Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham

Nehemiah 9:6-37; A Foundation of Remembering

• Jason Sterling

Share episode

Jason Sterling November 9, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

Thank you for listening! Please visit us at www.faith-pca.org.

SPEAKER_00:

If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me this morning, Nehemiah chapter nine. I want to encourage you to keep your Bible open this morning. I'll be referring, it's a long passage. It's actually the longest prayer in the Bible. We won't read all of it this morning. We'll read selected portions, but keep your Bible open and I'll be referring to different um parts of the scripture this morning in chapter nine. We are in the middle of a generational building project. You can probably see that from the coming onto the property called the All Generations Campaign. And we're going to get an update. We started last week, All Generations Forward Together. We're trying to end the campaign strong. And so we're going to do what we did last week. We're going to end the service a little bit early. I'll ask you to be seated after the benediction and we'll hear a quick update on the campaign. So we'll do that this week and next week, just a heads up. What we've been doing through Ezra and Nehemiah is looking at these spiritual foundations that we want to build as we move into this next season of ministry in the life of our church. And we've been looking at different foundations throughout this fall. And this morning, we're looking at the foundation of remembering. Ezra chapter 9, the feast of the tabernacles has just ended in chapter 8. And now the people are standing together again, and they enter into a time of confession. And the Levites, the priests, lead them in this corporate prayer. Again, we won't cover all 38 verses. I'll read selected portions which are printed in your bulletin that capture really the heart of this prayer. And as I read through it, I want you to listen for the rhythm. Listen for the rhythm of God's patience meeting our failure. This is God's word, Nehemiah chapter 9, starting in verse 6. You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all that is on it, the seas, and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made him, and made with him the covenant to give of to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizite, the Jebusite, and the Gagareshite. And you kept your promise, for you are righteous. Down to verse sixteen. But they and our fathers acted acted presumptuous presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Verse 26. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemy, who made them suffer, and in the time of their suffering they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors, who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they did evil again before you and abandoned them to the hand, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, Many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does, he shall live by them. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bore with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the land. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. Down to verse thirty-six. Behold, we are slaves this day, and the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves, and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Let's ask for the Spirit's help this morning. Let's pray together. Father, this is an amazing passage. And Lord, it's uh in some ways, I feel like it. How can I do this passage justice as a pastor and preacher? So help me. I pray that you would take this passage off of the page and put it in every heart and bring it alive and do what I cannot do. I pray that we would all have an encounter with Jesus this morning through his spirit and through this word preached. I pray that you'd be with those that are listening. I pray that you would help them to be attentive. They are here because you've brought them here. And you have this word for all of us this morning. And so speak, O Lord, speak. We are listening. In Jesus' name. Amen. How many times have you failed God in the exact same way? Same temptation, same compromise, same pattern of behavior that you swore over and over and over that you were going to change, that you were going to do better next time. Now let me ask you another question. How many times do you think God will forgive you for the exact same thing? Here's what often happens in our heads we think there has got to be a limit. We think, okay, God, you forgave me the first time, the second time, the third time, the fifteenth time. We're on time, a hundred and counting. And surely this is it. Surely you're done with me, and that this is over between us. Nehemiah chapter nine, God's people are asking a version of that same question. They are looking back over, get this, a thousand years of their history of repeating the same failures over and over again. And they're wondering what now? God, are you finally done with us? And what they discover in this chapter and in this prayer and what they see and pray changes everything. We're looking this morning at a foundation of remembering. And it's not just having memories. What we mean here is actively by faith rehearsing God's faithfulness, even when we're staring our own repeated failures square in the eyes. What took their breath away in this passage, it was not their faithfulness, obviously. It was God's. And my prayer is that as we encounter God's word this morning, that God would do the same thing in us, I want him to take our breath away. I want us to be so overcome with God's goodness and his mercy and his love. That is my prayer for all of us this morning. We're going to look at Nehemiah chapter 9 under three headings: God's character, our pattern. Lastly, his love that won't let go. Three things. God's character, our pattern, his love that won't let go. Let's look at the first God's character. So if you look at verses 36 and 37, they're not in a good place at present. They are in distress. Notice how they start the prayer. Verses six through eight. It's not with God, we're in trouble. It's not, God, we're so sorry we've done this again. They start with God. They start with his character. And notice the progression there. It's very deliberate. We'll go through this quickly. Verse 6 God is the creator. You, O Lord, have made everything and you preserve everything. And so God is a God that doesn't just create and then just let go and go about his business. No, God creates and sustains all things. Verse 7, God is the caller. He called this pagan named Abraham out of Ur and gave him a new identity. God enters into the story in order to accomplish his purposes in the world. So he calls. Verse 8, God is covenant keeper. God makes promises. Why? Because of his righteousness, not our performance. Why is this such a big deal for them to start this way? Well, because Israel is about to confess and about to talk about a thousand years of repeated failures. And if they start with their sin, it will crush them. But they anchor themselves first in God's character. Because when you anchor yourself in God's character, then you can be honest. Then you can be honest about who you are without despair. I think this is so critical for us as we think about our spiritual growth, because our tendency in our lives is to hide our repeated failures and our sins. Maybe it's the same argument that we have over and over with our spouse. Maybe it's the same pattern of pornography that you keep going back to. Or maybe it's your anger. You can't control your temper, and you consistently lose your temper with your family and with your children. Or maybe it's the anxiety that just spirals into making you controlling and manipulative. And shame says, You can't take that to God. You can't tell anybody about this. You've confessed this 50 times already. You're talking too much about this. That's what shame does. But if you anchor yourself in the character of God, it changes everything. Think about this passage. What if you anchor yourself in the fact that He made you and knows you? That God created your inmost being. Think about these verses. He didn't look down through the passages of time and see you. Oh, they're finally getting their act together. I'm going to choose them. No. God chose you when you were dead in your sins. God chose you like he chose Abraham when you were still a mess. God is covenant keeper. And that means that the covenant doesn't depend on you. It doesn't depend on your consistency, thank goodness. It depends on the character of God. God does not say, I will promise to hold up my end of the bargain if you keep yours. No. God says, I'm keeping mine, period. Why? Because I am righteous. And when we're anchored there in God's character, you can finally bring your sin into the light and not be crushed by it. Why? Because you're confessing from security, not for acceptance. And that's why Israel can look back over a thousand years. Who likes digging into their family history, into the history of your life and all the things that you've done wrong? That's hard. Israel does that. They speak honestly. Why? Because they knew the character of God, and his mercy was larger than their story. And here's what makes this even more powerful. Notice how Israel does this. This is not private confession. This is everyone together. The Levites are leading the entire nation. They're standing together and publicly saying, we have stiffened our necks. We have acted arrogantly. And notice this is not just a one-and-done confessing our sins. This is something that we keep coming back to, acknowledging our need. And that is one of the reasons why every single week we don't do it once a quarter, we don't do it once a year. Every single week we confess our sins together corporately. It's a way for us to come together and say, God, we need you. We have sinned against you. Please forgive us. I heard recently of a man who had been going to AA meetings on Fridays for over 40 years. 40 years. He's been sober. He just keeps showing up at these meetings, and finally someone asked him, Well, why in the world do you still come? And he said, I still come because I know I'm 15 minutes away from being hammered. That's honest confession. That's not pretending that you've outgrown your need. That's why we come and confess and admit that we are still dependent and we still need God. And that is what Israel is doing. They're gathering together, saying, we're prone to wonder. We need you, God. This is present tense. Think about verses 36 and 37. And we need each other. Where are you hiding this morning in shame? Will you let the character of God lead you to confession, not just of your private sins, yes, but also honest confession and community with people around you that you're in relationship with. That's the foundation of remembering. It starts with remembering the character of God. Secondly, our pattern. Look at verses 16 and 17 and verses 27 and 30 with me in your Bibles. Look at the pattern. It's just like a broken record. God delivers his people, they prosper, they forget. The people rebel. God disciplines them. They cry out, please help us. And God rescues and then rinse and repeat, and it starts over again. What is the root of the cycle? Why do they keep doing this? Well, you get a hint of it in verse 17. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders you performed. Translation, they forgot God. Look at verse 25, tells us why. They ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. When life was hard, they were all in, and they remembered. When life was easy, they forgot. They didn't stop being religious. They kept showing up to church. They still offered their sacrifices, they still did the rituals and the feast, but functionally they stopped believing that they needed God. And that's what it means to stiffen your neck. And at the core of forgetting, though, is pride. And here's a picture. You ever seen a two-year-old in the parking lot with their mother? The mother grabs the hand in the parking lot, and what does the two-year-old do? The toddler jerks that hand away, stiffens up. I can do it myself. Mom knows the danger. The toddler doesn't. That is us. That is Israel. God says, You need me. And we pull away and we say, I've got this. And so it's not just a pattern of behavior. What I'm trying to get you to see is it goes deeper than that to belief. The belief deep in our hearts that we are smart enough, good enough, and strong enough to run our life on our own without God. And here's the thing: every generation, we do it too, every generation thinks that they're going to be different. Every generation thinks that's we're not going to do that. That's not going to be us. We're going to be better. And it's not just Israel's story, it's the human story. It's our story. It's my story. I shared with you a few weeks ago how this has been a hard year for me. I've struggled in the first quarter, the first half of this year with anxiety and depression like I've never struggled before. I was in a deep valley. And I'm out of that valley. And you know what's happening inside my heart? I got this. I'm good now. And I've seen it, and that's why this passage was so convicting to me. That's the bent of my heart. That's the bent of your heart. When life is good, we forget our need. And we say, Thanks, God. I've got it from here. That's the pattern. That is unbelief. And it's arrogance. It's arrogance before God. And so what do we do? How do we break the cycle? You ready for this? Honestly, Nehemiah shows us that we can't. That's the point. We can't. And that is why he's showing us this pattern. It's like a broken record over and over and over again because the Bible and God is trying to get us to see that we cannot fix ourselves, that we need someone else. I don't want to leave you there, so what can we do? Well, we can do what Nehemiah does with the people in this very moment. We can stay awake to our need and push back against this pattern of unbelief and I don't need God. How do we do that? Well, one, remember. That's what the whole prayer is. They're just rehearsing and remembering the pattern of God's faithfulness so they won't forget. And go do a word study on the word remember, and that you'll see it a bunch in the Bible. The Bible over and over says, remember what God has done. Remember your need for Him. Why? Because forgetfulness keeps the cycle and the pattern going. But remember, remembering keeps us awake and pushes back against the pattern. That is why what we do here every Sunday morning, it is vital to your soul and vital to your spiritual health as a Christian. Because that's all we do. We just come here every week and remember. We come and we remember who we are, and we remember who God is and we give thanks and we come to this table every single week. That is why we do communion, one of the reasons. Because it helps us remember. Jesus says, remember in the words of institution, do this in remembrance of me. The other thing is you need to name. If we want to stay awake, you need to name where you're comfortable right now. Where has God provided for you? Where in your life are things actually good? Pay close attention to those areas, not because comfort's bad, but because comfort makes us forget. Ask yourself, where am I starting to think I got this? I can handle this on my own. And then the other thing is stay in community, stay connected to community. That again, the prayer, it's not private, it's commun, it's a community prayer. They gather together because you can't stay awake alone. Friends, if when you start thinking, if you start isolating from community, if you start thinking, I don't need other people, that is your neck stiffening. And so, let's be honest, staying awake, yes, okay, we've got some things here to help us stay awake, but it's not the same as breaking the pattern. Israel, they saw the pattern, they confessed it, they knew exactly what they were prone to do, and they did it anyway, over and over again. And so self-awareness doesn't break the pattern. And so we need someone from the outside to come, don't we? We need someone from the outside to come and to break the cycle and the pattern and do what we could never do for ourselves. And that leads to the last point his love that will not let go. Notice this phrase that keeps that just keeps interrupting the cycle. I want you to look in your Bibles and follow along with me. But you are a God ready to forgive. Verse 19, you and your great mercies did not forsake them. 27 and 28, according to the great mercies, you gave them saviors. Verse 31, nevertheless, in your great mercy, you did not make an end of them. Do you hear that? But you, God, nevertheless, every single time you think this is a disaster and God is going to do away and it's going to end in destruction. He interrupts the cycle with mercy. How many times did God's people fail? Too many to count. How many times did God forgive and meet them? The exact same number. Every single time, God's mercy has more endurance than their rebellion. His patience outlasts their pattern and their sin and their rebellion and their failure. Look at verses 36 and 37. We're in great distress. We are slaves. And so they're still in this pattern. God's people are still struggling, but here's the breakthrough. In their distress, they bring it to God and they do not hide it from him. They don't pretend like everything's fine. They don't minimize the failure, but they're also not in despair. The prayer ends with Israel standing before God, trusting his character, but specifically trusting his patience. And here's what they're starting to realize: God won't quit on them. And friends, he won't quit on you either. Most of us have been fighting the same battles our entire lives. Same anxieties, the same anger, the same addiction, the same relational pattern. And every time we fail, something goes on inside of us and we think this is it. And the shame takes over and we think God's patience has finally run out. But what if the breakthrough isn't that you're suddenly going to get fixed? And everything's going to suddenly be better. What if the breakthrough is finally believing that God's patience is real? And that whatever it is you're facing with your failures, you can face that from that security instead of trying to earn God's love and affections towards you through trying to be better and do better and getting fixed. You see the difference? Instead of praying, God, here's the difference. God, please forgive me one more time. As if he's just barely willing to do it. What if you start praying? God, you're ready to forgive. You stand ready, and you've proven it over and over. And I can bring this to you, and you're not surprised, and you're not disgusted with me, and you're not done with me. You see the shift? Maybe he'll forgive me to he's ready. He's ready to forgive. Friends, that changes everything. His patience, though, does more than help you endure the pattern. It actually points you to the one who breaks it. Nehemiah chapter 9. As you're reading this, you probably feel this. I mean, it's a long prayer, and you can almost feel it generation after generation, failures before God, and you can just hear them crying out, Lord, help us. Give us somebody. Give us a person who will come and finally be faithful, who won't rebel, who won't forget. Lord, we need somebody to break this pattern for us and to do what we cannot. Do for ourselves, that's what God does. God puts on skin, comes into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the fateful Israel light that Israel never produced. The fateful human that we could never be. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. Where Israel broke covenant, Jesus kept covenant. Where we stiffen our necks, Jesus bowed his. Where we say, God, I got this, I don't need you. Jesus says, I trust you, Father. Your will be done. And all the patience that God showed, and all the times he says, but you are a God ready to forgive, it pointed to Calvary. It pointed to the cross because at the cross we see God's patience and justice meet. Jesus absorbs the judgment that our pattern deserves, our cycle deserves, so that his patience, God's patience, can flow to you without compromising God's holiness. Friends, the good news of the gospel is this: your hope is not in trying harder. It's not in one day you're finally going to get it right. No. Our hope is in Jesus who got it right for us. There's a story, true story. Brian Kelly wrote about this in the best little stories of World War II. And it's a story about a man by the name of Bill Miller. He's a soldier. And he lived in Pennsylvania in the 1940s. His brakes went out around a turn and he flipped his car and ended up upside down, thinking he was just going to be left there to die. A stranger pulls over and helps him out of the car and saves his life. And the man that helped him was a man by the name of Warren Felty. Five years later, Miller was a pilot of a B-17. He was shot down over Germany and was one of the thousand thousands of POWs who were forced to march 75 miles in the dead of winter. And at one point, he completely gave out in a 75-mile hike. And he just ended up face down in the snow and thought he was going to be left there to die. And then another POW found him and pulls him forward and saves his life. And the man's name was Warren Felty, who had rescued him five years before, 4,000 miles away. After the war, several years later, Miller's back in Pennsylvania. He's eating breakfast at a roadside restaurant. He's about to lose his business. It's about to go under. And within a couple of hours, someone who had never been to the restaurant before decided to stop and eat and sits down at the table with them, and they talk for two hours. And two hours later, this man says, I will invest in your business and help you get out of this hole. And you guessed it. Miller said later that I couldn't shake this guy. He just kept showing up right when I needed him the most. God is saying to you this morning, my love and faithfulness outlast your failures. So come home. Will you come? That's an invitation. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your patience. Thank you that your patience outlasts our failures. Would you forgive us for the ways that we've stiffened our necks? Holy Spirit, awaken us to our need. Keep us anchored in the character of God and lead us home to a Father who is already running fast after us. In Jesus' name, amen.