Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Rediscovering Our Hidden Treasure
Ezra 1:7-11 January 13, 2008
In 1985… the year that I began my ministry here at First Baptist Church… the #2 song on the
Billboard charts… was a song by Madonna… called “Material Girl.”… That song embodied the
times… You could probably consider it the national anthem… of shopping malls…
Material things are not bad in and of themselves… It is the concept of materialism that is bad…
Materialism is the idea… that is suggested on the bumper sticker… “He who dies with most toys,
wins.”… It is the idea… that the more we have the better we are… and that is bad… I like the
Christian response to this bumper sticker… It simply says… “He who dies with the most toys, still
dies.”…
The truth is that how things are used is what makes them good or bad... The Bible teaches when
God created the world and all that was in it, he said it was good… The trees and herbs… the
animals… the birds… the stones and all that can be made with them… These are gifts from
God… They are good unless we use them the wrong way...
That brings me back to our discussion of Ezra… Last week I began a series of sermons based on
the book of Ezra... Ezra was written about 500 years before Jesus was born… It tells the story
of the Jews who returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity… Prior to the exile… the Jews
had neglected God and everything God gave them…
God gave them the Law… they ignored it and disobeyed it… God gave them the land… they
abused it and were disobedient in it… God gave them the temple… they worshipped idols in it…
So God let them be carried away into exile by the Babylonians…
As we turn to the pages of the book of Ezra… we find God revealing a new plan for his people…
Last week we noted how God used Cyrus, the king of Babylonia… to accomplish his plans…
Cyrus made it possible for the people to return… Not only did he free them… he also declared that
all of their neighbors had to give them what they needed… so they could go back to rebuild the
temple of God… My point was that God is in control… and he will use anybody or anything to
accomplish his will…
Our text today talks about the way God restored the fortunes of the nation… as they prepared to
follow him back to Israel… The very first thing God does… when they pack up to go home… is
restore the stuff... the material goods… that had been taken from years earlier… We are reminded
here that stuff is important to God…
Do you remember back to the book of Exodus? … Remember when Moses came down from the
mountain the second time with the stone tablets in his hands? … What did they do after Moses
gave the people the Word of the Lord?… They started making stuff...They created material things
…the tabernacle, the ark, the altar, the priestly garments. .. They made all the stuff that was to be
used in the worship of the Lord… And that material stuff must have been pretty important to
God… because He spent the last 5 chapters of Exodus describing it in the minutest detail.
God is creator of all… And as creator it all belongs to Him... The good news is that God shares his
wealth with us… so that we can glorify him.
When I was growing up my father had a Mach One Mustang... It was a hot car... I will never
forget the day he gave it to me… It was his car, but he let me have it… I was so honored because
I realized whose car it was… and how the gift reminded me how much my dad loved me…
The same is true with all the good gifts God gives us... He gives them out of his love for us...
Everything we have is his and yet he shares it with us... Our cars, our homes, our families,
everything, belongs to God… Our computers, our cell phones, our guitars, belong to God… but he
let’s us use them… because in our joy, he is exalted.
The problem is that sometimes we forget who everything belongs to.. That is what happened is
Israel… As a result they lost it all… It was almost as if they placed it in the wrong account and it
got lost…
Here as they get ready to head home… God moves everything back into the right account… He
takes it from the gentiles and returns it to the temple account of Israel…
The truth is that God does this all the time… When we decided to return to him, he begins to
restore our fortunes… It begins in small ways… But the more glory we give him… the more
blessings we receive… I’m not just talking about wealth… I’m talking about health, about family,
about work, about dignity... When we give our life to Christ… he starts pouring out his blessings
on us….
The truth is that God wants to share his blessings with us because as his children… we can
appreciate them… On New Year’s eve I watched a wonderful movie… It was entitled, The
Ultimate Gift… It starred James Garner from Maverick and the Rockford Files… In the movie
Garner plays a very rich man who died… All his family cares about is the money he left behind…
But Garner takes one young man, his grandson…and decides to do something special for him... He
sees a special quality in him... So he gives him a series of challenges... In the end we find out that
Garner was right… This young man was special and he was worthy of the ultimate gift… Rent
the movie… You will enjoy it…
The same is true of us… God looks into our hearts and he sees that we are worthy because we
belong to him... And his blessings flow because God knows we will use them properly... In our
text we see that everything was turned over to the prince of Judah… the man with a heart for
God… So it is with us too…
Finally, God has only one restriction on his gifts... They must be used or they will be taken
away… You remember the story about the talents... God expected each of the servants to use their
gift… They couldn’t bury them... The same was true of Israel… Once the treasure was given…
the people were expected to leave Babylon and go home… They could not stay where they were…
They had to use that treasure to build the temple or they would lose it…
The good news is that we all have buried treasure in our homes… I’m not talking about the junk
people sell on ebay… I am talking about the blessings of God… We need to spend more time with
God… praising and worshipping him… When we do, when we reflect his glory… we will begin
to find that he has blessed us… with more treasurer than we could ever imagine… It is all around
us…. But it can only be seen when we lift our eyes to the Lord… so lift your eyes, lift your
hands, open your hearts… and be blessed as you discover the treasure God has given you…
Amen
Ezra 1:7-11 January 13, 2008
In 1985… the year that I began my ministry here at First Baptist Church… the #2 song on the
Billboard charts… was a song by Madonna… called “Material Girl.”… That song embodied the
times… You could probably consider it the national anthem… of shopping malls…
Material things are not bad in and of themselves… It is the concept of materialism that is bad…
Materialism is the idea… that is suggested on the bumper sticker… “He who dies with most toys,
wins.”… It is the idea… that the more we have the better we are… and that is bad… I like the
Christian response to this bumper sticker… It simply says… “He who dies with the most toys, still
dies.”…
The truth is that how things are used is what makes them good or bad... The Bible teaches when
God created the world and all that was in it, he said it was good… The trees and herbs… the
animals… the birds… the stones and all that can be made with them… These are gifts from
God… They are good unless we use them the wrong way...
That brings me back to our discussion of Ezra… Last week I began a series of sermons based on
the book of Ezra... Ezra was written about 500 years before Jesus was born… It tells the story
of the Jews who returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity… Prior to the exile… the Jews
had neglected God and everything God gave them…
God gave them the Law… they ignored it and disobeyed it… God gave them the land… they
abused it and were disobedient in it… God gave them the temple… they worshipped idols in it…
So God let them be carried away into exile by the Babylonians…
As we turn to the pages of the book of Ezra… we find God revealing a new plan for his people…
Last week we noted how God used Cyrus, the king of Babylonia… to accomplish his plans…
Cyrus made it possible for the people to return… Not only did he free them… he also declared that
all of their neighbors had to give them what they needed… so they could go back to rebuild the
temple of God… My point was that God is in control… and he will use anybody or anything to
accomplish his will…
Our text today talks about the way God restored the fortunes of the nation… as they prepared to
follow him back to Israel… The very first thing God does… when they pack up to go home… is
restore the stuff... the material goods… that had been taken from years earlier… We are reminded
here that stuff is important to God…
Do you remember back to the book of Exodus? … Remember when Moses came down from the
mountain the second time with the stone tablets in his hands? … What did they do after Moses
gave the people the Word of the Lord?… They started making stuff...They created material things
…the tabernacle, the ark, the altar, the priestly garments. .. They made all the stuff that was to be
used in the worship of the Lord… And that material stuff must have been pretty important to
God… because He spent the last 5 chapters of Exodus describing it in the minutest detail.
God is creator of all… And as creator it all belongs to Him... The good news is that God shares his
wealth with us… so that we can glorify him.
When I was growing up my father had a Mach One Mustang... It was a hot car... I will never
forget the day he gave it to me… It was his car, but he let me have it… I was so honored because
I realized whose car it was… and how the gift reminded me how much my dad loved me…
The same is true with all the good gifts God gives us... He gives them out of his love for us...
Everything we have is his and yet he shares it with us... Our cars, our homes, our families,
everything, belongs to God… Our computers, our cell phones, our guitars, belong to God… but he
let’s us use them… because in our joy, he is exalted.
The problem is that sometimes we forget who everything belongs to.. That is what happened is
Israel… As a result they lost it all… It was almost as if they placed it in the wrong account and it
got lost…
Here as they get ready to head home… God moves everything back into the right account… He
takes it from the gentiles and returns it to the temple account of Israel…
The truth is that God does this all the time… When we decided to return to him, he begins to
restore our fortunes… It begins in small ways… But the more glory we give him… the more
blessings we receive… I’m not just talking about wealth… I’m talking about health, about family,
about work, about dignity... When we give our life to Christ… he starts pouring out his blessings
on us….
The truth is that God wants to share his blessings with us because as his children… we can
appreciate them… On New Year’s eve I watched a wonderful movie… It was entitled, The
Ultimate Gift… It starred James Garner from Maverick and the Rockford Files… In the movie
Garner plays a very rich man who died… All his family cares about is the money he left behind…
But Garner takes one young man, his grandson…and decides to do something special for him... He
sees a special quality in him... So he gives him a series of challenges... In the end we find out that
Garner was right… This young man was special and he was worthy of the ultimate gift… Rent
the movie… You will enjoy it…
The same is true of us… God looks into our hearts and he sees that we are worthy because we
belong to him... And his blessings flow because God knows we will use them properly... In our
text we see that everything was turned over to the prince of Judah… the man with a heart for
God… So it is with us too…
Finally, God has only one restriction on his gifts... They must be used or they will be taken
away… You remember the story about the talents... God expected each of the servants to use their
gift… They couldn’t bury them... The same was true of Israel… Once the treasure was given…
the people were expected to leave Babylon and go home… They could not stay where they were…
They had to use that treasure to build the temple or they would lose it…
The good news is that we all have buried treasure in our homes… I’m not talking about the junk
people sell on ebay… I am talking about the blessings of God… We need to spend more time with
God… praising and worshipping him… When we do, when we reflect his glory… we will begin
to find that he has blessed us… with more treasurer than we could ever imagine… It is all around
us…. But it can only be seen when we lift our eyes to the Lord… so lift your eyes, lift your
hands, open your hearts… and be blessed as you discover the treasure God has given you…
Amen
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
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