God's Word at the Centre: How God Shapes His People (Joe Penner)

Nehemiah 8

Episode Transcript

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Well, last week we had the blessing of being away on
vacation. We enjoyed a cabin in Tennessee
with some family. And so thank you to all those
who were praying for us for safetravels and and an enjoyable
vacation or relaxing vacation. We appreciate your prayers.
As we were on vacation, the Sunday came up and, and we knew

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that coming up to Sunday, we want to find a church where we
can go worship God together. And, and so we found this church
and we decided we were going to attend.
And I began looking into the church a little bit and I, I
noticed that they were going through the book of Nehemiah as
well. And I was really excited.
I'm like, oh, great, What are the odds of that?
Here's a church they're going through the book of Nehemiah was
really excited. And so we came to the church on

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Sunday morning and, and everybody was very friendly and
we found a seat and, you know, watch the, the countdown timer
as Jonah was mentioning his countdown timers, counting down
the time to the service starts. And I was really excited.
And then the timer hit 0 and theworship team began to sing, but
we remained seated. And they they sang a song that
was popular maybe 15 years ago that was on the radio, a song

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that was not very singable or congregational.
And then we stood up and we did sing a song together.
And it was, it was a good, it was a good worship song.
And then we sang a song from thevery well known Christian
artist, The Beatles. Let it be, let it be, let it be,

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let it be. And then the Sir, the pastor
came up and he preached a sermonkind of about Nehemiah.
I I don't remember one single time in the entire service that
we read any passage of Scripturefrom the Bible at all.
I may have missed it if if he did, it was one or two verses.
But we did to my remembrance, wedid not open the Bible.

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And if you go on their website and and the very first thing you
see on their website is we are aBible believing, Bible teaching
church. And yet we didn't open the
Scriptures one time. Well, that's kind of like where
we pick up the Israelites in thebook of Nehemiah.

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They were called to be God's people and they called
themselves God's people, but butthey weren't really following
God's word. They weren't really following
his ways. Instead, they had abandoned the
Lord. They had abandoned his ways.
And that is why they were being disciplined.
Why they had been disciplined for years because they had

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abandoned God. They didn't hold his word with
reverence and honor, meditating on it day and night.
But now through the leadership of Nehemiah, God brought them
back. He brought them back to his
word. And through Nehemiah, through
this man who who had a desire tobe faithful to God and his word,

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they rebuilt the walls. They they were able to overcome
the attacks from the enemies. They were able to overcome
fighting even from within, and they rebuilt the wall in 52
days, a miraculous work that clearly God was behind.
And as Pastor Jonah talked to uslast week, now they began to
restore the purpose for why Jerusalem existed in the 1st

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place, which is to be a center place of worship for God.
This is what the Israelites weremade to do, why God had saved
them to worship God. And as we're going to see today,
the people of God put God's Wordback at the center of who they
are as a people. And so that's my title this

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morning. God's Word at the center, how
God's Word shapes his people. And what we're going to see this
morning is when God's people putthe Word of God at the center of
who they are. It is powerful and it unifies
us, it transforms us, and it will grow us.

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Let's pray for the Lord to do that this morning.
God, we thank You for Your word and we stand on the truth of
Your Word. Lord, we have nothing to say if
it is not from Your word. And we thank You that through
Your Word we can know truth, that we come to know the God of
the universe. And Lord, we pray that that as

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we are a people who center our lives and center our church and
all that we are on your word. We pray, Lord, that you would
unify us together by the power of your spirit, that you would
transform us through the renewing of our minds, and that
you would grow us so that we maybe glorifying to you as we seek
to build not our own Kingdom, but your Kingdom.

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This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.So would you open your Bibles
with me to Nehemiah chapter 8? We are going to read God's Word
this morning. Nehemiah chapter 8.
I'll be reading from the ESV andI will read the whole chapter.
And all the people gathered as one man into the square before

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the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the
book of the Law of Moses, that the Lord hadn't 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 7th month.
And he read from it, facing the square before the Watergate from
early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the

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women and those who could understand.
And the ears of the people were attentive to the Book of the
Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a
wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.
And beside him stood Mattathaya,Shima, Anaya, Uriah, Hilkiah,
and Mehasaya on his right hand, and Padaya, Mishael, Malkaja,

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Hashem, Hashpadana, Zechariah, and Mashulam on his left hand.
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, and all
the people answered Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands, and they

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bowed their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the
ground. Also Joshua Baney, Sharabaya
Jamin a cub, Shabbati Hodaya MayAsaya Kalida Azariah, Josabad,
Hainan Pelaya. The Levites helped the people to
understand the law while the people remained in their places.

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They read from the book, from the law of God clearly and they
gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.
And Nehemiah who was the governor, and Ezra the priest
and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to
all the people, this day is holyto the Lord your God, do not
mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they

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heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, go your
way, eat the fat, 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, forthe 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

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grieved. And all the people went their
way to eat and drink and to sendportions and to make great
rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were
declared to them. On the second day the heads of
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 it written in the

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law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of
Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the 7th
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

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brought them and made booths forthemselves, each on his roof,
and in their courts, and in the courts of the House of God.
And in the square at the Watergate, and in the square at
the gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those
who had returned from the 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

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so, and there was very great rejoicing.
And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read
from the book of God, the book of the law of God.
They kept the feast 7 days, and on the 8th day there was a
solemn assembly according to therule.

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After having experienced the thediscipline from the hand of the
Lord, now the people put God's Word back at the center of their
lives, the center of their worship.
And there are many benefits and blessings that come as we do
that as God's people. The first thing we see is that
God's word unifies us. Now when you read the history of

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the of the Israelites, one of the most, the one of the most
terrifying statements that we read is at the end of the book
of Judges that says everyone didwhat was right in his own eyes.
And this is what led Israel intosin.
This is what led them to experiencing the discipline of
the hand of the Lord. They turned away from God and

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turned away from the blessings that came with it.
But here in Nehemiah, God's people desire once again to
center their lives on God's wordand be unified in it.
Now God's word unifies us when we gather to hear the word.
That's what the Israelites were doing.
They were gathering together to hear the word.
We see this in verses one through 3.

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All the people gathered as one man into the square before the
Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of
the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
And 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 7th month.
And he read from it, facing the square before the Watergate,

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from early morning until midday,in the presence of the men and
the women and those who could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of
the Law. So they gather as one man, as
one body, as one unit, They cometogether.
And what do they come together? Unified in God's Word, they

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asked Ezra to bring the book of the Law and to read it to them.
And so they're looking to be unified in God's Word.
And so Ezra reads the Word in everyone's ear, is attentive.
Everyone who could understand ishere to listen to the Word of
God, and they are unified as they are reading the same word

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of God. We're also unified when we
worship the Word. So God had given His Word, and
His Word pointed them and taughtthem about Him.
And so the hearing of the Word LED them to worship God the
Word. And I sort of got to play on
words there. We can pass forward to John
chapter 1. John tells us that that in the

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beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And so we worship the Word, but
we don't worship the words on this page.
We don't worship the Bible. The Bible points us to a living
God who is to be worshipped. Look at me with verses 4 through
6. Ezra the scribe stood on a
wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside

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him stood Marathiah, Shima, Anaya, Hilkiah, Mehsaya on his
right hand, Padaya, Michelle, Malkaja, Hashem Hashmadanah,
Zachariah, and Mashulam on his left hand.
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

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great God, and all the people answered.
Amen. Amen.
Lifting up their hands and they bowed, bowed their heads, and
worship the Lord with their faces to the ground.
So as Ezra stands in the presence of all the people with,
with the leaders on his right hand and the readers on his
left, the the leaders on his left hand, he reads the word and

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he worships the word. He worships God as they are
unified together. Now the reason this is so
important is because God's Word teaches us who God is and how He
is to be worshipped. And so we need to be unified in
God's Word so that we can worship Him rightly.

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We're also unified when we understand the Word.
Look at verses 7 and 8. Now we see Ezra has been reading
the law, but now leaders begin to go out and teach the law.
Verse 7 and 8 also Joshua Baini Sharabaya Jamin Akab Shabbathi
Hodaya Mehsaya Kalida Azariah, Josephad Hainan Pelaya.

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The Levites helped the people tounderstand 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 that there's
this idea of like line by line, paragraph by paragraph.
They gave them the sense so thatthey understood the reading.

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And so notice Ezra doesn't just read the book and then they
leave without any application, right?
They come to read the word, to worship the Word so that they
understand the Word, so that they can what?
Obey. Understanding leads to
obedience. We can't obey if we don't
understand. And so in all of these things,

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hearing the Word, worshipping the Word, and understanding the
Word, they are unified together as they seek as one man to bring
glory and honour to God. We see this unity, the same kind
of devotion to God's Word in theearly church, in the book of
Acts we read of the early church, and this is after

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Jesus's life, his ministry, after he had died and rose again
and then ascended back to the Father.
The Holy Spirit came on all the people as they gathered together
and a huge crowd gathered to seewhat was going on.
And this was the perfect time for Peter to preach this sermon,
this popular sermon, this, this infamous sermon that he preached

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leading about 1003 thousand people to joining God's family.
And we know that that there werepeople from all over the place,
different nationalities, different Jews from different
locations, but also Gentiles andproselytes and, and outsiders
who had come to Jerusalem. And now this is all parts of
this 3000 people that come to faith in Christ.

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Well, all these different peoplefrom different backgrounds
coming together. How are they going to be unified
with all these different backgrounds?
How are they going to be unifiedwith all these different
different characteristics and traits and personalities and and
histories? How are they going to be unified
by keeping God's word at the center?
Acts 2 verse 42 says, and they devoted themselves to the

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apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers. How did all these people stay
unified in God's Word? As the apostles faithfully
taught God's Word and how the coming of Christ fulfilled all
of the Old Testament, the peoplewere unified.
It didn't matter what backgroundthey came from, because they

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were centered on God's Word. And we too will be unified when
we do this. When we put God's Word at the
center of all that we do, we will be unified.
And that is exactly what we are seeking to do here at LEMC.
We believe that God the Father working through his word by God,

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the Spirit will transform us into the image of God the Son.
Therefore, God's word is the emphasis of everything that we
do as a church. Maybe you've been coming here
for a while or even just this morning.
Just take a look at this morning.
We begin with the word of God. We we pray God's word.

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There's Scripture reading throughout our worship.
There's scripture reading as we study and read the Bible,
there's scripture in our prayersthat when when our children
meet, our meeting right now, they are studying God's Word, a
curriculum that is based on God's Word.
When our youth meet throughout the week, they're going through
curriculums based on God's Word.When we meet on Wednesday night,

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we come together to study God's Word together.
God's Word informs everything that we do, and we are trying to
be unified by keeping God's wordat the center of everything that
we do. But how about you?
Is God's word at the center of your life?

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Is God's because it, it, it takes everybody, right?
If, if a few people are centeredon God's word and they're trying
to bring everybody else along, that doesn't work, right?
The, the whole goal of why Ezra was teaching the law is so that
everybody could know it and obeyit.
And so each and every one of us needs to be putting God at the
center, God's word at the centerof our lives so that when we

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come together, we're unified in it.
And so I'd encourage you, if, ifyou're not spending time daily
in God's Word, we would encourage you to do that.
One way that we do encourage ourchurch to do that is through our
Bible reading plan. If you already have a Bible
reading plan that you're going through, that's totally fine.
But if you don't, we would really encourage you to grab a,
a booklet that you'll find over there by the water fountain and
it takes you through the year. Here's a Bible reading for five

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days of the week. And, and we believe so much in
the power of God's Word that we want to encourage each other to
be in it daily, that it can transform us and unify us in
Christ. And when we put God's word at
the center of our lives and our life as a church, we will be
unified. The next benefit that comes from
putting God's word at the centeris that God's word transforms

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us. The Israelites were now putting
God's word back at the center and God begins to transform his
people. And I heard a quote this week as
I was watching a social media clip and and he was talking
about God's word. And it says these texts are not
designed to be mastered. They master you.

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We don't come to God's word to come to some sort of theological
degree or, or so that I can put letters behind my name.
I come to God's Word to be transformed, that his Word
masters my life. And that's what we're looking
for. We're looking for
transformation. And what I want to play on is
something I heard one of my professors talk about in our

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classes is the piercing comfort of God's Word.
That's what we're going to see here as we look at Nehemiah and
in these people as they hear God's Word.
On the one hand, when we read God's Word, you all have
experienced this, right? It pierces your heart because it
exposes your sins. But on the other hand, God's
Word comforts and soothes with the truth of how we can be

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forgiven through Christ and how we can have a relationship with
God. And so that's what we're going
to see. The Israelites were transformed
by piercing. Look at verse 9 and Nehemiah who
was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the
Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day

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is holy to the Lord your God, donot mourn or weep, for all the
people wept as they heard the words of the law.
As Ezra is reading, their heartsare pierced with the truth that
they have been disobedient to God's word, that they have
failed to live their lives in a way that is holy before God.

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And their hearts are pierced of this truth.
As Ezra read the law, that that's the five Old Testament
books, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Torah.As as Ezra read this, what did
they read? They read what we're reading
right now in our Bible reading plan.
They're reading of how God savedhis people from Egypt.

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These 10 miraculous powerful signs, how He called them and
saved them to Himself. They were reminded of how God
walked with them for 40 years inthe wilderness, giving them
everything that they needed. They were reminded of how God
had helped them defeat all of their enemies as they came into
the Promised Land. God had been faithful to do

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everything He said He was going to do.
And as these Israelites are listening to Ezra read all these
stories of their faith, their hearts were pierced with the
conviction that they had disobeyed God.
As they were reminded of God's goodness toward them and how

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they had failed to follow Him, their hearts were transformed
through piercing. But then something unexpected
happened, right? The Israelites were transformed
by comfort. Rather than experiencing the
judgement of God. They are comforted.
Look at what the leaders say to them next.

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Go your way. Verse 10.
Eat the fat and drink sweet wineand send portions to anyone who
has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our
Lord, and do not be grieved, forthe 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

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grieved. And all the people went their
way to eat and drink and to sendportions and to make great
rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were
declared to them. Now it is true that God had
disciplined them for their disobedience.
He had punished them because they were failing to walk in His
ways. But now we've been faithful to

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bring them back, to rebuild the wall, to begin to reinstate
their worship, and now to centertheir community on God's Word.
And for that reason, Israel had gathered to celebrate God's
favor. That's why they were gathering
to celebrate, to rejoice in whatGod was doing.
And so the leaders are saying, don't mourn, don't weep.

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The Lord is blessing us. Let's continue the celebration
at what God is doing. He is bringing us back to
Himself so that He can make His name great.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
God isn't angry with His people.He is rejoicing that they are

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turning back to Him in His ways to worship and obey Him.
But as Israelites put God's Wordat the center, God transforms
them through the piercing comfort of His Word.
Throughout Jesus's ministry, He told many parables.
And one of the most incredible, incredible parables ever told

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that we all know very well is the the parable of the Prodigal
Son. Here we have the story of a man
who has two sons. And this younger son comes up
and and he rejects his father. He doesn't want anything to do
with his father. He doesn't respect him.
He doesn't appreciate all that he has through his father.
He says, give me my inheritance and I'm out of here.

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And he goes into a land, a country that is far away so that
he's far out of the reach of thehand of his father.
And he squanders every last penny that he has.
And that's exactly when a faminehits.
And so instead of at that point turning back to his father, he
says, I got this. I can take care of myself.
And he begins to work feeding pigs.

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And, and as he feeds the pigs, he's so hungry that he longs to
be fed with the pods that are given to the pigs, but no one
gives him anything. And finally he comes to himself
and he and he says, what am I doing?
What am I doing here when my father's servants are living
better than me? I'm going to go back to my

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father and I'm going to repent and I'm going to ask him for his
favor. But I'm not going to say you,
you should reject me as your son.
I'll just be one of your servants.
And so Luke that chapter 15 speaks of this parable.
He says, and he arose, and he came to his father, but while he
was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt

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compassion, and ran and embracedhim and kissed him.
And the son said to him, Father,I have sinned against heaven and
before you. I am no longer worthy to be
called your son. But the Father said to his
servants, Bring quickly the bestrobe, and put it on him, and put
a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened

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calf and kill it, and let us eatand celebrate.
For this my son was dead and is alive again.
He is lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.
The son had been pierced with the reality that he had sinned

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against his father, but he was not met with the judgement that
he expected. Instead, he was comforted with
the joy of his father, who had been eagerly waiting for and
praying for his son's return. Maybe you're like the prodigal
son at the beginning of the story who you reject God.

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You want nothing to do with God and his goodness.
You don't care anything for his provision.
And maybe you think God is just some evil God who's standing up
there who wants to put all theseridiculous restrictions on our
lives and he has nothing but evil intended for us.
And you don't see God as a good thing or a good person or a good

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God, that he wants to punish you.
He's mad at you. Now, it is true that God does
hate our sin. It is true that God pierces our
hearts through the exposing of our sin.
But it's because He knows that your sin will leave you broken

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and hurt. He wants what's best for you.
And so He wants you to come and find comfort in Him, in a
relationship with Him, so that he can satisfy you with His
goodness. Turn to Him today and you won't
find an angry, judgmental God. You will find a God who has open

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arms and wants to welcome you and give you the joy of His
presence. Maybe you're like the prodigal
son and you already have been pierced with the reality of your
sin. Know that you cannot make it on
your own, though you try. You try to to make your life
perfect. I know that I just got to get my
life together and then I can come to God.

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That is not possible. There is no way that we can
atone for all our sins. The minute you think you restore
and reinstate all the bad from one sin, you've committed 10
more. We cannot earn God's favor.
Turn to God. Don't think that you have to

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make yourself right before you come back to Him.
He is the one who restores you. He is the one who makes you holy
and righteous as you turn back to Him.
Friend, God loves you. He desires what is best for you.
He doesn't want to punish you, He wants to forgive you.

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He wants to clothe you in the righteousness of Christ and
celebrate with you. Psalm 1O3 says He does not deal
with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our
iniquities. For as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so great is Hissteadfast love toward those who
fear Him, as far as the east is from the West, so far does He

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remove our transgressions from us.
Turn to God in humble confessionand repentance, confessing your
sins. Believe that God paid for your
sins through Christ on the crossby sending to Jesus, by sending
Jesus to die for you. If you repent of your sins and
put your faith in Christ, you will be saved.

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For the believers here this morning, if you are a part of
God's family, you must recognizethat I've already said that you
need to be in God's word every day.
And it's challenging, right? When we read God's Word, it
pierces our hearts, it exposes our sin.
But that's where we need to run time and time again to the cross

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and be reminded of God's sacrifice for us, That through
Christ we are righteous. Not through obeying the law,
through faith in Christ, we are made righteous, and God's Word
comforts us with that truth. This is the transforming power
of God's Word as we put it at the center.

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And so when we put God's Word atthe center, it unifies us, it
transforms us, and it grows us. God's Word grows us as the
Israelites came, as they put God's Word at the center.
This is what we begin to see as God's people come to their work,
to His Word. He grows them so that they can
be more faithful to Him. It grows us as we study God's

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Word together. Look at me at verse 13 through
15. On the second day the heads of
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 it written in the
law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of
Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the 7th

(30:22):
month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it all
in 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.
And So what do we see at the beginning of this passage?
We see at the beginning of this passage all the heads of the
Father's houses come together tostudy with the Levites and with

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Ezra. Notice that the the studying of
God's law isn't reserved just for the leaders, it's for all
the men of the houses. Why?
Well, Israel wasn't all living in Jerusalem all the time, so
they couldn't just come togetherand learn from the describe all
the time. These men needed to study and
know God's Word so they could take it back to their families

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in these other countries, in these other places, and teach
their families. That's how God's Word was.
That's how they had unity. They taught their families God's
Word together. And as they studied God's Word
together, God grew them. Next, God's word grows us as we
obey God's word together. So as we saw, they studied God's

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Word and they realized, hey, we need to make booths because
that's what God's Word says. It says that we need to
celebrate on the 50th day of this month.
We need to celebrate the Feast of Booths and we need to make
booths to live in. And this is a reminder of God
walking with His people through the wilderness.
Look at verse 16 through 18. So we see their obedience.

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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 at the Watergate,
and in the square at the gate ofEphraim.
And all the assembly of those who had returned from the
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.

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And there was very 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 7 days, and
on the 8th day there was a solemn assembly according to the
rule. And so we see the Israelites
obeying God's Word. It says that we should make
booths. So they immediately go out and

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get these branches. So they come and they make
booths. And what is the result of
obedience to God's Word? Rejoicing, they rejoiced
together that they were unified in God's Word and obeying Him.
Faithful to His commands, God used His Word to grow His people

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as they studied and obeyed together.
And I already mentioned the early church in the book of
Acts. We see this exact same thing
there. We already saw how they devoted
themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and prayers.
They devoted themselves to God'sWord.
And what did God begin to do in them as they devoted themselves

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to His Word? Look at verse 43 through 47.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were
being done through the apostles,and all who believed were
together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and
distributing the proceeds to allas any had need.

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And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking
bread in their homes, they received their food with glad
and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added to their
number day by day. Those who were being saved as
the early church devoted themselves to God's Word.

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As they put God's Word at the center of all that they did, we
see God working in powerful waysto grow them.
He united them in their worship.He transformed them by them
working in their hearts and themserving each other through
incredible sacrificial acts. We grew them in number as souls

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came to faith in Christ through their message.
And so God grew them as they experienced joy in unifying
themselves together on God's word.
And as a church, this is just again, such a good reminder for
us that we have to keep God's word at the center of all that
we do. I know I, I've had, I've had

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this question asked to me before.
Well, what, how, how, what are you guys doing that your church
has grown? And I always say to them the
same thing. It's I don't know, I nothing.
I mean, the answer is we're focusing on God's word.
That's the answer. But what they're expecting me to
say is, oh, we have this really great, neat strategy.
If you go to any conference today, a church growth strategy,

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what they're going to tell you is that you need to find a
certain demographic of the people in your community that
you need to target and you need to go after those people and you
need to share the gospel with them so that your church is full
of 45 year old people who have awife and two kids and a white
picket fence and A2 story home brothers and sisters.
That's not the gospel. The gospel is a good news of

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salvation for all people. And so we run astray when we
don't put God's Word at the center of what we do as a
church. We want to center everything
that we do on God's Word. That's the only reason that we
have grown as a church is because we're centering what we
do on God's Word. And God's people are coming
together and they're finding sort of my experience when we

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attended this church as we visited last week, you go to
these churches and you're like, this seems very shallow.
And so people are coming here because we're centering on the
truth of God's Word. And that's what's going to grow
us. And our primary concern is not
to grow in number. I know Jake talks about this all
the time, that we want to be a people of relationship.

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We want to go deep. We want to love the Lord our God
with all our heart, soul, and mind and strength.
We want to love our neighbor as ourself.
We want to grow in a relationship with one another,
and then we want our community to experience the joy and the
fellowship of having a relationship with God and one
another. And we only want that growth as
it comes through God's Word. And so we need to center all

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that we do on God's Word, and that's how we're going to grow.
And so you'll see that as we meet on Wednesday nights, as we
meet on Sunday nights, again, asI already mentioned, we come
together to study God's Word andto know Him better.
That's what we do. And as we commit to studying and
knowing God's Word, and through obedience, God will grow us.

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Now this begs the question, why is God's Word so important?
And in our church Bible reading plan, we've been going through
Exodus. And after delivering his people
out of Egypt with a strong and mighty hand, God brings them to
a mountain. And he tells them, You
yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore
you on eagle's wings and broughtyou to myself.

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Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my
covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all
the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me
a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words that you shall speak to the people of
Israel. God commands His people to obey

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them because He saved them. Then God gives them, He begins
to give them instructions on howto build a Tabernacle, to build
an ark, a table for the bread, agolden lampstand, and then all
these articles, these priestly garments that they're to wear.
Why all these rules? There are a lot of instructions.
And then God even says in Exodus25 verse 9, exactly, exactly as

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I show you concerning the pattern of the Tabernacle and of
all its furniture, so you shall make it.
Why is God so concerned about their exact obedience to His
Word? The answer is in is right the
verse before. Let them make me a sanctuary,
that I may dwell in their midst.God wants to dwell with His

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people, but He can't because of their sin.
And so he sets up this system ofworship so that so that their
sins can be atoned for, so that they can be a holy people in his
presence and he can dwell among them.
But now Christ has come through his life, his death, his

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resurrection, He's fulfilled allof the purposes of these
ceremonies and these statutes and these these laws and these
feasts and festivals. All of these things point us to
Christ, and He fulfills all of them.
And through His death, through His life, through His
resurrection, He's defeated our enemies.
He's defeated sin and death. He has saved us through His

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sacrifice and through faith. We are now righteous, and His
Spirit can dwell in our hearts. You see, that's the storyline of
the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, God
dwells with his people, but because of sin, they're kicked
out of the garden. And all the rest of Scripture is
God trying to come back to dwellamong his people.

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And now we live in the day and age of Christ, where now God
dwells in US. It's not God's presence in a
cloud around us. It's God's presence in our
hearts. And one day we will be fully in
his presence, holy, blameless, righteous, never to weep or cry
or mourn or be in pain ever again.

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Therefore, brothers and sisters,because of the sacrifice of
Christ, it should be our joy, our longing, our greatest
desire. To obey Him, we should long to
be pleasing to the God who savedus, seeking to bring glory and
honor to His name for His greatness.

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But in order to do that, we mustput His Word at the center.
We must meditate on His Word dayand night so that we can know
it, so that we can obey Him. And when we are faithful to do
that, He will unify us, He will transform us, and He will grow
us. 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 says, or do you not know

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that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom
you have from God? You are not your own, for you
were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
salvation, for your redemption through Christ our Savior.

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We thank you that you have savedus from sin.
We thank you that you have givenus the hope of eternal life and
we no longer need to fear death.There is no condemnation for
those who are in Christ. And so now we look forward with
joyful expectation at eternity in your presence.
And Lord, we pray that through the power of your Spirit that

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you would strengthen us to be obedient to Your Word.
We know that we cannot do it in our own strength, in our own
flesh. And so, Lord, we pray that your
Spirit would drive us to Your Word on a daily basis,
meditating on it day and night, that we may be pleasing to you.
And we ask, Lord, that as we do that, that you would unify us as
your church, that you would transform us, and that you would

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grow us in the likeness of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose
name we pray. Amen.