SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
unknown: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is good to be back.
SPEAKER_00: I got to join our students in Gloria, New Mexico for half of the week, and my throat is filling it.
SPEAKER_00: If you heard my wife say Amen twice, you thought that doesn't sound like Krista because she lost her voice and so many other leaders and students did the same.
SPEAKER_00: I got halfway there, and so I'm going to be using this magical coffee with warm soothe to my throat if I need it during the sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, open up to Nehemiah chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: We are back to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: I was out last week.
SPEAKER_00: I had the honor to preach at one of the church plants that we as a church sponsor.
SPEAKER_00: We send a monthly gift to a church in Butta.
SPEAKER_00: It's called The Vine Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Josh Clark has come and preached right here in our church family.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hey, I'm trying to get a little bit of rest.
SPEAKER_00: I need two consecutive Sundays off to just spend time with my family and get some rest.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come preach at the Vine?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I would be more than honored to preach at The Vine.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a fantastic week.
SPEAKER_00: About 60 people gathered at the elementary school, Sunfield Elementary.
SPEAKER_00: I got to go back and walk the halls of their children's ministry, which is in one of the hallways of that elementary school, and they bring everything in on a truck, and they've got four different classrooms, and they've got all the toys and the Bible study lessons and everything else, and then they clean it all up and pack it back up.
SPEAKER_00: Every instrument you see on our platform, they have on the school cafeteria stage, and they pack it all up into a trailer every single week.
SPEAKER_00: And I was loading things.
SPEAKER_00: They said, You preach for us, you don't have to pack.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Y'all do this every week.
SPEAKER_00: If I can load a few things, that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give a testimony from that church because we're going to pray for Josh here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: There was several months ago, Pastor Mike Gibbons, myself, had an opportunity to do a walkthrough.
SPEAKER_00: I just met them and then they did the walkthrough.
SPEAKER_00: But the assistant fire chief of Hayes County was here on our property giving our fire inspection.
SPEAKER_00: And I just asked the question.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey man, how long have y'all been in town?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you have any religious beliefs?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been looking for a church?
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to have a church?
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to invite them here until he said, Well, we live closer up into Butah.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I know a great church in Butta.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Vine Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: That was several months ago.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I got to preach, I finished, and this young lady, young mom, two kids came up to me and said, My husband was the one that you talked to about going to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Because coming to this church and plugging into this community has changed our whole family.
SPEAKER_00: It's changed our whole house.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Weren't you one of the ones singing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I'm using my gifts and I'm singing and I'm praising the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And my husband is praying for us at night, and he's praying for our kids.
SPEAKER_00: And my kids are in kids' ministry and we're growing in Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say thank you so much for inviting my husband to that church.
SPEAKER_00: So if you meet people and they live in Butah or the northern parts of Kyle and they don't want to make the drive to FBC Wimberley, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We know a great sister church called Divine Community Church.
SPEAKER_00: And it meets at Sunfield Elementary School.
SPEAKER_00: And I would love for you guys to have those conversations in our community.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray for Josh.
SPEAKER_00: He's starting Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: He's rested and he's getting going this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for him, then we'll jump into Nehemiah chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: God, we do thank you to be in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And even as we've experienced your presence already through prayer and fellowship and encouragement of the saints and singing and worship now, God, we come to this moment where we sit under your word and say, we want to learn from you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see your character.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see how to respond to your commands.
SPEAKER_00: As we read and saw out of Exodus, we want to be people who are obedient to you, who honor and glorify you from a heart that says we don't have to earn something, but you've given us all that we need, so we want to respond by pouring our lives out for you.
SPEAKER_00: As we turn to Nehemiah chapter 10, help us to do that, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for Pastor Josh and our brothers and sisters up in Butah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that they have a place to gather, that they are building community in that place, that they are living on mission.
SPEAKER_00: As I was reminded again, one disciple and one home at a time.
SPEAKER_00: God, I just pray that you would do a huge work this morning.
SPEAKER_00: As Pastor Josh steps back into the pulpit and starts to preach through Jonah and look at a man given an assignment to be on mission that ran from that assignment, but then comes back and obeys you.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that they would live on mission as a church family.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that Josh would be rested.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that he would preach and lead and counsel and pray and meet with people out of a place of abundance because he's met with you, not out of a place of exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: God, be his strength today as he leads.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for a friend and a brother like Josh.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask God that you would use him for your glory in huge ways this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask that in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read a few of the verses here.
SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you of the context as well.
SPEAKER_00: Right before we jump into chapter 10, right here at the end of chapter 9, it had said, Because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing on a sealed document.
SPEAKER_00: These are the names of the princes, our Levites, and our priests.
SPEAKER_00: They were making a recommitment to obey the Lord and follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they did it officially through a covenant and assigned a document.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you like going to get a new cell phone contract, but that is one of the worst parts of adulting in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: You sit there and you know that you're getting duped.
SPEAKER_00: You just know, like, they have all these extra charges and this insurance and that thing, and you can't just buy the phone and get a rebate anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta pay monthly.
SPEAKER_00: And what if I just want to buy it outright?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can't do that here, you gotta do that online because if you sign our contract, you gotta get our phone and then do it over this many months.
SPEAKER_00: And what am I really getting for free?
SPEAKER_00: And how much money are you really taking out of my account every month?
SPEAKER_00: I don't like cell phone contracts.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all like cell phone contracts.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: I feel every time I can read the fine print, but every single time I'm like, I'm getting duped here, and I don't know how.
SPEAKER_00: I just I trust that I'm I'm getting duped.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Hidden costs and insurance and rebates and all of it.
SPEAKER_00: In today's text, I want you to see that that what these Israelites were doing, coming back to the land and recommitting themselves and signing this covenant is more than a contract.
SPEAKER_00: It was a people of God renewing their heart to live under his authority, to be obedient to him.
SPEAKER_00: The people of God renewing their covenants, emotional and spiritual connection.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be so easy just to go over and take notes, say, here's the context, here's the content, this is what they did, this is what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to start outright before I read anything more by considering that this is so much more than a sealed document with names on it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a spiritual commitment, it's an emotional commitment, it's a all in, it's an I surrender all.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, here I am, use me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a bunch of information after reading nine chapters of God's miraculous re-entering of people back into the land to re-fortify the city that one day the temple would be rebuilt and his presence would rest there.
SPEAKER_00: It's deep spiritual, emotional connection.
SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, let's read a bit of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Here is what they were saying, starting in verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: There's names through verse 1 through 27, and those names are important.
SPEAKER_00: And I've read a bunch of the Hebrew names, I've butchered a bunch of the Hebrew names.
SPEAKER_00: Even my son's name is in this list.
SPEAKER_00: Zadok or Zadok the high priest did a lot of things in the kingdom of God, and so that name was repeated in Hebrew lineage many times.
SPEAKER_00: I want to name my son Zadok because Zadok the high priest is such a great example.
SPEAKER_00: He was a young man mighty in valor.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of those young men renamed Zadok is in this list.
SPEAKER_00: The names are not unimportant.
SPEAKER_00: Don't skip over them in your devotional life.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn things with little segments of this man was a young man, mighty in valor.
SPEAKER_00: But I do want to start at verse 28, despite saying all that, that names are important.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28 The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and underline this, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have the knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, a servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his rules and his statutes.
SPEAKER_00: We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.
SPEAKER_00: And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain in the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day, and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on in verse 32, and we'll read those later.
SPEAKER_00: The content of the covenant was to have a temple ministry.
SPEAKER_00: But as we set this up, let me just encourage you, if you're taking notes, write down this phrase, the context of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: The context of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 38 All of these Hebrew Levites and priests and princes, they all sign their name.
SPEAKER_00: They signed, sealed, and delivered.
SPEAKER_00: We are recommitting our lives to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We are making promises to honor Him.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the whole idea of Advent is when we're looking at the Christmas story in Luke 2 around the Christmas season.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to increase a sense of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: We're longing for Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And then Christmas morning happens and he's born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: This is a people waiting and longing for Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they've been in exile, and God's been bringing droves in different phases back into the land.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's been people bringing people back into the land, the law is rediscovered, the scriptures are rediscovered.
SPEAKER_00: The city is being fortified, the temple will be rebuilt before it's destroyed again in 70 AD.
SPEAKER_00: And God's presence is going to rest in this place.
SPEAKER_00: It's not only a people waiting for Messiah, a people without a land.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a land, you don't have a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a kingdom, you don't have the line of David.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have the line of David, you don't have this Messiah that we've been longing for.
SPEAKER_00: Without a city, you don't have a temple, and without the temple, you don't have God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: But all of that begins to change.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra, Nehemiah, post exile, and the people are getting excited.
SPEAKER_00: God is starting to stir the people up.
SPEAKER_00: And right here in verse 28, one thing that I continue to see in the book of Nehemiah, because it's not just Israelites, I told you to underline it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: All who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: Many scholars agree with me that this is a reference to people outside of Hebrew lineage.
SPEAKER_00: They said, I want to follow Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make a solemn commitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God created everything, and I'm done with these idols, and I want to follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And all throughout Nehemiah, you can find just little hints and little clues that God's always had a heart for the nations.
SPEAKER_00: That this mission that we've been given in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, it didn't just start in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It started in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God was always going to redeem a people for Himself from every tribe, every tongue, every language.
SPEAKER_00: And you see just a shadow of that right here.
SPEAKER_00: That even outsiders are welcomed, all who had separated themselves from the peoples.
SPEAKER_00: A little more context.
SPEAKER_00: Chapters 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: The place is restored, right?
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1, God provides.
SPEAKER_00: This pagan king says, Yeah, I'll fund that project.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, there's risk, right?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about Nehemiah having to jump off the cliff moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask.
SPEAKER_00: And this guy might put me to death.
SPEAKER_00: It's that Esther moment, right?
SPEAKER_00: She's in front of the king and she says, Whether I live or die, I'm gonna obey the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, there was that risk.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, there's the building of a wall.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4, Nehemiah is desperate in prayer and desperate for God's protection.
SPEAKER_00: Not just his provision, but his protection.
SPEAKER_00: And so the people, they work with one hand and then they have a weapon in the other.
SPEAKER_00: The place has been restored, leading up to chapters 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: And then chapter 8 and 9, the people are restored.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 8, the people are are formed by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word is read, and they they listen for hours, and then they weep in repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah and Ezra say, No, no, don't weep.
SPEAKER_00: Today's a day of celebration.
SPEAKER_00: Let the joy of the Lord be your strength.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's rejoicing and celebration, and then the law is read again, and then they weep again, and they go into a deeper place of repentance and say, God, we have not sought your face.
SPEAKER_00: We have not loved you with our whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: We abandoned the law, we abandoned seeking after you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: The people are being restored, formed by the word.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 9, walking in confession and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And I say all that just to open up chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: That when we make a recommitment to the Lord, all these other things that we learned from the previous chapters, God's provision, God's protection, the people being formed by the word and repentance and a genuine seeking after God's face, those are the things involved in committing yourself to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things involved when you make a recommitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't know anything about what we know as New Testament believers in the New Covenant, about it being sealed by the blood of Jesus, about being freed from the law, that the law was always just to point us to our greater need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: They're still learning all those things in real time.
SPEAKER_00: But there is this promise it's given in Ezekiel and it's given in Jeremiah chapter 31.
SPEAKER_00: That there will be a day where God writes his law on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 31, verse 31 through 33.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.
SPEAKER_00: These people in Nehemiah's day are longing and waiting for this moment.
SPEAKER_00: For Messiah to come, for a redeemer to come, for a new covenant, for God's law being written on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And until then, we're just going to do our very best to obey him with what he's given us in the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: I'm very aware it's Father's Day, and I didn't break from Nehemiah to preach about dads, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't often do that for holidays.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to preach through the Word of God because the Bible is enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's given us everything we need for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But I do wonder if you came to church on Father's Day needing to do what the people in Nehemiah needed to do.
SPEAKER_00: Make a recommitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To present yourself wholly before Him again.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a man in this place or a woman in this place, a young boy, young girl.
SPEAKER_00: Are you in a place where you're saying, Lord, I've seen your protection and provision in my life?
SPEAKER_00: I've sought your face.
SPEAKER_00: I've been desperate in prayer and I've repented, and today is a day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm driving a stake in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make a commitment to you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live for you, I want to honor you, and the things that you say are important in this book.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be important in my life.
SPEAKER_00: God, I give you my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm surrendered to you today.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if that's the reason you came to church today.
SPEAKER_00: Because you find yourself in a similar place of need to recommit to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you how beautiful it was?
SPEAKER_00: I I only got to see half of Glorieta Camp, but the half I saw, I really appreciated to see.
SPEAKER_00: Because I watched young men and young women in our student ministry and in our church and some of their friends literally take a stand in worship and say, I'm recommitting to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Quite literally, go to the front of a room with hundreds, if not over a thousand teenagers in the room, their peers to ring a bell that says, I'm giving my life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I'm recommitting my life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He can take all of me in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And not just at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Gloria to Cancer.
SPEAKER_00: When I go back home to Wimberley, Texas, I want to live for him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give my life to him.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is a 15-second video clip, but if if you are as encouraged by it as I was in the room, you will love to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Just a snippet of our worship services in the evenings at high school camp.
SPEAKER_00: Take a look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see hundreds of teenagers passionately lifting up the name of Jesus in this clip?
SPEAKER_00: Man, it was a sweet, sweet, sweet blessing to be in that room.
SPEAKER_00: And so I saw students make a recommitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if someone that walked into church today needs to make a recommitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what's happening right here in the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: That's the context.
SPEAKER_00: Let's try to cover some of the content of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: There's some language in here just to give some explanation to it, I think is important.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: If you underline things in your Bible or circle things in your Bible, circle this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: We join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's a typical Old Testament commitment, covenant, blessings, and curses.
SPEAKER_00: God, I make this promise.
SPEAKER_00: And if I don't fulfill this promise, you could put a curse on me, right?
SPEAKER_00: God, I make this promise to you, and I am asking you to bless me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking for you to be gracious to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking for you to make your face shine upon me.
SPEAKER_00: That's Psalm 67.
SPEAKER_00: That curse and an oath.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language there.
SPEAKER_00: And they're all entering into this recommitment to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, a servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you could summarize that by saying the Ten Commandments that were given on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: You could get really literal with that and read all the over 600 laws in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But can I just give you a general idea of what this might have looked like for them and what it can look like for us, even as New Testament believers?
SPEAKER_00: Moses was prohibited from entering the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua leads God's people into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And Deuteronomy 6 is a famous passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's a famous passage for Jewish people, it's a famous passage for Christian people.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is a time that Moses stands in front of these people that have wandered the desert for 40 years and says, Okay, if there's anything you remember, remember this.
SPEAKER_00: Before you go into the promised land without me, if I have any last words to say, can I just give you this?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you know what he says in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your might and all your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jesus repeats this in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: What's the greatest command?
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul.
SPEAKER_00: He interprets it for us.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament does that a lot to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We get an interpretation of what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives an extra description there.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is saying to those people, just love God with everything you have.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have several chapters later that says, and here's the law, and here's the Sabbath, and this is about cleanliness, and this is about food, and this is what you do.
SPEAKER_00: If you get sick, and this is how you make sure that you're a holy people, set apart for God.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you don't follow after the idols of other nations.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of other specifics, but generally, if we boil it all down, what's happening in Nehemiah chapter 10, verse 29, we want to walk in obedience to God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Just summarize that with Moses' words in Deuteronomy 6.
SPEAKER_00: Love God with everything you have.
SPEAKER_00: And if you need encouragement in church this morning, hear me say, as Moses did.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you want to know what it's like to make a commitment to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Just promise him to love you, or love him, excuse me, that you would love him with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your might.
SPEAKER_00: And there's ups and downs and roller coasters and confession of sin and need for accountability, encouragement, and brothers and sisters coming alongside us and all those other things.
SPEAKER_00: But simply it starts with that Jesus, thank you for dying for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for raising from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: I give you my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to love you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: But in Nehemiah chapter 10, there are some specifics.
SPEAKER_00: And so this recommitment, this obedience was in three very specific areas.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, a pure marriage, verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: A commitment to a pure marriage.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to marry those of these other nations because they're worshiping idols, and we don't want to be influenced to worship idols.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me be very clear here, especially having come back from Colombia just two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Do not misunderstand or misread this as being racist or or putting one ethnicity over another.
SPEAKER_00: There is a stain of racism in Colombia, Cartagena, Colombia, where all of the African descent people have to live on an island with no running water, no electricity, they have generators.
SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to be separated and segregated because y'all are not pure and we're pure over here in the city.
SPEAKER_00: You want to hear more about that?
SPEAKER_00: Ask any of the five of us that went, including my daughter or the Kirkendahls or Seth.
SPEAKER_00: He'll tell you we saw it with our own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll I'll take a step even worse than that.
SPEAKER_00: About 10 years ago, Venezuelan refugees started flocking to Colombia, and some of them flocked to this island of Tirabomba.
SPEAKER_00: And so those of the African descent with dark skin said, You're lighter skin.
SPEAKER_00: We get persecuted or stereotyped or given racist treatment from the Latinos in Cartagena.
SPEAKER_00: You're from Venezuela, you're worse than us.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna step under you and treat you like you're worse than us because you have Venezuelan lighter skin and we have darker skin.
SPEAKER_00: We're better than you.
SPEAKER_00: See how that systematic racism just continues and continues?
SPEAKER_00: Man, you want to see worse than our country.
SPEAKER_00: Go over to Columbia and see what's going on there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get off on a tangent here, but I have uh an acquaintance and a friend of mine that uh I was introduced to.
SPEAKER_00: He's a pastor in Houston, and he was going to be a pastor in Naples, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: You can look this up.
SPEAKER_00: Look up SBC Naples, Florida, pastor gets voted down.
SPEAKER_00: And this search committee brings in, it's like nine or eleven people, search committee brings in this guy.
SPEAKER_00: He's black, his his wife is white, they have mixed race kids, and and there is a group of people back then in whatever it was, 2016, 2017, that thought it was horrible that there was this interracial marriage, and so they had secret emails and secret meetings and said, We can't hire this guy, and this is why, and they cast lies about him and said these are the things that that would make him a bad pastor, and it got around and it got around and it got around, and it came to the vote, and the vote didn't pass.
SPEAKER_00: It was like 65% yes, and they needed more than 65.
SPEAKER_00: That is terrible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's God's heart here, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: What I think is God's heart is that He wanted those that feared Yahweh to be paired with and partnered with other people that feared Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Don't misread this when you say pure marriage.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's that one ethnicity is better than another ethnicity.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was a matter of spiritual purity and marrying foreman foreign women increased the temptation to worship idols.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the New Testament application of that?
SPEAKER_00: It's certainly not ethnicities are better than the other.
SPEAKER_00: That's not, hopefully, I've made that very clear.
SPEAKER_00: But that we should find people that love Jesus the same way that we love Jesus when we're being yoked to them in a one-flesh relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians chapter 6 says it like this do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership is righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship is light with darkness.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's a New Testament application of this Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: Just make sure that our future spouses are running as hard and as fast after Jesus as you are.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray for your kids or your grandkids, pray for them.
SPEAKER_00: That they would match with someone whose spouse is running as hard and as fast after Jesus as they are.
SPEAKER_00: That there's this application of a pure marriage.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, I taught in Ephesians, and I won't go through the whole sermon again, but in Ephesians chapter 5, we have this command for marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.
SPEAKER_00: He laid his life down for her, he gave a sacrifice for her.
SPEAKER_00: And wives, make sure you respect your husbands and encourage them and love them well, and follow their leadership, just like the church follows the leadership of the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bride, they follow their groom.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be clear there.
SPEAKER_00: So we had that teaching in Ephesians 5.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if you're already married and you want to make an application of this in Nehemiah 10.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, are you loving your spouse in such a way, like it says in Ephesians 5, this mystery is profound.
SPEAKER_00: This sacrificial love and this love and encouragement and respect from a bride and this unity and this one flesh relationship is supposed to be lived out and loved in such a way that people would see you and say, something's different.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mystery there.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Yeah, the mystery is we love Jesus and He's saved us, He's redeemed us.
SPEAKER_00: We love Him with all of our heart, and we want to do our best to live the way He tells us to live.
SPEAKER_00: Now I showed you this when I preached through Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I have the honor of meeting with young couples very regularly that are getting married.
SPEAKER_00: So we walk through pre-marriage counseling, and I always show them this graph.
SPEAKER_00: There's a picture here.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the world says you're entering a covenant, you're entering, or actually, I don't even think I'd say covenant, contract, an agreement.
SPEAKER_00: You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'll go 50, you go 50, meet us in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know marriage never works like that?
SPEAKER_00: That is not this mystery talked about in Ephesians 5.
SPEAKER_00: The way that they love each other and sacrifice and respect each other.
SPEAKER_00: That's supposed to be a mystery that points people to the beauty of the gospel that Jesus laid down his life for his church.
SPEAKER_00: And so knowing that I'm a sinner, that I'm not gonna make my full commitment every day because I have struggles, maybe I would only go 20%, that's that blue square, and Krista would only go 30%, and now we have this huge gap in the middle, 50% missing.
SPEAKER_00: We're never gonna make it if that's our heart.
SPEAKER_00: But if we would read Ephesians 5 and realize that I'm supposed to love Krista all the way and lead Krista all the way and make sacrifices for her all the way, and she reads Ephesians 5 and says, She's supposed to love me and follow my leadership and respect me all the way, even if the very bottom here, even if I only go 70 when my goal was a hundred, and she only goes eighty when her goal was a hundred, now we have 50% of overlap and grace that we can extend to one another because we're redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And we have that kind of a marriage, and people look at that and say, something's different.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I think we should take away from Nehemiah chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: This this command for a pure marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you, if you're married, is that what your marriage looks like?
SPEAKER_00: And if something needs to change, praise God, you're in the right place.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to a brother or sister, talk to a friend, come speak with a pastor or minister and say, we just need some help.
SPEAKER_00: Chris and I have done that in our marriage.
SPEAKER_00: We're going on 20 years, and we've reached out multiple times for help.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're not married, maybe this is the application for you that you want to have a pure marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And what that looks like if you're a Christian is that you find someone who's running as hard and as fast after Jesus as you are.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't get locked into marriage until you find that person.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, they were making a commitment of Sabbath rest.
SPEAKER_00: And I realize that Jesus fulfills that commitment.
SPEAKER_00: We rest in Jesus, but there's still some practical applications of rhythms of rest in your life if you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, Sunday is not a rest day for me.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Sunday is not a rest day for a lot of volunteers in a church that work their tails off on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how do we find a different rhythm or a rhythm that just says, Lord, I want to seek you, I want to set aside this time, and I want to seek your face.
SPEAKER_00: For these Israelites, it was don't buy things on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make things on Sunday, make it the night before.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was Saturday, was their Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be real there.
SPEAKER_00: Christians started celebrating Jesus on the first day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: And then they said, The foreign people, we won't buy things from foreign people.
SPEAKER_00: We won't cause them to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: We want them to get rest too.
SPEAKER_00: And then they say even further, we're gonna have a year of Jubilee, and we're gonna have crop rotation to give rest to the land, and we're gonna forgive debts on that seventh year.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you a really clear application.
SPEAKER_00: I get that many of you come to church on Sunday, and many of you go out to eat after that on Sunday, and people work their tail off to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, I don't want to, I want you to be able to rest in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But then you make them work their tail off and you're chinchy or skimpy on the tip.
SPEAKER_00: Let us not be those Christians.
unknown: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Let's always be generous, for one, but especially if you you're the church crowd at a restaurant and you don't want a waiter or server as I've heard time after time after time, and I hate working on Sunday afternoons because those Christians come in and they give like 10%.
SPEAKER_00: Man, if we're making someone work on a day that they could be resting, or we rested, or we went to church and we had a rhythm to focus on the Lord, let's be over and abundant generous and say thank you for serving me on the rest day that I got to have.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to I want to show so much appreciation and love for you doing that for me.
SPEAKER_00: That's just one, that's just one little freebie, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What it really comes down to for these Israelites is that they're trusting the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're trusting the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What is it like to not put a crop that seventh year?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we need some money and we need some resources, but we're gonna trust the Lord and we're not gonna put that crop.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to forgive a debt?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, Lord, I could really use that money, but I'm gonna forgive this debt.
SPEAKER_00: It's a trust that the Lord's gonna provide above and beyond what whatever that thing would have happened if they would have worked on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3 5 tells us we can trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways acknowledge him, he will make your paths straight.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, do you need a different rhythm of rest in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Number two, are you fully trusting the Lord, or does something need to change?
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned it, but I'd love to read it in Hebrews chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, every Christ's follower finds their ultimate rest in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
SPEAKER_00: For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
SPEAKER_00: For we who have believed, enter that rest.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to read the rest of that passage here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Have you found your ultimate rest in Jesus today?
SPEAKER_00: Have you come to a place of knowing that he paid for all your sin?
SPEAKER_00: And he has victory over death and sin and Satan, and all who come after him have the promise of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you found your rest in Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: So, what was the content?
SPEAKER_00: Pure marriage, Sabbath rest, number three, temple ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot, but I'm still going to read it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32 through 39.
SPEAKER_00: We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the show bread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbath, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel for all the work of the house of our God.
SPEAKER_00: We, the priests, the Levites, and the people have likewise cast lots for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed year by year to burn on the altar of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written in the law, we obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year to the house of the Lord, also to bring to the house of our God to the priest who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, and to bring the first of our dough and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine, the oil, the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God.
SPEAKER_00: And to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground.
SPEAKER_00: For it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor, and the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouses.
SPEAKER_00: For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers, we will not neglect the house of our God.
SPEAKER_00: That verse 39 is important.
SPEAKER_00: There are all kinds of laws and instructions on how to minister to the Lord and have the priests minister to the people, and they're recommitting, and it was going to take some sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've already preached in Nehemiah how we should be generous and give to the things of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I think I made that pretty clear.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to try to reiterate that.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say this.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in the mission and the ministry of this church, you should be sharing financial resources with your church.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not even the main point here, so I don't want to drag on that point.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say these were people recommitting their lives to the Lord and saying, We want your presence, God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've told us that your presence is coming into your house and this is how your presence comes into your house, take anything you need.
SPEAKER_00: Take anything you need.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have wood for the altar.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have the sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to supply the need for the Levites and the priests.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to give a tithe.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to give the first fruits.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, God, we want more of your presence.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see this temple ministry bold and successful.
SPEAKER_00: We want your presence in this place.
SPEAKER_00: Now, can I tell you good news?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have that temple anymore.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus died on the cross, the veil that separated the presence of God and the Holy of Holies to all the other people was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: And now we draw near to the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to his presence, not just in a church house like this, but in every house, in every place.
SPEAKER_00: He is everywhere all at once.
SPEAKER_00: The question of application then is do you yearn for the presence of God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you yearn for God's presence individually?
SPEAKER_00: God, I want more of you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in my prayer closet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm journaling my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm memorizing the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, I want more of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's so sweet to hear my two girls just have worship songs on auto-repeat after coming back from camp.
SPEAKER_00: God, I just want more of you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you yearn for that individually?
SPEAKER_00: The second question is do you understand how important that is collectively to gather with the people of God to see God's face?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10 makes this very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is a habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing nearer.
SPEAKER_00: If you're making a recommitment to the Lord today, make sure that it's an individual pursuit of God's presence and an understanding that you pursue him in community with other Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And that Jesus died, yes, for the salvation of all who would repent and believe, but he also died to institute the church.
SPEAKER_00: The church was always plan A of His mission.
SPEAKER_00: And so make sure that you're all in, all hands on deck, saying, Where can I serve?
SPEAKER_00: Where can I share the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Where can I grow?
SPEAKER_00: Can I be discipled or can I make a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: Can I serve in the children's ministry?
SPEAKER_00: What can I what what are we gonna do to see God's presence in this place, not just in this building, but in the Wimmerley Valley and into the beyond?
SPEAKER_00: I want to pursue God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: I think you do too.
SPEAKER_00: So let's do it together.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just read to you the rest of that passage in Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just shut your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_00: I said that we need to find our Sabbath rest in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that context of that passage says this.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Since therefore it remains for some to enter into, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he appoints a certain day.
SPEAKER_00: Today, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna come to a time of response, and I just want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Be real.
SPEAKER_00: Get right with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to come talk to me about it.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to come talk to me about it, I'm right here.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk to Ambastor Mike about it, there are others in this room that have been your Bible study leaders or your close friends or your accountability partners, pull them inside and say, hey, something needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: There's a course correct that needs to happen right now in my life.
SPEAKER_00: If you need to come to Christ and say, Jesus, I've I've thought about you long and hard, but I've never fully surrendered.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to recommit.
SPEAKER_00: I need to just give you my life.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for victory over sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to walk in that victory.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to put my full faith in you.
SPEAKER_00: That would be a beautiful response.
SPEAKER_00: However, you need to respond to God's word today.
SPEAKER_00: We are here to help you do that.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know this every time the word is preached, we should be able to see something to say yes, Lord, to.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll obey you.
SPEAKER_00: What is that for you?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we learn things from Nehemiah, even though oftentimes it's hard for me to relate to the people of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's like to be in exile.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's like to live under the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's like to be waiting and longing for a redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know that your word always gives good instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And so if there are people here this morning that need to respond to that instruction, help them to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Do business in us and through us on our hearts today.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.