Sermon Tone Analysis

FCF: We are constantly giving ourselves over to new devotions, ones that will ultimately leave us empty, broken, void.

Prop: Jesus is the one, true devotion

Have you ever stopped to think about what you are devoted to?

Maybe to slow us down a little further…consider maybe the idea of what “to be devoted” means- to devote yourself to something you are loyal to it.

You give a large portion of your time and energy to something.

You are committed.

You love it.

You are loving towards it.

And when a person is devoted to something…it changes their behavior.

What

Consider this story of devotion...When our consultant, John Purcell, flew out here on Feb 7 to meet with our Session from Atlanta, he tells the story of being on a plane full of devotion.

What I mean by that is that he was the only person on the plane NOT wearing an Eagles jersey because that was the weekend of the parade.

Because every one of those people spent a good amount time, of money to buy a plane ticket, not work, leave loved ones, so they can come and hear Jason Kelce address the crowd in a Mummers outfit!

To my Eagles fans…my friends, you are devoted to your Eagles!

You love them.

You are loyal.

You change your behavior for them!

On a serious note, likely most of us are devoted to some sort of relationship - One of my friend shared with me this week how a friend, a person she was devoted to, changed the trajectory of her entire week because her friend was in crisis.

She was devoted.

Sometimes there are more sinister things that catch out devotion…It think of various types of addictions.

I’ve spent time with friends who are, or have loved ones, who have devoted their lives to drugs, and it has become their masters, intentionally or unintentionally.

They sit helplessly by as they watch their money, health, and sometimes life disappear.

Some of these things are good things.

Some, not so good…but I would offer that If we stopped for a second to consider devotion, I that that which we are ultimately devoted to becomes our master.

It rules us.

And it impacts every aspect of our being.

Let’s talk for a minute about the ones whom this passage addresses.

Ancient Israel.

Friends, this was an extremely devoted group of people.

Unfortunately, for most of their 800+ year history they were devoted to most anything else other than the one true God - worshipped God’s of nations around them for protection, offered children to gods for food or offspring.

They neglected to do what God called them to, well, probably because they really loved themselves and didn’t want to.

And this ultimately led to God’s discipline and them being carted off to other nations and having their temple and city destroyed.

Their Devotion took them to some bad places.

But God began to change all of that...

Let’s recap a bit as to where we’ve been.

The first half of the book, up to chapter 7, really focused in on God’s promises and His being a God of restoration, and namely to the wall.

But back in chapter 7 we talked about how what was in view wasn’t really the restoration of the wall at all, but that as singers and Levites were appointed we saw that God was most interested in the restoration of His worship.

The first half of the book, up to chapter 7, really focused in on God’s promises and His being a God of restoration, and namely to the wall.

But back in chapter 7 we talked about how what was in view wasn’t necessarily the restoration of the wall, but that as singers and Levites were appointed we saw that God was most interested in the restoration of His worship.

give something glory And we saw that by seeing a genealogy of those who God has preserved, keeping His promises of the ultimate promise of Jesus that will one day come.

And while worship is a word we often use in church, the concept is not something foreign to us.

To worship something is to , and given what we just talked about, worship is being ultimately devoted to Him.

He is the only one worthy!

And we saw that by seeing a genealogy of those who God has preserved, keeping His promises of the ultimate promise of Jesus that will one day come.

And this led us into the last two weeks, that God wasn’t just talking ambiguously as to whom He wants to worship him…Jacob introduced us to God getting to this idea that He wanting to restore not just worship, which reorients the the hearts of His people in the worship of him.

This happened with the reintroduction of God’s Word...

We see renewal taking place as Ezra reads from the law…God’s Word, from early morning to mid-day!

You think my sermons are long!

But this is why we preach by the way

And by the way, we talked a few weeks ago about why we sing in church, but did you ever wonder where we trace preaching back to?

Now this isn’t necessarily the first reference, and it certainly isn’t the last, but we see this...

And today we are going to end this section by looking at the new devotion God weaves into His people.

But all the while God is calling us to worship Him as the ultimate.

He is the only one worthy!

And we saw that by seeing a genealogy of those who God has preserved, keeping His promises of the ultimate promise of Jesus that will one day come.

The priests read it and gave the sense.

It required contextualization and unpacking back then, and it does today.

Repentance unto life is a saving grace,

whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, (this was last week)

2 and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ,3 doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God,4 with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.5

and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ,

does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, (last week)

with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.

What Do We Need For A New Devotion?

(Chapter 9)

There are two things from Chapter 9 that can help us here

The priests read it and gave the sense.

It required contextualization and unpacking back then, and it does today.

The Control of Devotion

Ward did a wonderful job last week walking us through chapter 9 and seeing the idea of confession and repentance.

They needed to be reminded of something.

What they read reminded them of God’s faithfulness to them.

The mercy that He lavished upon them.

We saw that through Abraham, of not merit of his own, was chosen by God to be His people and blessed them with “the Promised Land!”

God then, through Moses, brings them out of the land of slavery in Egypt, again, through no merit of their own.

But even though God was totally devoted to them, listen to this...

Those people, despite God’s grace, were arrogant.

It says in vv.

17-21 that Did not obey God.

Couldn’t even see the wonders you were doing before them.

They appointed people to take them back to slavery.

They knowingly built other gods.

That’s just what it is, isn’t it.

A slave is mastered, or controlled by something else.

And we see here, and need to be warned of this reality that when we are devoted to something other than God…then we are totally content to allow that thing to lead us back into slavery, time and time again, even if it means our destruction!!!

The NT talks about the mastery of our devotion to anything that is different than God’s will.

And by the way, the word “sin” is used here, and what that word simply means is anything that is opposed to the will or law of God in what we think, say or do.

When we are fully devoted to something, we offer ourselves to it as its slave.

Under its authority.

To behave the way it wants us to.

And in this case it is sin, which leads to death.

Beauty of Devotion

Do you see this last line of 9:17?

That is the beauty of devotion.

Not our own, but His towards us!

Ready to forgive.

Like a runner at the starting line

Ill- me at the starting line, at set.

Heart in my throat…ready to jump when the gun sounds.

But in the midst of that, God did not forsake them, he still lead them, didn’t depart from them, still gave His Spirit to instruct them, gave them food and water, they lacked nothing.