S2:221 Ezra 1-2

Join The Journey

Watermark Community Church, Dallas, TX

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Christian, Bible, Devotional

5 • 827 Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2023

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who does God use to accomplish His purposes? As Watermark Institute student Hannah Staubs shows us, God can use those we’d least expect to accomplish His purposes! In today’s episode, Hannah walks us through Ezra 1 and 2, and she helps us understand how God used the prophet Daniel.

Additional Scripture used in this Podcast:
Isaiah 45:1 & 45:4-6, God would use Cyrus to accomplish His purposes
John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble”

The Join The Journey staff team would love the opportunity to get to know you! The upcoming prayer gathering will be held during the normal Watermark prayer service (a take over, if you will) on December, 3rd at 5:30 PM in the chapel at the Watermark Dallas campus. Join us as the podcast family gathers IN PERSON to pray, thanking God for all He’s taught us this past year & looking forward to all that he will do in 2024. For more information regarding the Watermark prayer services, check out: https://www.watermark.org/prayer

Grab a Join The Journey Journal that coincides with this part of the Join The Journey Reading Plan:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7TCKPR1/ref=sr_1_14crid=3MDHUUF0FW85G&keywords=join+the+journey+volume+2&qid=1686688452&sprefix=join+the+journ%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-14

Got kids? Check out the Join The Journey Jr. Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/join-the-journey-junior/id1660089898

Want to read the Bible with your kids? Check out the Join the Journey Jr. Bible reading plan: https://www.jointhejourney.com/jr/5781-do-you-remember-god-s-promises-to-abraham

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never too late to start and we're in this together.
0:09.1	This is the Join the Journey podcast.
0:14.0	Friends, thanks for joining.
0:16.0	Hannah Sobs here with the Watermark Institute.
0:17.9	I serve on the equipping team and specifically work with the
0:21.3	Join the Journey podcast each and every week. And I'm pumped to jump into Ezra chapter 1 and 2.
0:27.2	But before we dive into Ezra, I wanted to personally invite you and remind you that the Join the
0:33.5	Journey podcast is taking over the Watermark prayer Service at 530 on December 3rd.
0:39.1	It'll be a great opportunity for those to us who have been on this journey together to meet,
0:43.6	connect, and pray for all that God has in store for 2024. So we hope to see you there at that
0:49.2	prayer service. But today, we're going to be getting to study the book of Ezra. This book shows us the faithfulness of God through many generations. And when we look at the book of Ezra, we cannot lose where we are at in the biblical narrative. So let's look back to have a better view of where we're going to be looking forward. The nation of Israel has split into two nations, Judah and Israel. Both nations have also been in exile,
1:13.2	Israel by the Assyrians and Judah by the Babylonians. And in the time of exile, the Babylonians
1:18.6	themselves have been taken over by the Persians. So this now makes Judah under Persian rule,
1:24.6	but the hand of God is all over the seasons of Israel's history as they begin
1:29.5	to move from exile to go back home. We see the hand of God in the meeting of our new friend,
1:34.8	King Cyrus from Ezra, chapter 1, verse 1. We learned through today's reading that King Cyrus allowed
1:40.7	some of the Jewish people to return home after 70 years of exile. Additionally,
1:45.7	not just to go home, which would have been kind enough, but Cyrus wanted to fund the building
1:51.3	project for the rebuilding of the temple. What? Why on earth would some random ruler want Israel
1:57.9	to return to their home and rebuild the temple.
2:01.4	Let's read verse 2 of chapter 1.
2:03.8	Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms
	...

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