CHURCH WITH A PURPOSE DATE: September 21, 2014 TITLE: “THE REDEDICATED CHURCH” (NEHEMIAH SERIES: SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR) MAIN SCRIPTURE: Nehemiah 9:38; 10:28-39 NKJV “And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it; our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it…Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding—these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes: We would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: …For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine and the oil, to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are; and we will not neglect the house of our God.” Ch 9, v.38; Ch. 10, v28-30, 39 RECAP OF NEHEMIAH STUDY CHAPTER 1- RECOGNIZE NEED AND PRAY CHAPTER 2A- LET GOD USE YOU CHAPTER 2B- GET MOVED BY GOD TO WORK CHAPTER 3-WORKING TOGETHER IN UNITY CHAPTER 4A-HOMES AND DADS CHAPTER 4B-BEATING DISCOURAGEMENT CHAPTER 5-STRIFE AND SACRIFICE CHAPTER 6A-PROTECTING THE VISION: RECOGNIZING DISTRACTIONS CHAPTER 6B-PROTECTIN THE VISION: OVERCOMING DISTRACTIONS CHAPTER 7A-IT’S ONLY JUST BEGUN PT. 1 CHAPTER 7B-IT’S ONLY JUST BEGUN PT. 2 CHAPTER 8A- THE JOY OF THE LORD CHAPTER 8B-LOOKING FOR MORE CHAPTER 9A-THE RESURGING CHURCH PT. 1 CHAPTER 9B-THE RESURGING CHURCH PT. 2 TODAY: THE REDEDICATED CHURCH God brought about an amazing revival among His people as they rebuilt the wall under Nehemiah’s leadership. The rebuilding of the wall in a mere fifty-two days was only the beginning of the miracles to come. True revival happens not in a building but in believers. It happens not in a church pew but in the heart, and God’s people experienced a revival in Nehemiah’s day that had not been seen for many generations. It began with a passion for God’s Word as the people stood to hear it read for hours at a time. The reading and understanding of the Word brought about great conviction and even more passion for the Word. The people spent three hours confessing their sins and the sins of their fathers—the Hebrew word for “confess” indicating that they held out their sin before the Lord and then cast it away from them. Even the sins of generations earlier which still affected and hindered them, the people cast away and prepared their hearts for God to do an amazing work, and they entered into a covenant that demonstrated the seriousness of their decision to follow the Lord and His Word. We may look around in despair and feel that such a revival is not possible today. The church is full of deadness, religiosity, and loss of purpose which prompts many to walk out of church and not go back. How many of us can relate to the fact that our happiest day as a Christian was the day we accepted Christ, and then it all started to go downhill from there after being around other Christians? No, that isn’t the way it is supposed to be, but it happens all too often doesn’t it? We may easily be one of those Christians who goes around baptized in vinegar, seasoning our speech with the pepper of criticism rather than the salt of the truth in love, and living in defeat instead of victory. Instead of thriving, we are merely surviving. Yet the God of Nehemiah’s day is the same God of today. His power has not diminished! We can experience the same revival today if we are willing to let God work. The trouble is that many of us want to give our souls to God (that “fire insurance”) but not our lives. We want to hang on to those! No doubt the people of Nehemiah’s day struggled with the same thing—after all, they had been in exile many years. Now that they were home, they probably wanted everything to be back in their control again, but they were not happy. The group Nehemiah discovered was a hopeless group sunk into deep despair and anxiety, rather than the joy God wanted for them. But once God began to work, the people began to see how much they had been missing, how far they had fallen, and how much they needed God. THEY RECOGNIZED THE NEED FOR THE COVENANT. Ch.9 v. 38 “Because of all this” the Scripture explains, the people made a covenant and placed their seal upon it. Because of what? Basically, disobedience and rebellion. The people realized that they were not where they needed to be. It’s interesting that we don’t have to be taught to disobey—it seems to come naturally to our human nature! They knew that they needed to come back to God just as the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable (see Luke 15) had to come to his senses in the pigpen and go home to the father. The father was watching for his son, yes, and he came running to meet him with open arms. But the son had to make the decision to go home to the father first! The first part of chapter 10 contains nearly a hundred names of men—leaders of the people-- who placed their seal upon that covenant, ready to return to the Father. CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE WHO MADE THE COVENANT. V.1-28 The people were united in their commitment to God. The Bible makes it clear that everyone who was able to understand what they were doing entered into this covenant. Everyone needs to come back to God at some point, and if we ever think that we are too spiritual to wander away from God, we may be in worse shape than we think. If we have ever been in a place where we have seen God work in a mighty way, we know how awesome that is! It is often astounding to us. Why? God is able to do such things all day and every day, but so rarely are we open to it that on those occasions we are blown away! Let’s see some of the characteristics of the people of Nehemiah’s day who entered the covenant. 1) They separated themselves. The people all had friends or neighbors who didn’t take this commitment to God seriously. We can identify with that. While we are commanded to treat everyone with kindness and respect, we are also strongly cautioned against forming close friendships with those who do not share our beliefs. The reason for this is that the closer we become to that person, the more he or she will influence us. We may believe we can influence them for Christ, and we should certainly witness to those whom the Lord places in our path, but in spending time or “hanging out” with these people, we will almost certainly be the ones who are pulled down and away from the Lord. The people recognized that this could happen to them, so they were careful to separate themselves. 2) They were committed to the Law of God. The importance of God’s Word in bringing about revival cannot be understated. The revival began not when the wall was being built but when the people had a passion for the Word of God. That was what brought about the change in their hearts and drew them closer to God. I have read the following quote many times and I love it: “The Bible is to be our daily bread, not cake for special occasions.” The reason revival is long absent in many churches, though they may appear to be thriving, is that the Word of God is not being preached. Man’s opinion is being substituted for God’s Word. Many pastors write their sermons based on what they think and then try to find Scripture to fit it. As a result God’s Word is drastically watered down and compromised. When we are not reading God’s Word as daily bread, we begin to spiritually starve ourselves. As with physical starvation, the first few days others may not notice but eventually, both physical and spiritual starvation are evident to others. Our lives often revolve around food, but are we as concerned with getting spiritually nourished as we are with getting to the buffet line? 3) They had knowledge and understanding. This characteristic goes along with the above one. The people didn’t just read the Bible or hear the Bible read. We can’t just read the Bible and check it off our list. We have to truly search the Word and spend time meditating on what God is showing us. It is better to read one chapter over an entire week and come away with fresh knowledge than to memorize the whole Bible. Rote memorization is not the same thing as hiding His Word in our hearts, though memorization may be a result of thoroughly studying and understanding. GOD’S WORD Don’t just scan it—search! Don’t just read it—renew! Don’t just memorize it—meditate! Don’t just learn it—live it! THEY UNDERSTOOD THE SERIOUSNESS OF THEIR VOW. V. 29 Many of us are afraid to make a commitment to God because we are afraid He might ask us to do something we don’t want to do or don’t think we can do. But when we accepted Him, we did make a commitment to Him. Why are we so afraid to honor that commitment when He has our best interests at heart? He will never ask us to do anything that He will not prepare and equip us for. We have all failed in our commitments to God at some point or other. Isn’t it wonderful that He never fails in His? But that is not a reason for us to take our commitments lightly. God told the people when He gave the law to Moses that if they obeyed His laws and commandments, He would bless them. If they disobeyed and rebelled, He would punish them, expressed in many versions as “cursed.” The people understood that there were consequences for disobeying God. They entered into that covenant knowing and accepting this. When we use the words “commitment” and “rededicate,” we often use them rather casually or flippantly. Do we really understand and take seriously our promises to the Lord? WHAT WAS THEIR COMMITMENT? 1) READ THE WORD. They were committed to walking in the law of God. We cannot obey God if we don’t know His Word. The Bible is a love letter, inspired by One Who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. He wants us to know how much He loves us. If one we loved wrote us a love letter would we not want to absorb every word of it? We would not read it just once, but over and over again until every word was engraved upon our hearts. We would indeed memorize it, but not for the sake of memorization. We would memorize it because we loved the one who wrote it and it was a part of them. Remember, these people were willing to hear the Word of God read for hours at a time! Nobody was glancing at the sundial or playing on Facescroll or wondering what was for lunch. They were completely absorbed by the Word of God! 2) OBSERVE AND KEEP GOD’S COMMANDMENTS. This was a result of reading and understanding God’s Word. They knew what He wanted them to do and how to do it. And when they knew His Word, they could not sin in ignorance. They took their obedience to God seriously, because God takes it very seriously. 3) SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THOSE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE AS THEY DID. We mentioned this before, but it took on a whole new aspect with this covenant. The fathers not only took the responsibility of separation upon themselves but made themselves responsible for their wives and children. They vowed to neither give their daughters in marriage to unbelievers, nor to take the daughters of unbelievers for their sons. Now, I am sure everyone is going to say, well, that’s because parents arranged the marriages back then. But what application could this possibly have today? The application is that we as parents need to be concerned with whom our children date. God’s Word makes it very clear that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. (2 Cor. 6:14) As pointed out earlier, the argument that the saved one might win the unsaved one to Christ in the relationship in reality VERY RARELY happens. What is far more common is that the unsaved will pull the saved away from the Lord. Some parents might feel that their child is old enough to make their own decision about whom they date, but are they truly? They want us to think so, but other than the decision to accept Christ, the decision of whom to marry is the most important decision of a lifetime, which is why even the decision of whom to date is very serious. Are we committed as parents to keeping our family close to the Lord and our children pure even if it means using that 2-letter word they aren’t going to want to hear? 4) KEEP THE SABBATH. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest. We are BUSY, BUSY, BUSY every day. Going here and there, doing this or that, and diligently recording it all on Facebook so we can compare with all the other busy people, right? It is all too easy to get swept up in a tidal wave of activity—yes, even church activity—and become burned out and frustrated like Martha of Bethany because we are trying to do more than what the Lord intends for us to do. We see a need and feel that we are the one that has to meet it. This does not mean that if we have committed to do something, we have to drop it right away because the Lord said so. What it does mean is that we need to spend time at the feet of Jesus, like Mary of Bethany, rest in Him and learn what His will is for us. When we know what it is, we will be able to say “Yes” to what He has called us to do, and “No” when we need to stop and rest. When we are walking with Him daily, we won’t fall into the trap of committing to everything going on and then getting burned out and dropping it all on someone else. Also, when we see others who are doing too much and we are able to help them so that they can rest, we need to do so. The bottom line is that if everyone would take time with the Lord, discover what He is calling them to do, and do it faithfully, no one should be burned out because all are resting and serving as the Lord directs! We all need a balance of rest and service to Him. COMMITTED TO SERVE THE LORD. The phrase “the house of our God” is mentioned 9 times from verses 32 to 39. What is the significance of this? 1-The people realized it was their responsibility to take care of God’s house. V.32 Though we cannot be involved in every church activity, we need to realize that we work together to take care of His house. We might be tempted to say “I didn’t make that mess—it’s not my job to clean it up.” Yet we should be concerned with all aspects of God’s house. If we see something that needs doing—even a small task like picking up trash from the floor—it is our responsibility in His house! 2-All things in God’s house are important. No matter what ministries we might be involved with, all ministries and all people are valued and important. When we think of ministry workers, we often think of the ones out front that we can see, like singers or teachers. What about nursery workers and those who take care of cleaning and decorating the building? If these people behind the scenes did not serve the Lord faithfully in their jobs, we would most certainly notice that! And if we are involved in those ministries, we need to do them heartily unto the Lord even if nobody sees, because He does! Likewise we need to appreciate and value those who serve Him faithfully in ways we may not even notice. 3-They realized the need for giving. Well, here it is. The “T” word. The subject of tithing is often taboo today because so many have used God’s name from the pulpit to promote prosperity for themselves. These people do not serve our God, but only a god of materialism and money. Understandably, this abuse turns many people off to giving. But here’s the thing. First of all, every cent we earn actually belongs to God. It is because of Him that we are able to work and provide for our families in the first place. So what we are withholding and calling ours truly belongs to Him. Second, as believers we would all say that we’d love to see God bring in a huge harvest of souls. Yet how can we expect a large harvest when we haven’t sown the seed? Last, God tells us that we are not to test Him except in one area—giving. Malachi 3:10 states, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’” How can the Lord trust us with much when we are not faithful with a small amount? The people of Nehemiah’s day were not wealthy, but they determined that they would give the Lord His tithes, and trust Him to provide. Chapter 10 is a chapter of rededication and restoration. God is in the business of restoration! But we have to be willing to do our part as well. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Deuteronomy 30:19,20 NKJV
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:41:45 +0000
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