The Power Of The Word Of God Series

“THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD” Neh. 8:1-12

FBCF – 7/12/20

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Cindy – VBS report

Why do we have VBS every year? When coronavirus wasn’t going on, lot of parents saw it as a great way to get some free childcare throughout the summer. Would line their kids up to go to a VBS at a different church every week!

In case you didn’t know, VBS stands for Vacation Bible School. The reason we do it every year for our kids is b/c of the word in the middle.

- Don’t do it b/c of the word “vacation”

- Don’t do it b/c of the word “school”

- We do it b/c of the word “Bible”

- We want our kids to be immersed in this book that we believe has the power to change the course of their lives.

How many of you have the YouVersion app on your phone?

- Craig Groeschel – Life Church – One of their missions is to eradicate biblical illiteracy.

- Launched app 10 yrs ago on a Friday.

- By that Sunday, just 2 days later, 81k people had downloaded it

- Now, over 1/3 of a billion people have it on their phone

- Why so many people? Not b/c Craig Groeschel is so popular, or Life Church is such a great church, even though it is.

- But b/c millions of people believe that the Word of God has the power to change the course of their lives.

That’s what we are going to talk about today as we continue REBUILD-RESTORE-REVIVE series in the book of Nehemiah. We are going to talk about the power of the Word of God today.

EXPLANATION – Open Bibles to Neh. 8:1-12.

First 6 chapters focus on the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. Chapters 7-13 focus on the rebuilding of God’s people. And it’s no wonder that right after a census tally in chapter 7, chapter 8 focuses on the public reading of the Word of God b/c there will NEVER be any rebuilding, restoring, & reviving of God’s people apart from the Word of God.

- Def. of revival: “The Spirit of God working through the Word of God, in the lives of the people of God.” (J. Edwin Orr)

The wall had been finished, & now the people gathered “as one man” to hear the Word. Ezra, the scribe & priest, who had been responsible for the rebuilding of the temple & helping the people get back to worshiping God as they should, brought out the Word of God & began to read from it. The “Book of the Law of Moses” (v. 1) that was read was the first 5 books of the Bible – Gen., Ex., Lev, Num, Deut. This was the people’s instruction manual on how to walk w/ God.

- Owner’s manual in vehicle – Tells you how to operate that vehicle to get the most effective us out of that vehicle, & so that it will accomplish the purpose for which it was made.

The Word of God is our Owner's manual. Tells us how to live our lives & accomplish the purpose for which we were created - to glorify & serve God.

So now that the walls were rebuilt, it’s time for the people’s lives to be rebuilt according to the way God wanted them to be rebuilt.

APPLICATION – THERE IS POWER TO REBUILD, RESTORE, & REVIVE OUR LIVES IN THE TRUE, TRUSTWORTHY WORD OF GOD!

3 actions we need to take as we understand the power of the Word of God:

HOLD IT UP – v. 1-5

THEY RESPECTED IT – It’s obvious that a strong emphasis on the Word of God is a key aspect of spiritual renewal & revival among God’s people. Can’t be flippant, or nonchalant, or indifferent to the importance of the Word if we expect God to move in our midst. And what we see among the people here is that they had a huge amount of respect for the Word of God. They stood in place for 6 hours as it was being read (v. 3).

- They respected the Author of the Word

- They respected the authority of the Word

B/c of that respect, they were willing to stand for 6 hours to hear it read & taught.

- When the Word of God is not respected, then we shouldn’t expect that God will rebuild, restore, & revive our lives & His Church.

- Neglect & lack of respect will always lead to decay & deterioration in our spiritual lives.

THEY REALIZED THE IMPORTANCE OF IT – Their minds weren’t wandering. They weren’t distracted. They weren’t checking their watches or slipping a glance at their Facebook or Instagram. Verse 3 says “the ears of all the people were attentive.” They realized the importance of what was being read to them.