Sermon Tone Analysis

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Would you pray with me before we begin?
LORD we thank you, for the opportunity to gather in this place to hear from You.
We ask that Your Holy Spirit would enlighten our minds that we may truly hear Your Word.
We ask that the Cross of Your Son would be the foundation of this morning and we ask that You would do, that which only you can do, minister to our unbelief.
“Lord, hear.
Lord, forgive.
Lord, listen and act, for your own sake, do not delay, because your people bear your name.”
May your name be made great we pray.
Amen.
I must say before we begin that today will be a little heavy of a topic.
I promise it will not all be heavy but I can promise the first part will.
Good Morning, First let me begin by thanking everyone for being here this morning to worship the LORD.
My name is Cody Bockelkamp and I am the Ministries Pastor here at Vintage Church.
A quick introduction of me: I was born and raised in Harrisburg PA where I spent my time until going to college and graduating and immediately starting a Police Academy in Northern Virginia, just outside DC.
I was a Police Officer there for 3.5 years until the LORD called my wife Jessica and I out of there to move to Pittsburgh to start a church.
So I am here with my wife and team and we are serving here at Vintage Church until such time, LORD willing, that we can launch out from here and start a new work in Monroeville.
But enough about me let’s get stared this morning as I have only so much time and we have a lot to cover.
Good Morning, First let me begin by thanking everyone for being here this morning to worship the LORD.
My name is Cody Bockelkamp and I am the Ministries Pastor here at Vintage Church.
A quick introduction of me: I was born and raised in Harrisburg PA where I spent my time until going to college and graduating and immediately starting a Police Academy in Northern Virginia, just outside DC.
I was a Police Officer there for 3.5 years until the LORD called my wife Jessica and I out of there to move to Pittsburgh to start a church.
So I am here with my wife and team and we are serving here at Vintage Church until such time, LORD willing, that we can launch out from here and start a new work in Monroeville.
But enough about me let’s get stared this morning as I have only so much time and we have a lot to cover.
IF you would open your Bibles to as you are turning there I want you to consider a couple of questions:
Do you believe that Jesus is a perfect savior?
Do you believe that Jesus offers true freedom?
Main point: While the sin in our lives only leads us deeper into slavery and death, Jesus offers us true freedom and true life
Here is how we are going to see this main point flesh out in our text today.
We are going to see it in 2 areas:
The Bondage of Sin
The Extension of Favor
So with that being said let’s read and consider our text this morning.
Our First Point:
The Bondage of Sin - Ezra 9:1-2
I need to address the elephant in the room here that some, if not most of you thought about when this was read.
Without any historical context or without a proper reading of the Scriptures one could (as many in the past have in fact) used this in an attempt to justice Racism.
Because what happens when you don’t read Scripture properly, you take this passage and say “well that sounds like it means mixing of races in marriage is wrong and sinful.”
I can say firmly that anyone who would come to such a conclusion is holding to an idea that is wicked at its core and is ignorant of the true testimony of Scripture.
So.
If that’s not what it is saying, then what is going on here?
Let’s walk very quickly through a history of Israel to show what is actually happening in this passage
Back in the beginning of Exodus, Israel is enslaved to the Egyptians and has been for 400 years.
The LORD calls a man named Moses to be His servant and lead the people out of bondage
After being lead out of Egypt the LORD promises to give His people land that He had promised them, a land where they can establish themselves and flourish
After being lead out, the LORD gives His people the law which as the guidelines for living in a way that is glorifying to God and for their own good
And it is in that law that we see
So here we see the reason the LORD gives behind the intermarriage law.
It has everything to do with idolatry and nothing to do about race
When the LORD promises this land, within the law He gave, the LORD gives the people a list of blessings that will come to them if they follow the LORD and walk in His ways, as well as curses that will come if they stray from Him.
We see these in
The LORD also gives Moses the command to give to the people to stay away from the idols of the nations in
And yet with such clear commands what do the people of God do?
Verse 8 of says this:
When you see Milcom here, it is another name of the God Molech
To described to you what is going on here, and what a “high place” is and to describe to you the last phrase of what other sacrifices were happening I will show you this verse.
Let me explain briefly what happens here.
Without being graphic, what the worship of Molech entailed was this: They would build a large metal (iron) statue, of a man with a head of a bull and arms extended.
The stomach of the statue would be open and hollow.
Inside the stomach they would start a fire until the statue was hot at which point the child would be placed on the hands while music and drums loudly played to drown out the cries.
This is what the LORD is talking about.
This is why He told His people to stay away from the people of the surrounding lands because He knew it would lead to them worshipping other gods, and those other forms of worship were not what He prescribed and were wholly wicked at their core.
And yet it was not just Solomon but we see in 2 Kings, other kings of Israel not just following suit, but doing worse
He (that is Manasseh, King of Judah)
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And it was not just Solomon but as you read through the book of 2 Kings you find King after King after King leading the people to worship Baal and Molech.
These are the things that led Israel into Exile in the first place!
And after they return here in Ezra, the first thing Ezra hear’s is what.....that the people of Israel have begun the same process that landed them in Exile…AGAIN.
The thing is, the people had deeply rooted idols and they had chosen to stray from what the LORD had commanded and decided to worship other gods.
Yet look how far it took them.
And the reason behind that was unbelief.
Israel failed to believe the promises of God, failed to believe that He was the one who would bless them, that He was the one who would provided for them and give them peace and rest and they began to trust in things that were not for their good.
They began to bow down and sacrifice to these idols because they thought that Baal would give them fertile lands and success and Molech would grant favor and protection rather than realizing it is only the LORD would grants those things.
They did not realize you do not get the blessings of God apart from God.
But how does one get from was Israel began, being lead out of Egypt by the LORD in a Pillar of Fire.....to sacrificing their own children?
How does one get anywhere?
A step at a time.
It took the Israelites taking their first step in disobedience....but the problem with sin is that it is slavery.
Which means it will tempt you to take that first step but it will never stop there.
And then sin drags you to a point that you look at don’t recognize yourself any longer
But that’s sin isn’t it.
Sin always promises you life and freedom but it is never freedom.
The irony of sin promising freedom is this, anything at all the LORD has called sin, that we pursue is bondage!
And the proof of that is how impossible it is to just stop on your own.
Seriously if the things the LORD has called sin were actually freedom then you would be able to stop doing them any time right?
Because you would be “free” to stop....But no matter how hard you and I try, the sin in our life has ensnared and enslaved us.
And we see in our passage that is exactly what was happening with Israel.
Because they refused to believe that in the LORD we find all that we need, it lead them to being enslaved to these sins that even though it was exactly what landed them in Exile....they fall right back into.
Some of you are here today and this is you.
You are trapped in sin but you think that if you just try hard enough that you can make it out.
I am here to tell you first the bad news.
There is no strength you can muster, no power you can get, no resources you can acquire which can set you free from the bondage of sin.
While that is immensely bad news I will give you the good news and that is our 2nd point
The Extension of Favor -
Ezra 9:
I know the previous point was heavy and not so fun to hear first thing in the morning we first need to hear that so we can understand the magnitude of this 2nd point.
Despite all that we just read and talked about, Ezra says that “for a brief moment favor has been shown...” THIS is the Good News!
Though you can do nothing to free yourself from your slavery the LORD is extending grace!
Notice the dramatic shift in language as well from Ezra from: “utter shame, great guilt, and slavery,” to “Favor, security, brightened eyes, steadfast love, protection”
Some of you here need to stop seeing the LORD as this giant cosmic meany and realize how sin has deceived you and told you that you can trust it and yourself and realize the language used here.
If you are a slave to sin and your are told not to trust the LORD than you are ALONE.
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