May 18, 2025 • 46 mins
The book of Nehemiah doesn’t end the way we might expect. After the victory of rebuilding the wall and a national spiritual renewal, chapter 13 brings us into deeply uncomfortable territory: everything falls apart.
In Pulling Our Hair Out, Pastor Kelly Kinder unpacks the closing chapter of Nehemiah and what it reveals about the fragility of human faithfulness. It’s not a fairytale ending—it’s a real-world snapshot of what happens when we stop tending to our spiritual lives.
While Nehemiah was away, spiritual compromise crept back in. The temple was misused. Ministry was neglected. The Sabbath was disregarded. Marriages were defiled. Nehemiah didn’t ignore it—he confronted it with courage and clarity.
Kelly walks us through the four areas Nehemiah had to clean house:
1. Compromise in Purity
An enemy of God, Tobiah, had been given residence in the temple. Nehemiah threw him out—literally. It’s a powerful image of what it means to cleanse our lives from subtle spiritual compromises.
2. Neglect in Giving
The Levites and temple servants weren’t being supported, so they left their ministry posts. Nehemiah restores order and calls the people to recommit their resources. It challenges us to consider whether we’re faithfully supporting God’s work.
3. Disregard of the Sabbath
The people had returned to doing business on the day God had set apart for rest and worship. Nehemiah shuts the city gates and calls the people to honor what God designed for their good.
4. Defilement of Marriage
Intermarriage with foreign nations had diluted their spiritual identity. Nehemiah’s response is intense—but so is the danger of spiritual compromise through unaligned relationships.
Kelly doesn’t sugarcoat it: spiritual decline is rarely sudden—it’s usually subtle. Like a tire with a slow leak, you don’t notice the danger until you’re stuck. That’s why vigilance matters.
The final words of the book—“Remember me, O my God, for good”—are a humble reminder that even the most faithful leaders need grace. And that grace is found not in our performance, but in Christ, the perfect covenant-keeper.
If you’ve noticed a spiritual leak in your life, this message invites you not to shame, but to restoration. God is ready to meet you where you are—and rebuild what’s been compromised.
We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!
Find us on Facebook & Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelly Kinder (00:03):
We're just on the end of a series we've been going
through the book of Nehemiah.
It's always gratifying to kindof start and then to end
something right, but I hope thatas we go through this series,
you have really heard from theLord on some things.
God's been speaking, I know, tome, and I hope it's been a
blessing to you.
Today we're in Nehemiah,chapter 13.
(00:25):
So take your Bible and turnthere to Nehemiah, chapter 13.
And because these first threeverses here are really to a
different time period, I justkind of want to read these first
three by themselves and thenwe'll look at the rest of the
chapter, because these firstthree verses give us, I would
say, just kind of a basicprinciple of life that we need
(00:47):
to pay attention to, and I thinkis what this is speaking about
today.
So let's do that.
So, if you remember, last weekTyler gave a great message on
joy, and I hope you were happyafter that.
It's more than happiness,though, isn't it?
(01:11):
It's what joy is, what dwellsinside of us, no matter what the
circumstances, and that's whatJesus gives us is abiding joy,
joy that is overflowing and fullof glory.
So we're looking at that, andlast week we talked about this
joy that came from thededication of the wall, the wall
that they had put in place andrebuilt after 52 days and
Nehemiah has been the governorover this whole period of time
and we see it says on chapter 13, verse 1,.
It says On that day they readfrom the book of Moses in the
(01:34):
hearing of the people, and in itwas found written that no
Ammonite or Moabite would everenter the assembly of God, for
they did not meet the people ofIsrael with bread and water, but
hired Balaam against them tocurse them.
Yet our God turned the curseinto a blessing, and so we see
(01:55):
this as a reference,historically, to something that
had happened in their past, andit was, if you remember the
story, it was right.
When Israel is coming out ofEgypt, they've been wandering in
the wilderness for 40 yearsyears, and they get stopped on
their way to the promised landby this group, these two nations
, the Moabites and the Ammonites, and they prevent their forward
(02:16):
progress into the promised land.
And so Moses puts out thisprohibition, a commandment if
you will, and he tells themdon't intermingle with them
anymore, because it didn't allowyou to move forward and do what
I called you to do, don't everhave any access, don't let them
have access to God's peopleagain, because they influence
(02:38):
God's people.
And so we read this here, andit's really once again, I think,
as it always is.
When there was public reading ofthe Scriptures, it made God's
people sit up and take notice.
They had forgotten some thingsand maybe there were some things
they heard they didn't evenknow.
Just like it is for us, andvery often our lives are
(03:01):
sometimes in.
We go through heart troublesand pain because we don't know
God's word or we don't rememberit, and so this is a good
reminder of that.
So at this command and it comesfrom Deuteronomy 23, it was
reread to the people and it saysin verse 2, as soon as the
people heard the law, theyseparated circle, that they
(03:24):
separated from Israel all thoseof foreign descent.
Now the concern here is notabout race.
Don't take that in thatdirection.
Really, here, the reason forthe law of what I call the law
of separation here is from theseforeigners is that they would
have corrupted Israel from beingthe people of God as God
(03:44):
intended them to be.
So it's not about race, it'sabout negative influence.
It's about negative influence,those enemies of Israel who they
came out to be would have ifthey could have allowed them to
access the people of God andchanged the very culture and
holiness of Israel and thepeople of God.
So this is what God isconcerned about.
(04:05):
This law of separation, I think,for us today, is a spiritual
principle that it carries overto our day, that we are to be
holy people, to be reminded ofthat and to consider what are
the things that we allowinfluence to come into our life
that might affect how we livefor God.
So we don't want to be like theculture around us, and God
(04:26):
didn't want them to be like theculture and nations around them
either.
So that's how we got to beginwith this.
Keep this principle in mind andlet's just pray and ask God to
help us today.
Thank you, thank you.
So, father, we're thankfultoday for your word, lord.
It calls us to be greater andhigher and go farther for you.
But, lord, we also feel our ownweakness and, lord, we struggle
(04:48):
, lord, because we forget.
And, lord, there are things wedon't know, and so we pray that
your word would open up our mindand hearts and give us
understanding, the Holy Spirit,that you'd speak and apply these
truths to our lives today.
We pray in Jesus name.
Truths to our lives today.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Now let's continue on Verse 4.
(05:08):
And I just think of this.
This word came to me.
This is a song that goes.
Prone to wander, lord, I feelit Prone to leave the God I love
.
This is all of us, and it wasthese people too.
Listen to what the word says.
Now, before this, elisha, thepriest who was appointed over
the chambers of the house of ourGod and who was related to
Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah alarge chamber where they had
(05:31):
previously put the grainoffering, the frankincense, the
vessels and the tithes of grain,wine and oil which were given
by commandment to the Levites,singers and gatekeepers, and the
contributions for the priests.
Verse 5, while this was takingplace, I was not in Jerusalem,
for in the 32nd year ofArtaxerxes, king of Babylon, I
(05:55):
went to the king and after sometime, I asked leave of the king
and came to Jerusalem.
Now what's happening here?
Let's stop right there a minute.
And came to Jerusalem.
Now what's happening here?
Let's stop right there a minute.
Nehemiah has been governor forover 12 years and after that
period of time he leaves and hegoes back to Babylon, where he
originally came from, and forsome reason we don't really know
why he may have gotten a reportthat things are not so great
(06:17):
again back in Jerusalem becausethey had some spiritual decline
that was going on.
Maybe he got a bad report, likehe did, and he was concerned
about it.
So he comes back again, thistime in a second term, as
governor.
And let's pick it back up inverse 7.
He says and I was very angryand I threw out all the
(06:47):
household furniture of Tobiahout of the chamber.
Then I gave orders and theycleaned the cleansed the
chambers and I brought backthere the vessels of the house
of God with the grain offeringand the frankincense.
I also found out that theportions of the Levites had not
been given to them, so that theLevites and the singers who did
(07:09):
the work had fled each to hisfield.
So I confronted the officialsand said why is the house of God
forsaken?
And I gathered them togetherand set them in their stations.
Then all Judah brought thetithe of the grain, wine and oil
into the storehouses and Iappointed as treasurers over the
(07:29):
storehouses Shalemiah, thepriest, zadok, the scribe, and
Badiah of the Levites and astheir assistant, hanan, the son
of Zechur, son of Madaniah, forthey were considered reliable.
Son of Madaniah, for they wereconsidered reliable and their
(07:49):
duty was to distribute to theirbrothers.
So what verse is that?
Sorry, 13.
I'm having trouble reading here, so let's go on.
So verse 14, remember me, o myGod, concerning this, and do not
wipe out my good deeds that Ihave done for the house of my
God and for this service.
In those days I saw in Judahpeople treading wine presses on
(08:12):
the Sabbath and bringing inheaps of grain and loading them
on donkeys, and also wine,grapes, figs and all kinds of
loads which they brought withinto Jerusalem on the Sabbath
day.
And I warned them on the daywhen they sold food.
Tyrians also who lived in thecity brought in fish and all
(08:33):
kinds of goods and sold them onthe Sabbath to the people of
Judah in Jerusalem itself.
Then I confronted the nobles ofJudah and said to them what is
this evil thing you're doing,profaning the Sabbath day?
Did not your fathers act inthis way and did not our God
bring all this disaster on usand on the city?
Now you are bringing more wrathon Israel by profaning the
(08:57):
Sabbath as soon as it began togrow dark at the gates of
Jerusalem before the Sabbath, Icommanded that the doors should
be shut and gave orders thatthey should not be opened until
after the Sabbath, and Istationed some of my servants at
the gates that no load might bebrought in on the Sabbath day.
Then the merchants and sellersof all kinds of wares lodged
(09:20):
outside Jerusalem once or twice,but I warned them and said to
them why do you lodge outsidethe wall?
If you do so again, I will layhands on you.
From that time on they did notcome on the Sabbath.
Then I commanded the Levitesthat they should purify
themselves and come and guardthe gates to keep the Sabbath
(09:41):
day holy.
Remember this also in my favor,o my God, and spare me,
according to the greatness ofyour steadfast love.
In those days also, I saw theJews who had married women of
Ashdod, ammon and Moab, and halfof their children spoke the
language of Ashdod and theycould not speak the language of
(10:02):
Judah, but only the language ofeach people.
And I confronted them andcursed them and beat some of
them and pulled out their hair,and I made them take an oath in
the name of God, saying youshall not give your daughters to
their sons or take theirdaughters for your sons or for
yourselves.
Didn't Solomon, king of Israel,sin on account of such women?
(10:25):
Among the many nations, therewas no king like him, and he was
beloved by his God, and Godmade him king over all Israel.
Nevertheless, foreign womenmade him, even him, to sin.
Shall we then listen to you anddo all this great evil and act
treacherously against our God bymarrying foreign women?
(10:47):
And one of the sons of Jehoiada,the son of Eliashib, the high
priest, was the son-in-law ofSanballat the Horonite.
Therefore, I chased him from meRemember them, o my God because
they have desecrated thepriesthood and the covenant of
the priesthood and the Levites.
Thus, I cleansed them fromeverything foreign and I
(11:08):
established the duties of thepriest and Levites, each in his
work, and I provided for thewood offering at appointed times
and for the firstfruits.
Remember me, o my God for good.
There's a lot there isn't there.
So what's happened?
So 12 years have passed fromthe end of chapter 12 to verse 6
(11:31):
of chapter 13.
And Nehemiah, as I said, whileNehemiah is gone back to Babylon
, things begin to fall apart.
Incredible spiritual decline.
They had gone back to every oneof the things they'd promised
to do in chapter 10, justflip-flopped just a just a
little while and think aboutwhat happened to this city, just
(11:52):
just thinking back what we'veread.
There's been a revival rightrevival at the water gate.
There's been brokenness andconfession and repentance of sin
.
Only God could do that.
They've had a dynamic encounterwith God, a personal encounter
with God that's taken place,which included incredible
over-the-top worship andsix-hour-long times where they
(12:14):
hear the Word of God and it'sexplained to them.
Six-hour-long days of that.
And they've even entered into apersonal covenant, a covenant
where they would say I promiseto do all these things, to
reform my life, to change mymarriage, to do whatever it
takes to do what God wants me todo.
(12:34):
And now Nehemiah returns torecover what's been lost from
all of those promises.
William Booth, the founder, thegodly founder of the Salvation
Army, once wrote these words.
He said the tendency of fire isto go out.
Watch the fire on the altar ofyour heart.
(12:56):
Anyone who has tended a fireknows that it needs to be
stirred up occasionally.
And this is really whatNehemiah comes back to do.
We have a phrase for it.
Sometimes you heard the phrasewell, they cleaned house.
Nehemiah comes back and hecleans house.
He's not messing around now.
(13:18):
And when Nehemiah comes back toJerusalem, what does he find?
We're going to look at thisFour significant failures that
he found that he immediately and, I think, really aggressively
goes after.
He confronts them in order tobring God's people back to
healthy, spiritual life, andthese are things that we can
learn from too.
So the first thing I want youto see is that the first thing
that he finds is that God'shouse has been compromised.
(13:41):
God's house has beencompromised he says this in
verse four through nine becauseElisha, the priest the high
priest, by the way had beenappointed over the chambers of
the house of our God, he says,and he was related to Tobiah.
And what does he do?
Believe or not?
This is the same Elisha thatthe high priest who'd been
(14:03):
involved in the leading in therevival, but now, because of his
compromised relationship withthis man named Tobiah, eliashib
has done something reallyfoolish.
He's taken all of the items outof the temples and storerooms
meant to be used for worship.
He's taken them out, set themoutside and he's brought in a
(14:25):
person who ends up being arelative, and he's made Tobiah
an apartment the size of a smallwarehouse.
He moves the partitions thatare the part of the storerooms
and he makes him this bigapartment.
He said okay, move in, I'llhelp you.
We've got everything out ofhere.
Do you remember who Tobiah was,don't you?
(14:45):
He was an Ammonite.
The very people we just readabout in verses one through
three to separate themselvesfrom he had been involved from
the very beginning.
All this whole book, tobiah hasbeen involved as the enemy of
God's people From the very timethey got there.
He had been an enemy even ontheir building of the wall and
(15:08):
so on.
Through the whole chapter,tobiah is the enemy and Eliashib
, the priest, has provided him aspace to take up residence in
the temple.
Now there's a certain arrogancein this right.
Nehemiah is gone and Tobiah ismoved in.
You think, why in the worldwould Eliashib do this?
And, as I said, it says here.
(15:29):
The text says Eliashib wasrelated to Tobiah and it found
out he was Eliashib's grandson.
There's a lot of things I woulddo for my kids or my grandkids,
but there's only certain thingswhere you have to say that you
draw the line.
And Eliashib was willing tobreak the law of God to bring
(15:53):
something good to his owngrandson and notice Nehemiah's
reaction once he finds it out.
Was he angry?
No, he was very angry.
It says in verse 8.
I was very angry.
It says in verse 8.
I was very angry.
And you know what?
Unfortunately, we rarely act ontoo much to confront anybody
until we get very angry.
(16:14):
When we say things that arewrong, that bother us, it has to
reach a certain degree, it hasto reach a certain temperature
for us to actually do somethingabout it.
And Nehemiah was right here.
This is not personal anger.
Nehemiah is not concerned abouthis personal things.
He's not concerned that theyhaven't done what he said
(16:34):
personally about his directives.
What is he concerned with?
Why is he angry?
He's concerned for the holinessof God.
And so what does he do?
I threw all the householdfurniture of Tobiah out of the
chamber.
He doesn't give Tobiah aneviction notice.
He goes in, he takes hold ofTobiah's couch, his kitchen
(16:58):
table, his bed, his dresser fullof socks and underwear and
whatever else is in there, andhe throws them out the door onto
the pavement.
Picture this he's intent onbringing back the holiness of
God.
I heard a story several yearsago about a guy who had.
(17:19):
It's kind of interesting.
He had been living up north andhe had had an existing house
down in Florida and I won't gointo the whole thing, but he
kind of interesting.
He had been living up north andhe had had an existing house
down in Florida, and I won't gointo the whole thing, but he
found out that they weresquatters in his house in
Florida.
Someone had tipped him off andhe went down there and he found
out that they were there.
Sure enough, he saw them goingin and out and he looked in the
(17:41):
window and there was a housefull of furniture and all the
belongings.
Well, he had his key.
They hadn't changed the lock,so he had the key with him.
He opened the door and he saidanybody here?
Nobody's there.
He walked into his own house andhe couldn't believe it.
So he closed the door quietly.
He went back, he tried to gethelp from the authorities.
They wouldn't help him.
He said what did I do?
(18:03):
And so what he did?
He said he went and got adifferent lock.
He walked in, he got a friendto help and they took all of the
furniture from the squattersand set it out on the driveway,
changed the lock.
And when the people came back,he said this is my house.
And he said your stuff isobviously sitting on the
driveway.
(18:23):
It's going to be gone, unlessyou want to come and pick it up.
And I thought, well, this iskind of the attitude.
He was upset and Tobiah wasupset, but not for himself, but
for the glory of God.
What do we do when we seesomething wrong?
Do we just let it go or do weget angry?
What makes you angry?
What makes you angry?
What makes you angry?
(18:43):
What makes you angry?
Do you get angry because God'sname is defiled, or maybe his
character is maligned, or yousee something where his
standards are being mocked inyour workplace or anything else?
Do you ever get angry for that?
You see a lot of people.
What right, nehemiah, do youhave to do?
(19:08):
What you're doing, you see,what you get angry over tells
you a lot about where yourspiritual life is.
Nehemiah wasn't about to let thethings stay the way they were,
and so he says in verse 9, thenI gave orders and they cleansed
the chambers and I brought backthere the vessels of the house
(19:29):
of God and the grain offeringsand the frankincense.
Nehemiah cleanses the templeand he puts everything back in
place that should have beenthere and not taken out in the
first place.
These are the things that helpfor the worship of God.
Now, you can make an analogyfor that in our own temple.
We're going to talk about in alittle bit about that.
But notice, the first thingNehemiah finds out is God's
(19:51):
house has been compromised, andI just have to say we don't have
to look too far in our cultureto see the church in the same
place, churches who havecompromised, whether it's
through the delivery of the wordor the standards that the word
has laid out for us and havejust been tossed out, or the
standards that the word has laidout for us and have just been
(20:12):
tossed out.
Well, let's notice the secondthing.
The second thing he discoversis that support for God's work
has been neglected.
Support for God's work has beenneglected, he said I also found
out verse 10, that the portionsof the Levites had not been
given to them, so that theLevites and the singers who did
the work had fled each to hisfield.
You say, well, why did they dothat?
Because they weren't beingsupported.
(20:34):
They had to go back and sort ofeke out a living themselves.
I think simply what this issaying.
Because the resources hadn'tbeen allocated, these Levites
had left their posts, so tospeak, and headed back home just
simply to survive.
And Nehemiah it's interesting,he doesn't fault the Levites.
(20:59):
Who does he fault the peoplewho are managing or
administrating the temple.
And what is happening?
What is happening?
They began to just sort of getapathetic.
They let the care of God'shouse we have a term for it go
to pot.
Heard that term go to pot.
He just kind of let it go.
It doesn't really matter thatmuch, I just show up.
And it's just the opposite ofwhat they promised they'd do in
(21:23):
chapter 10, verse 39.
We, he says there, we, or theydid, we will not neglect the
house of God.
So then, why is the ministryfailing?
Nehemiah asked why is thisfalling apart?
And I think there's someapplication for the church today
, we're going to see that aswell.
And what does he do?
So I confronted the officialsand said why is the house of God
(21:46):
forsaken?
And I gather them together.
He put them back, he set themin their stations, then all
Judah brought the tithe, thegrain, wine and oil into the
storehouse.
In addition, guess what elseNehemiah does?
He removes Eliashib, the highpriest, who's been over this
whole thing, and he replaces himwith three reliable men.
Hopefully so this wouldn'thappen ever again.
(22:10):
Men, hopefully so this wouldn'thappen ever again.
British expositor G CampbellMorgan said something worth
noting.
He said whereas the house ofGod today is no longer material
but spiritual, the material isstill a very real symbol of the
spiritual, very real symbol ofthe spiritual.
When the church of God, in anyplace, in any locality, is
(22:34):
careless about the materialplace of assembly, the place of
its worship and its work, it isa sign and evidence that its
life is at a low ebb.
So what does that say?
I mean when you walk in here onSunday, you maybe go through
(22:55):
the parking lot.
Sometimes you see paper layingout there on the driveway.
Do you pick it up?
Or maybe you notice something,maybe there's a water problem in
one of the bathrooms and you goin there and it just doesn't
work.
Do you just go ah, somebodywill fix it.
Or do you say how can I help?
This is our place, this iswhere we meet God, and it has an
(23:18):
associate.
Just like G Campbell Morgansays, it has a spiritual
revelation to it about how wetake care of what God's given us
and maybe, as we've beenpraying and thinking, maybe
God's going to give us somethingbigger.
You know, what the Bible saysis if a person is faithful in
the little things, he'll give usbigger things, greater things,
(23:39):
but if we're not, the converseis well true.
So how well do we care for whatGod has given us?
So he sees this overall neglectNehemiah does to give, to care
for and to support the work ofGod's house.
Well, there's a third one here.
The third thing Nehemiah noticesis a blatant disregard of the
(24:01):
Sabbath, and this is aninteresting one.
It's in verses 15 through 22.
He says in those days I saw inJudah people treading wine
presses on the Sabbath, bringingheaps of grain and loading them
on donkeys and also wine, andso on and so on.
And what does he do?
(24:24):
He warns them.
He says, by the way, this isanother promise they made in
chapter 10.
They'd failed to keep Promises,promises.
You know, I think the way theysaw it, sabbath was just a
legalistic burden that they werecalled to do with no purpose,
and Sabbath had become reallyfor them a perfect day to do
business.
Perfect day to do business.
(24:46):
And what had happened?
They turned the sacred placeinto a marketplace.
And what had happened?
They turned the sacred placeinto a marketplace and they were
even allowing other people, whoweren't even part of the
Israelites, to come in and buyand sell.
Now let's look at this a littlebit more in detail.
Notice Nehemiah's response.
He does four things here inresponse to this violation.
First of all, he warns them tostop selling on the Sabbath.
(25:09):
You used to watch this showcalled Andy Griffin and the
character Barney would have thisfamous word nip it, nip it in
the bud.
This is what Nehemiah did.
Stop it.
Right now he warns them aboutthis.
Second, he tells the Levitesthat once it gets dark, as soon
as Sabbath day begins which iswhat the Jewish Sabbath day did
(25:32):
it began in the evening time.
He tells them shut the gates.
Shut the gates.
Shut the gates.
Why?
So no one can get in and out ofthe city to buy and sell when
they shouldn't be buying andselling.
No business whatsoever.
Shut the gates.
As a result of the gates beingshut, guess what happens?
People start piling up at thedoor.
(25:53):
What are they trying to do?
They're getting there early sothey can get in before anybody
else and carry on their commerce, but they can't get in.
So, nehemiah, I guess he seesthe city gates and he sees all
these people piling up downthere with all their wares and
stuff and he goes down and hethreatens them with bodily harm.
(26:13):
Why are you here?
He says, if you come here again, I'm going to lay hands on you.
Well, and number four what doeshe do as a final measure to
enforce the Sabbath?
He tells the Levites somethingelse.
He says purify yourselves.
This is a holy work.
(26:34):
Go down there, purify yourselfand guard the gates.
Don't let anyone in.
And so I don't know what theirconversation was, these buyers
and sellers, but you can imagine, you know what Nehemiah's done.
He sent the Bruce God squaddown there to keep us from from
doing our work.
They didn't come anymore,though, did they Stopped?
(26:58):
My guess is that at this point,nehemiah is he's probably losing
friends really fast.
And here it's really true,because when you mess with
people's money, it's on right.
People get serious.
What do you think about that?
But again, nehemiah is notdoing this for his own personal
(27:21):
benefit.
He's doing this.
It's not legalistic.
I want you to hear this.
This is not legalistic stuff.
He is concerned for the honorof God.
The Bible says something that istrue, it's not good to have
zeal without knowledge.
But honestly, you get the sensethat Nehemiah is really.
(27:41):
He's fully aware of what he'sdoing, he's ready for the
pushback Bring it, bring it.
In fact, he says to God aboutthis.
He says remember me.
Three times in this passage.
Well, four One is directedtoward the people that were
doing the abuses.
But for personal, remember me,o God, for what I've done.
(28:03):
I don't think he enjoyed thisat all.
And before we look down onNehemiah or judge him, I'm
thinking of another radicalreformer who one day braided a
whip and went into the temple,flipped over the money changers'
(28:24):
tables and he said, whilewhipping them out my house shall
be called a house of prayer,but you've made it a den of
thieves.
There is a time to stand up andbe counted.
There's a time when we can'tremain silent and watch things
go as they are.
(28:45):
I'm not advocating for violence, I'm just saying sometimes we
need to stand up and be counted.
And here's the thing too, thisidea of Sabbath, this idea of
Sabbath shouldn't be lost on us.
As believers, we think well,that's Old Testament, it's the
fourth commandment.
It shouldn't be lost on us,because Jesus himself didn't
(29:09):
delete it, did he?
Instead, he explained it.
He said this he said theSabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath.
In other words, this is notabout keeping legalistic rules.
I don't think the Jews didn'treally understand that.
They thought it was a burden.
Jesus said this was made foryou.
Think of this as a gift to you.
(29:31):
It's a time for you to stop andrest and consider how God is
providing for you, so you don'thave to feel like you have to
work seven days a week.
God's your provider.
Remember that.
Take care of yourself.
Even God had this work six daysand rest one, and it's a
(29:52):
reminder that our work is notour God and the purpose, see, is
just to stop.
Stop for a while, consider allthese things.
Why God did this and it's alsoin the New Testament speaks
about stopping your work, fromattempting to work out and gain
your own salvation.
(30:13):
But here it just makes me thinkdo you have a stop and do
nothing day, or are you sotightly wound that you've got to
do?
I have to talk to myself aboutthis Just to stop for a day and
really rest.
It's a gift for us.
(30:34):
God had a stop and day, stopand do nothing day, at creation,
didn't he and it was an examplefor us Say is God serious about
this?
Well, you tell me.
So we should work hard to rest.
Well, there's a fourth thing.
The fourth thing Nehemiah sawwas the defilement of marriage.
(30:58):
He says in 23 and 331, in thosedays also, I saw the Jews who
had married women of Ashdod,ammon and Moab.
Half of them spoke the languageof Ashdod and they couldn't
speak the language of Judah, butonly the language of Ashdod,
and they couldn't speak thelanguage of Judah, but only the
language of each people.
Can I just share some thingsthat's becoming common in our
(31:19):
day?
First one a generation wherewe're seeing believers marry
unbelievers.
This is becoming commonplace,folks without a thought that it
even matters, and it's amazingto me.
Here's what 2 Corinthians, justso you know.
(31:42):
Just so you know, 2 CorinthiansPaul, says in chapter 6, do not
be unequally yoked withunbelievers.
You can't get any more simplethan that.
How can righteousness be apartner with wickedness?
How can light live withdarkness?
What harmony can there bebetween Christ and the devil?
How can a believer be a partnerwith an unbeliever?
(32:04):
And what union can there bebetween God's temple and idols?
For we are the temple of theliving God.
Is there separation there?
And let me just say, youngpeople, if you're sitting here,
you need to make sure of twothings when it comes to who you
marry.
Number one make sure that youyourself are a follower of Jesus
(32:26):
.
And number two make sure theperson that you're dating or
considering dating or dating orgetting married, to make sure
they person that you're datingor considering dating or getting
married, to make sure they're afollower of Jesus too.
You say, well, I can changethem, don't bet on it.
Don't bet it could happen.
(32:46):
But I would just caution andcounsel Don't marry someone who
doesn't know the Lord.
It will be trouble.
Here's something else I'venoticed that's become a
commonplace in our culture, ageneration where we are hearing
God-honoring speech mixed withprofanity.
It's become the norm to throwin the profanity when talking
(33:11):
with friends and you'll hearthis well, that's just the way
my friends talk.
Then you need to find some newfriends.
Here's what God says let nocorrupting talk come out of your
mouths, but only such as isgood for building up as fits the
(33:31):
occasion, that it may givegrace to those who hear.
This is a flip-flop in whatwe're hearing today in some
respects.
And so these two things arejust a couple examples.
There's many more.
There's many things, subtly,that we don't even recognize,
where we are beginning to look alot like our culture, recognize
(33:53):
where we are beginning to looka lot like our culture.
And so Nehemiah is seeing theseeffects, these effects of these
mixed marriages, and what doesit do?
It affects their words, theirthoughts, their behavior.
It affects the family forgenerations, and so do you see
how quickly these thingsdeclined.
This is a generational failure.
That's what Nehemiah is soadamantly addressing this.
(34:13):
For I think it was John Wesleywho said what one generation
tolerates, the next generationwill embrace.
You know, someone has compared,because it is so subtle.
Someone's compared a spiritualdecline to a slow leak in a tire
.
You don't immediately recognizeit until you're at the side of
(34:38):
the road, unable to move forward.
This is the way our spirituallife can get.
We let that go on.
We don't even sense it.
Our spiritual life is leakingfrom us and we don't even sense
it.
Our spiritual life is leakingfrom us and we don't even know
it.
What did Nehemiah do?
Again, he says I confrontedthem and cursed them and beat
(35:02):
some of them and pulled outtheir hair.
Don't think Nehemiah isreverting himself to swearing.
This is he's bringing down ajudgment upon them and saying
this is the effects of yourdecisions.
He's telling them and I madethem take an oath in the name of
God saying you shall not giveyour daughters to their sons or
take their daughters for yoursons or relatives or for
(35:22):
yourselves.
And in fact one of the guys ishis son-in-law.
This is what we see here fromthe high priest's son-in-law,
sanballat the Horonite.
He was another enemy thatdogged Israel.
This whole book, wow, you saywell, nehemiah, that's extreme.
I mean, that's over the topwhat you're doing.
(35:46):
But here's the thing I thinkNehemiah was just so deeply
aware of the path that Israelwas walking down that he was
willing to do anything to getthem to return and come back to
God, to pay attention and turnaround and come back to God.
See, a single generation'scompromise could undo the work
of God for centuries.
(36:07):
And you kind of wonder what'shappening in our culture is what
is happening in our churches?
Is it going to undo the work ofGod for centuries?
And you kind of wonder what'shappening in our culture is what
is happening in our churches?
Is it going to undo the work ofGod for centuries?
How hard is it going to be tocome back?
As the old saying goes,desperate times call for
desperate measures and we needGod's wisdom on how to respond
(36:30):
and to add measure to it todrive this home.
He gives the example of KingSolomon, which we didn't
necessarily read all the waythrough.
Solomon was wise, he says, buthe was actually loved by God.
But at the same time, solomonwas spiritually dumb.
Can you be wise and dumb?
Well, yeah, if you make thewrong decisions, knowing what
the right decision is, if youmake the wrong decisions,
(36:50):
knowing what the right decisionis and you choose the wrong
thing, it says.
Nehemiah says he came to ruinbecause of this very thing
Mixing.
Mixing it ruined him, it ruinedhim.
So we see Nehemiah desperatelyconfronts these four spiritual
(37:12):
failures.
Let's review them one more time.
Number one compromising God'shouse.
Let me ask you a question Isthere anything anywhere you've
given a place for the enemy tobe at home in your temple?
Just a thought.
Number two neglect of theministry.
Are you apathetic in supportingand caring for the ministry of
(37:32):
the church?
Number three disregard of theSabbath and again, without being
legalistic, are you living inGod's created rhythm of rest and
work and trust in that?
He knows how he's made you.
He wants to give you some timeoff.
What happens in this is thatyou lose your margin.
(37:53):
You know what the margin is theedges of the paper, the white
space.
You lose the margin spirituallyand the enemy takes advantage
of that.
Don't get any sleep, don't getany rest, have no time for
spiritual things or the life ofGod in your life, no time for
Bible reading, because you'retoo busy.
I'm too busy.
(38:13):
Number four defilement ofmarriage.
Are you careful about who youdate or who you might marry?
Are you truly following Jesus?
You know it's really hard toget out of a relationship like
that.
If you're in one and it becomesphysical, that takes an extra
(38:34):
measure of effort.
And I just want to say oneother thing.
Extra measure of effort.
And I just want to say oneother thing If you're married to
an unbeliever now and maybe youmade a mistake, or maybe you
didn't know, maybe you weren't aChristian when you made that
decision before you knew Christ,guess what there's grace for
you.
Listen to what Paul says in awhole section on marriage.
(38:57):
In chapter 7 of 1 Corinthianshe says this If any brother has
a wife who is an unbeliever andshe consents to live with him,
he should not divorce her.
If any woman has a husband whois an unbeliever and he consents
to live with her, she shouldnot divorce him.
And then here's this.
This is the grace, for theunbelieving husband is made holy
because of his wife, and theunbelieving husband is made holy
(39:18):
because of his wife, and theunbelieving wife is made holy
because of her husband.
God's with you even in this,when it's hard.
Well, let's look and see howNehemiah ends this whole thing,
how he ends the book.
Strange ending, vital lesson.
(39:39):
What does he say?
Verse 30,.
Thus I cleansed them fromeverything foreign, nehemiah
speaking, and I established theduties of the priests and
Levites, each in his work, and Iprovided for the wood offering
at appointed times and for thefirst fruits.
Remember me, o, my God for good.
(40:00):
Nehemiah simply says I cleanedit all up.
I put it back in place Again.
Same old story over and overWash, rinse, repeat.
This is the history of Israeland it's the history of every
Christian's life, yours and mine.
I think about that Honestly.
(40:24):
If it had been me, maybe, if Ihad written this book.
Maybe Nehemiah thought well, hecould have just left this
chapter totally off and endedwith chapter 12.
Joy, but he doesn't.
And there's a reason for this.
There's more here than mightfirst appear.
This, there's more here thanmight first appear.
I want you to listen to acouple of quotes and I believe
they really bring home the vitallessons of this book and what's
(40:47):
going on here.
Essentially, the lesson is thisit's Psalm 27.1,.
Unless the Lord builds thehouse, what those who labor,
those who build it, labor invain.
Unless the Lord builds a house,what those who labor, those who
build it, labor in vain.
Unless the Lord builds a house,those who labor build it in
vain.
They labor in vain.
(41:08):
Here's the quote.
The final note in Ezra andNehemiah is thus one of
ambiguity.
We may wonder how the peoplewho had so exuberantly
celebrated the completion of thedefenses against the enemy came
so readily to accept theenemy's presence within the
temple and the high priestfamily.
(41:28):
How, indeed, could those whohad committed themselves so
solemnly to religious puritychapter 10, so rapidly return to
practices which wereessentially irreligious, if we
sense a certain desperationabout Nehemiah's last efforts to
put the house of Israel inorder, a tiredness about the
(41:48):
need, yet again, to bring backthe wandering sheep to the right
path, a feeling that there isno reason to think that this
reform will be more successfulthan any other, a sense that,
after all, he himself has donehis best.
Then we may be catching theright meaning here.
The book of Nehemiah seems topeter out in what might be
(42:11):
considered a somewhatunsatisfactory manner, not so
much with a bang as with awhimper.
All the abuses referred to inthis final chapter have been the
subject of earlier treatment,but they rear their heads again
here, despite the best effortsof the reformers to eradicate
them.
(42:31):
It is as though the book ispointing to its own failure,
reminding us that, howeverimportant good structures and
routines may be, nothing cansubstitute for the renewal of
the naturally perverseinclinations of the human heart.
So you can build the structureson the outside, but if the
(42:51):
heart is not right, it'shopeless.
So here, what is Nehemiah'sbook?
It exposes our own flakiness,doesn't it?
As Christians, even on our bestday, we fail.
We all fail in so many ways tolive up to the promise that we
(43:12):
made to God.
So where do we find a covenantkeeper that keeps his promises.
His name is Jesus.
So just to end, today, I justask for those who claim to be
his followers is your spiritualcondition in decline this
(43:33):
morning?
Are you going backwards in yourwalk with Christ?
I mean, you and me, we're notperfect.
We're just forgiven, right.
So here's the recommendationJust recommit your life to Jesus
.
What does it take to restorewhat's been lost?
(43:53):
So that's the way I used to be,but I'm not like that anymore.
Wish I was.
I remember when I was on firefor God and things were
different.
That's not me anymore.
We have to give thought to ourways and separate ourselves
again from anything thatcompromises us.
What is it that's compromisingyou today?
(44:17):
Here's what 2 Timothy says,because it gives us hope.
2 Timothy 19-20 tells us how todo this.
Listen, god knows who belongsto Him.
Steer clear of evil and all youwho name God as God.
And then he uses this greatanalogy In a well-furnished
(44:39):
kitchen, there are not onlycrystal goblets and silver
platters, but waste cans andcompost buckets.
Some containers used to servefine meals, others to take out
the garbage.
Become the kind of containerGod can use to present any and
every kind of gift to his guestsfor their blessing.
(45:03):
You want to be useful, separate,be holy and obey God.
And for those of you here today, this is a lot.
I don't even know any aboutthat, but I am tired of living
the life I'm living.
Who is this Jesus?
I would just say put your faithand trust in him, because you
may not know him, but once youbegin to follow him, he will
(45:25):
change everything.
He'll make your life new.
Give your heart to Jesus, he'llmake everything new.
So can we just stand today andlet's just pray for God to do a
work in us, all of us?
If you don't know the Lord thismorning, there are going to be
people down here who will bewilling to pray for you and
(45:47):
those who just say I want tostart afresh.
And let's just pray for that.
God, we ask for you to havemercy on us, lord.
We make lots of promises.
We don't keep for you, but youare the promise keeper, you're
faithful to the end.
And, lord, I just pray for allof us today that you would call
us back to yourself.
(46:07):
Lord, restore what's been takenout of the place of our temple,
that we would be holy peoplefor you, separate, set apart,
not in a legalistic way, lord,but as a way to honor you, that
you can use us for your glory.
And I pray for everyone whotoday doesn't know you in a
personal way, that they wouldgive their heart to you,
(46:29):
confessing their sins, receivingthe forgiveness that only comes
through Jesus, because of hisdeath on the cross.
And we just ask you to savethese folks today.
Call them to yourself in Jesus'name, amen.
We're just on the end of a series we've been going
through the book of Nehemiah.
It's always gratifying to kindof start and then to end
something right, but I hope thatas we go through this series,
you have really heard from theLord on some things.
God's been speaking, I know, tome, and I hope it's been a
blessing to you.
Today we're in Nehemiah,chapter 13.
(00:25):
So take your Bible and turnthere to Nehemiah, chapter 13.
And because these first threeverses here are really to a
different time period, I justkind of want to read these first
three by themselves and thenwe'll look at the rest of the
chapter, because these firstthree verses give us, I would
say, just kind of a basicprinciple of life that we need
(00:47):
to pay attention to, and I thinkis what this is speaking about
today.
So let's do that.
So, if you remember, last weekTyler gave a great message on
joy, and I hope you were happyafter that.
It's more than happiness,though, isn't it?
(01:11):
It's what joy is, what dwellsinside of us, no matter what the
circumstances, and that's whatJesus gives us is abiding joy,
joy that is overflowing and fullof glory.
So we're looking at that, andlast week we talked about this
joy that came from thededication of the wall, the wall
that they had put in place andrebuilt after 52 days and
Nehemiah has been the governorover this whole period of time
and we see it says on chapter 13, verse 1,.
It says On that day they readfrom the book of Moses in the
(01:34):
hearing of the people, and in itwas found written that no
Ammonite or Moabite would everenter the assembly of God, for
they did not meet the people ofIsrael with bread and water, but
hired Balaam against them tocurse them.
Yet our God turned the curseinto a blessing, and so we see
(01:55):
this as a reference,historically, to something that
had happened in their past, andit was, if you remember the
story, it was right.
When Israel is coming out ofEgypt, they've been wandering in
the wilderness for 40 yearsyears, and they get stopped on
their way to the promised landby this group, these two nations
, the Moabites and the Ammonites, and they prevent their forward
(02:16):
progress into the promised land.
And so Moses puts out thisprohibition, a commandment if
you will, and he tells themdon't intermingle with them
anymore, because it didn't allowyou to move forward and do what
I called you to do, don't everhave any access, don't let them
have access to God's peopleagain, because they influence
(02:38):
God's people.
And so we read this here, andit's really once again, I think,
as it always is.
When there was public reading ofthe Scriptures, it made God's
people sit up and take notice.
They had forgotten some thingsand maybe there were some things
they heard they didn't evenknow.
Just like it is for us, andvery often our lives are
(03:01):
sometimes in.
We go through heart troublesand pain because we don't know
God's word or we don't rememberit, and so this is a good
reminder of that.
So at this command and it comesfrom Deuteronomy 23, it was
reread to the people and it saysin verse 2, as soon as the
people heard the law, theyseparated circle, that they
(03:24):
separated from Israel all thoseof foreign descent.
Now the concern here is notabout race.
Don't take that in thatdirection.
Really, here, the reason forthe law of what I call the law
of separation here is from theseforeigners is that they would
have corrupted Israel from beingthe people of God as God
(03:44):
intended them to be.
So it's not about race, it'sabout negative influence.
It's about negative influence,those enemies of Israel who they
came out to be would have ifthey could have allowed them to
access the people of God andchanged the very culture and
holiness of Israel and thepeople of God.
So this is what God isconcerned about.
(04:05):
This law of separation, I think,for us today, is a spiritual
principle that it carries overto our day, that we are to be
holy people, to be reminded ofthat and to consider what are
the things that we allowinfluence to come into our life
that might affect how we livefor God.
So we don't want to be like theculture around us, and God
(04:26):
didn't want them to be like theculture and nations around them
either.
So that's how we got to beginwith this.
Keep this principle in mind andlet's just pray and ask God to
help us today.
Thank you, thank you.
So, father, we're thankfultoday for your word, lord.
It calls us to be greater andhigher and go farther for you.
But, lord, we also feel our ownweakness and, lord, we struggle
(04:48):
, lord, because we forget.
And, lord, there are things wedon't know, and so we pray that
your word would open up our mindand hearts and give us
understanding, the Holy Spirit,that you'd speak and apply these
truths to our lives today.
We pray in Jesus name.
Truths to our lives today.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Now let's continue on Verse 4.
(05:08):
And I just think of this.
This word came to me.
This is a song that goes.
Prone to wander, lord, I feelit Prone to leave the God I love
.
This is all of us, and it wasthese people too.
Listen to what the word says.
Now, before this, elisha, thepriest who was appointed over
the chambers of the house of ourGod and who was related to
Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah alarge chamber where they had
(05:31):
previously put the grainoffering, the frankincense, the
vessels and the tithes of grain,wine and oil which were given
by commandment to the Levites,singers and gatekeepers, and the
contributions for the priests.
Verse 5, while this was takingplace, I was not in Jerusalem,
for in the 32nd year ofArtaxerxes, king of Babylon, I
(05:55):
went to the king and after sometime, I asked leave of the king
and came to Jerusalem.
Now what's happening here?
Let's stop right there a minute.
And came to Jerusalem.
Now what's happening here?
Let's stop right there a minute.
Nehemiah has been governor forover 12 years and after that
period of time he leaves and hegoes back to Babylon, where he
originally came from, and forsome reason we don't really know
why he may have gotten a reportthat things are not so great
(06:17):
again back in Jerusalem becausethey had some spiritual decline
that was going on.
Maybe he got a bad report, likehe did, and he was concerned
about it.
So he comes back again, thistime in a second term, as
governor.
And let's pick it back up inverse 7.
He says and I was very angryand I threw out all the
(06:47):
household furniture of Tobiahout of the chamber.
Then I gave orders and theycleaned the cleansed the
chambers and I brought backthere the vessels of the house
of God with the grain offeringand the frankincense.
I also found out that theportions of the Levites had not
been given to them, so that theLevites and the singers who did
(07:09):
the work had fled each to hisfield.
So I confronted the officialsand said why is the house of God
forsaken?
And I gathered them togetherand set them in their stations.
Then all Judah brought thetithe of the grain, wine and oil
into the storehouses and Iappointed as treasurers over the
(07:29):
storehouses Shalemiah, thepriest, zadok, the scribe, and
Badiah of the Levites and astheir assistant, hanan, the son
of Zechur, son of Madaniah, forthey were considered reliable.
Son of Madaniah, for they wereconsidered reliable and their
(07:49):
duty was to distribute to theirbrothers.
So what verse is that?
Sorry, 13.
I'm having trouble reading here, so let's go on.
So verse 14, remember me, o myGod, concerning this, and do not
wipe out my good deeds that Ihave done for the house of my
God and for this service.
In those days I saw in Judahpeople treading wine presses on
(08:12):
the Sabbath and bringing inheaps of grain and loading them
on donkeys, and also wine,grapes, figs and all kinds of
loads which they brought withinto Jerusalem on the Sabbath
day.
And I warned them on the daywhen they sold food.
Tyrians also who lived in thecity brought in fish and all
(08:33):
kinds of goods and sold them onthe Sabbath to the people of
Judah in Jerusalem itself.
Then I confronted the nobles ofJudah and said to them what is
this evil thing you're doing,profaning the Sabbath day?
Did not your fathers act inthis way and did not our God
bring all this disaster on usand on the city?
Now you are bringing more wrathon Israel by profaning the
(08:57):
Sabbath as soon as it began togrow dark at the gates of
Jerusalem before the Sabbath, Icommanded that the doors should
be shut and gave orders thatthey should not be opened until
after the Sabbath, and Istationed some of my servants at
the gates that no load might bebrought in on the Sabbath day.
Then the merchants and sellersof all kinds of wares lodged
(09:20):
outside Jerusalem once or twice,but I warned them and said to
them why do you lodge outsidethe wall?
If you do so again, I will layhands on you.
From that time on they did notcome on the Sabbath.
Then I commanded the Levitesthat they should purify
themselves and come and guardthe gates to keep the Sabbath
(09:41):
day holy.
Remember this also in my favor,o my God, and spare me,
according to the greatness ofyour steadfast love.
In those days also, I saw theJews who had married women of
Ashdod, ammon and Moab, and halfof their children spoke the
language of Ashdod and theycould not speak the language of
(10:02):
Judah, but only the language ofeach people.
And I confronted them andcursed them and beat some of
them and pulled out their hair,and I made them take an oath in
the name of God, saying youshall not give your daughters to
their sons or take theirdaughters for your sons or for
yourselves.
Didn't Solomon, king of Israel,sin on account of such women?
(10:25):
Among the many nations, therewas no king like him, and he was
beloved by his God, and Godmade him king over all Israel.
Nevertheless, foreign womenmade him, even him, to sin.
Shall we then listen to you anddo all this great evil and act
treacherously against our God bymarrying foreign women?
(10:47):
And one of the sons of Jehoiada,the son of Eliashib, the high
priest, was the son-in-law ofSanballat the Horonite.
Therefore, I chased him from meRemember them, o my God because
they have desecrated thepriesthood and the covenant of
the priesthood and the Levites.
Thus, I cleansed them fromeverything foreign and I
(11:08):
established the duties of thepriest and Levites, each in his
work, and I provided for thewood offering at appointed times
and for the firstfruits.
Remember me, o my God for good.
There's a lot there isn't there.
So what's happened?
So 12 years have passed fromthe end of chapter 12 to verse 6
(11:31):
of chapter 13.
And Nehemiah, as I said, whileNehemiah is gone back to Babylon
, things begin to fall apart.
Incredible spiritual decline.
They had gone back to every oneof the things they'd promised
to do in chapter 10, justflip-flopped just a just a
little while and think aboutwhat happened to this city, just
(11:52):
just thinking back what we'veread.
There's been a revival rightrevival at the water gate.
There's been brokenness andconfession and repentance of sin
.
Only God could do that.
They've had a dynamic encounterwith God, a personal encounter
with God that's taken place,which included incredible
over-the-top worship andsix-hour-long times where they
(12:14):
hear the Word of God and it'sexplained to them.
Six-hour-long days of that.
And they've even entered into apersonal covenant, a covenant
where they would say I promiseto do all these things, to
reform my life, to change mymarriage, to do whatever it
takes to do what God wants me todo.
(12:34):
And now Nehemiah returns torecover what's been lost from
all of those promises.
William Booth, the founder, thegodly founder of the Salvation
Army, once wrote these words.
He said the tendency of fire isto go out.
Watch the fire on the altar ofyour heart.
(12:56):
Anyone who has tended a fireknows that it needs to be
stirred up occasionally.
And this is really whatNehemiah comes back to do.
We have a phrase for it.
Sometimes you heard the phrasewell, they cleaned house.
Nehemiah comes back and hecleans house.
He's not messing around now.
(13:18):
And when Nehemiah comes back toJerusalem, what does he find?
We're going to look at thisFour significant failures that
he found that he immediately and, I think, really aggressively
goes after.
He confronts them in order tobring God's people back to
healthy, spiritual life, andthese are things that we can
learn from too.
So the first thing I want youto see is that the first thing
that he finds is that God'shouse has been compromised.
(13:41):
God's house has beencompromised he says this in
verse four through nine becauseElisha, the priest the high
priest, by the way had beenappointed over the chambers of
the house of our God, he says,and he was related to Tobiah.
And what does he do?
Believe or not?
This is the same Elisha thatthe high priest who'd been
(14:03):
involved in the leading in therevival, but now, because of his
compromised relationship withthis man named Tobiah, eliashib
has done something reallyfoolish.
He's taken all of the items outof the temples and storerooms
meant to be used for worship.
He's taken them out, set themoutside and he's brought in a
(14:25):
person who ends up being arelative, and he's made Tobiah
an apartment the size of a smallwarehouse.
He moves the partitions thatare the part of the storerooms
and he makes him this bigapartment.
He said okay, move in, I'llhelp you.
We've got everything out ofhere.
Do you remember who Tobiah was,don't you?
(14:45):
He was an Ammonite.
The very people we just readabout in verses one through
three to separate themselvesfrom he had been involved from
the very beginning.
All this whole book, tobiah hasbeen involved as the enemy of
God's people From the very timethey got there.
He had been an enemy even ontheir building of the wall and
(15:08):
so on.
Through the whole chapter,tobiah is the enemy and Eliashib
, the priest, has provided him aspace to take up residence in
the temple.
Now there's a certain arrogancein this right.
Nehemiah is gone and Tobiah ismoved in.
You think, why in the worldwould Eliashib do this?
And, as I said, it says here.
(15:29):
The text says Eliashib wasrelated to Tobiah and it found
out he was Eliashib's grandson.
There's a lot of things I woulddo for my kids or my grandkids,
but there's only certain thingswhere you have to say that you
draw the line.
And Eliashib was willing tobreak the law of God to bring
(15:53):
something good to his owngrandson and notice Nehemiah's
reaction once he finds it out.
Was he angry?
No, he was very angry.
It says in verse 8.
I was very angry.
It says in verse 8.
I was very angry.
And you know what?
Unfortunately, we rarely act ontoo much to confront anybody
until we get very angry.
(16:14):
When we say things that arewrong, that bother us, it has to
reach a certain degree, it hasto reach a certain temperature
for us to actually do somethingabout it.
And Nehemiah was right here.
This is not personal anger.
Nehemiah is not concerned abouthis personal things.
He's not concerned that theyhaven't done what he said
(16:34):
personally about his directives.
What is he concerned with?
Why is he angry?
He's concerned for the holinessof God.
And so what does he do?
I threw all the householdfurniture of Tobiah out of the
chamber.
He doesn't give Tobiah aneviction notice.
He goes in, he takes hold ofTobiah's couch, his kitchen
(16:58):
table, his bed, his dresser fullof socks and underwear and
whatever else is in there, andhe throws them out the door onto
the pavement.
Picture this he's intent onbringing back the holiness of
God.
I heard a story several yearsago about a guy who had.
(17:19):
It's kind of interesting.
He had been living up north andhe had had an existing house
down in Florida and I won't gointo the whole thing, but he
kind of interesting.
He had been living up north andhe had had an existing house
down in Florida, and I won't gointo the whole thing, but he
found out that they weresquatters in his house in
Florida.
Someone had tipped him off andhe went down there and he found
out that they were there.
Sure enough, he saw them goingin and out and he looked in the
(17:41):
window and there was a housefull of furniture and all the
belongings.
Well, he had his key.
They hadn't changed the lock,so he had the key with him.
He opened the door and he saidanybody here?
Nobody's there.
He walked into his own house andhe couldn't believe it.
So he closed the door quietly.
He went back, he tried to gethelp from the authorities.
They wouldn't help him.
He said what did I do?
(18:03):
And so what he did?
He said he went and got adifferent lock.
He walked in, he got a friendto help and they took all of the
furniture from the squattersand set it out on the driveway,
changed the lock.
And when the people came back,he said this is my house.
And he said your stuff isobviously sitting on the
driveway.
(18:23):
It's going to be gone, unlessyou want to come and pick it up.
And I thought, well, this iskind of the attitude.
He was upset and Tobiah wasupset, but not for himself, but
for the glory of God.
What do we do when we seesomething wrong?
Do we just let it go or do weget angry?
What makes you angry?
What makes you angry?
What makes you angry?
(18:43):
What makes you angry?
Do you get angry because God'sname is defiled, or maybe his
character is maligned, or yousee something where his
standards are being mocked inyour workplace or anything else?
Do you ever get angry for that?
You see a lot of people.
What right, nehemiah, do youhave to do?
(19:08):
What you're doing, you see,what you get angry over tells
you a lot about where yourspiritual life is.
Nehemiah wasn't about to let thethings stay the way they were,
and so he says in verse 9, thenI gave orders and they cleansed
the chambers and I brought backthere the vessels of the house
(19:29):
of God and the grain offeringsand the frankincense.
Nehemiah cleanses the templeand he puts everything back in
place that should have beenthere and not taken out in the
first place.
These are the things that helpfor the worship of God.
Now, you can make an analogyfor that in our own temple.
We're going to talk about in alittle bit about that.
But notice, the first thingNehemiah finds out is God's
(19:51):
house has been compromised, andI just have to say we don't have
to look too far in our cultureto see the church in the same
place, churches who havecompromised, whether it's
through the delivery of the wordor the standards that the word
has laid out for us and havejust been tossed out, or the
standards that the word has laidout for us and have just been
(20:12):
tossed out.
Well, let's notice the secondthing.
The second thing he discoversis that support for God's work
has been neglected.
Support for God's work has beenneglected, he said I also found
out verse 10, that the portionsof the Levites had not been
given to them, so that theLevites and the singers who did
the work had fled each to hisfield.
You say, well, why did they dothat?
Because they weren't beingsupported.
(20:34):
They had to go back and sort ofeke out a living themselves.
I think simply what this issaying.
Because the resources hadn'tbeen allocated, these Levites
had left their posts, so tospeak, and headed back home just
simply to survive.
And Nehemiah it's interesting,he doesn't fault the Levites.
(20:59):
Who does he fault the peoplewho are managing or
administrating the temple.
And what is happening?
What is happening?
They began to just sort of getapathetic.
They let the care of God'shouse we have a term for it go
to pot.
Heard that term go to pot.
He just kind of let it go.
It doesn't really matter thatmuch, I just show up.
And it's just the opposite ofwhat they promised they'd do in
(21:23):
chapter 10, verse 39.
We, he says there, we, or theydid, we will not neglect the
house of God.
So then, why is the ministryfailing?
Nehemiah asked why is thisfalling apart?
And I think there's someapplication for the church today
, we're going to see that aswell.
And what does he do?
So I confronted the officialsand said why is the house of God
(21:46):
forsaken?
And I gather them together.
He put them back, he set themin their stations, then all
Judah brought the tithe, thegrain, wine and oil into the
storehouse.
In addition, guess what elseNehemiah does?
He removes Eliashib, the highpriest, who's been over this
whole thing, and he replaces himwith three reliable men.
Hopefully so this wouldn'thappen ever again.
(22:10):
Men, hopefully so this wouldn'thappen ever again.
British expositor G CampbellMorgan said something worth
noting.
He said whereas the house ofGod today is no longer material
but spiritual, the material isstill a very real symbol of the
spiritual, very real symbol ofthe spiritual.
When the church of God, in anyplace, in any locality, is
(22:34):
careless about the materialplace of assembly, the place of
its worship and its work, it isa sign and evidence that its
life is at a low ebb.
So what does that say?
I mean when you walk in here onSunday, you maybe go through
(22:55):
the parking lot.
Sometimes you see paper layingout there on the driveway.
Do you pick it up?
Or maybe you notice something,maybe there's a water problem in
one of the bathrooms and you goin there and it just doesn't
work.
Do you just go ah, somebodywill fix it.
Or do you say how can I help?
This is our place, this iswhere we meet God, and it has an
(23:18):
associate.
Just like G Campbell Morgansays, it has a spiritual
revelation to it about how wetake care of what God's given us
and maybe, as we've beenpraying and thinking, maybe
God's going to give us somethingbigger.
You know, what the Bible saysis if a person is faithful in
the little things, he'll give usbigger things, greater things,
(23:39):
but if we're not, the converseis well true.
So how well do we care for whatGod has given us?
So he sees this overall neglectNehemiah does to give, to care
for and to support the work ofGod's house.
Well, there's a third one here.
The third thing Nehemiah noticesis a blatant disregard of the
(24:01):
Sabbath, and this is aninteresting one.
It's in verses 15 through 22.
He says in those days I saw inJudah people treading wine
presses on the Sabbath, bringingheaps of grain and loading them
on donkeys and also wine, andso on and so on.
And what does he do?
(24:24):
He warns them.
He says, by the way, this isanother promise they made in
chapter 10.
They'd failed to keep Promises,promises.
You know, I think the way theysaw it, sabbath was just a
legalistic burden that they werecalled to do with no purpose,
and Sabbath had become reallyfor them a perfect day to do
business.
Perfect day to do business.
(24:46):
And what had happened?
They turned the sacred placeinto a marketplace.
And what had happened?
They turned the sacred placeinto a marketplace and they were
even allowing other people, whoweren't even part of the
Israelites, to come in and buyand sell.
Now let's look at this a littlebit more in detail.
Notice Nehemiah's response.
He does four things here inresponse to this violation.
First of all, he warns them tostop selling on the Sabbath.
(25:09):
You used to watch this showcalled Andy Griffin and the
character Barney would have thisfamous word nip it, nip it in
the bud.
This is what Nehemiah did.
Stop it.
Right now he warns them aboutthis.
Second, he tells the Levitesthat once it gets dark, as soon
as Sabbath day begins which iswhat the Jewish Sabbath day did
(25:32):
it began in the evening time.
He tells them shut the gates.
Shut the gates.
Shut the gates.
Why?
So no one can get in and out ofthe city to buy and sell when
they shouldn't be buying andselling.
No business whatsoever.
Shut the gates.
As a result of the gates beingshut, guess what happens?
People start piling up at thedoor.
(25:53):
What are they trying to do?
They're getting there early sothey can get in before anybody
else and carry on their commerce, but they can't get in.
So, nehemiah, I guess he seesthe city gates and he sees all
these people piling up downthere with all their wares and
stuff and he goes down and hethreatens them with bodily harm.
(26:13):
Why are you here?
He says, if you come here again, I'm going to lay hands on you.
Well, and number four what doeshe do as a final measure to
enforce the Sabbath?
He tells the Levites somethingelse.
He says purify yourselves.
This is a holy work.
(26:34):
Go down there, purify yourselfand guard the gates.
Don't let anyone in.
And so I don't know what theirconversation was, these buyers
and sellers, but you can imagine, you know what Nehemiah's done.
He sent the Bruce God squaddown there to keep us from from
doing our work.
They didn't come anymore,though, did they Stopped?
(26:58):
My guess is that at this point,nehemiah is he's probably losing
friends really fast.
And here it's really true,because when you mess with
people's money, it's on right.
People get serious.
What do you think about that?
But again, nehemiah is notdoing this for his own personal
(27:21):
benefit.
He's doing this.
It's not legalistic.
I want you to hear this.
This is not legalistic stuff.
He is concerned for the honorof God.
The Bible says something that istrue, it's not good to have
zeal without knowledge.
But honestly, you get the sensethat Nehemiah is really.
(27:41):
He's fully aware of what he'sdoing, he's ready for the
pushback Bring it, bring it.
In fact, he says to God aboutthis.
He says remember me.
Three times in this passage.
Well, four One is directedtoward the people that were
doing the abuses.
But for personal, remember me,o God, for what I've done.
(28:03):
I don't think he enjoyed thisat all.
And before we look down onNehemiah or judge him, I'm
thinking of another radicalreformer who one day braided a
whip and went into the temple,flipped over the money changers'
(28:24):
tables and he said, whilewhipping them out my house shall
be called a house of prayer,but you've made it a den of
thieves.
There is a time to stand up andbe counted.
There's a time when we can'tremain silent and watch things
go as they are.
(28:45):
I'm not advocating for violence, I'm just saying sometimes we
need to stand up and be counted.
And here's the thing too, thisidea of Sabbath, this idea of
Sabbath shouldn't be lost on us.
As believers, we think well,that's Old Testament, it's the
fourth commandment.
It shouldn't be lost on us,because Jesus himself didn't
(29:09):
delete it, did he?
Instead, he explained it.
He said this he said theSabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath.
In other words, this is notabout keeping legalistic rules.
I don't think the Jews didn'treally understand that.
They thought it was a burden.
Jesus said this was made foryou.
Think of this as a gift to you.
(29:31):
It's a time for you to stop andrest and consider how God is
providing for you, so you don'thave to feel like you have to
work seven days a week.
God's your provider.
Remember that.
Take care of yourself.
Even God had this work six daysand rest one, and it's a
(29:52):
reminder that our work is notour God and the purpose, see, is
just to stop.
Stop for a while, consider allthese things.
Why God did this and it's alsoin the New Testament speaks
about stopping your work, fromattempting to work out and gain
your own salvation.
(30:13):
But here it just makes me thinkdo you have a stop and do
nothing day, or are you sotightly wound that you've got to
do?
I have to talk to myself aboutthis Just to stop for a day and
really rest.
It's a gift for us.
(30:34):
God had a stop and day, stopand do nothing day, at creation,
didn't he and it was an examplefor us Say is God serious about
this?
Well, you tell me.
So we should work hard to rest.
Well, there's a fourth thing.
The fourth thing Nehemiah sawwas the defilement of marriage.
(30:58):
He says in 23 and 331, in thosedays also, I saw the Jews who
had married women of Ashdod,ammon and Moab.
Half of them spoke the languageof Ashdod and they couldn't
speak the language of Judah, butonly the language of Ashdod,
and they couldn't speak thelanguage of Judah, but only the
language of each people.
Can I just share some thingsthat's becoming common in our
(31:19):
day?
First one a generation wherewe're seeing believers marry
unbelievers.
This is becoming commonplace,folks without a thought that it
even matters, and it's amazingto me.
Here's what 2 Corinthians, justso you know.
(31:42):
Just so you know, 2 CorinthiansPaul, says in chapter 6, do not
be unequally yoked withunbelievers.
You can't get any more simplethan that.
How can righteousness be apartner with wickedness?
How can light live withdarkness?
What harmony can there bebetween Christ and the devil?
How can a believer be a partnerwith an unbeliever?
(32:04):
And what union can there bebetween God's temple and idols?
For we are the temple of theliving God.
Is there separation there?
And let me just say, youngpeople, if you're sitting here,
you need to make sure of twothings when it comes to who you
marry.
Number one make sure that youyourself are a follower of Jesus
(32:26):
.
And number two make sure theperson that you're dating or
considering dating or dating orgetting married, to make sure
they person that you're datingor considering dating or getting
married, to make sure they're afollower of Jesus too.
You say, well, I can changethem, don't bet on it.
Don't bet it could happen.
(32:46):
But I would just caution andcounsel Don't marry someone who
doesn't know the Lord.
It will be trouble.
Here's something else I'venoticed that's become a
commonplace in our culture, ageneration where we are hearing
God-honoring speech mixed withprofanity.
It's become the norm to throwin the profanity when talking
(33:11):
with friends and you'll hearthis well, that's just the way
my friends talk.
Then you need to find some newfriends.
Here's what God says let nocorrupting talk come out of your
mouths, but only such as isgood for building up as fits the
(33:31):
occasion, that it may givegrace to those who hear.
This is a flip-flop in whatwe're hearing today in some
respects.
And so these two things arejust a couple examples.
There's many more.
There's many things, subtly,that we don't even recognize,
where we are beginning to look alot like our culture, recognize
(33:53):
where we are beginning to looka lot like our culture.
And so Nehemiah is seeing theseeffects, these effects of these
mixed marriages, and what doesit do?
It affects their words, theirthoughts, their behavior.
It affects the family forgenerations, and so do you see
how quickly these thingsdeclined.
This is a generational failure.
That's what Nehemiah is soadamantly addressing this.
(34:13):
For I think it was John Wesleywho said what one generation
tolerates, the next generationwill embrace.
You know, someone has compared,because it is so subtle.
Someone's compared a spiritualdecline to a slow leak in a tire
.
You don't immediately recognizeit until you're at the side of
(34:38):
the road, unable to move forward.
This is the way our spirituallife can get.
We let that go on.
We don't even sense it.
Our spiritual life is leakingfrom us and we don't even sense
it.
Our spiritual life is leakingfrom us and we don't even know
it.
What did Nehemiah do?
Again, he says I confrontedthem and cursed them and beat
(35:02):
some of them and pulled outtheir hair.
Don't think Nehemiah isreverting himself to swearing.
This is he's bringing down ajudgment upon them and saying
this is the effects of yourdecisions.
He's telling them and I madethem take an oath in the name of
God saying you shall not giveyour daughters to their sons or
take their daughters for yoursons or relatives or for
(35:22):
yourselves.
And in fact one of the guys ishis son-in-law.
This is what we see here fromthe high priest's son-in-law,
sanballat the Horonite.
He was another enemy thatdogged Israel.
This whole book, wow, you saywell, nehemiah, that's extreme.
I mean, that's over the topwhat you're doing.
(35:46):
But here's the thing I thinkNehemiah was just so deeply
aware of the path that Israelwas walking down that he was
willing to do anything to getthem to return and come back to
God, to pay attention and turnaround and come back to God.
See, a single generation'scompromise could undo the work
of God for centuries.
(36:07):
And you kind of wonder what'shappening in our culture is what
is happening in our churches?
Is it going to undo the work ofGod for centuries?
And you kind of wonder what'shappening in our culture is what
is happening in our churches?
Is it going to undo the work ofGod for centuries?
How hard is it going to be tocome back?
As the old saying goes,desperate times call for
desperate measures and we needGod's wisdom on how to respond
(36:30):
and to add measure to it todrive this home.
He gives the example of KingSolomon, which we didn't
necessarily read all the waythrough.
Solomon was wise, he says, buthe was actually loved by God.
But at the same time, solomonwas spiritually dumb.
Can you be wise and dumb?
Well, yeah, if you make thewrong decisions, knowing what
the right decision is, if youmake the wrong decisions,
(36:50):
knowing what the right decisionis and you choose the wrong
thing, it says.
Nehemiah says he came to ruinbecause of this very thing
Mixing.
Mixing it ruined him, it ruinedhim.
So we see Nehemiah desperatelyconfronts these four spiritual
(37:12):
failures.
Let's review them one more time.
Number one compromising God'shouse.
Let me ask you a question Isthere anything anywhere you've
given a place for the enemy tobe at home in your temple?
Just a thought.
Number two neglect of theministry.
Are you apathetic in supportingand caring for the ministry of
(37:32):
the church?
Number three disregard of theSabbath and again, without being
legalistic, are you living inGod's created rhythm of rest and
work and trust in that?
He knows how he's made you.
He wants to give you some timeoff.
What happens in this is thatyou lose your margin.
(37:53):
You know what the margin is theedges of the paper, the white
space.
You lose the margin spirituallyand the enemy takes advantage
of that.
Don't get any sleep, don't getany rest, have no time for
spiritual things or the life ofGod in your life, no time for
Bible reading, because you'retoo busy.
I'm too busy.
(38:13):
Number four defilement ofmarriage.
Are you careful about who youdate or who you might marry?
Are you truly following Jesus?
You know it's really hard toget out of a relationship like
that.
If you're in one and it becomesphysical, that takes an extra
(38:34):
measure of effort.
And I just want to say oneother thing.
Extra measure of effort.
And I just want to say oneother thing If you're married to
an unbeliever now and maybe youmade a mistake, or maybe you
didn't know, maybe you weren't aChristian when you made that
decision before you knew Christ,guess what there's grace for
you.
Listen to what Paul says in awhole section on marriage.
(38:57):
In chapter 7 of 1 Corinthianshe says this If any brother has
a wife who is an unbeliever andshe consents to live with him,
he should not divorce her.
If any woman has a husband whois an unbeliever and he consents
to live with her, she shouldnot divorce him.
And then here's this.
This is the grace, for theunbelieving husband is made holy
because of his wife, and theunbelieving husband is made holy
(39:18):
because of his wife, and theunbelieving wife is made holy
because of her husband.
God's with you even in this,when it's hard.
Well, let's look and see howNehemiah ends this whole thing,
how he ends the book.
Strange ending, vital lesson.
(39:39):
What does he say?
Verse 30,.
Thus I cleansed them fromeverything foreign, nehemiah
speaking, and I established theduties of the priests and
Levites, each in his work, and Iprovided for the wood offering
at appointed times and for thefirst fruits.
Remember me, o, my God for good.
(40:00):
Nehemiah simply says I cleanedit all up.
I put it back in place Again.
Same old story over and overWash, rinse, repeat.
This is the history of Israeland it's the history of every
Christian's life, yours and mine.
I think about that Honestly.
(40:24):
If it had been me, maybe, if Ihad written this book.
Maybe Nehemiah thought well, hecould have just left this
chapter totally off and endedwith chapter 12.
Joy, but he doesn't.
And there's a reason for this.
There's more here than mightfirst appear.
This, there's more here thanmight first appear.
I want you to listen to acouple of quotes and I believe
they really bring home the vitallessons of this book and what's
(40:47):
going on here.
Essentially, the lesson is thisit's Psalm 27.1,.
Unless the Lord builds thehouse, what those who labor,
those who build it, labor invain.
Unless the Lord builds a house,what those who labor, those who
build it, labor in vain.
Unless the Lord builds a house,those who labor build it in
vain.
They labor in vain.
(41:08):
Here's the quote.
The final note in Ezra andNehemiah is thus one of
ambiguity.
We may wonder how the peoplewho had so exuberantly
celebrated the completion of thedefenses against the enemy came
so readily to accept theenemy's presence within the
temple and the high priestfamily.
(41:28):
How, indeed, could those whohad committed themselves so
solemnly to religious puritychapter 10, so rapidly return to
practices which wereessentially irreligious, if we
sense a certain desperationabout Nehemiah's last efforts to
put the house of Israel inorder, a tiredness about the
(41:48):
need, yet again, to bring backthe wandering sheep to the right
path, a feeling that there isno reason to think that this
reform will be more successfulthan any other, a sense that,
after all, he himself has donehis best.
Then we may be catching theright meaning here.
The book of Nehemiah seems topeter out in what might be
(42:11):
considered a somewhatunsatisfactory manner, not so
much with a bang as with awhimper.
All the abuses referred to inthis final chapter have been the
subject of earlier treatment,but they rear their heads again
here, despite the best effortsof the reformers to eradicate
them.
(42:31):
It is as though the book ispointing to its own failure,
reminding us that, howeverimportant good structures and
routines may be, nothing cansubstitute for the renewal of
the naturally perverseinclinations of the human heart.
So you can build the structureson the outside, but if the
(42:51):
heart is not right, it'shopeless.
So here, what is Nehemiah'sbook?
It exposes our own flakiness,doesn't it?
As Christians, even on our bestday, we fail.
We all fail in so many ways tolive up to the promise that we
(43:12):
made to God.
So where do we find a covenantkeeper that keeps his promises.
His name is Jesus.
So just to end, today, I justask for those who claim to be
his followers is your spiritualcondition in decline this
(43:33):
morning?
Are you going backwards in yourwalk with Christ?
I mean, you and me, we're notperfect.
We're just forgiven, right.
So here's the recommendationJust recommit your life to Jesus
.
What does it take to restorewhat's been lost?
(43:53):
So that's the way I used to be,but I'm not like that anymore.
Wish I was.
I remember when I was on firefor God and things were
different.
That's not me anymore.
We have to give thought to ourways and separate ourselves
again from anything thatcompromises us.
What is it that's compromisingyou today?
(44:17):
Here's what 2 Timothy says,because it gives us hope.
2 Timothy 19-20 tells us how todo this.
Listen, god knows who belongsto Him.
Steer clear of evil and all youwho name God as God.
And then he uses this greatanalogy In a well-furnished
(44:39):
kitchen, there are not onlycrystal goblets and silver
platters, but waste cans andcompost buckets.
Some containers used to servefine meals, others to take out
the garbage.
Become the kind of containerGod can use to present any and
every kind of gift to his guestsfor their blessing.
(45:03):
You want to be useful, separate,be holy and obey God.
And for those of you here today, this is a lot.
I don't even know any aboutthat, but I am tired of living
the life I'm living.
Who is this Jesus?
I would just say put your faithand trust in him, because you
may not know him, but once youbegin to follow him, he will
(45:25):
change everything.
He'll make your life new.
Give your heart to Jesus, he'llmake everything new.
So can we just stand today andlet's just pray for God to do a
work in us, all of us?
If you don't know the Lord thismorning, there are going to be
people down here who will bewilling to pray for you and
(45:47):
those who just say I want tostart afresh.
And let's just pray for that.
God, we ask for you to havemercy on us, lord.
We make lots of promises.
We don't keep for you, but youare the promise keeper, you're
faithful to the end.
And, lord, I just pray for allof us today that you would call
us back to yourself.
(46:07):
Lord, restore what's been takenout of the place of our temple,
that we would be holy peoplefor you, separate, set apart,
not in a legalistic way, lord,but as a way to honor you, that
you can use us for your glory.
And I pray for everyone whotoday doesn't know you in a
personal way, that they wouldgive their heart to you,
(46:29):
confessing their sins, receivingthe forgiveness that only comes
through Jesus, because of hisdeath on the cross.
And we just ask you to savethese folks today.
Call them to yourself in Jesus'name, amen.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.