Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Ezek 16

Dark and Dreary

I often find myself repeating Joesph's noble question, how could I do this thing and sin against God?

Except when I utter it its not nearly as noble because I often find myself asking, "how did I do this thing and sin against God?"

Isa 57

Have you been there?

I hope that this lesson will give you the same comfort that it gave me.

Having said that it is not my intention to make us feel good about our sin, in fact it is quite the opposite.

My intention is for us to recognize how disgusting and detestable our sin is and to realize that the well of God's love is so deep, and its waters so everlasting that we will turn to Him and run and never stop running and that if we fall, when we fall, we will get up and keep on running.

Even when I've rolled in the muck and the mire God still loves me.

Ezek.

16.1-5

they had adopted and assimilated to the nations around them and thus Ezekiel satirically refers to the Canaanite nations as their parents.

Where we're they when Jerusalem was born?

We were soiled but God swaddled us.

Ezek.

16.6-7

We were appalling but God adorned us.

Ezek 16.16

They had taken all the good things that God had given them and gave them to others.

How often do we take our time and resources and squander them?

Ezek.

16.15-22

They had taken all the good things that God had given them and gave them to others.

How often do we take our time and resources and squander them?

Ezek.

16.2

gave themselves over to things that did not pay or satisfy.

How often do we willingly reject God, the husband who has taken us from nothing and given us everything, and give ourselves over to things that will ultimately not bring satisfaction?

The things that promise to fill always end up leaving us empty, they take more than they give and so we waste away and are depleted by the things...

The things that promise to fill always end up leaving us empty, they take more than they give and so we waste away and are depleted by the things...

Ezek.

16.35-43

God would give them over to the objects of their desire, and they would be ravaged as a result.

We are left empty and naked.

God would give them over to the objects of their desire, and they would be ravaged as a result.

We are left empty and naked.

Ezek.

16.44-52

They were a product of who they surrounded themselves with.

They went even further.

They were a product of who they surrounded themselves with.

They went even further.

Ezek.

16.53-63

When we look back on our sins in light of what God has done for us we will be ashamed and confounded.

Isa

We were disgraced and deserted but God called us back to Himself and gathered us and adorned us once again in love and compassion.

We were marred in our sins and yet God married us and made an everlasting covenant with us.

We were soiled but God swaddled us, we were appalling but God adorned us, we were marred in our sins but God married us and made an everlasting covenant with us.

That is the indescribable love of God.

We were soiled but God swaddled us, we were appalling but God adorned us, we were marred in our sins but God married us.

That is the indescribable love of God.

God loves us when we are unlovely.

What a powerful message that is for us.

God loves us when we are unlovely.

What a powerful message that is for us.

God loves me even when I am unlovely, therefore I will plead for His mercy.

, , .

Jesus is a faithful and merciful high priest who was tempted in every way we are yet without sin and he is able to help those who draw near in time of need.

God loves me even when I am unlovely, therefore I will plead for His mercy.

, , .

Jesus is a faithful and merciful high priest who was tempted in every way we are yet without sin and he is able to help those who draw near in time of need.

God loves me even when I am unlovely, therefore I will plead for His mercy.

, , .

Jesus is a faithful and merciful high priest who was tempted in every way we are yet without sin and he is able to help those who draw near in time of need.

God still loves me even when I am unlovely, therefore I will reject Him no longer.

the point of.

God showing us His wonderful and magnificent love is not so that we will be have a pass to continue in sin but so that we might be ashamed and confounded and turn from our sin.

To borrow language that we are familiar with from later on in the book of Ezekiel.

When God restored His covenant with His people and cleansed them from their iniquities and put them in their land He was changing their hearts.

He was taking our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh that was soft towards Him.

God would cause us to love Him by loving us first and in so doing we would be a people who loathe our abominations and who are zealous to do His will.

God loves me even when I am unlovely, therefore I will tell of His love to others.

On the one hand we wonder why God would trust His mission of spreading the Gospel message to fallible human beings.

But on the other hand it makes perfect sense.

We are the ones most qualified to tell of God's love and God's grace because we are the ones who have experienced it first hand.

And the fact that God can love me despite who was, what I've done or where I've been.

The fact that God entered into a covenant relationship with us knowing that we would sin against Him, and yet He did it anyways.

That's a powerful message to take to a broken world.

Invitation - Jesus quotes from in God would draw all people to himself through the person Jesus as He died on the cross for our sins in an outpouring of love so great.

Will we recognize our sin, realize what God has done for us and run to Him?