God Keeps His Promises (Ezra)

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Firm Foundations  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:22:32
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Because He’s capable, you can be committed to be His instrument

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Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text: Ezra
CIT: God keeps His promises based on His power to accomplish His Word along with His provisions to accommodate His work.
Proposition: Because He’s capable, you can be committed to be His instrument
Statement of Purpose:
(1) MO – Consecrative
(2) SO – I want my hearers to rely on the Lord to do His work through them.
Title (Topic/Name): God Keeps His Promises

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Introduction:
· Quote – “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s provision” ~ Unknown
· Quote – “The will of God never leads you where the grace of God cannot keep you” ~ Model Boat in my office
· Describe the cost of sin as portrayed in Israel’s disobedience and subsequent judgment as prophesied that they would experience at the hand of their enemies for departing from keeping their covenant with Jehovah.
· Show how upon realization of their sin, they were able to return as the remnant to Jerusalem, but things were never the same as they were before.
· Despite national failure, note how God, according to His Word, stirred up His instruments (Zerubbabel, Ezra & Nehemiah) to carry out His commission and work to restore His people.
· Develop the CIT and Proposition (above)
Body – Development – Outline:

I. Restoration Under Zerubbabel (Ezra 1:1-6:22)

EXP: Explain how the LORD fulfills His Word by stirring up leaders in whom He provides a commission for them, a concern along with the means to carry out His work. Show how under Zerubbabel, the remnant of Israel made their way back from captivity as was prophesied. Detail how upon return, their task was to rebuild the temple so that worship could then be reinstated as God had described they do in His Word. Describe how difficult their task would have been along with how impactfully emotional it was for those who were coming to terms with the reality of what their disobedience as a nation had cost them. Underpin this how determined Zerubbabel was to remain faithful to his commission, and how he stands out as a bastion of testimony to all who would give their hand to the Lord’s work.
ILL: When Hiking – Tightened Laces Are a Must on Shoes… so too, there is a strength that God communicates to His men (sometimes even to the enemies of His people as means of chastisement for their sins)… so too, men may also turn their own strength into stubbornness against God.
· To be “strengthened” is to receive “help” and support, whether that strength is moral or physical in nature.
APP: See Ezra 1:3; Josh. 1:8-9; 1 Chron. 28:20 – “His God Be With Him:” – The Blessings of Divine Presence (from Thompson Chain)
· In the Pilgrimage of Life (Gen. 28:15)
· Affords Rest (Ex. 33:14)
· Gives Courage in Life’s Battles (Deut. 20:1)
· Is a Comfort in Trials (Is. 43:2)
· Is Assured to the Smallest Assembly of Believers (Mt. 18:20)
· Is Unto the End (Mt. 28:20)
TS: God’s people are typically “willing” people, as seen in Ps. 110:3, 2 Cor. 9:7, and the willingness of Zerubbabel to return with the Remnant to help bring restoration to the people of God. Notice also-

II. Reformation Under Ezra the Priest (Ezra 7:1-10:44)

EXP: Describe how Ezra was moved to return from Babylon, how his heart was immersed in God’s Word, and how his ministry unfolded as a great ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God to all under his ministry. Relate how difficult his task would be as he laid forth the truths of God’s Word to those living in mixed marriages and freshly returned from being immersed in a pagan land and culture.
ILL: Relate the story of brokenhearted parents who saw their children depart from the Lord to “find themselves” in the pleasure of the world only to later “come to themselves” and yearn to return to the “strait and narrow way.” Describe how many, with the heart of a Jeremiah, have pleaded with their loved ones, only to have the warnings fall seemingly on deaf ears.
APP: Never underestimate the difficulty facing those who seek to return to following the Lord after having gone astray. Fighting’s within and fears without, doubts and the pulls of past failures overwhelm. The danger of following the wrong path to genuine restoration is real and many have fallen prey to deceitful teachers on their way back only to find out later that what they thought was truth has been sprinkled with error.
TS: While genuine reformation is possible, even that which was experienced under Ezra was incomplete (i.e. what would become synagogues and pharisees by the time of Jesus).
Conc: We must realize that even though the wayward may never be the same once they return to the Lord, we can still see God do a mighty work as we devote ourselves to His cause equipped and enabled by His power to fulfill His commission. The lost sheep are being sought by the Lord even now, will you help them find Him by allowing your capable God to help you be His instrument to fulfill His commission?
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