Being an Overcomer Revived, Restored, and Renewed Nehemiah 8,9,10

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1 Being an Overcomer Revived, Restored, and Renewed Nehemiah 8,9,10 Page 1 of 11 Have you ever seen one of those vacation advertisements for a tropical vacation in someplace exotic like Tahiti that promise you that you will be Revived, Restored, and Renewed when you take their vacation trip? What they don t tell you is that it is going to take you 12 hours of traveling to get there and 12 hours of traveling to get home and you are going to need a vacation to recuperate when you get home. That does not include the sunburn, jellyfish stings, and lost luggage. Only God can revive, restore, and renew us. God did that for His people in the days of Nehemiah and He will do it for us. Isn t that exciting? So how can we receive God s work of grace to Revive, Restore, and Renew? Let s pray and ask God to show us. It begins by: 1. Receiving the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:1-3)

2 Page 2 of 11 Nehemiah 8:1 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, 8 all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. 2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. NIV Notice it says, All the people. When all the people of God listen attentively to the Word of God, Revival, Restoration, and Renewal are on the horizon. When the people in a church are listening attentively to the Word of God, a great movement of the Spirit will follow. That church will see God at work in mighty and marvelous ways. But, it all begins with one. It all begins with you and me. Notice also that it says all the people listened attentively. Listening attentively means their hearts were open to receive God s Word.

3 Page 3 of 11 Many times our minds and hearts are not receptive to God s Word. Sometimes, we put our minds in neutral and are not actively seeking to hear from God. Other times our minds are preoccupied with other thoughts and what God is trying to say to us we never receive. Sometimes, we neglect God s Word. We don t read it on our own and we do not study it with others. We think we can live just fine without it, which is a terrible state of deception that many believers in America find themselves in. They do not understand the dire necessity of God s Word. Jesus made this statement in Matthew 4:4 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" NIV God s word is as essential to life as daily food. Sometimes, we know that something we are doing is not pleasing to God. When our lifestyle is not pleasing to God, we don t want to hear God s Word and we do not listen to it. We avoid it all together.

4 Page 4 of 11 James 1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. -It is not only talking about saving us from judgment, but also from the evil of this world. Receiving the Word will save us from making bad choices. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. -There are many who go to church and physically hear the Words of the Bible, but have no intention of obeying it. That is deceiving yourself. That is religion at its worst. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it he will be blessed in what he does. NIV So, the first step to being Revived, Restored, and Renewed is to Receive the Word of God.

5 Page 5 of 11 Next, it takes: 2. Contrition over disobedience Nehemiah 8:5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. NIV Notice that they worshiped God. They praised the Lord, the great God; and they lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen! They bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their face to the ground. True worship always leads to surrender to God and that enables us to hear His voice. Real worship leads to contrition. In verse 7, The Levites instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and

6 giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read. Page 6 of 11 9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. NIV Notice that all of the people were weeping as they listened to the Word of God. They had great sorrow over their sin. Their sorrow was not just worldly. Worldly sorrow comes because of the consequence. I am hurting because of what I did. It was Godly sorrow as described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. NIV Godly sorrow or contrition brings a change in our lifestyle. We desire to do what is pleasing to God. It takes contrition to be Revived, Restored, and Renewed by God s grace.

7 Page 7 of 11 It also takes: 3. Obedience to the Word of God Notice the last part of Nehemiah 8:10 Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." NIV Strength for what? Obedience. After Contrition or Godly sorrow comes Joy. God doesn t want us to go around sad all the time. He wants us to come to Him with a contrite heart so He can forgive us and restore the joy of our relationship with Him. On the second day, they are back listening to God s Word. Nehemiah 8:14 They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month 15 and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: "Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make booths"-as it is written. 16 So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths NIV

8 Page 8 of 11 They obeyed the Word. Nehemiah 8:17 From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great. NIV Nehemiah 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. NIV The rest of Chapter 9 records the people recounting the goodness and grace of God and the unfaithfulness of the people of God. It goes from creation, the choosing of Abram, to Israel s deliverance out of Egypt, to their conquest of Canaan, to the conquest of Israel by foreign nations and their exile, to their return to the land of Israel and their present condition.

9 Page 9 of 11 Look at Nehemiah 9:38 "In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it." NIV Then in Chapter 10 we have a list of all those that signed it. What was the binding agreement? It is found in Nehemiah 10:29 an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord. NIV In verse 30, they promised to obey the commandment not to give their children in marriage to those who were not a part of the people of God. We are commanded in a similar way under the New Covenant in 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? NIV In verse 31, they promised to obey the commandment not to buy or sell on the Sabbath.

10 Page 10 of 11 Let me stop and answer the question that may pop into somebody s mind. Why do Christians not obey this commandment today? This commandment is a part of the Old Covenant given by God through Moses. It was fulfilled by Jesus and He has given us the New Covenant. The New Covenant and its commandments are all given to us in the New Testament or what should be called the New Covenant. In the rest of Chapter 10, the people promise to give faithfully to God. Which is summed up by the last part of Nehemiah 10:39 "We will not neglect the house of our God." NIV We are commanded in a similar way under the New Covenant in 1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. NIV As believers, we are commanded to give an offering to the local church that is proportional to our income. The Old Covenant standard was to give 10% of your income and is a great place for us to start who are under the New Covenant.

11 Page 11 of 11 When we all give this way, God will not only bless us as individuals, but God will also bless us as a church and we will have the resources to fulfill our calling to seek and to save the lost. This is God s financial plan for the church, not fundraisers, bingo, or yard sales. So the people of God under Nehemiah s leadership 1. Received the Word of God 2. There was real Contrition over disobedience. And 3. There was Obedience to the Word of God. God in His grace brought Revival, Restoration, and Renewal. God will do the same for you and for me.