[Sunday Schoo] Nehemiah 11

Uh we are in uh week 10 of our study.

We're we're getting near the end, which means we're in Nehemiah chapter 9.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

So I'll ask you to turn there.

We have only a few chapters left of this amazing book.

Uh I'll just tell personally, it's been a I think just a wonderful and challenging journey uh going through it.

And and I don't think, however, no less for the people in it.

Um so I'm gonna dive into this here a little bit, but let's uh review as we do.

Um all right, our journey so far.

The wall is up, there has been opposition, there will continue to be opposition, though that though that's not where we center on today.

What has happened since this wall has gone up?

Do we remember?

They read the law and then they all realized that they needed to be celebrating the Feast of Booths.

Yes.

How long did they read the law?

Oh, okay, so they definitely have a with the service, a is there's definitely a multi-day celebration with this Feast of Booths.

Their their initial uh reading service is about six hours long.

And you all said we we wanted a six-hour sermon from Kenny.

Uh so I'll try to pass that along.

Um and and yeah, and then as Jill said, they discover the Feast of Booths, um, which is which there are a few records in the Old Testament, but it says they celebrate it in a way not since the days of Joshua.

Uh and and if you're and if your Bible contains Jeshua, that it's really just another way of saying it.

Um so not since before the judges have they celebrated with such fervor as everyone runs out, grabs some olive branches, myrtle, palm, whatever, and builds booths, shelters, wherever they go, on their houses, in the streets, around the temple court, in this barely filled city.

Um they celebrate, you know, God's provision to them out in the wilderness.

And and then and then they have another solemn assembly at the end of this.

And so we've come from through eight chapters of this, you know, they're a they're returning, you know, they've rebuilt the temple, but the city is still barely filled, but that actually has still not changed.

But we've had the outside opposition, we've had some internal problems, a lot of internal corruption.

That that, by the way, is still not that will still have to continue to be dealt with.

Um, but some of that is begun to be dealt with.

But now we have a growing amount of unity around really the word of God and what he has done.

They come out, they read it, uh, there's this great response that a lot of them have never heard it before.

Uh, there's people explaining it, and then there is this large response to it.

And they have one of the greatest camp outs, I think, probably ever recorded anywhere.

Um, we deferred on doing this at Hickory Grove last week, maybe next year's Labor Day.

I don't know.

We'll uh we'll grab whatever trees are still left here after the houses are finished being built, and we'll, you know, um Don and Allen make a booth.

Um materials, yeah.

Indeed, indeed.

Um and so uh chapter nine, we you know, we've we we fast forward 16 days, and they they assemble again um to once again hear the law.

And and and what are they going to do?

It's like it changed so much of their lives before, uh they've been out planning, working, and they come back.

They're returning to we are a community, and this community is centered around the word of God.

They haven't been much good, they they have been exiles that have come back, uh, but we've already seen how that has gotten a little diluted with intermarrying.

They have to figure that out through the genealogies.

Uh, they don't have the Ark of the Covenant anymore.

Um, they've still have been trying to figure out who are the priests and who are not the priests, but what they do have is the Word of God here, and that's what they come to unify here around.

So we are going to read Nehemiah 9.

Um, if for those of you who are into Bible trivia, uh most of this chapter is a prayer.

Um it is a prayer about what they have learned and what they have found about about about reading from this law.

And it is, at least by number of verses, the longest prayer written in the entire Bible.

Um it's longer than the high priestly prayer, it's longer than the temple dedication in 2 Chronicles 6, but it is, and for that, if nothing else, is very it's significant for other reasons.

As Israel really here comes to terms with generationally what do they need to need to confess, and really how have they gotten to the point where they are?

And you know, there's a lot of things I I think for us to take away from this because there's a I th I think a worrisome, I guess, cliff moment here that we look at something like this and we view it just as an interesting piece of ancient history, you know, you know, from the you know the fifth century BC.

But how they confess what they notice with God and how they are corporately really acknowledging what they have done as a people and what God has done for them as a people, and and thinking about like how that applies to us today and how God is still God is some worthy thought today.

Um, you know, we don't have to force someone to read all of this.

I don't mind reading it, but would anyone like to say start us off with say verses one through five?

Sure.

Thank you, Torah.

Nine, what's that?

Good luck.

Nine one through five?

Yeah.

A bunny is back, just so you know.

Yeah.

All right.

Now, on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dirt upon them.

The descendants of Israel separated themselves from the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and their iniquities of their fathers.

While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God, for a fourth of the day, and for another fourth, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God.

Now on the Levite's platform stood Jeshua, Boni, Kenai, Shabani, Buni, Sherebaiah, Bani, and Kennanai, and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, Jeshua, Bani, Shabanaya, Shera, Sheriff, Odin, Shabbania, and uh Pentahaiah said, Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever.

Oh, may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.

Thank you, thank you.

And so, just to be clear, the priests included Bonnie, Bunny, and another Banny.

What?

And the Jets.

And the Jets.

I I don't I don't know the contemporary, but we do have as members three Sarah's here.

So that's probably there's two Bannies.

There's two Bannies, yeah.

Yeah, then one of them was involved in the praise.

I don't know which one.

It uh me and I did not find that important to record which banny was involved in the second round of praising, but you know.

Um, would anyone say like to uh we'll continue on as a six through eight?

I'll take it.

Six through eight.

All right, six through eight.

You are the Lord, you alone.

You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the sea and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you.

You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of earth of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham.

You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hemrite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Gergeshite.

And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

Thank you, sir.

Interesting time.

I may just speed us through here a bit, though, with respect to the word.

And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers, and you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day, and you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters.

By a pillar of clouds you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go.

You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments and statutes, and the law by Moses your servant.

You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land you had sworn to give them.

But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.

They refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed great blasphemies, you and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.

The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them day by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them in the way by which they should go.

You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing.

Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted to them every corner.

So they took possession of the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and the land of Od, King of Bashan.

You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued them before the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance.

So they ate and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

Nevertheless, they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you.

And they committed great blasphemies.

Therefore you gave them into the hands of their enemies, who made them suffer.

And in time of their suffering they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors, who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them.

Yet when they turned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them back according to your mercies, and you warned them in order to turn them back to your law.

Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them.

And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.

Many years you bore with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not give ear.

Therefore you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands.

Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Now, therefore, our God, the great, mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.

Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly.

Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them, even in their own kingdom and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you, or turn from their wicked works.

Behold, we are slaves this day, in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts.

Behold, we are slaves.

And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins.

They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

Because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

Amen.

All right.

Okay.

So let's go back to that first paragraph.

And thank you, Don and Alan, for reading.

If you ever needed a good summary of the Old Testament, there it is.

And their takeaway.

David didn't even make the cut.

Og, the king of Bashan, made the cut.

Because God delivered him his lambs.

Um, okay.

So they gathered together, they were assembled with fasting and sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.

Verse one.

Okay?

Why would they do that?

Humbling themselves before God.

Why?

Why humble yourselves before God?

They were partying sixteen days ago.

Why why do they need to repent?

And and I mean, is not all this sin that they're listing here, was this not done by their great-great-great-great-grandparents and so on back?

Why do they need to repent?

Well, they've seen the consequences of sin when they went into exile.

But they they recognize that they're not immune from doing the same thing that their fathers did.

Committing the same sin.

What have we seen so far about these people in this book?

They have treated one another badly.

Yes.

Selling their children into slavery and other things.

Interest on money.

Why wear sackcloth?

Why cover ourselves like read the law of God?

That's part of that's one of the uh one of the prescriptions of how they are supposed to approach it.

Sackcloth and ashes.

Yeah, why why wear why dump dirt on their heads?

Why why come to a service like that?

Yeah.

And sackcloth back in this time, like I how are you thinking?

It was probably some sort of really coarse hair.

Really not comfortable to wear.

Um also very much a witness.

You have these thousands of people assembled.

We are here in confession.

Anybody else watching that is like we are not here as a proud of people.

Their attire demonstrates what they are feeling inside.

And so, why fast?

Why does any have any of you ever fasted?

Rick, not intermittent.

That's not what's talking about here.

Rick, what Rick, why have you fasted?

Oh, so my prayers would be more faster.

Let's be honest.

That's true.

That happened.

I'm not saying they got saved because I fasted, but all I'm saying is I fasted for eight months for my mom and my stepdad, and then they got sick.

You didn't eat for eight months?

No, I would fast every Wednesday.

Okay.

Every Wednesday I'd go without food.

You know, too much of a baby.

Well, when you fast, and when you fast for more than two or three days, you begin to be more receptive, I think, to like if you're you can learn stuff that you read, retain information that you read, and it just makes you better attuned to to the things of God in that season because there your body's not doing all the work of digestion and eating food that maybe you know doesn't sit well with you, so it just clears everything up and gets stuff out of the way and frees your time and focus on the Lord.

I think for me, and I do not have a long history with fasting, um, but it it's just a couple times in my life, and I want us to say that in full transparency, generally with from challenges for church programs or from or from a few pastors I've had that often.

You a time of focused prayer, and that you know, any feelings of hunger you have are really a call to go to the Bible and to go to God.

You know, and and then so then at this point the outward attire comes to match for them the inward.

Word hunger.

You know, we we are a people in need of redemption.

Okay, and verse two, they separate themselves from all foreigners.

Why would that matter?

They're unclean.

They've polluted themselves.

This is how they've strayed.

Now remember, this isn't some sort of just anti-hate all foreigners because there was there were proselytides in Israel, and we have already in Nehemiah, there were people who'd been adopted into the house of God, who were probably in this assembly.

But this is more the problem, one of the problems they had with intermarrying back in the Sanchia culture was if you married somebody in the ancient times, like you exchanged household gods.

But the Israelites would say, you know, the Lord your God is one.

And if you took in, say, a foreign wife who might be, say, raising the kids, and you had a household god up in your tent house, shelter, wherever it is, you know, the you know, they have a problem here with with Nehemiah will get this later.

A lot of the kids were being raised, knowing, you know, Babylonian, Assyrian, not Hebrew.

Um, and so there is a separation.

It's like these are the people who are worshiping God in there, and everyone not here is not.

This is the same thing he does with Sinbala and Yesham when they try to interfere with the wall.

He's like, you all won't worry about it.

This is our project, you are outside of it.

Just a clear delineation.

Same thing he does with are these people supposed to be Levites or not?

Are these people getting supported and not supposed to be?

Like, we're gonna figure out you all are the Levites, you all are not.

It's like you all are members of these tribes, you are you're the member of this tribe, you are something else.

It's like, you know, and we're gonna pray and search God for the ones we can't quite figure out.

But there's this moment of purification, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

And they say, God, this is my sin, and all the sins we as a people have been a part of.

They just get it all out.

And why not?

Well, I don't know about you.

I don't like to say my sins out loud.

I'm not a big fan of that.

I mean, I I like our times of confession.

I also like that I don't have to say them out loud.

Uh all the times I've lied, uh, the hurtful things I've said, um, the things I've thought about that I really shouldn't be thinking about, um, all the times I've gotten distracted, um, the times I've gone too fast on the interstate, um, all those students' chairs I probably shouldn't have kicked, um, you know, uh a litany beyond things that I won't even cite as an example.

You know, like I don't know how to say those out loud.

But God knows.

And people around me have done all kinds of things.

It's like, let's get this all out.

And then it's amazing to just kind of look and see here what kind of happens with this.

So, um and so, and they do this for about, you know, so they listen to the law here, and it says for a quarter of a day.

So they basically listen to the law for about three hours, and then they have praise and confession for about another three hours.

Led by, you know, uh Hodiah Shebaniya and one of the Bonnies.

Um I'm sorry, I was thinking I think Al would be here to say something about one of the Bonnies, but I just remembered he's in Romania.

Uh I I feel the need, this is a sidebar, uh, since I feel we're getting serious.

Um, I got I got a picture of a Romanian hospital sent to me sometime about Thursday this week.

Um and and and and was told it was probably a blood bank, um, if you uh which was his vampire joke, because he's on a Vlad the Impale, he's on a Vlad the Impaler tour.

So please bring that up to him.

Um when he gets back.

Um all right.

All right, so alright, let's jump to uh kind of verse 15-16.

How had God supplied for his people uh during the Exodus?

Manna.

Manna?

Water out of rock, rocks.

Yep.

Their clothes and their shoes and pillars of cloud and fire to lead them?

Okay.

Okay.

Why I I I get they're probably praying some biblical history here, but why note all this here in this prayer?

I think it's interesting the amount of real estate in this prayer on remembering what God has done.

I love their oral tradition at that time before they would retail and reset, but I was just noticing while this is a great way to learn to pray when I'm faced with a situation, a frustration, a disappointment, a discouragement, for me to retell myself and God and others what God has done to remember.

It seems like they're putting a huge emphasis on that.

Remembering what God has done.

You did this, you did that, you protected me here.

And after we go through this verbal remembering of what God has done in our own lives, whatever situation, whatever discouragement, whatever thing we're facing, seems to be we have a different perspective on it.

It's like, well, because then the next logical question is why would you fail me now?

If you didn't fail me then, why would I not trust you now?

So, I mean, I just think it's so interesting how much remembering they did it in a prayer.

Yeah.

To me, I often think they pray God's nature back to him.

They merely it is a teaching of the people, but this is it's also what they've forgotten, like that feast of the booths they haven't done in forever.

You know, that was in one point a celebration, but also a remembrance of how God had provided for them in the wilderness.

Like so many of their festivals were for you know, probably mostly illiterate people, acts of remembrance of God's faithfulness, of who God was.

And this prayer is what they've really relearned from their own history of who God is and what they've done for and how they've come to be here, which really then starts, you know, you know, a cycle that that begins in this prayer.

And you know, we get that downplayer, verse 16.

But he says, Here comes, but our fathers acted presumptuously, they stiffened their neck.

He says they even tried to go back into slavery.

Uh, it says they appointed a leader.

Some translations may say they appointed a captain, and it says that we appointed an anti-Moses.

He says, We were going to go back.

He says, That's what we did as a people.

We were going to go back into slavery, which is, I think, an interesting, like literary contrast with they're going to do kind of in the paragraph like like with 36.

He says, and look, we're in slavery now.

In some ways, we've gotten now what those rebellious, rebellious Israelites wanted back then.

They didn't go back to Egypt.

He says, You delivered them from that.

He says, But look, we are in slavery now.

They identify themselves here with that group of people who tried to go back.

He says, We must be like them, because look, we don't control ourselves as a nation.

We can be drafted with our bodies into military service.

He says, whenever we want.

Sure.

Most of you in here had babies.

Every time I see stiff neck, I'll think of these new, well, infants that are collected.

You know, they're stiff with that neck back and kicking them with their bellies tied and their faces red, and you know.

I just think about that every time I see that and I think about us adults and you know.

Sure.

Memory.

Yeah.

There's uh we looked at innovations.

Remember.

Scripture.

There's a link between memory and motivational power.

Gratitude.

So we'll say it's all that is tough for us.

Just to lead us to gratitude.

It should turn to lead to righteousness.

So that's one of the things about rehearsal way.

That's too bad to righteousness.

That's why we take this.

The benefit of getting older is that I can look back somewhat and say, here's all the various times I fuck God has abandoned me.

And all the many ways in which I have been wrong.

And the many, many sins he has forgiven.

And in many ways, I still clean up the mess from some of them.

In which I I can say, you know, I'd have given up on me sometimes a long time ago.

And I think with a look at that, I understand a piece of what these Israelites.

I know I'm not covering my head with dirt.

I felt like dirt and dirt.

But God says, you know.

But this is the other part of this, which, you know, you know, he says, you are a God, and this is verse 17.

You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love, you didn't forsake them.

And it says, You did that but us, but you.

And it says, This is our story.

Yeah.

You're talking about the stiff neck.

I think it's interesting.

When I'm thinking God has abandoned me, when I'm thinking God, I can't trust God.

When I'm thinking this of God, my neck is stiff, I'm not bowing.

And uh and I my end result is slavery.

But when I'm thinking you're gracious, when I'm thinking rightly about God, you're merciful, this is who you are, this is what you've done, I'm no longer a slave.

You know, I'm free at that point.

So how what I'm seeing God and thinking of God is what's motivating whether I'm free or a slave.

Like you admitted, all the times I thought God had abandoned me.

This issue of abandonment.

I can't trust you, you're not there for me.

None of that's true.

But when we are living in that, the result of that slavery.

So I love how he's going, You're God, you're gracious, you're abounding in mercy.

This is who you are.

When my focus is on the truth of who God is, I'm free.

I'm free from whatever you're in, whatever situation you're going through.

Focus on God, on who he is, the truth of him, and freedom is there.

For as much I find with that, Rick, they've had this now sort of 17-day rediscovery of the Old Testament.

And as we as 2026 kind of look back at it, we might be looked to think of the Old Testament as a burden or a whole bunch of rules or some commandments.

But they read all this and they come out with you know, God, you're really merciful.

You love us a whole lot.

And that's not really their takeaway from encountering the law.

It's like actually, God has an amazing nature.

Uh, and he loves us, and you know, that abandonment fear is really me, you know, projecting a lot of my nature back on to God, which doesn't fit.

But but their take is, you know, you're really sorry.

And then, and by the way, we need sure to save us again.

Why?

Because we've realized we cannot save ourselves.

We are a broken people.

And I I I think that is one of the most parts that I think that is, you know, we can sit here well dressed up, you know, in a in a growing church, but you know, that's all God.

You know, I I still need to confess my sins.

I still need to praise, to come with a hard posture, because in the end, it's all this is what God is doing.

Because we still need him to save us as a people.

Now, now we know he has through Christ.

We know where the victory is here.

But I know that I was a slave to sin.

And God redeemed me from that.

But I need him to guide me through my human sin nature further.

All right.

And so we get the rest of this history, and you know, I've got one commentary that kind of calls this uh grace grows best in winter.

Um actually, I I sometimes not want my commentaries, but I I am a huge fan of C.S.

Lewis's screw tape letters.

Not because it's I think like a realistic portrayal of how temptation works.

But there's some moments in there, like um, what if you're not familiar with it, it's told from the in letters of portrayal of an uncle demon tempter writing to his nephew about how to uh draw his human charge into help better.

Um but the thought teaches he talks about how somehow the some of God's best disciples aren't really led through emotion and just keep believing in faith, like even in the low times, which I think is an interesting principle for kind of the next part.

It's like, you know, do you believe in God even when it's tough?

And because then what happens out of this is that they have to reach this point where it's tough.

It's like we are in slavery again.

He's like, we got totally exiled.

He's like, we are the generation whose the nation actually got blown up.

He's like, we got pulled off into exile.

And he's like, because we then look through all the generations, he says, the prophets came to warn us, we killed them.

It's like our leaders, our kings didn't listen to you.

He's like, you warned him, he says, they did evil, and it says, and we kept getting in trouble, you kept rescuing us every time we cried out for health, we got comfortable again, we did it again.

He says, and now we're slaves.

And he says, but third, yet you have been righteous, and this has come, and you have dealt faithfully, yet we have acted wickedly.

Um he says, You even gave us our kingdom, and they and they we have this whole paragraph of 22.

He's like, and we didn't even build the kingdom.

He says, and they note that they they fulfilled that thing when when he told Moses and Joshua, he says, You are going to go conquer a land, it's gonna be filled with vineyards you didn't plant, cities you didn't build.

It's like it's just almost gonna fall into your hands.

Like that they cite this thing about Og, king of Basham.

If you don't know this one from Joshua, it's like one of the first places they conquer when they go in.

And they just ask Og, they don't even like try to attack Og because Og Bashan is a really big kingdom there.

They just ask them if they can just pass through.

And Og's like, no, not only can you not pass through, you bunch of migrants, he's like, come on, he's like, I'm gonna kill all of you.

So Og assembles a far bigger army than them, attacks, and they absolutely route him.

Take his entire kingdom, and that that's just that's the beginning of the whole thing.

Um and you know, and they not and you know, and they cite this here.

He he and he was like, so that they just take possession of the land.

Um thinking about this though, and I kind of to bring us to sort of a 2026, like um, you know, why is understanding like God's justice here, like necessary for their genuine repentance?

Grace and forgiveness are for those who need grace and forgiveness, who are guilty of whatever law they have broken, in this case, God's law.

For those who don't break the laws of God, they're fine the way they they are, they don't need mercy.

But that's none of us, and that's certainly not the ancient Jews here.

Um the death of Christ is has value for those who realize that they deserve the death of Christ.

So I think that's why they had to, they were reminded of their sin and confessed it.

It's like, well, you know, it's not as if God owes us anything, but by his grace and compassion he has redeemed us.

We'll have a lot more to say, verse 38, about this covenant next week.

But they make a firm covenant in writing on a sealed document, is are the leaders that they have.

And it's eventually going to be that they're going to follow the Mosaic covenant.

Um, that's next week.

It's nature.

But why make a written covenant with God?

Making an oath.

Why to remind themselves to remember the road?

One thing they find in that law is a series of people making oaths with God and God making oaths with them, the those that God has initiated, like the Abrahamic covenant that they point back to, which is Abraham, you're gonna sleep, I'm gonna do this entire covenant.

And and and these covenants that they've broken, and they renew it here.

They have a renewal of these vows.

And a thought here before we go.

My response to my own sin I need God to save me.

I might even confess that.

But do I let ten seconds of remorse be the end of it?

Do I go back to doing the same old things?

What am I willing to do to get sin out of my life?

They're willing to do something very public here to say we have been a people of sin.

And they have lots of evidence that we cannot keep this covenant ourselves.

But God, here is the truth of the matter as we know it.

I teach a lot of students, for example, who might say something like this, and I know this because I've said such things in my life.

If they lash out in me in anger, might then come later and say sorry, and they'll say, I'm sorry.

They'll say, I'm just an angry person.

I get angry sometimes.

Or I'm sorry I did that.

I'm an anxious person.

I get anxious sometimes.

Now, on a certain level, those things can be true, but it's that explanation of it is this is just my nature.

You have to accept it.

I'm sorry that happened, but sometimes I'm going to get angry at you.

I don't have to do anything about what I did, what I was feeling, that caused that in any way.

I have remorse that it happened, but I'm this is just you deal with me, you get the rage.

You deal with me, sometimes I'm just gonna come at you if I get a little too nervous or overstimulated.

Now, now my kids are not, you know, their full frontal brains are not fully developed, but that's the kind of thing I do with God.

You made me this way.

Deal with it.

You know, I do that with other people.

What steps am I willing to take to actually act like I'm being a disciple of Jesus?

Am I going to talk differently?

Be around different people, watch different things, use my time in a different way?

Am I willing to make some sacrifices?

Am I going to am I willing to make them publicly?

Am I willing to do whatever the 2026 is sackcloth ashes?

Do I need to do that in community with people?

Get help for that.

Find people with similar problems, say, hey, we're all going to fix it, work off fixes together because God loves us and we love him.

Then maybe I wouldn't be such an angry person, a sarcastic person, a person with a problem with my tongue, such a fearful person, such an anxious person, or God would start to redeem that to be used for him.

Instead of coming to church and saying, God, I'm sorry.

I did it again.

Please fix me and let no one find out in any inconvenient ways.

Thank you.

That is a prayer prayer.

And you know what?

That is the prayer of Jason Prophet.

If there is one prayer of Jason Prophet, it is God, I am sorry.

Please let nothing bad happen because I am sorry in any way to me whatsoever.

That is perhaps my deepest heart posture prayers that I think God is working to redeem on me.

And I need a little more spirit on Nehemiah than me.

And so kind of reading ahead in chapter 10, they they step into the law.

They put their name on the line, they sign their names, they say we're not going to intermarry, so they there's an action that resulted from their repentance.

So there's the repentance, but then there's an action that comes out of that repentance, which in this case was they're putting themselves into the law.

Actually, they're hiding, they're making new law.

We're making a law, we're not going to do this.

We're putting our names on this piece of paper, and we're not going to do these things.

And so I think that's interesting that repentance, real repentance, will have action of some kind attached to it.

It won't just be, I want to be hidden.

I want to say, you know, if I'm really repentant, there's going to be some kind of steps I'm going to take to find healing and growth so that that doesn't happen.

So they're reaffirming the law that God has given them and putting it up where they can remember it and they see it.

And their names are on it.

Their names are attached to it.

They're saying you're going to see it in us.

It's like, because ultimately we are God's handiwork.

We are his chosen people.

And they separate themselves out, sackle off ashes, fasting, and they say, Wow, we are sorry.

Here's what you've done, God.

We want to be about you.

And that's a great prayer as we go to worship today.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I know I am a rebellious person, Lord, who has forgotten a lot of your gracious mercies, Lord.

But God, you are steadfast love.

You are quick to forgive and slow to anger, Lord.

Draw us into your ever-faithful presence, Lord.

May our prayers be ever more fervent, Lord.

May our praises be ever stronger, Lord.

Forgive us our many sins as a church community, as a people, on the individual level, Lord.

Draw us together in unity, Lord.

So that we can just know and bask in your great goodness.

Bring Al safely home, Lord.

And again, we lift up Mr.

Travis to you.

Help the surgeons tomorrow, Lord.

In your name we pray.

Amen.