Door to the Future Fall Series: Expecting An Encounter

Door to the Future Fall Series: Expecting An Encounter Installment Nine, Consecration Sunday Ezra 3:1-6 {Ezra teaches that everything we become flows out of our highest love} Have you had those moments where you realize, If I only knew then what I know now? With every section of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace there's always people who will say, If I only could have heard this when I was 20. I saw it for the first time when I had just turned 50 and I thought the same thing. I wish I knew then what I'm finding out now. It would have been fruitful to have lived into these teachings much sooner. If that's the case for Financial Peace it's certainly the case for what I've come to discover in recent years about how we give to God. I must confess that it was years into my ministry before I came to a better comprehension of how vital the practice of consecration operates in a believer's life. It's far too easy for us to minimize its vitality. Perhaps there are reasons it gets overlooked. Pastors are hesitant to address matters of stewardship because one doesn't want to wear the label of someone who focuses on money. There are suspicions that run rampant and rightly so because of abuses associated with incorrect interpretations. Plant your seed faith and reap a windfall! Isn't this the primary message of televangelism? I know I've never wanted mistaken for this extreme. On the other hand, the tendency is to lean too far to the other extreme. Because some pastors can take it to the excess we'll avoid the issue entirely. If we take our clues from Jesus, He spoke of money quite often, second only to eternal life. One could spend a lifetime in church and never hear a sermon from the letter of Ezra. He is a highly significant figure in the Bible. In addition to the letter of Ezra, he wrote Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles, and the longest Psalter, which is Psalm 119. Ezra was part of a council responsible for forming the canon that represents the Old Testament. There are not a lot of details offered about his personal life, but that's true for many characters in the Bible. It's as if anything the Bible deems worthy to share about their life precedes from one's encounter with God. Anything and everything else retreats into the background. Ezra was a priest whose name means help. He and Nehemiah were involved with the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland after they returned from exile. The people have been away for over 70 years. Many of the people who are returning were born in either Babylon or later in Persia. When they arrive, desolation is rampant. Imagine returning to a place that was ransacked by an enemy. The Babylonians destroyed everything of value. It's a massive 1

rebuilding project. Ezra 3 puts the rebuilding in perspective. Where do you begin when everything is in need of repair? Do you start with the medical center? How about starting by building a school? Perhaps you begin with government buildings. Notice before any other projects are started, including the project of building the temple, the first object they build is the altar. Before anything else is reinstated, the altar is first, and offerings are not merely invited but are conveyed as essential. For years in my spiritual development, stewardship was presented as an aspect of the faith rather than the heartbeat of the faith. Ezra's ministry centers on a single primary theme. His entire teaching reminded the people that everything God does in our lives rests upon the practice of covenant. It was only after years in the ministry that I would discover Billy Graham's mindset toward stewardship. He was famous for observing that only two things are needed in order to diagnose one's spiritual condition. What are these two things? A calendar and a checkbook. Graham isn't an original on this but is affirming what Ezra's ministry made central. If the people hoped to experience renewal then it would require a heart devoted to the right priorities. Calendars and checkbooks reveal the treasures of our heart. How we use the two most valuable things at our possession, time and money, reveal what we care about and what we think is most worthy. It reveals what we think will bring us joy. Notice the altar is built even before the temple is built. Ezra helps us to see that everything we do and everything we become flows from our first love. Otherwise, we risk that our lives unfold in a misguided direction. All one needed was a brief introduction in history to see that what led to the Babylonian invasion in the first place was misplaced priorities. Those misplaced priorities were never more dangerous and destructive than when a person was convinced they were religious because they attended the temple. There are many religious associations we may keep that will never bring us closer to the heart of God unless consecration is at the center. For years, we took part in Bible studies that talked about 101 topics besides stewardship. One can attempt to make progress in the Christian life convinced that our time and money before God isn't vital. Throughout the prophets there are these images about how the people confess things with their lips while their hearts remain far from God. The church becomes a social practice. It's a tradition. It's what you do. Before long, one is going through the motions. The entire history of Ezra's people up until that moment was like a pendulum in a clock, swinging to and fro inconsistently. It was two steps backward for every step forward. By building the altar first, it helped the people see that a religion where everything is included but stewardship is like an elaborate structure built on sand. Consecration 2

is the foundation on which everything gets supported. The true foundation of what will support spiritual life rests not upon concrete and stone. It rests upon the firm and unwavering covenant that God desires to receive back the love extended to us. So much uncertainty surrounded Ezra and the returning pilgrims. If there was ever an excuse to prioritize self concern then this was it. One might ask, Were there economic problems? That's putting it mildly. In order to have economic problems, one would first need an economy. There is no economy in place to have problems. If there was ever an excuse to take a break from consecration then this was it. Go home and attend to yourselves. Put your needs first. Put your concerns first. Put your worries first. It's only after your needs, concerns, and worries are settled that we'll then return and start building a relationship with God. This is not how it works. A relationship is built when needs, concerns, and worries, are placed before God with full reliance, full commitment, full surrender, full faith, full submission. We entrust our well being to God. The first thing they establish is the altar and with the altar comes offerings before God. Notice this doesn't come with a qualification. Wait until you can afford it. The approach Ezra takes is that you can't afford not to. In accordance with what is written. Ezra reminds the people God raised them to look peculiar. The surrounding nations would look upon their practices and find it downright strange. In an area of the world where drought and famine were frequent, common sense dictates that one prioritize their personal needs first. Keep more for your own needs. Faith cuts against the grain of our deepest instincts. Rather than to give ourselves highest priority, we will entrust our well being to God's care. Consecration is the daily practice of showing we will trust our future into God's hands. When God's people did it right, they enjoyed the blessings that come when God multiplies faithfulness. Rather than end up with less, you enjoy more. When God's people attempted to put their own needs first, they ended up with the opposite. Ezra showed the people that consecrating gifts on the altar was like approaching a door. One doesn't know what tomorrow holds but we do know the God who leads us there. Although we cannot foresee specifically how things will take shape, there's one thing we can know. God assures people that when trust and faith are honored that such actions will bear abundant fruit. Through the daily disciplined practice of honoring God with our highest and best, God displays pleasure with the people by igniting overflow in their lives. Consecration is not viewed as a duty or obligation. It's the way in which our highest love is expressed. For love to flourish it must be expressed. For years, we existed within Christian practice and had the misguided notion that as long as we 3

were learning about all the other spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, scripture reading, study, that somehow all of this was sufficient in itself. The heartbeat of the spiritual life is covenant. Nothing gets you to the place of participation in the covenant than when we are doing things daily with our time and money that bears out what we really believe. This is why Graham noted he only needed two things to diagnose the human soul. Notice how this isn't complex but incredibly simple. We like to think that interacting with God is this mystical and abstract thing where we have to wade our way through the deep by processing intricate theological ideas. The first thing Ezra puts in place is that which will draw a person into friendship. To maintain a human friendship, it's done by setting priorities. How we spend our time and resources will put on display what we care about the most. For centuries, having a nice temple was a source of misguided thinking. Many thought as long as they just showed up then it was enough to establish a healthy spiritual practice. To maintain a healthy spirit involves daily practices where our love is put to the test. We'd like to think we will start consecration once all of our affairs are in order. If we wait to all our affairs are in order then it will never get done. We begin where ever we are with practices that will develop trust, faith, and dependence. The question always comes back to, Well what is the correct amount? It needs to be an amount that requires you to exercise faith. If we try and do an end around the element of faith then we defeat the purpose. In CS Lewis' wonderful series, The Chronicles of Narnia he tells the story about children who are playing in an attic and stumble upon a wardrobe in storage that has a mysterious door. When they open that door, it exposes a panel, and when that panel is removed, it opens a passageway into a higher dimension. The series is immensely popular and is now available as a film. Through these images, Lewis attempted to capture the Christian life. The practice of consecration is like a door. There are dimensions of reality that are left closed and unavailable to us until consecration opens the passageway. Many will live for years with the sense they are always one step removed from a deeper walk with God. What is it that we're missing when we're trying to cover all the bases? I read Scripture. I spend time in Prayer. I spend time in service. At some point, God will bring us to the place of consecration. We're best to learn this is early as possible. There's a temptation to think that I will maintain stewardship as long as it doesn't involve difficult decisions and choices. Ezra helps us see that God intends to bring us to the place of dilemma. We make decisions and choices moment by moment and these decisions are expressing what we value, what we find most worthy, what we think brings joy, what we think will matter in the end. We give 4

our best time and resources to that which we believe will bring us meaning, purpose, and significance. If we are avoiding the element of decision then we are forever one step removed from the place God intends us to be. At some point, like Abraham, we must lay something on the altar to show God what has highest place. Consecration is an expression of first love. There was a time in history before maps were drawn that someone would look out over the sea and wonder what was out there. One may imagine what is out there. One may dream about what is out there. One may speculate about what is out there. One may hold conversations about what is out there. At some point, a person has to find the courage and conviction to launch and discover what is out there. There is no reward without risk. Throughout the history of God's people, Ezra knew too well how often they attempted to secure the reward and avoid the risk. God would bring them before doors of opportunity. Those doors are impossible to unhinge outside of consecration. Years of mental strain is solved in a the courageous decision of a moment. There is more clarity about God achieved in the moment of simple honesty than through years of abstract reflection. God would rather His people respond with trust than mental exertion. In the earthly realm, we gaze behind doors through ingenuity and hard work, but not so in the spiritual realm. If we're going to enter the doors to higher dimensions in the spiritual realm, then it means accepting the passageway of trust. That is why our simple practices must be regular and they must stretch us to the point where we are exercising faith in the process. If we're not having to make decisions and to set priorities then we're missing the opportunity to enter the higher dimensions. How often God extended the invitation to His people and yet how frequently they missed it altogether. They made it more complicated than God ever intended it to be. The source that enters the door is simple childlike faith. The sooner we start then the easier it is to maintain. It's said that when people make resolutions in December most are broken before the end of February. The defeat is caused by the dilemma of What if? We must accept at the onset that What if? questions will never cease. Consecration involves making the firm decisions that we are going to step through that door. We don't enter into higher dimensions through a cost-benefit analysis. There are many who are highly skilled at running a business. They attempt to carry that mentality over to the way a church operates. Although we are to practice thrift with our resources there are other attributes that enter the equation. We are faithful. We are trusting. We accept risks. We surrender our well being into the hands of a God who promises to never leave us or forsake us. Faith, trust, risk, surrender, these are traits that are lost on the rational mind. 5

This is not to suggest we have an irrational faith. It is to suggest that we have a faith that transcends reason. At some point to enter into the higher dimensions God places before us, it will involve stepping into levels of trust that will exceed what reason can grasp. God announced to His people, My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. I'll maintain covenant as long as I can see the outcomes in advance. If this is the mentality we carry then it will never get done. God's solutions are not provided up front. God desires that we demonstrate by our actions that we believe He is worthy of our trust. He is worthy of our reliance. He is worthy of our faithful courage. Over the process of days, weeks, and months, we step from one place and into another place. We enter into higher dimensions of God's activity in our lives. There was no way to avoid looking peculiar to the outside world. Consecration cuts against all our human instincts to remain in control. To pass through God's doors means we are letting go of our own control. We are entrusting ourselves to God's care rather than placing care in our own hands. To enter into God's door means we have an opportunity to make room for mystery. So much of what gets ingrained into our outlook is based on cold, hard facts. If we can't see it then we won't believe. What if instead of seeing is believing that God provides a door where believing is seeing? What if it's possible than something is concealed from our discovery until we are looking through the right lens? It's true we won't go through the door, we won't even discern there's even a higher door to pass through until we're open to possibilities exceeding human thought. R. A. Torrey was a brilliant Yale graduate who could have been a successful businessman but an experiment drove him in another direction. He started to wonder if there was something to this notion of doors entering higher dimensions. He was curious enough to put it to the test. God can work with that. God is looking for people curious enough to put trust to the test. The curiosity displays a gift of grace. Torrey started to turn his life into a grand experiment. He started the practice of consecration and then observed what happened as a result. Unexplainable mysteries started to unfold. He became convinced and never looked back. He wasn't the first. Ezra helped the people see a door to a higher dimension is always before us. The sooner we become aware of that door the better. There is much in store for those brave enough to take a simple step. 6