Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to the second message in our Demolition series. This series is based on the Old Testament book of Ezra, a book some of you had never even heard of before last week. The book tells the story of how God brought the Israelites out of captivity and rebuilt them as his people. But before he could rebuild them, he had to do some demolition work. He had to demolish some things in their lives to make room for something far better. And that same divine wrecking ball is going to swing through our lives as we move on in this series.

Last week, experienced a God who demolishes the walls of fear.

Today, we see a God who wants to demolish the walls of the past in our lives.

We’re in Ezra 3 today. Here’s what’s going on: The Israelites have all converged in their sacred city of Jerusalem. They’ve come together to start rebuilding the temple. The temple was the center point of Jewish worship. It represented the very presence of God. In fact, they referred to the temple as “the house of the LORD.”

The temple had been destroyed several decades earlier, but now God had brought them out of captivity. He had set them free, and because of his great love for them, the Israelites desperately wanted to construct the temple so they could give God the worship and honor that he deserved.

You would think that everyone would be on board with what was happening, but that wasn’t the case. In Ezra 3, we find what I think are some of the saddest, most tragic words in Scripture.

Let’s pick it up in verse 10. “When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel.

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD :

"He is good;

his love to Israel endures forever."

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.” (Ezra 3:10-11, NIV)

The Jewish people came together as the foundation of the temple was being completed. The priests were decked out in their full priestly regalia. They brought out the trumpets and the cymbals. They were getting ready to have one rockin’ worship service!

The people started singing and shouting…it was an absolutely unbridled, unhindered worship celebration. They had been in slavery for so long. God had set them free. And now, the foundation of the temple was complete. And they cut loose with a worship party that we can’t even dream of!

But not everyone joined in the celebration. Look at what the Bible says next.

But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” (Ezra 3:12-13, NIV)

Not everyone was joining in the worship celebration. A lot of the Israelites who were old enough to remember Solomon’s temple before its destruction didn’t celebrate. Instead, they openly wept.

This is an incredible, and tragic, paradox. You’ve got people celebrating the foundation of the new temple standing right beside people who are weeping as they remember the old temple. And it all melded together into one loud roar that could be heard for miles.

How does that happen? How does someone who has a front row seat for this incredible move of God weep instead of celebrate? It all has to do with the way we view the past. The way we view the past has a lot to say about how we live in the present. It will determine a lot about the direction of our future. There is a healthy way to view the past. But there are also some very destructive ways to view the past. We’re going to take a few minutes and explore some reasons why this large group of Israelites wept as the foundation for the new temple was completed.

Ezra tells us that, “Many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.” (Ezra 3:12, NIV)

They were sad because of their memories of the old temple. It all had to do with their view of the past.

First of all, they wept because their past was successful.

These Israelites were sobbing because they remembered the old temple…Solomon’s temple. That temple was an incredible sight to behold.

There is an incredibly detailed description of Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings 6. The temple was a massive structure, three stories high, built with very finest materials.

There was a huge porch, or portico, across the entire front side of the temple.

Inside, there were intricate stone carvings of gourds, open flowers, palm trees, and angels.

Much of the wood in the structure was cedar, so you can imagine, not just how awesome it looked, but how amazing it smelled. Nothing like the smell of cedar.

The floors of the inner rooms were overlaid with pure gold.

This amazing building took Solomon’s crew a full seven years to construct. Nothing had been seen like it in Israel, before or since.

But it was more than just the beauty and the majesty of Solomon’s temple. It’s what that temple represented.

During the construction of the old temple, the Bible says, “The LORD gave this message to Solomon: “Concerning this Temple you are building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David.

I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.” (1 Kings 6:11-13, NLT)

Solomon’s temple wasn’t just some architectural achievement. For these weeping Israelites, it represented their very connection to God. It was symbolic of God’s presence in their lives. And now that the old temple was gone, they didn’t believe that connection would ever be fully restored.

Their memory of Solomon’s temple reminded them of Israel’s golden age. They remembered their successful past, and they wept at the construction of something new.

One of the most dangerous things God can give us is success. Success can make us arrogant. When we succeed at something, we can start to believe that we achieved it all on our own. We didn’t need anyone else’s help…not even God’s. That’s one pitfall of success.

But along with feelings of superiority, success can also breed stagnancy. This is a more subtle, but just as dangerous pitfall that comes with success. Success has the power to make you stagnant.

Here’s why that’s true…because if something was successful in our past, then we believe that it will always be successful. We stop being creative. We don’t take risks. We see no need to try anything new because we know what worked in the past. If it worked then, then it must work now. That line of thinking is natural, but it’s not true

The success of your past has the power to stagnate your present and your future. Think about this in the context of the church. Since the church was born in Acts 2, it has been in constant flux and change. The church’s message never changes, but the church’s methods have changed dramatically over the years.

Things that we take for granted today were huge, controversial changes when they were first introduced. Things like church buildings, paid church staff, instruments in the worship service…we take them for granted today. But every one of them was a huge source of contention at one time in the church’s history.

Even though change is always difficult, the church has always pushed forward, changing its methods to be relevant and effective.

Even so, there is still the temptation to remember the way we used to do it. There is still the temptation to revert back to the success of the past.

Just because something worked in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t work today. But, by the same token, just because something worked in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work today.

We can’t allow the success of our past to stop us from being creative, taking risks, and prayerfully seeking where God wants us to go in the future.

Our church was built on this type of risk-taking mentality. On August 31, 1952, the Amelia Church of Christ held its very first service in the auditorium of the Amelia High School. Planting a brand new church here in Amelia was an incredible risk. They didn’t have a building. They didn’t have any money.

But guys like Walter Bolender, Roland Gray, Charles Vickers, Delbert Wilson, Duke Galloway, and Virgil Wood had a dream implanted in them by God. They knew that the success of the past wasn’t going to work, so they started something completely new. We’re here today because of their vision for what God could do in our community. They didn’t have any guarantees about how this thing was going to work out, but they took the leap because they believed that God was bigger than their doubts. They believed that he had called them to take a huge risk to, not focus on the past, but instead to start something new.

Science tells us that our brains are divided into hemispheres. The right brain is the source of imagination and creativity. The left brain is the source of logic.

Mark Batterson wrote, “Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don't find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.”

The church has an unprecedented opportunity in our culture. People are more spiritually aware now than at any other point in our lifetime. They are more open to spiritual things than ever before. But for the church to reach them, the church will have to continue to innovate. The church will have to continue to take faith-risks, trying new things. In many ways, the successes of our past will not translate into reaching people in our culture today.

That means that we have to try new things…new things that aren’t always popular with everyone. Change in the church is hard. We understand that. We do our best to be sensitive to it. But that doesn’t mean that we can stop trying new things.

Our church was born with the passion to create something new to reach people with the gospel of Christ. Risk and vision are part of our spiritual heritage here at Amelia. And that same spirit is still part of our church’s DNA today.

There are several things that are ahead of us that we’ve never done before. For example, we’ve never had a children’s minister in the past. But just because we’ve never done it before isn’t going to stop us from doing it now. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this new staff position.

The point is, there is a lot of success in our past. Over the last five decades of ministry, our church has scored a lot of wins for the Kingdom. And we should celebrate the success of our past. But at the same time, we can’t let past success hinder future progress.

Let’s go back to our story in Ezra. The foundation of the new temple had been laid, but some of the Israelites were weeping instead of celebrating. They wept because their past was successful.

Secondly, they wept because their past was easier.

These Israelites had fond memories of Solomon’s temple, and the life that followed. After the construction of the temple, Israel had a period of relative peace, stability, and prosperity. Once again, Solomon’s temple represented how good their past was. But that was before…

Before the temple was destroyed.

Before the Jewish people were taken captive by the Babylonians.

Before everything they knew and everything held dear was stripped away from them.

Moving forward with the new temple construction just conjured up a flood of memories of how things used to be.

After Solomon’s temple was built, they held a huge festival to celebrate. The Bible says, “After the festival was over, Solomon sent the people home. They blessed the king and went to their homes joyful and glad because the LORD had been good to his servant David and to his people Israel.” (1 Kings 8:66, NLT)

Things were good back then. These Israelites remembered it vividly. They couldn’t forget the good old days. But now, the ease of their past stood in stark contrast with the difficulty of rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the Israelite nation. And so they wept.

In our personal lives, it’s very hard to move into the future when the past seemed so much better, so much easier.

It was so much easier before the doctor gave you that terrible diagnosis, but now…

Things were so much better before your spouse left you, but now…

Life was great when you had that good paying job, but now…

Everything was wonderful before that friend betrayed you, but now…

Every one in this room has had those “but now” moments. Things were great, but now…

Many of the Israelites were weeping at the reconstruction of the new temple. “Things were so good when we built Solomon’s temple, but now…”

We’ve all been there. It doesn’t matter who you are; it doesn’t matter how old you are…every single one of us, at one time or another, has wished that we could turn back time…back to when things were better…back to when life was sweeter…back to when everything was easier.

It really reminds me of my friend, Sharon. Sharon has been a part of our church family here at Amelia for a long time. Many of you have known and loved her for years.

Last year, we did something completely different here at church. Instead of a sermon, we gave four different people in our church the chance to share their faith stories on video. All of those videos were part of our series called Decibels. They’re still up on our website if you want to check them out.

Sharon was one of the people that we asked to share their faith-story. I was so glad that she agreed. Sharon’s story rocked a lot of people in our church, including me.

Sharon was 20 years old when her first husband died after only one year of marriage. A few years later, God blessed her with another husband, but he too died far too early after suffering a massive stroke at age 51. God had given her two faithful husbands, and then he took them both from her.

If anyone could look to their past and say, “Things were so much better, things were so much easier back then,” it’s Sharon.

But I watched Sharon’s story on our website again this week. Listen to what she said at the end of the video. “Sometimes when I’m tempted to say, ‘Why me Lord?’ I’m teaching myself instead to ask, ‘Why not me?’ I have a Savior. I have the hope of eternal life. I have loved ones in heaven waiting for me. I’ve read the end of the book, and we win.”

Sharon could allow her past to derail her future. She could say, “Things were so much better when Ronny was alive, but now…” “Life was so much easier when Ron was still with me, but now…” But instead of dwelling in her past, she has pushed forward into the future.

This is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It’s tough to trust God when the ease or the comfort of the past is so vivid in your memory. It’s really hard to push into the future that God has in store for you when it seems like he took a better past away from you.

But listen to what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes. “Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10, NIV)

That sounds pretty harsh, but there’s an important truth here. The reason it is not wise to pine away for “the good old days” is because God has more to do. And if we’re living in the past, we’ll miss it.

You can get so caught up in what God has done that you miss what God is doing.

For a lot of us, there is a great temptation to live in the past. Because, things really were easier then. Life really was better then. There’s no denying that. But the challenge is to stop living in the past and accept the reality of what God is doing in your life now. God can’t use you if your transmission is stuck in reverse. It’s not easy, but it’s time to shift into drive. Accept the reality of your situation and start seeking how God wants you to move on from there. Don’t stand around weeping for the temple that you used to know when God has called you to build a new one.

Which brings us to one final reason that many Israelites were crying at the construction of the new temple. They wept because their past was “forgotten.”

Some of them probably helped construct Solomon’s temple. They knew that temple because they poured the heart and soul into building it. Now, they were watching a new temple being constructed by a bunch of new people. And they wept, feeling like all their work in the past was useless. They felt it was all forgotten.

It’s a natural, understandable feeling. In fact, it’s one that I struggle with. I pour a lot of hours into sermon prep every week. 15-20 hours on average, sometimes a lot more than that. Then Sunday comes…I preach the message in both services…and then at noon, it’s all over. And the truth is, most of you forget almost everything I said by the time you get to your car. You can deny it, but you know that most weeks, it’s true.

And, at times, that’s pretty frustrating for me. It’s frustrating to feel like all my work for God gets forgotten. But we have to understand the cumulative effect that God uses.

All our acts of service, over a lifetime, build up a cumulative effect. The longer I preach, the more impact I’m going to have. The longer you serve, the more impact you’re going to have. And when all our efforts are combined, it goes up exponentially after that.

What the Israelites didn’t understand, and what we can’t afford to miss, is that we celebrate what God is doing today built on the foundation of what he’s done in the past. No work or service for God is useless or forgotten. It is always setting the stage for what God will do next.

Let’s go back to that committed group of believers who planted our church in the early ‘50s. Do we still do church the way they did then? No, we don’t. A lot of things have changed. Does that mean that their work is useless or forgotten? Absolutely not! We are continuing to build on the foundation that they laid.

Our church was planted 56 years ago. It looks a lot different today than it did then. 56 years from now, this church will look a lot different than it does today. Does that mean that our efforts today will be forgotten? Not at all. We will have set the stage for what God is going to do then.

We’ve got to be very careful that we don’t fall into the same trap of the Israelites in our story. They watched what God was doing and, instead of celebrating, they wept. God was obviously in this, and yet they wouldn’t move with him. That’s tragic.

R.T. Kendall wrote, "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."

That really stung me when I read it. I don’t want that to be true of me! And I’ll bet you don’t want that to be true of you, either. It all comes down to how we view our service in the past. Do we view our past service as the only way to do it? We’ve got to keep repeating it, keep doing it exactly that way? Or do we view our past service as setting the stage for what God will do next?

God will always move forward. He was moving forward in our story from Ezra. Some of the Israelites were ready to move with him into the future. Others stood weeping for the past. We get to choose which camp we’re going to be in.

Paul wrote in Philippians 3, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)

God hasn’t finished his work. He hasn’t finished his work in our church. He hasn’t finished his work in our lives. He’s calling us to keep moving forward, to press on toward the goal that he has called us to.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Demolition, change, future, history, past