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Sep 26, 2021

Rebuilding with Spirit and Truth

Passage: Ezra 3:1-12

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Ezra/Nehemiah - Rebuilding from Rubble

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: truth, word, spirit, foundation

The first things God’s people did after the Exile was to rebuild the Temple (and altar) and rediscover the Torah (the Word of God). As we rebuild today, both our personal lives as well as Grace Brevard, the 2 cornerstones that give dimension and order to the whole “building” are the Presence of God and the Word of God. Or, put another way, Spirit and Truth.

THEMES: The first things God’s people did after the Exile was to rebuild the Temple (and altar) and rediscover the Torah (the Word of God). As we rebuild today, both our personal lives as well as Grace Brevard, the 2 cornerstones that give dimension and order to the whole “building” are the Presence of God and the Word of God. Or, put another way, Spirit and Truth.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Nehemiah 9:5 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.”

CENTRAL TEXT: 

Ezra 3

1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2...and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening.

8b They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD.

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 Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD,

    “For he is good, for 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. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of 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, 13 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 the sound was heard far away.

Ezr 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Nehemiah 8:8, 12 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.