What Defines You

Okay, our preacher this morning is Pastor Raymond Fung from—am

I pronouncing that right? Is it Fung or Fung? Okay, Fung, okay— from San Francisco Bible Church. I'd written down some notes to introduce him, but I cannot find them.

So he is the husband of wife and father of two children, aged one and three, and he spent a long time serving at Grace Community Church down south, and has been at SF Bible Church for the past four years.

So thank you for coming and preaching for us, and do send our greetings to the

Saints back up in San Francisco. If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and take the liberty of reading your passage.

I'll just read from the beginning of the chapter. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra the son of Saraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalom, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amoriah, son of Azariah, son of Meret -

Yoth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Buki, son of Vabeshua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest.

This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the

Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the

Lord his God was on him. And there went up also to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king and some of the people of Israel and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers and the temple servants.

And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month, he began to go up from Babylonia.

And on the first day of the fifth month, he came to Jerusalem. For the good hand of his God was on him.

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.

You may be seated. Dear Holy Father, I ask that you would bless the preaching of this word this morning.

That you would be with Pastor Ray as he comes and brings the word to us and you would be with us. You would open our eyes and hearts that we might receive everything you have for us here today.

Pray that by your Spirit, our eyes would be turned to your Son that we might know you. And I pray that we would contemplate the great salvation that you have given, that there would be a conviction where we have sinned and there would be assurance of forgiveness in your

Son, in Jesus name. Amen. Well, good morning everyone.

It is indeed a joy and a privilege to be able to come here to minister to the Word of the

Living God, who is the author and assurance of our salvation and faith.

Thank you, Pastor Conley, for inviting me. I know this is the very last minute and I do pray for your pastor as he recovers, that he can return to be able to minister to you, dear folks.

Again, it is a privilege to be able to be here. A little bit more background about me. I was saved when I was in high school.

I actually grew up in the Bay Area on the other side of the East Bay. I grew up in a Christian school called

Chinese Christian Schools. It was a school that I later found out that was actually connected to the same church that I'm serving at now, because the founder from that place is the same founder.

He was the same church planter. So it's amazing to see God's providence and how he uses one individual to plant all of these churches that are connected, and I had no clue about that until I started serving at that church.

I graduated from high school 2007, then went to I went into LA to do college.

I went to seminary at the Master's Seminary. I was also interned there. I got married in 2016.

I graduated TMS the next year, and then I was called to serve at the current church I'm at at 2017.

My first child, Ruby, was born in 2018, and my son was born in 2020, so he's one of the

COVID babies. Currently at my church, I serve as one of the outreach pastors there.

I serve as outreach and overseeing outreach and missions, and I also oversee the college and career ministry as well.

I'm also currently back in school at TMS to do my doctorate, and I hope to finish that in about two years or so.

That's just a little bit about me. But before I start, I would like to open our time with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this privilege to be able to come and worship you. We know that we are completely undeserving of your grace, that you came into the world and died for us wretched sinners, that you rose from the dead, signifying that we indeed have assurance that when we leave this life, that we will have eternal life with you.

Lord, thank you for this time, and we do want to pray for Pastor Josh as well, that you can watch over him, that he can recover soon.

Thank you for this time that we have to worship you, your son's precious name. Amen. As mentioned at first, our text is

Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. One of the unique joys of serving at a church, the church

I'm at, is I was able to teach church history. And one of the cool things about teaching through church history is you get to learn about different saints in the past, and oftentimes they're known for certain things.

George Whitefield was known as the greatest evangelist. Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers.

And over and over again in history, and even going to graveyards or cemeteries, you realize that there are names that often do that, these epithets that will say, this person, here lies so -and -so, he was born on this day, and he died at this day.

And then they'll usually have little phrase, usually like father or husband, or these things that describe him.

And the reason for that is the hope that the people that walks by it, they'll see them, and they'll say, okay, this person here are these things, that they're known as a father, as a worker, as a husband, as a son, and whatever it may be.

But I think when I think about those things, I think, what is the Christian's epithet? Like if we were to die, and there were to be in someone's engrave something about us, what is the first thing that'll come to their mind?

Obviously, we could put it in the wheel say, I wouldn't be known by this, but let's say that you didn't have that, and some loved one is supposed to put a description about you.

What will it say? I hope that for us as Christians, that the one thing that will be marked about us, is that we are all devoted to Jesus Christ.

That we're known in this life as someone that's devoted to the Word of the Living God, and to live according to Scripture.

The question that I have for us is, how can we do this? How can we be such a person? And Ezra here gives us an example of that.

He gives us an example of a man that is devoted to the Word of the Living God. A background about this book, this book is in the post -exilic time.

That means that this is after Israel, when they were, because of their sin, they were taken out of the land of Israel by the

Babylonians, and then eventually the Lord raised up the Persians to bring the Babylonians back, and bring the

Israelites back into the land of Israel. Israel, during the time when they were in the Promised Land, failed to obey the

Living God. They failed to obey Him. They failed to keep the covenant of God, and God said that, because of that,

I will remove you from the land. In fact, the Israelites, toward the end, as you see in 2 Kings, has become so wicked and pagan, that they're worse than the pagan nations that they took over.

Israel was not like the world. They were worse than the world, and every king that's revealed in 1 and 2

Kings just became worse and worse as time progressed. When we get to this book, when we see

Ezra, this is someone that lived for the Word, and he lived by the

Word. And I feel comfortable in starting in this part of the text, because in the book of Ezra, Ezra actually doesn't show up until this chapter, so I feel fine that we can, as we parachute in, this is when

Ezra shows up. The name Ezra is actually a shortened form of the name Azariah, which means Yahweh has helped.

And Ezra is someone, by the working of the Lord, was able to use by God in a very unique way in this time of Israel history.

Ezra is a unique figure. He actually gives us a template of what it's like for someone like us, humans, to devote as life to the

Lord. He is a unique character in the Old Testament. Ezra, in a lot of ways, he stands out. Even the

Jews today see Ezra as a special figure in history. He's known today by a lot of Jewish people as the second

Moses. Ezra was someone that knew the scriptures well, and it's said that he memorized most of the

Old Testament. And what made him unique was that he was able to recall much of the Old Testament from memory.

Again, this is why, even in today's time, people have such high view of Ezra, because he was known for his studying, his devotion to God, and living that out and teaching it to the people at the time.

At the time, and during Ezra's time, a lot of the scrolls were burned, so a lot of the Old Testament had to be recalled and remembered, and Ezra was one of those unique figures that was able to remember most of the

Old Testament. He was a powerful man and an important figure in the post -exilic time.

You'll notice that in the beginning, as Pastor Conley read, he read through this genealogy here.

And most of these, and what's unique about Ezra is that most of the prophets don't have such a long list.

Most of them are like, Elijah, he's the son of this person, or this other prophet, he's the son of that person. But Ezra here has several verses devoted to his genealogy.

For Ezra, it's written because it's significant. You know, in the Old Testament time, the genealogies will signify that this person is, he's important, he matters.

That's why the kings are always, he's the son of so -and -so, he's the son of so -and -so. But what made

Ezra so unique was that he was actually part of this priestly line, which means that his parents, his grandparents, his great -great -grandparents did exactly what he's doing.

They taught God's Word. They followed the principle that's laid out in Deuteronomy chapter 6 about passing and teaching your sons, and he was a recipient of that.

And that's something that you as parents here need to understand, that your faithfulness and teaching your kids can be a blessing, which your kids can teach your grandkids, and so forth, that we pass down the faith through the shepherding and discipling of our children.

And Ezra is a recipient of being in a line of faithful worshippers. He is known by his devotion, and you can summarize

Ezra's life in this one verse here. You'll notice that in this chapter, or actually in chapter 6, that there's this phrase that comes up.

Actually, in chapter, verse 6, sorry, it says that the hand of the Lord was upon him.

In verse 9, it says, same thing, the good hand of God was upon him. Later on, in verse 28, the hand of Yahweh, my

God, upon me. And then later on, chapter 8, verse 18, it says, according to the good hand of our

God upon us, they brought us a man of insight. Chapter 8, verse 22, it says that the hand of our

God was over us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushers by the way.

And again, in chapter 8, verse 30, oh, that was 31, verse 22, the hand of our

God is favorably deposed to all who seek him. And over and over again, this idiom, it should sound familiar to us.

This means that God, because of his unique handling on these individuals, that they were used by him in a very special way.

Ezra had the hand of God upon him, and because of his faithfulness to the Lord, the Lord used him in such a magnificent way.

Here's a question for us. Are you devoted to the Word of God? Are you someone that is defined by your love and devotion to the

Word of God, or are you defined by something else? The Bible doesn't simply define us and tell us who we are, but it also tells us that what we know about God's Word defines who we are.

How you handle God's Word will define you. How you use God's Word to navigate life's struggles and difficulties will show you who you truly are.

How you think about the world and world issues while using God's Word reveals to you and other people what you are truly about.

It tells others more about your profession, or your education, or your social status. And oftentimes we hear people say that this year

I'm going to spend more time in memorizing Scripture and prayer and doing all of these spiritual disciplines, only for a little while, not long after the little honeymoon period, they don't really care about those spiritual disciplines.

It's just lip service, because that's just a Christian thing to say. It's a real commitment in your heart to follow and be the child of God that He wants you to be.

Does God's Word matter to you? You see this in Ezra. If you want to be a person that's devoted to God's Word, let us look to Ezra as a template on what a faithful devotion to the

Word of God looks like. And I want you to look at this and see, is this you? Are you marked by these characteristics that is said of Ezra?

How do you know if you truly have a devotion to God's Word? Here's three indicators in your life.

The three indicators that you're devoted to God's Word is first, that you spend your time studying

God's Word. Our first point today is that are you devoted to the Word of God?

Is there a devotion to studying the Word of God? You'll notice at the beginning of verse 10 here,

Ezra is known as someone who has set his heart to study. This phrase, set his heart, this idea is firmly resolved or the intent on it, to want to know

God's Word. He set his heart and his mind to know the things of God. Ezra's affection is grounded in wanting to know

Yahweh more. To put it another way, he had a great love that's evident by his dedication and devotion in using his time to study the

Word of God. During the day before I was married, actually the day of the wedding,

I was with all my grooms and we were in a hotel together. And there was a football game going on and one of my grooms loved the

Raiders, when they were still Oakland Raiders. He loved the Raiders and he would get really upset whenever those other teams scored and he would cheer very loudly when the

Raiders scored. So what does this tell you? This enthusiasm that he has, that his heart is set on the

Oakland Raiders. I know it's now the Vegas Raiders. But then you can ask yourself this question, what is your heart set upon?

What excites you the most in this life? What are the things that when you see is offensive to the Lord, does that offend you when you see in the news or in the world today?

Or are there things even in your life that you see is a blessing of God, the good things of God that makes you love the

Lord more? What moves you? You can tell much about a person by what they devote their time to.

Now notice that Ezra was inclined towards God's Word. He was inclined in studying and knowing

God. Ezra set his heart to God's Word. His heart was gravitated towards the study of Scripture.

And this was what his heart was devoted to. Evidence that you are devoted to God's Word is that you spend your time studying

God's Word. You can't expect to be someone that is devoted to fighting sin or to grow in Christlikeness if you're not devoted into studying the

Word of the living God. You can't expect to be someone that is living uprightly with godly integrity if you're not devoted to studying

His Word. Please don't spend your time pursuing things that have no eternal significance.

I'm not saying you can't have hobbies. I'm not saying that those things are bad. But I'm just saying the thing that you love most, the thing that occupies your mind the most, must be the

Word of the living God. If there was a way for us to let's say pour out our minds and see in terms of like a pie chart of what occupies our mental space, what would occupy the most in terms of volume?

Would it be a diet or a lifestyle? Would it be fashion? Would it be pop culture? Would it be a movie or television or sports?

If you look at those things, again, those things are inherently wrong. But in relative to the

Word of God, how much if your mind is occupied by the Word of God? Does the

Word of God in terms of the understanding of who He is and the knowledge of scripture trump everything that you know in this life?

Would it be equal in volume or would it be more or less? What you know most reveals what you love most.

In this book, Ezra is known as someone that's skilled in the Word of God. It says in verse 6,

This Ezra went up from Babylon and he was described skilled in the law of Moses which Yahweh of Israel had given and the king granted him all that he requested because the hand of the

Lord, his God, was upon him. Ezra is not someone who has some sort of general understanding of God's Word.

It wasn't just Bible trivia. He knew God's Word. He knew the little intricacy, the nuances of scripture.

He devoted his life in studying to know God's Word fully. He was skilled in governing the nation of Israel because he knew

God's Word. Later on in verse 11, you'll notice that it says that he actually learned it.

That he actually learned this. It wasn't something that came naturally for him. It was very easy to think that just because this person's in the

Bible, he's somehow uniquely supernatural, right? Oh, Ezra is in the

Bibles. Therefore, he didn't have to work hard at studying God's, excuse me, at studying

God's Word. That somehow came automatic to him and that's not the case. He spent his time learning and learning and memorizing and contemplating and meditating on God's Word, digesting his own mind so that he can know

God himself. He made himself know God. He started with the school. He's the one that started the school of scribes.

In the New Testament, we always know the scribes failed, but the scribes were a unique group of people in the time of Ezra.

It was said that if you roll up the scroll, you puncture a needle through the scroll, that the scribes of the time can tell you which word it hits.

And if that's true, that means that it's because they were devoted to memorizing God's Word. It was something that they spent time learning.

And I used to think that memorizing the scripture in such detail is actually impossible until one day, as Pastor Conley mentioned,

I served at Grace Community Church, and I remember I was just walking in the halls one day and one of the fellow pastors there, he was talking about some baseball game and he's talking in very detail about like, oh, this one game and the players are here in this field and they're at this inning and then the wind was blowing in this direction, all these little details.

Then I realized that he wasn't talking about the game from the night before. He was talking about a game from decades ago.

He was just talking about how this one plays, the reason why in the next game for this other team they could do this. It's just a massive amount of detail to which

I thought was just a complete waste of mental space. Because why would you spend all your time memorizing all of these little details?

Ezra here was not someone that devote his mind to learning the trivial and the temporal. He spent his time learning and learning and learning about eternal things, about our eternal

God. He knew God's Word so that he's considered, again, one of the greatest

Old Testament figures. How can we be someone that is devoted to God's Word? We must cherish

Jesus and we must be drawn to his beauty. We must see Jesus as attractive as he's our savior.

He's the most loveliest thing in all of creation and he's the eternal God. He's the creator.

We love him because he's the one who made everything. The gospel, as we say in Christian circles, is something we have to teach ourselves every single day.

We have to remind ourselves of God's truth. And oftentimes we may be able to do that for maybe a day or a week or so, but that's not something that we're called to do just for something for a short period of time.

This is a lifelong process. We must be daily looking and marveling about how great our savior is so that we're drawn to him, so we want to know him more in studying

God's Word. The more God is attractive to you, the more you'll spend time studying and knowing him.

This is a war for our affections. Jesus said that if you love him, you'll keep his commandments.

If you love him, you'll do all that you can to know him more each and every single day. Not only was

Ezra a man that was devoted in studying God's Word, but Ezra was a man that lived out what he learned, which puts us to our second point.

First, how do you know that you're defined by your love for the Lord? First, you go by learning and studying

God's Word, and second, you have a devotion to applying God's Word. So first, you learn, and second, you apply.

Look at the middle of verse 10. It says, first of all, Ezra has set his heart to study the law of God and to practice it.

Ezra is someone that practices God's Word. Ezra knew God's Word, and he lived out what he learned.

Ezra devoted his life to a life of holiness. God's Word must change you.

It doesn't matter if you have reformed theology, if your life is not reformed. It doesn't matter if you know what tulip means, if your life is not a fragrance to God and to the

Lord, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. What does it matter if you understand all of the heavy theology and doctrines of Scripture, if God's Word is not weighing in your own heart to draw you to a life of obedience?

Again, I'm not saying that you need to know every single thing about God's Word in order to live out God's Word. I'm just saying that you need to live out what you know about God's Word.

So you could be a young Christian that just says, okay, I now know I cannot speak a certain way because I don't want to be offensive.

You just need to apply that into your life. And then when you study the Bible some more, when you go to church, you learn more about God's Word.

Then you apply those things to your life. You must devote yourself to practice what you know. You should strive to be obedient to the

Scriptures every time you hear it on a Sunday or a midweek Bible study. Your devotion is evident by actions is what

James chapter 1 verse 22 tells us. The Christian life is a struggle for obedience and you must override your mind with biblical truth so that you can live a life that's free from the bondage of sin.

You need to saturate your mind with God's Word so you can live out God's Word. God's Word changes your thoughts and your actions.

You have a renewed mind. This is Romans chapter 12 verse 1. Ezra is marked by holiness and purity.

Throughout this book and in book Nehemiah, he goes around confronting people because of their sin. The only reason why he could do that is because he lived it out.

There was a credibility that he has. A few years ago when I actually first, I think it was like the first year when

I started pastoring at San Francisco Bible, we had an elders meeting and and right when

I started ministry my head pastor told me that every year you will find that there will be two people that you know that are pastors that will be disqualified from ministry and that one particular elder meeting that happened.

There was a famous pastor that that was preaching at the that year shepherd's conference that was disqualified and that had a friend that was also a pastor in the

Bay Area that was also disqualified. But I remember when I was thinking about that pastor that was preaching at shepherd's conference

I had it in my notebook. I wrote down his, you know, I was taking notes on his message and his message at the time was on topic of sanctification.

And I remember rereading some of his notes and it said things that that he that we need to be holy church of Christ is to build us up or Christ has to sanctify the church through his blood so that we need to be sanctified for Christ.

And although those things are true, those things are those statements are true, all the things that he preached were profound, it's very hard to take it seriously because you find out what kind of life that he was living.

For the Christian, you cannot expect people to take your life seriously or your faith seriously if you live a life of hypocrisy.

If you ever wonder why your evangelism is not effective, sometimes it's because you live exactly like the world.

Why do I need to give up my life for Jesus when your life looks exactly like mine? Why do I need to count the cost in following Jesus when you haven't counted the cost?

You need to be distinct. We all need to be holy. That's why it was by providence that that Pastor Conley read from Matthew chapter 5 about being a salt and light in the world that we need to be distinct.

We are living in a very dark culture and the more we are Christ -like, the more we'll be noticed and it'll either draw people to Christ because we see the joys and the blessings of following Jesus or it'll draw people away from Christ because they hate light and they love darkness.

You need to live in such a way that shows that your life is different from the rest of the world.

If you try to tell someone that they need to have control over their anger, you need to demonstrate that in your own life.

You need to be known as someone that's free from losing control. If you're going to confront someone on their

Bible read, you need to make sure that you're committed to Bible reading yourself. Whatever it may be, if you apply

God's word faithfully in your life, you will be able to remove the log that is in your eye.

A person that's devoted in living out God's word will be appalled by sin. You must live and want others to live out

God's word. Ezra was able to do this because he walked the walk and he walked the talk.

Is God's word sharp enough to cut you and to shape you to be more like Jesus Christ?

I think some of you guys have kids. Sometimes we just play with different things. Sometimes we play with sticks or play with plastic swords.

I remember my brother and I, when we were kids, we played with this little plastic sword and we would pretend we'll play fight like pirates or whatever.

Then eventually we'll have these moments where we'll stab each other. We'll pretend that our guts are falling out and we're hurt.

But in reality, there wasn't really any pain because the sword is not real. It's a plastic sword. You can't really cause that much damage.

There's no real consequences because the sword is not real. It is evident by the fact that I am here today without any cuts in my face or anything like that.

Sadly, some of the people in the church view God's word that way. It doesn't pierce them the way that it should.

It doesn't chip away at them because in their life God's word is not real. It doesn't pierce you.

It doesn't move you. It doesn't transform you because you have a very low view or a wrong view of God.

If you have a high view of God, then every little passage of scripture will penetrate your heart because it reveals to you that you are indeed a sinner and needing to grow in Christ's likeness and the needing of God's grace to transform you to be more like a son.

When you read God's word, it reveals your sin and shortcomings. It should cut you because it convicts you and you need to cut those things out of your life.

That's what it means when it comes to applying God's word. You need to study God's word and then you need to see your life in relative to scripture and then it tells you how you need to change to live in a way that's pleasing to the

Lord. And it cuts you so that you can be more and more shaped and molded to our

Lord Jesus Christ. It's more than just knowing God's word, but you must devote your life in applying

God's word in your life. Not only is devotion to the word is shown through the study of God's word, but also being sanctified by God's word.

But lastly, you also need the evidence that you are devoted to God's word is you're devoted to teaching God's word.

That you spend your life not only learning and applying to your life, but you teach other people the word of a living

God. Look at the end of verse 10. Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the

Lord and to practice it and to teach his statues and ordinances in Israel.

You'll notice that at the very end of verse 10 that he taught God's statues and ordinances to Israel.

The word statutes means rules, basically things that God allow and God doesn't allow.

This is just basically right and wrong and that if you want to follow God, here's what you need to do. If you don't want to follow

God, then this is what you're not supposed to do. And the second one here is ordinances.

It's this idea of a step -by -step, like not only does Ezra tell you what the right path or the wrong path is, but he tells you exactly the steps to follow in order to fulfill walking in the right path.

Ezra was someone that knew his stuff because he was able to teach it. He lived it in his own life. He lived it so he can give, he can shepherd people that are struggling with sin.

He can say this is how you live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Ezra demonstrated his devotion to God by devoting his life and teaching other people.

He's able to teach with authority because he knew God's word. He lived out and when he spoke, people knew that this is the real deal.

Now you have to ask yourself when you teach God's word, do people see that in your life? When you teach with authority, when you teach with firmness and conviction, do they look at you and say, yeah, this is,

I can see it in this person's life? Or do they say, no, that's not really you. Now, obviously all of us are imperfect in that way, but that does not give us excuse to not live a godly life and teach a godly life.

Ezra also didn't have some sort of device or concordance to help him find information about what he taught.

No, he memorized it and he's able to correct sin because it was in his own mind.

It was moving his heart and he was able to point out sin in other people's life. He can look at someone and say that is sin with definitive and precision because he knows the word of God.

He's able to teach that. He's able to discern and use God's word to draw out their people's sin and expose it.

Someone can ask him about the Bible and he would know exactly where to go and he would be able to teach them the word of God.

When I was in LA, my car had this problem once where there was just this clicking sound.

It was kind of like one of these sounds when I was driving. And someone recommended that I take it to this store that was known to fix breezes.

That's like the only car that they fix. And when I got there, they had these signs at the front saying, oh, we are the master of fixing

Priuses. And there was this Uber driver that I bumped into in the store. I said, oh, I bring all my Priuses here to get it fixed.

And when you see the shop, it's like almost a butcher shop for Priuses. There's like the car doors everywhere and then engines and parts all over this place.

So I had this assurance that, okay, they must know what they're doing. And so I explained to them my situation and then after hours later, they told me, hey, you can pick up your car now.

So I went there. I explained what happened. Why was it that clicking sound? And they said, oh, it's because of your license plate.

There's this little thing that's just tapping on the car while you drive. So I thought, okay, that was simple. So then I left.

And as I got on the freeway, the tapping sound came back again. So, okay, this is ridiculous.

They just told me that they fixed it. So I called them and said, hey, there's still that clicking sound. They told me, hey, return, bring it back to the car, to the shop again.

We'll take a look at it. And they did. They looked at it and they thought they fixed it. They said it was something else.

Then I drove out again and there was that clicking sound. But this time instead of calling, I just drove back and said, hey, you need to get in the car. This clicking sound is still there.

And we drove on the freeway for almost 10 minutes, just back and forth in circles, exiting and then entering back in the freeway, exiting.

And he was looking at it and couldn't discern that clicking noise. And I asked him, that noise seemed to be coming from the steering wheel.

Is it possible that's from the steering wheel? He said, oh, it could be. We'll see. And then we bring it back to the shop.

And then he comes back and says, oh, you're right. It was in the steering wheel. Now, again, that just totally made me feel like that banter they had about being the master of Priuses is almost like a lie, because how can

I, who know nothing about cars, able to discern or even come close to solving the problem?

It makes sense that someone like me, who is not an expert of cars, who does not know anything about cars, but a person that claims to be an expert of this car should know what they're talking about.

Yet, isn't that like our Christian life sometimes? People, we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

We claim to know the word of God. Yet, when people ask us about why do you hold to the doctrine of the

Trinity, would you be able to discern, show from scripture why you hold to that view? When people ask you, oh, you believe in Jesus Christ, do you actually believe of the virgin birth?

Where in scripture can you find about the virgin birth? Or in our time, the whole

LGBTQ movement, and say, where does the Bible actually say about gender and sexuality?

Do you have a grid in your mind to know where God's word speaks on these topics?

Again, it makes sense why non -Christians who doesn't have a devotion to God's word not know

God's word, but as a Christian who claims to be reading and being devoted to God's word, going to church in small group or Bible study, you should be able to explain what's wrong and right according to scripture.

Because it's a shame if we aren't able to do that. We claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. We do all of these church activities, but we can't answer the questions that the world asks us.

We need to know God's word, and we need to be able to teach that with clarity and conviction. Ezra is a good teacher because he knew

God's word. You're either teaching someone that is younger than you, and that's called discipleship, or you're being taught, or you're teaching a non -believer, and that's called evangelism.

Your life is one of those two. You have to have both. You have to have a lifestyle of evangelism. You're teaching non -Christians, and you're telling them to go and repent and place their faith in Jesus Christ, or you're pouring out to someone that's in the faith in the church.

Your life in terms of teaching must have these two, if not both. Otherwise, you're wasting your life that God has given you.

Ezra was someone that was governed, that he was able to govern the

Israelites with God's word or the law of Moses because he knew it. He knew what and how to preach to people and to live a holy life before the

Lord. He was able to look at any situation and know exactly how to answer according to God's word.

Christians, we must be able to answer every question that the world brings upon us. If you don't know now, then learn it.

If you need to relearn it, then learn it. Keep devoting yourself to studying the word of God. You need to remind yourself over and over again the truths that are in God's words.

Don't give up just because learning is hard and teaching is hard. This is what Matthew 20 tells us to make disciples of all nations.

That is our job here on this earth is to make disciples. If you study Nehemiah 8,

Ezra was there. He's teaching the entire nation the word of God. They were convicted and they were broken by their sin because of the profound, powerful preaching of Ezra.

They lived out God's word with conviction and they taught it concisely. Ezra here was who made the school of scribes.

He taught them so that they would eventually go and teach other people. He spent years doing this. When we get to the book of Nehemiah chapter 8,

Ezra will be reading God's word out loud and the scribes will be explaining it to them. So you hear that and they didn't have microphones back then.

So when they heard something God's word, the scribes will be able to explain this is what God's word means when he's telling us to do this.

Ezra spent years and years teaching God's word. Again, this is the model of discipleship that began all the way back in the

Old Testament. Now, can this be marked in your life? Are you committed in discipling others of what you know about God's word?

Discipleship is basically teaching other people what you know of God. Yet, you cannot give away something that you do not have.

You study, you apply, and then you teach others. And as you grow in Christ's likeness, your knowledge of God's word will also grow and the people that you disciple, if you teach them, they will grow as well.

And your reputation will be marked as a man or woman that's devoted to God. This takes time.

It takes time to study. It takes time to live it out. It takes time to teach other people. Now that we've seen all three, you must understand that you must do all three of these.

But yet, not only do all three of these, but you have to actually do it in this particular order. In order to be faithful to God, you must do all of these things in this particular order.

You must learn, then live, and then lead. You must consume God's word, and you must be conformed to God's word, and then you need to communicate

God's word to other people. You must be someone that's taught by God's word, then be transformed by God's word, and then teach others

God's word. You cannot expect to grow in Christ's likeness if you only do one out of three or two out of three.

It must be all, and it must be all three of these in this particular order. What happens if you only do one or out of order?

If you, let's say, study God's, if you don't study God's word, you try to apply it, you teach others, you're essentially doing what is right in your own eyes.

You live a certain way, you want to teach others, but your lifestyle, your convictions aren't grounded by the word of God.

And that's no different than the time of Israel. They're teaching and doing all of these things, but they weren't grounded in God's word.

They're doing what was right in their own eyes. However, if you study God's word, you don't apply it in your life, but you teach other people what

God's word has to say, and that makes you a hypocrite. Sadly, the scribes that Ezra raised and generation from now, that's what eventually become the same scribes that Jesus had to deal with.

People that knew God's word, but they didn't really live out God's word. They're even teaching, judging people how they fail in living

God's word, but they have no clue about the fact that they are actually not living according to scripture. They cannot take the speck out of another person's eye because they have that log in their own eye.

Ezra was not the case. He was able to take out that log in his own eyes, and he's able to take out everything else off everyone else's eyes.

You can't expect people to take God's word seriously if you don't take God's word seriously, and the inverse is also true.

If you take God's word seriously in your life, it gives you more credibility to tell others to take

God's word seriously. Now if you study God's word and you apply it, but you don't teach it, then your knowledge is really not complete, right?

Because if you know God's word and it's telling you to teach other people, you're not doing that, then there is some sort of lacking in your understanding.

You're essentially disobeying God. God commands in the Old Testament to pass down between one generation to the next.

Matthew 20 tells us to exactly do the same thing, to go and teach and make disciples. If you look back at these few verses, you'll notice these lists of names.

Again, I mentioned that these lists of names is actually that shows us that Ezra is from a line of priests. Each one taught the next person.

Ezra's recipients of all of this knowledge, and he's able to go and teach other people. You can't be devoted to the

Lord if you're just hoarding God's word in your own life. If you're just keeping it for yourself and not teaching other people, then you're hiding the light.

And as we said in Matthew chapter 5, you know, light will shine before men, but we don't teach it. We don't do any good works outside.

We're essentially putting something and covering that light. We're called to go and make the world know

Jesus Christ. That's how the church life is supposed to be. A person that's devoted to God will be poured into, and then you go and teach other people so that other people can go and teach other people.

My hope for us today, as we look at this passage, is to have our hearts in life be like Ezra's, that we set our hearts to studying the law of God and to practice it and to teach it and then teach other people as well.

There's a place in the Middle East that claims, it's owned by the Baptists, I don't know how they have this, but there's this land there that claims to be the tomb of Jesus.

And it's kind of cool if it really is there because right in front of the tomb, you know, and usually with tombs they explain who's in the tomb, but for that empty tomb, the alleged empty tomb of Jesus that says,

He is not here. He is risen. That's a really great thing to have because it is true that our

Savior is risen. But when we look at our life, when we look at when people tell us or be able to explain and define us, will they be able to say something that is true about God?

Will they look at us and say, oh this person truly is devoted to the living God? This person is devoted in learning, not just learning, but living and not just living, but leading other people to the true knowledge of our

Savior. How you answer this question in terms of do you devote your life to studying, living, and teaching reveals or should reveal to you if you truly are devoted to our

God. Let us pray. Lord God, we're thankful for your word.

And Lord, may you humble us knowing that we will never do these things perfectly. We'll never be able to read and learn your word perfectly.

And may you help us, illuminate us with your spirit so that we can know your word clearly and that we can live faithfully.

And Lord, even in our walk with you, we know that we are there are going to be moments where we fall into sin.

But again, may you give us the grace to be able to be convicted by sin to ask you and confess our sins to you.

And give us the Holy Spirit so that we can fight sin each and every single day. And Lord, may we be able to teach others as well.

We know that we can be timid when it comes to shepherding or evangelizing, but Lord, this is what you instruct us to do.

Give us boldness to be able to be clear and concise that we trust as we sow the seed that you will cause the growth.

Lord, there are some of us that are watering as well, and we know that it is not our responsibility to change or transform anyone, but it's only because the work of your spirit.

May you use us to reach those that are lost in this community and wherever we are, wherever we go.

Lord, may you be made known. May we be truly a light and salt to the world so they can see that we are devoted to the one true living

God that can only offer true salvation. Thank you for this time we have to sing and to hear your word.

as we continue on with the worship service, may you receive all the glory in your son's precious name. Amen.