R1620 Dealing With God, Pt1

God has an encouraging word for you and me today, through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and his message on dealing with God. In just a moment, we'll begin a two-part series with Dr. Don about dealing with God, going straight to the book of Ezra. All right now, maybe Ezra's not one of those books you've been to often.

Oh, such richness! For me, I've known and loved the Word all these years, and I really have not discovered what we'll discover with Dr. Wilton today. As we open God's Word together, know that we're open to speak with you, to pray with you, to connect with resources at the end of 866-899-WORD or online at www.tewonline.org.

In this time of disconnectedness, know that we're ready to pray with you, connect with resources again at 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. And now, today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. So Father, we come to you today, and there are a lot of us worshiping online and livestreaming and television, and there's a lot of us here on campus, and we are a people, and we are all different, and we're boys and girls, and we're male and female, and we're older and younger and middle-aged, and we all find ourselves on this day with a lot of things to think about, even those who have tried to shut it out. It's hard to shut out what's going on. So I don't need to spend any time, Lord, trying to tell you what's going on or trying to persuade anybody listening to me that we're living in a very challenging world, difficult world, a world in which we're trying to look for the right answers. So you've spoken to me, I'm just one little drop in a bucket, but right now this is the moment that those of us listening have an opportunity to listen, and may this be about you. May we all listen to you. So please, Lord, hide me away behind the cross of Jesus, control my tongue, make sure Lord Jesus restrained me, stopped me when I find an inclination to let it rip, don't let me think anything more of myself, because actually I'm just nothing, excepting just like all of us, we're just servants in your hands and we want to know.

Give us answers. Now, in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, so I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Ezra. So I'm about to show you something that God has shown me. And so I just want to, like, I came up here with this incredible burn in my heart.

This is what I've seen. And God, please understand what I'm saying. God has told me to share this with you.

Just take that. I'm your pastor, that's what I do. That's part of my responsibilities.

Ask God, listen to him, take it, and then pass it on to my people. You're not my people as in Don or Doc, but you are the flock, you're the privilege that I have. We are together, we're family.

Right? Like your family, your mom, dad, brothers, we're family together. So this is what God has shown me. So I'm just going to give you a 30-second background. I don't have time to get into all kinds of historical background. The book is called Ezra. Ezra was a man.

He was a man of God. And Ezra, together with the people of God, were actually not even living in their own land. They were in exile in Babylon. By the way, anyone know where Babylon was in relation to where it is now?

Just telling you this. If you want to say, where's Babylon? Because Babylon figures in the book of Revelation.

Everybody hear that? End times. Babylon is about 60 miles from the city of Baghdad in Iraq.

That's where Babylon is. I want to put that out there. I've got a ton of people asking me, saying to me, please, everybody's interested in knowing how our day fits into last things. So hold on, because I'm preparing a series that I'm going to do on that.

We're going to go and look and say, how does it fit? Can you kind of get parallels and what does it say to us? So God's people were in exile. They'd been chased out of their own land. And they were strangers living in a foreign land and they just loved their own country. I mean, they really loved their own country.

I mean, they were like patriots. They would have laid their lives down for their country. I mean, they had deep convictions. They cared. They cared for their country. They were a people who loved God. They cared for their country. And this is about a people who loved God, who cared for their country, that were dealing with all kinds of issues, although it wasn't just about their country. They had issues in their families.

They had sons and daughters who needed to know questions, answers. How do you respond to this? What's the right answer? What should be our attitude? How do you go about dealing with something? How do you bring up your family? How do you bring up children? They had all of those.

They all fantastic. And right in the middle of that, Ezra is essentially about dealing with God. That's what I'm speaking about. Dealing with God. It starts out with God saying, everyone, look at me. God says, just to start out, let's do the most important thing. Let's deal with God. Because they were saying, well, look, let's deal with our religion. They were saying let's deal with our politics. They were saying, let's go and consult with this person.

Let's vent this frustration. And God was saying, begin with me. God can do this.

Here's what happened. I want to read to you very quickly, okay? Chapter 1, verse 1. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord, the Lord God, he moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing.

This is what Cyrus, king of Persia, says. The Lord, the God of heaven, he has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem for Judah, in Judah. Anyone of God's people among you.

You're all invited. May his God be with him. And let that person go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with free will offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, everyone whose heart God moved, prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, all their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold and goods and livestock and valuable gifts in addition to all the free will offerings. Moreover, king Cyrus brought out articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his God. Cyrus, king of Persia, had brought them, had them brought by Mithradath, the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbezor, the prince of Judah. This was the inventory.

Gold dishes, there were 30 silver dishes, 1,000 silver pans, 29 gold bowls, 30 matching silver bowls, 4, 10 other articles, 1,000. In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and silver, and so Sheshbezor brought all of these along when the exiles came up from Babylon to Jerusalem. So, I want you to just get a handle around this very briefly. Here are God's people, and the Romans had really messed them up and had infiltrated their land. And over a period of time, they just gradually just took over everything and forced these people even out of their land. And they went into exile in Babylon, of all places, but I think purposefully. So, what happened during the exile? Well, that's not part of what I'm saying, but just for those of you that are Judah during this time of the exile when the residents, the citizens were not there, it became politically and religiously realigned completely.

In fact, in many ways, it became a semi-autonomous administrative province, and the Persians got their fingers in there. This land that God had so blessed, and these people that had been so blessed, and these people here spent morning, noon, and night in their exile seething. They didn't know what to do. They had deep convictions. They were worried. And then I can't even go to the fact that they didn't even live in their land.

I mean, that's really putting a nail in it. They were in Babylon. You know how far Baghdad is from Jerusalem, and especially back then? I have driven, I've driven from Cairo to Jerusalem. Long way. Going all the way to Baghdad. The other way. Some people have told me driving from Cairo to Jerusalem is about as far as driving from Jerusalem to Baghdad, because Baghdad is the other side. They didn't go up through Syria.

They were in exile. And people say, well, what is this? What's the bottom line of this? The bottom line of what is about to take place and what God wants to show us is that God can do this. And God wants us to really have incredible hope. He wants us to be major encouraged. He wants us to understand that the best is yet to be. God doesn't want us to buy into, albeit our incredible disappointment and our questions and our consternation and our anxieties.

God wants us to know that when we deal with God, God can do this. Please forgive the interruption. We will return with more of today's message on dealing with God with Dr. Don Wilton. But I must insist he insists. I know you're mad at me.

That's OK. Be mad at me. But Dr. Don wants you to know that we are here to talk with you, pray with you, connect with resources that can literally be life changing, not because of what we have to say, but because what we share with you is the Bible itself, God's encouraging word. If you're not receiving the daily email from Dr. Don, I pray you'd consider signing up today on our website at TEW online dot org.

That's TEW online dot org. You'll see exciting things going on right now, especially I'm so excited about this new book called Saturdays with Billy. It's a brand new, remarkable book with Dr. Don Wilton talking about the moments he spent for twenty five years, about every Saturday with Dr. Billy Graham, encouraging him and of course, being encouraged by Dr. Graham.

Again, that book is all available for preorder now online at TEW online dot org. Now let's dive back into today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. God can heal any marriage. He can bring anybody back home. He can deliver any person who's struggling with drugs and alcohol. He can change any person's heart. God can take care of your children. He can lift you up after you've suffered a terrible letdown. He can answer any prayer.

He's God. Deal with God. What happened to these people? Not unlike us because we've all got human nature.

They just began to get absorbed by their land and their circumstances and their hurt and their pain. Well, of course they did. I do too. But I want answers.

I want somebody to give me something to hold on to. And God said to these people, look at me, the word of the Lord came. You mean even to the king of Persia? He was a pagan. God got a hold of him.

Wow. And they saw it. They lived it. They were blessed by it. What is God saying when he says God can do this? God can do this first for his people. God can do anything for us.

And that's what Ezra is about. God can do this for his people. You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

God can do it. So what is it? What are you dealing with that's real?

It's not imaginary. You know, I use a silly phrase. Pain hurts. It takes the smile off your face.

Anxiety, depression. One could go on and on. God can do this for his people. Second, God can do this for the land in which his people live. Write that down. Let me run that by again. God can do this for the land in which his people live. Hello.

Here's a third one. God can do this for his kingdom. By the way, everything God can do, he does for his glory. So, remember the Lord's prayer? How does the Lord's prayer conclude? What did Jesus say? To thine be the glory.

What's in that list there? Forgive us our sin. May your will be done in heaven, earth. Give us, help us eat. Help us not to go into temptation. What's the end of it?

All glory to you. God can do this because he does it for his glory. It's all about him, about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the book of Ezra essentially is about three things. Number one, it's about the people of God. I know that sounds awfully simple, but it's very profound. It's about God's people. That's why I want to invite you to give your life to the Lord Jesus. God has got something very special for you and for me. You know, the Bible uses the word or the phrase, God has us in the palm of his hand.

Doesn't let us go. You know, I spoke to a mother recently. And she told me that her son had really gotten himself involved in a lot of things. And it was tough, very tough. Like heartbreaking tough. I mean, he just got himself tied up in a lot of not good things, you know.

And started when he was about 14 and just progressively, and by the time he got, you know, just on this side of 20, he was really in trouble. But you know, all of that as we talk together, this mother, she just had tears run down her cheeks. I mean, I just, you know, just guys, I know, you know, we're living in a world now where they slam you because you give somebody a hug.

You know, I'm not talking about the virus either. I just want to reach out and just give that sweet mother a big hug. She just had tears running down. And finally, she explained her tears.

She didn't need to, but she explained. She looked at me and she said, oh, Dr. Don, she said, you know, I just love him so much. I'll do anything for him. My home's open. My heart's open. I'm ready.

What can I do? I will do anything because he's my son and I just love him and he's hurting. This is God. That's a picture of God right there.

It's fantastic. So the Book of Ezra is about us. The Book of Ezra is about the place of the people of God. So I'm just going to go ahead and say it, America. God's got this. Yeah.

With all the disappointment and the opinions and everybody's got opinions. Trust me, I know that. You know, I know that. Trust me. I've had a few suggestions over these last several months.

Probably the one that just, you know, God blessed me or really was a very gentle, was a loving letter. Said, you know, the person said I love the Lord and I, you know, believe. And I know, I know, I know you told everybody that we need to look to the Lord and I know we, you know, we've got a spiritual issue. But you need to get up there and call a spade a spade and this is what you need to tell people.

They need to know who's doing this. Well, sorry. I believe our God can do this.

I'm sticking with him. Because I see us, we've proved to ourselves we cannot. We try jolly hard and all we end up with is barriers and personalities and powers and kingdoms and opinions and bannings and we'll do anything we possibly can and the whole world will go ballistic. We can't. Hello, America. Some of you, I'm saying this lovingly, you're just putting your money in the wrong place.

You're just throwing your money down the drain. God's word says bring it for the building of the temple. Put it in God's business because God can do it. God does it. That's God's way. God does it. And Ezra is about not just the people of God and the place of God, but it's about the throne of God.

And by the way, that permeates. When you get into Revelation chapter four and verse two, the Bible says then John said he walks in, comes into heaven and there he sees the one seated on the throne of God. Then you get to Revelation chapter 21.

I mean, it's incredible. And the Bible says then I saw, I heard a voice, God speaking, and I saw the new what? Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. And God said, get this now, God said from now on I'm going to make my throne, my seating, my place of my authority among where men are, where mankind is. In Jerusalem? So Ezra here, they've left and now they need to come back and God's talking about Jerusalem.

Wait a minute now, there's some kind of connection here. Is God trying to tell us that he can do it for the people of God and for the land where the people of God live and ultimately for the throne of God? So, listen to this. If we are not careful, we will be shaped more by the words of this world than the words of God. What a powerful challenge. What is shaping your life, my life? Is it the words of our Instagram feed, our Facebook feed, the news that we watch, or is it the word of God? I pray that you'd open yourself to know that God is using his word to let you know he loves you as a plan for your life and you can change from the inside out by saying yes to Jesus Christ.

You've heard Dr. Wilton preach. Now as he steps into the studio, would you open your heart to what he has to say next? God has spoken to you, hasn't he? And you're ready to give your heart to Jesus.

I'd love to help you right now. Would you pray this prayer with me and accept Jesus into your heart and life? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that Jesus loves me and died for me on the cross. Right now, I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into my heart and save me today and forgive me for my sin. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. If you've prayed that prayer, we'd love to get alongside of you and celebrate with you and send you some literature and help you as you begin to grow.

And I want you to know that I love you very, very much. Welcome to the family of God. I'm convinced some of you prayed along with the pastor moments ago.

It's not about the right words, but it is about the right attitude of your heart. If you're ready to give your life to Jesus Christ, we would love to spend more time walking you through the next, giving you free resources. Dr. Wilton wants you to have if you rededicate your life or gave your life to Christ, call us right now at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to meet you on the phones and talk you through the very exciting beginning of a new life in Christ. You can also visit to us on our website. Our website is just brand new. Here's Liz with all the details about TEWOnline.org. We are excited to announce that we have a new updated website. On our new website, you can find current and past broadcasts, order the current monthly offer, post prayer requests or praise reports, sign up for the daily encouraging word, see our current broadcast schedule and donate to the encouraging word. Find us at TEWOnline.org. Be sure and join us again tomorrow for part two of Dealing with God with Dr. Don Wilton right here on The Encouraging Word.