God’s People & God’s Word | Nehemiah 7-8 | May 31, 2026 | Aaron T. Colyer

In this message from Nehemiah 7-8, we see God forming a people by his Word as Israel gathers to hear Scripture, respond in repentance, and rediscover the joy of the Lord. The sermon calls us to hunger for God's Word, let repentance lead to rejoicing, obey with joy, and find lasting joy in Christ, the Word made flesh who brings outsiders near and forms his people by grace.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, good morning.

unknown 0:02

Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I hope you're ready for Nehemiah. Turn to Nehemiah chapter seven and eight. I want to tell you, I had the greatest honor in my university days, my college days, to work at a Christian camp. It's called Pine Cove Christian Camps. I know some of you probably have heard of Pine Cove. Our family goes back every summer for family camp, but I worked at the high school camp. I remember interviewing for this camp. I had already told the guy that interviewed me, he's still on staff there. He's like up on the executive level staff. He's worked there for a long time, almost 30 years. And I said, Hey, look, I'm called to ministry. I'm going to seminary. Like as soon as I get done with my bachelor's, I can't wait to share the gospel with teenagers. I can't wait to teach the Bible. I love getting a chance to point people to Jesus and doing it in a really fun environment. This is gonna be awesome. I want to work the whole summer. And he said, Nope. Nope. We don't do that. We don't hire first-time counselors for the whole summer. It's 11 weeks, and you will be exhausted. I said, Come on, man, I'm not like your average guy that you're just interviewing. I want to do ministry. Thank you for that. I really appreciate that. And so he called me back and he said, Look, you can't be a counselor for the whole summer, but we we just had this boat driver spot open up. Why don't you drive boats for half the summer and then be a counselor? What I didn't know when I interviewed is how exhausting it would be to pour out and pour out and pour out and run around and jump up and down in worship and then run to your activity, and then you got to get eight guys through the showers in 10 minutes, and there's only three stalls, and it's exhausting. Teach the Bible, share the gospel, sit on the porch, ask this kid his testimony, and you are exhausted. He was right. It's a good thing not to hire full summer counselors if you don't know what you're getting into. But given that context, can I tell you that every week before we had campers come through the gates, the college students that were all hired for summer staff and the full-time staff would get together, we'd huddle up, we'd pray, and then we'd get this hype. Like we would just go in a circle, we'd be jumping up and down. And do you know what we shouted? Over and over and over. My wife knows because she's heard this story. We shouted from Nehemiah chapter 8 the joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. And it got loud and crazy, and then we ran and greeted a bunch of kids. It was awesome. I tell you all that just to say what you're gonna see in Nehemiah today is a people weeping because they didn't know what they didn't know because they lost touch with the scrolls and the law of God, and Ezra reads it over the people and they weep. And Nehemiah says, Don't weep. The joy of the Lord is your strength. If you came to church this morning and you have an overwhelming circumstance in your life, can I tell you the joy of the Lord is your strength? If you are face to face with a holy God, realizing how sinful you are and in repentance, saying, God, I'm so sorry. Can I tell you something? The joy of the Lord is your strength. I hope you'll be encouraged by that. We're gonna get to it in chapter 8, but I want to start in chapter 7. There are a lot of names here. And if I had an infinite amount of time, I would read them all. But I'm told that we have kids in the children's ministry that need to make sure they're staying on schedule. All right. So I'm gonna read some of the names. I'm not gonna read all the names. Start with me in Nehemiah 7. We're gonna read the first chunk of scripture and the last chunk of scripture in that chapter. Now, when the wall had been built, and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers, the singers, the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem. For he was a more faithful, God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guardposts, and some in front of their own homes. The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. Then my God put into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it. These were the people of the province who came up out of captivity, of those exiles from Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. I want you to see what's happening is the walls have been rebuilt. Nehemiah's always been about seeking the presence of God. We can have the presence of God in the temple till the city is fortified. God is building a people, so you have God's people in God's place and God's presence. That's what we're after here. And so God is building a people. I want you to see that. Now, Nehemiah says, How are we going to keep these gates fortified? And how many people are in these gates? And we don't have enough people in these gates, so we've got to make sure we're we're manning the doors and having good security. Later in the chapter, it totals all of these people in verse 66. The whole assembly together was 42,360, beside their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337. And they had 245 singers, male and female, their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two forty-five, their camels four thirty-five, and their donkeys six thousand seven hundred and twenty. Now some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury a thousand dericks of gold, fifty basins, thirty priest garments, and five hundred minas of silver. And some of the heads of the father's houses gave into the treasury of the work twenty thousand dericks of gold and two thousand two hundred menas of silver. And what the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand dericks of gold, two thousand menas of silver, and sixty-seven priests' garment. So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel lived in their towns. And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns. Now, I think forty-two thousand people is a lot of people, by the way. What we're going to see in a bit is they all gather together. If you're taking notes, just start by writing this down. God forms a people. God forms a people. If we were to read all the way through verse 7 to verse 65, you would see the son of this, the son of this, the son of this, this many thousands, and that many thousands. God is the one forming people. Now, I love college football. And I love watching the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal Stadium. I've gotten to go back a few times since we moved. But just imagine if you look at the sea of people, I know it's more than 42,000. But if you've ever been in a full stadium like that, that's the kind of assembling that God is putting together in his place. 42,000 people plus servants and animals, and they all live in their house, and God is forming them together. I didn't read the names today, but I encourage you to read the names. And when we read through scripture here, we do it every January, we read the names. If we read the whole New Testament, we would read those names. You know why? Because names matter. If we trace these genealogies that are in this place, in the city of Jerusalem, if we trace them all back, you know what we'd find? They would all have a relation to Father Abraham. Now I know I do this a lot and I sing the song and I love the song, and kids need to learn the song. And we went and sang the song at high school camp two summers ago. But it's important because when you sing Father Abraham, have many sons, many sons, Father Abraham. I'm one of them, so are you? Let's praise the Lord. You know why we praise the Lord? Because there are promises made to Abraham. And those promises are good for us if we're adopted into his family through the blood of Jesus. So when you think of names, they matter. God makes good on his promise to Abraham. He made good on promise of a land, even though the people disobey and they're kicked out, and then they come back and they disobey again. God makes good on his promise. God makes good on his promise of one of Abraham's seed being the reason that all the nations could be blessed. That seed is Jesus Christ, our Messiah. So when you think about the names, know that God's forming a people, that the names matter. Why? Because it reminds us of the promises made to Father Abraham. And God makes good on his promises. Now, if you're worried about tracing your name back to Abraham, I don't have a record of my name doing that, but I have good news for you. You know what that good news is? God welcomes outsiders. If you will just circle verse 46 and verse 57, part of these names that were numbered in this place, behind the walls and in their towns, it was the servants of the temple, the temple servants, and then also the sons of Solomon's servants are named. Isn't that encouraging? God welcomes outsiders. So guess what? My hand is raised. I'm an outsider. I'm adopted in. And I'm so glad I'm adopted in. I bet you you would identify with being an outsider. And can I just encourage you from Ephesians chapter 2? Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Amen. God forms a people. The question is: are you part of the people of God? And would you say confidently, yes, I'm part of the people of God, because I know Jesus is my King. I know Jesus has washed me clean. I know that I'm forgiven. I know that I've asked Jesus to be Lord over my life. If you know that, praise the Lord. If you don't know that, can I encourage you again? You can be part of the family of God today. I say this a lot. Living out the gospel is not an easy thing. It's not a simple thing. It's ups and down and struggle and repentance and trust and more faith and joy and sorrow and frustration and celebration, but receiving the gospel is a simple thing. It's saying, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Jesus, I'm asking you to be king of my life. That's the easy part. Then living becomes the hard part, right? Being faithful to the Lord and saying, I can't earn your forgiveness, but I do want to honor you with my life. And so if you are outside of the family of God this morning, can I just encourage you? Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus. I know we're in Nehemiah, but the whole Bible points to Jesus. Amen? Chapter 8, verse 1 through 8. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard. On the first day of the seventh month, that seventh month becomes very important. We've heard it twice already. And he read from it, facing the square before the water gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for that purpose, and beside him stood Madahiah, Shema, Anaya, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedadiah, Mishel, Malkiljah, Hashem, Hash Bedanah, Zechariah, and Meshelem on his left. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God of all the people, and answered. They answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Benai, Sherebiah, Jamin, Echob, Shabbatheah, Hodiah, Messiah, Kelita, Azariah, Josabad, Hanan, Peleiah, the Levites. They helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. Guys, I cannot explain how much I would have loved to be there at this moment. You're gonna see in a moment that their reaction, we already saw the lifting up hands, praising God, 42,000 people, and then they begin to weep because they realize they've not heard the word of God in so long because they're in exile. I cannot explain how much I would have liked to have been here at this moment. Not only has God formed a people, God's people are formed by God's word. I hope you can see right here the sense of appreciation that these people had for the book of the law. Don't you know that God has always formed things by his word? When you look at creation and you open up Genesis 1, in the beginning, God. And God said, Let there be light. And God said, Let us make man in our image. God has always been forming people by his word, speaking things into existence because he's God. That's why I can't do what only he can do. He's the creator of the universe, and this is the God that these Israelites were worshiping, praising with lifted hands, so much excitement and energy. I'll never forget we Chris and I weren't even friends at this point, but we were on the same field the summer of 2002. There's Passion One Day, maybe it was 2003. One of those summers. Passion met in outside of Dallas, this rolling hills, a big ranch, and they blocked off this huge area, it was over 10,000 young people. Now they meet in in basketball stadiums, but at the time it was called Passion One Day. And it was one day of preaching, prayer, and worship. And what they did to set it apart is they roped it off, and people got there like two days before and they camped, and there were like mini sessions and all this stuff. They roped it off and decided over this land, we're asking God to do a great thing, and we're consecrating this place, setting it apart for God to do something awesome on this one day of prayer and preaching and worship. And so, you know what they decided to do? The most creative thing that they could think of to set it apart was to build a tower and have the whole Bible read from Genesis to Revelation in 40 hours. I didn't know about it, or else I would have signed up. But people that did know about it signed up to read certain chapters of the scripture. So they roped off this huge area bigger than our whole campus here, and they built a tower and they read from the word for 40 hours. And I think God answered those prayers because I remember being on that field on the one day, and I remember having an encounter with God that will stick with me for the rest of my life. So, what do people do when they're asking God to form and shape things? You open this book. The last two Januaries, we have started our year here, First Baptist Wimberly, by reading through the whole New Testament. We pick a Saturday in January and we start at 6 a.m. in the morning, and we read Matthew to Revelation. We read it out loud and we do our best to read every word. Not because it's some kind of obedience to check off the box, but because we're asking God to set our year aside, to consecrate our year, to consecrate this place where preaching of the gospel will be on this platform on Sundays and things like VBS and Iwana and all the other things that happen throughout the year. We're saying, God, we're just asking for your blessing, and the best way we know how to do it is to open your word and read it out loud. God's people are formed by God's word. And then we have a conviction to read scripture publicly. Most every worship service, I don't just stand up and preach. Today it was from the Lord's Supper, but other days you might have a church member or someone from the music team say, Let's stand, we're gonna read the scripture together. You know why we do that? Because in 1 Timothy 4, it charges us to do that. 1 Timothy 4, Paul writes to Timothy, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching. You know why? Because God's people are formed by God's word. My question for you is do you have a hunger for the word? Jesus says, hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus says, Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Do you have a hunger for God's word? Are you being formed by God's word? I'm part of the family. I'm adopted in. Are you being formed by the word? I'm gonna have to ask my son's permission after I share this story. My son uses a Bible app called UVersion. It's probably a same Bible app hundreds of you use. He opens it up every day. He wants to read something from the Bible every day. Sometimes he reads more, sometimes he reads less. He's also been marking up a Bible, and so he's marking up a Bible starting in Genesis, but opening his Bible app every day. This is the part that might embarrass my son, but I'm gonna tell you anyways, because I think it shares a piece of his heart. On that app, you can get a streak, and a streak is 10 days in a row, 50 days in a row. My son was at over a hundred days. And we woke him up really early one day and we went out and we were busy all day, and he never opened his app. He has to be on Wi-Fi because we don't have a cell phone number for him yet, because he's still learning how to use a cell phone, he's got the training wheels on, and at the next day he said, Dad, I lost my streak on the Bible app, and you could see his eyes get misty-eyed and a tear fall on his cheek. And I'm thinking, son, it's okay. You could start a new one. But for him, it was such a big deal because he wants to be in the word every day. I'm so proud that my son, 13 years old, says, I want to be in the scripture every day. Because I know that if I'm gonna hear from the Lord, it's gonna be in the word. So, how can you apply listening to the word of God? We're not gonna build a podium, you weren't here on this day, but how can you apply it? Listen to the word as a family. Get with a friend, get with an accountability partner, get with your spouse, read it over your kids, read the scripture over your kids, listen. Also, listen with attentive ears. Did you see that in verse 3? And he read from it, facing the square before the water gate, from early morning until midday. Aren't you so glad? I don't preach from early morning until mid-afternoon. In the presence of men and women and those who could understand, and then later it says that they read it in such a way that it made sense. They gave the sense so that the people understood what was being read. Listen as a family, listen with attentive ears, and I love this. Let your listening lead you to worship. That what we are formed by in this scripture would lead us to a life of obedience and honor to God. That we would magnify Jesus, our Savior. Let your listening lead you to worship. Verse 6. They all said, Amen. Amen. Lifting up their hands, they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Very practically, how are you changed when you leave Sunday morning worship? You get the word preached and proclaimed over you. Are you listening with attentive ears? And do you walk out ready to worship God with your life? God, make my life count for your glory. I want this listening to lead me to worship. I hope you are. I hope you walk out of church different every Sunday. I hope you walk out changed. As a preacher, I want to preach to myself before I preach to you. Actually, Ezra is the one that taught me how to do that. Ezra, who's reading this word over the people, says in Ezra chapter 7, verse 10, before he ever sought to teach the scriptures, it says he set his heart to study them and do them and then teach them. Man, I want to model my life after Ezra that I would study the word and do it and then teach it. I want to be changed by the word. I want to be changed. One more set of scripture for us to read. Here, verse 9 through 18. Nehemiah, who was the governor and Ezra, the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the peoples, This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy, do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. On the second day, the heads of their fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra, the scribe, in order to study the words of the law, and they found written in it that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in boost during the feast of the seventh month. There it is again, by the way. In the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem. Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written, so the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square of the water gate, and the square of the gate of Ephraim, and all the assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths, and lived in the booths. For from the days of Jeshua, the son of Nun to that day, the people of Israel had not done so. And there was great rejoicing, and day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule. Not just being formed by the word, we see two additional responses. The first is that repentance led to their rejoicing. They weep, they hear the word of God and they weep. Why? Because they are broken, they are busted up. We have not been in the presence of God, we had not heard his word, we have been in exile, and now for the first time in forever, we hear God and they weep. That repentance leads to their joy. The joy of the Lord is their strength. One scholar says it like this The joy of the Lord is this word of grace towards sinners, which you and I can understand even better than the people of Nehemiah's day, because we live on this side of the cross and can understand the complete Old Testament and New Testament. Because of this grace, when we hear and understand God's word, we are not left to simmer in a pool of regret and shame. Sorrow over sin must give way to joy. Knowing that it is the Lord's joy to extend grace to sinners gives us the strength to live for him and to love him rather than run from him. When you've had seasons of repentance, I hope God has turned your tears into praise. I hope he has turned your sorrow into joy. This is how Jesus teaches it in the Gospel of John. John chapter 15, he says, Abide in me, I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me, abide in me, abide in me. If you study that in context, abide is to obey. And he says this in chapter 15, verse 8. By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. And just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love, these things I've spoken to you, that your excuse me, my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Christians can expect deep gut level joy of the Lord when we obey him. I hope that's a response you have had in your walk with the Lord. The second response is that obedience, not just repentance, but obedience leads to joy. Seventh month was a big deal. It's repeated over and over and over in that chapter. Why? Because it's setting up the fact that they had not been obeying the law. They had not been keeping these feasts of booths. It's supposed to happen in the seventh month, and you make a temporary shelter and you dwell there. Go out, get leafy branches, get palm and olive and myrtle, and bring it all and dwell there. And what happens when they realized they had been disobeying? They said, We want to do this thing. We want to get this right. God has told us to do this thing for a reason. We're supposed to remember, we're supposed to dwell. Our God is a promise keeper and he's a redeemer. I want to dwell in the booth. And Ezra reads the law, and the Levites read the law for a whole week. It was commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 31. At the end of seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of Boos, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men and women and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of the law. The feast of Booths was a time of remembrance. God has freed us in the Exodus. God's provided for us. There was manna that was on the ground every morning. We wanted meat, and God made birds fall from the sky. Let's gather and remember all the good things that God has done. That's what they were supposed to do. And when they saw that they had been disobeying, they said, I'm gonna obey. Now, I don't know if you can imagine these booths, but Google helped me out here. It's a temporary structure. You can make them really nice with tints and cloth and canvas, but I think this is what needs to come to my mind when I think feast of booths. And so you sit and you dwell. You dwell and you remember. You remember all that God has done. Now, when when it was COVID time, my family would go on a lot of hikes. And one time we were hiking, and Becca, she's gonna be embarrassed. I showed this picture, Becca made this temporary structure. It's not a booth, all right? But if we were building one, she'd be the first person I'd ask said, Becca, you did a pretty good job. Why do you dwell and remember? Well, we do have the New Testament, and we remember that Christ came to dwell with us. It says this in John chapter 1. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Because Jesus came to dwell among us, we can actually obey from a right heart and a right motive. Oh, that I would be the Christian, that when the Holy Spirit brings conviction and I need repentance, that I would repent and I say, Lord, forgive me, and that repentance would lead to joy, and then that kind of obedience would also be expected in my life. Immediate obedience will always lead to your joy. So I ask you, is the joy of the Lord your strength? I hope that even in this moment, God has been showing you things in your own life that when you walk out that door need to be different. Because God has formed a people, and God's people are formed by his word. What needs to change in your life for those things to be true? What needs to change in your life for you to have real lasting joy? And if I've mentioned it multiple times today that you've not ever given your life to Christ, can I just remind you that that is the way to abundant life, to lasting joy? I want to read to you the response of the nations gathered together in the new heavens and new earth, Revelation chapter 7, verse 9 and 10. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Don't you know that you can be a part of that people? That you can be welcomed in, and that you can have that kind of eternity. Pray with me. Lord, thank you for Nehemiah and thank you for everything we learn. God, I just imagine the joy and celebration of having your word read aloud. Make us the kind of people that are formed by your word. God, make us the kind of people that have regular rhythms where we sit and dwell. It very likely will not look like Feast of Boost. But we need to dwell and remember who you are and all that you've done. So we pray, God, that you would help us, even in this moment of response. Whatever needs to change, lead us through that. Help us to do business with you in this time. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.