Sermon Tone Analysis

Songs of Worship:

CALL TO WORSHIP

1.     Awesome God - Rich Mullins

2.     Crown Him With Many Crowns - Chris Tomlin

PRELUDE SONG

3.     May The Mind of Christ, My Savior - Josh Bales

COMMUNION SONG

4.     Great Is Thy Faithfulness - Avalon

BENEDICTION SONG

5.     Take My Hand Precious Lord - Jim Reeves

Call To Worship Scripture:

Sermon Scripture:

THE BOOK OF EZRA

Ezra is a servant of God who often does not receive proper recognition by us.

Ezra is a servant of God who often does not receive proper recognition by us.

Ezra...

is a descendant of Hilkiah ()

Hilkiah is the high priest who found a copy of the law during the reign of Josiah ()

As a priest Ezra was unable to serve during the captivity, but he gave his time to a study of the Word of God. - he was, “a ready scribe in the law of Moses.”

()

Ezra was a great revivalist and reformer.

The revival began with the reading of the Word of God by Ezra (Nehemiah 8).

Some have accredited Ezra as the writer of 1 &2 Chronicles and of which exalts the Word of God.

Ezra organized the synagogue, founded the order of scribes, helped settle the canon of scripture and arranged the Psalms.

The theme and key phrase of Ezra continues to reinforce and deepen the understanding of what we have been studying the past couple weeks and learning from 1&2 Chronicles.

THEME

THE WORD OF THE LORD.

There are 11 direct references to “The Word of the Lord”

1:1; 3:2; 6:14, 18; 7:6, 10,14,26; 9:4; 10:3,5

Specifically speaking, The Word of God is addressed in affirming its place in the total life of God’s people - religious, social, business, and political.

You recall that Solomon brought pleasure to the Lord when his request was for wisdom in fulfilling the Word of God spoke to His father.

You cannot separate the Word of God from wisdom nor true wisdom from the Word of God.

In this book we see that applies to all of life.

We also recall that wisdom cannot be separated from knowledge and knowledge from the fear of the Lord.

Well that brings us to the key phrase:

KEY PHRASE

“TREMBLED AT THE WORDS OF GOD OF ISRAEL” (; also see 10:3)

“We already have seen that the Babylonian captivity did not bring the Jews to national repentance, and so lead to national restoration.

As the reading of Ezral will disclose, when Cyrus, king of Persia, gave permission to the captives to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, scarcely 50,000 availed themselves of the privilege, a considerable portion of whom were priests and Levites of the humbler and poorer class” -Dr.

James M. Gray

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

WORD OF GOD

WISDOM

COURAGE

REVIVAL

REFORM

SINOPSIS

Godly wisdom breeds courage and confidence.

It brings one to place themselves under the God whom they have been created to abide in.

Thus this wisdom, no matter your current situation gives a courage to worship God through how you live and what you establish your life upon.

It does this by the power of the Word of God, which is the power to revive - to bring to life - and to reform - to change from worse to better.

Thus, what we are talking about in general is the wisdom and courage (in all areas of life) to go from a certain dead end - from a immovable position - to gain the strength and insight not just to move position, but to make it to a better place a better dwelling.

Our goal this morning is to become confident in God and take courage in the reality that God is the God who revives and reforms every area of life.

That God is working to lead us out of our own depravity and captivity back to the proper place of worship, trust and abiding in Him in all of life.

I will address 5 points in Ezra to affirm this:

1. THE WORD OF GOD

We have already established that the Word of God is essential in Ezra.

The phrase “the Word of God” is flagged in our minds from our prior study of Solomon.

To fear God - to humbly come to Him for direction, to gain knowledge from God and to seek to know it’s application in your life and thus live by it is wisdom.

It is also power and courage.

Ezra was a priest, yet stuck in captivity he could not do what would be thought of as his priestly duty.

So he studied the Word of God.

He made himself a ready scribe.

Often in life we focus on how things ought to be and can get stuck in a day dream of a different time in life or a venture to try and fix them ourselves.

Ezra sought God, He studied to be a ready scribe.

In captivity, He trusted God.

Wisdom seeks to know God to be prepared for whatever work He is to do.

It does not get lost in personal dream or ambitions that fluctuate with season and circumstance but rather it has one constant desire - God - do according to Your Word.

Thus it dwells in His Word, it is made ready in His Word, it breaths out the Word that God has breathed in.

The point is this -

Our lives and our situation belong to God.

Thus the study of the Word displays to us the goodness and victory of the God that they belong to.

The posture of worship is God revive me, God reform me, God prepare me to do according to your Word, to live in line with your will.

2. GOD IS AT WORK (EVEN IN A PAGAN LAND)

The child of God can give themselves to being made ready by the Word of God, knowing that God Himself is at work to fulfill His plans.

This truth stands true even when God’s people dwell in the land and in the captivity of a pagan King.

This is a reality that far to often goes unrealized by Christians who are fearful or lost in despair given a current world situation.

God works in such a way that he stirrs the hearts and minds of men to accomplish His spoken word.

That Ezra learned and made himself ready in the law of Moses is to say that he learned how to live.

He learned how God would have his people live.

He did not seek to learn how Cyrus would want him to live or how to be accomplished in Persian.

Rather he became accomplished in the Word of God and God took care of the rest.

Meaning the purpose, the life, the calling the ministry and accomplishments of Ezra were realized in God, in the timing of God as Ezra dwelt in Him.

Can the same be said for us?

How often do we think of wisdom as defining our purpose, planning our life, choosing our ministry and setting our targeted accomplishments as the first step.

If we would pause to think of it we would recognize the arrogance.

We would also recognize how needlessly complex we make our lives.

Better spent were the shepherding days of David than the college days of us.

Better is a day with the Lord than a thousand of our own strivings.

When we devote ourselves to seeking God, we do so knowing that God is at work all around us.

Listen we will go into great debt trusting an earthly institution to work to set us upon a proper path for our life and thus we will devote years of our life abiding in that school or place of training.

Yet we hesitate to fully devote a day of our lives to the God who has given His son, the God who has paid in full that we might abide in Him and be taught and trained by Him in how to live.

If we think we can trust the success of such an earthly institution then how much more ought we trust that He who created us will be working all around us as He works within us to mature into those who will accomplish His good and perfect will.

3. GOD CAUSES HUMAN LABOR TO SUCCEED

Whether it is laboring in the Word of God, or laboring in the field that God has given, it is still God who causes labor to succeed.

This is the courage of our labor.

Hear this: Ezra was a scribe made ready, then he was used by God to accomplish more than any of us could ever imagine.

His preparation, his courage to walk in fulfillment of what he had been prepared for and his success in it was all at the hand of God.

Prepare me - Direct me - and grant me success.

That should be our prayer.

Prepare me - Direct me - and grant me success in accordance with Your Word and Your perfect Will.

4. TRUSTING GOD CAN BE HUMBLING