Successfully Negotiating a Time of Transition: Lessons from the Book of Ezra

A Chapter a Day

• Sunday, February 7, Zechariah 3
• Monday, February 8, Zechariah 4         
• Tuesday, February 9, Zechariah 5
• Wednesday, February 10, Zechariah 6
• Thursday, February 11, Zechariah 7
• Friday, February 12, Zechariah 8
• Saturday, February 13, Zechariah 9

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1. Times of transition always mean .

2. Change means new and new .

Change points over the past Year at Ingleside

Change points in the book of Ezra

3. Whatever wave you are in, it’s important that you to church & help us  .

4. As we transition back toward a new normal over the coming weeks and months, we should expect our spiritual to try to slow us down and trip us up.

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” (Ezra 4:1-3, ESV)

1. Dilution, Distraction, &

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3, NIV84)

⁴ Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build ⁵ and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:4-5, ESV).

2.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11, ESV)

3. 

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV)

fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:10, ESV)

4. Paid opposition 

. . . they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease. ²⁴ Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:23b-24, ESV)

5.  , but not

 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. ² Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. . . .

¹⁴ And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; ¹⁵ and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

¹⁶ And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. ¹⁷ They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸ And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses. (Ezra 5:1-2; 6:14-18, ESV)

“he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
(1 John 4:4b, ESV)

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6, ESV)