israel they knew that these people were outsiders. Now even though the story that they were presented with said that hey look we can all be good here, we can all get along, we worship the same God as you, no. They said no we want nothing to do with you.
When we allow people that are not of like mind, that are not of the same faith ideal. When we allow non-Christian people into our Christian project with absolutely courting danger here, if there are people that are habitually in a sin situation and continuing on in their sin, as Paul says, who are guilty and persist in sin. Rebuke and admonish them in the presence of all.
Well, what's that going to do for the building relationship here that you invited these people into? We have to be very, very watchful. It looks nice, it sounds nice, but it's not actually right. Remember Proverbs, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. As we become more and more accepting of those that persist in sin and invite them into our projects, we're going to, I believe, run into serious trouble.
Our faith situation, our structures, if you like our methods of operation, all of these suddenly become open to further scrutiny, open to people that want to change them, adjust them, modify them and ultimately at some point it's you know when it all starts to go very wrong for us we let them in. So we need to be very very watchful about this.
Yes we love the person but they're going to continue on in perpetual sin and persistence sins and then obviously things that that are absolutely blatant. They were worshiping a God of the land and calling that the Israelites God. No, it's just not going to fly. It's just not going to work.
So the blatant things where we know there's people are persisting in sin, we've got to be very, very watchful how we move forward with them and what conditions and under what circumstances we do move forward with them. And those Christians as well that ignore God's warnings regarding premeditated and perpetual sin are going to find themselves in trouble.
Somewhere along the line here, this is going to come home to roost. We are not in a situation where we can try and deceive God, don't be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap."
Yes? And Galatians 2:20 talks about, "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet it's not I that lives, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, but then Paul goes on to say, "But I do not frustrate that grace, that incredible grace that's been extended to me, I'm not going to continue on in premeditated sin because I am crucified with Christ, I have died to self, and it'snot I that lives, but Christ lives in me.
So now I'm going to continue on in a situation and a lifestyle and an approach and a mindset doing all I can to obey, to obey is better than sacrifice. Yes, obedience is better than sacrifice. So I'm going to continue on in a pathway that honours God and does my very level best to not frustrate that grace that has been extended to me.
Very important we think like this. Quite some time ago I preached a series on Christianity on our own terms. Well, you know, it's just not gonna work. It's Christianity on God's terms. Our salvation and our reconciliation back to the Father in Christ through Christ through the risen Jesus who paid the price for our
sin. No one comes to the Father but by Him.
People say there's many many ways to God. No, there is one. No one comes to the Father but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, a realisation of the fact that they need a Saviour and they need someone to have paid the price for their sin. We can never pay that price, but what we can do is willingly accept that Jesus paid that price for us.
We say, Lord, thank you so much, Ika. Look, this seems too good to be true, but I'm not gonna debate this with you. I am just going to accept and receive your wonderful kindness and your mercy and your grace and I receive that and I thank you Jesus that you became my substitute before the judicial system of heaven and I no longer have to worry about my own situation before a god because I handed my
situation of sin and unrighteousness over to you Jesus and you exchanged your
righteousness or God's own righteousness came to me through Jesus Christ.
He who knew no sin was made to be sin for me. Me who? Me who knew no righteousness so that me who knew no righteousness could be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Second Corinthians chapter 5. When we invite people into our plans and our purposes, well let me start again. Let's be very careful just to who it is exactly that we do invite into the purposes and the plans that God has commissioned for you to complete while you're here on the earth. Don't include wrong people. Now how do we identify wrong people, right people? Well that's a whole different topic. But there are always indicators. There's always indicators along the way.
Ezra chapter 4. I'll just turn back over there. Chapter 4 and verse 4. "Then the Samaritans, the people of the land continually weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled and terrified them in building and hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose and plans all the days of Cyrus King of Persia.
Okay, discouragement, discouragement and fear join forces and create the most workable, the most conducive environment for frustration to operate, and I believe frustration's role is to, as I said, what that word frustration means in the Hebrew, is to cause to disappear, to cease, to bring to an end, to cause to fail, to bring to zero your purpose and plans.
Now that's really serious, my friends. How many times have you been part way into something from the Lord. You've been quite worried about this. You know, you're even fearful of it and thinking, "Wow, man, what am I going to do? Who's going to come along? How do we fund this? How do I do this? Oh, man, what's going on?" You know, you pushed through all of that and you started. But then other stuff started to come along and just frustrate you and frustrate you and
frustrate you and well-meaning people. It seemed to be well-meaning. They seem to say the right things and they just turn up and suddenly, you know, the whole thing starts to go sideways, it's just starting to get derailed
We have more and more meetings and less and less action Things just don't progress. So some of these things are indicators I don't know what the indicators are for your particular situation, but if it's causing frustration If it's causing your purpose in your plans to be derailed, to be hindered. Obstacles. Identify, please, my friend, identify where the source of that is.
Who is the individual? Are there one or two or three people? How's this all coming
to pass now? What's going on here? And this is a time of fasting and prayer when
you get away, get quiet with God and just get your head around what's going on.
Because if your plans and purposes are being frustrated, you need to be let out of
it accurately and successfully by the Holy Spirit.
This is not a place where you and I just go, "Oh, that's a good idea. We'll do that. Hang on a minute. No, no, no, no. This is, I believe, a situation because it's involving your purpose and your plans. That which God has laid on your heart,
that which is the divine intervention that's coming into the planet through you.
God has given you a project. You need to be led and guided in the delivery of
that by the Holy Spirit.
Friends, we're out of time today. Thank you for joining with me and I will pick this study up again next week and we'll look at part four of Beating Frustration Before It Beats you. God bless.
Thanks for joining with us on this podcast. We are dedicated to helping you become all you can possibly be in Christ Jesus. Please do check out the resources at
livingsuccess.org that's livingsuccess.org. God bless.
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