Ezra 6 - Rebuilt

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Imagine having such a cold heart that compassion is replaced with complacency, that grace is being replaced with legalism, that love is replaced with the law. And that is where we find ourselves at the end of Ezra 5, coming into Ezra 6, where there's things happening in the life of the church. There's things happening in the life of the Israelites, and they're trying to get things done, and they have this pushback against them. And then, but they decided resolutely, we're going to keep going underneath the subsurface of this, and we're just going to keep going until we hear from God. There's a real lesson in that. And as we go into chapter 6 and we understand that this is the rebuilt, and it's not just rebuilding, it's rebuilt. This is the chapter where the temple is restored in Jerusalem. Hallelujah for that. And it stayed there until it was pulled apart in the 70 A.D. when it was destroyed again. So it was there for 500 years, Nelly, in this time, intertestamental period, plus these things before Jesus. So you're looking at quite a long time. And so these guys really put in to build, and that's something to celebrate. And sometimes we can get caught in the world where we think, well, if we have such a heart that's going to push back against God and look for the judgment and things, then we miss out on God's grace, miss out on God's wonderful provision. And that's what we celebrate today as we open Ezra 6. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks, Lord, to come into your presence today. Lord, we, Lord, just look with joy into chapter 6 and— Father, just thank you that the building is completed, the people are celebrating. Father, we look for the lessons in that for us today. Father, we look in for the application for us in the 21st century church. Father, for the first world country we live in. Father, we're so blessed, Father, to be here. We can preach your word openly. We can preach it on media, and Father, we can share in the streets around us. And Lord, not everywhere in the world is like that. Father, not everywhere in the world, in Australia, sorry, Father, is like that. Lord, just help us to take to heart these next things we learn from your word. We may apply them, Lord, for your glory, for your kingdom. And Lord, I pray as always, Father, the words of speaker be your words, Lord, not mine. In your name, amen. Well, I thank you again to Stuart and Angela, and I borrowed the titles of their little intro, which was quite profound, and that from the ground up, God builds and rebuilds. And so the foundations are laid. And when the foundations are laid, that's the first part that comes down, and he's gone before us in there. And I did a little bit of a tricky thing here. I used wiggly lines to simulate bricks. So there's a foundation there that looks like a building. Isn't that awesome? Thank you. I'm good with word, nothing much else. There is a secondary one I won't go into. It also talks about obedient and softened hearts, how God used hearts that were softened for obedience and built upon the foundation he has. And if you think about your walk with God, even your search with God, he's building now on the foundations that are in place. And then through others, there's things that happen through the rebuilding of others. And most of us can be thankful there's someone in our lives who has taken the time even to say hello to us, or say, I'm going to pray for you this week, or, How can I help you out? Is there some way I can encourage you? And most of us experience that in God's rebuilding in our lives. And on top of that, after we have a look at the foundations laid, obedient and softened hearts, through others we've been blessed. He gives us all we need. Sometimes we don't see the full picture. Sometimes we think, I need to supply in here what God's not providing. I need to take His place. And so we come into this Ezra 6 with these things in mind, and we'll have a look now. We'll have a read through the first part of Ezra 6, the decree of Darius. King Darius issued an order, and they searched in the archives and stored in the treasury at Babylon. A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and it was written on. Now, the thing about this scroll is it was kept at 6,000 feet above sea level. So the important scrolls, they wanted to not get mold and mildew and be affected by those things are kept in the high altitude. So they had to search everywhere, and they went to the high altitude. It wasn't just going to the Google and Googling it up or searching on our software. This was a heartened effort by these guys, and it was King Darius who said, Go find it. So they searched everywhere, and so this scroll was preserved. In the first year of King Darius, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The cost to be paid for by the royal treasury. Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem, and they are to be deposited in the house of God. Notice it doesn't say in the house of their god; it says the house of God. Interesting too, in that little passage there, it talks about the size of the temple. I went, flipped it back through and had a look to see when Solomon built the temple. Almost the same dimensions. So God was putting in place what was there at the start. It was His dimensions, His decree. Now Tattenai, governor of the Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and the other officials of that province, stay away from there. Directions given: stay away from there. Don't interfere with the work of the temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, hereby decree that you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of the house the following: their expenses are to be paid in full out of the royal treasury from the revenues of the Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, male lambs, or burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat and salt and wine and olive oil as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail, so they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons, and furthermore. I decree that anyone defies this edict, a beam is to be pulled from their house and they are to be impaled on it. And for this crime, their houses to be made a pile of rubble. May God, who has caused his name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence. Pretty impressive, isn't it? Here's a pagan king touched by the heart of God. What do we learn from that? We've learned, first of all, that God's provision is unimaginable. If they had have thought about it in their terms, perhaps they would have went to the point of saying, We need to build. We need to sort of save up. We need to work out if we can cut corners on this building. But God had already put in place the size of the building and how it was to be built. He already has in place a plan that Darius discovers and the people discover as they go. In verses 4b to 5, their costs to be paid from the royal treasury. And he says in verse 7, no interruptions. He says no expenses to be paid, whatever they need. In verses 8 and 9, they mean to be free to worship. In verse 10, free to worship, no interruptions. Punishment will be dealt with if not complied with. And when I was reading about what this punishment meant, they don't literally take a beam out of the house about this square and so many meters long and impale them with it. It means they'll be beaten with it. Apparently the Hebrew sort of works it around a different way, but it means they'll be part of their building be taken, they'll be beaten with this part of the building, and then the house will be pulled down. The king was dead set serious. He changed his heart. He said, No, we can't get in the road of this, which is pretty phenomenal and pretty impressive for us today. It reminds you of the words in Genesis 22:8, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. We need to say that from our heart of hearts, not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious and God is benevolent. And Abram was taking his son Isaac up to be sacrificed, and he was taking him along, and he said, Where are we going, Dad? And he said, We're going to do something because we want to be obedient to God. And his words to his son were, The Lord Almighty will provide. Jehovah Jireh. And as we know how that account goes, as it got to the point where the knife was raised, a goat came out from the edge and was sacrificed in his place. But such was his faithfulness, he knew the Lord would provide. Sometimes we get everything around us, and we try to hang on to all we possibly can. We protect ourselves with shells of things around us and armor we put on of this life. But God will provide according to His riches in glory. He will provide for us. I'm sure Brother Steve can speak of how God's provision has been for him during these last several months of his recovery, and we've heard great stories come out of that. We've heard great stories come out of those who have been in places that have been pretty hard for them, yet God will provide. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God will provide? He will go before you. He will make things happen in His time, because He's laid that foundation in your life. A softened heart. Acknowledges the King of Kings. We learn from Darius, his heart has been softened. The title of our sermon series is Renewed Hearts Needed, and the renewed heart there is this king, who, a pagan king, who somewhat become a convert in his attitude and his actions. God can change the hearts and minds of those in authority because it says in Hebrews, He puts authority in place over us, those. If He can put them in place, He can change their heart. Did you notice that in here too, that King Darius said that we want to do this because they will pray for the king and his sons. He saw the importance of honoring God. So already God has changed the heart of someone put in authority. Never doubt that God can do that. He's the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He can change hearts and minds, and He changes them according to His purpose. It's a great understanding to read and contemplate those few words. And then we come to verse 13, the completion and dedication of the temple. Then because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, the governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associates carried out with due diligence. So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. The temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Then the people of Israel and the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles celebrated, dedicated the house of God with joy. At the dedication of the house of God, they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs, and a sin offering for all of Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel, and they installed their priests and their divisions and their Levites in their groups for the services of God of Jerusalem, according to what was written in the book of Moses. Wow. Huge. A hundred bulls, all sorts of things happening, four hundred male sheep, four hundred rams. Oh, so many things were happening. Twelve goats for each of the heads of the tribes of Israel. Why were they celebrating? We built a building? No. They weren't celebrating how good they were. They were celebrating and honoring God's providence, and I think that's pretty special. You see, their appreciation was essential. It was atonement for their disobedience. When you look back at chapter five, you'll see when Tatnai says to them, Why are you doing this? Why are you building? He said, Well, we were disobedient, and we were exiled, and we were sent off to Egypt, and were brought out of Egypt by the hand of God, and then we lived there and did our own things, and things happened that we weren't proud of, and then we were told by the multiple prophets, particularly Jeremiah said, You need to stop this. You need to turn now. You're going to be exiled. And then God said, You're going for seventy years, so we got pushed away. And so because of our unfaithfulness, because of our disobedience, this was the result of our exile. But through God's grace, through God's redemption, we have been restored to the land. We've been restored to build. We've been given this opportunity, so we're going to have this celebration out of appreciation. For not what we have done, but what God has done in us, for what God has done in us. It was interesting coming to the celebration last night of 12 months, and the pastor from South Brisbane Church, he came up and led a devotion, and he was challenging and teasing Pastor Andy a little bit, saying, I'm trying to work out why this is the 12th month anniversary of the first year, he said, of the church being established. He said, Wasn't the church established in Pentecost in Acts? And of course, with our blessed island folk, they have a way of their humour and laughing. You sort of laugh with them, hoping you get the joke. And then we were singing songs of praise, and we were singing, they had the words in English and they had the words in Samoan up there, and I'm terrible at that. I butcher those things. I took a photo of it and I put it on Facebook, saying, This is awesome. What a blessing it is to be in this place with these guys who are full on for God. There was heaps of people here. There was probably about 120 out in the hall. There was food for 300. There was 120 people, and they got through it all. And as I put it up, I was telling the people sitting next to me and apologising to them that when I was in Gatton and I used to be involved in the footy club, we had a lot of Polynesian and Islanders playing for us, and I was in the call box, and every time someone scored a try, it was, so the try was scored by number 10, and say their name. And of course, so many of these boys are good football players, they're scoring tries, and I'm trying to work out which vowel goes before which consonant and how to say that, and I go, and I'd say it funny and there'd be laughter on the veranda beside me. I'd go to the guys after the game and I'd apologise for mispronouncing their name, and I'd say, How do you pronounce your name? And they'd say, Lututani. And I said, But it's not written like that. And they said, No, this is how it's said, bro. It's said like this. And so I was just thinking that, you know, how, you know, when we, our appreciation of things, what it looks like to say, well, God can speak through languages, He can speak through decrees, He can speak through all sorts of things, red tape. But when it comes to us, there's only one thing that's happened for us, and that's Christ to die for us. There's also the need to make it right with God. This was a celebration acknowledging that need: make it right with God. We want to let people know. Acknowledge the Passover and the deliverance from Israel. We read about that in verse 19. They're putting it through together. It's one celebration ran into another. But again, that teaching that comes from the heart of saying, we understand that we're delivered out of Israel. And the Passover, of course, is that great symbol we have of the doorframe with the blood of the lamb, the unblemished lamb on the doorway, that spirit of death could pass over it, and that is what Jesus did for us. And we can look at that and go, I understand that, that Jesus is the atoning blood for us. He's the sacrifice for us. There's celebration and appreciation too for God's strength, righteousness, faithfulness, and grace. One of the hardest things we do in the 21st century is live the life we live and take time to say, Lord, I thank you for your strength, your righteousness, your faithfulness, your grace in my life. Because that's something that we seem to compartmentalize sometimes. And I encourage you to think about the things that have happened in your life and say, well, where can I put that fingerprint of God in there? At home group, we were at our discipleship group on Wednesday night. I was blessed to be in the presence of the young men and young women of our church, and we were talking about sharing stories about God's faithfulness. And I was sharing about how, when I was a young man, a lot of you have heard this story before, and we're going to share it again for those who haven't. It's just how God puts His hand upon you. You can't see it at the time, but man, His fingerprints are all over it. And we're driving along in the night. We're coming home from the pub, and we're driving along, and we were going into a flooded river that we were going to ford and go up to the property house. And as we were driving in, I said, The bridge is over there. My uncle said, No, the bridge is here. It's pitch black. Waters are raging through. So we decided to do what my uncle said, and we got so far in the car and we stopped, and the car got caught on something, and the water started coming through the doors. So we got into the tray. The water kept coming up. He said, What do we do? He said, We've got to swim for it. I said, Which direction? He said, The dog will know. And he threw the dog in the water. He said, Follow Boof. So we followed Boof to the shore, and we made a fire, and we sat there and we got our clothes dry. And the next day, we worked out how to get across the creek, and we got back to the station house. And then when the floodwaters went down, we went to retrieve the Jeep, the vehicle, and it was sitting on a pile of broken rubble that was this high. And before, in front of it, was a 10-meter hole in the river. We could have gone, if we had have gone and that hadn't been there, God's hand hadn't stopped us, we would have been in that hole and probably perished. Now, I wasn't a believer at that stage, but when I became a Christian, I was thinking back, What's God done in my life here, and what can I appreciate? And I'm going, Oh wow. That was one of many stories, because I was a fool. But God saves us right from who we are, and He has His fingerprints on us. This was appreciation for them, was that God's righteousness, strength, faithfulness, and grace came through. And Jesus is the sacrifice that atones for our sins today. We might be right before God. In Ephesians 2:8 and 9, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is a gift from God. How awesome is that? Not by works, so that anyone can boast. These guys weren't boasting. They were saying, We just want to say thank you, Jesus. Or sorry, thank you, God, Yahweh. I say thank you, Jesus now, Michael, so. It's pretty interesting, isn't it? When we have our goals in our life, we have things we set up, things we're trying to work out, we think, How can I help God do this? God's not saying that. He says, Listen to me. I will lead. Follow me. Be obedient. I will provide a way. Now that can be a generalized statement, and some folk go, You're kidding, because I'm struggling with this right now, Pastor Doug. I don't even comprehend that because I'm so distracted by it. You know, God does love you. He knows what you're going through. Be encouraged that you're not far away. You're not far away from Him. One of the great things about this, the new heart, is the acknowledging God's sovereignty, and this is the part that really excites us because we say, Wow, if God's doing all this through His faith, grace, and righteousness, His sovereignty is overwhelming. The new heart are hearts that are softened by God on a daily basis. God softens your heart on a daily basis. He wants you to draw close to Him. He wants you to be in His presence. He wants you to be in His presence. He wants to take away the things that are trying to distract you from God. One of the things I pray regularly for our church family here is, Lord, refresh and renew your children today in this church. God laid this on my heart to pray for you guys that way. And the other thing He says is, I've won the victory in Christ. Let them walk in the victory of the cross and not be distracted by the schemes of the evil one. Let them be exposed so they may be able to bring those before you. New hearts are hearts that are softened by God, that are malleable by God. Years ago I did a, I think I might have shared this, but I love going back to this illustration. My mind was purely a God thing, but we made up all these different hearts for our Spaciate camp. And I'll never forget that day when we broke the hard heart and how it affected those who were sitting on the wooden floor as a 12-pound sledgehammer busted through the concrete and reverberated through the floor, totally unintentional. But that's what God is doing to you today. He's breaking your hard heart because He wants your heart to be softened. He wants you to be renewed in your heart. He wouldn't have this message for us today if there wasn't a need for it. Can I say that quite clearly and quite honestly? The message is for me as much as it is for you, to keep your heart soft, to keep it renewed. Keep it close to God. If there's anything that's holding you back, anything you're struggling with, bring it to God. Let Him in. New hearts are obedient to God, and they hear and trust Him. They may occur in long-term believers, believe it or not. Long-term believers have hard hearts sometimes; need their hearts to be soft. It says in Galatians 6:9, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up. Let us not become weary in doing good. Old Christians get weary. They get tired. Oh, going to church again. I might not get there quite early because I just want to go in and sit in church. Sometimes people say, Well, I'm just going to leave it be for a while. I know how to do this, so I'm just not going to do it. Can I encourage you that don't get weary. Give it to God. Say, Lord, if weariness is something I'm dealing with right now, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now about your weariness, give it up to God. Just bow your head quietly and pray, Lord, I'm sorry for holding on to this. New hearts are also obedient to God, and they occur in the desperate believers. There are some desperate believers. When you think life can't bash you around anymore, you're up and down things. You're so sick of what's happening in your life, in your physical health. In 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. God knows your brokenhearted. He knows your heart needs to be renewed and refreshed. Today, if that is something you're struggling with, go and ask Him. Please repent. Please give it to God. That's what the word repent means: give it to God. Turn around from what you were doing, 180 degrees, give it to God. He knows what that sorrow is. And the sorrow that's bringing you to that point is godly sorrow, not worldly sorrow. Because we know the evil one wants you to suffer and keep your distance from God. He wants you to doubt that there's a Savior, there's a God in heaven who loves you. Those obedient to God hear and trust Him. This may occur in struggling believers. In Isaiah 40, 28, 29: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary or tired, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary; He increases the power of the weak. Wow. Do you not know? Have you not heard that He does that for you? That passage goes on to say, gives you wings of eagle, you'll be able to rise up. So even though you are a struggling believer, God wants to walk beside you. He wants to show you the way. He wants you to grasp Him, to come into contact with Him. And lastly, first-time believers in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new is here. So new hearts are hearts that are softened by God. They are a new creation. And we love hearing this testimony, don't we, of people going through the waters of baptism and asking the question, How did you work out who God was? How come you're getting baptized today? What does it mean? And they share that time when they first discovered God. They share that time when God impacted their life, and they can see things change. And they can see his hand all the way through the work that he does in their life. One of the great things about this building being completed and the witness to Tattenai and those other guys who are with him, to Shethar and his associates, was that when Darius made this decree and they let the Jews do what they needed to do to finish the kingdom, the king was saying, Hey, let me pray for them. Let them pray for us. We want to honour who they are. Then there was a great witness and testimony. I call it the effect of the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of heaven effect. This happens when we are in the world we live in and we live in our life for God. We pray that we'll have an effect on the circumstances around us, not just do our job well, but have that spiritual connection as well. Not just turn up because we got to get a paycheck, because we're a spiritual presence in people's lives. Not just go through the motions, but we're a spiritual presence in people's lives. We are God's representative. We're God's ambassador. In verse 21 it says, Together with their Gentile neighbors seeking God of Israel. Wow. They joined in because they were seeking the God. They looked at the people and they said, There's something different about you guys. You're pretty tenacious. You're pretty full on. You're pretty committed. What's the difference? And they got to know who God was through their witness and the testimony of those around them. Authentic repentance and obedience is watched by others. People watch everything you do. It is even now when we're on media. At your workplace, driving a car, you hear me going on about this so often. It's, we're being watched, waiting to see what happens, to see if we break, to see if we're going to fall away from God, from his intent and purposes. Because I'm a non-drinker, because God made that clear in my life upon my conversion not to drink anymore, and he put me in situations many years later when he had prepared me for it to be around people with lots of alcohol. And the amount of times I got offered a beer, particularly in chaplaincy in football, offered a beer in celebration, a beer in anything, and to say quite politely, No, I don't need that. That's not what I'm meant to do. God's made it clear. The first time I said that, the words came out, Oh, God's sort of made it clear, but after a while, he gave me a little bit more gusto about it. I could say it with a bit more compassion, I suppose. They're watching what you do. They're waiting for you to slip, but if you stay true to it, you say with a soft heart, then the kingdom effect goes on. How believers conduct themselves is our witness in our testimony. Now, I was thinking about this in terms of our building project we're praying into and what that means. And there's several things we've got to get past first, and there's obviously government things are required, and local government things also. Strategic things need to be prayed, but we can't get too far ahead of God. We need to keep those in the long view. But in amongst all that, they will be watching. The council will be watching how we conduct ourselves. The neighbours will be watching how we conduct ourselves during that time. People are watching us. The kingdom needs soft hearts, people who walk authentically with God. The unsaved will draw closer to God and respond to His call because of the witness. This is what I learned from listening to this and reading through this, the completion of the temple, the celebration of the temple being honest with God. We were sinners. We stuffed up. We need to get it right with God. This is our way of acknowledging that atoning sacrifice. We know that Jesus today, we can say Jesus atoned for our sin. And then when we're doing the things we do, it taught me that the unsaved will draw closer to God and respond to His call when His people are authentic, when they have soft hearts. That's exciting, isn't it? Because each person here has someone watching them. Did you know that? Just look over your shoulder and see if they're watching you now. New hearts are shaped in those who seek Him. New hearts are shaped by those who seek Him every single day. New hearts are needed. New hearts are going to be needed as this church moves forward in God's call to our community to be His witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and the ends of the earth, in Caboolture, Morayfield, and outside of Morayshire. He needs us in the corner of Grant Road. He needs us in Willowleaf Crescent. He needs us in all sorts of places. But new hearts are shaped by those who seek Him. And finally, as we wrap up, just that emphasis again that God gives us all we need. We don't have to invent the wheel. We don't have to come up with new things. He's given it. His timing is perfect. We need to be ready to respond to His timing. Not when we're ready, when God is ready, and say, Yes, Lord, I hear that. Thank you, Lord. I'm going for it now. Again, please forgive the football analogies, but there's a situation when you're playing rugby league where if you run in the right place, and you'll hear it if you watch it on TV, that a person is a good hole runner. That means they've picked the line between two defenders. They run full clip through that hole because what they're expecting is the football to land right on their chest as they get to the breach of that hole, and they break through the defensive line and they run. If you do that, it's a sweet thing. Being there a couple of times myself, being the deliverer of passes myself that way, and it comes off, you go, Yes. God's timing is perfect. When you get the timing right, you go, Wow, this is awesome. And this is what's happening here, that God's timing, He's got it all sorted out. He's got people in the right place. He's got things happening. He is providing everything we need. As a church, that should excite us, yeah? Yes. He searches us and redeems us as obedient servants of being refreshed each and every day because He provides for our needs. No one is beyond His concern, leaders and authorities. No one is beyond His concern. The leaders and authorities already being put in place by Him, can their hearts can be changed by Him. Perhaps we need to pray for them and pray that their hearts will be softened. Our witness speaks of His provision in our lives with our gifts and talents. We're preparing for our carols at the end of the year, I know, already, but it's not that far away. And we're just thinking about people with gifts and talents in our church and how God has provided in the past and made a great interactive experience of relationships with the community, and we're looking forward to seeing what God will do that again. If you're new to our church family, you've just started coming along the last year, keep an eye out for that opportunity. Say, I've got this gift. I've got that gift. I've got this talent. Can I use that to help with God's message? And lastly, we say it again, new hearts are shaped by those who seek. I pray that you'll experience that this week. I pray that as you submit to God, He'll teach you something new you've never heard before, because He's a good and gracious God. He supplies all our needs. Let's pray. Worship team, when you're ready. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the testimony we find in Ezra chapter 6. Father, the great celebration about your providence, your provision, Father, about how you've changed hearts and minds, Lord, how you've softened and renewed hearts. Lord, as we go into this week, Father, I pray each person here and watching at home, Lord, will be looking for opportunities, Lord, to demonstrate that softening of heart. Lord, if people need to do business with you, Father, just convict them by your Spirit. Father, receive them, Lord, as they humbly come before you. Lord, we know no burden is too great to leave at the foot of the cross. And Father, as we continue to, Lord, look ahead, Father, show us your way. Lord, we pray for your perfect timing in all things, because you are a God who provides. Father, we thank you and praise you, Lord, in your name. Amen.