Better Than Your Beginnings

Ezekiel 36:1-15

            Some of you present today can remember when this prophecy began to be fulfilled.  In 1948, nearly 2000 years after the Romans destroyed the Temple and enslaved the Jewish people, God fulfilled His promise and began the restoration of Israel. After Titus conquered Israel in 70 A. D., he dispersed the Jews throughout the Roman Empire and it is said there was not a Jew within 2,500 miles of Jerusalem.   I have told you that Napoleon once asked his advisers whether or not it was possible to prove the existence of God.  One of his advisers showed him this and other prophecies concerning the Jews.  He then began to recite the nations that had attempted to annihilate the Jews and reminded the emperor that the Jews were not only alive but also thriving in all the nations to which they had been outcast.

            In 1948, the United Nations partitioned what was then called Palestine and allowed many of the Jews from Europe to settle in the area now known as Israel.  The Arabs attempted to prevent them and came against Israel in huge numbers.  The rag tag members of the Jewish nation fought brilliantly and assisted by the United States were able to hold on to their lands.  Much is discussed today about Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Gaza.  These areas once belonged to Jordanian Arabs, Egyptians and Syrians.  Then in 1967, the entire Arab world attempted to destroy Israel.  In just six days, the Israeli Army captured Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights.

*            It is absurd to refer to these areas as occupied territory as it was the Arabs that started hostilities.  Israel has managed to survive all these years for two reasons, (1) God intended it to be so and has intervened to keep them upon the land, and (2) the Christians of the United States have never yet wavered in supporting the Jewish state/Christian homeland!  God always keeps His promises! 

            My point today is this; this promise is both general and specific.  It is specific as regards the Jewish state and general in terms of principle.  God has promised all His children that He will “do better for us than at our beginnings.” (Vs. 11b).

*I.                   What Of Our Beginnings

A.    When we first met Jesus

1.      We were forgiven and made free from the power of sin and death

2.      We were enabled to avoid and overcome temptations

3.      We found ourselves able to communicate with the Most High God and discovered that our prayers carried weight with Him

4.      We felt able to do all things in His strength

*II.                What Could Be Better Than Our Beginnings?

A.    Our relationship can grow and mature into something very special

B.     God can equip us and use us in even greater ways now that we have grown to a level of Christian maturity

C.    There is the promise of Rapture and eternity in Heaven!

III.             How Do We Insure That We Gain This Better Estate?

A.    By a return to that simple faith that first brought God and us together

1.      Reawakening the heart, soul, and mind

2.      Remembering the newness of faith and its power

B.     By claiming the promise He made us

1.      Getting closer to the Lord

2.      Determining to love and support the Body of Christ

C.    We must desire it with all our hearts

1.      God will not increase our blessing apart from faithfulness

We must show Him that we are willing to go, to do, and to become anything He desires!