Your Personal Holiness Matters to God

Opening

Last week we talked about Ezra 1-7 in that it pointed us to National Restoration.

By this we meant that God was calling His people back to himself. We saw all the way through Samuels and kings and Chronicles how Israel messed up and got themselves exiled from their homeland.

But God did not abandon them, He was working in the background of their lives to bring them out of this exile.

In the same way God is calling all people back to himself. We all have made decisions that have isolated us from God and His people. But the Lord has not given up on us, but rather calls us back to Himself despite our rejection of Him.

Today we’re diving in to the second part of what we talked about last week which is Ezra 7-10, Spiritual Formation.

What is Spiritual Formation?

“Spiritual formation is the life-long process of God transforming our life and character to be more like the life and character of Jesus Christ. The way God does this is through the Holy Spirit working it out in us through the context of biblical community.” - Paul Pettit (Paraphrase)

So spiritual formation starts by looking at my life and asking the question, “how am I looking more like Jesus today than I was yesterday?”

This is important for us to consider as we dive into scripture.

Ezra 9:1–3

So let’s make sure we know what’s going on here before we continue…

This is not about race. This is about mixing light and dark. Good and evil.

Remember, Israel is suppose to be a beacon of hope and light to an immoral world. It’s not suppose to embrace the immorality of the world, it defeats the purpose!

Ezra here is upset not because of racial divide, but because of spiritual divide. These Israelites who were called to live differently, were being influenced by those that they were supposed to be living in contrast with!

This reminds me of something… (play star wars clip)

I’m a huge star wars fan, always have been. But that clip highlights something that’s actually rooted in our own reality.

Time and time again, we choose the live in darkness. We choose the enemy. Over and over again we look at the way the world lives and were are lured in by it’s lusts.

In our passage here in Ezra this is what we see taking place. Israel, the chosen nation, says no to the light, and dwells with the darkness.

Check out Ezra’s response continued…

Ezra 9:4–15

This is a hard passage to read isn’t it? But i think what makes it so hard is that these words that Ezra is saying in this prayer, are things I ought to be confessing myself!

Here’s the main point for today: God cares about your personal holiness.

Application Points

1.) Because God cares about my personal holiness, He cares about who I am becoming.

2.) Because God cares about my personal holiness, He cares about the relationships i invest in.

3.) Because God cares about my personal holiness, He wants us to come to him when we fail.

The Gospel

Despite the fact the we continually fall, God’s love for us remains.

Let’s revisit Star Wars. Because while i think it communicates the point, it is actually lacking something.

At the end when Obi-Wan wins, he actually abandons Anakin. What the Gospel actually says is that In that moment, while we are dealing with our brokenness, Jesus comes down the hill to rescue us and make us whole.

Are there things that God is going to remove from our lives in that process in order to mold us back into His image? Yes. Does that process hurt? Yes. Is it worth it for eternity? Yes.

Jesus Christ died in our place. But then He was resurrected so that we too can have new life IN HIM! And so now He calls us to live different. Be set apart. Be in the darkness of the world, but down be consumed by it, let your light drive out the darkness.

Closing

There are some of you right now who hear all that we just said and you aren’t ready to change your life. There are some of you who put on a good show, and it’s so good even you may even deceive yourself. Other’s of you actually care, and you want to see your life make a difference for the Kingdom. If you want to know which one you are, I’ll close with this quote by one of my favorite theologians.

Do you find your own heart sensitive to the Lord’s presence, or are you among those who are “samplers” and “nibblers”? God help you if you are, for the child of the King isn’t a sampler and a nibbler—he’s a sheep who loves his Shepherd, and he stays close to his Shepherd. That’s the only safe place for a sheep—at the Shepherd’s side, because the devil doesn’t fear sheep—he fears the Shepherd. Your spiritual safety and well-being lies in being near to the Shepherd. Stay close to Jesus and all the wolves in the world cannot get a tooth in you.

A. W. Tozer

Are there teeth in you? Or are you seeking to be close to the shepherd?