Step 2—Rebuilding Through Seeking God
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Introduction:
Introduction:
vv.1-4) Seeking God through genuine confession
vv.1-4) Seeking God through genuine confession
The first step in revival is to seek God through genuine confession and repentance. And this is exactly what the Jewish community under Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s leadership did.
Just two days after the celebration of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles, the people gathered together again. This feast lasted for seven days, and prior to that the people had met for two days in special study of God’s Word. So even before this assembly began, the people had already been meeting for a total of nine days to study God’s Word and worship Him.
Now they are once again fathered to study God’s Word and to seek the Lord to revive their community. Deciding to deliberately fast all day, wearing sackcloth and coving their heads with dust, which is an outward symbol of their hearts’ being humbled before the Lord.
They also made a deliberate decision to separate themselves from all foreigners, disallowing any foreigner to attend this particular worship service. Now this might seem offensive at first, but by excluding the foreigners in this instance was understandable since their purpose was to confess the sins of their nation down through the centuries.
Seeking to reestablish the covenant agreement between themselves and God. They wanted God to forgive their sins and to establish them yet again, as the nation of Israel within the promise land. They longed for God to fulfill all His promises to them and through them, the promises that had been given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and King David.
These promises were basically threefold:
They would receive the wonderful inheritance of the promise land.
Through them would come the promised seed, a king, who was to sit upon the throne of David eternally.
They would become a great nation of people who would be a blessing to the world.
For these reasons this worship service was for the returned Jews to get right with the Lord. And they needed to to meet privately with the Lord, without any foreigners present.
For this worship service it included, again, confession of their sins and the reading of God’s Word. Now keep in mind here that when Scripture refers to a period of time here in verse 3 “for one-fourth of the day” is referring to daylight hours. So they were reading God’s Word for 3 hours.
Confessing their sins and worshipping the Lord took another 3 hours. So basically they had a worship service that lasted a total of 6 hours. Leading the worship service were the Levites, who stood on the stairs of the platform that had been prepared. And they were divided into two group who lifted up their voices in prayer and praise.
Application:
When God’s children are seeking revival, two things are absolutely essential:
Genuine confession
Genuine repentance of sin.
Repentance means that we turn away from sin. 180 degree turn. God cannot accept sin. This is because God is holy, righteous, and perfect in His whole being, and sin is unacceptable to Him. This is why before we can ever approach God, our sin needs to be removed.
And there is only one way to remove the our sin… and that is through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. So the only way to approach God is to come to God through Jesus Christ.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Gospel:
You are accountable to God because He is the creator of all things.
Bad news, we all have sinned against this holy and righteous God. Because we have sinned we are separated from God and will spend an eternity in hell then the lake of fire because of our rebellion.
Good new: Our sin didn’t surprise God, there was never a plan B, the plan from the very beginning was to send His perfect Son, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus would live a perfect life, being fully God and fully man. Being free from sin He would go to the cross for our sake. Become our propitiation shield. Taking the full wrath of God upon Himself.
Responding to the Gospel is the most important decision we could ever make. The Bible makes it perfectly clear:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
I want to give anyone who has never made that commitment to Jesus Christ an opportunity to give your life to the Lord.
[[alter call]]
If you accept God’s free gift of salvation then you are truly apart of God’s family, having been adopted into His family. One of the benefits we receive is that we get to spend all eternity with Jesus Christ our Savior.
Now that we have been given salvation, Christ has given us a task to accomplish here and now before we get to heaven. And that is to share the hope that we now have in Christ with others.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
Family, we must turn away from sin and turn to God, following Him and living for Him and not for ourselves. Confession is simply keeping an short list with God, it is recognizing our failures and shortcomings and that our sin is grievous.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
What we truly desire all to understand this morning is that this is the first step in walking righteously with God. If you are backslidden, living for yourself, and not at all in the way that God wants you to live and you are tired of trying to keep yourself afloat… repent and turn back to God.
[[altar call]]
vv. 5-31) Seeking God through praise and thanksgiving
vv. 5-31) Seeking God through praise and thanksgiving
Now the second step for revival is to seek God through praise and thanksgiving. The song of praise in this passage is one of the most eloquent praise of God in all of Scripture. It is comparable to other great songs:
“Moses’ Song of Praise for God’s Great Deliverance” Exodus 15:1-21
“The Song of Moses that Stood as a Strong Warning and Witness to God’s People” Deuteronomy 32:1-52
“Deborah’s Great Song of Victory” Judges 5:1-31
“The Song of Hannah” 1 Samuel 2:1-11
“David’s Song of Grief” 2 Samuel 1:17-27
A funeral song composed for King Saul and his on Jonathan.
The Levites led the Jews in this prayerful song of praise and thanksgiving. The Lord was being praised for having led the nation of Israel down through the generations up through the present time. The praise to God begin with acknowledgement that the Lord God Himself exists eternally, prior to creation, stretching on down through the ages to the prophets who were presently ministering among the people.
[side note on worship]
We are going to break down this larger section into 11 parts.
[5-6a] The people praised God for His being, His supremacy. God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, and His name is worthy of praise. It would do us good to come to the realization that God is so exalted and His name is so glorious that all human praise is inadequate. The glory of His name far exceeds any and all praise that could ever be offered up to Him… That is still no excuses to say “why try then.” I bring this up to make this point:
1 I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
If God hold His Word to such an incredible standard so should we.
5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,
5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
[6] The people praise God for creation. He alone made the universe, heaven and earth and all that is therein. The stars of the sky and the earth with all its vegetation, the seas, and animal life were made by Him. Furthermore, the Lord along preserves life. As the great Creator of the universe, no person or being in heaven or earth can be compared to Him.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out 15 and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them,
14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.
18 For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
[7-8] The people praised God for choosing Abraham and calling him to such a great purpose, giving his descendants the covenant of the promised land. Because of Abraham’s faithfulness, God established a permanent covenant with him. Down throughout the ages, the Lord has kept every promise—because He is righteous. The fact that the Jews in are passage are back in the land is fulfillment of a promise of God.
Family do you realize that every promise of God for your life will come to fruition? and that you will not be able to prove God a liar?
2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
[9-12] The people praised God for having delivered their forefathers from Egypt. God’s wonderful deliverance was a symbol of His salvation. He saves His people, and this is seen throughout all the centuries. Through this salvation He has made a name for Himself, as the God who saves. Not only did He save His people and bring them out of Egypt, out of slavery, He also protected them, by drowning the pursuing Egyptians in the same sea He used to save His people. But wait there’s more… He also gave His people guidance through a pillar of cloud that led them by day and a pillar of fire that led them by night.
The Lord is the only one who can deliver us from the enslavement of sin, death, and hell. He alone delivers us from the bondages of this life and the fears that can so easily grip us.
4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
[13-14] The people worshipped God for giving them the law and the Sabbath. The law wasn’t given so that the Israel could never have any fun… It was to protect them, because God truly knew what was best for them. God had given the sabbath as a day of rest and worship. Six days to work diligently, and a seventh to rest and to be spent in worship to God.
[example: Does God really want you to be ran ragged?]
[15] The people praised God for His provision of food and water. For the Israelites traveling through the wilderness, in a barren land, God provided for them.
The faithfulness of God for a faithless generation that rebelled every chance they could… is clearly seen in the fact that He would provide for them even when they were disobedient.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
[16-18] Here they praised God for having forgiven the sins of their ancestors. As we had just mentioned throughout Israel’s wilderness journey, they had been prideful, stiff-necked, and disobedient to God. But despite the their disobedience the Lord never forgotten them nor abandoned them. Because of God’s mercy and compassion, He was ready to forgive them when they confessed their sins, repented, and turned back to Him.
The Israelites were never forsaken even when they turned to false gods and false worship. We too family, must alway remember what God has done for us, the wonderful salvation He has provided for us through Christ. Forgetting that will always lead to disobedience.
[19-23] The people praised God for His sustaining power, for preserving His people as they walked toward the promise land. Even though the Israelites rebelled and were suffering the consequences of their actions, the Lord never abandoned them in the wilderness. Going so far as to making sure their clothes never wore out and their feet didn’t swell from all the walking.
[24-25] The people praised God for the strength and power to conquer their enemies and take the land that God had promised them.
Family, we war not against flesh or blood (physical people). We war against the devil and his minions. We are going to be tempted to often compromise on our morals and beliefs. To combat such attacks, we must rely upon the strength and power of God.
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
[26-28] The people praised God for His mercy and forgiveness despite their ancestors’ persistent backsliding. Time and time again Israel’s ancestors committed three serious offenses against the Lord:
They disobeyed and rebelled against the Lord.
They rejected and killed the prophets who had encouraged the people to turn back to the Lord.
They had committed terrible blasphemies against the Lord.
As a result of these sins, the Lord chastised them by allowing their enemies to oppress them, suffering the consequences for their actions.
For too many Christians backslide in order to seek the pleasures and possessions of this world. It simply isn’t worth it. We will suffering the consequences of our choices but know that god will aways forgive you… please understand that if you are a child of God there is nothing that can:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[29-31] The people praise God for His prophets and for their warning to repent.
We should praise and thank God for those of our day, the preachers/teachers/evangelist who proclaim and teach the Word of God. It is a difficult mission.
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
vv. 32-38) Seeking God through genuine humility.
vv. 32-38) Seeking God through genuine humility.
The final step in revival is to continually seek God through genuine humility.
Throughout Israel’s history she experienced hardship because of their disobedience. Assyria was the first great power after Egypt that menaced Israel and Judah, beginning in the 9th century, over 400 years before Nehemiah’s time. Even while the Israelites were enjoying God’s blessing in the land, they were still sinful.
Now, as verse 36 will point out, they were salves in their own land!
Because of who God is, and because of who they are (rebellious and wicked, they needed God to do the work of saving them from their enemies. Remember, Israel at this time was not an independent nation—they were a province of the Empire of Persia and were under their rule. They were asking that God would deliver them once again from this oppression.
“You are just in all” [33] This gives a good description of what real confession is all about. It recognizes that God is right and we are wrong… “But we have done wickedly.” Confession is agreeing with God about both things.
“It is a tremendous moment in the Christians’ life when he can honestly look upon the face of God and say, ‘Yes, Lord, You are right and I am wrong,’ when he stops arguing with God, and drops his controversy. He says, “Lord, yes. I’ve got what I deserved in this situation. You are right; I am wrong.’ That is the thing for which God has been working in your life and mine from the very moment of our conversion.”–Redpath
This is what it means to abide in Christ!
“The fish is abiding in the sea, not when it is afloat upside down in the ocean, but when it is so related to its environment that it is drawing from the environment sustenance for life.”
Family when there is a break between a person and the God that sustains them (sin) there is no abiding.
“A believer is abiding in Christ when his life is being nurtured and sustained by Jesus Christ. A believer is abiding in the Word when he is drawing from the Word that which sustains his life, that which controls his thinking, that which controls his speech, and that which controls his actions, that which determines his goals in life, and his habits. When every area and phase of his life is controlled by the Word of God, the individual is living in the Word or abiding in the Word, is dwelling or continuing in the Word. “
[Alter call]
24 “The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’