Third Sunday after Trinity

[0:00] Father in heaven, we thank you for another Sunday where we can gather as your people, trusting that whatever we have done this week, whatever failures, whatever hang-ups, whatever habitual sins we have found ourselves in once again, whatever fatigue that we may have in doing good, we can come to you and throw ourselves at your feet, trusting that because of your great love for us and the mercy that you have towards us in Christ Jesus, that we will be forgiven.

[0:35] Lord, help us not to be prideful people. Give us a humble heart. We pray this in Christ's mighty name. Amen. So last week in Nehemiah, before we enter a summer series in the book of Psalms, specifically the second book of Psalms.

[0:52] But here's an interesting thing about Nehemiah. It should have ended in chapter 12. I mean, it really should have. If you read the flow of the narrative, chapter 12 is a fine way to end the book of Nehemiah.

[1:09] Nehemiah, if you remember, he has heard of Jerusalem's, the destitution of Jerusalem. He has prayed. He has waited. He has fasted.

[1:20] He has sought the king. The king gives him leave. He goes there and starts this building campaign of the walls. But if you remember, it's not just the walls he's rebuilding. He's rebuilding the people. Now there's enemies that come and try to blackmail him and come against him with arms.

[1:36] But Nehemiah is steadfast and the walls are rebuilt. And then proper worship is instituted. And if you remember last week, there was this incredible show of contrition, corporate repentance.

[1:51] And then the people at the end of it, they purpose themselves to renew the covenant with God. And chapter 10 is this wonderful chapter of the people of God telling God that they're going to get back in the business of proper worship.

[2:09] True spirituality. It continues on in chapter 11 and then chapter 12 where the walls are dedicated and it seems like that's it. And then chapter 13 comes.

[2:22] Chapter 13 is quite anticlimactic. It is also very disappointing. For we see a people that have been rebuilt only to fall into the same folly once again.

[2:36] Why not just end it in chapter 12? Be done with it. End on a high note. It's interesting thing about the Bible is that it's not about telling a good story for a good story's sake.

[2:48] It's about telling the truth and describing the reality of human nature. So all the reforms and the rebuilding and the renewal that Nehemiah has spent tons of time and tons of energy and tons of money to see happen has now completely deteriorated.

[3:05] And now he is in chapter 13 getting wind hearing all of this and he is on his way back to Jerusalem to rebuild, to re-rebuild, to re-renew, to take what was broken that was fixed now is broken to make fixed again.

[3:28] And at a certain point when do you just say these people are defective? At what point do you say they're lost? That's enough.

[3:39] How many chances do we give to the people of God? How many chapter 13s would be in the future if this story continued on and it was written down for us?

[3:50] Yet in many ways this chapter, it's a fitting end in fact. Because it shows in a very authentic way how people can so easily compromise deeply held values, damage their most important relationships, and tolerate sin that is completely grievous, horribly grievous.

[4:13] So in short, Nehemiah 13 is a beautiful ending in a way because it's an authentic ending. And it helps us to understand the nature of even the most well-intentioned human heart.

[4:29] So, Nehemiah chapter 13, Nehemiah will come back and he'll address many issues, but we're going to take a look at three of the issues that he's going to address. The importance of a godly and holy disposition in worship.

[4:43] So godly and holy worship. And that's going to be as he addresses issues around the temple. The second is the importance of appropriate and consistent rhythms to life and relationship with money.

[4:58] We see that as he addresses issues around the Sabbath. And finally, we'll see the importance of a pure and devoted spirituality. And we'll see that as it pertains to Nehemiah addressing this issue of intermarriage with the people of God and the neighboring nations around them.

[5:17] So let's jump right into the first point, verse 4. If you have a Bible, please follow along. There's some Bibles still left at the back table. Excuse me. And feel free to grab one at any time and follow along.

[5:31] Nehemiah chapter 13, starting in verse 4. So if you remember a few weeks back, when we were reading through Ezra, the temple had been rebuilt and in it all of the things that pertained to temple worship, of which the storehouses of the various materials used in worship were presumably built.

[5:54] These materials were dedicated to the Lord. And also they were holy for the priests would use them to lead the people in proper worship.

[6:08] The priests were stewards of all these materials. And they had one goal, one responsibility above all, was to lead the people of God into the proper worship of God.

[6:20] So the temple was a huge deal in Israel. For it to be rebuilt meant that, in a sense, God was dwelling once again with His people. If you remember, the temple, the tabernacle before it, but also the Garden of Eden.

[6:34] It's this idea, this temple is the place where God will dwell with His people. God and His people dwell together. It's a central place of corporate worship for Israel.

[6:45] And it's mediated by this priestly class who were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. There were very unbending rules around worship.

[6:59] It's not like somebody from the tribe of Dan or Benjamin could be a priest. It had to be of the tribe of Levi. So it was only the Levites.

[7:10] Now we come to find that all the holiness associated with the temple and all the promises that were kept, or made, rather, in chapter 10 of Nehemiah were completely undone.

[7:22] Look with me, verses 4 to 13 here. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God and who was related to Tobiah.

[7:35] Where have we heard Tobiah before? Chapter 2. Tobiah is one of the enemies of God's people. He has come right when Nehemiah has come to Jerusalem, and he is a mocker.

[7:50] I mean, likely he's of Jewish descent, but he's also described as an Ammonite. He is not a person of the people of God.

[8:04] He is somebody who is a mocker, who is a syncretist, who likely has worshipped other gods in addition to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[8:14] And now we find him where? In verse 4 and 5? Verse 5. That there was a chamber prepared for Tobiah, a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.

[8:40] While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem. For in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king, and after some time I asked the leave of the king, and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

[8:59] Verse 8. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back the vessels of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense.

[9:15] I'll pause really quickly there. The first thing we see here is that the enemy of God's people has moved into the very temple itself. It's a huge problem.

[9:27] And not just participating in the life of the temple. He is living, or at least dwelling, in a chamber that was meant to store the very things that were used in the worship of God, and to care for the priests.

[9:44] It is an affront to proper worship. It is evil in God's sight. And we see a few things that have gone wrong here. First, the sacred things of God had been treated profanely.

[9:56] And in this case, with indifference. No longer was the worship of God as prescribed by the law, held in high regard, or seen as essential. Instead, the priest in charge of the matter, Eliashib, he saw an opportunity to further his own family's wealth.

[10:14] It says that he is a relative of Tobiah. Some nepotism going on here. So he is seeing an opportunity to further his family's wealth by giving the storehouse of God to the very enemy of God's people.

[10:27] How does such a thing happen? Well, clearly, it wasn't Eliashib going in and strong-arming all the priests, kicking them out, clearing out the area, then putting Tobiah in there.

[10:39] The people of God lost interest in the things of God. The temple ceased to be an essential part of life. An indifference sunk into the people.

[10:51] It seeped into their very core. There's no mention here of the people going up in a rage. Anger, righteous anger, like we see in Nehemiah.

[11:03] Eliashib opens up the door. Tobiah comes right in. There's an indifference that has seeped into the people of God. Oftentimes, the greatest damage that can be done in our lives is caused by indifference, or at least begins with indifference.

[11:22] Being careless about things that need great care. Carelessness? In some ways, what's wrong with it? I tried it out.

[11:33] You know, okay, I'm not as hardcore in the religion. I'm going to use my time for something else. I mean, I could read scripture. I could go to church.

[11:43] I could engage in prayer. I could fellowship with God's people. I got other things on my plate. That's different than saying, curse God.

[11:54] I'm done with this. I hate it. See how indifference, eventually here, leads to a gradual drawing away of God's people from the things of God.

[12:09] The temple is not kept holy. It's neglected. And now an Ammonite is entering the assembly of God, and not just any Ammonite, but Tobiah, the enemy of God's people.

[12:21] The one that looked to cease the building of the walls was trying to thwart the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and now he's in the temple. This, by the way, is not some prohibition against an entire people group.

[12:38] I mean, we see in verses 1 to 3, we haven't read it here, but it essentially says that people read the Bible, they found that the Ammonites and the Moabites should not be a part of the assembly of God, so they kicked them out.

[12:49] This isn't a racial superiority thing, or a hatred against the Ammonites and Moabites thing. What we see here is a great desire for holiness, but also to weed out the sin of omission.

[13:05] It says in verses 1, 2, and 3, the reason why the Ammonites should not enter the assembly of God. Why? Verse 2, For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water.

[13:17] And it continues on, But hired Balaam against them to curse them. Now, the Ammonites were the ones who turned a blind eye to the needs of the people of Israel on their way to the Promised Land.

[13:30] And here, that sin of omission, that, in a sense, refusal to help the people of God is an affront, an evil thing in God's sight.

[13:42] Now, later on, we'll talk a bit more in the chapter when it comes to intermarriage. But the issue with this prohibition of God's people in the assembly of God, again, has nothing to do with their ethnicity, but rather their worship of other gods.

[14:00] If you remember, the entire story of Ruth is this beautiful story of a Moabite woman, not a Jew, not an Israelite, but a Moabite woman who comes to faith in the Almighty God and actually she is found to be in the very lineage of Christ Himself.

[14:18] We don't interpret one part of the Bible against another. What we have here is a desire for spiritual purity. The second thing that is problematic here is that the Levites, the priestly class of Israel, they're being so neglected that they have become farmers.

[14:38] And if you remember, when God is allotting the promised land, all the tribes get a portion of the land except the Levites. The Levites were to be the priests and the people were to give to the Levites and now they are farmers, gods, priests have become in a sense serfs.

[14:58] They don't have their own land. There's a great indifference and evil that has sought in, that seeped in to the people of God. And here's the thing, what we're finding here is that the people are choosing to not trust God's ways as good, but instead trust their own means to achieve their own glory.

[15:20] they are not giving to the church. And this is a, I've always found this very difficult to talk about in terms of tithing to the church. Not saying that give X amount of money, but understand that to give to the church is to, not to give to the Avatan family, although it certainly does benefit us, but it's to give to God.

[15:41] But more than that, I mean it can't be more than giving to God, but what it does to you when you give is that it reminds you where your treasure is. How you spend your money is where you have the most value.

[15:57] Where you spend your time is where you, will be the things that you value the most. And what you value the most, you are willing to sacrifice for.

[16:07] You are. What tithing does, it reminds us who is the number one priority. what life looks like under the kingship of God.

[16:19] It helps us to put our treasure in heaven. So there is a neglect of godly worship due to indifference and it's having a ripple effect resulting in making what is holy to be profane and allowing enemies to be victorious and making destitute those whom they have an obligation to provide for.

[16:40] You start to see that one sin, one act of indifference, it starts to unravel a lot of things. A lot of people start to suffer, a lot of things start to crumble.

[16:55] The indifference is so often rooted in a self-centeredness that will only embrace God in the areas that we deem personally beneficial. God gets neglected or relegated so that he is nothing more than a good luck charm or a genie in the bottle or a means to suppress a guilty conscience but never anything more.

[17:17] We embrace God in the areas that we think won't cause us too much or require from us too much but the great irony in all of this is that we think that the very obligations of God will cause us harm and limit our ability to live free lives but it's the opposite.

[17:39] Will allow us to live joyful lives that will enlargen our lives. Will allow us to love in ways like God. Not perfectly like God but like God. That light and life will be a part of our very being.

[17:55] But friends, if we think the opposite, we think that God will actually cause us not to flourish, we will find ourselves increasingly less joyful, increasingly less kind and loving.

[18:11] We will find ourselves beginning to be enslaved to the things that we embrace as if they have become our slave owners and we are their slaves.

[18:23] In the Psalms it talks about those that worship idols become like idols. Blind and deaf and dumb. But when we worship God we get to live out an existence that God himself created.

[18:39] It's truly a beautiful thing. Let me ask you a question. Are the people more or less joyful and free with the temple in disrepute? Are they more or less joyful and free with an enemy making his home in one of the storehouse chambers of the temple?

[18:58] Are the people more or less joyful and free as they see the people that they are to care for the Levites essentially living a life of serfdom?

[19:14] The call is for godly and holy worship according to God's word that will inevitably lead us to have a life of flourishing but also and this is where we'll transition to the next point will help us to have appropriate rhythms to life that God has designed life that we may have proper rhythms that we will feast and fast and work and play that there's aspects of our life where it's not a grind non-stop it will also help us to have a right relationship with money and we've touched on that already but look with me in verses 15 to 21 in those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys and also wine grapes figs and all kinds of loads which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day and I warned them on the day when they sold food Tyrians also who lived in the city brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem itself then I confronted the nobles of Judah and I said to them what is this evil thing that you are doing profaning the Sabbath day did not your fathers act in this way and did not our God bring all this disaster on them and on this city now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath and as soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath

[20:42] I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath I'll pause there Sabbath breaking is a failure to recognize that God is the creator who delights in his good creation and who delights in goodness it's also a failure to recognize that God is the redeemer who provides salvation not simply from sin and brokenness and evil but salvation to enjoyment and flourishing and growth and life that is why the triune God himself invites people to enter into the age to come to new heavens and earth what does he say enter into my rest the Sabbath is a giant pointer sign to what will come for eternity to rest from work and rest in order to worship and delight in God is to embrace his vision for life that we would look to him for our provision and declare with our lives that there is a redemption that awaits all who put their faith and hope and trust in Jesus the Sabbath isn't just a day off work for us which it certainly is it is so much bigger and grander and I think if we have a vision of what the Sabbath truly is then we will see it as a joy not necessarily easy to participate in the people here see it as just a day off as an inconvenience why because I could be making money on day seven you are ruining my productivity besides the Tyrians are coming from the north they have fish that fish might spoil

[22:31] I like my fish there's there's aspects to this that that disregard what the Sabbath points to namely God and his redemption and his creation and it really disregards God himself because God gave the Sabbath as a gift to enjoy making it an essential aspect of good living the neglect of the Sabbath is will always result in a social physical and spiritual breakdown why because Sabbath robs us of our rest and friends you might be really good at the grind but you need rest you do you need to breathe and exhale you need to enjoy God's creation I say this okay I'll time out this isn't like a brag turns out that planting a church is kind of hard okay it's especially in COVID and it's been a moving target and I'll say this my family has suffered

[23:33] I have robbed my family of rest because you know Sunday's coming I'm sorry I just I have to put in the time if you find yourself in a promotion and that promotion is something that is just requiring you know an extra ten hours a week an extra five hours a week do you have that in your margins to absorb or will somebody else have to absorb it for you will you not have the rest you need will you be robbing from your family you know that's another thing about the Sabbath it's a one day a week where a family gets together and enjoys one another I'll get to a bit you know if you're feeling overwhelmed we'll talk a bit more about it but this is what the Sabbath that has a vision of of a family coming together if you have a family it also means in a sense being wise about how we or how we do not engage in the economy is there a day that you could not buy or sell a day that maybe the day before you do double the work you collect double the manna so that you have one day where you're not working or causing somebody else to work but ultimately by not enjoying the

[24:53] Sabbath you rob not that you can rob God but you rob God from from enjoying him and him enjoying you I would just say that listen chapter 13 verses 15 to 23 ought not to be copy and pasted for today okay there's nuance to this but it ought not to be disregarded either listen the Sabbath ultimately is for our benefit what does Jesus say in Mark chapter 2 at the end the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath so the son of man is Lord even on the Sabbath so how do we enjoy the Sabbath friends say we try it's a moving target and we try and next week you have the Sabbath on Sunday or Saturday or maybe works out to have it in the middle of the week you try you do your best by God's strength asking to prepare beforehand to resist the temptations to participate in the things that you could do any other day of the week but you try maybe to enjoy the

[26:05] Sabbath is to make sure that there's a good meal and the table is set and you enjoy it maybe the Sabbath is to get if possible an hour alone in solitude easier said than done for some people here maybe it's to not be a hermit and to enjoy people around you it's the opposite maybe the Sabbath is to learn how to be in the company of people without our phones without distractions but to enjoy them and that again is not easy so we try and we practice we practice and we practice we don't get legalistic about it and say I messed up it's done forget it but we keep trying our best why because we want to enjoy the Lord we we see his vision for our life and by his strength we will engage in that but Sabbath may be so foreign and so difficult for you because you have just an inability to rest because when you do pain may come be that physical or emotional maybe you've struggled with trauma in your life and it's just better to not let your mind not hit pause on your thoughts maybe you are just a very ornery person and you need to by God's strength learn not to be so crusty

[27:32] I don't know how the algorithm works on YouTube maybe it's because I subscribe to religious channels and Bible project videos and stuff but one video came up this past week and it's a rabbi in Toronto I don't know how I'm not subscribing to him but listen it's the algorithm okay but it's like this 20 minute clip and he's talking about how for the Orthodox community there's a huge problem with keeping the Sabbath with just non-stop drinking they call it Kiddush Club Kiddush is like a blessing you say over a cup of wine where people they'll just get bombed I don't know if that's a correct Christian term but they get bombed on the Sabbath because he says they can't stand the prolonged silence you know I can relate to that I mean maybe not the prolonged silence because we don't have that so much at our house but just where we're not distracted where the dopamine isn't going crazy in my brain for more than half an hour an hour two hours would I be more or less loving and free would you be consider the

[28:52] Sabbath and practice it the point isn't to give an exhaustive list of do's and don'ts but to understand what the Sabbath is friends it's a gift from God to us it's a taste of heaven just a little bit and a declaration that one day we will enjoy forever rest that will completely satisfy our God given desires because God gives his very self to us this is what Nehemiah is fighting about this is what the people have forgotten and we also see that Nehemiah is about a pure and devoted spirituality verses 23 to 28 read with me in those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod Ammon and Moab and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and they could not speak the language of Judah but only the language of each people and I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair and I made them take an oath in the name of God saying you shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves did not

[30:01] Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women among the many nations there was no king like him and he was beloved by his God and God made him king over all Israel nevertheless foreign women made even him to sin shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women foreign women are in Jesus' lineage okay so the issue isn't with foreign women the issue is how the introduction of a faith or a philosophy or an ideology into the people of God so that the people of God say I worship God and how that destroys the people of God there's more than one way to destroy a city and this is one of them yesterday's enemies have now become today's marriage partners and like in

[31:04] Ezra the Israelites have married people of a different faith people from Ashdod and Ammon and Moab the nations that have plagued Israel from before they even entered into the promised land and to attempt it to thwart the rebuilding of the wall again the issue isn't with race or ethnicity but a faith issue the people are not worshippers of God alone but God and God and the gods of Ashdod God and the gods of Ammon God and the gods of Moab the people no longer speak the language of Judah that is to say that they have forgotten their God they don't they don't know the words of scripture they don't recall the Lord when they wake up and when they go down they don't say and teach their children in their comings and goings on the highways on the byways they don't participate in the worship of God's people they have forgotten God and Nehemiah what does he do he appeals to scripture again look at King

[32:07] Solomon look at what he's he was the best people came from all over the known world he built the temple he was unbelievable blessed by God and yet he entered into a syncretistic lifestyle God and God and God and God is a jealous God jealous because there are no other gods beside him so to worship a false god is to elevate something created over the creator we see that in the book of Romans the apostle Paul spells that out in an incredible way and it's a huge offense to God but also he is jealous because he desires good for his people and the worship of idols or other gods or God and will not lead to our blessing but our curse we are image bearers of almighty God we are to reflect his glory and when we worship false gods we further mar and tarnish what God has called holy us it is like having Tobiah the Ammonite move into the temple that is us it is a desecration it is not the way

[33:21] God had intended it friends we struggle with this idolatry is rampant we don't have idols we have talked about this a number of times but whatever we put our trust in our hope in that is apart from the almighty God that is in addition to the almighty God we find ourselves giving into the God of Ammon and Moab and Ashdod and I'll tell you one thing about those gods in the Bible those gods they demanded rape and detestable sexual acts and even child sacrifices with a promise that blessings were to come now who is more free and enjoying life and love the people who worship the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that gives them a day of rest that points to what eternity looks like or the gods that demand their very children to be burned for what for fertility for a promise of wealth in this life who is more free who is enjoying life more we may think we can find goodness and flourishing apart from God but friends that is only because when we enjoy goodness apart from God it's only because

[34:43] God gives grace to the just and the unjust he makes it rain on the good and the bad he gives common grace to all people but make no mistake idolatry will tear apart our families our communities our neighborhoods our very selves so Nehemiah enacts these reforms I mean he makes a trip from Persia back to Jerusalem and the man is on a mission by the way the whole bit about laying hands on people and ripping out their hair apparently it is a prescribed punishment thank God it's not the case anymore you know you guys don't show up to church for a week you see me on your front door I'm ready to pull out hair not a chance but Nehemiah has come to to turn things around and it seems like he did but we know that it didn't last another Nehemiah chapter 13 is just on the cusp this is God's people this is what happens reforms failures crying out to God reforms failures crying out to God so where is the hope

[35:55] I'll tell you where the hope isn't it's not in you or me can't be because the best effort that the best of us in this room can do will inevitably fail give it 48 hours give it to the end of the week give it to Canada Day being generous so it's not in our own efforts as important as our own efforts are there's no hope in true hope eternal hope in self reformation only in the grace of God and we'll just touch on these three verses I didn't read these but they're key Nehemiah he says the same thing just about three times after each section and it's in verse 14 22 and then in verse 30 to 31 verse 14 it says this remember remember me oh my God concerning this and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service that's verse 14 verse 22 says this then I commanded verse 23 no no verse 22 remember this also in my favor oh my

[37:10] God and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love and then again in verse 30 and 31 thus I cleansed from everything foreign and established the duties of the priests and Levites each in his work and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times and for the first fruits and then it ends this this way remember me oh my God for good remembering in the Bible is never just hey God take a picture for later you know so you can remember what I've done to say God remember me is to say God I need your salvation now help me now don't delay come to my side come to my aid I need your help now I need your grace and constantly Nehemiah is trying by God's strength to do these reforms but ultimately he is throwing himself at God's grace remember me remember the people God don't forsake us come through this text

[38:14] Nehemiah 13 it helps us to know that we are in deep need of God it leaves nothing in our room for us to imagine that we are the heroes of our own story Nehemiah 13 points us to our need for God's grace so that we can cry out God remember us and friends he certainly has because Jesus comes you remember Nehemiah he's zealous in the temple taking Tobiah's furniture tossing it out making a big scene now who else do you remember had some zeal in the temple Jesus when he goes in there he sees the money changers the people selling pigeons and he is enraged he makes a whip he drives them out he flips tables there's not too many things that are recorded in all four gospel accounts but the cleansing of the temple is one of them Jesus he is zealous for true worship he is zealous for true worship in fact he is the temple himself if the temple is the place where God meets mankind where God dwells among his people Jesus fully man and fully God is the temple of God

[39:30] Jesus also is the temple of God Moab Moab Moab he has defeated him and who has defeated him and who have killed him and the temple again and he has defeated evil He has defeated evil once and forever and he has destroyed the idol so that we don't have to believe in them why he has given us his Holy Spirit so that we can worship God and learn to worship God and learn to worship him by his strength because of what he has done on the cross verse two says this in chapter 13 for this is talking about the sin of the Moabites for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them.

[40:33] And here it is. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. That's what God does. He takes your life and He makes it a blessing.

[40:45] When the weight of this world and sin and death and enslavement, your life feels like it is under a curse, He turns it around and makes it a blessing.

[40:56] That awaits all of us. We put our faith and trust and hope in this wonderful God who will remember us, who has a zeal for His temple, who is about the Sabbath rest and who has destroyed all idols.

[41:10] Let us pray. Father, we thank You for Nehemiah. We thank You that it ends in a, I guess in a sense, a non-Hollywood way, a non-climactic way.

[41:24] It ends in some ways in a very depressing way, but it also ends in a way that helps us to see that in our own strength, we have nothing that we can offer.

[41:37] So it ultimately then points us to You and our need for Your grace. So Lord, help us to be people that worship You well, that are about humility and seeking Your face when we mess up and getting back to it.

[41:53] Lord, that we will be people that are about Your Sabbath rest, not just a rest from work and a proper trust in You for our provision and just a time where we can put our feet up and exhale, but a time where we can worship You and look to what is awaiting us in Christ Jesus.

[42:13] And ultimately, Lord, help us to be pure in our worship, that we will not worship You and other things. Lord, by Your strength, we ask all of this in Christ's mighty name.

[42:25] Amen.