Rise Up and Build: What Happens When You Actually Listen

Dr. Gregg Marutzky:

Well, for those of you that have been playing, paying very close attention,

you're gonna see that we're not doing no.

Uh, Nehemiah chapter seven this morning because, uh, it's, uh, a census, it's a,

a genealogy, it's a, uh, record of all the exiles that returned from Babylon.

And, uh, there's just too many Hebrew names.

Amen.

No, I want you to read that.

It's very interesting stuff and there is a very important message in lesson there.

And if you'd like to, uh, email me and I'll send you my notes, uh,

on that chapter, verse by verse in Exposition of the passage.

But, uh, basically what's really sad about it is those that did not have their

documents, they did not keep a record of their bloodline, their heritage.

They were not able to receive the blessings of being a

part of the family of God.

And so, uh, that's why we always give you a baptismal certificate.

A lot of people don't keep it.

It's to be a good thing.

I have ordination papers, I have my diplomas.

There's some things you need to keep according to Nehemiah chapter seven.

So that's the sermon from chapter seven.

Let's turn to chapter eight.

Amen.

You know, uh.

Little Johnny was a, a bit of a rambunctious boy and, uh, uh, the, the,

his parents went to church though, and they asked the preacher to come over

for Sunday dinner and he came over for Sunday dinner and, and, uh, the father

asked the preacher if he wanted to see the, the blessing for the food for lunch.

And so, uh, he said he did.

And he prayed for the whole family.

He especially prayed for Johnny.

He prayed that Johnny would be.

Raising a good, strong Christian family.

And then after the, the prayer was over, the Johnny just was broke out in, in

tears and was sobbing and he was crying.

And, and, uh, his, his, his mother tried to console him, said, Johnny,

what's the, what's, what's wrong?

Well, what, what's the matter?

He says, well, the preacher wants me to raise, be raised in a Christian family,

and I wanna stay here in this family.

And the joke is yours.

You can do with it as you'd like.

We're gonna be talking about the sacred this morning.

What is sacred to you in your life?

This confession that I've been asking you to make at the beginning

of each, uh, sermon is sacred.

It's a sacred oath.

It's a sacred vow.

It's a sacred statement of faith, and I hope that you have some

things that you hold sacred and holy and divine in your life.

Let's say it together.

Let's say it together, beginning with Jesus.

Jesus is the son of God, and the second part, Jesus is Lord, this isn't just, uh.

Formality.

This just isn't a tradition or a habit.

I want us to get into this truly is the bedrock and the foundation

of our faith, of our church.

This confession that Jesus is who he said he was, and that's why we're

trying to rise up and build this church, and we've got so much great

material from the book of Nehemiah.

Uh, today, uh, as I said, what we're gonna talk about is the power of the

sacred, but specifically the sacred word.

And we're not gonna reenact exactly what they did because they had to

stand for the reason of the law from nine in the morning until noon.

I'm not gonna make you do that this morning.

It's just a, a benefit of you having a, a more mature, legacy aged, uh, preacher.

I wouldn't want to stand for three hours, so I'm not gonna make you All right.

Uh, you don't get these old jokes.

I, I, I, I, I'm gonna have to work on it.

All right.

But today we're gonna tell Oh, you got it.

It just wasn't funny.

All right.

Amen.

Well, it's good to have the college students down front.

Amen.

Yeah.

Amen.

Let's get right into scripture.

Beginning of verse one, Nehemiah chapter eight.

All the people came together as one in the square before the Watergate.

They told Ezra, the teacher of the law to bring out the book of the law of Moses,

which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

Watergate was a perfect place for this setting.

It was a backdrop where as he was reading, they'd be, they'd hear

because it was a good sound barrier, but it was also a great symbol.

Water in the Christian faith is for cleansing.

It's for making holy, for making sacred.

Baptism is our sacred ritual to become a Christian, to be born again,

to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, to be forgiven of our sins.

And so this is a perfect backdrop for Ezra to begin to read the law.

What does the sacred mean?

The sacred is what's not common, what's divine, what's not

necessarily normal, in fact.

Something that's the opposite of sacred is profane.

Profanity is a form of mocking the sacred.

I just made a list of a few of the things that we're gonna talk about

just from this passage this morning, and so we're gonna have to go quickly.

But here's what this passage tells us that the sacred, the, the, the

scriptures are sacred, the assembly.

This assembly is sacred.

A certain acts that we do are sacred.

Unity is sacred, solidarity is sacred.

Sometimes you have to take what's called a sacred stand, and we'll talk about that.

Sacred worship shit.

Sacred instruction.

This is really interesting when we get to it.

Sacred truth, A sacred response to truth.

A sacred spirit caused by truth.

Sacred gifts.

Sacred celebration.

Sacred leadership.

Sacred ritual.

Sacred sacrifice.

A sacred retreat.

Amen.

Sacred remembrance.

Producing sacred revival.

I did what most people do today.

I used AI to research sacred, and one of the symbols and

images that I came up with.

Or AI came up with.

So blame the computer is, uh, the sacred heart of Jesus.

And there's some things that, uh, I really appreciate about the Catholic Church that

cause us to focus on different aspects that of our faith and of Christianity that

we wouldn't necessarily, and I like this.

This symbol of the sacred heart because it has three el uh, four

different, five different elements.

It has the wound, a spear going into the heart.

It has the top of the heart being different from the rest of the

heart, so, so shows it's exposed.

The thorn of crowns going around the heart, the flames coming out

of the top, and then the cross.

As the symbol of Christianity at the very top of the heart, all these

things can draw us to Jesus, to his heart, and to what's sacred about

Jesus, the cross, especially for me.

In Romans 10, in verse 17, it says, consequently, faith comes by hearing

and hearing by what is preached, and that is the word of God.

This will become a sacred assembly if you open up your heart, your mind, your

soul, your spirit to the word of God, not just to a sermon, not just to words,

but to listen to the voice of God.

It.

There's a time in this service where the spirit begin, can begin to move,

and all of a sudden something begins to happen to you and to your spirit.

You begin to connect with the holy.

This does become sacred ground, but it's up to each one of us.

I fight in sermons to listen, to pay attention.

I'm too, too prone to to critique.

To critically analyze, to, to look at the, the method and the, the, all the

things that I've been taught about preaching to just open up my heart.

And you've heard a lot of sermons, and so you, you know what you

like, what you don't like.

I hope what you really like is the word of God.

Psalms one 19 in verse 60.

All your words are true.

Yeah.

One translation says is some of thy word is truth, and all of your righteous

ordinances or laws are eternal.

James 1 22 warns us.

Don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourself.

Do what it says, verse two, Nehemiah eight.

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 could what?

Understand

everyone can understand spiritual things if they want to, but not all try to.

And it's interesting and it was a very fitting day.

This is the new Year's day for the these people.

For the Israelites?

For the Hebrews, this was, it was in the middle of the year.

Well, really towards the, the autumn of the year.

And why are they reading the law?

Why?

Why do I preach expository sermons?

We use topical stuff at midweek and in family groups.

But on Sunday, I have a conviction.

It's gonna come straight from the word.

Because you didn't come to hear me.

You came to hear God.

And I don't believe in any other kind of preaching, and I've even had people

try to convince me to do otherwise.

And it's deeply embedded in me that we all, including

me, need to hear God's word.

Amen.

Theus 2223 through 25 says, the Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites,

on the first day of the seventh month, you're to have a day of Sabbath rest,

a sacred assembly commemorated with.

Trumpet blast.

Do not do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord Rosh Asana.

The head of the year is what that literally means, the beginning

of the Feast of Trumpets.

There isn't a whole lot in the scriptures about the Feast of Trumpets.

It just says they blew their horn.

They celebrated, they gave an offer, and they had a sacred Sabbath.

To mark the beginning of the year to fresh start for God's people every year.

They celebrated this feast.

They had seven celebrations a year, three in the, in the, in the fall

of the year, and this marked the beginning of it, the trumpet blast.

I can't play the Trump, but I tried.

Had an older brother that did.

He sounded great.

I mean, he was like, herb Albert, most of you don't know who that is except

for some of these folks over here.

So I tried and I'd puck her up and I'd get, I'd really, you know, I

have a lot of hot air, I think, and I just couldn't play it.

And another brother played the clarinet and my mom tried to get me to play that.

You know, clarinets are harder than Trump.

You got those reeds, you gotta suck on 'em and get 'em just the right

moisture and just couldn't do it.

Just couldn't do it.

So I tried the drums, you know, bam, bam.

But I couldn't keep time, so I gave up on that.

Just focused on sports, you know, hard head is good for sports, so I did well.

I did well,

but I admire those that can play.

I admire those that play the bugle one note, but they

can make it into many notes.

The Revely, the announcement of the beginning of the year, and it

was also for spiritual cleansing.

This, these feast, Leviticus 23 in verse 27 says, the 10th day of the

seventh month is the Day of Atonement.

Hold the sacred assembly and deny yourself.

And present a food offering to the Lord, huh?

Sometimes you have to deny yourself to give the Lord.

Sometimes we just give the Lord our leftovers So wrong.

So very wrong.

It's not holding the sacred, sacred, it's profaning the sacred.

In fact, to give God your leftovers, according to Malachi, Psalm one 19,

verse 60 says, all your words are true.

Amen.

So we're gonna look at here in Miah, the Feast of the Trumpets,

the Day of Atonement, and then the Feast of Tabernacles.

That's gonna be fun.

So let's go to verse three, A sacred act.

Let's get good at making sacred acts.

It says he read it aloud from daybreak.

Oh, I'm sorry.

It was before nine o'clock in the morning.

He read it aloud from daybreak till noon, and as he faced the

square before the Watergate and the presence of the men and women and

others who could understand, huh?

Men, women, and others.

Those were the non-citizens.

And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.

Why?

'cause it was a privilege.

Very few people.

Had the scrolls, very few people could read the scrolls and

we're gonna see in a minute.

They even had an opportunity to understand the scrolls in the sacred reading.

So it was such a privilege.

They took it so much as of an honor to be able to hear the word of God.

And this convicts me, folks.

I've been reading the word of God for over 45 years now.

Every morning.

And sometimes I don't.

I don't look at it as a privilege.

Sometimes I look at it as work as a preacher.

Sometimes I look at it even as vation.

'cause with with much knowledge comes much frustration sometimes.

And sometimes if I can't understand it, then I get frustrated and I

really let need to let the spirit just speak to me and speak to my

spirit and realize what a privilege.

I mean, upstairs in my office, I have five Bibles right behind me.

I got, I got this Bible, I got another one on the front of the

desk, and then behind me, I have all these different translations.

Well, Greg, you can just pull 'em up on your iPad.

I don't like that.

I like to touch it.

Gotta have one.

Yeah.

I like to touch it.

I like to mark it.

I know where it's at in this book.

I know on what side of the page and whether it's at the top or

the bottom, the right or the left.

That's how I like to read my Bible.

That's why I don't like to get rid of 'em.

Oh, it's privilege to read the word.

It's a privilege.

I went to.

And I, I try to take an opportunity to learn new things always.

And so, uh, I believe in the, the unity of the brothers.

In, in Nehemiah eight verse four, it says, Ezra, the teacher of the law

stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion, and by him on the

right side stood Matti, uh, Mattis.

Thea, Shima, Anaya, Uriah, HIL and Massa, and his left was Padilla,

uh, Michelle Mackay Hashan.

And here's a big one, hash bad.

Nanan.

Zacharia, Ms.

Shula.

That's why we didn't do chapter seven right there.

13.

Attendance stood as readers.

With Ezra.

Wow.

Solidarity.

Why do people stand up at a wedding?

Why are there women in men attendance be as witnesses,

as supporters, as encouragers?

Ezra had all 13 of these guys standing with him in solidarity

to set an example to the people of honoring and loving the word of God.

I went with several of our brothers to Pepperdine Thursday.

To be in solidarity to proclaim the importance of fatherhood.

And you'll see the few of the brothers you recognize there.

Uh, you know, there, there there's, uh, Neil Will Neal, our

pro golfer that used to be here.

All right.

Who's that right in the middle?

Ramon.

Ramon.

He's in here somewhere.

All right.

I told him there was just gonna be a picture of him.

I didn't tell him the whole truth.

But he's right in the middle.

And then there's an elder from, uh, Simi Valley.

Dennis Vander Hook.

There's a missionary through, uh, uh, bueno Aires.

Bart Moyers.

There's uh, Kyle's Daddy, Steve Berry, and then another, uh,

fellow from here in Orange County.

Why do I show you these?

'cause we need to exalt fatherhood.

We need to be united on several important things.

And one of them is fatherhood.

And I'm really grateful I went to that because, uh, you, you

never quit being a parent.

You know, my kids are grown, but I love my kids, I love my grandkids,

and I believe in fatherhood.

Amen.

Yeah.

And at first I thought it was just for fathers and sons, and

so I thought, well, I'll go.

'cause we got a lot of fathers and sons in the church.

I only have daughters, but it wasn't, it was for fathers of

dads, uh, of, of daughters as well.

And so, uh, it was very beneficial, sacred solidarity.

And then after you have this solidarity, you've gotta make a stand.

Verse five, A sacred stand.

There we go.

Ezra opened the book and all the people could see him because he

was standing above them, and as it was open, they all stood up.

They had built a podium for him.

Standing is a gesture of respect, reverence, and righteousness.

We've become so casual, especially in the the 21st century Christian Church.

And I, I think it's good for people to feel comfortable and, you know,

wear different things and, and not just dress up and everything.

But I also think there's a time to get sacred and to get respectful

and to get reverent and to really

be righteous.

You know, it, it bothers me if the only time we'll dress up is to go to a wedding

Every once in a while.

I hope we dress.

I hope you dress up on Easter.

Oh, yeah.

We don't have to dress up every Sunday, but let's choose a few.

All right.

Just to show God he's most important.

All right.

Amen.

And some of you would've anyway, and it's awesome to see what you wear on Easter.

That's, I'm just looking forward to it.

Amen.

But they took a stand because they wanted to show respect because they believed

it was reverent reading and live.

Verse six, Ezra prayed, praised the Lord the great God, and all the people

lifted their hands and responded, amen.

Amen.

And then they bowed and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

That's reverence.

That's a posture of humility.

Amen.

And then what happened?

The people didn't all understand.

And so Nehemiah eight, seven, the Levites je, she baah jamon, aka.

And the rest of them.

Instructed the people in the law while the people were standing there.

So this is an open air Bible class.

This is an open air conference and workshop.

They workshop the people, they explain things as they went along.

They were doing first principles right there in the midst of the

reading, and then verse eight.

Why?

Because it was sacred truth.

They read from the book of the law of God, making it clear and giving

the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

It's so important sometimes, wives, you need to whisper to your

husbands or write 'em a note, help 'em to understand what it means.

No, talk to 'em later at home.

That's what the Bible says.

Explain it to 'em.

Romans 10, 14, and 15.

How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can anyone preach unless they're sent?

And as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring what?

Good news.

And then Psalms one 19 verse seven, the law of the Lord is

perfect, refreshing the soul.

Yeah.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise, the simple,

why do we need to read our Bible?

Why do we need to hear God's word over and over and over again to make us wise?

Because we're too simple.

We're full of folly, otherwise, yeah, full of foolishness because

God's word is trustworthy.

And also James four verse six.

And he gives us more grace.

That's why scripture says God opposes the proud, but gives

grace or favor to the humble.

Why do we, I need to read the word.

I won't put it on you.

I'll put it on me so I don't get proud, because the word cuts and

convicts keep, keeps my heart soft like a good Hallmark movie.

Oh yeah.

If you have a hard heart, you need to get on the channel.

Come on now.

Nehemiah eight, nine.

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest, and the teacher of the law and

the Levites who were instructing the people, said to them all, what this day

is holy or sacred to the Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep for all the people who have been weeping.

As they listened to the words of God, they had spiritual conviction.

I mean, as they were reading it just made 'em happy and also convicted.

'em.

They got both emotions.

They're just all emotional.

That's okay.

But then the, the leaders came along and said, you know, I know it's convicting.

I know it's beautiful that we're hearing it for the first time in a long time,

but thou is the time to celebrate.

There's a time for everything.

Now is not the time.

To weep and to wail.

It's the time to feast and celebrate sacred.

Here are a few things.

I hold sacred.

I hold my word sacred.

I want you to be able to trust everything I say.

I try to be exact in my language.

I'm try to be careful.

I haven't always been that way.

When I was young, man, I let it rip.

I said whatever I thought I said it.

What I thought was.

Meaningful needed to say.

I got 'em told, but I didn't get anybody sold.

I was young.

It's simple.

And now hopefully I'm more wise and respectful and exact,

but I believe in my vows.

I believe in what this ring means.

I've been faithful to the things I said that day, and I will be until I die.

Amen.

And if you can't hold something sacred, shame on you.

Christians, especially, we should be able to hold.

Marriage is sacred, sacred communion.

When I take a communion, I stop.

I focus, I say the body and the blood of Jesus.

I think Jesus, I try to have a mini conversion every Sunday.

I don't know about you, but I need it.

Yeah.

If you don't need it, wow.

Go into the ministry.

All right.

We need people like you in the ministry.

Sacred communion, baptism.

I sort of get, I struggle.

I'll just be honest with you.

When people do cat calls, theory, baptisms, I'm like, isn't anything sacred?

Yeah.

Hush for a minute, and then cheer, especially when they're making their

confession of faith, especially when the preacher is raising his hand to

God and saying, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and

the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of the Holy

Spirit to be added to God's kingdom.

Amen.

Amen.

That's sacred.

Our legalism comes through all the way down into the water.

Don't let even a toe come above, above, above the water.

God's bigger than that folks.

God's bigger than that sacred baptism.

The cross is sacred to me.

Prayer is sacred to me.

Always bothers me.

I'm getting all of it out today.

When somebody ends the prayer without saying in Jesus name, I'm

like, oh, there's only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ.

So I say it for 'em in Jesus name.

Every prayer on tv, they leave it out.

They don't want to offend any religion, so they leave it out.

Every civic prayer leaves it out.

I don't ever leave it out.

I prayed on the steps of the Capitol in Colorado, my home state, I, I prayed it

over the radio to millions of people.

In Jesus' name, I pray 'cause there's power in the name.

Prayer is sacred folks, marriage is sacred.

The scriptures are the sacred word of God.

And then I believe in sacred moments.

Every once in a while someone comes forward to repent.

Someone comes forward to, to just turn their life completely over to God.

That's a sacred moment.

When you get an aha about yourself or about God or about the grace of

God or the love of God, sometimes you can have a sacred moment driving in

your Honda RI line down the five long as you're listening to Caleb, right.

Man, there's just some times it grabs my heart and I turn it up all the way.

I don't blow my speakers, so I turn it down just a little bit,

but that's true.

Mercy came running to you.

Oh,

sacred moment.

I believe in sacred anointing When I put that oil on you.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

I'm invoking the trinity That is sacred and there's other things.

Let's keep going.

Sacred spirit.

You need to have a sacred spirit.

I need to have a sacred spirit.

Nehemiah said, go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some

to those with nothing prepared.

Because this day is holy to our Lord.

Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So after this service, he wanted them to celebrate.

And we know about the spiritual conviction in John chapter 17, that Holy

John 17 · chapter mention

Spirit was sent to convict the world of sin or righteousness and judgment.

But there's a time for everything.

In one Peter, one in verse five it says, but just as you who were called

to be holy, just as you were called to be holy, so be holy in all that

you do for it is written, be holy because I God, Yahweh, am ho is holy.

I am holy.

Verse 11, the Levites calm down.

All the people saying be still for this is a holy day.

Do not grieve.

It was corporate repentance was going on and they said, turn that morning into joy.

Let there be corporate celebration, verse 12.

Then all the people went away to eat and to drink, to send portions of

food and to celebrate with great joy because they now what understood the

words that had been made known to them.

Wow.

When you understand truth, guys, it makes you feel good.

When you speak truth, when you confess truth, it makes you feel good.

It just makes you want to praise God and celebrate.

That was the Day of Atonement.

And then verse 14, a sacred ritual they found written in the law,

which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to

live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month.

Now they had their houses and they were trying to move back into Jerusalem and

move back into these houses, and they had built their new houses into the wall.

And so then why do we have to park ourselves outside in tents so that

we'll realize everything comes from God and this world is temporary.

Every year.

They made all the people.

Live in least a three walled tent.

You could have 1 1 1 end open because you know you're in the desert.

It's pretty hot.

But it, they'd have these temporary shelters, the Festival of the Tabernacles,

to remind them of the wilderness WA wandering, but also most importantly, to

remind them that this world is temporary.

Don't make God take everything away from you to remind you.

He took everything away from him and sent him to Egypt.

He took everything away, away from him in the promised land and sent 'em to Babylon.

There's times God has to take things away from us, for us to get

perspective and appreciate what we have.

Don't learn the hard way.

Learn the easy way.

Amen.

Celebrate every once in a while fast.

Every once in a while, take something away from yourself.

That's what fasting is.

You take something away from your yourself so you can be

more spiritual and reflective.

Make a spiritual.

Sacrifice Nehemiah eight 15 and that they should proclaim the 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 and palms and shade trees to make

temporary shelters as it is written.

Why?

So they could give a special contribution.

Two Chronicles eight 13.

According to the daily requirements for offerings commanded by Moses for

the Sabbaths, the New moons, and the three annual festivals, the Festival of

Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and this one, the Festival of Tabernacles.

So then what do they do?

They had a sacred retreat right before the outside of the temple.

Right within the walls, but still not in their homes.

So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves

temporary shelters on their own roofs.

Okay, there it is.

For some of them in their courtyards and in the courtyard courts of the

House of God, and in the Square by the Watergate and the one by the

gate of Ephraim, they disrupted their routine to just focus on God.

A spiritual retreat, Leviticus 2334, say to the Israelites on the

15th day of the seventh month of the Lord, the Feast of Tabernacles

begins and it lasts for seven days.

We had a spiritual retreat, the staff on uh, Sunday night,

Monday and Tuesday of this week.

And I, I kick myself.

I, I'm not a Polaroid guy.

I don't, I don't get pictures.

I don't, I need to take more pictures, you know.

I'm not a selfie guy.

I don't take pictures, but I did take pictures of something

on the retreat, the food.

Oh my goodness.

This was enough for the whole staff.

This, we, we had leftovers from this that, that we took, and I ate till I was full.

I, I ate the briskets and the ribs and the beans, little bit of the cold slaw.

Oh, I love that cornbread there.

And they also brought out some Texas toast.

Oh.

And I won't tell you which staff member ate the big, uh, bone thing.

I don't even know what it's called.

Dinosaur bone.

Dinosaur bone.

All right.

But oh, it just fell off.

Fell off the bone.

It was so, uh, there's a time to feast My house church is

having a, a feast this afternoon.

We're going to one of the members' houses, so I don't, I better finish this sermon.

So, 'cause now you're hungry.

Verse 17.

Sacred Remembrance.

The whole company that had returned from exile built the temporary shelters and

lived in them from the days of Joshua's son of none until the day that the

Israelites had not celebrated it like this, and their joy was very great.

Sometimes you just just gotta start where you're at, and they had to start over

verse 18, day after day, from the first day to the last, as we read the book of

the law, they celebrated the festivals for seven days and on the eighth day in

accordance with the regulation, there was a sacred revival, sacred assembly.

According to Psalms one 19, praise be to you Lord.

Teach me your decrees with your lips.

I recount the laws that come from your mouth.

I rejoice in following your statue as one rejoices in great riches.

Meditate on your precepts.

Consider your ways.

I delight your decrees.

I will not neglect your word.

And the church said.

Amen.

Amen to the sacred word of God.

What are the things we learned from this passage this morning?

The scriptures are sacred to be revered and treated as holy.

The word of God is sacred in the foundations for us to take our stand.

The sacred scriptures are need to be explained and applied

practically to our lives.

The sacred scriptures produce what?

Sacred worship and sacred assembly.

And the Sacred Assembly creates cleansing and repentance and peace and rejoicing.

The sacred reading of scripture does require obedience and always

sacrifice, if you notice that.

And then what can we take with us from this sermon for this week, for

this month, for this sheer, the word of God is the source of your faith.

Amen And righteousness.

Love it.

Meditate on it.

Cherish it, read it.

If you're stale in your Bible study, get a different translation.

Do something.

All right.

The word of God brings light and illumination in our journey.

There's so many people that still live in the shadows and live in the darkness.

Even this Christians, if you can read the word, you're gonna get more full of light.

Just keep reading it.

You'll change from one degree to another.

Oh, I need so much help.

Oh, I need this, I need that.

No, you just need to read the word of God.

The Word of God is respected and revered.

It's sacred and holy.

It cleanses us of our sins.

It helps us to celebrate with feasting.

It produces corporate repentance and worship, and it produces a

moment of mourning before the joy and then produces continual.

Celebration of people of God that's in the word of God will be a happy people.

Yeah.

Right.

The word of God.

That's where it starts guys.

It's what it's all about.

It's taken us eight chapters

to get away from just building the physical, to building the spiritual.

Here we are.

Here we are.

I know we had to wait for it.

One brother wanted it, the first sermon.

Well, you're gonna get it for a while now in these sermons.

Amen.

Nehemiah's.

Good stuff.

God bless you, church.

And the church said amen.

Amen.