All right. Father God, thank you. Thank you again for time in the middle of the week when a million things are happening to slow down the world. And remember that you are the king, that you are in charge, that your word is true.
God, we’re grateful for this time. I pray tonight as we look at Nehemiah 9 and 10 and a really, really neat moment of of repentance and prayer and memory of the great things you’ve done. God, help us to see that in our own lives too. Help us to thank you for the ways that you’ve shown up before. God, thank you for tonight. Give us your truth as we work through this. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right, so first question at the very top. When was the last time you owned a sin? Without excuses? You don’t have to tell me about it, but can you remember in your mind the last time that— even tiny sin, big sin, doesn’t matter— but that you just owned it without excuse? And whether it’s somebody else, whether it’s to God, how… what was the feeling? That’s the only question I want you to actually answer, like the feeling afterward.
I can tell you plainly, my children and I, we had a little talk at the chairs and then we just had another talk down there.
Sometimes they’re very, very good at owning their sin and saying, yeah, and repenting. And there are other times it’s always somebody else’s fault. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
Um, you guys know that feeling? Yeah, it’s… it is our nature. We are… I mean, we can go back to Genesis immediately. After the… the… the fruit was taken from the tree, and who does Adam blame immediately? The woman. The woman. And who else does he blame? You remember the snake and God? Yeah, he blames God. Like, “The woman you gave me.” Oh, like that’s bold. Um.
But yet, we have the same broken, sinful hearts too. It’s dumb. It’s welcome, welcome. There’s papers. But it’s the same heart that Adam and Eve struggled with. We do too. And we make excuses. And we find reasons. And we justify our bad choices or our sin, however we phrase it.
But think about when you really own your sin and repent straight to God, how does that feel? Sometimes you feel good. I think. Because you know you’ve done wrong. You’ve talked it over with the Lord. And I think that that’s the hope is that when we actually confess our sin without excuse, it does give us freedom again. It does set us right back with God.
Anytime, and you can see it with children, and it applies to adults too. It’s just easier with kids. They’re so transparent. When they really own their mistakes… it’s so much quicker that the relationship and the whatever situation is restored. When they find ways to cast blame on someone else or to avoid really owning it, it is so much harder because everyone knows all the cards are not out on the table.
So, well, there’s a few questions that we’ll come to in a minute.
But Nehemiah 9 and 10 is neat because we’re going to actually probably spend more time in 9 tonight than 10, just by nature of… What’s that? Oh, okay. Which is good because that almost always naturally happens every week. Whatever the first chapter is gets way more attention and then we have to speed through the second chapter. But it’s on purpose tonight. It’s good.
But Nehemiah 9 and 10 is neat because… This comes right out of, if you remember last week, I keep saying Romans, goodness. Nehemiah 7 and 8. 7 is lots of names. But 8 was the chapter where Ezra comes back and reads the law. And he stands up in front of the people. They listen intently. They put him up on a platform so they can all hear. They can see him reading the word.
And they weep because they realize we have sinned against the Lord. We have not done what was right in God’s eyes.
But then, I love the Levites in chapter 8. They read from the book of the law, and they clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping people understand.
It’s such a neat… They don’t just want to hear God’s word. They actually want to understand God’s word. And then when they do understand God’s word, it leads them then to worship. Because they realize, now that they have understanding… not only has God been so good to us and God has forgiven and put up with us, but there are things that we can do.
And they reinstitute the Festival of Booths and they build their shelters. It’s a neat moment. So we’re coming right out of that. That’s the context for Chapter 8, which is great.
So we’re going to go ahead and read Chapter 9, which is a bit long. Goodness. Goodness. When I read it last night, I was like, that’s long. Now I’m looking at it again. I’m like, wow, that’s long. It’s okay. We’ll get through it together.
There is on your paper a nice little outline. I tried to summarize like little chunks. What we’ll probably do is read chapter 9, but then we’ll go back and look at, you know, 1 through 5 and then 6 through 15. But we’ll see how it goes.
So chapter 9, verse 1. On October 31st, the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. Those of the Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors.
They remained standing in place for three hours while the book of the law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them. Then, for three more hours, they confessed their sins and worshipped the Lord their God.
The Levites, Jeshua, Bani, Kadmil, Shebaniah, Buni, Sherebiah, Bani, and then the leaders of the Levites, Joshua and a few others, called out to the people, Then they prayed, may your name, may your glorious name be praised. May it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and seas and everything in them. You preserve them all and the angels of heaven worship you.
You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word.
You saw the misery of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cries from beside the Red Sea. You displayed miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, his officials, and all his people, for you knew how arrogantly they were treating our ancestors. You have a glorious reputation that has never been forgotten.
You divided the sea for your people so they could walk through on dry land, and then you hurled their enemies into the depths of the sea. They sank like stones beneath the mighty waters.
You led our ancestors by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night so that they could find their way.
You came down at Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and instructions that were just and decrees and commands that were good. You instructed them concerning your holy Sabbath and you commanded them through Moses, your servant, to obey all your commands, decrees and instructions.
You gave them bread from heaven when they were hungry and water from the rock when they were thirsty. You commanded them to go and take possession of the land you had sworn to give them.
But our ancestors were proud and stubborn and they paid no attention to your commands. They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt.
But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, this is your God who brought you out of Egypt. They committed terrible blasphemies.
But in your great mercy, you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of clouds still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed the way through the night. You sent your good spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them manna from heaven or water or their thirst. For 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
Then you helped our ancestors conquer kingdoms and nations and you placed your people in every corner of the land. They took over the land of King Sion of Heshbon and land of King Og of Bashan.
You made their descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and you brought them into the land you had promised to their ancestors. They went in and took possession of the land. You subdued whole nations before them. Even the Canaanites who inhabited the land were powerless. Your people could deal with these nations and their kings as they pleased.
Our ancestors captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took over houses full of good things with cisterns already dug and vineyards and olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate until they were full and grew fat and enjoyed themselves and all your blessings.
But despite all this, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets who warned them to return to you. And they committed terrible blasphemies. So you handed them over to their enemies who made them suffer.
But in their time of trouble, they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven. In your great mercy, you sent them liberators who rescued them from their enemies. 28.
But as soon as they were at peace, your people again committed evil in your sight. And once more, you let their enemies conquer them.
Yet whenever your people turned and cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them many times.
You warned them to return to your law, but they became proud and obstinate and disobeyed your commands. They did not follow your regulations by which people will find life if they only obey. They stubbornly turned their backs on you and refused to listen.
In your love, you were patient with them for many years. You sent your spirit who warned them through the prophets, but still they wouldn’t listen.
So once again, you allowed the peoples of the land to conquer them. But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are.
And now our God, the great and mighty awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love, do not let all the hardships we have suffered seem insignificant to you. Great trouble has come upon us and upon our kings and leaders and priests and prophets and ancestors, all of your people from the days when the kings of Assyria first triumphed over us until now. Every time you punished us, you were being just. We have sinned greatly and you gave us only what we deserved.
Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors did not obey your law or listen to the warnings in your commands or laws. Even while they had their own kingdom, they did not serve you, though you showered your goodness on them. You gave them a large, fertile land, but they refused to turn from their wickedness.
So now today, we are slaves in the land of plenty that you gave our ancestors for their enjoyment. We are slaves here in this good land. The lush produce of this land piles up in the hand of the kings who you have set over us because of our sins. They have power over us and our livestock. We serve them at their pleasure, and we are in great misery.
And the people responded, in view of all this, we are making a solemn promise and putting it in writing on this sealed document are the names of our leaders and Levites and priests.
Chapter 9 is long, but it’s really good. And there is really no way, when I looked at this one last week, and then again, you just can’t really cut chunks of it out. So here we go. So when we…
This is one of those first questions that’s in black at the top. When you hear a long list of what God has done for you, does it make you more grateful? It should. It should. It should, and it’s so interesting because when we read this prayer, which is so vulnerable and raw and honest, we have, gosh, it’s from verse, what is it, verse really 5 through 37. I mean, it’s a long prayer.
And they are walking through their history. They’re walking through all of the mistakes, all the times their sin has pushed them away and caused exile from God. And then every time that they’ve asked for help, God has brought them back.
But yet then over and over again, they’re obstinate, they’re disobedient, they’re ungrateful, and they want their own way. I mean, it is, for those who have parented, and you can remember your kids, like, it is parenting 101. Like, it is the classic parenting. You have the same conversation a hundred times a week. And the same ridiculous nonsense happens over and over again. But that’s the beauty.
And we’ll come back to that idea quite a bit of how important it is to do this, to actually go back and list out, like, what has God done for us? Where have we messed up? Where has he been faithful? How has he provided? How have we struggled to accept that? And then how that changes the way we live.
But this question is the one I really want to frame tonight with. Because I think one of the last questions kind of comes back to this. It’s the third one there. It says, what is the difference between being sorry for the consequences of sin and being sorry for the sin itself? What’s the difference in being sorry for the consequence versus actually sorry for the sin? We deserve it. Yeah. Yeah.
We talk about in our house, there are natural consequences sometimes. Like, there just aren’t. It’s just the way it is, wouldn’t you say, Arneal? I just said it means the difference is the world. Yeah, the difference is very much the way we see the world.
Like, so often, it doesn’t take long watching news or movies or spending time on social media. The general vibe, people do not like consequences for sin. Like, but they’re not really mad about the sin, right? They’re really mad that they have a consequence because of something. And they hate the consequence, which is funny because you see grownups doing it. And you’re like, you do realize my eight-year-old does that, right? Like that’s what he does. But you should have advanced beyond being – I mean like you should understand cause and effect.
We were ironically talking about cause and effect at dinner tonight. I don’t know why. Teachers at dinner apparently. But we were asking the kids, like they were talking, I guess, at school. I was like, well, Rissa, what does cause and effect really mean? She goes, well, it means like you do something and then something happens. I’m like, okay, like give me an example. Like you guys were talking about this at school. And she goes, well, like gratitude. And I’m like, what do you mean about gratitude? She goes, well, if someone does something nice for you, gratitude should be an effect of the, I’m like, that’s actually a pretty good example. That’s cause and effect and a positive, not a negative.
But man, we don’t like consequences. We hate consequences, unless it’s for someone else. Then we are thrilled to pieces with consequences. This is not a political statement at all. That is a big thing to pray for in our world.
We have a world that just two days ago in class, a kid told me I caught him lying. It was not a… It was not something that was, like, catastrophic, like he, you know, broke all the computers and then lied. But he still lied. Like, and a lie is still a lie.
And I was like, Corey, why are you lying about that? And he goes, no, no, no, I’m just messing. And I’m like, Corey, it was a lie. Like, it wasn’t messing. That’s not, you can’t rebrand, but that’s the world we live in. Where we don’t really want to call sin, sin.
So then when there’s consequences for a bad choice, we just lash out. Because how dare I have a consequence? Like it was a misunderstanding. No, it was sin. Like repent. Move on. So that’s a big thing to pray about.
But that question will come back as we read this. Because we see a really cool example. And this is where the beauty of the Old Testament is so great.
We are the Hebrews. And I don’t like it. But like when I read that prayer, I’m like, yeah, I’ve been there.
My favorite chunk, if I had to pick one of the whole thing, is probably verse… It’s kind of second half of 17. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. I mean, what a… If we had to pick the verse of the night, I think that’s an easy bet. It’s beautiful. But it…
And the whole thing, I can read it and go, yeah, like, but I know God has been good to me. And yet then I still get stubborn and do my own way. And then God lets me kind of gives me over to the sin. And then you realize how rough it is and you call out again. I mean, it’s the same cycle. It just looks a little different. I haven’t been exiled to a foreign land yet.
But when we look at this, this section, there’s just cool stuff. So. The little outline I put on your paper, we’re looking first, like first five verses, we’re going to try to be, you know, little sections versus the whole thing.
We see here in the first five, this is right after, coming right out of the feast ending, two days later, the people now gather and they’ve gone to a period of confessions. So they’re putting on sackcloth or burlap. They’re sprinkling dust and ash on their head. They’re purposefully separating themselves from foreigners who live among them and confessing their sins. But then in their prayer, we see confessing the sins of all of their ancestors too, which is important.
And then the law is also reread. I think it’s verse 3. Yeah. For three hours, they listened. And then three hours, they prayed. Confessed their sins, and they worshipped.
So I think it is a special spot because it’s right before the prayer. And I think there’s something worth slowing down for when there’s, you know, what is that, like a 31-verse prayer and they’re long verses that follows right after.
What happened right before? Well, right before, they’ve been in this season where Scripture was being read. Yeah, Terry, sorry.
Does this mean we are to confess our Father’s sins to God? What do you think? It sounds like it. I think it does. What do you think? Well, wouldn’t that be judgmental? Yeah. It might be honesty. Yeah. I think so. I think there’s… Again, I’m… It seems like it would be…
What would be the harm in confessing the sins of those who have gone before me? I mean, it certainly can’t hurt me to seek and confess… You know, and repent for the things that have trickled down. Because good and bad both trickle down. They’re setting the pattern. Yeah. I think so.
And there’s something to be said for, like, I can, I will, I will use my own dad. Like, I can look at my own dad’s sins. I still love him, but I can still look at his shortcomings and go, yeah, like, that wasn’t right.
And that without going back to scripture over and over again, it’d be very easy for that um, pattern to trickle down or to think where me repenting from it is like, no, like I can love that person and still say like, yeah, that wasn’t right. Like, that’s not the way that I’m called to live.
Um, so I, I’m with you, Terry. I think that it sure seems as though it’s wise to, and it’s not the same. This is probably some nuance here, but like, I don’t, it’s not the same as the sin I’ve committed, but I do think it’s distancing myself from the sin. And it’s saying, that’s not the path that I want. Um, Which is probably a little conjecture.
It’s also being honest about the past and confessing that we have not, as a people, now that it’s my responsibility, my father may be gone in our generation. To admit that we have not been following. Right. We have not been keeping the covenant. Yep.
And so there is a communal aspect of that, you know, the Decalogue, when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and gave them to the people. You know, visiting the iniquity of the fathers of the second and third generation. Yeah. But showing mercy to thousands. Yeah. So the mercy goes further than the curse.
But I think there’s something to the family faith, the family covenant, the family name, if you will, that we need to be honest about. Yeah, I agree.
And I think very practically back to even my dad, I will have to some point, explain to my children, like, where I see, like, they love Pops. I mean, Pops is their hero. But Pops wasn’t perfect. And there’s that element of, like, they need to know. Don’t assume because this is everything Pops has done that that gets the thumbs up. Like, you can love Pops but still draw a line and confess, like, hey, this was – and we all have it.
Like, my kids will do the same thing for their kids someday. And it’s just the unfortunate – Very practically.
The fiscalness of our country bums me out. I’m such a tightwad. Ask my wife. I’m so annoying about fruit. I love a deal, and I love saving money, and I love being thrifty.
And watching the debt just click up. I mean, I can look at that and go, it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t make those choices. But I can look at it and go, like, yeah, I think that was bad choices before me. Like, we have not been faithful. I am not the one making, I’m not spending, I’m not spending money. I’m being cheap over in the corner. But I can look at it and say, like, yeah, we haven’t been good stewards.
And I think that’s a big world example, but I think biblical and lineage and sin and blessing… are not terribly different, which is important. And I think this is neat because that’s what leads them into this prayer that goes back through their history.
And I think history is really special. I’ve said this before to you guys. Young people today don’t know their story. They might know them personally, however old they are, but they don’t know their family story. They don’t know who their people are. They don’t know where they’re from. They don’t really know. Man, I wish I knew more. They have the benefit now. Technology has made it a little bit easier. I don’t know.
This is silly, but the Trail of Tears, when you look at the map of all the Cherokee, Choctaw, and the five tribes that are moved from the southeast over to Indian Territory, Oklahoma, there were like five different routes. I want to know which one my family was on. I don’t know why. I just, I want to know. I’m curious. I want to go back and drive like the parts of it that are, that are there still.
And that’s what I see is so cool about what they’re doing here is they’re going back through their family story and their family story. And remembering is what causes them to continue worship. So.
When we look at those first few verses, I like it. I like that because that’s the heart that we see.
They stand up, they worship, they listen to the word, and that leads them to this prayer of confession, which is 6 through 15 is the second little chunk that’s on your outline there. And it very much is a prayer that starts out with them praising God. You know, may your glorious name be praised. May it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and heavens and the stars. You made the earth and seas, everything in them. You preserve them all and the angels of heaven worship you.
It just starts out with this glorious praise of the bigness of God, which is good. We need a big God. We don’t need small gods. We need big gods who can do amazing things. And then they start to recount the amazing things.
We live in a world that, much like it was 2,000 years ago, is up and down all the time. Kingdoms rise and fall, and it’s exhausting to keep up with. But when I can remember that I have a big God, it makes those things a little less tumultuous. Because this God continually moves and shapes the world to keep his people safe. Spiritually, not necessarily physically. But it goes on.
It recounts Abraham. It talks about in verse 7. You were the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur, renamed him Abraham. And when he proved himself faithful, you made a covenant and then gave him all the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, and so on.
And then I love the way it ends verse 8. And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word. We aren’t usually always true to our word, but he sure is. And they’re acknowledging that in a beautiful way.
And then it goes on. And it starts to talk about the exodus, the crossing of the sea. One of my favorite things, I really, I get nerdy excited. I love the cloud and the pillar of fire. Like, I don’t know, that’s one of my favorite, like, I’m so, what a neat thing to say. Like you’re literally following a cloud by day being led by the Lord, the Holy Spirit. And then at night it turns into a pillar of fire to protect you. I mean, that’s pretty cool. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. But we see that happening.
And then God’s provision at Sinai between water and food. He is continually provided for his people there in verse 15.
So there’s a few questions. I have a lot of questions on number nine or chapter nine. But the first one, when we confess or when you confess, do you name sin specifically or do you use general language that costs nothing?
I can sincerely say sometimes it is really hard to be specific. I don’t want to be specific. I know I want to confess. I want to make things right with God.
But I kind of like ambiguity. Which is really stupid, right? Because it’s God. He knows. I mean, it’s silly. But yet there’s something, call it pride, call it being dumb, whatever. We just, we go a little vague and we like it that way. But yet he’s the one who knows everything. And it’s such a silly, silly thing. So I guess, I mean, it’s stupid. Only you know the answer to that, you and the Holy Spirit.
But I think the challenge for all of us when we read this section is be specific. They were actually pretty vulnerable and raw in their prayer and their confession to God, corporately even.
Because general vague ambiguity doesn’t really hurt. I mean, if I’m asking God to forgive me for my pride or my ego or my my greed or my lust or my, I don’t know, arrogance, whatever the word is you want to fill in. It’s not like saying the word is doesn’t really hurt. Like it wounds a bit, but actually saying like the specific details has come like through your head, out your mouth. Like there’s more processing happening. It’s uncomfortable. So there’s a challenge there.
And I think they give us a good example. The second question. And this one is, I don’t know. We’ll see if anyone wants to answer. I don’t know. Do I move? I don’t know why I wrote I. Do you move from conviction quickly to comfort or quickly to despair? So think about that.
I shortened the question because I wanted to fit on one line, and I knew I was going to regret it later, but it’s okay. I don’t know. There’s other questions that weren’t on one line. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
But do you move when you are convicted of sin? Do you move quickly at confession to comfort or to despair? The second part of the question is really what I’m trying to ask. Without staying long enough in honest confession.
Meaning, I’ll pick on my kids. They’re not in the room right now. I half expected one of them to show up at some point because they know that if they don’t behave, they get to come sit here with dad. So we’ll see how that goes. But they’re not here.
I have seen there are times when they are really broken by their sin. Little sin, but kid sin still. And they’re sad by it. They want to go sit in their room and just kind of decompress because they’re upset.
I’ve seen other times when they’ll confess that they did something, and then they’re ready to go play again. And you’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’d like you to sit on this a little longer here.
And that’s really the second part of the questions I’m trying to ask, I guess, is, some people are very quick to like, I confessed. I can sit back now and relax. I confessed my sin.
Others confess their sin and they’re just deeply in despair. It’s really the pendulum swing. It’s too extreme on both sides versus a healthy sitting in the confession, knowing and reckoning with the sin, but also knowing mercy is greater than the sin. And there’s, I think, a healthy balance in both of them.
So I’m curious, like, do you think you’re more prone to relax and move or move to despair? I think sometimes it’s all according to what you’re confessing. That’s a good point. That’s a very, very good point. That’s a good point.
I think with people, I tend to be a little more like, oh, I’m so glad we talked about that. With God, I’m more on the… Like, it just grieves you a little more. I don’t know why. I mean… Yeah, and that’s such a bigger deal. Yeah, yeah.
Do you think it’s hard to stay in that confession and, like, pause? Do you think it’s hard to, like, let yourself sit in the uncomfortableness of it for a bit? It could lead to despair. It is a complicated feeling. Because… both of those feelings are a little bit appropriate when they’re not too extreme. We should be grieved and despaired a little bit.
We should also be comforted by the mercy and grace of God, but we can’t swing out of control. And that’s hard. Like having, I mean, some people are better at reading their feelings, but having two opposing feelings at once is hard. But yet that is often where we are when we’re dealing with sin.
Um, okay, so let’s look at 16 through 31. We’re not going to reread the whole thing. There’s so much. But I jotted it down for you.
The prayer then turns in verse 16 to, But our ancestors were proud and stubborn, and they paid no attention to your commands. They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you’d done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader that ate them back to their slavery in Egypt.
But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful God. Slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, this is your God who brought you out of Egypt. They committed terrible blasphemies.
So it walks through. The part’s just heavy. They’re spending this time in the wilderness. They were so quick to want another God. You know, you see it.
I didn’t make a list. I should have. I’m going to do a really bad job of making a mental list.
But when the Hebrews went into the Holy Land and they had the judges for a season, what did they still want? They wanted a king. They wanted to be like all the tribes around them. And then… We know how that went, and it just continued to splinter, and we can read through 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles and be pretty bummed out.
But then we have over and over again, like, God’s people just keep wanting something else to worship than God. They’ve been taken in and chosen by the king of the universe, the creator of all things, but yet they still keep looking for something else, a lesser God to cling on to. I mean, we see it here again. And they’re recounting what happened in the wilderness.
We can even see it in Jesus’ time. Like the Pharisees, they played that game where they wanted to be the religious leaders and they liked being in control, but kind of keep Herod in their back pocket, but then also appease Rome. They were always kind of playing a game versus just worshiping God.
And they own it here. They admit it. They were too proud. They were stubborn. And they committed terrible blasphemies.
So why start a prayer? This is question three. Why start a prayer by rehearsing what God has done rather than what we need? Why is it so important? Yeah, Terry. It’s always a good idea to glorify God first. Amen. Instead of me, me, me. Amen.
I’ve been really trying to train my kids because… I don’t know. Maybe it’s human nature. I haven’t really thought about this actually very long. So this is an off-the-cuff stupid comment. But it’s easy for them to go first to what they need from God. And they’re innocent. They’re little. But they’ve gotten slowly better at starting off with thanking God for stuff. Not necessarily who he is, but just gratitude first. Before they ask, you know, for what they need.
But, and you probably have, I wish I, I don’t want to write it down. You’ve seen the ax, anagram? Whatever that’s called, where it’s like the letter thing. I don’t know. We’re like, you start out adoration, thanksgiving, no, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. This is why you write things on the board, because then you can’t say it out of order. But it does follow that rhythm. And it follows the rhythm that Jesus teaches us later with the disciples’ prayer.
And it’s important because starting off a prayer, glorifying God for who he is and what he’s done, reframes the conversation. Changes it. It’s not about me now. It’s about God. And in effect, and I think it was C.S. Lewis that said this, I think, that prayer isn’t necessarily about changing people. God, it’s about changing us. He said it better, obviously. He’s C.S. Lewis.
But starting a prayer by rehearsing what God has done frames it right. Because I’m putting myself in front of the God and King who did these things. Yeah, Terry.
Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer, and that’s what he started out with. Right. Father, Lord, and Heaven. Yep. Right away. I mean, that was the rhythm and pattern that makes sense. We’ve got a little prayer book at home that follows the same rhythm with evening prayers, which I love.
But it’s an important thing to remember of rehearsing and reminding ourselves, God knows what he’s done. He doesn’t need me to say it back to him. I need to hear it. And I need to say it out loud.
I remember, actually, I ironically think this was C.S. Lewis, too. I don’t remember what book it was from. But he makes the comment. I don’t think it was Screwtape Letters, but I could be wrong. Satan cannot read our minds. He can certainly put lies and evil in, but he cannot read my mind.
And often, like, and C.S. Lewis described this, gosh, I’ll have to look up later, now it’s going to bother me, that struggle that we have where, like, the mental battle inside of, you know, that’s non-spoken. When we don’t actually say anything, we can’t combat the lie. Sometimes we just need to say it out loud like, this is the truth. This is what God has done.
Do you remember that book by chance? I’m totally drawing a blank. Yeah, it’s one of those. I mean, it’s one of his classics if you have a little C.S. Lewis box set. But it’ll come to me, I’m sure, as I’m falling asleep tonight. And then I know it’ll ever know. I’m sure we could Google it and it’ll come up fast.
But the reality of this is I need to sometimes say these things for my own sake to remember what God has done. And the enemy needs to know, I remember what God has done. Because it gives me a great deal of power and it gives me a great deal of confidence knowing God will continue to do great things. It’s very cool. Can’t be said enough. I love it.
Okay.
Then, we’re not going to read the rest of the section, but it goes on from the golden calf to the wilderness, the conquest, being given a land that already had cities and walls and gardens and vineyards. It was a beautiful place to inherit, but yet they still rebelled. Then they were rescued, and then they rebelled, and then they were rescued.
The prophets were sent to draw them back to God, and they ignored them or killed them. There’s a lot of passages in Luke where Jesus alludes to Jerusalem being the place that killed prophets, that it was the city that killed prophets. He says it differently, but it’s true. Over and over again, prophets were ignored or destroyed in Jerusalem by the Hebrews. And then it continues on through there.
The last section, the 32 through 38, is where the people, and I actually, we’re going to read this because I really like 32 onward.
And now, our God, the great and mighty awesome God who keeps this covenant of unfailing love, do not let all the hardships we have suffered seem insignificant to you. Great trouble has come upon us and upon kings and leaders and priests and prophets and ancestors, all your people from the days when the kings of Assyria first triumphed over us until now.
Every time you punished us, you were being just. We have sinned greatly and you gave us only what we deserved. Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors did not obey your law or listen to the warnings in your commands and laws. Even while they had their own kingdom, they did not serve you, though you showered your goodness on them. You gave them a large, fertile land, but they refused to turn from their wickedness.
So today, we are slaves in the land of plenty that you gave our ancestors for their enjoyment. We are slaves here in this good land. The lush produce of this land piles up in the hands of kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They have power over us and our livestock. We serve them at their pleasure, and we are in great misery.
It’s interesting that they acknowledge the irony of they were given this land out of slavery. They were brought out of Egypt. They were redeemed. They were made his people. They were given the law. They were protected and provided for. They were sent into this beautiful space that had everything they needed to flourish and thrive.
And they’re back now, but they’re slaves again. Do you get how they’re still slaves? I mean, they still answer to Babylon. Like, the king has sent them back, but they still answer to him. Like, they’re Free-ish, but they’re not. Like, they’re still under the authority of this bigger kingdom that they’re still a part of.
Ezra and Nehemiah were, Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. I mean, he was a servant of the throne room of the king in Babylon. So, I guess it was actually when he was there.
But regardless, they’re still in slavery. They’re back in slavery in the land that God gave them. It’s heartbreaking. But it’s their own doing. And they own that this was God being just.
So I like question four. Arneal can answer this question probably the best. And we talked about this a few weeks ago.
But what wonders in our own story or a church’s story are worth rehearsing out loud together? There’s so many for Concord. But there’s so many for people in this room. Of the way that God has been incredibly good through incredibly hard things. That God has been with us in the good and with us in the bad.
So if you feel comfortable sharing, any wonders in your own story that you can look back on and it’s so apparent God was right there in it? I mean, that’s one of those you can look at and only God. Or, but God, which is one of my favorite Bible sentences. Because that’s the only thing that makes sense in those situations.
In my quiet time this morning, I was praying over some difficult things and asking almost for a miracle. And it was like God said, look back over the things that have been almost a miracle. And then… There was always a problem before the miracle. It was always difficult before. It’s always darkest before the dawn. That’s good.
Any other thoughts? It’s always nice to hear how God has been faithful and good to other people too. Changes and softens.
It had to do with church history and our studying of Nehemiah building the wall. Yeah, yeah. Building it in 52 days. Which was how long our turnaround was. Exactly how long it took us, 52 days, to work through the sales contract for this land. It was unheard of. Normally it takes nine months to a year. Right.
We did it in 52 days because the feds were coming in to close the savings and loan that had the loan. Which is just crazy to turn around like that. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Yeah, I think I told you guys, too, like, Westminster is interesting because it just celebrated 50 years. So when things do their anniversary, they usually come up with cool videos and stuff.
And they went back, and they were, and I’ve only been there 10 years. So, like, I don’t know the story from before I was born. And it’s amazing because not only are there teachers who have been there, since the entire, like, almost the beginning, there’s a good number of teachers that were in early graduating classes and stayed and they worked their entire career there and in the early days.
So Westminster first met at MoBAP, um, at the college. It was still Missouri Baptist College in some borrowed rooms, and then they switched, or they, they outgrew that, and there was an old Gosh on Manchester, really close to the fancy Schnucks and Dierbergs that are there, kind of De Pere, West County Mall-ish, there’s a Walgreens now, but it used to be an old school, and it was like, I think it may have been De Pere School, and they bought that, and that was Westminster for a few years, and now it grew that.
So then they moved, they bought from the Ledoux School District up on Ledoux Road, an old, I want to say it was a middle school, converted to a high school, and they were there a long time. That was a big season of growth and health for Westminster.
And then they, gosh, I think 2000, it was right before the recession. So, like, 2000, not teens yet. Like, they were outgrowing their space and, like, we got to do something.
And they found out that there used to be West County Tech, which was right at 141 and 40. And now I think we just have South County Tech. And they weren’t using it, like it was an unused, like they’re getting ready to list it, like the school district was trying to offload some assets that didn’t need it anymore. And Westminster found out and started pursuing it.
And the story is long, but it’s when, when you look at God’s faithfulness over 50 years, it’s easy for, like, the new families that are just showing up and going on tours today and see this beautiful building and nice facilities to go, like, “Oh, this is really cool.” But it’s, it’s. When you go back and look at the story, it’s unbelievable what God did so many times.
I mean, old board members took out second mortgages on their houses to cover the buying of the original nice building. And they asked families to loan the school money that the school would then repay when their youngest kid graduated. I mean, just all these creative things. And people were like, yeah, we believe in this. We’re going to do it.
And God continued to bless that, which is amazing. And it’s cool to rehearse those things because it’s just so easy to forget. We forget how God’s been good to us. Like, I can even look at our life and go, you know, pre-house fire, I kind of looked back to, like, foster care and, like, how God was so faithful and good in that season.
And I’m kind of embarrassed. Like, I don’t remember as many details of that anymore as I used to. You know, it’s only been five years, five and a half years, almost six years. Since adoption, like, your brain just kind of… you remember the story, but you don’t remember the details, and you don’t see the little miracles anymore.
And, like, and so I need to go back and read what I wrote down in that season, because we have to remember, because that holds us to God’s word when we have the next hard thing come through.
OK, we’ll never get all these questions if we don’t actually speed up. This is… this is everyone’s fault, not mine. You enable me.
Let’s see. Okay, this piggybacks off that question. Number seven. What helps you remember God’s faithfulness so our stories don’t become a repeated cycle of forgetting? What actually helps you remember? Sometimes going through something else forces you to go back and look. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s true. God is faithful. And going through the next hard thing often is good to remind us and bring us back to remembering. Even when maybe this next thing isn’t quite as big of a deal, but it still triggers back.
I think the question right before is an important thought, too. Why does plenty make forgetting so easy? I mean, my goodness. I’ve heard this phrase, and I’m probably going to say it wrong. Hard times make strong men. Easy times… Oh, gosh. Strong men make… Easy times makes hard times. Yeah. And then weak men make hard times. Yeah.
So let me know that effect of like when there’s much, oof, it is really easy to forget the hard things and just kind of rest.
I think that actually came up last week, I think, in Chapter 7 maybe or something. Where they had finished the wall. And it was like, don’t stop. Don’t let up. Keep reforming and renewing and do the right things. It would be easy once the work is done to just rest. But instead, keep pushing forward.
Okay. I’ve got to look at verse 17. I made its own question. Oh, yeah. It’s not necessarily a commanded spiritual practice, but that’s a very spiritual practice. Yeah. Yeah, that God uses. I mean, we would not have the Bible if people hadn’t written it down at some point.
And they’re coming off of a week-long memory session reading the Word and recounting all of God’s deeds. And then realize, oh, our parents didn’t do that. They gave up their God bargain. And we haven’t either. So it’s a good way to remind and to go back and to
It’s a good start for a revival. Yeah. You know, you have to have a history. So I know there’s a lot of history. Yeah. And it may be good to go back to it. Amen.
My spiritual disciplines professor, these are a lot of books on the topic, but he was a big journaler. And his heart behind it actually was really – I loved. It was not a – it was good for him. Like it was good to unpack and unwind his day, but he was also not – he did not – he liked writing, but he was like, I don’t need to write it. So he types his, but he prints it off and puts it in a binder.
And I know some people use like the voice memo app and record, and there’s a lot of ways to do it now.
But his heart behind it was when his dad passed away, his dad had been, like, I don’t remember where, I want to say Kentucky, somewhere rural, like radio guy. Like he was like long for like AM radio, like all day long. He was on the radio, and but he was in an era where like he could also be a Christian and actually talk about that, pray for people, and it was pretty neat.
And his dad and I had recorded all of these things in notebooks and they found him in his desk at the radio station after he passed away.
And to Dr. Whitney, he was like, you know, that was the trigger for me of like, I needed to start keeping a record, not because it was just good for me, but because I wanted something for my kids and my great niece or like when they randomly stumble upon or I can give them.
And for him, he was like, I just typing is easier for me and faster for and then he printed it off at work and just slide it in another binder. And he was like, I have a whole bookcase in my office of binders of just all these things, which is such a neat thing. But it does genuinely help us remember. And it gives us something for the next generation and the next generation to look back on.
So, I mean, I’ve said it before. Please buy a voice recorder if you don’t want to write stuff down and just start recording things. Like, I wish so much that I had had a voice recorder. I could have given my grandma and said, just record. Start telling stories. Just whatever you can remember, put it down. Because I can’t now.
This is the last question before we’ll move on to 10 very briefly. This is question 9. How can we bring present hardship to God honestly without accusing him? It is really easy to blame God or to ask God why. And accidentally accuse. Versus just. Here he knows the hardship. But bringing it to him. To wrestle through. To die. Never. To me it’s an impossible thought. It’s a completely impossible thought.
I think it’s nuance. I’ve said that word too much tonight, but it’s nuance. How do we present hardship to God without accusing him? We walk up. He already knows the hardship, but we still offer it to him, and we still can ask why. But our heart can ask why. Help me understand. Help me wrestle through. Give me faith to take the next step without looking at God and saying, you did this. Why would you do this?
But that’s hard. We know too many people who that’s their reaction. They very, I mean, for really dumb stuff, not catastrophic things. Like they had a hard day at work and they’re on Facebook. Like, I don’t understand why God, blah, blah, blah. And you’re like, what are you talking about? Like you had a hard day at work. So did everyone. I mean, work’s just hard sometimes.
Anyway, people are crazy.
Okay. We have to move on. We only have 20 minutes. All right. Chapter 10. There’s other good stuff I would have loved to dig into, but we can’t.
So, there are two big chunks to chapter 10 on your outline here. The first 27 is the covenant being sealed and signed by Nehemiah, then the priest, then the Levites, then the chiefs of the people, and they list them out. We will not read their names.
And then the second half is the rest of the people joining in. And like with their households, like it’s a cool.
So we’re going to read. Gosh, I’m going to skip to. Really the second half. The first half, the document was ratified and sealed with the following names. And then it lists out, as we said, the governor. And then mine has like the following priests, the following Levites, the following leaders. We’re going to pick up in 20 minutes.
Then the rest of the people, the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the pagan people of the land in order to obey the law of God, together with their wives and sons, daughters, and all who were old enough to understand, joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath. They swore a curse on themselves that they failed to obey the law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our God. Verse 30.
We promise not to let our daughters marry the pagan people of the land and not let our sons marry their daughters.
We also promise that if the people of the land should bring any merchandise or grain to be sold on the Sabbath or any other holy day, we will refuse to buy it. Every seventh year we will let our land rest, and we will cancel all debts owed to us.
In addition, we promise to obey the command to pay the annual temple tax of one-eighth of an ounce of silver for the care of the temple of our God. This will provide for the bread of the presence, for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings, for the offerings of the Sabbaths, the new moon celebrations, and the annual festivals for the holy offerings and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel. It will provide everything necessary for the work of the temple of our God.
We have cast sacred lots to determine when, at regular times each year, the families of the priests, Levites, Uncommon people should bring wood to God’s temple to be burned on the altar of the Lord our God as written in the law.
We promise to bring the first part of every harvest to the Lord’s temple year after year, whether it be a crop from the soil or from our fruit trees. We agree to give God our oldest sons and the firstborn of all our herds and flocks as prescribed in the law. We will present them to the priests who minister in the temple of our God.
We will store the produce in our storerooms of the temple of our God. We will bring the best of our flour and other grain offerings, the best of our fruit, and the best of our new wine and olive oil. And we promise to bring to the Levites a tenth of everything our land produces, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our rural towns.
So, it’s, again, a pretty honest, raw spot where they’re trying to, I mean, it’s hard to read, if you’re with me. They’re promising things that you know they don’t do, which is always hard.
You’re like watching a story unfold, and you know how it ends, and it’s just like a dagger to the heart because you know they’re going to fail, which should remind us and point us to the same struggle we have Trying to do these things on our own is indeed impossible. We can read this, and it’s a dagger to the heart because we do the same thing. We promise and promise and promise to God, and yet we can’t do this without who? Jesus. I mean, it is impossible without the gifts of the Holy Spirit to ever do these things.
So question number one. Why does it matter that the leaders put their names down first and publicly? We didn’t read them all, but the governors, the priests, the Levites, the tribe chiefs, why is it so important to them? Yeah, I think that’s very true. Why else do you think? Why does it matter that they did this first? And their names are even written down in Nehemiah here. Why did it matter for it to be so public, too?
I think it gives a lot of confidence. Oh, sorry, Chris. Yeah, yeah. There’s a deep accountability, yeah, and responsibility of, like, this is, this is, we want to be held to this.
You know, I think, like, I would never have been important enough to ever have been in the room for people writing the Declaration of Independence. But I’ve always wondered, I’m like, if you were in that room, would you have had the grit and courage to also sign?
Because I think, and I don’t remember exactly how many signatures there are, but all the names that are on there, does anyone actually know? That’d be a cool fact if someone just pulled that out of, no, okay.
It gives so much more confidence to everyone who follows because they can see, oh, wow, like there was agreement. And like all of these folks like cared enough to like honestly sign a treasonous document and I’ll follow them because there’s confidence now. Like there’s leaders who have spoken and stood up and they’ve owned the mistakes and they’ve put their accountability down like we want to be held to this. So I think it is a lot of confidence.
If I was one of the, I would have been one of the minions. I would have been then the rest of the people. I would have been one of those. And now I would feel much more confident following in line because our leaders all sign their names publicly to something. That matters. Especially when it’s holding fast to God’s word.
Do you prefer vague good intentions or specific accountable actions? Commitments. This should be easy. I prefer the specific. Man, I’m such an annoying teacher. I know I am. Because if a kid looks at me in the eyes like, oh, Mr. Malloy, I’ll do better. I’ll do better. I’m like, tell me what you mean by better. I’m just so obnoxious.
But I want them to think about it. Don’t just tell me you’ll do better. What does better mean to you? Does it mean you’ll just… hide it better, or does it mean you’ll actually try? Um, because I prefer the, the specific. I would rather someone not even apologize for something or say something unless it’s, it’s clear. Like, don’t give me vague platitudes. I don’t need it. Like, we live in a world of vague platitudes.
Um, okay.
They listed several things in here. They talked about the temple tax. They talked about the Sabbath. They talked about the Levitical provision.
The question three kind of leans into those. Which of those is the most countercultural today, though? They talk about Sabbath rest. They talk about generosity. And they talk about not giving our sons and daughters to the pagan people around us.
What’s the weirdest one now? Or all of those counter-cultural again. I mean, my goodness. Like, there’s just… I mean, it’s no different than any other day. It’s no different than any other day.
We really have to fight hard at home. Like, after church… We go home, eat lunch, and everyone goes to a different spot in the house.
The kids have these little boxes called Yodo. And it’s like an audio book thing where they just take a little, it looks like a hotel key card in and they can listen to a book. They love it, but they also hate it. But they need it. They need the pause just to rest. And mom and dad also need the pause just to rest. It’s the only slow day of the week. And Sunday mornings don’t feel slow or restful.
Um, going a hundred miles an hour, but it is crazy how often there’ll be like an extra sport practice that someone’s like, Hey, we’re going to go practice at such and such school. And we’re like out, like, but you’re the weirdos for saying we’re out or friend, all their friends, like there’s a birthday party or something. You’re like, like that was a hard one. Cause you don’t want your kid to be excluded, but you’re also like, no, this is, this is Sabbath. And we’re going to actually Sabbath on the Sabbath. Like we’re going to do this.
Um, Claire and I fight pretty hard to not even do work stuff. It’s hard because your phone’s always right there. And your work email is one click away. But no one needs me that bad on Sunday. I don’t teach classes. Well, I guess it’s Sunday school. But I don’t do that email on Sunday. It’s hard, but it’s important. And I think Sabbath rest might be the weirdest.
Generosity, like St. Louis is weirdly rated as one of the most generous cities in America, which is kind of neat. I don’t really know the reasoning why, but I’ve heard that before.
And I think even in secular world, there are so many books that talk about the concept of like, you are the people you’re around. You’re some of your five closest friendships. We know that. All the stats, they even show it, when I was in college it didn’t exist, but I know now there’s, like, honors colleges within, like, or dorms for, like, smart kids. So, like, not smart kids. The kids who are, well, yeah, the ones that are just academically charged.
Yeah, and those dorms, they’ve done the stats. I saw this in my dorm. Freshman, sophomore year before I was an RA, it was pretty mixed. You had some athletes, you had some non, you had some smart kids. And it was a good enough balance that it was never a lazy hall. It was just kind of in the middle.
Well, then when I became the RA, because I’m huge, they put all of the freshman football players in my hall because they’re like, oh, Brian can keep them in line. Oh, man, it changed the whole dynamic of the hall like that. And it was amazing how the couple kids who were still there that were academic, their grades dropped.
So they’ve done the stats. I watched it, but they’ve done the stats of if you take a C average kid in high school, put them on a hall in college full of all the A honors kids, his grades go up. If you do the opposite, honors kid goes down. We figured it out.
But Sabbath rest has got to be the weirdest one today. Like, why would you rest? I mean, Chick-fil-A gets kind of mocked sometimes of like, look how many billions you could make if you just open on Sunday. And I will admit, sometimes I would really like it was open on Sunday driving home, but I’m glad they don’t.
Okay, question five. When I resolve to do better, just like the Hebrews are doing here, where do I expect that strength to come from? Because there’s a right answer here. And then there’s the answer we actually tend to live. So what’s the right answer? God over self. Yeah, God over self. But how often is that not our first try? I mean, we’re Americans. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. It’s like wired into us that like, you should try harder.
Well, okay, I’ve tried trying harder and it’s not working. I need the Holy Spirit. I can’t do this on my own.
So, for the sake of where we’re at, there’s a few last things. I wrote down in the gray little section there, Nehemiah 9 and 10.
We’re really witnessing the Hebrews struggle through the same thing we struggle with all the time. It’s the same exact thing.
We hear the word, but then… We struggle to implement. We have really, really good intentions, but then we get stubborn and sidetracked and distracted.
They even bound themselves to walk in his way. They said that they wanted a curse to come upon them. Verse 29, they swore a curse on themselves that they failed to obey the law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They can’t obey the law of God. The whole point, this goes to Romans. If you were in my class on Sunday mornings, you’d hear this too.
The law was given. So we realized we couldn’t do it ourselves. The law shows us the power of sin and the power of sin shows us we need a savior.
So they’re, they’re making a commitment and calling a curse in themselves to do a thing they actually can’t do without the help of God. They can’t do this without the spirit. They can’t do this without a savior who comes between them and is the intermediary between them and, and a just holy God.
Um, and I wrote down, I think, where is it? Yeah, it points beyond. Like this idea, like this whole story doesn’t end with like they signed a document. They’re all better now.
But it points beyond to the one who can do what we can’t do ourselves. Jesus came to do what we could not do ourselves.
So there’s a few questions that are kind of the ponder as we walk away questions. When God’s word exposes your sin, do you confess it specifically and honestly? No. That question’s too long. And do you come expecting a God who is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love? I don’t know. Only you and the Spirit can know that.
But when God’s word exposes your sin, do we confess? Are we honest? This question, the last two were really the ones I wanted to lean into.
When you resolve to do better, are you trusting your own promise? Or are you asking the one who keeps covenant to do in you what he commands?
Because I know there are times when I resolve to do better, I am resolving to do better. Not resolving and asking God, please do in me what you have said you will do. It’s a difference. It’s just a few words, but it’s a different heart and different attitude. Which then I rephrase the last one.
Let’s do a little pause and wrap up. How is telling God I will do better different from asking him to do in us what he requires? How is telling God I will do better different than asking him to do in us what he requires? Yeah, it’s focusing on self versus God. Which, again, goes back to that idea of their prayer.
They started off glorifying God. And praising God because they knew this is the God who did all these things. And here’s how he’s provided. Even the stubborn foolishness of our ancestors, this is who he is. Yeah, Terry.
Brian, it talks about letting your land lay fallow on the seventh year. It’s amazing what that does for the soil. Yes. Yes. And we wear it out today. I’ve heard. I’m not a farmer. But I have heard. Between the US, Canada, Britain, a few others, we have worked our ground so hard. I could be totally wrong, but it was something like less than 100 years of nutrient is still left in the soil because we pushed it so hard.
I’m not advocating for the show. There’s a lot of language because it’s British and they just don’t… Wow, their language is different. Same language, English, but the words that they choose are racier.
But it’s called Clarkson’s Farm. Jeremy Clarkson was a writer, one of the premier writers of auto stuff, like cars in England. But he owned this beautiful farm in the Codswolds. And after his farm manager was retiring, he’s like, “I’m going to go manage my farm.” And it’s humorous enough they made a show out of it because he has no idea what he’s doing. I mean, he’s a journalist. He’s literally just written about cars his whole life.
But it’s neat because what they do is he gets into the research side of it and understands the idea of regenerative farming and how it changes things. And it’s… Even the rest of our land matters. So much of this matters.
So when we look at this idea of how is telling God “I will do better” different than asking him to do in us what he requires, it’s surrender. It’s surrender. Like, I’m going to rest.
Sabbath is a countercultural idea. It is anti-American because we are productive and we get things done, and we use every inch of the field and we use every ounce of our time.
Sometimes we have to know, I’m pausing, I am resting, my better is trusting God to do the things I can’t do.
Because in the end, they had the same struggle we do. They needed God to do what they couldn’t do. And we are in the same spot. Praise the Lord for Jesus. Praise the Lord.
Any thoughts before we pray? Okay, let’s pray. Father God, thank you. Man, thank you for, who knew, I’ve loved Ezra and Nehemiah so much. There’s so much depth and beauty and so much Jesus that points us right back to you. You who did what we could not do for ourselves. And all of our good intentions, all of our hopes, all of our aspirations, God, we can’t do it without you. So thank you. Thank you for doing what we couldn’t do.
Help us to see the example here of the Israelites who struggled and who wrestled through. But help us to see the good example, too, of a prayer that lays bare and vulnerable all of the sin and brokenness, but yet also all the goodness that you’ve given to us. Help us to not forget. Help us to hold fast to your truth. And help us to always come back to your word. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right, next week we are doing 11, 12, and 13, which sounds really dicey, but I want the last week because we only have two more weeks after this, which is crazy.
I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving. What’s that? We have two weeks, right? Do we have three weeks? We only have one week? No! Jim, check the calendar. That’s… No! I thought we had…
