I hope it is.
If it is not, it can be before you leave here today. You can have a seat in the presence of God. What a great song and what a great start to our worship service. We are so glad that you are here today. I do want to echo what Pastor Bailey said earlier, that if this is your first time or the first time in a good while, we are so grateful that you are here. We count it a privilege and a joy that you would join us for worship here today, recognizing that you could have been in a lot of different places. If this is your first time here, make sure you take one of those new here cards out to our Welcome Center. We would love the opportunity to be able to meet you and better connect with you here this morning.
Well, it is good to see you. You are here at a good time because we are finishing a series. In fact, this is week number eight. And it's the final week of our series entitled Brick by Brick. Can we say that one more time together?
Brick by Brick. And some of you guys got to wake up a little bit, you know, get with it. You guys are the eleven o'clock crowd, OK?
You guys probably had an extra hour of sleep today and you're here. And so we'll we'll get with it. But no, we are finishing a series through the Book of Nehemiah, through the Book of Nehemiah. And I'd encourage you that if you maybe missed a week or something like that through this series. Hey, go back, tune in online and and watch the ones that you missed. And the reason is, is because there's so much great application from this book about what our church is currently going, going through and the season of life that our church is in.
And so there's a lot of great application for you. So make sure you check out any week that you miss so that you can stay up to date with it. But we know way back nine weeks ago, we started this, that Nehemiah was working for the Persian king. This is after Babylon had come in and completely destroyed Jerusalem. And they overtook the nation of Israel. And so now they are in captivity.
And in Persia, the Persian king comes in and he destroys Babylon. And when he did, he sent all those Jews that Babylon had captured years before. He just sent them on their way and they could go back to Jerusalem.
They could go back wherever they want. And Nehemiah ended up staying there working for the Persian king. But his brother and a bunch of Jews returned back to Jerusalem. And in chapter one, his brother and some of his friends come to visit him while he's working for the Persian king. And they begin to tell him of the just terrible disaster that is Jerusalem.
The walls are still burnt down and nothing's been rebuilt back. And so he is obviously broken and begins to mourn over this, praying about what he could do to help with the problem that he sees. By the way, that's a good prayer that all of us need to be praying. As you see problems in front of you, it's easy to sit back and just say somebody else can fix that need. Somebody else can help with it.
How about pray and see if God wants to use you to be a part of the solution to the problem. Well, that's what Nehemiah did. So Nehemiah, he goes back to Jerusalem and he rebuilds the wall around the city in 52 days. Fifty two days. I'm curious how far along in our project they're going to be in 52 days.
I wish it could be done in 52 days, but it can't. And so 52 days they finished the walls around the city. But what we've learned and what we've said from the get go of this series is this, is that the rebuilding the Book of Nehemiah, it's more about rebuilding the people and leading the people back to God than it is just the walls. Now, we know the book is about the walls.
I mean, we entitled this brick by brick because that's what it's known for. But this is really a book all about leading the people back to God. So now that the walls get built, Nehemiah starts to really reform the nation of Israel. And so in Chapter number eight, we learn that they listen to the word for hours. By the way, when your soul needs to be renewed or when you need to go to God, you can't grow without a daily dose of God's word in your life. And that's what we find that in Chapter eight, they want to go and they want to grow closer to God.
They want to turn back to God. So it started with the word of God. They read it for hours upon hours upon hours. And what they noticed was as they read the word and for them, that meant the first five books of the Old Testament, we call that the Torah. So they were reading, you know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And as they're reading it, here's what they found is that there were gaps between what they read and what they saw in God's word and how they lived.
In other words, they could see that we're not living the way that God has told us to live. So what we find is after Chapter eight, they read that, they see those gaps. Chapter nine is all about confessing and repenting of the sins that they had that they had committed. Well, in Chapter number 10, and we're going to we're going to be in Chapter 13 today, but I want to kind of fill you in with what Chapter 10, 11 and 12 are about just by way of introduction before we jump into Chapter 13.
But in Chapter 10, it's super important to what we're going to see in Chapter 13 today. In Chapter 10, they make this covenant to God. In other words, they they kind of make this agreement with God, this commitment to God that they're going to do some certain things. And there were three aspects of the covenant. The first one was it was a family commitment. It was a family commitment in Chapter 10. It says that they they devoted themselves and committed themselves, that they were not going to allow their kids to marry with the surrounding pagan nations.
They weren't going to let their kids kind of marry with them and they're going to keep that out. The second commitment was a faith commitment. And this was found in Chapter 10 when they they told God that they were going to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The third commitment was a financial commitment. They devoured or they devoted themselves in Chapter 10 that they would give their money to the temple and provide for the belongings of the temple, such as the bread and different things that the temple needed, as well as support the Levites, which were the priestly family in the temple.
So they made a financial commitment that they would give regularly to to the temple. Well, Chapter 11, there's a bunch of names mentioned. And then Chapter number 12, we find that they dedicate the wall that was built. Some interesting things about Chapter 12 was when they dedicated the wall, they had this big ceremony similar to our like a groundbreaking ceremony. Remember when we were all out at the property?
Well, what they did was they had the wall around the city. And so they put their choir on the wall so that they could sing. How cool.
How cool is that? And so it reminds me, though, when I when I was reading this, is that if you remember early on in Nehemiah, in Chapter number four, remember Tobiah, who was one of the main critics? What did he say when he was mocking them? He said this to them while they were working on the wall. He said, hey, you guys, that wall, you know, whatever he said.
And then he said, if a fox went on the wall, the wall would come crashing down. In other words, you guys don't know what you're doing. It's not going to be built well enough.
It'll be torn down. There's no way you're doing this the right way. And now in Chapter number 12, there's tons of people in a choir standing upon the wall, worshipping and praising God for what he had done. If you mark in your Bible, you can say take that to buy.
OK, that's what I have. So but here's the point. Is there worshipping God?
Life is good. So here's why. Why I wanted to give you a little bit of background about these chapters is this Chapter eight. They're devoted to the word of God. Chapter nine. They're confessing and repenting of sin. Right.
Chapter number 10 and Chapter number 12. We find that they are committing themselves to God. They're making commitments and they're dedicating their lives to him. They're confessing sin and they're making decisions for him. They're giving to the church there.
They're raising their kids the way that they should to love God and and all this different stuff and obey his commandments. But then in Chapter 13, they go back on everything that they had just decided on. Now, isn't this the story of Israel in a nutshell? That time and time again, Israel would turn their life to Christ or to God and they would give to him and they would obey scripture. And then what would happen?
They would go right back into their old ways. Now, it's easy for us to judge Israel and think how in the world, how in the world could Israel ever do such a thing? I mean, look at what God did. Surely if if we saw manna fall from heaven and and if we saw water come from a rock, we would give our lives to God and we would never turn back. We would never, in our words, we would call it backsliding. We would stay the course with with God.
But think about think about your life and think about my life. A lot of times, what do we do? We we make a decision for God, you know, and then we go back on it.
Right. You ever been to a service, maybe a revival service or, you know, a camp or or some type of special meeting? Or maybe it was perhaps right here on a on a normal Sunday morning. And God got a hold of your heart through the preaching of God's word. And and he gets a hold of your heart. Maybe you come down and and you kneel here at the altar and you you confess something in your life or or you commit to something that he has called you to. And then you go back to your seat and you're fired up. You might have told some people that day like, hey, I'm not doing this again or I'm going to be doing what God has told me to do. And next thing you know, it's like weeks go by and some of that fire that you once had is gone.
Gone down. I can think back when I was growing up, we went to a camp growing up and and we would go every single year. And I remember I don't know what it was, but I remembered every single year I would make the same commitment. And here's what it was as a kid and and as a teenager, I would make this commitment that I would be nice to my sister. OK, now I'm going to tell you right now, I was a terror to my sister and that was wrong of me. But here's what I want you to know. She deserved every single second of it.
So I do have a little bit of justification there. And so I'd go to this camp and every single year I'd go to this camp and and they would preach to you. And every year is the same thing. I'd make this decision that, hey, when I go back from camp, I am going to be kind to my my sister. And we took it as far. They said, if you made a decision at this camp, here's what they would tell you to do. That there was on the final night, there was like this fire and there were these sticks that you would take and you would go take this stick. If you meant business with God, you would take the stick and you would throw it in the fire. And it was you saying that when I leave, we want to keep this fire going. Well, sure enough, by the time the bus got back to the church and we got in the car and I saw my sister, all those decisions were going out the wazoo. Right.
And I would just treat her like I've always treated her. Why? Why is that so common for us when we make some type of decision? It's because of this, that we as as Christ followers and it was no different than the children of Israel. We need daily spiritual renewal in our life. We need daily spiritual renewal in our life. And here's what I'll tell you, is that every single one of you need this. Every single one of us need it.
There's not a person in this room here today that doesn't need this. It's a daily thing. It's not just once a week at church. It's not just, you know, once every six months at a revival meeting.
It's not those special things. No, we need if we're going to go and we're going to commit to what God has told us to do and what we've confessed and what we've repented and we're going to stay the course with him. It's a daily spiritual renewal in our life. Well, what you're going to see here in chapter number 13 is you are going to see that the children of Israel needed daily spiritual renewal.
So first, you're going to see the need for spiritual renewal. What you're going to find in chapter number 13 is in some ways a bad ending to a story. Have you ever watched a show or watched a movie that had a terrible ending, right?
Don't you hate that? What was that show years ago? You know, it's probably 15 years ago or so. That show lost and you remember that and then when it ended in the finale and everybody was so mad, right? And everything was crazy. Well, what you find here in the Book of Nehemiah is such a phenomenal story, right? It's a great, great story and everything that we have seen. What an amazing thing that the walls were broken down.
Everything had been burned down. God raises up this man that was actually working for a pagan Persian king. He leads him back to Jerusalem.
52 days he builds the wall. What an incredible, incredible thing to do. And then he leads the people back to God through the word and through confession and repentance. What a phenomenal story. It would have been great if it hadn't ended at the end of chapter 12, where they're all worshipping God and singing and lifting praises, standing on the wall, reminding them of God's goodness.
But in chapter 13, they go back on all of their commitments. You see a few things. The first thing you're going to see is this.
Here's the first thing that they went back on. The people of God allowed pagan nations back into Jerusalem. The first thing you're going to see is the people of God allowed pagan nations back into Jerusalem.
Look what it says. Verse number one on of Chapter 13. On that day, they read in the Book of Moses. Now, that's the first five books of the Old Testament. That's the law they read in the Book of Moses in the audience of the people. And therein was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever. Now, the Moabites and the Ammonites were the enemies of God's people. Now, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail.
You're welcome to read this. But one of the darkest chapters in all of scripture that just shows how depraved people's hearts are at the core of who they are is found in Genesis chapter number 19. If you remember the story of Lot and you remember Sodom and Gomorrah and how terrible that place was, right? Well, if you remember all of that, after all of that, Lot, who had these two daughters, they get their father drunk and they have children with their father.
Such a nasty, nasty story that we're not going to talk a whole lot about. But out of that, the girls got pregnant and they gave birth to the Ammonites, Ammon and the Moabites, which come from Moab. And so they are the enemies of God and they didn't want anything to do with God. And so in Deuteronomy chapter number 23, and this is what they've been reading, right?
Deuteronomy 23 commands that the Ammonites and the Moabites not come into the camp of Israel. It's clear. It's black and white. It's so clear for them that that's what the law says. And here's what they're reading.
But let's see what happens. Verse number two, because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but they hired Balaam against them that he should curse them. Howbeit, our God turned the curse into a blessing. Now, verses one and two. Remember, this is what they're reading. So in verse number one, we see that they read that they're not allowed to allow Moab and the Ammonites into the camp of Israel.
Got it. Verse two is actually a story that's found in Numbers chapter number 22. And that's what they're referencing here. And so as they're reading, he's kind of putting some things that that they made note of in Numbers 22 to 24. Such an interesting story is there is a the king of Moab at the time was a man by the name of Balak. And Balak, remember, he's the enemy of God. Balak actually was leading the Moabites and the children of Israel. They're on their way to Canaan.
They actually come and they make camp outside of where Moab was. They're really close. Well, the king of Moab, Balak, he was really nervous about that.
And here's why. It's because the nation of Israel was so big. They were so large. If you remember what God told Abraham, God said, hey, go outside, look at the stars.
And the amount of family members you're going to have is more than the stars that you can count. So they were huge. So the king of Moab is worried.
And so he's nervous about how big their army is. So there was a wicked prophet that was evil during that day. And his name was Balaam. And if you remember the story, Balak, who's worried about the nation of Israel, he goes to this wicked prophet and he says, hey, could you do me a favor? Could you go before God and ask him to curse Israel? What a foolish thing to ask, right? And so they knew that day that these are God's chosen people.
And so why on earth would you ever do it? But Balaam, being the wicked king that he is, he tried to curse the nation of Israel. Well, God responded back to him and said, you can't curse the nation of Israel because I've blessed the nation of Israel. So the king of Moab takes this wicked prophet and they go on this journey and he offers him he offers him like a financial reward. So he offers them this financial reward.
If you can get God and coerce God to curse his his people. So they're on this journey and they're traveling. And you would know this story because this is actually the story where on the journey, God speaks through a donkey.
You remember that? Don't ever tell me the Bible is boring. God's like speaking through wild animals and all this kind of stuff as well. So God speaks through a donkey to Balaam and to Balak during that time. And he tells them this that, hey, listen, you can't curse God's people because I have blessed them. So verse number two, back to our text in Nehemiah, that's what they're reading. So they've seen that Moab and Ammon, they're not allowed into the camp because God has blessed Israel and you can't curse them. So it goes on verse number three. Now, it came to pass when they had heard the law that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. In other words, all these people that, you know, were pagans that they'd allowed in, they had they had once separated it.
But look at what happens. Verse four. Before this, Elisha Bibb, the priest. And by the way, we saw we didn't read this, but in Chapter 12, he was the high priest.
So he's a really big, big deal. And Elisha Bibb, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah. Was allied unto Tobiah, and he had prepared for him a great chamber where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense and the vessels and the tides of the corn, the new wine and the oil which was commanded to be given, which was commanded to be given with the Levites and the singers and the porters and the offerings of the priest. Listen, here's what was what was happening was Tobiah. Now, he was a bad guy, right?
Tobiah was a critic. We've read about him. We've learned about him. But he was an Ammonite. He was an Ammonite. So what they did, the high priest. This is how far remember all these good things of being devoted to the word, confession, repentance, standing on top of a wall and praising God. All of those things have been pretty much forsaken because now the high priest has allowed an Ammonite to take up a room in the temple. Which goes against exactly what God said, and he allows him to take up this room where all of their sacrifice stuff is kept.
That's where his bedchamber was. This enemy of God. Verse six.
But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem. Nehemiah, the work's been done. He's led the people back to God.
He built the wall. He's left. Many people think this is a year or so later after this.
He's already gone back. And when he first came was like 12 years ago. Because what you can see here in verse six, it says for in the two and 30th year of Artaxerxes came I unto the king. And after certain days obtained, I leave of the king. So he shows this is all happening in the year 32 of the king. And we know that he left and went to Jerusalem. Chapter one in the 20th year of the king.
So this is there's a 12 year gap that we see here from Nehemiah chapter one to chapter number 13. And so as he's led everybody back to God, now they are just backslidden and forsaken everything that they had learned and what they had seen about verse seven. And I came to Jerusalem and understood of the evil that Elijah did for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
And it grieved me sore, made him angry. Therefore, I cast forth all of the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Wouldn't you have loved to see that? Like like Nehemiah shows back up to Jerusalem. He walks into the temple and he walks straight into the room of Tobiah.
And I can just picture him grabbing pillows and blankets and luggage and all this different stuff. And he's just casting all of that stuff out of the temple. And by the way, he's angry. He's angry. But here's the thing is sometimes we think that we as followers of Christ, we can never get angry about anything.
Here's what I want you to know. It's about time that we get pretty serious and upset about the sin that exists in our world today. Like like you see a righteous anger. But here's the thing. It's one thing for the church to really get upset about all the sins out there.
But it's about time what will change out there is when we get serious about the sins that are happening in here. See, he was upset. He was restoring and reforming the temple. And so he came in and he's upset and he cast everything out. Look at this.
I mean, think about this. At one time, like what we've read up to this point, this doesn't sound anything like what the children of Israel were doing in Chapter 12, like Chapter 8. They're showing up to the to the scribe, to Ezra, and they're begging him, read the word to us. We can't get enough of it. We want more of it. In fact, we want so much of it that we're going to stand. And for a fourth part of the day, hours, we just want to hear the word of God being read. That's where they were.
And now they're allowing. They're doing exactly opposite of what God's word says. Now, before we judge them, isn't that true of us?
Isn't that no different than you and and for me? From time to time, we we read the word and and you see in this Bible that there's a gap between what God says and and how we live. And and we might make a decision like, man, we're going to we're going to obey this and and we're going to make a decision. God's called me to do so.
So I'm going to go do it. And then weeks go by, perhaps a year goes by. And you are back into everything that you once repented and confessed.
You see, we're no different. And so what they had done is is they had allowed all of these pagan nations into the Jewish family. But but then number two, the second thing that you find that they did in verses nine through 12 is this is they stopped giving to to the temple. Look at verse number nine. Then I, Nehemiah, he commanded and they cleansed the chambers and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God with the meat offering and the frankincense.
And I perceive that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, for the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled everyone to his to his field. So so here he is. He he's looking around.
And remember, he just gets back. OK, so the first thing he noticed is why in the world is Tobiah living in the temple? He's an Ammon.
He's from Ammon. Right. That goes against what God has told us and why.
That's the first thing. But then the next thing, he's looking for the Levites and he finds that all the Levites, those were the priestly family members for us to understand. That would be like the pastors, if you would. During that day, they're the ones who worked in the temple and all those things.
And he's like, where's the Levites? And he finds that all of them are working out in the fields. They're working on the fields because they're having to pay their bills because people started using their money for their own good and their own pleasure. And they stopped. Remember, in Chapter 10, we said they gave a financial commitment, right? They stopped doing that commitment and giving to them. So the Levites had to go out and find work and work in their fields just to provide for their families.
So verse 11, Then contended I with the rulers and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and I set them in their place. Listen, here's the point is everything that they had made a decision on, they're going back on it. And one of those was was giving.
You say, say, what does that mean? Here's what they were doing is is they were basically like they've made a commitment. We're going to give to the church or to the temple. We're going to give to the temple and it's going to take care of the bread and and it's going to take care of the Levites and all the work that they do. And we're going to give to them. Sometimes it's going to be sacrificial. Sometimes the bills are going to add up and but we're going to commit to giving and we're going to do this. But here's the thing is what happened was they were like, listen, we're going to spend our money now. A year later, we're going to spend our money on us, on pleasure instead of what we committed to do. Listen, this this is not a message on giving. But I think any time we come to passage of scripture where it talks about things, I want to kind of mention this for us.
What does this mean for for us? Listen, I get it. Giving is can be hard depending on your background. I grew up in a family that my family, they just told me to give right away right when I was little. You know, I get birthday money and they would be like, give some to the church and and anything that I did that I got money for. They're like, give some to the church. They drilled this into me. I don't know what your upbringing was like, if that was true of you.
And if not, and now you're kind of trying to commit to give, it can be difficult, right? Because the bills get big, right? The economy is terrible, right?
The cost of living is it is ridiculous. And when you see that, here's what's easy for us to do, because it was true of the nation of Israel. As the bills kind of pile up, as the economy gets bad and we want a lot of stuff.
So that adds to it. We want a lot of toys and different things. Here's what's easy to do. We're going to do all of this first. And we're going to commit to everything we need and pay for the bills and have a good life and a comfortable life and all this. That everything we've committed to, to give to God, we're going to go back on. Here's what I'll tell you.
I'm only 39, so I can't speak as much as some people in here. But what I love to hear is stories like this. Is that when things got hard, some of the older people could tell you this. That when life gets hard, God will still provide for you if you remain faithful and you're giving to Him. I've heard story after story of people even within our church who said, hey, we committed to give just like what God has told us to the church.
So that the function of the ministry and the gospel could go and be proclaimed and things like that. And so people give. But when things got hard, we continued to give. And you know what they'll tell me? Is that guess what? They'll say, Pastor, every single time God provided for us.
Let me challenge you with this. No matter how hard life gets, stay faithful in your commitment to give to what He's commanded us to. Giving is not an option. Giving is not an option. You can't look in scripture and say, hey, do we have to give? Do we have to give to the church?
Do we have to do this? It's not an option. It's a command. It's a command here. And that's what the nation of Israel realized.
It was a command. So in chapter 10, God, we're going to give our money to you. But in chapter 13, they'd gone back on all of that commitment and stopped giving to the temple. The third thing that we see here in verses 15 through 22 is this. The people of God worked on the Sabbath. They worked on the Sabbath. Look at verse 15.
Or drop down to, oh yeah, verse 15. In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and lading asses as also wine, grapes and figs and all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. Listen, the Sabbath was being ignored. If you remember their faith commitment in chapter number 10, they made a commitment that they're going to keep the Sabbath because it's holy, just like His word said. And now in chapter number 13, they're all working on the Sabbath. He's looking around the town and everybody's working there in Judah and Jerusalem. They're all working on the Sabbath day and Nehemiah's like, what in the world? They were completely ignoring it. You say, what's the big deal? The Sabbath, the reason why they had a Sabbath, it was one day a week and they would have a Sabbath and nobody was allowed to work.
That was according to Jewish law. You say, what's the big deal? It's because of this.
Think about it. If you own a business, let's just take Chick-fil-A. How many of you like Chick-fil-A? I don't know if any of you are planning on eating at Chick-fil-A today.
It's probably not going to happen for you if you know why. But here's the point. I was trying to think of a funny joke about them being closed on Sunday and that's the best I could come up with in my head in the moment. But take Chick-fil-A. I've never seen a Chick-fil-A not making money. You ever see a Chick-fil-A closed down?
No. Why? Because they're always busy and everything else. Well, they take a day where they close the whole day. And if you own a business and you're bringing in revenue and you're making money as a business, here's the thing. Closing for a full day has to be somewhat painful because you don't get any of that revenue on that one day.
You don't make any of that money on that one day. And so what happens a lot of times is taking a day off where there's no production being done in the company, it can affect the revenue and the profit that you are bringing in as a company. So what was happening here and the reason why God told them to take a Sabbath day and don't do anything because the Sabbath was an opportunity for them to trust God.
It was an opportunity for them because here's the thing. If you work for seven days and you don't ever take a time off, you don't ever take a day off, and you just work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and that's all that you do, here's what happens a lot of times is you start thinking that all the provision, the meals that you have, the food that you have, the clothing, the house, the toys, everything that you have in life, you start thinking that that is dependent upon how much and how hard you work. And what happens is you think all these things that I have, all these blessings, it's because of my work, not God's. So what he told the children of Israel in the law is one day a week, you're going to cease from all labor.
And they're probably thinking, how can we do that and still pay the bills? One day of no work, one day of no production, we got to pay for everything. He said this, he's telling them, hey, take a day off because I want you to know that all the blessings that you get and all the bills being paid for and all the blessings that I'm going to bestow upon you, it's from me, not by how much you work. And so that's what the Sabbath was. And so in chapter 10, they made a commitment, we're going to keep the Sabbath. And now here, a year later, Nehemiah shows back up in Jerusalem and there's everybody working on the Sabbath. But they completely forsook the decision that they had made. Here's the point. So they went back on the Sabbath, right?
They allowed these pagan nations into the nation, in fact, into the temple. And they went back on all these different commitments. That's a terrible ending to the story, right? That's really not a great, exciting end to what is a marvelous book. But here's what it's here for and here's what it'll tell you and me, is that every single one of us need spiritual renewal every single day.
The nation of Israel, no different. They continue to go back on all these commitments. It just shows that every one of us, a commitment is not one time. A commitment is every single day. A commitment that you make to God, it is every single day. It's got to be a daily commitment because every single one of us need spiritual renewal every single day if we are going to be consistent with the decisions that we make for Jesus each and every day. And so you say, okay, I get it. We all need this.
We all go back on our commitments and things we've confessed and things we've repented of and we now have gone back on those things. So what's the source? How do we fix it? What do we do?
Because it's clearly there. Well, there's a couple things that I think if you look at the entire book of Nehemiah that I want to give you kind of in conclusion of the source for spiritual renewal. How can you stay the course?
How can we not be like the nation of Israel and constantly daily rebel about the decisions that we've made? The first one is this, is you have to know what the word of God says. You have to know what the word of God says, right? Isn't that pretty self-explanatory, pretty easy? That's why we as pastors, we tell you to get in the word every day.
You probably thought, man, I just thought they'd had nothing else better to do. They got to do something and so... No, the reason why is because we think that for you to stay with the commitments that you make you have to be in the word every day. You got to know what it says. But not only know what it says, you have to number two, obey what the word of God says.
It's one thing to know it. Children of Israel, they knew it. They just chose not to obey it. We have to obey what the word of God says.
Number three, you got to listen to the spiritual leaders that God's placed in your life. Like for them, Nehemiah was a leader for them. Nehemiah had led them this far and here's what's wild. The minute he leaves, isn't that interesting? Nehemiah goes back to work for the Persian king and guess what? He leaves and they just go back to all of their old, old ways, right? It's like some of my students back in the day, it's like when I'm there, they're on fire, right? When I was a youth pastor and then the minute, you know, like I leave or I go away or I don't see them, it's like they break away.
It's like that with Nehemiah and so he leaves and all of them go back on their own commitment. Let me tell you this, I'm always nervous about how I talk about spiritual leaders because I'm appointed to be one in your life and I know that I'm deeply flawed. But here's the thing, I don't want this to sound self-serving, but God has placed spiritual leaders in your life for a reason. Some of them were pastors and pastors that are called to preach the word and to be instant in season and out of season and they're supposed to deliver God's word to you every single week. And as we preach and things, here's the thing, is I want to challenge you, listen to what the scripture is saying through the spiritual leaders in your life and obey it.
Obey it. That's the thing, whether it be a pastor or some of your, I hope you're in a Bible Fellowship class. You've got somebody appointed that is leading you spiritually or perhaps a deacon that is leading you spiritually.
You see, there's all these different people that have put in place for you to help you. The children of Israel, they had that. Nehemiah, if you read chapter number three, he appointed so many religious leaders in places of them and leadership over them.
They had so many people leading them in the right direction, but they refused to listen. And then the last thing is this, is not only do we know what the word of God says, we've got to obey what the word of God says, we've got to listen to the spiritual leaders that God placed in our life, we've got to find forgiveness in the finished work of Jesus. Here's the thing, if you remember the story I mentioned earlier in Numbers, here's what's interesting. Numbers 22 to 24 is that story about Balak and going to Balaam and trying to get him to curse Israel.
That's what they were reading here. In chapter number 24, when God is speaking to Balak and Balaam on that journey, you know what he says? He gives them some hope that I think is really good for us to kind of dwell on and meditate on as we leave here today. It's this, he says that one day, like it's doom and gloom and things are bad and the nation of Israel is constantly rebelling, you're constantly rebelling.
But what God says in Numbers 24, he tells Balaam, he says, one day all of this is going to be fixed, all of this is going to be made right. And here's what he said, he said, because there is going to be a star that is going to come out of the tribe of Israel. We know that to be the bright and morning star. The Messiah is coming, that's what we're going to celebrate, Christmas is near, that's what we're going to celebrate, the birth of the Messiah. And what God was telling them for telling this thousands of years prior, he's saying this, he's saying, listen, one day a Messiah is going to come, a star is going to be born, the bright and morning star. And here's what I want you to know, is that the forgiveness and renewal that your soul needs is found in the star. It's found in Jesus.
It's found in a relationship with him. So listen, let me ask you, where are you at today? Perhaps you're in here and you don't know Jesus as your Savior. Perhaps you've been coming and you just listen, but you just have doubts and you just don't know Jesus as your Savior. There's never been a time where you've trusted in what Jesus has done on the cross for you and yet you're just continuing to trust in your good works and how many times you come to church and stuff like that. Let me tell you this, is that your soul needs renewal and it can't happen without Jesus in your life. Your soul needs healing, your heart needs healing, and let me tell you this, the only one that can heal the broken pieces of your life is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
He's the only one. And so I want to challenge you, if you don't know Jesus, raise the day, come get to know him. Come get to know him because once you stop trusting, let me tell you this, he can renew your life. But if you're in here today and you say, Pastor, I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of Jesus, I know him, there's been a time in my life, I know I trusted in Jesus as my Savior, but I've gone back on a lot of the things that I've committed to. The way that I said I was going to raise my family, I've gone back on that. The way that I said I was going to treat my spouse, I've gone back on that. I know I promised God and I made a commitment that I'm not going to watch certain things, I've gone back on that. I'm not going to listen to certain things that are destroying my mind, I've gone back on that.
And a lot of times we make all these decisions and we go back on. If that's you, then today, here's what I want you to understand, is that you can come back to God and here's the good news, you can fall into his grace and mercy and forgiveness today. You see, he constantly forgives us and the answer for us is to run to him and find the renewal that our soul desperately needs. Can you bow your heads with me? Let's do this, let's all stand, nobody's looking around. This is an opportunity for us to respond to what he said in his word.
Becky's going to come and play. If you're in here today and you say, Pastor, that's me, I don't know Jesus as my Savior, I've never trusted in him. If that's where you are today, would you be honest before God and just slip up your hand high enough for me to see it, long enough for me to recognize it?
Don't put it off. If you're in here today and you say, Pastor, that really spoke to my heart because I'm the one that makes the decisions and I go back on them. I confess and then next thing you know, I'm doing the same thing. If you're like me, sometimes you go to God and you're like, God, it's me again with the same problem, the same sin. It's like Paul, he said the things he wants to do, he finds himself not doing and the things he doesn't want to do, he finds himself doing. If that's you here today and you say, Pastor, that's where I'm at, I've gone back on some of these commitments that he's called me to and God's convicted me of that, would you be honest before God and slip up your hand high enough for me to see it, long enough for me to recognize it?
Yes, I see those hands going up throughout. I feel you, I'm there with you. Listen, we need spiritual renewal. We need to give our life back to God. Come to him and find forgiveness and get back on track. Whatever it is that you confessed or whatever it is that you told God that you would do because he's calling you, hey, listen, the door is still open if you run to him.
