Ezra’s story is about how to remain and return.

A boomerang is designed to remain and return. Have you ever noticed that when a boomerang goes out it seems to do its own thing.

This can remind us about our lives. God designed us to remain and return.

Ezra’s name means the Lord is my helper. He was born in a time of the second exodus. It is important to note that we can choose the sin but can’t choose the consequences and Ezra was born in a time of waiting and captivity. Yet Ezra leads the people back to worship.

Jeremiah prophesied about the people being led out of captivity. Ezra lived in a time of waiting that required his faith to sit with the question of when.

Ezra 7:6-10 MSG That’s Ezra. He arrived from Babylon, a scholar well-practiced in the Revelation of Moses that the God of Israel had given. Because God’s hand was on Ezra, the king gave him everything he asked for. Some of the Israelites—priests, Levites, singers, temple security guards, and temple slaves—went with him to Jerusalem. It was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
They arrived at Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king’s reign. Ezra had scheduled their departure from Babylon on the first day of the first month; they arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month under the generous guidance of his God. Ezra had committed himself to studying the Revelation of God, to living it, and to teaching Israel to live its truths and ways.
We need God's generous guidance. How did Ezra have the generous guidance of God on his life?

Ezra 6:10 MSG Ezra had committed himself to studying the Revelation of God, to living it, and to teaching Israel to live its truths and ways.

SOS - Study, Obey, Share…This is a recipe for remaining and returning to God.

We must meditate on the word of God. We must not be quick to do. Let’s be quick seek God and meditate on what He is telling us. Then be moved to action.

Psalm 1:1-3 NLT Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

Study - Here are the 3 things you need to study.

The right desire
The right people around you
The right environment

Obey - How do we obey?

Growth happens in the application stage not the knowledge stage. Knowledge won’t transform your life. Your life is transformed by the action you take.

Share - What message is my life preaching?

The Christian life is a life of remaining and returning. They (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, etc insert more prophets) were living a life so that their God would never be forgotten, not a life so they could be remembered. Ezra lived a life of prayer.

Ezra 8:23 NLT So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.

God is listening for us to return, but are we returning? The path to God's presence is paved with humility and prayer. We get God's grace through our humility. God’s hand is with us. We must be humbled to know this and trust in it.

Ezra led God’s people out of captivity through 116 days of travel. He forgot to ask the king for protection through their travels, which was the law of the day. Ezra was so focused on God and trusted in God that God was his protection.

We must hold each other accountable. We can wrestle and hold issue of sin together. We need God's opinion, not man’s. Otherwise we will marry the culture around us and it will bring us down to its immaturity.
Romans 12:1-2 MSG So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Ezra 10:1-2 NLT While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.

Shekaniah means 1 intimate with God. We need Shekaniahs in our life. We need to know and hold onto the fact that we serve a God of hope.

Because of Christ, in spite of ______ there is hope! Put anything into the blank. You still have hope.

Isn’t it interesting what can happen in 3 days. Christ died, was buried and resurrected in just 3 days. We can have hope.

Lastly, Ezra points to repentance. Repentance is to make a change of mind, heart and action by turning away from sin and returning to God.

Ezra 10:9 NLT Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain.

Don’t follow your heart, follow His word.

Ezra 10:10-12 NLT Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.” The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say.

Let’s be in agreement with God.

2 Peter 3:9 NLT The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God's love is chasing us. He wants everyone to return.

Here are the steps to return.
Confess. Talk to God - Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Separate ourselves. Determine to walk away from that which keeps us from God (Repent)
Reconcile. Agree with God.
The cross is the bridge that allows us to return.