RECAP last week's message – Rebuilding the People of God
(1) Watch Your Character. Nehemiah chose people who are faithful and fear God. Your greatest ability is dependability.
(2) Remember Your Identity. Nehemiah organised the people and reinstated the worship of God among the people. This is what made the nation, a nation under God; this is what made them the people of God.
The Lord says, “Let My people go, to that they may worship Me.”
• You must worship God, not just on Sundays but every day of your life, because that defines you. We are worshippers of God.
• Rom 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”
• Worship is more than music and songs on a Sunday; it is an offering of our lives. [See Clip]
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[Read Neh 8:1-12]
Rom 12:2 — "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
• How can we renew our mind today? The same way that God’s people renewed their minds in the time of Nehemiah: through the Word of God.
• If you need to change things in your life, those changes will come through knowledge of the Word of God.
If you have a new DVD player and it’s not working properly, what would you do? You should read the instructions.
The Bible is God’s instruction book for our lives.
• The people have to get back to the Scriptures.
• 2 Tim 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
For 70 years, under captivity in Babylon, the people did not have access to the Scriptures, the Book of the Law mentioned here.
• This is the Torah (the Pentateuch), the first 5 books of the OT penned down by Moses. It reveals to them the plan and will of God.
• But as captives, for 70 years they have not heard from it. Whatever they knew of their faith and God came from memory or the words passed down from others.
• By this time, they had forgotten far more than they remembered about God’s will and God’s ways. They wanted to know God’s will and purposes for them.
Ezra the scribe stood on a specially-made platform and when he opened the book, the people stood up.
• That was how much they honoured God’s Word and longed for it.
• The people worshipped God and then Ezra read the Scripture from daybreak to noon.
The Word brought conviction. The people wept as they listened to the words of the Law (v.9)
• The more they heard the more they realized just how much they had strayed from the will of God, how disobedient they had been.
• Their failure was evident. Their guilt was obvious and they felt it deeply. They wept in sorrow.
• This sorrow was good sorrow – it led to repentance. It directs them back to the right path.
They responded in obedience to the Word.
• 2nd part of Chapter 8, we read that they got to realise that they were supposed to remember the goodness of God in the Feast of the Tabernacles (which was to be celebrated in the 7th month, on the 15th day to 21st day, 1 week).
• This was to remember how God provided for them in the wilderness living in tents, after they left Egypt.
So the people responded immediately and got everything organised and celebrated this Feast.
Neh 8:16-17 “So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. 17The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.”
Only the Word of God can do that. It brings CONVICTION. It has the power to TRANSFORM lives.
• I believe we have glimpses of this because we too experience it. We have ever been touched by God’s Word, convicted by it, comforted by it, motivated by it, and encouraged by it.
• Prophet Isaiah says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isa 55:10-11)
• Heb 4:12 “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Having acknowledged and mourned over their sin, Nehemiah and the Levites urged the people not to grieve on.
• It is wrong to stay in the grip of your guilt and continue to be wrapped up in your sorrow AFTER the sincere confession before God.
• God wants us to know His forgiveness and experience the blessing of repentance.
And so in obedience, the people “Then all the people went away to eat and drink… to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.” (8:12)
• Later when they celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles, verse 17 says “From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted.” (Matt 5:4)
• Those who mourn for their sins will experience the comfort, the joy of forgiveness.
• This is the essence of the Gospel – when we truly repent of our sin, we will experience the joy of salvation.
The Word of God liberates and brings joy. It frees us to do right, and not bind us in guilt. It inspires hope, and not despair.
• The strength we need to live a godly life comes not from excessive sorrow, but from the joy we have in the Lord. Nehemiah says, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (8:10)
• Repentance won’t give you strength. Sorrow won’t change you into a godly person. It is the joy of the Lord that grants us the victory.
This serves as a sign why some are not growing spiritually and serving actively. They have lost this joy in them.
• They are probably stricken by guilt, not knowing the forgiveness available in Christ, still attempting to earn their righteousness through good works, feeling they have not done enough for God.
• If we are experiencing this weight of guilt or sin for too long, something is not right. If you turn to God in repentance, you will be set free. The Lord does not condemn you.
If you are depressed by our sinfulness for a long time, then you are likely being exploited by Satan, because he is “the accuser of our brothers” (Rev 12:10).
• He will keep accusing you, telling you that you are not good enough, that God is not happy with you, that you’ve failed God too many times, and on and on he goes.
• Don’t listen to him. Listen to the Word of God. God’s Word brings conviction but it does not bind us. That godly sorrow will turn to joy.
• God’s Word sets us free – it set us free from our sin, free us to worship Him and enjoy Him.
Paul says in 2 Cor 10:4-5, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
• The Word of God brings conviction and then it brings JOY. The truth of God set us free – free to be all that God wants us to be. It’s liberating, and not binding.
If you are often affected by wrong thoughts, get into the Scriptures and find out appropriate verses that are relevant (that contradict those lies).
• Write them down and post them by your computer, in your cubicle, around your home. Use a digital stick on and place them on your desktop.
• This can help us to align our thoughts with God’s thoughts.
The Bible says all who can understand gathered to listen, and “all the people listened attentively” (8:3) to the reading of God’s Word.
• Don’t let the evil one and his lies take control of your mind.
• Let God’s truth take control of your mind.
Let me list you some examples –
• Jer 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
• Rom 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
• Rom 8:35, 37-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Phil 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
Conclusion:
Don’t undermine the INTAKE of God’s Word.
• Neh 8:18 “Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God.”
• You are going to experience the transforming power of God’s Word, if you expose yourself to it constantly. If you RECEIVE it by FAITH, it’s going to change you.
• It’s not the Word of God that changes you; it is your RESPONSE to the Word, that conviction that takes place in your heart that changes you.
Cultivate a RESPECT for God’s Word.
• Cultivate a respect for God’s Word. You see that in this chapter. They built a raised platform for the reading of God’s Word, stood when the Book is opened, worshipped God for having the Book to read, listened attentively, and weeping over what was heard.
[See Videoclip: Kimyal tribal people finally got a translation of the NT in March 2010.]
