Joy on Hold
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Joy on Hold
Nehemiah 9:1-5
Those who feel bad for sin. Not willing to make Jesus Lord through repentance.
-Seed and Sower- Emotional hearer.
It is not enough to just feel bad for sin. You must repent.
However, if you do not feel bad for sin you will never get to place of repentance.
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Our culture thinks it doesn’t need God, because it does not believe it has sinned.
People of Israel- under Nehemiah and Ezra realized their sin and how it separated them from God. They cried out in sorry for their sins.
James Montgomery Boice, “When revival sweeps over a people, the first evidence is a profound awareness of sin and sorrow for it. This was true of the great Welsh revivals of the last century and of the revivals under the Wesleys the century before that. It was true of the Reformation and of the first revival in recorded history, the revival in Nineveh in response to the preaching of the prophet Jonah.”
1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.
2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.
4 On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Sorrow for Sin
How do we know they truly wanted to get right with God -- It didn't ease with time. After 22 days of feasting and joy they still wanted to mourn their sin.
Nehemiah and Ezra did not prey on the emotions and allow hysteria three weeks earlier.
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
If they had a true sorrow for sin and repentance it would not have to be manipulated by leaders, it would stay. They returned at the end of joy to their sorrow.
5 Results of Their Mourning
1- Took Sin Seriously (1)
1- Took Sin Seriously (1)
1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.
Nineveh was a very evil city when Jonah preached to them.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Outward expression of inward regret for sin.
Fasting- part of crying out to God in mourning.
Jesus’ disciples did not fast.
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
The early church fasted before big decisions.
23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Jesus’ instruction for us when we do fast.
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Sin is serious before God.
We should never take it lightly.
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
2- Separated Themselves (2)
2- Separated Themselves (2)
2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
Consecrated- The Jews had been set apart from the world for a specific task in the plans of God.
Just like the articles in the Temple were set apart for holy use,God called the Jews to be set apart as holy.
He gave them a different standard that others in the world because of this unique calling.
God took seriously the things set apart to do his work.
ILL- Handwriting on the wall.
English Standard Version Chapter 5
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.
Mene= you have been weighed
Tekel= You have been found wanting
Parsin= Your kingdom is taken away.
Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world. We are set apart for a special purpose.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
3- Confessed Sin (2-3)
3- Confessed Sin (2-3)
2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.
Confessed individually and corporately.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Corporate Confession.
1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
-The Church is called to think corporately as well. We are “as one”. The body of Christ.
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
This was a cry to God’s chosen people and Israel.
But it is a truth that has been true throughout history.
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of a national day of prayer and fasting: “We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness” (signed March 30, 1863). (middle of Civil War.)
COVID- we ran away from God, not to God.
The return has been very slow.
God will judge a nation that does not return to him.
Our children and grandchildren will live in the wake of a generation that did not fear God.
4- Read God’s Word (3)
4- Read God’s Word (3)
3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.
This whole revival of Nehemiah’s day has one unique feature- They could not get enough of God’s Word. They continue to go to God’s Word at every part of this revival.
God’s word has been the center of every great revival.
God’s Word is the light that reveals the darkness.
It is the Truth that reveals sin.
It is the standard of right and wrong.
It is the voice of God to man.
It tells us what to do about sin. God has provided a way.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
5- Worshiped God (4-5)
5- Worshiped God (4-5)
Nehemiah 9:4–5 (ESV)
4 On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Despite the separation of sin, God chooses us for a relationship.
He accepts our worship.
He gives us a future.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
The rest of this chapter is a cry of worship.
The only reason a sinful person can worship a holy God is because his sin is atoned for in sacrifice.
Our worship is made possible because of the gift of Jesus, who died once for all.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
CONCLUSION
Does your relationship with God need to be restored?
Does your relationship with God need to be restored?
Will you allow him to forgive your sins?