The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong in this situation. Dr. Tony Evans talks about finding our way back to faith when we wandered away from the Lord. Even though you feel bad about all the time you lost, all the pain you've gone through, all the circumstances, if you get back God's joy, you'll get back.
You'll strength. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When a person or a nation makes the decision to turn to God, Dr. Evans says there are three steps needed to transform that idea into a reality.
Let's listen in as he explains what those steps are. Many of us today have our own 9-11s, our own invasions in our lives and in our worlds, in our circumstances that we just don't know how to beat, how to overcome, and so we've called for a sacred gathering. And so did Nehemiah and Ezra in the book of Nehemiah. Let me give you a little bit of history to help understand how chapter 8 fits in to what is taking place in Israel. Israel had been divided between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Because of the Northern Kingdom's rebellion against God, in 722 BC, God allowed the Assyrians to come in and invade Israel as disciplinary action to his rebellious people. The Southern Kingdom, called Judah, was to have learned the lesson from the Northern Kingdom, but they did not. So in 586 BC, God allowed the Babylonians to come in and invade the Southern Kingdom. That's when you read in the book of Daniel that Daniel and the three Hebrew boys got captured by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.
All that's part of this event. Well, the Babylonians were overcome and being disciplined by God by the Medo-Persian Empire, and it was under the Medo-Persian Empire that God began to restore his people back to the place where they had been taken from. There were three trips back. The first trip was led by Zerubbabel. The second trip was led by Ezra, the priest. And then the third trip was led by Nehemiah. So the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah is tied to this return of God's people to the land that they had been removed from from the Southern Kingdom. So when you read those two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, that's the context of it. God led Nehemiah, who used to work for the king of the Medo-Persian Empire that had defeated Babylon, to go and rebuild the walls.
Ezra was the priest. His job was to rebuild the temple. Nehemiah was the construction man.
His job was to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. When he went back with God's hand upon him, he rebuilt the walls in 52 days—walls that had been torn down for 150 years. Things have been in chaos for 150 years, and God turned that thing around in 52 days.
That's a miracle. When the people saw the movement of God in that powerful way under the leadership of Nehemiah, chapter 8, verse 1, and all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the Watergate—we'll call this the Watergate revival—and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. 42,300 people all gathered downtown in the city square and said, Ezra, where are you?
Bring the Word of God out here and start reading, because they had seen what the Word could do in 52 days. It says they gathered as one man. In other words, they were all on the same page. They didn't have different agendas.
There was one agenda. Get the preacher out here with the book. Get Ezra out here with that Bible, because we've been missing something. They gathered as one man.
One man is very important. Where there is unity, God will show up. Where there is disunity, God will keep away. So the devil's goal is always to split things up so God won't show up. So whether he's splitting it up in your own life, in your family, he wants to create division to keep God away.
But they show up, it says, as one man. And like at a rock concert where everybody's shouting the same thing, we want Ezra! We want Ezra!
We want Ezra! Everybody's calling for Ezra to bring the book of the law. In fact, the key to your year is returning to God through the centrality of His Word.
A revival occurs when God's people return to Him by responding to His Word. When you read chapter 8 as you did, you keep running into the law of God, the law of God, the law of God, the law of God, the law of God, the law of God, the law of God. You keep seeing this reference being made to the law of God. The way they got back to God was through His Word.
When you skip the Word, you just don't skip the Word. You skip the God of the Word. You can't have God and not have His Word, because He accompanies His Word. So when the Word is sidelined, the God of the Word is also sidelined.
So you can go around talking about God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God all day long. If the Word has been skipped, the God of the Word has been skipped with it. That's why they call for Ezra to bring out the book of the law.
They want to reposition the Word that had gotten lost, and so there is a threefold response in chapter 8 that I want to summarize. They call for Ezra. Verse 2, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen and understand on the first day of the seventh month.
It says, the men were there, the women were there, and the young people were there who were old enough to make sense of what was going on. A podium is built, verse 4. Ezra takes to the wooden podium. He stands up there with his core leadership. Verse 5, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Why did all the people stand up? If the president of the United States walked in here, we would all stand up.
Why? Because we're paying honor to his person and his position. Standing up was a recognition of the person and the position. When Ezra opened the book, they understood he was not opening up the book alone. He was opening up access to the God of the book, because God accompanies the book. When the book is dismissed, God is dismissed. You can't have God and stick the book somewhere else. They go hand in hand, and that's something we miss, because people want God but not the book. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, verse 6, the great God, and all the people said, Amen, Amen, so be it.
We agree. So they lifted up their hands, they bowed low, and worshiped the Lord their God. He gave him the word from early morning to midday, verse 3 says.
This is a six-hour service. The reason that these people could hang out for six hours, nobody nodding, nobody squirming, they they were not just there, they were there engaged, because they were looking at the Word of God differently. They were not just looking at it as a reading exercise, they understood that they were now coming face to face with God through his Word, and six hours then didn't become too long. See, worship is long because we sense there is no longer any benefit.
But once you perceive a benefit, long becomes short, because you are perceiving a value that you did not perceive before, and therefore the time issue is no longer the main issue. My point to you today is this, that they perceive the value in the Word of God, and so the scripture says in verse 8, they read from the book, from the law of God, translating it to give the sense so that they understood the reading. So now we know what they were doing for six hours. He wasn't just reading straight for six hours.
What he would do is he would read it, and then it would get translated. These people had discovered that the Word of God had been neglected all these years, and they wanted to get back in sync, so they first of all geared their minds to receive the Word of God. When we return to Dr. Evans, we'll hear about the kind of response that people had to the message from Ezra and Nehemiah, and how that applies to us today.
Don't go away. Democrats, Republicans, independents, they all want to claim that God is on their side, but Dr. Tony Evans says we all need to line up on God's side. The Word of God must trump your political alliances if you call yourself a Christian. In his booklet, How Should Christians Vote?, he explains what every believer needs to know before stepping into the voting booth. I kind of want to know where God stands, so I know where I'm supposed to stand as a child of God. I would think that would be any Christian's concern.
Believers depend on the Bible to guide our lives, strengthen our families, and structure our churches. Dr. Evans believes we need to stop changing books when it comes to politics. Whether it's immigration, taxation, abortion, since it's a nation under God, what does the God over us think about what the nation wants to do? Everything you need to sort through the spin, the hype, and the double-talk this election year and make a truly godly decision at the polls. Get your copy of How Should Christians Vote? For a limited time, we're packaging a copy of How Should Christians Vote? along with the 13 full-length messages in our current two-volume teaching collection, Turning a Nation to God.
These are available to you with our thanks when you make a contribution to help support the ministry of the alternative broadcast here on the radio and around the world. Together, this resource package will help you understand how to place God's agenda first when you cast your ballot. Just visit TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements before this special offer runs out. And if you want to explore this important topic even further, be sure to look into getting a copy of Dr. Evans' comprehensive book and Bible study called Kingdom Politics. Find out more when you call 1-800-800-3222 or when you visit us online at TonyEvans.org. Details are right on the home page.
I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's message coming up right after this. The threat of global catastrophe looms over us. Earthquakes, fires. It seems like the world is falling into turmoil. Are you ready to face Armageddon? Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, emerges as a light amidst the sin-ridden depths of our world, guiding you through the murky waters of uncertainty. Within these insightful pages, wisdom intertwines with revelation. You'll dive deep into the mysteries of enigmatic prophecy where solace awaits the weary soul. Dr. Tony Evans' unparalleled mastery and deciphering the complexities of Scripture will ensure clarity in the face of confusion and illuminate the path towards hope. Arm yourself against the impending storm and let not the hour of reckoning catch you unaware. Be prepared for what's to come by picking up your copy of Thy Kingdom Come at TonyEvans.org. It comes with a bonus sermon series, Staying Right with God.
Do not be caught off guard. So there was an intellectual response. They were willing to listen and understand. Then there was an emotional response.
Verse 9, Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
Okay, watch this. The intellectual response led to an emotional response. They began to cry. In other words, what started in their mind continued to their heart.
It wasn't enough. I got it. It makes sense.
I understand it. Now they were saying, I feel it. Now what was making them cry? Why were they weeping and just reading and understanding the Word of God?
Real simple. Because when they read and understood the Word of God, they came to understand we've wasted 150 years and we didn't have to lose all this time if we were to pay the tenant on the front end. How many of us, if we could go back and do it all over again, it'll make you cry when you discover I didn't have to be this messed up this long. I didn't have to be this defeated this long. Look at all I've lost, time and energy and efforts. All I've lost, because I didn't pay attention early on when the Word of God was available to me then and I had to go through all this loss, all this headache, all this heartache, all this pain, all this stress, all this struggle, all this anxiety, because I wouldn't listen to God upfront. The Word of God caused them to weep.
They said to them, verse 10, go eat the fat drink of the sweet and send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The bad news is they were crying because they lost their strength. They lost their joy because of all that was lost because they ignored God's Word. So they're going through struggle.
They're struggling, but the leaders come and say, okay, enough crying. Crying is over because I got good news coming off the bad news. And the good news is this day is holy to the Lord and the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now we all quote that one, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
We may not know what it means, but it sounds good to say it. The joy of the Lord is your strength. In other words, the joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong in this situation.
Even though you feel bad about all the time you lost, all the pain you've gone through, all the circumstances, if you get back God's joy, you'll get back your strength. So the way to get back your strength is to get back God's joy, because it's the joy of the Lord. It's not your joy. You can't find your joy.
You're still hunting for your joy. He calls it the joy of the Lord, but the joy of the Lord benefits your strength, your ability to deal with the fact that the walls of your life have been broken down and the neglect and all of that. The joy of the Lord is your strength. But the question is, how do I get the joy of the Lord so I can get back my strength so my get up and go, which has gotten up and gone, can come back?
He tells you. He says, this day is holy unto the Lord. The joy of the Lord is your strength. So the strength you need back, you get back from the joy of the Lord, but you get back the joy of the Lord, because this day is holy unto the Lord. So they were weeping at what they lost, but the leaders would tell them, I'm gonna give you joy at what you can gain if you make this day holy unto the Lord.
Set apart, unique, special, one of a kind. When God created the Sabbath, He said this day is holy. He didn't mean the other days were bad. He just meant this day was special. It had to do with making something special or unique, not ordinary or common. In fact, the Bible says that you and I are supposed to be like that. We're supposed to be a peculiar people, not like everybody else.
Different. So the Levites calmed the people saying, be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved. Stop crying now, okay? Now you know where you've messed up.
Let's get on with getting it fixed up. So there was an intellectual response. Then there was emotional response.
And finally, there was a volitional response. Then on the second day, the heads of the fathers, verse 13, households of all the people, the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra, the scribe, that they might gain insight into the words of the law. It says, the heads of households gathered unto Ezra, the priests, so they could understand. Why did the fathers gather the heads of the households, gather to Ezra? Why not everybody?
I mean, everybody's out there. No, this was a special meeting for the men, for the fathers, because it was understood they were the heads of the households. And while they were studying the Bible, they found written in the law how the Lord had commanded, verse 14, through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booze during the feast of the seventh month. So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all the cities in Jerusalem, go out to the hills and bring the olive branches and the wild olive branches and the myrtle branches and the palm branches and all these branches. So the people went out, verse 16, and brought them and made booze for themselves, each on his own roof and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, in the square or the water gate, in the square or the gate of infirm, and the entire assembly of those who have returned from the captivity made booze and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing, because they were rejoicing about the truth that when they returned back to God, he was covering them. He had their back. When God's Word got centered and then they responded to it, volition, their will said, okay, I'm gonna do this.
This is not my preference. I don't want to leave this house, but I am rejoicing at what the lesson is. Then verse 18 says, then they went into that solemn assembly. They did this extended concentrated time.
That's what the solemn assembly is. It's an extended concentrated time. It's not a quick five-minute prayer. It's not a quick five-minute. It is an extended time, which means they got to let something else go in order to get that extended time and to be awake long enough and conscious long enough and focused long enough to focus on it, because I am excited about seeing God show up and show out, because I know he can do it, because he built that wall in 52 days.
Now, let me explain how this is gonna work. When you get into your Word, it's like vitamins. How many of you take vitamins on a regular basis? Okay, let me tell you what happens when you take a vitamin. You don't take a vitamin and get a jolt. You don't take a vitamin and go, bam!
I feel good No, you don't take a vitamin and it hits you. You take vitamins and it doesn't hit you, but you take it every day. You take it every day. You take it every day. You don't even feel it, but it gets down in your system. It replaces what has been depleted in order to give you overall well-being.
So, when you start taking it and it's working for you, all you know is you're not getting tired as easy, and all you know is you feel you got a little more energy. It's not because you got bam, but because your system got built. As you're taking the Word of God intellectually, as you respond to it emotionally, and then you react to it volitionally, you won't get a bam. All you know is something different, something, something different.
That situation ought to make me mad, and I'm still smiling, and I thought I was gonna lose my mind last year, and nothing has changed, and I'm in my right mind, and all you gonna know is something happened, and it's called new strength, because it is filtered with the joy of the world. We'll hear Dr. Evans final comment about that filtering process in just a moment as he wraps up this message called, The Key to Your Solemn Assembly. It's just one of 13 lessons from his classic two-volume collection, Turning a Nation to God, a timely sermon archive that can serve as a great discussion starter for your small group or Bible study. You can receive all the full-length messages in this collection as our gift, on either CD or digital download, when you make a donation to help support the ongoing work of the alternative broadcast ministry. And if you do that right now, we'll also send you a copy of that practical booklet you heard about earlier, How Should Christians Vote?
This is not a list of candidates, parties, or propositions. Instead, it aims to help you align your voting decisions with God's priorities, as you evaluate the people, policies, and practices that your vote will support. You can request these resources online at TonyEvans.org, or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members is ready to help. And don't forget, if you're ready to go even deeper into this important topic, be sure to ask about Tony's Kingdom Politics book and Bible study package, available as an additional resource to complement the Turning a Nation to God sermon series.
All the information is available online at TonyEvans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Now, before we get back to Tony's closing words, I wanted to let you and your kids know that a brand new episode of Stories from the Storyteller is coming this weekend. This popular animated series follows the Evans family as their everyday experiences are turned into opportunities to learn important truths from the Bible. In Top of My Game, pride gets the best of J2 and causes him to be sidelined during his team's big soccer game, leading to an important lesson on how our attitude can hinder what Christ wants to do in our lives. Check out this and all the other episodes of Stories from the Storyteller at TonyEvansTV.com. Well, tomorrow on The Alternative, we'll learn that there are two parts to revival, and why being only half revived won't get the job done.
Right now, though, let's listen to Tony's closing illustration for today. It's like putting a teabag in tea. If you want the tea strong, you just let it stay there. This is not a dipping thing. You just dip in and dip out. Let me just dip in the Bible and dip back out. This is an abiding thing. I want to hang out here, God, you and me, because I want to reposition you in the centerpiece of life. No longer do I want to make you common, regular. I want you to be set apart, special, unique, holy, one-of-a-kind.
