Reclaim Faithfulness through Repentance
Ezra Restore Reclaim • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsA series on Ezra and rebuilding your life and the dreams God planted
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Sandra Bullock won the 2010 Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Ann Tuohy in The Blind Side. The sensational film chronicles a Christian family who took in a homeless young man and gave him the chance to reach his God-given potential. Michael Oher not only dodged the hopelessness of his dysfunctional inner city upbringing, but became the first-round NFL draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. At a recent fund-raiser, Sean Tuohy noted that the transformation of his family and Michael all started with two words. When they spotted Michael walking along the road on a cold November morning (the movie depicts it as nighttime) in shorts and a T-shirt, Leigh Ann Tuohy uttered two words that changed their world. She told Sean, “Turn around.” They turned the car around, put Michael in their warm vehicle, and ultimately adopted him into their family. Those same two words can change anyone’s life. When we turn around, we change directions and begin an exciting new journey. Some may need to make an about-face concerning their disbelief in Christ, or it could be a Christian needs to turn around and reconsider the value of fervent prayer. Whatever your situation, a great story of wonderful change could be just two words away.
5 At the evening offering, I got up from my time of humiliation, with my tunic and robe torn. Then I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. 6 And I said:
My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward you, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens. 7 Our guilt has been terrible from the days of our ancestors until the present. Because of our iniquities we have been handed over, along with our kings and priests, to the surrounding kings, and to the sword, captivity, plundering, and open shame, as it is today. 8 But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the Lord our God to preserve a remnant for us and give us a stake in his holy place. Even in our slavery, God has given us a little relief and light to our eyes. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us in the presence of the Persian kings, giving us relief, so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 Now, our God, what can we say in light of this? For we have abandoned the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets, saying, “The land you are entering to possess is an impure land. The surrounding peoples have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness by their impurity and detestable practices.
What is Repentance?
1 Repentance starts with a strong dose of humility. (v. 5)
13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
It takes 7.5 million pounds of thrust for a rocket to break free of earth’s gravity or make escape velocity.
2 Repentance takes responsibility. (v. 7)
3 Repentance Turns Around.
מָעַל
(māʿal). vb. to act unfaithfully. Refers to violating a commitment.
At times māʿal seems to be a catch-all term for acting unfaithfully to a commitment or obligation (1 Chr 10:13; 2 Chr 12:2; Dan 9:7), and it can apply to situations as diverse as improperly taking plunder that was to be devoted to God (Josh 7:1), worshiping incorrectly by building an unauthorized altar (Josh 22:16), marrying foreign women (Ezra 10:10), and making false judgments (Prov 16:10). God is often the offended party (Lev 26:40; Deut 32:51), because all sins, even interpersonal ones, break his covenant (Lev 6:2; Num 5:6). Sometimes adultery is described as a woman acting unfaithfully (māʿal) to her husband (Num 5:27); 1 Chr 5:25 describes idolatry as people both being unfaithful (māʿal) to God and prostituting
When you realize you have been traveling the wrong direction, what’s the best thing to do?
4 Repentance seeks to right past wrongs.
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”
5 Repentance leads to a renewed desire to walk with the Lord. (v. 8)
10 God, create a clean heart for me
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Nasa tells us that a Rocket must produce 7.2 Million pounds of thrust to reach escape velocity. That is needed to escape earth’s gravity. This world pulls at us. Desires, even good godly desires get pulled by this world. We can get tripped up.
You fool yourself if you think people naturally fall into God’s will. You have so many things pulling at you all the time, like gravity.
That’s why we need the Bible to point us to heaven.
It’s why we have times of reflection in the Lord’s Supper. We reorient our direction. We commit to pushing towards Jesus and heaven.
You need to prioritize God.
It’s why you need friends to help you like Micheal Oher did. He had a new family. That’s your church.
That happens through Life Group.
It happens through one on one discipleship. That’s what Ezra did. He brought people back to the Bible that way people could see God’s plan and turn around.
And Ezra saw the wickedness in Babylon. But, he could not do much about that first. He saw that God intended through the people of Israel and Yahweh’s redemptive plan that nations would be drawn to the Lord’s salvation. He would not have to answer to God for what Babylon, the Persians, Medes, or Greeks did. He would have to talk to the Lord about his life.
We can talk about the problems we see in others. You can diagnose what’s wrong in the world. But until you clean up your own heart and home for the Lord, you will not make the world, the church, your workplace, school, family, friends, neighborhood better.
We are all people of unclean lips and we need the Lord to clean us regularly through repentance and cleansing.
A soap manufacturer and a pastor were walking together down a street in a large city. The soap manufacturer casually said, “The Gospel you preach hasn’t done much good has it? Just observe. There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and a lot of wicked people, too!”
The pastor made no reply until they passed a dirty little child making mud pies in the gutter. Seizing the opportunity, the pastor said, “I see that soap hasn’t done much good in the world either; for there is much dirt, and many dirty people around.”
The soap man said, “Oh, well, soap is only useful when it is applied.”
And the pastor said, “Exactly, so it is with the Gospel.”
God can use mundane actions to lead us to repentance:
Have you cleaned or organized your room lately? Sometimes God uses the act of physically cleaning to help us clean our spiritual house.
When you talk to the Lord in prayer, name and describe the specifics. Lord I was lazy today in my work. Lord, I didn’t speak kindly to my kids. Lord, I acted selfishly during dinner and just left instead of offering to help clean up. Lord, I did not obey your commandment in: ______________. Don’t get in the habit of praying generally. “Forgive all my inequity.” This is the Biblical name it and claim it.
Is there an area of life you know needs to be surrendered to the Lord?
Remember to name God’s perfect goodness and specific blessings in your prayer time.
