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I want to hear a shout of Hallelujah.
If you are excited about Nehemiah Chapter 8, how many of
you have read it? 1-2 Just two people.
Three. OK, maybe somebody give them the
chocolate. We will encourage them anyway
for putting effort to now to understand Chapter 8, we need to
understand the background and that will open our mind or
appreciate what's in Chapter 8. So let's look at the one of the
yeah, that's the one. Let's look at this timeline
here. You know, what has happened here
is basically because they neglected the law of God,
because they disobeyed God, because they indulged in
idolatry, because they lived sinful life, They have been sent
into captivity. They were sent into Babylon and
Astilians came and they took them away.
Then Babylonians came, took them away.
So now what is happening here is that in three different batches,
the people from the captivity returned to Jerusalem, to Judea
three different times. So the first time they came was,
I believe, first wave in 536 BC. The first wave of Jews returned
to Israel and begin to rebuild the Temple.
Now it took from 5:36 to 5:16. That's about 20 years it took to
rebuild the temple. In between, they were stopped.
In between they were opposed. But there were some prophets who
are encouraging them, Hey Guy and Zechariah, and they came
with the message to build the temple.
And ultimately they finished building the temple in 516 BC.
Temple construction is completed, but you don't find
that the nothing is done about the walls of Jerusalem.
Nothing is done about the gates of Jerusalem which have been
burned down, which have been pulled down.
Nothing is being said. So now what is interesting here
is you do not see that there is a connection between Ezra and
Nehemiah. Ezra came first, 14 years before
Nehemiah, and he is in Jerusalem teaching the law faithfully day
in and day out. Whoever wanted to learn, whoever
wanted to listen, Ezra was deeply committed to study the
Law and to teach it. Now when you look into the book
of Ezra, you will see all these. I think in particular, chapter 8
or somewhere he says his mission is to study the Law and to teach
it. How many of us are committed,
like Ezra, to study the law and to teach it?
This is what is a vision in chapter 8.
What you are seeing here is a revival that's coming into
Judea, a revival that's coming into Jerusalem, because they
were committed to study the Word and obey it.
That's very simple, very simple. The whole of the chapter you see
the impact of studying the Word and the revival that comes to
studying the Word. So now Ezra is silently working
through for 14 long years, and then the news reaches Nehemiah
in the capital of Sousa that the walls have been broken out.
Did not name and know about it before?
Probably he knew. Did name Maya know when Ezra
came to Jerusalem? He must have known because he
was serving in the, in the, in the course of Persian courts for
more than 20 years. And in the year of 20th year he,
he actually got permission to go back to Jerusalem.
So for 20 years he is there, and for 14 years before that is the
7th year of art exists. Ezra was given permission to go
back to Jerusalem and he was given gold, silver, money, The
utensils that Nebuchadnezzar took away from, from Jerusalem,
they are being restored. And he carried a lot of gold and
silver, tons of it, and came back to Jerusalem and deposited
there and reconstructed the temple.
Now we cannot, we cannot underestimate the job of Ezra
for those 20 years, the 14 years he was committed to teaching the
world, restore the religious atmosphere, to restore the
temple practices, the sacrifices, reading of the law.
He was doing faithfully that prepared the hearts of the
people. And when Nehemiah heard that the
walls are broken down, burned down, he decided to come and
restore the walls. He was not moved by the temple,
not being in good shape, but he was moved by the walls broken
down. But Ezra heart was for the
temple of God and he came back because he wanted to revive the
temple, because he wanted to revive the law.
Is are the two contrary things. Temple and the walls of
Jerusalem are the two different things.
Its all belong to one people, but God touches people
differently, uses people differently.
I mean are we together? Ezra is moved by what?
The temple Nehemiah is moved by what broken down walls and bond
on walls. So whatever way God touches you,
whatever way God instructs you, whatever way God has wired you
to for His Kingdom, that's what we have to find out and do it.
You have to find out your life purpose and do it.
Find out your life purpose and do it.
That's all very important. So after the 516 BC, you have
got so many years again. How many years?
458 BC is how long? How long?
424858 years. For 58 years there is a silence.
Nothing is much. Nothing much is happening.
And then you see, sorry, in 458 BC, Ezra leaves Babylon to lead
more people to just. That's the second time people
come and the third time people come is Nehemiah 444 BC.
It says 445 here but basically he must getting ready.
Depends on the people who are writing the commentary and the
calendar they follow. There's always a year of one
year difference so don't worry. Its 444 BC.
That's what I know for sure. So 14 years afterwards Nehemiah
comes and rebuilds the walls in two months time.
Just two months now, after all these things have happened
because, because when you look at Chapter 7, the last was
there, it says when the 7th month came and the Israelis are
settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in
the square before the Watergate. Where is the Watergate?
Can we look at the next diagram please?
One more Watergate is somewhere here on the right side, you see
a little gap in the green. It is in Watergate.
So that is Temple is up up there and Watergate is somewhere on
the eastern side of Jerusalem. So you see the Watergate, that
is where the people came at the square.
And So what must have happened is Ezra must be standing towards
the wall, you know, where there is a square.
Thank you. So that is the Watergate here.
So you have a square here. You can see a little bit of
square here. It must be.
Ezra must be standing here facing westward, not eastward
facing westward. Why this direction is very
important? The temple of God was the
entrance of temple on the east but the Gods glory or the holy
of holies on the West. So when you enter the temple you
are facing the West. All the religions, Hinduism,
Islam they all face was east and whereas the biblical Judaism and
Christianity they face W the presence of God is in the West.
So you need to face the West anytime every time you want to.
I mean if you want to follow the Old Testament now we are free
from east and West. We are all anywhere, any
direction you face you can pray to God.
But he was conscious that the presence of God is towards the
West and he faced towards the West and the walls that built
were used to magnify his voice. Probably there must be people
about 40 to 50,000 gathered on this occasion and this occasion
is called festival of trumpets. Basically first festival of
trumpets is they blow the Rams horn and celebrate the celebrate
and rejoice in God because God had set them free from Egypt and
brought them into the land of freedom.
So what they are trying to do here is the celebrating the
temple, the celebrating gods deliverance by blowing the
trumpets and remembering it. And also in the book of
Deuteronomy chapter 31 you will see that once in seven years
they are supposed to gather together and read the book of
the law. What is the book of the law?
The first five books, Genesis to Deuteronomy, they have to read
it once in seven years. So now it that must be a 7th
year when they are gathering with the blowing of the
trumpets. Now what is happening here?
You see what is your you have to observe this very carefully.
They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book.
Who told the people who told Can I hear it people?
How did it happen? 14 long years.
Ezra is telling them, read the law, obey the law, read the law,
obey the law, study the law. He's going on, you know, bashing
them with that kind of a teaching.
And now on this day, the people said we are ready now bring the
book. You know, sometimes some of you
are still not very proactive when it comes to the Bible study
we are doing like Ezra, bang, bang, bang.
You have to come to Bible study, study the word, obey the word.
That's what we are doing. But a day will come when you
will say I want to do Bible study.
You will run after the Bible studies.
Why in in that scripture you will find freedom, life, a
release of the Holy Spirit into your spirit as you study the
law. There is power in the law.
There is power in the law, power in the Bible.
Every word has power in in it. Anyone verse you believe it with
all your heart. Your life is going to be
changing. Its not going to be the same.
Pick up one verse and believe it, act on it.
Your life will not be the same. That is the power that you see
in the in the law. So now they said bring the law,
bring the book. They said they told Israel, the
scribe to bring out the book, the law of Moses with the Lord,
Lord had commanded for Israel. So now the revival has come not
from top down is from down is coming to the top.
It is not the pastor pushing you had to come to Bible study.
You have to come to Bible study. They are saying no, we want to
come to Bible study. When I read it, I said this is
what I am doing, longing God. This is what I am longing for.
I want this to happen in Omega. Everybody should be there for
the Bible study. If you want to visit God, if you
want God to visit your life, it has to come through the Bible.
It will come through the Bible. This is not a single revival in
history where the Bible has been neglected and you had a revival.
No, you cannot have. So we are looking for a revival
to come and that will come to studying the Word and obeying
the Word. No other way.
There is no other way. So on the first day of the 7th
month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly.
He brought the book, he brought out the book.
You know when we say book there is like a scroll.
Its a scroll. Could he have read from Genesis
to Deuteronomy in one week before the public?
Is it possible? May not be possible.
So Ezra must have taken the important parts or he must have
limited himself to reading the book of Deuteronomy.
What is Deuteronomy? Deutero is second law just like
you have Exodus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
It is called Deuteronomy because it is a second law.
The everything that God has spoken and given as a law in the
first four books is reiterated and compressed and it is it is a
second. Second time has been given by
Moses to the people of Israel. That's why its called
Deuteronomy second law. So now who are the people who
are here? Who are the people who are
coming up there, which was made-up from men and women and
all who were able to understand, who came together at the square,
men, women and all who could understand.
That means somebody is 8 or 10 year old, they can understand
the law. They were there.
You do not have the categories here.
Or let's have women's meeting, let's have a Mens meeting, let's
have Sunday school. No, its one event.
Ezra is standing up on a platform specially built for
this purpose. Its a platform.
It is just raised up area so that all the people standing can
see as far as the last person in the crowd.
If he has to look at Ezra, he cannot be standing on the same
level. So they built a platform for
him. He stood on the platform and he
opened the scroll and he read it out and he had 13 people
standing with him. There were six on his left, 7 on
his right. Why?
If you look at the names which Jenny has skipped while reading,
you look at the names there mentioned there, and when you
read Chapter 9, you will see some of those names again as Lee
Whites, and Ezra himself was a Lee White.
When you look at his genealogy, it goes back to Aaron, one of
his sons, the second son. Through him it goes down and
down and down. Ezra is the descendant of Aaron
and he was a Lee White. He was committed to study the
law and to teach it. You know what?
History was waiting for one man. Say with me, history was waiting
for one man. Who is that one man?
Ezra. Because what Ezra did through
his commitment to study the law and to obey the law and to teach
the law was just beyond any description the impact of Ezra's
life. During the time of Jesus, you
had a group of people called Pharisees.
They claimed distant lineage from Israel.
They were committed to study the law.
That's the reason why they went in their zeal and made-up more
laws until they became miserable themselves and made other people
miserable. Jesus had to come back and reach
him and redo the whole thing and sum it up as two laws and a lot
of things he had to do and oppose the Pharisees.
But what began as a good thing has become a bad thing over
centuries. So you have all the things.
When you look at a revival its good, but after a few years it
becomes bad. I don't want to name anyone
particular one, but all the revivals they are all good.
But over centuries it gets diluted.
It becomes a religion. So we need to do what we need to
do in every era, every age of the thing.
We need to be consciously studying the law, obeying the
law, preach the law, teach the law.
This is simple. This is the motto of Ezra.
It should be a motto of every Christian.
It should be a life goal to commit yourself to study the
law, obey the law, teach the law.
I must be very young when I heard the message on Ezra but
that made an impact on my mind and I said I will do it.
I will do it and I am not ashamed for the decision I made
because he has given me a mind to understand the Bible and I
have put lot of effort into it. Hours and hours of study I have
done. I have read many books on how to
study Bible. You need to learn it.
Its not just doesn't drop from heaven.
You have to put effort to study the law, the word and we that's
the that's what we are trying to do on the Wednesday nights is we
are trying to give you questions that will help you to build that
mindset to study the word. So everything we do here is done
with that is what is called a vision.
We have the vision for Omega where every member will know
what the Bible says and every member will have a desire to
obey the law and every member will be wanting to teach the law
to somebody who wants to listen. There was a time Seema and I
conducted a Bible study for a couple, a husband and a wife for
15 months. They didn't bring anybody else,
whether it is two people or 200 people or 2000 people.
My commitment to study the teach is not going to change.
I will do if it is only one person, the same amount of
passion I will put into that preparation for one person.
So that is how I have lived. And I think all of us must have
the same kind of a mind, a commitment to study the law, not
just study, obey the law. Without obedience you cannot
teach it. We will become a Pharisee.
We don't do it. Cool, let's go on.
Go on. So there we see how he read it
aloud from Daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the
Watergate in the presence of the men, women and others who could
understand. And all the people listened
attentively to the book of the Law.
They listened attentively. They were not standing and
sleeping. They listened attentively.
And when he stood on the platform, opened the book, they
started. They stood up.
Did not say, oh, let's just lie down a little bit, there's some
grass here. No, no, they stood up.
Why? Why did they have to stand up?
Because they respect the book. They respected the law and that
Torah that he was holding in his hand when he was unveiling it,
He was just rolling it out. People just stood on their feet
because they are not hearing the words of a man, but they're
hearing the words of God. They are not there gathered
there to listen to a man. They're listening to the voice
of God, the words of God. And they had to respect the
words of God. They stood up.
How about standing for one hour and listening to the message?
Just joking. Don't worry about it, I won't
make you do it, OK? Ezra the scribe stood on a high
wooden platform built for the occasion.
Beside him on his right stood Matitaya Shema, Anaya Oraya
Hilkiya Masaiya and on his left were Pedaya Mishael Malkija
Hashem Hashba da na is Zechariah and Meshullah.
Now you not only bring the book, next thing you have to do is
Ezra opened the book. Everybody say Ezra opened the
book. How many of you have got a Bible
somewhere on the shelf somewhere but not opened?
No, you haven't not opened. Please open it.
The Lord, the Lord will speak to you and encounter you through
his written printed page. So a lot of people when whenever
we hear testimonies, they'll say I had a Bible that was
collecting dust, but one day I opened it.
That's the day God will visit you.
Open the book, open the book. Tell you whenever.
Give them a high 5. Say open the book.
All the people could see him because he was standing above
them. And as he opened it, the people
all stood up. Ezra, praise the Lord, the great
God. And all the people lifted their
hands and responded. Amen, Amen.
And they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their
faces to the ground. Now, how many different things
are happening here? The man is standing on the
platform and he opened the scroll and people saw it, stood
up on their feet, and then what did they do?
They not only have done just standing up.
When then Ezra, praise the Lord of the great God.
We often don't do that, but before we should.
Of course, we have a time of singing and worship, but we
should be able to praise God all the time.
And particularly before you read the Word, you praise Him.
And when you praise him, what happens is the revelation comes
when you read the book. That's the way so many people
say, oh, I don't get any revelation.
I read the book. Nothing happens.
You have to prepare your heart. Praising God prepares your heart
and the Holy Spirit was dwelling in you will move in your mind
and make you understand as you praise him, as you worship him.
That's how you prepare yourself. And Ezra has done it every day
of his life. And now as he was doing every
day of his life before the public, 4050 thousand people
watching him, it just comes naturally to him to praise God
and to worship God. Amen.
So what happened? They all shouted saying, I mean,
I mean the Hebrew, I mean, and they were saying, I mean, I mean
they're agreeing with that, with what Ezra was saying.
He's praising God. Can they hear 5050 thousand
people gathering in one place? Can they hear when Israel is
saying something? How did Ezra manage to teach
4050 thousand people without a microphone, without a sound box?
Its a puzzle. Its a big puzzle.
But we will unravel the puzzle little by little.
We will see how what the world has to say about it.
And they bow down and worship the Lord with their faces to the
ground. Now they were sitting down, they
see the book, they stand up and they shout Amen, Amen.
And now they are kneeling down and falling on the ground,
worshipping God with their faces to the ground.
How many times we are overpowered by the presence of
God? How many times we are so
thankful to God that we are able to fall down before Him?
I know a man, his name is AW Tozer.
He would go to the beach. On the beach he would be lying
prostate and four hours, 6 hours, 7 hours of time just
flies by because he was deeply in adoration of God, worshipping
God, loving God, praising God. We should find time to do that.
I have tried to do it on the bed.
It doesn't work. The Levites, Joshua, Bani,
Sherry, Sherry, Bhaiya, Jameen, Akoob, Shabetai, Huraya, Masaya,
Kelita, Azaraya, Josephbad, Hanan and Pelaya instructed the
people in the law. What did they do?
Instructed the people in the law, what?
What does it mean? It means little more.
When we go forward, we will see here.
While the people who are standing there, they read from
the book of the law of God, making it clear and giving the
meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.
Ha ha ha, what is really happening here?
The book is written by Moses in Hebrew, but now, nearly 1000
years later, that Hebrew is not what they are speaking anymore.
That is not the language they are speaking anymore.
It has to be interpreted, it has to be explained.
And some of them may not be knowing Hebrew at all.
I'll give you an example. Now look at this one, the one
before, please. That's English.
Can you read it? Is it English?
Yeah. You all know that word.
You can make out what that means.
Jesus says, come unto me, all you are.
Heavy burdens carry heavy burdens.
My burden is light. My yoke is easy.
My burden is light. That's what he's saying in those
words, that all of us can figure it out somehow, isn't it?
But is it the same that anybody who doesn't know what Bible says
and reads it, can you figure out what the meaning is?
No, even though it's English now, it is from.
It is from John Wickley's translation of the first Bible
translation into English. That's part of it.
What am I trying to say here? Has English gone through
changes? Yes, and then after weekly done
weekly, if you come in 1611, you got King James version of 1611.
King James gives an order and they translate the Bible and
that's people think that's inspired by the Holy Spirit
completely, 100%. You cannot have any other
version. You have to read the Bible only
in King James. But this is the first
translation. What I, what am I trying to say
is language undergoes change. That's the reason why we need
modern translations. Why do you need a modern
translation? Because of the same reason.
At the same time, we want a translation, not a adding and
removing things. There are some translations
today existing which add things and remove things.
You know, whatever they want to do, they do it.
Please don't go by that. It has to be a dynamic
translation. What is dynamic?
It has to convey the meaning properly as the original readers
have understood it and that is called dynamic equivalence and
it must be easy to read. If you if you want to have a
accurate translation, go for NASB New American Standard
Bible. It is an accurate translation.
It does not flow easily. Even though English is your
first language, it doesn't flow easily, so you need a little
better than maybe ESV or NIV. And then you need to be careful
that the Bibles translators have a bias.
They have some doctrines they they subscribe to and they try
to bring that doctrine through the translation.
Now tell me, do you have to study it?
Now do you have to study the Bible?
You have to get to the root of it and find out what the Holy
Spirit has written in Hebrew and Greek.
That is how you must be committed.
So most some of the organizations they have got a
statement of belief. They say we believe the Bible is
inspired by God in the original language as given in Hebrew and
Greek and Aramaic. So what happens in English
translation? Its not Gods word, it is gods
word. God can speak through any
language. Any translation is not bound by
any language. So translations are good enough
but we don't make one translation the final one
because language keeps changing. Am I here?
We are all here together. So pick up more than one
translation you want to understand better.
So that's the way I do it. I read it whenever something
important I come across. I read it in 10/12/16
translations and I say oh this phrase is same in five, this
phrase is the same in another 8. So I go like that.
Suss it out exactly what it is they are trying to communicate.
So what they did was now you have Ezra standing on the
platform and you've got 13 people standing with him on the
platform. That is to say that is to
authorize that is to make the reading of the law a very
authentic experience or its something that is there are
approving and is it is giving credence to what Ezra is doing
by this 13 people standing there and when the people see Ezra
standing up, they stand up and they shout Amen.
They fall on their faces. I tell you there has to be a
dynamic interaction with the word of God.
It's not something you read or I I had my quiet time.
I read my Bible for today 5 minutes done.
You think God, God can he can speak because he is gracious and
merciful, but you have to dig out your dig out and that is how
you must be committed to study the word.
And then Nema said, and then what happened, Nema, the
governor, Ezra the prescribe the Levites who was instructing the
people said to the mall, this day is sacred to the Lord your
God. It is sacred, it is holy.
The day becomes holy because you are studying the law.
You are reading the law, it becomes holy.
And I tell you the Sunday is holy because we are studying the
law. That day is holy.
Do not mourn or weep, for all the people had been weeping as
they listened to the words of the law.
Why they were weeping? They were weeping because they
are convicted of sin. I have been reading a biography
of Rhys Howells whatever his name from UK and when he went to
Africa the revival came and the revival is part of the revival
is he would preach the word and the people would be wailing and
crying and confessing their sins for hours on together, nobodys
forcing them because the power of the Holy Ghost fell upon
them. They were confessing their sins
and they were weeping and repenting and after three or
four hours of it they get up completely set free.
Nobody is helping them, but we do something called deliverance,
you know, to some people, whoever wants it.
And we, we do the same thing. But we are making them repent.
We are making them say it. We are.
And after the repentance, after we disconnect the Spirit that's
following them, they are set free and they go out free.
So I told a lot last night when I was reading it.
I said we are doing it a lot, but we are in a very small
scale. We are one-on-one, one-on-one,
one person at a time. But I want you to visit Omega.
I want it to happen for everybody in the church by the
power of the Holy Spirit, by His mighty presence.
I want it to happen so deliverance is a process, not
unscriptural. It is what will happen on an
individual basis. But when the revival comes, the
Holy Spirit will do on Mass to everybody.
So he had to tell them name. I had to tell them go and enjoy
choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have
nothing prepared this day sacred to our Lord.
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Everybody say joy of the Lord is your strength.
If there is one word that should really you should not forget,
remember today from the sermon is this word.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
As you joy, as you take joy in God, who he is, as you rejoice
in him. That's what Paul says, rejoice
always. I say rejoice, you rejoice in
God, that becomes a source of strength.
You when you rejoice in God that becomes a source of strength.
I was looking at something and somebody was saying about its
like pregnancy. When you are pregnant, you are
carrying a burden and comes a time when you are going to have
the pain to deliver the baby, but that's the process.
And that pain is not the end, but that transforms into joy
because you have brought a human child into the world.
So when you're going through trouble, when you're going
through problem, you're pregnant, when you're going
through tears, when you're crying out God, why?
Why? Why?
But when the relief comes from Gods hand, from his presence,
this that will be transformed into joy.
I it's difficult for me to explain it, but all of us go
through troubles. I'm 100% sure all of us have
this experience of becoming pregnant with problem.
And then when you see God deliver you, you rejoice, you
rejoice. So this I was reading about the
recent man again. He when he was had to go
somewhere. God says to him, you are
preaching to believe in me in all circumstances.
Now you have to believe for yourself.
Go and sign in the queue to buy the ticket in the railway
station. But he had no money in his hand,
no money in his hand. He goes and stands up in the
queue and the queue is becoming shorter and shorter as he's
coming to the counter where he has to pay the money.
There are two people left and nothing, No miracle has
happened. And then the guy who is at the
counter who has to pay the money to buy the ticket, he says
suddenly I had to open my shop, I had to go home and it comes
out of the queue and puts 40 or 50 shillings into his hand and
goes away. And he meets the man who suppose
whom she supposed to meet when he travels there.
And he said I had actually 50 lbs to post it for you, but I
did not do it. He said thank God you did not
post it because I would not have experienced the power of God
waiting in the queue without the money to pay for the ticket.
That is what it is. Walking by faith is very
challenging, its rewarding, it does something when you hear God
answer your prayer, it changes you from inside, it gives you a
New Hope, it gives you a new strength.
That's what will happen. So now what happens is the
levers calmed all the people saying be still for this is a
sacred day. Do not grieve that all the
people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food
and to celebrate with great joy because they now understood the
words that had been made known to them.
They have understood the message of the law.
That is more important than anything else.
You, when you understand what the Bible is saying, your life
is going to be different. It's something you're not the
same person. After you understand that
something changes in your spirit, something changes in
your soul. And they were sending food to
each other. Now this, this may not be
understood by New Zealanders. I don't know the Western world
understand it, but its very common in India.
In the Middle East on a festival days you will make lots of
goodies in the home. You make them in your kitchen
and you give large portions. You put them on a fancy big
plate and cover it with a fancy cloth and take it down to your
friends home or your neighbors and give the plate that you're
sharing in the festival festivities of sharing the joy
of the festival. By taking it.
We only come. I mean, we, you bake the cake,
but unless somebody comes here, how you don't give the cake.
OK, That's our culture here now, but the Eastern culture is you
share. So now one of the parts of the
sharing is you share with those who cannot afford it, even in
even even the Muslims also when they're having Bakri, then
Ramjan and all those things, they make a lot of food and they
send it to each other, send it to each other.
Particularly some people make it a point to go to the poor and
give them the food because they cannot afford it.
It's a day you're rejoicing in the provision and you must
rejoice with those who cannot afford it.
And they did it. They did it.
And I think something we had to do differently for the Western
world will be to identify yourself with the needy and go
out of your way and share the good things you have with them.
Challenging, very challenging. He is going to push you out of
your comfort zone. What is this man teaching for
4050? As I lived my life, I never
shared anything with anybody. That's not what we are called to
do. Our Calling is to share the good
things you have with the people. OK, on the second day of the
month, I had to finish it soon. OK, I'll try to do it on the
second day. Now what we have to understand
here is again, the background is important.
The first day of the month is a trumpets.
You blow the trumpets, read the law and you celebrate second
day. These people came to Ezra and
they said, what did they say to him?
Heads of all the families, along with the priests and the
leavers, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to
the words of the law. They said, OK, we had lots of
reading yesterday, please read us some more.
And they found written in the law, which the Lord had
commanded through Moses, that the Israelis were to live in
booths. They had to make temporary
shelters and live in it. Did they do this before?
When you see in this chapter, it says never.
Was it observed like this from the time of Joshua, hundreds of
years, they have never celebrated this festival of
booths or tabernacles is called Tabernacles Festival of the
Tabernacles. So they go out into the
wilderness and cut branches and leaves and come home and mix
temporary shelters. They saw a flat roof, so they
build one on the roof, on the top of the roof and they live in
it day and night. Why do they do it?
To remember that their ancestors were slaves in Egypt, that God
had brought a lot of slavery. Now when you celebrate it,
you're telling your children, children don't think you're
you're free. Today has come without a prize.
Somebody else paid the price. There were slaves.
Your ancestors were slaves and God did a miracle and set them
free and brought them into the land of freedom.
And you are enjoying the freedom today.
So you have to worship God. I thank you because of what God
has done. And they do it for seven days.
So now first day of the 7th month is a festival of trumpets.
Yeah, it's also called blow up. You know, it's just blowing.
You have to blow the air into it.
So it's a festival of the blowing up.
And then on the 10th day is a day of tournament.
And from the 15th day to the 22nd day, it's called the
Tabernacles. So when the second day, they
come and ask Israel, please tell us they had two weeks to prepare
for it and to send this news to all over Judea and to tell
everybody who's living there to come to Jerusalem to celebrate
it. So the people come flocking on
this time or time of seven days, that's 15th day of the month to
the 22nd of the month. They cut the branches.
They came and dwelt in the sea inside the city of Jerusalem and
around the city of Jerusalem, because the city was very small,
Jerusalem very, very small. And they were building this
temporary shelters and living in it, rejoicing in God.
You don't rejoice in God, you are celebrating nothing.
You have to rejoice in God. When you rejoice in God, power
and blessings are released into your life.
So wherever they could find open squares, roof of the house,
anywhere, they would make temporary shelters, live in it.
So the people went out and brought back branches, built
themselves booths on their own roofs in their courtyards, in
the course of the House of God and the square where the
Watergate and the one by the gate of Ephraim, the whole
company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in
them. From the days of Joshua son of
noon until the day, the Israel had not celebrated it like this.
And their joy was very great. Actually they celebrated it in
516 when the temple was completed.
They did celebrate the festival of Tabernacle seven days, but
not in this magnitude, not in the spirit in which they
celebrated now. That is why the record says, and
from the time of Joshua until now, it was never done this way.
And what was the Panchalian? And their joy was very great.
That is, that is what it is. Their joy was very great.
That is how it should be to celebrate day after day.
Now I'm going to finish it in next two minutes.
Day after day, from the first day to the last is I read from
the book of the law of God. They celebrated the feast for
seven days and on the eighth day, in accordance with the
regulation, there was an assembly every day morning, 6 O
clock, children, men, women come to the square at the Watergate
and Ezra is standing on the platform reading from the book
of the Law from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
Six hours standing and listening, weeping and crying,
repenting. And for seven days they did it.
And on the 8th day, they rested and celebrated the whole thing.
On the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was
an assembly. That means they all gathered
together to worship God. Praise God.
What a what a kind of revival is coming here.
Was there. Do you think it's a revival?
How did it begin? One man, Ezra, was committed to
study the law, obey it and teach it.
Let's say those 3 words. Study, obey, teach again.
Study, obey, teach. Do you want to commit yourself
today that to do that? When you do it, you may not know
immediately the impact of it. After six months, you cannot say
I have not become an azra yet. After three years you cannot
say, oh I am reading Bible every day.
I am praying and trying to obey God.
I have not become a Ezra yet. Ezra did all his life before he
saw that great glorious day. You have to do it.
And when Gods time of visitation comes, he knows who to touch, He
knows who to use, He knows who to speak to.
Every time the Holy Spirit spoke to me, not because I was reading
on that day, the particular portion, because I have read it
before and preserved in my heart, He was able to explain
that to me. So many encounters I had half a
dozen or more. He literally hearing the Holy
Spirit explain the scripture even one dozen times.
But that's because I have studied the law.
I have studied the law and He speaks from that.
He takes it and speaks. I must have read studied the
life of Samson from the book of Judges maybe 2025 years ago.
But in 2010, when the whole is, he spoke to me.
He spoke to me from the life of Samson, from the life of Samson.
Because I knew the story, he was able to speak to me.
So don't think when you read the Bible you're wasting your time.
No, you are investing into the future encounter with God.
Hallelujah. Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you again for your word.
We pray we minister to your children now.
Rahashe sarani mandarasu sabarasta sundarano hora sakte
sherini mandarana Sabasta Kurani.
Horabo Ranama Senika saste sastoro bosaba Ranamana
sandarasta Kurani. The Lord says a man may think
his ways hidden from God. God says no, no, no.
I know your ways. I know you're sitting down, I
know you're getting up. Rasta Sorini Maharani ho sharako
sip the sanima Sona varanam anasto Sandharani mahaste
shaktasakuroni. But God says I will make my
glory known to him whose heart is after me.
Now I challenge you, children of God, I challenge you to commit
yourself to study the world, to obey the world, and to teach the
world if that's what you want to do rest of your life.
From today, just stand where you are.
I'm going to ask God to give you grace, even though some days you
are misreading the world, meditating on it, or doing
something. I will pray now that the Holy
Spirit will not leave you until He accomplishes everything that
He has in His mind in your life. Would you like to commit
yourself to study it, obey it and teach it?
Sabarana masharaste sakta karani mandarasta sabarano horaba
shakti sastaroni Resanama rishandrano Borasta koroni
Horika sakte sanda karani mahastaro Sabdarasta koroni.
My father, I thank you for the children who are standing up on
their feet because it is your word they are honoring.
It is, oh God, they are honoring you as a stand up and they are
wanting to study award and to obey it and to teach it.
And now I ask the Holy Spirit to come with power upon them, great
power and glory. Touch your children now.
Touch their heart, touch their mind, touch their heart, touch
their mind, touch their heart, touch their mind.
Change them because they want to invest into your eternal plan
for their life. And Holy Spirit, please be with
them all the days of their life and bring to fulfillment
everything that's written in the book in heaven for them to the
glory of your name. Release your angels to be with
them, protect them, bless them. Help them to keep this tradition
or the discipline of studying a word, obeying a word and
teaching a word, the glory of your name.
Bless them abundantly in Jesus might name I ask and everybody
says Amen, Amen. Please be seated.
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