Nehemiah 13 — PS: Stay Focused, Engaged, Surrendered

Then Nehemiah confronts them, of course, and he says, I commanded that the door should be shut, and I stationed some of my servants at the gates. Then I commanded the Levites to keep the Sabbath day holy. God had given them a repeatable way to stay surrendered, and it was this, bake in a day every week where you are overtly reminded that you need me. In an agrarian society where you are subsisting off of the land, we're gonna take a day where you can't do for yourself, but you've got to rely on me. And every week, instead of that cycle being years long like it has been for me so many times, gonna do this every week, God says. Pattern, by the way, that God modeled in Genesis so that every week we come to a worship, we come to a place of rest, we come to a place of reminder. I need to stay surrendered before the Lord. [00:47:48] (56 seconds)  #SabbathRhythm

Somebody asked me, not long ago, what the key to discipline is? And I think it's this, is that discipline is simply your actual priorities on display. Being a disciplined person is no magical thing because literally every person in this room is a disciplined person. You are. You're being you're disciplined in something. You are disciplined at whatever it is you do. It's really simple. Making your desired priorities match what you actually do. If I were to give you all five minutes to pull out a card and a pen and to write down your top five priorities in your life, you would all write down your ideal priorities. [00:41:58] (43 seconds)  #PriorityDiscipline

You know, success in the lives of the people here in the book of Nehemiah wasn't that they built the wall. That's not the big in the book of Nehemiah. Success for the people, you know, in the lives of the people here in the book of Nehemiah wasn't that the activity at the temple had returned even. Success would be that they were a people who remembered to stay focused on the Lord, engaged in his work in the world, surrendered to his plan for them because that was God's desire from the very beginning. Not that they build walls and buildings, but that they'd be close to him, that they'd be focused on him, that they'd been engaged in his work and surrendered to him because he's a good God who offers a good life and a good gift in in in the form of his grace to his people. [00:50:15] (50 seconds)  #FaithOverStructures

Now I wanna be clear about this so you don't misinterpret this text. This not intermarrying and all of this is not about foreigners. This issue is not about nationality. It's not about ethnicity at all. It was about allowing people who don't worship the one true God to live in the temple, to be in leadership over our worship, or to bring them into the most intimate relationship, which is marriage because they'll pull your heart away from the Lord. Paul clearly covered this in the New Testament for Christians still today. That he said to the Corinthian church who was in the middle of a, a very kind of blended up society worshiping all kinds of different things. He said, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. [00:34:33] (51 seconds)  #WatchYourCompany

Four times throughout this chapter in Nehemiah, after he confronts them about something they had forgotten to do, after the focus, the engagement, the surrender, all of that, he he says something over and over again. Look, In verse 14, remember me, oh my God. Verse 22, remember this also in my favor, oh my God. Verse 29, remember them, oh my God. Verse 31, remember me, oh my God. Here's the point. As Nehemiah reminds the people in this postscript to not forget, he knows they're gonna forget. [00:52:45] (38 seconds)  #RememberHeRemembers

He knows, like, we're gonna get on this cycle again even though listen. In in throughout the through the power of the holy spirit, we wanna continue to grow in sanctification. We wanna grow in this. We wanna live into these things so that we can experience this side of heaven, the life that God has for us. But friends, this is the gospel right in the middle of the book of Nehemiah. Because when we forget, Nehemiah knows we have a God who doesn't. Nehemiah knows we've got a God who is faithful. When we mess up, he keeps on being who he said he would be. When we botch it, he gets it right. When we forget, he remembers because he alone is faithful. The message of Nehemiah is not about a wall. It's not about a temple. It's not even about the people, it's about a faithful God who always keeps his promises, remembers, and displays his love. [00:53:23] (52 seconds)  #FaithfulGod

Think about the people of Nehemiah. If you wanna summarize the whole book, it was God that brought them back. Who can change the heart of a king in Babylon to bring back God's people so that they can experience God's plan in the land that he had for them. But God, God did this. Then he provided for them. He gave them the resources from surprising places so that they could worship God the way that God wanted them to. He spoke to them. He led them, and their enemies marveled at what God had done. And he continued to call them back time and time again. And is that not us? He called us out of slavery to our sin. He called us out of our consequence of death. He brought us back, he says, to give us the life that he came to give us from the very beginning. [00:54:22] (65 seconds)  #GodRestoresUs

And he resourced it from the most surprising of places, through the blood of his son Jesus Christ so that we could worship him the way they originally intended us to. Not to build a physical building, but to build a people whose hearts in the form of the church are centered on him. This is the gospel in Nehemiah that, hey. This is the ideal. We wanna grow in this. Those are all pointers for us to take away. But I know in my weakness, he is strong. I know that even when I don't get this right, God is faithful. God is good. And I'm gonna stay surrendered to him because of it. The call was there for the people in Nehemiah, and the call, the option, the opportunity is still there for us today. [00:55:27] (49 seconds)  #HeBuildsPeople