”Restoration is Sustained Through Word and Worship” // Nehemiah 7:73-8:19 // Lakeview Bible Church

Uh question to start. What tends to

sustain you?

What tends to sustain you when you are

in a difficult season? What do you reach

for? What do you think about? How do you

sustain when hard times come? or what

sustains you when maybe not necessarily

hard, it's just long and you're in a

season like remember when we were in

high school and every semester like this

is long

like what sustains you? Let me help you

get a little concrete of what I mean. In

the summer of 1995, I was running around

the woods of Quanico at officer

candidate school. And what sustained me

over those weeks was looking at the

joker next to me and being like, "If

this guy can make it,

if this guy ain't quitting, I'm not

going to quit."

Or in my marriage, Heather and I,

awesome for the most part, some seasons

of difficulty.

And in those seasons, I said, "You know

what? I made a promise. God is with us.

I love my wife. We're going to see our

way through.

What tends to sustain you? And let me

just say like this is super super

practical because there are people right

now in our church that are struggling to

be sustained.

That this season is an extremely hard

season.

They're hurting. They're sad.

They're struggling.

And we need to be there for them.

Need to be there for them. Can't just

cast them aside.

This is also the part of the season I

love both of those. I love that school.

I love that team. But this is the part

like if you just look at the image on

the right, this is the part of the

season where I go, why do I do this to

myself every year? Like what am I do?

Like, have I not learned? I'm a glutton.

Jerry Stallone's the team. It's not

getting any better.

My two cents.

Now, here's the thing about sustaining,

okay? Life, reality, you live it. You

know it. Will you face seasons of

difficulty? Yes. Will you need to find

some ways to sustain? Yes. Here's the

challenge. Most people uh pick wrong

ways.

Part of why I use that illustration is

because this week I have a good buddy

who's an alumni of that school, has had

season tickets for like 20 years, and I

was just checking it. Yeah. Well, u I

was like, cuz he's like, "Hey, dude, we

need to get lunch." I'm like, "Right

on." And then I'm like, "Hey, bro. How

are you doing?

I'm drinking a lot of beer."

You can pick wrong ways is my point to

get yourself through the times of

sustaining.

You can pick distraction. You can pick

numbing. You can pick a hobby. You can

pick your stupid phone.

You can also grind harder and burn

yourself out. Here's my question. If you

were to sit down with God in a season

where you're having to sustain,

what would he say?

What would he say is the way that you

and I sustain for the long haul?

And do you think it would really help?

We're in this series on Nehemiah.

And they're going to have to sustain.

Why? Because the other place that you're

going to face sustaining challenge is

after uh victory.

Last week, chapter six, walls built.

High five. 52 days. Awesome.

Question. Can they sustain it?

It made me think of us at Lake View.

Amazing first year. Lots of progress up

and to the right. Can we sustain it?

We going to relax.

Ah, we made it.

And for you,

do you need to sustain in a health

thing, marriage thing, kid thing, career

thing,

money thing? are you having to sustain

right now? And what are you looking to

to sustain you? That's my question. If

you have your Bibles, Nehemiah chapter

Nehemiah 7 · chapter mention

7. Nehemiah chapter 7. We're going to

Nehemiah 7 · chapter mention

look at this idea of what God says about

how we sustain. And the first truth that

we'll bump into, unpack,

tease apart is restoration is sustained

by the word of God. Why? Because

Nehemiah is about a restoration work.

lake views about a restoration work. Um,

God wants to do a restoration work in

you and through you and all of us

individually and collectively. How are

we going to do it? Nehemiah chapter 7, I

Nehemiah 7 · chapter mention

want you to look at verse 73, the very

last verse in the chapter.

Nehemiah 7 verse 73.

Nehemiah 7:73

The chapter closes by saying this. So

the priests, the Levites, the

gatekeepers, the singers, some of the

people, the temple servants, and all

Israel lived in their towns. And when

the seventh month, just note that, it'll

come up again. And when the seventh

month had come, the people of Israel

were in their towns. Now, here's what

has happened from the end of Nehemiah

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 to the verse we just read. Um

Nehemiah says, "Okay." He turns to his

brother, Hannah, says, "Hannah, you're

going to be the mayor of Jerusalem. I'm

appointing you. I'm going to give you

some help and some guys around you, some

instructions on how to run a city. You

never run a city before." He sets up

gatekeepers. Why would you set up

gatekeepers? Because if you're going to

have a functioning city, you need some

security. You need the beginnings of a

police force. So, he sets that up. The

next thing you'll see when you read

chapter 7 is he takes a census. Who's

here? Who we got? Are these the people

that came back with us from exile?

Nehemiah is trying to get his arms

around like, "Hey, we have a city to run

now. Who do we have here that we can tap

on his shoulder in order to run this

city?" The chapter ends with him doing a

list of here's our resources, here's our

people resources, here's our financial

resources, and then you end with verse

73.

And you'll notice the thing that got

repeated there.

How all these people and all Israel

lived in their towns and the people of

Israel were in their towns. What's that

a picture of?

Ah, we made it.

Peace. Life as it should be. Back home.

I'm getting my garden going again. This

is awesome. The Hebrew term that you

should like see come out of the tech.

Ah, it's shalom.

Life as it should be.

And if you are an astute reader of your

Old Testament, a question pops up in the

back of your mind.

Huh, I wonder if they can sustain it.

Why would that question be there?

Because you've read the rest of the Old

Testament and they're not good at that.

Every time they have a victory, just

start the clock. Here comes their

downfall over and over. And so you

wonder, is this time going to be

different or are they going to sustain

it? Chapter 8.

And all the people gathered as one man

into the square before the Watergate,

and they told Ezra the scribe to bring

the book of the law of Moses that the

Lord had commanded Israel. Now, here's

what's interesting. Your text in your

Bible doesn't have an underline with it

and colored blue, but that's a

hyperlink.

It's actually a hyperlink to a passage

that should ring in your ears when you

read verse one. What do I mean? At the

end of the book of Judges,

there's a consolidation after this

spiraling down cycle that I just talked

about. We have a good day. We forget

God. God punishes us. We cry out. God

brings the deliverer. And they just do

that cycle over and over again. And

Judges ends with this statement.

basically the summary of like why did

they get stuck in this cycle? Because

everyone did what was right in their own

eyes.

Notice the difference in verse one. And

all the people gathered as one man.

Not only did they do that, they're not

going to do what is right in their own

eyes. They call Ezra. They call the

priest, the scribe, the pastor. Hey

Ezra, go get the Bible. We want to do

some church.

Notice who's the initiator.

Is it the pastor class? Nope. It's the

people. I wonder if this is going to be

different this time. Verse two.

So Ezra the priest brought the law

before the assembly, both men and women,

and all who could understand what they

heard on the first day of the seventh

month. and he read from it facing the

square before the Watergate. Notice

this, from early morning until midday.

Now, Lake View Bible Church, we now do

church from early morning to midday.

Why? Just being biblical.

Is it not in the text? I think it's in

the text. Just trying to do what God has

for us. Notice they didn't gather at the

temple.

assumption, not enough room. They had to

find the biggest square in the city

because of so many people that wanted to

do church. Back to verse three.

In the presence of the men and the women

and those who could understand and the

ears, underline this, the ears of all

the people were attentive to the book of

the law. How does the word of God

sustain us? first as we are attentive to

it. Now notice in the passage it doesn't

talk about the people that were there

assembled at the Watergate were checking

their phone and looking up where they're

going to eat lunch and trying to figure

out what email they need to respond to

when Eric was preaching. I mean Ezra.

Ezra, sorry.

Slip of the tongue there.

They're attentive to it.

You're reasonable people. When you get

more out of something, are you paying

attention more or less? Uh, obvious

attentive to the word. Goes on verse

four. And Ezra the scribe stood on a

wooden platform that they had made for

the purpose. And beside him stood uh

Matathiah, Shemma, Ananiah, Uriah,

Hokkayiah, Messiah. And on his right

hand, Padiah, Michelle, Malkeesia,

Hasham, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and

Melcham on his left hand. And Ezra is

verse 5, opened the book in the sight of

the people, for he was above all the

people. They repeated that. And as he

opened it, all the people stood. Another

hyperlink. what this is imaging as again

you're an Old Testament scholar you're

like man that's really interesting here

comes God's servant with the word of God

and he's in elevated position every Jew

when they read that would be like man

this feels like Mount Si

this feels like when Moses came down and

he was on the edge of the mountain with

the word of God and I was going to

deliver the word could this could this

be different

might this time be different are they

going to sustain stay in this time.

Verse six,

and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great

God, and all the people answered,

"Amen." And amen,

they did a little hollowback.

I give you permission.

Notice, lifting up their hands, and they

bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord

with their faces to the ground. Verse

seven also Jesua, Bananai, Sherobaya,

Jam, Akab, Shabbati, Hodiah, Messiah,

Keli, Kelta. Yeah. Aariah, Jezebed,

Hannon, Playia.

Who are these guys? They're the Levites.

Helped the people to understand the law.

While the people remained in their

places, they read from the book, from

the law of God clearly, and they gave

the sense so that the people understood

the reading. Okay, what's going on? Uh,

no microphone, no PA. So, how if there's

like thousands of people in the square,

how are the people in the back going to

hear? Here's what they did. The Levites,

the other priests with Ezra, were kind

of like human repeaters. So, we're going

to put a Levite over there. We're going

to put a Levite back there. We're going

to put a Levite back there. We're put a

Levite over there. And for you in the

back, you get a Levite. You get a Levite

over there. And so, what they would do

is Ezra would read and each of those

folks would turn around and with their

small group like, "All right, hey guys,

here's what Ezra said." Boom. pull out

your Bibles. Oh, they did not have

Bibles, only one. All right, so he's

reading it. And they're like, "Hey, what

does that mean?" And he would give the

sense. Oh, here's how that applies.

Here's how this makes sense to us. The

very same thing that we do here week by

week. We read this book. And then me or

Michael or James or someone gives the

sense so that you walk away and go,

"Okay, I get that. I understand the

Bible a little bit better." Awesome.

Why? Just trying to be biblical.

But here's what I want you. Did you

notice how the people responded?

First of all, they all stood. Sign of

respect.

They say, "Amen and amen." As Ezra, he

does like an opening prayer praising

God. And they say, "Amen. Let it be so."

And then they this lift up their hands,

sign of need, sign of submission. And

then they bow their heads and worship

the Lord.

sign of humility. How does the word of

God sustain us? As it produces reverence

in us

as it produces reverence in us.

Is there any other book like this on the

planet

category unto itself?

Do you rever this book?

We'll come back to that.

Verse nine.

And Nehemiah who was the governor and

Ezra the priest and scribe and the

Levites who taught the people said to

all the people, "This day is holy."

Means it's this is set apart. This is a

special day.

This day is holy to the Lord your God.

Interesting. Do not mourn or weep.

For all the people wept

as they heard the words of the law. They

didn't just cry. They just didn't get

emotional. The word of God was read and

they're weeping.

We don't know what passage Ezra is in.

Maybe my guess is is a place like

Deuteronomy,

a place where God says, "Hey, I put

before you a blessing and a curse. If

you obey me, all these blessings will

come. If you disobey me, all these

curses will come." And as the people

hear Deuteronomy and they remember what

their grandparents and greatgrandparents

and beyond did

and how they disobeyed the Lord and they

forsook the Lord and the Babylonians

showed up and destroyed their city and

killed a bunch of them and carried a

bunch of them in exile. They realize

we brought it on ourselves.

God told us ahead of time and we did it.

How does the good how does the word

sustain you? It produces conviction in

us that we are convicted over our sin.

When we bring our lives to the measure

of the word, we realize we do not

measure up and we have a problem.

But what's interesting again in Nehemiah

8, don't stay there. This is a special

day.

Verse 10.

Then he said,

"Go your way. Eat the fat and drink the

sweet wine." What's he say? Order the

filt

and don't buy the wine in a box. Get a

bottle with a cork. That's what he says.

And if there's folks who don't have

that, help them out. Send portions to

anyone who has nothing ready. For this

day is holy. This is a special day to

God. And notice this. Do not be grieved,

for the joy of the Lord is your

strength.

So the Levites calmed the people,

saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy.

Do not be grieved." In verse 12, "And

all the people went their way to eat and

drink and to send portions, and to make

a little rejoicing,

no, to make a great rejoicing because

they had understood the words that were

declared to them." How does the word of

God sustain us? As it produces joy in

us. As it produces joy. Where should you

land at the end of this list? Joy. Now,

let me just talk about for two minutes

something that we all struggle with at

different times in different ways in our

walk with the Lord. Here's what happens.

Sometimes we either overemphasize or

overindex on God's holiness and justice

or we overindex on his love, grace, and

mercy. Here's what I mean. Sometimes

when we are battling our sin and God is

bringing conviction, we overindex on his

grace and mercy. What I mean is, well,

God will forgive me. It's not really

that big a deal. You know, I'll yeah, I

did it, but I'll just pray and man, me

and God are going to be good. Or we

overindex on his justice. And what we do

there is when we're convicted of our

sin, we go, "Well, I think I blew it for

the last time. God, he's going to hammer

me this time." Of all the people that

God can never forgive again,

it's this guy. And notice, we either

overindex on one or the other. How is it

supposed to go? Both.

One of the really hard things for those

of us who are western thinkers is we

like unanswer either or A or B. What's

true? Both. What do I mean? You should

be grieved over your sin.

You should hate it.

It should make you cry that your sin

still clings to you so easily.

when you bring it before the Lord,

you're Would you please rid me of this

and

as you remember the gospel

that Jesus has taken off all your sin if

you are in him to move it as far as the

east is from the west

that God remembers it no longer which

means he doesn't hold it against you

that you actually walk away joyful

This is the paradox of the gospel which

says, "Wait a minute. I'm still

struggling with sin and God loves me."

Yep.

That's how amazing grace is. And you

walk away joyful even though your sin

still bothers you. Am I making sense?

This is how the word of God sustains

you. And let me prove it to you because

you already believe and agree with God

that words sustain us. Let me show you.

Can I show you my family album?

This is my grandma. This is Barbara.

Um this is her husband Tom, my

grandfather. This is on my father's

side.

And this is Bob and Mary. This is my

grandparents on my mom's side. Now, you

can tell by the wardrobe here that both

these guys served in uh World War II.

And this is Army Air Corps, the

precursor of the Air Force. You can see

it was kind of in my blood.

And then um Robert Brawn served in the

Pacific um with the Navy.

When they were apart

for those years that he was deployed,

they sent a lot of letters back and

forth.

You probably in a box somewhere in an

album, you have pictures of your

grandparents like this. Yes.

Um, I wish I could tell you I was able

to find like, hey, like tell my dad,

hey, can you give me one of the letters

that grandma and grandpa sent back to

each other or my aunts or uncles? I

don't know. They can't find the box. But

here's what I want to do. I want to read

you a letter

of a couple like this. This is from the

wife back home to the husband deployed.

Here's here's what I'm going to read to

you.

At the top it says, "Dick Hayes, the

singer, is singing." So it it looks like

she's listening to music as she writes

this letter to her sweetheart.

And then she quotes the the song. Our

walts is moonlight trembling with

kisses.

Angels were watching one day and our

love was their inspiration. Our walts is

springtime filled with a promise never

to fade with the dawn. Although you're

gone, our walts will play on. And then

she says, "Our love is two underlines.

Fashioned in heaven just as the song

goes. And I do love you, Charlie,

because you're my everything and I'm

yours forever, Mary. And then I love

the lipstick.

I bet Charlie was pretty pumped to get

that letter.

That's proof

that words sustain you.

They sustained thousands of men and

women through years of really hard days.

And if you'll permit me,

your father wrote you a really long

letter

to sustain you

through really hard days

until you get home and see him.

How do you think

your grandparents

or greatgrandparents held those letters?

Oh, I don't know where. Where'd I put

it? I don't know.

Cherished them.

How many times did they read them

over and over again?

Doesn't that make sense?

Here's what I want to do.

Just between you and God.

Does the word of God sustain me

in the same four ways that we see in

Nehemiah 8? Am I attentive to the word

of God? This is just between you and the

Holy Spirit. You know your own heart.

Are you attentive to the word? Do you

come Sunday by Sunday? Do you day by day

as you open it, are you like, "Man, I am

bringing my full self to this word. God,

I got to hear from you. I need to hear

what you have to say to me." Is that

your posture?

Do I revere the word?

Do you like this is amazing. This is the

one book. This is the one long letter

that God wrote. Every other sacred text

is a lie.

This one is true and the author is

alive.

Do you rever it?

Do you sit beneath it? Do you come to

the word just you and you're like,

"This is the one to whom I will look."

He or she who is humble and contrite in

spirit.

Do you tremble?

Do you tremble at the word of God?

Does the word of God produce conviction

in me?

Tim Keller was a pastor in New York for

a number of years. I'll never forget

what he said.

If the word of God never corrects you,

you haven't come to God as God. You've

come to God as a butler.

Does it convict you?

I got to be a better husband. Lord, help

me. I got to be a better man. Lord, help

me. I got to be a better wife and mom.

Lord, help me. As he molds and shapes

you through his word, is that you?

Does it bring conviction?

And then last,

does it produce joy?

You're going home

one day. You're going to leave it all

behind. This place is all kindling

anyway. You're going to a great place

if you know him.

Does that sustain you?

Can I just be honest with you?

The one thing I would pray that God, if

I could just go like this

and everyone that calls Lake View home

that you would revere and love this word

because you know what scares me? You

don't.

If you miss it, big deal.

If I come to it and get nothing out of

it, big deal. If I just give it a

passing glance, big deal.

Your Bible should be wearing thin

because you are in it so often.

Is that you? There is no other

sustaining.

The message of the Old Testament and all

the stories of these people is they

didn't

and their lives cratered.

Will yours

will yours

here's here's what I would love for you

to please I'm pleading with you

wherever you are you're like man I am in

the word man all the time and I'm

getting like attentive reverence like

right awesome Lord give me more

Lord give me more.

Give me a greater hunger. Give me a

greater desire.

And then for all of us, whatever your

deeper step of engagement is, if in this

last week you read it once, next week

make it two.

If this week you read it twice, next

week make it three.

If you're up to three, how about seven?

Could you do seven in a week? Do you

have something better to do each day?

You don't.

You don't. It is the lie of the enemy

that you have something better to do. He

is trying to draw you away.

Here's my prayer that you would so get

this book in you

that this word is what comes out of you.

How are we sustained by the word of God?

also the worship of God. The worship of

God. Look at verse 13.

On the second day, the heads

of father's houses of all the people

with priests and Levites came together

to Ezra the scribe in order to study the

words of the law. So on the first day

they have this amazing day of worship

and in the Bible and then the leaders

pull Ezra inside and say, "Hey, we need

to go deeper."

Fantastic. This is a this this man, we

may turn a new corner. Verse 14. And

they found it. So they're they're doing

Bible study with the pastor. And they

found it written in the law that the

Lord had commanded by Moses that the

people of Israel should dwell in boos.

Every time you see the word boos in this

section, just think of tents. They dwell

in tents.

Um during the feast of here's the

seventh month. Seventh month is

important and it's um on the calendar.

It's right in where we are. It's like

September, October.

Verse 15. This is what they found. and

that they should proclaim it and publish

it in all their towns and in Jerusalem.

Go out to the hills and bring branches

of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and

other leafy trees to make tents as is as

it is written. So the people went out

and brought them and made tents for

themselves, each on his roof. Here's the

different places they built a tent. Each

on his roof and in their courts, think

their backyard in the courts of the

house of God. So they set him up at the

temple and in the square at the

Watergate where they had church the day

before and in the square at the gate of

Ephraim. What's going on now? I know

like you, you spent this morning before

church in the book of Leviticus. Happens

all the time. I know. What is this? This

is the feast of tabernacles or the feast

of boos. What's going on with that? It

is commemorating the history of Israel.

in particular, their exodus from Egypt,

their wilderness wanderings for 40

years, and their entrance into the

promised land. And so what you were

supposed to do as a family is take seven

days and camp out in the backyard

so that when mom and dad were setting it

up and like the kids were asking like,

"Hey, what are we doing? Oh, it's the

fall. It's time to camp out in the

backyard." And the mom and dad would

say, "So here's why we're doing it."

Because God in our people rescued us

from slavery in Egypt. And they would go

over the ten commandment or the 10

plagues and everything that happened.

Wow. Red Sea crossing. And they'd retell

the story. And then they told the story.

And here's the tents or tabernacles

piece that for the 40 years they spent

in the wilderness wandering on their way

to the promised land. That's how they

lived. A lot of times in tents. So it

was a notice a tangible practical like

you can touch it, taste it, feel it way

to experience what had happened before.

It was a worship service for seven days

and then they would talk about how and

God delivered us into the promised land.

And you can imagine the kids are like,

"Man, this is awesome. Like camping out

backyard, can I bring my PlayStation?"

Well, probably not that.

Look at verse 17.

And all the assembly of those who had

returned from captivity made tents and

lived in the tents. For from the days of

Joshua, and that's an alternate spelling

of Joshua.

Joshua the son of Nun to that day the

people of Israel had not

done so.

And there was very great rejoicing

because now they were.

That should floor you.

Why? Wait a wait a minute. For centuries

they didn't do it? You mean even under

King David they didn't do it? Yep. And

here's the subtext of what the people

are experiencing in Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

No wonder it went bad.

No wonder, right? Here's what's going to

happen in them, in us. We are either

worshiping the one true God and he is

getting our affection and devotion and

all of us or here's the deal. You don't

stop worshiping. What do we do? We just

worship something in its place.

Something will always be the center of

our lives. And the call of the

scriptures and the call of God is please

make me your center.

If you don't, it goes bad fast.

Now, here's the question.

Why are we supposed to worship?

Is it because God needs it?

Like God's in heaven like, "Oh, I sure

hope they like me. Hey, I tweeted

something out. Did anyone retweet it?

How many likes did I get on my post?"

If God doesn't need it, who needs it?

Holler back.

We do.

We need the reminders daily,

weekly. God is God. I'm not.

God is king. I'm not. Jesus is the one

and only Savior, not me.

How does worship sustain us? Well, it's

the same thing that the feast of

tabernacles was supposed to do in us.

That God is the one and only rescuer.

Can you rescue yourself?

Holl back.

I have good news for you. There's a God

in heaven who can. and he delights to

rescue people who call on him.

He's the one and only provider. Do you

provide for yourself? Tough one.

What's the answer? No. How do you know?

Because you didn't even get to pick the

place you were born.

I have good news for you.

There's a God in heaven who does provide

for you.

He knows everything you need and he

loves to provide for his kids.

He's the one and only deliverer.

Can Can you get yourself to heaven,

to the promised land that you're looking

for?

Holl back.

I have good news for you.

Jesus can.

loves to

loves to write your name in the book,

give you the Holy Spirit as a seal of

your inheritance,

and one day you're going home. You know

why you need worship? Because we forget

these things. I'm trying to rescue

myself. I'm trying to provide for my

son.

This week, um, my wife Heather and I,

uh, hit our 21st anniversary.

Come on.

Uh, that clapping is for her mostly.

Um, think about an anniversary. What do

you tend to do?

You go out,

not to Chick-fil-A, hopefully. No shade

to Chick-fil-A

place with a tablecloth.

Do you get dressed up?

Make it not just a date, but a nice

date.

Do uh do you do something special like

on the big ones like 10, 20, 25? Like

take a trip

just you and your spouse.

Go somewhere special like Costco.

Maybe exchange some gifts. Hey, when I

saw this, I just thought about you. This

This look great on you.

Do you like write a card and and not

just like sign love you babe, but like

you take that whole other opposite side

and you're like, I'm so glad I married

you. I would do it all over again.

I'm glad I get to walk this journey with

you.

I promise to pick up my socks.

Just notice something. Just Just notice

something.

A good marriage needs that

tangible

practical reminders

of the one you love. And you tell them

practical reminders of you hearing once

again that you are loved and adored.

What is worship?

How you and God stay connected?

And you tell him, "I love you. I'm so

grateful." And he says back and you felt

it. If you've like,

"Man, I'm so happy.

I can't wait to see you.

How's your worship?

Is it vibrant?

Sunday by Sunday and day by day. You're

like, man, God,

you're worshiping something.

You're telling something that

again if I could just

your heart my heart God take first

place.

When I was thinking about this like

second half or so of Nehemiah 8, I uh I

thought to myself,

why did they not do it?

for hundreds of years.

They're people like us. They're no

different. Really? Same substance.

Here's my guess.

Too busy.

You mean to tell me we're going to do

this feast for a whole seven days?

Actually, eight. I got a farm to run. I

got stuff to do.

Like, you want me to take a whole eight

days and just focus on worshiping God,

spend time with my family, pouring into

my like I got stuff to do.

I have the same fear.

You know what kills us? We think we have

something better to do.

Could you imagine? Like we look up 50

years of Lake View like hadn't done

Easter in 50 years.

Like it's ridiculous.

Oh,

I love that. Oh, I didn't I didn't read

it. Look at verse 18.

And day by day, from the first day, the

last day, he read from the book of the

law of God. They kept the feast seven

days. And on the eighth day, there was a

solemn assembly according to the rule.

Did you know that shows up? And it

points to Jesus.

On the last day of the feast, the great

day, Jesus stood up and cried out.

He cries out to the people, "If anyone

thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture

said, out of his heart will flow rivers

of living water. Here's my heart as your

brother and your pastor. I want that for

you.

I want that for me. The fullness of what

that means. What's it going to take,

man? Let him sustain you.

Let him sustain you.

And if you don't know this Jesus, I want

to have a conversation with you, please.

He's a good God and he's a great savior

and he wants to do work in you and

through you that are going to blow your

mind. And he wants to bring you home one

day. And please know if you turn your

back on him, your future is horrific.

But it doesn't have to be.

And so if you're here and you haven't

given your life to Jesus, let us start a

conversation. All right, let's pray.

Father,

we give you all the thanks and praise.

You are the great God. There is no

other. Father, Son, and Spirit. We give

you the glory. Help us to app be a

people sustained by your word, sustained

by worship. And the step that each of us

need to take, would you do it by grace

such that we are different?

And I pray that you would do something

special in each and every one of us. and

that you would make this place a city on

a hill, a beacon to those who need you,

and that you would do more than we could

ask or imagine.

We declare there's one name under heaven

by which men and women can be saved, and

that is Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray. And

everyone said pretty loudly, "Amen."

>> Amen.