1. Working Together
Bundle of Sticks

2. What are the advantages of working together as a united group?

3. Bundle of Sticks

4. Once there was a farmer who had five, fine, strong sons, but they were always arguing with one another.

5. One day the farmer called his sons into the yard and showed them a big bundle of sticks.

6. He called to his eldest son and asked him to snap the bundle in two
He called to his eldest son and asked him to snap the bundle in two. Then he called the second son and asked him to do the same thing, then he asked his other sons, but they couldn’t snap the bundle.

7. Each son huffed and puffed and tried with all of his strength, but not one of them could even bend the bundle.

8. Then the farmer sighed and untied the string that held the bundle together. He separated the sticks and gave one stick to each of his sons.

9. “Now try,” the farmer said to his sons.

10. Each of them took one stick and broke it easily.

11. Then the farmer said, “My sons, if you stop arguing and learn to work together you will be as strong as this bundle of sticks.”
My sons, if you stop arguing and learn to work together you will be as strong as this bundle of sticks.

12. But if you are divided among yourselves you will be broken as easily as you have broken the sticks.
You need to be united and support one another if you want to be strong.

13. Jesus Once Said…

14. Working together and supporting each other we are strong.
Moral of the story
Working together and supporting each other we are strong.

15. Working together and supporting each other we are strong.
What are the advantages of working together as a united group?
Working together and supporting each other we are strong.

16. Bundle of Sticks

17. Rebuilding the Community of God
A Second Exodus Ezra Chapter 8:15-36

18. Rebuilding the Community of God
A Second Exodus Ezra Chapter 8:15-36

19. Where are the Levites?

20. Where are the Levites?
I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days…
… When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there… (Ezra 8:15)

21. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile… (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

22. There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions… (Ezra 8:21)

23. Faith Turns to Fear
I was ashamed…(embarrassed)…to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him… (Ezra 8:22)
So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer…

25. Finally We can trust Him We can turn to Him in fasting and prayer
We are trusted by Him