GROWING
Nehemiah 10:28-32
I heard about this man who bought a parrot. It was a beautiful parrot but he had a really bad mouth. He could swear for five minutes straight without repeating himself. The man was embarrassed because the bird was driving him crazy in front of people.
He tried to appeal to the bird by asking him to clean up his language. The parrot promised to change but nothing happened. In fact, his swearing increased in both volume and frequency.
It finally got to be too much, so the guy grabbed the bird by the throat and started shaking him and yelled, “Quit it!” But this just made the parrot angry and he swore more than ever.
Then the guy got really mad and locked him in a kitchen cabinet. That really aggravated the bird and he started clawing and scratching and making all kinds of racket. When the guy finally let him out, the parrot let loose with a stream of swear words that made the man blush.
At that point, the guy was so ticked off that he threw him into the freezer. For the first few seconds the bird squawked and screamed and thrashed around. And then there was silence.
At first the guy just waited, but then he started to wonder if the bird was hurt. After a couple minutes of not hearing anything, he was so worried that he opened the freezer door. The bird calmly climbed onto the man’s outstretched arm and said, “I’m really sorry about all the trouble I’ve been giving you. I make a solemn promise and vow to clean up my language from now on.”
The man was astounded. He couldn’t believe the transformation that had come over the parrot as a result of being in the freezer for only a couple minutes. The parrot then turned to the man and said, “I just have one question…what did the chicken say?”
Our scripture story today is truly amazing. It takes place in about 430 A.D. It is the story of revival among God’s people who had become complacent about their religion.
If you look at what these people were like before… which we will do in a future sermon… (we’ll be here a couple more weeks) you will see that they had let their religion/spirituality lose all reality and power.
Then, in chapters 9 & 10 we have a revival breaking out with signs or reality.
What happened in between? Again, wait until next week.
Let’s see some of the signs of the revival 9:1-3
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.
These people are SERIOUS!!!
1. They were fasting…
2. They were wearing clothes made from something like burlap bags… very rough and uncomfortable… and strange
3. And they had taken ashes and smeared them on their faces and piled them on their heads
In that day and time that was the absolute epitome of brokenness, contrition and repentance.
4. They listened to preaching for three hours… attentively
5. They confessed sins for three hours
Brother… THAT is revival
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll learn more lessons from this story, but today I want to look at the whole story, in general, to see one large lesson
In this section we have three of God’s favorite things…
Praise… confession… repentance
The lesson today is how the three GO TOGETHER
I’m going to give you some BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES and show how they are illustrated in this story
The first BIBLICAL PRICIPLE IS:
PRAISING GOD LEADS TO SEEING HIM AS HE REALLY IS:
HOLY, FAITHFUL, PURE, HIGH, LIFTED UP
Notice how chapter 9 begins with PRAISE
5 And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.
And then, from verse 6 to verse 15, they PRAISE God for all of His wonderful acts on their behalf.
God gets bigger and more holy and more lifted up
The next BIBLICAL PRICIPLE IS:
SEEING GOD AS HE REALLY IS NATURALLY LEADS TO SEEING OURSELVES AS WE REALLY ARE:
SINFUL, UNFAITHFUL, UNWORTHY
Notice the change in verses 16 and 17
16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.
What happened? Please don’t miss this, because this is a great lesson—
PRAISE (focusing on God’s greatness and faithfulness)
NATURALLY LEADS TO RECOGNITION OF OUR SMALLNESS AND UNFAITHFULNESS
The more aware we become of God’s WORTHINESS, the more aware we are of OUR UNWORTHINESS
The higher we lift HIM up—the lower we want to bow
I will use another example…
Isaiah 6:1 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
What was Isaiah doing when he saw God?
PRAISING… first 5 chapters
What happened when he praised?
He saw GOD as he had never seen Him before
He had seen God before mental picture, awareness
But the God he had seen before was a much smaller god, a much less majestic god.
The view of a smaller god never moved Isaiah It was HO-HUM
What was different about this vision of God
Seated on a throne
HIGH and LIFTED UP
Holy
What accounts for this different view, this BIGGER view?
PRAISE!!!!!
His increased awareness of God’s Holiness NATURALY LEAD to the recognition of Israel’s… and his own un-holiness
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…”
Isaiah felt very small, and wanted to get smaller. He wanted to get so small until he could crawl under the rug… or dig a hole and crawl in
He was aware of his sinfulness… and was afraid of God’s holiness
So let’s remind ourselves of the point I made earlier…
The more aware we become of God’s WORTHINESS, the more aware we are of OUR UNWORTHINESS
And… The higher we lift HIM up—the lower we want to bow
And that brings us to the next BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE:
SEEING GOD’S HOLINESS AND OUR UNHOLINESS NATURALLY LEADS US TO CONFESSION
Listen to their confession…
16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.
19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon[c] king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. 23 You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. 24 Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. 25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.
26 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.
29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. 31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
32 “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. 35 Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.
36 “But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. 37 BECAUSE OF OUR SINS, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
WOW… THAT is confession… broken-ness… contrition
God loves it… he could listen to it all day… it thrills his heart
So… PRAISING GOD LEADS TO SEEING HIM AS HE REALLY IS: HOLY, FAITHFUL, HIGH, LIFTED UP
And SEEING GOD AS HOLY AND WORTHY LEADS TO SEEING OURSELVES AS SINFUL, UNFAITHFUL, AND UNWORTHY
AND SEEING OURSELVES AS SINFUL, UNFAITHFUL, AND UNWORTHY LEADS TO CONFESSION
IS THAT ALL… IS THAT THE END… CONFESSION ????
No!!! IF THAT IS ALL THERE IS… CONFESSION… GOD IS NOT PLEASED
That brings us to the next BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE: CONFESSION OF OUR SINFULNESS AND UNWORTHINESS NATURALY LEADS TO REPENTANCE
They were sorry for their sin and serious about making real change… getting back to right relationship with God.
Where is the proof? Chapter 10
30 "We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.
31 "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day.
Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.
They vowed to MAKE CHANGES = REPENTANCE
To STOP doing what they were doing… and to start doing things God’s way
Not just generally… but SPECIFICALLY
They had specific sins in mind and specific things God wanted… and they had specific plans for how they would change.
Having a plan for change is not repentance… change is
But you are not likely to change without a specific plan
So… let me recap the BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF THIS MESSAGE:
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #1
PRAISING GOD LEADS TO SEEING HIM AS HE REALLY IS: HOLY, FAITHFUL, WORTHY .
Praise that does not lead us to a higher view of God IS NOT PRAISE .
Just empty words and meaningless songs
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #2
SEEING GOD HOLY, FAITHFUL AND WORTHY NATURALLY LEADS TO SEEING OURSELVES AS SINFUL, UNFAITHFUL, UNWORTHY
If we do not have a greater awareness of our sinfulness then
we have not really seen God_________________________
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #3
SEEING OURSELVES AS SINFUL, UNFAITHFUL, AND . UNWORTHY LEADS TO CONFESSION .
If our praise does not lead to confession… it was not .
real praise .
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #4
CONFESSION OF OUR SINFULNESS AND UNWORTHINESS NATURALY LEADS TO REPENTANCE .
If our confession does not lead to repentance… it was not
truly confession… just empty words .
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #5
REPENTANCE IS NOT PROMISES TO CHANGE… IT IS CHANGE .
It is not enough to have good intentions to change, you
must actually change .
