Gospel

Sabbath 9/19/15 SDB of Daytona Pastor Wray sermon “When Bad News Arrives”

by Miz KJV Only
09/19/15
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Sabbath 9/19/15 SDB of Daytona Pastor Wray sermon “When Bad News Arrives” Ezra 9:8-9

 Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. We should study the lessons of the Israelites when we see the mistakes they made so we don’t do them ourselves. These things are examples to stop us from doing the evil things they did.  Don’t worship idols, don’t do sexual immorality, don’t test the Lord and don’t grumble either, because they were destroyed for doing this. The Bible wants us to learn the lessons from what God’s chosen people did. The plan is simple, so simple a lesson. The primary lesson is to obey and honor God. God promises to bless us. If we disobey and ignore God, He will punish us for our sins.

The Israelites just couldn’t get it! This was and is a simple plan but they had a pattern of disobeying God. They got judgment for their disobedience. In the book of Ezra, the Israelites were being dominated by the Persians. God was still with them though because the Persian ruler had let some of the Israelites return to Jerusalem. They were to rebuild the temple and the city. Fifty years later they were still rebuilding the temple and city. In our text, Ezra had compassion for the people in Jerusalem even though he was still in exile in Persia. We should do the same and have compassion for the homeless/poor folk that are around us and far away.

There were no longer any walls surrounding Jerusalem because they had been destroyed because of their sin. When the walls are down, people are in danger. These walls of decent marriages, walls of proper behavior and walls of God fearing faith are gone. Today people are emotionally dead as a people. We don’t even sin with much enthusiasm anymore. There is a deadness that is everywhere. It is even in high schools and churches. There is no more music, joy or dancing with enthusiasm. Don’t just sit there, do something!

Ezra fasted and prayed about the troubles in Jerusalem. Our instinctive reaction to bad news should be true dependence on God. When God blesses us, it is not for us to simply soak it up for ourselves. Everything we get, we should use it for God’s glory. If we are having struggles, we first need to pray to God about it and then tell our friends too. God may use them to give us godly advice. Above all, we need to stand and say that we know our Redeemer LIVES! We should stand and say that there is NO problem that our God cannot solve!!

AMEN