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The story of our text is largely a happy one. The Jewish people had been ransacked by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and forced to live in a foreign country far from the Promised Land that God had given them. Their Babylonian exile was a result of their idolatry and refusal to give the land rest every seven years according to the plan of God. And so God had caused them to be taken captive for seventy years, one year for each seven years that they had rebelled against His word and they had been in exile for that long, serving the Babylonian government and in a land where they did not feel welcome or comfortable.

But in our text, everything has changed. Their debt to God in rest years has been paid. They have repented and turned from their idolatry. And God has sent another world power to usher in a new age and allowed the kingdom of Persia to conquer Babylon. And the leader of Persia then decreed that all of the exiles of Babylon could return to their native lands. And so, after years in isolation and bondage and servitude, the people of God are going home -- back to the place that God designed them to dwell in! If you have ever been bound to something -- a debt, a circumstance, a jail cell, a situation and then have it lifted then you have an idea of what Israel felt in the book of Ezra. They were going home! They had been set free!

They went in shifts. First a man named Zerrubabel led a group of the Jews back to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. A lot of hard work, the hand of God, and the exhortation of the prophet of Haggai helped them reach their goal. And then Ezra is going to be the "pastor of restoration." Ezra had used his short time in exile well and had become an expert at God's commandment of Moses' law. He is going to renew the worship of Jehovah God and he takes a group of people with him to live in Jerusalem and worship there and make a covenant with God Almighty and live with His power and blessing.

In our text, we find that God smiles on Ezra and the Jewish people that are returning and the Persian king Artaxerxes opens up the old treasure storehouses and there lay all of the golden and silver and bronze vessels and precious things that Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple of God years before. And to Ezra's astonishment, the Persian king returned these valuable things back to the Jews saying "here, take them back to the house of your God where they belong." And so Ezra is given charge of this great treasure with the command: get it from here in Persia to the house of God in Jerusalem safely!

Ezra takes twelve of the priests and -- knowing that one man or even twelve could not carry that much gold and silver and bronze for such a journey, begins to divide these great treasures of God among them. Lest someone be dishonest, he weighs the precious metal out as he doles it out. He records exactly how much has been given to whom and of what. He writes it down as he weighs it out and then they load up and set out for the lengthy and treacherous journey for Jerusalem. The treasure is enormous. The New Living Translation converts the numbers to modern measurements and reads:

Logic would have to asked for a military escort to guard their trip to Jerusalem across such rugged and desolate wilderness. But Ezra did not because as he said:

And so with prayer and fasting and trusting God, they set out for Jerusalem in the possession of a great fortune of things that belonged to God. It's one thing to have a lot of valuable things of your own self upon you on a great trip, but quite another to have someone else's things in your possession. I doubt Ezra or the other men slept well every night of their journey. It took four months to reach Jerusalem from their starting place in what used to be ancient Babylon. Four months! With millions and millions of dollars worth of treasure and yet four months of journey is summed up in one verse:

Oh, how much hardship and danger and narrow escapes are implied in that verse! But Ezra is just content to say what is a key phrase in this book of the Bible "the hand our God was on us." "The hand of God was with us!" And we made it! And there is no use going into detail about all the mountains and the valleys and telling you all about the attacks of the enemies and the sleepless nights because the bottom line is "we made it!"

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Now let me preach to you a bit! Is not this story a perfect representation of our own lives in living for God!? Had not mankind -- who started out the true people of God -- strayed into sin and so we were taken captive in this sinful world? That Israel was taken into Babylon is fitting because Babylon always represents ungodliness in the Bible. We just heard at men's conference an entire story where we learned that this sinful world and Babylon have much in common. And like the Jews with Ezra, we were born into this situation and we found ourselves living in such a sinful place -- far from the Promised Place that God wants us to be at!

But praise God that like the Jewish people with Ezra, our debt has been paid and we have been ransomed from the judgment of God. Like in the story of our text, a great King has risen and conquered Babylon and He -- a king much greater than Artaxerxes -- has declared "you are free to go!" "You are free to go possess the blessings of God." This king -- named Jesus Christ -- has declared us free by the proclamation of His Word and if we will just obey His command and act, we can leave the sinfulness of this world and head to the Promised Place!

As you can see, the similarities between what just seems an innocent little story of the Old Testament and our situation today is uncanny! Like Araxerxes, a new King has arisen of a new kingdom and the new has done away with the old! The law of sin has been abolished and the kingdom of Grace has commenced and the proclamation has gone out "you can be free, if you will just believe it and act!" You cannot stay here in ancient Babylon: "why would you want to?" You're free! How tragic that there would be one of God's people choose to stay in the sinfulness of the Babylonian land when the proclamation of a new day has been pronounced: you are free to go to the place that God has for you. You are free to become everything in Him! You are free to inherit His future!

They were headed from their bondage for Old Jerusalem, but we are headed to a better city, a New Jerusalem! And so this story comes alive and turns out very applicable to us today! Because when we left the sin and bondage of Babylon, we are heading to a New Jerusalem where we will live for eternity and serve God and yet there is a journey to get there called life! And the journey can be long and it can be tough. And it has it's mountains and it's valleys. And we will face our enemies and we will fight, but like Ezra, we need to realize that the details of what we have to encounter and overcome and endure on the trip to New Jerusalem are not as important as long as we make it! If we make it we can just look back on a lifetime of woes and issues and ups and downs and say "we faced some things but the hand of the Lord was with me and I made it!" Don't get so caught up in the issues of this journey of life that you forget that the destination will be so worth it that the memories of what you had to endure will soon fade away! Yes, it is a journey, but the hand of the Lord is with you, and you can make it!

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And so the implication and application of this story to our own walk with God are now clear. Ezra's journey to Old Jerusalem is a type foreshadowing our journey from sin to New Jerusalem. We are in this world but not of this world. My life is a journey with streets of gold and gates of pearl as my final aim!

But there is one part of the story that I have yet to emphasize but must be central to our journey. Before they left on their trip, Ezra weighed out the treasures of God to each and every person on the trip. He recorded exactly what had been given out. And then when they finally reached Jerusalem, we find this:

When they got to Jerusalem, there was a "weighing in session." Everything that had been weighed out before the trip was checked out against what made the trip. Every man and woman gave an account of what they had done with God's treasure on the trip. It had been weighed out and it had been weighed in.

And so I've come to preach to you and remind you that life is more than just a journey for heaven's sake. Life is more than just about living for the moment and meandering along until we reach the end. Because this is not just some mere joyride, but we have been entrusted with some things -- some valuable things that belong to God. But we have been given them and they have been placed within our grasp for this trip. The Apostle Paul talking about the Holy Spirit and the blessings and anointings and callings of God said:

And as we read in our other text

"Each of us will give an account of himself to God." There is coming a day of reckoning. There is coming a judgment day. And we always think of it as in whether or not we get the wrath of God but all of us will receive judgment in that all of us will be placed upon the scales of glory and seen if we are found wanting. It will be a day of good and bad but it will also be more than that. It will be a day where God weighs in the treasure that He has blessed us with in our journey and will compare it to see what has been done! Judgment day will be more than just about heaven or hell and right and wrong. It will also be a weighing day where we give account of what we have done with the things that God gave us. Every blessing that you've ever received from God was weighed out carefully and recorded in His ledger and when we get to that day at the end of our journey, there will be a weighing in to see if we have preserved it and kept it and increased it. What was weighed out will be one day weighed in.

The scripture said that "Each of us will give and account of himself to God." Each of us. Not just the ministry. Not just Sunday School teachers. Not just the most spiritual. Not just the fanatics. But everyone will stand there. Believer and unbeliever. Faithful and unfaithful. Pastors and saints. And all of us will give an account before God of what we did with what was given to us in this life. What was weighed out, will be weighed in!

There are some of you who are thinking "well I haven't been given as much treasure as Ezra was given." But that is a lie. Actually you've been given things that are worth far more than the gold and silver platters that Ezra and his people carried. God has certainly endued us with great treasure. For example, all of us have been given different amounts of many things of value, but I felt led to focus on just a few of the God-given treasure in our hands. We have all been given:

But what have you done with it? Have you lost it? You have the ability to believe God for the miraculous and the supernatural and the healing! It was placed within you by God! What a treasure! Without it, it is impossible to please God! And yet He has given you that measure, but what have you done with the treasure!? Don't let the devil rob you of it! Don't let the highs and lows of the journey wear it down! Plant it in the promises of God! Water it with prayer and fasting and watch the hand of God use it to do something great! If you don't use it, then you'll lose it! And God one day is going to ask you: how heavy is your faith and how does it weigh in with how it weighed out!?

We have also all been given:

Let me remind you of a scripture:

We forget the context of that final verse. It's talking about outward praise and worship; demonstrative praise and worship. You've heard the term "you're wasting your breath?" If you aren't praising God then you are literally wasting your breath! And not just in verbal praise but your breath is a gift from God. You don't tell yourself to breathe. For the last few minutes you weren't even thinking about it, but you were breathing. And breathing is valuable! It keeps you living. It enables you to make noise. It pumps oxygen to your muscles so you can move! If you aren't praising God, then you are wasting your breath and therefore you are wasting a treasure! Don't let the devil steal your reason for exhaling! Don't let life keep you from making a deposit in the bank of heaven with praise! Because one day the praise of your life will be placed on the scale of your accumulated breaths and they will be weighed against each other!

Somebody says "wait a minute, you said that these were things that we had all been given -- even the unbeliever." Exactly! And I did not include the Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost -- whatever you want to call it -- by accident.

Listen closely, lest you miss something very important because it sounds shocking to you: the truth is everyone in the world right now has been given the Holy Spirit. Everyone alive after the Day of Pentecost has been given the Holy Ghost. Everyone has been given the Spirit of God, even the worst sinner and unbeliever and atheist. Furthermore, if they die without ever coming to God and die lost, they will die having been given the Holy Ghost. Don't believe me? Let me prove it to you scripturally. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel chapter 2 which said:

We quote this scripture all of the time and so much that we forget what it actually says. Peter said that the Day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of this prophecy and the prophecy says "in the last days, says God, I will pour out my Spirit upon ALL flesh!" Upon "All flesh!" But we know that not everybody will be filled with the Spirit of God and yet God says it has been poured out "upon All flesh." The truth is God has given His Spirit to all men but not all men will receive it. But they have been given it. You may or may not have received the Holy Ghost, but your portion has already been poured out in the world! It has been given to you, but you must receive what has been given! So whether or not you have the Holy Spirit or not, you are responsible for such a treasure!

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Those are not the only treasures that have been given, but let me pause here and mention that with all of the similarities to Ezra's journey to Jerusalem with the treasures of God, there is also one vast difference. When the people got to Jerusalem in Ezra's day, they were weighed in to see if it matched what was weighed out. All they were required to do was just maintain what God had given them. We have a much greater responsibility because we must not just maintain the treasures of God in our life, but enhance it and do something with it!

Turn with me to Matthew 25, beginning at verse 14. Here Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a man going on a far country:

When reckoning day came, we find that:

But then came the one who had been given only one talent:

The last man still had everything that the master had entrusted him with -- he had maintained -- but he had not improved and so he was cast out from eternal life. Like Ezra's day, there is going to be day or reckoning where we weigh in what was meted out to us by God, but unlike Ezra's day, we must not just maintain but must produce more with what has been given. God expects us to multiply not just maintain!

And so with that in mind I mention three treasures that you have been given by God:

All of us in some amount have been entrusted with these three things. Like the servants in the parable, we have all been given different amounts. Some of us will live longer than others. Some of us have certain abilities that others do not. Some of us are more financially stable or have more income than others. But all of us have been given a portion of these three things. All of us have had them in some proportion weighed out to us.

It's not enough just to maintain it; you've got to increase it and multiply it. How do you multiply time? By spending it on something of eternal value.

How do you multiply your talent? By doing what the little boy did with his sack lunch of two loaves and a few fishes: placing it in the Master's hand and allowing Him to use it for His kingdom and to feed and help others!

How do you multiply your finances? By giving of it to things of God's kingdom and His purpose. Did it ever occur to you that God gave you the job and the raise to fund missionaries and His purpose? We tend to forget that when we give to God's kingdom, we are laying up treasure in heaven. When we spend it on things of this life, then it is quickly consumed and used up and disappears. The dollar spent on food is consumed and converted by your body to energy to give you strength to go out and make another dollar and so on. Money spent on this life are just maintaining. But when we give to God, we are multiplying our riches in glory! And we are called to multiply!

Weighed out and weighed in!

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I close with this:

The sobering reality is that the day of reckoning can only end in two possible results:

1. Reigning with Him.

2. Banishment from His presence.

And what determines which one that I receive depends upon what I do with the treasured goods of God that have been placed within my care for this life's journey. I will not answer for what another man has or doesn't have -- they must keep account of their own walk. But I will answer for what I have been given. What was weighed out to me in blessings will one day be weighed in. And the result of that day will determine eternity. Weighed out and weighed in. May we -- like Ezra -- traverse this journey of life with a purpose and trusting and leaning on the hand of God. May the testimony on our day of reckoning not be the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace:

"You've been weighed in the balance and found wanting!"

Every treasure given will be weighed in just as it was weighed out. May we have an abundance on the scale of eternity!