THE ONE GREAT PRAYER
Scripture Reading: Ezra 9:1-9
Ezra Chapter 9 can be called The One Great Prayer. I would say that in our Christian life, we would get to make that One Great Prayer to God. This prayer is a very real, honest, humble and open prayer made to God.
There are three great prayers made to God during Israel’s post captivity: when they were exiled; living in captivity and when they were in bondage. It is in human nature to make that One Great Prayer when we are in imprisonment, confinement and in oppression and under heavy burden. It is a soul’s temperament to make that One Great Prayer when we have committed a great transgression; in humiliation; or when we are so confused by bad things that are happening to us; when our lives are no different from that of a slave and when we cannot get out of our bondage. They are all found in chapter 9 of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel.
I love to read the One Great Prayer of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel. They have a profound impact in my life and I can empathize with them. The occasion for this Great Prayer is a very sad thing.
When do we make that One Great Prayer?
DISCOURAGEMENT
Ezra made that One Great Prayer because of discouragement. It was not just discouragement but hurdles of discouragement. It was not just difficulties, but obstacles and stumbling block again and again. When the remnant Jews returned to the land, they were met with discouragement. God had to continually help them overcome hurdles of discouragement; problems; barrier and impediment.
William Ward said ‘Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the future. It is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow. It is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellowman, and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God’. Are you in those conditions? Maybe, today sitting here, you say that you are so dissatisfied with the past, you hate the present state you are in to the point, you wish to die (Elijah and Jonah were so discouraged that they wanted to die), and you have no faith or hope for the future. You disbelieve and doubt your future. You are so discouraged that you forget the blessings of yesterday, how God has helped you. You become ungrateful and thankless to God for the blessings of the past. You dare not believe anymore that there are opportunities ahead of you, that there are still the possibilities of miracles for your present situations and you dare not hope anymore. And you are so unsure and insecure of the days ahead of you that you no more have strength to face them. The days ahead seem so blight. You cannot see any beauty around you, become self-centered and you’ve forgotten the needs of others. To make matter worse, you do not believe anymore the promises of God that once you were so sure of. You have no more faith in God; in His word and in the church. You cannot wait anymore for deliverance; you have no patience and actually you are angry with God and you are becoming not so nice to God and to people. If you are all that I have just described, then I have to announce to you that you are in great discouragement. Today if you are in hurdles of discouragement, it is time for you to make your One Great Prayer to God.
How did the people during Ezra’s time arrive at this stage of discouragement? Because they or their family members had let their down their guards. They had followed the practices of the abomination of the heathens. They did not separate themselves from the heathens. They adopted the practices of the heathens. As a result they plunged into immorality and idolatry. In some cases I don’t think these people took the trouble to get married because the heathens of that day did not pay much attention to the formality of marriage any more than the heathens in our contemporary society do. They did not marry. They just slept together. Why? Well they would tell you that they lived in an advanced age. They had new freedom. They were a civilized people. They were not old fashioned. Marriage was inconsequential (unimportant, why so petty over it). Aren’t these the practices of the people of the world today? The sad part is that Christian also adopts the practices of these heathens. That is what causes the discouragement.
There is a couple who let their guard down in constantly teaching their children the ways of God. They are pastors. Consequently their daughter got involved with one of the new believers in the church and the daughter eloped and cohabited with this new believer. Of course the couple becomes discouraged.
Personally I too fall into discouragement. Well I get discouraged over my children, not over their studies but the tussle they have with us over the teachings of God. I get discouraged over this church too, that we really need a revival and the congregation is so dead that they are afraid of some manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I get discouraged over my own personal failings. I too get discouraged when I am sick physically. Do you know that your sickness can get you discouraged? Of course I get discouraged with people. Someone has said that discouragement is the devil’s greatest weapon. Well I can continue in my discouragement or I can channel my discouragement into that One Great Prayer.
When things are wrong, I mean there are several things that Ezra could have done and most likely we also could have done. First Ezra could have broadcasted a program on patriotism to God. He could have said, ‘we have to be loyal to God.’ Ezra could have run up the Israeli flag. We could have told the people who has fallen into sin, we are Christians, and we shouldn’t be doing all this immorality and idolatry. We raise the Christian flag. Ezra could have held great rallies on patriotism. We could have Spiritual Emphasis, seminar on what a Christian ought to be. He could have delivered a weltering blow. We could have just delivered a sarcastic, scornful rage against these unchristian-like people we are confronted with. No- that’s not the way. I think for 25 years, we have one Spiritual Emphasis week after another, SCG classes, great bible studies teaching on not to be unequally yoked and not to follow the practices of the world; threaten and rage but the end results are still the same-the people become weary and discouraged. There is one weapon we seldom use and even if we use it, it was never used properly.
Today maybe you are discouraged by your family members. Or you are discouraged by people; obstacles and stumbling block. Maybe you are discouraged by sicknesses.
A few weeks ago, a lady came to our church very discouraged because the doctor has diagnosed that there is a growth in her womb. She was so afraid that it could develop into a tumor and became malignant. I think the doctor painted a very frightening picture to her. Well immediately after the service, I just called out for her and when she came to the front, immediately she was pouring out her discouragement over her sickness. Pastor Lily and I took authority and prayed for her. But it did not end there. She went home, opened the bible and made that One Great Prayer to God in tears. God responded to her by sending Rhema after Rhema from the word of God. Her One Great Prayer resulted in a great healing. When the doctor’s report came back, it was negative for malignancy.
For some of us our discouragement is not just one obstacle, but hurdles of discouragement. I look at this church. After 25 years of preaching, the people are still a sad and sordid condition. The people here still intermingle and intermarry with the heathen. The saddest part is that they don’t feel it is wrong and it is not that big an issue. I am a father of two children. I have to continually tussle with my children to walk the ways of God. They feel that I am too strict. Jan called Pastor Lily and me “rare species”. Immorality and idolatry are running rampant even in the church. There is a lack of separation and the Christians are a miserable and bedraggled lot (unkempt, untidy, messy, disheveled group of people).
Ezra 9:2 calls us the ‘holy seed’ and in the NIV it is translated as the ‘holy race’. Our calling is a high calling. It is to be a holy seed or holy race. We are to be God’s treasured possession, separating ourselves from the immoral ways of those who do not belong to this holy seed and holy race. We talk about apostasy in the church. And friends, it is so easy for you and me to point an accusing finger at that which is wrong. But how about ourselves? Notice what Ezra did? He was so overwhelmed by the sin of his people that he tore his clothes and tore his hair. Instead of beginning a tirade against them, which has been the characteristics of many people today, notice what he did?
ONE GREAT PRAYER
Ezra’s response is he made his One Great Prayer. My friends – it would pay you and me to go to a solitary place and make that One Great Prayer. Even in this church, at the altar you can make that One Great Prayer.
Ezra 9:5 says ‘And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness: and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God.’
What does it mean to spread out your hands to God? It means you are not concealing anything. It means when you go to God in prayer, your mind and soul stand absolutely naked before Him. Ezra went to God with his hands outspread. He was holding nothing at all back from God. Everything is out in the open. No hiding with discouragement, with people, with conditions, even with God. No sin hidden.
Ezra’s One Great Prayer was with great tears. He was weeping. You could say that he sat down and wept. Do you know that Nehemiah’s One Great Prayer also started with ‘he sat down and wept’? Daniel’s One Great Prayer came about because he was so burdened that he fasted.
Look at the prayer of Ezra. Read Ezra 9:6-7 ‘And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.’
Notice what he was saying. He was not saying ‘For their iniquities are increased over their head, and their trespass is grown up unto the heavens.’ He said, ‘For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.’ He included himself. We are part of the problem. We own up that we are also the cause of the situation that we are experiencing. We’ve brought this upon ourselves. Today it is so easy to divorce yourself from the sin of your family or your church or your neighborhood. Of course they are in a bad state. But my friends, it is not their sin; it is also our sin. If these three groups of people (the family, the church and the neighborhood) are in apostasy, then we are in apostasy. Not just my brothers, my sisters, my children and my leaders, but also me. We have to say ‘O Lord I am standing in need of prayer’.
Ezra wrote ‘I tore my tunic and cloak. In Eastern cultures, the tearing of one’s garment was a symbol of humility, anguish or mourning. That is the atmosphere of a Great Prayer. We come to God in humbleness, in suffering, in sorrow, in grief and bereavement. That is the mindset, the composition and the attitude of Ezra when he entered into this Great Prayer. Let the intensity of the discouragement bring you to a state of humbleness and tears that you reach out to God.
That Ezra tore not only his cloak (outer garment) but also his tunic (under garment) indicates the strong emotion and deep distress he felt on behalf of the community.
He also pulled hair from his head and beard. Shaving one’s hair and beard were also rituals of mourning. Ezra bowed before God with his hands spread out in admission of the people’s unworthiness and great need.
THREE BLESSINGS
Three blessings that God will give us when we may that One Great Prayer:
1)Little Space of Grace
This is a great verse in Ezra 9:8 which says ‘And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in this holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.’
Ezra said ‘We have had just a little space for grace’.
The seventy years of captivity was over. Pastor Lily has been saying that this is the year of Jubilee. This is the seventh year. The seventh year is the year of grace. It is our space for the grace of God to be showered upon us. God has been speaking to me again and again that this is the year of the Grace of God for this Church. But we have to cooperate with him. We have to stop sinning.
During Ezra’s time, the seventy years of captivity was over. In Ezra’s time God had permitted his people to return to their land, and off they go again, following the heathens, doing the very thing that had sent them into captivity in the first place.
God has given us a little space of His grace. We must not go back to sin again. In your present conditions, God comes to you and says to you that He has been gracious. Mercy and Grace are given to God’s people. The history of our lives like those of Israel has been littered with spiritual failure which resulted in oppression by conquering enemies. But now, for a brief moment, a little space of grace, the LORD our God is going to be gracious to us. It is going to bring reprieve to our lives. It is an official pardon. We have been acquitted of our guilt and let off by God.
This conciliatory gesture came about because of God’s sovereignty. Even Ezra acknowledged God’s grace as evidenced by the remnant of Jews being in Judea. We are the remnant of God in this world today. We are the holy seed, the holy race. The fact that you are in this church this morning is evidenced that we are that remnant that God is going to shower His grace upon us. We will be God’s people whom God will preserve and protect as His ambassadors and representatives. God has not finished with us. If you make that One Great Prayer this morning, God will hear your petition and remember His promises to you and will give you a hope for the future.
What this first point is saying is that the Grace of God has come to you. When the grace of God comes upon you, there will be deliverance from discouragement. There will be a reversal of fortune. The goodness and the favor of God will replace the bondage and the captivity.
2) A nail in His holy place
God has given us a nail in His holy place. Isaiah 22:22-23 says , ‘And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place;’
A nail is fixed in a sure place. When you hammer a nail unto a wall, it is a fixed in a sure place. ‘A firm place’ is literally a nail or a peg, as a nail driven into a wall or a tent peg into the ground. A nail also means a firm and sure abode. Jesus is our firm and sure abode. So the nail here represents a person. That person is Jesus.
But the nail is also referring to the sanctuary of God. It is the church. Jesus is the head of the church.
God has given us a fixed and sure place in his holy sanctuary. The nail also represents a sure blessing. God has given us a sure blessing, that when God opens, none can shut, and when God shuts, none can open. We have lost like the Jews of Ezra’s time, a great deal including the blessing of God and our rewards. And God has come back to us and has fastened a sure blessing for us. Do you know what is a nail that God has fixed for us? Our salvation is fixed and sure, our heaven is fixed and sure and most important of all, a sure blessing that God has intended for us is fixed. As I prepare this message, God spoke to me that he has given me a lot of promises in the Bible. And He told me that the promises are real and I shall surely see my blessings as a nail in this holy place. It will be a sure blessing. It is fixed and sure.
(3)A little reviving
‘That He ‘may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. The phrase a little reviving is mentioned twice and it is found one verse after another. In Ezra 9:8-9 it says ‘And now for a little space grace hath been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.’
Brothers and sisters, when we make that One Great Prayer, God will do three things for us. He will give us a little space for grace to come to our life, and to put a nail of sure blessings that no one can shut, and a little reviving in our discouragement. I think this is a true picture of revival. What we need today is a revival. What the discouraged need today is a revival. Hey discouraged, what you need today is a revival.
The term “revival” is not actually a Bible word. I have always used this word from the pulpit in the popular sense, which means a spiritual upsurge. Pastor Lily told me that God said He will give us a surging birth. A revival is a spiritual upsurge, with sinners converted en masse (in masses). And a new interest in the things of the Spirit is part of revival. Technically, revival means ‘to recover life, or vigor, return to consciousnesses. It refers to that which as life, then ebbs down almost to death, has not vitality, and then is revived. Obviously the word revival must be confined to believers if we are going to be technical. It means that the believer is in a low spiritual condition and is brought back to vitality and power. So here in Ezra’s day a real revival had taken place.
During Israel’s captivity, 4 Persian Kings were favorably disposed toward Israel. Cyrus said God ordered him to build the temple of God. Darius renewed the decree of Ezra and Ashsuerus granted Jews privileges and protection. Artaxerxes gave authorizations to Ezra. When we are revived, God will send people to come and help you. So get out of that discouragement, make that One Great Prayer and God will revive you and then he will send people to help you and protect you.
R. T Kendall, who sat under the feet of the great Martyn Lloyd Jones, a Bible expositor, arguably the greatest in church history and a friend of Paul Cain, was invited to pastor the great Westminster Church in England. He also made his One Great Prayer. He described his experience, ‘One Monday morning, 31 October 31, 1955, driving from near Palmer, Tennessee, back to when I was a student at Trevecca Nazarene College of Nashville, the glory of the Lord filled my car. All of a sudden there was Jesus himself interceding before the Father on my behalf. I had never witnessed anything like it. I wept with joy as I drove. When I get to heaven I want to see a video replay of the whole thing – if only to know how I was able to drive the next sixty miles. All I now remember was an hour later, coming past Smyrna, Tennessee, when I heard Jesus say to the Father, ‘He wants it’. The Father answered back, ‘He can have it’. In that moment the most incredible warmth and peace surged into my heart as if a liquid flame had entered. It was tangible. I beheld the face of Jesus for several seconds, less than a minute. The experience ended. Ten minutes later I got out of my car, went to my room and shaved, then went to my first class at Trevecca.’ But R.T Kendall was to go on and impact and be part of the revival in England.
By our own doings, we have become entangled with sins and the world and consequently we become discouraged. In the midst of our discouragement, we can either stay discouraged or be like Ezra to make that One Great Prayer to God – where we lay bare our sins before God; we weep before God; we acknowledge we are part of the problem and stop pushing the blame to others; we humble ourselves and in great distress, mourn before God. Then God will come to us and grant us a little space of His grace; fix a sure blessing upon us and above all to grant us a little reviving in the midst of our bondages. Make that One Great Prayer to God today, no matter how discouraged you are!
END OF SERMON
SERMON OF PASTOR TOH NEE
Preached AT EFC ILOILO on April 10, 2011
