Brixham Community Church Podcast

https://youtu.be/lqF4lLZ-DbE Story so far… God is sovereign In the book of Ezra we read of how God miraculously and sovereignly delivers the Jewish nation out of exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem. We learn that the first Jews back find Jerusalem in ruins and once they’ve settled in at home they prioritise rebuilding their place of worship. Building up the… altar! The first thing they rebuilt was not the walls of Jerusalem although that would have protected the city, nor did they start with the temple, but the first thing to be rebuilt was the altar. Worship came first. The altar was the place of both sacrifice and celebration, and this came before any other activity. By the end of chapter 3 we have a fully functioning altar and the foundations of the temple. In our context, we must prioritise worship of Jesus above anything else we wish to build. We offer our lives as living sacrifices and celebrate the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. Our bodies and our churches are temples to God (1 Cor 3