Fighting Our Own Rebellion

Nehemiah 9:32–38 NASB95

32 “Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You, Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people, From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day. 33 “However, You are just in all that has come upon us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly. 34 “For our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept Your law Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your admonitions with which You have admonished them. 35 “But they, in their own kingdom, With Your great goodness which You gave them, With the broad and rich land which You set before them, Did not serve You or turn from their evil deeds. 36 “Behold, we are slaves today, And as to the land which You gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty, Behold, we are slaves in it. 37 “Its abundant produce is for the kings Whom You have set over us because of our sins; They also rule over our bodies And over our cattle as they please, So we are in great distress. 38 “Now because of all this We are making an agreement in writing; And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.”

Nehemiah 10:28–39 NASB95

28 Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, 29 are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given through Moses, God’s servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes; 30 and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. 31 As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. 32 We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 33 for the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moon, for the appointed times, for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. 34 Likewise we cast lots for the supply of wood among the priests, the Levites and the people so that they might bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers’ households, at fixed times annually, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law; 35 and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually, 36 and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. 37 We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns. 38 The priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. 39 For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine and the oil to the chambers; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.

INTRO: What place does church have in your life?

Recent studies have revealed that, across America, churches are dying.

Attendance is decreasing

Those who attend, attend less frequently

Fewer church attenders are involved in community groups

Giving in the church is down, even as inflation has increased.

Fewer people are willing to volunteer time for ministry, much less lead ministries.

Sadly, many churches have developed a culture of consumerism where it’s all about having one’s needs or wants met. That’s why people are so quick to leave a church that does not play their kind of music or one that doesn’t offer all the activities or programs that we want.

Now, these things aren’t unimportant, but in all of this, we, being God’s people must ask “What about God’s glory? What about God’s desire for His people?”

Sometimes I think that we individualize our faith so much that we forget why churches exist. You see, many American Christians treat church like their favorite restaurant. If it closes, well that stinks, but we’ll manage to replace it with something else.

If LRBC were to close its doors, How would that affect your life? If your answer is “not much” or “not much outside of Sunday” then I you and I need to really lean in and diagnose our culture here. Is our culture what God intends for us.

As we have studied the book of Nehemiah, we have looked at the building of the wall and the subsequent revival that seemingly took place as God’s Word was once again proclaimed among His people.

And through their festivals and study of the Law, there was an epiphany. Two great truths were evident:

God will deal justly with sin.

He had proven it time and again.

Throughout Israel’s history, God consistently judged the wickedness of the people.

God will deal mercifully with repentant sinners.

Again, throughout the ages, God’s compassion was demonstrated as His people cried out in their hardships.

The prayer of the Levites in Neh. 9 paints this picture spectacularly and specifically as they connect their history with these truths. If I could summarize 9:4-31, it would be this:

There is one God, Yahweh. His power and sovereignty are unmatched, for He is the author of creation. His goodness is evident in His design and his faithfulness demonstrated in every fulfilled promise. The sins of God’s people brought judgment from God, for He is righteous and holy. Yet even in justice, He is a compassionate rescuer- patient and full of grace.

They were God’s people - created and commissioned for God’s glory. And as they were experiencing a revival in their camp, one question must have loomed over them: > How do we keep from drifting away from God?

I want to bring a similar question before you today. Should God in His grace allow for a revival to break out in LRBC - should God bring us to that place where we are struck with the reality that we are created for God’s glory and He is calling us to live radically different from the world, the question remains-

How do we keep our eyes fixed upon our Lord? How do we keep from drifting?

And so in our time together, we will examine our passage and see the steps that God’s people took in Jerusalem. The sermon is titled “Fighting Our Own Rebellion”. I encourage you to follow along in your sermon guide as we learn together.

The first step in fighting our own rebellion is to:

Declare War (9:32-38)

We spoke last week about the need for confession in our lives in order to be forgiven. What we see here is a confession or an acknowledgment that they were responsible for their condition - the reality is clear thus a necessary declaration of war. (READ)

The Levites prayer ends with an invitation for all the crowd to agree that the hardship, the distress, the grief is not unwarranted. If we are honest, we deserve this plus some. And because we are responsible for the presence of this grief through our sin, we have a reason to act against the cause.

Notice also that in this section of the prayer, there is a shift from “they”- speaking of their ancestors in the previous verses, to “we”. It’s not just that our fathers were rebels, but we are too. So, in essence, they were not trying to shove off all the blame on others, but to own their guilt.

How did this drift happen in the first place? I contend that this is the drift that takes place when we stop being intentional about our faith. When we stop making plans to read the Bible, to attend church, to pray- we drift.

ILL: A buddy of mine and I were discussing going to play golf. It had been a while for both of us. We enjoy golf, but we don’t really have all that much time for it… he shared with me that he had lost his clubs! Several years ago, his clubs sat by the front door, ready at a moments notice. Then, they were migrated to the guest bedroom. This year, after frantically searching the house, his wife pointed out that they had been shoved behind washer and dryer because they simply haven’t been used. It was a drift.

Friends, I don’t think that these folks intended to be wicked- I don’t think they planned to abandon the God who created them, but they stopped being intentional towards him… one generation at a time.

Do you wonder why we have a country that glorifies sexual perversion? A nation that lauds the murdering babies in the womb? A leadership who lives in luxury while you and I pay for policies that will lead to our own demise? It’s not undeserved.

The church in America has drifted. We have compromised God’s glory- first in our homes, then in our workplaces, and even in our church buildings. Christ has taken a back seat to our busy schedules, and our selfish lifestyles.

We never intended to drift… we never intended to fall into the pattern that we witnessed in previous generations. We thought that we knew enough, that we loved God enough… but let’s get honest- where on your priority list is the glory of God?

We sang the words “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love...”

Folks, we are in a battle against our own rebellion. Paul spoke about his personal battle in Romans 7:14-21.

Romans 7:15 (NASB95)

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

The Jews in our passage signed and sealed a document that declared war on this drift by obligating them to a mission (38). We have something similar in our church covenants - A declaration of our commitment to God’s glory through his church.

Here is where we make the choice: Are you willing to fight for God’s glory? Then we must acknowledge- as much as we don’t like it, the data is real, the numbers are true, the results demonstrate that we have somehow drifted from faithfulness.

This isn’t just admitting our rebellion, we must declare war against it. Fighting our own rebellion starts with declaring war.

Of course, declaration is one thing, accountability is another. The next step to fighting our own rebellion is:

Enlist in Community (10:28-31)

You’ve heard me say that our faith is not intended to be lived in isolation. I’d add, it is impossible to faithfully live out our faith in isolation. Why? Because God has called us as a people. We are not vigilantes… There are no Super-hero Christians.

ILL: Imagine if the US declared war against an enemy invasion, but then only one or two soldiers showed up to fight…

In order for us to be effective in fighting our own rebellion, we need community- that’s right, we need one another. (READ)

For God’s people in Jerusalem, they went back to God’s promises to Moses- a promise of blessing for those who obeyed God’s law, and curse to those who disobeyed. Ultimately, the community united around God’s Word.

Note a couple points:

This community declared together their intent to keep God’s Word.

This set up a natural accountability. Since they agreed together, if someone decided to disregard the Law, everyone else was there to correct him.

This community acknowledged together the implications of their obedience/ disobedience.

By doing so, they accepted the responsibility and subsequent repercussions.

This public agreement meant that it was not up to one person or group to keep God’s Word or enforce God’s Law. It was not just the priests or Levites that were to keep the Word of God- it was ALL the people.

So it is in the church today. We are a body of believers. Paul reminded the Corinthian Church that we all play critical roles in a singular body. It’s not simply up to a select few to take God’s Word seriously. It’s not simply up to a couple people to hold the rest accountable.

But friends, this is not just about Sundays. This is about life. In Jerusalem, they had to recognize their identity meant that every aspect of their life should be under God’s leadership. We call this Lordship.

So, as a community:

They obeyed together.

They prayed together.

They served together.

They reminded one another of God’s Word.

They took seriously their call as God’s people.

If you don’t have good Christian brothers or sisters who will help you grow and live faithfully, you will drift. And it does not matter how old you are, you and I need community.

Church, if we are going to keep from drifting; if we are going to keep from disregarding God; If we are going to fight our own rebellion, we must declare war and enlist in community.

Last, a final initiative in this war is to:

Fortify the Church (32-39)

(READ)

In these verses, we see that the people of Jerusalem committed themselves to provide for all the ministries and worship of the temple. Everything from the showbread to the wood supply for the fires; from tithes and offerings to support for the priests and Levites.

Now, obviously there are marked differences between the temple and the church today. But here is the point: The people were determined (39) not to neglect the house of God.

Why? Because God calls us to worship Him alone. The temple was where God’s people communed with God through their offerings and offered worship as prescribed by God.

ILL: Have you ever seen how quickly a house can become dilapidated when nobody is living there? Do you know why? Because without active maintenance and upkeep, everything goes down hill.

Today, the local church exists to be the hub of preparation and equipping of the saints to live faithfully. Some folks neglect God’s house by ignoring or not applying the teaching. Some neglect the regular gathering of the church. Others still neglect supporting the church through giving and serving.

If the church is neglected, then the gospel witness becomes hampered, in this generation and the ones to come. Here’s the thing- the same actions that fortify the church, sanctify the congregation.

IOW, when you are authentically engaged in the biblical building up of the church, you counter that drift we spoke of.

Let’s look at this together: LRBC exists to give glory to God by bringing the world to follow Jesus.

When you gather with us, you get the opportunity to learn, to serve others, to encourage people in faith and to be encouraged in your own walk. You are both building up the church and being built up.

When you grow in your walk, God is glorified by the fruit of your life! Your example strengthens other believers which fortifies their faith and bolsters the gospel witness of the church. Here you demonstrate that you are truly living with His Kingdom in view.

When you give, like the Jews are seen in our passage, you support the ministries of this church in ways that exalt Jesus among the nations. Missionaries, seminaries, church planters are all supported by the church!

Your support through time volunteered and through resources donated allows the redemption message to be delivered and received. And through giving of your time and resources, you are connected to the work that God is doing.

When you go on mission- to teach, pray, share the Gospel, lead your family and friends to follow Jesus, you get to put on the badge of ambassador for Christ! You find your purpose and passion as a citizen of heaven.

You see, when you engage in the church, when you refuse to neglect God’s house, you get to be hands-on in the great commission, and you get to fortify the church so that it stands in the future generation.

This takes commitment. It takes sacrifice. But if we are willing to fortify the church, then we can fight the drift that has closed the doors of so many churches, we can shine the light of Christ into the darkness.

Friends, we have before us a great opportunity. God has a plan for LRBC… and YOU are part of it. What do you say? Will you join me in this fight?

[PRAY]

Discuss: Read Psalm 78 and talk About how you can keep yourself from drifting away from God?

Discuss: What kind of God-honoring community are you engaged in? (Be specific!)

Discuss: What role does the church play in our battle against apathy?