Nehemiah 8:1–12

, God really has lavished His blessing, on us as a church, and he's using cornerstone in the lives of So many people as a church, we don't deserve this blessing, but with each person that God brings to The cornerstone family, we grow richer as a church and our responsibility to be faithful only increases. As Bill mentioned earlier, we're just a bunch of broken people who are desperately, seeking Jesus, believing in Him, and, finding transformational help through Jesus and through the gospel from brokenness to wholeness.

Cornerstone is a church that you can invite people to and know that they will be blessed and that they will be helped in understanding their brokenness, the brokenness of sin, and they'll be helped in their journey from that brokenness of sin to complete and utter wholeness, in Jesus Christ that ultimately is found in, in glory. we stand today on the threshold of our grand opening Sunday, which is, 7 days away.

Next Sunday, September. The 7th, and this is an epic moment for us as a church. There's been a ton of work done by so many of you, over the last, several months, and we now stand ready to reach out. to, to people and invite them to a service like we will be having next, Sunday.

Our vision in moving here to Bornes was to reach more people in our Sunday services. We wanted to obtain the use of a facility that would allow the room to accomplish this purpose. We also told you as a congregation that we would not. View this facility as the be all and the end all of church life here at Cornerstone, but that it would be merely a front porch.

That all of our homes and our care groups would share in common, and we would view this facility and the things that happen here as a key entry point. through which we can usher people into the wholeness of what God is doing here in the body life of, Cornerstone, by finding a larger facility which by God's grace we have found and, God has provided. the goal was to widen the wide end of the funnel so that we can get more people, receive more people and get them launched in this journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Christ.

And so here we are, August 31st, a week away from our grand opening, Sunday, and, we expect the Lord to honor the vision that we believe that He has given to us.

And to enable us to reach a number of people. We would encourage you to invite, people, family and friends and coworkers to the grand opening service, next Sunday. there's, Luke, could you hand me those, Yeah, perfect. Thank you.

to invite, people, and there, there's, I believe as you leave, you'll see these on the back, but I, they're gonna be bundled in, in packets of 10, but just grab, these invitations, advertising the, the grand opening. and invite people to, to the service, next, next week. And also just maybe to for all of us to come together, even with regard to those that you intend to invite, we would encourage you on your connection card, on the back of your connection card. If you already know people that you have invited or you plan to invite this week to the service, next Sunday, if you could put their name on the back of the connection card, that would be awesome.

And put whatever information you want, first name, last name, or if you just wanna put their first name, just, put their names on the back of the connection card so that the staff can be praying for them, this week. And also, if you're interested in praying over any of the names that are submitted, let us know that on the back of the connection card along with your email address, and we'll make sure to get some names sent to you so that you can be praying. for, some of these, individuals, I'm holding in my hand, a mailer that is going to be sent out to over 11,000 homes, here in the surrounding area, this week, and our prayer is that people will receive, these mailers and that, they'll feel the invitation that is contained there and come to our service next week and.

and be blessed by what the Lord has in store for them in our service next week.

In fact, we had a crew, I believe it was Friday evening, come together and get everything bundled together up here. We didn't just put this up here because we lack storage space. we wanted you to see, all of the 11,000+, mailers that are bundled and ready to go, and, we're gonna pray a little bit later in our service just for God to, to go with each one of those and use them to accomplish, his, his purposes. Next Sunday is gonna be a big Sunday.

We've got people in various ministry positions that are ready to go from, set up to ushers and greeters and teachers and nursery workers and, and what have you. But, we know that those individuals are gonna be here and they're gonna do their job with excellence, but We would encourage all of you to, to be here next Sunday, be here early, consider yourself on the staff of Cornerstone because you are. consider yourself on the ministry team. Be friendly to people that you don't recognize.

Don't just hang out with people that, look for new faces and make them feel, welcome. don't just assume, well, we've got greeters, so I know everyone will get greeted, so I don't have to greet anybody. No, consider yourself next Sunday a greeter and an usher, and reach out to those that come and from the time that they enter into the parking lot. to coming into the auditorium and, and leaving that they feel loved and welcomed by, by all of us.

Can you do that? OK. just to give you a little bit of a heads up, starting next Sunday, we're gonna be doing a five-week series entitled, From Brokenness to, to Wholeness, and we're gonna take the life of the apostle Paul, who lived so transparently. There's so much to know about this man and his journey from the brokenness of sin and self-righteousness all the way to glory.

And so what we're going to try to do is Unpack that journey, look at the five critical points in Paul's journey from brokenness to wholeness, and we'll give a week to each of those, 5, points. And then when we're done with that, at some point near the middle of October, we will be, launching a, series, a study, from the pulpit, in the Book of Genesis, and we'll begin in Genesis chapter 1. Verse one, which people say is a great way to begin if you're gonna study Genesis, So that'll, and we'll see how far that takes us, but that'll give you a bird's eye view of what the next few months hold in store, for us.

I wanna have you turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah 8.

This is the end of the summer, the end of our summer advance where we've been giving you, encouragements to be reading through the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. There's a number of parallels that, the journey of the people of Judah to our journey as a church, and this will be the last installment. Of our summer advance program and the last message from Ezra and Nehemiah, and we're just gonna look at verses 1 through 12 today. I was reading a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure most of you have read this about a mom.

Who was frustrated that when she would call or text her children on their smartphones, that they weren't calling her back. They weren't answering the phone, they weren't calling her back, and they weren't replying to her text. and so this, this mom didn't want to settle for that. She did some research and she ended up creating an app called Ignore No More.

And with this app installed on her children's phone, and it's now installed on her children's phone, whenever she calls their phone, every other function on their smartphone ceases to operate. it shuts down completely every other function except those functions that are necessary needed for them to call her back. Even their contact list, the names disappear except for the names of their parents, so that I, I take it some of you parents have similar frustrations, but imagine that when you as a parent, call your children, their whole life shuts down.

every function on their phone shuts down.

They can't do anything else. They can't even play video games, they can't text anyone else, they can't call anyone else. Everything shuts down except the capacity to respond to you. And with this app, if a child wants to do anything else on their phone after you've called them, they have to call you and get a code.

To then have the freedom to do anything else on their phone. So, that's one way to get your children's attention. And every parent wants their child's attention, and this is one mom's way of getting that from her children. And I would say, you go, girl.

But, there, there is someone who is so much more important than any parent. Who wants our attention, and that is God. God wants our attention and yet often we don't listen to Him when He speaks. He speaks to us and we don't hear Him often.

He speaks to us and rather than listening to Him, we're listening to other voices, their. Churches today that are not listening to God at all. When they gather on Sundays, they care more about what the world says than about what God says in his word, but blessed is the congregation who listens to God. We find that congregation in Nehemiah chapter 8.

These people, it's a, it's an assembly that we witnessed in Nehemiah 8 of tens of thousands of people assembled on this occasion and they cared very much about God's voice as he speaks through His word. The narrative of the Bible, the story of Israel's history is so filled with, with examples of people not listening to God when he speaks in our own lives. are have been filled or are filled with heartache because of those occasions when we did not listen. To God.

But in Nehemiah 8, we find a very rare jewel on the pages of scripture, a congregation that is giving its full undivided attention to God as he speaks through His word. Now, the message today is this is not going to be a normal sermon. probably, there's about 20 minutes left in this message. from this point forward, there will be no outline, and I apologize kids who came up to get a clipboard and a sermon outline.

There was nothing over there because we have none today. We should have told you that and we apologize for not letting that. there will also be, like, there's no sermon outline. All I'm gonna do today is read Nehemiah 8 verses 1 through 12.

And I will do so in keeping with the spirit of what Ezrad does in the very passage that we'll be reading, today. And I'm gonna ask you to do something different than what you normally do during, a sermon. Normally, you get to sit through my sermons. And I have to stand through the length of The sermons that I preach, sometimes I get jealous of you and the privilege you have of sitting.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing at all wrong with sitting during a sermon. In fact, we have a specific example in the book of Acts of someone sitting during one of Paul's sermons. So we know that there is biblical precedent for this practice that goes all the way back to the ancient church. by the way, the name of the guy who was sitting, we find this in Acts 20 was a guy named Eudicus, and we learned that he was sitting during a lengthy sermon by the apostle Paul that went all the way to midnight.

In fact, he was sitting in the window of the upper room of a three-story home. And he fell asleep and fell out of the window and died. But Paul resuscitated him and everything worked out great. Paul then went back to his message and literally spoke until daybreak.

all that to say, there is biblical precedent for sitting during sermons. so next week, we will get back to this wonderful practice of sitting, having you sit during the sermons. But today, we've never done this before, but, we're gonna, we're gonna see in Nehemiah 8 that the people stood. For hours.

While the text of scripture was being read and explained, at least for 4 hours, like people do now in an NFL football game, they stand the entire time. These people stood for hours outdoors as Ezra and others read the text of scripture and explained what they were reading. And so, again, from about this point to the end of the message might be about 18 minutes. so.

I'm going to ask you to stand through the rest, to stand with me through the rest of this message. If you need to sit at any point, I want you to feel totally free to do so. but if you're able to remain standing through the entire time, fine. If you need to sit for a minute or two in the middle of this, that's totally fine., ladies, take your shoes off, get really comfortable.

Men, you can do the same. I did. Right. And we will give you an exemption, Brian.

let's see here. We're gonna try to have the, so this is Nehemiah 8 verses 1 through 12. I'll begin reading in verse 1. The walls around Jerusalem have been rebuilt.

The gates have been. rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem had been rebuilt decades earlier. From a facility standpoint, everything is now done, completed. And now look at what the people of Judah do.

And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Watergate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. Ezra is their pastor, basically, and the people are asking their pastor to bring his Bible to church. This ancient congregation is setting a great example for us and putting also modern, many modern congregations to shame. Some congregations today are asking their spiritual leaders and their pastors to bring worldly wisdom to church.

They're asking them to bring entertainment. To their times of assembly, a dog and pony show. They're asking some of them for false teaching that tickles their ears, but not this congregation. Hey, Ezra, they say to their pastor, we're having a congregational meeting today.

Pastor, could you bring your Bible to the meeting? Well, look at what Ezra did verse 2. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly. This is one of the most important functions of a spiritual leader of a congregation of God's people, to bring the scriptures before the assembly of God's people.

Notice that in this assembly, It is an assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding on the 1st day of the 7th month. Look at that. Adults were gathered, those are the men and the women, and any children were in attendance who were old enough to understand what was being said. This shows us that there is validity to evaluating children's ability to understand and process the preached word.

In this context, there was thought given to whether children could understand or not. Understand what was being read and taught. If they could understand, then they were brought. If they could not, then they weren't.

That's all we know. But the reason that the writer tells us that present in this crowd, in addition to men and women were all those who could listen with understanding is because he wants us to know that children were present in this gathering. This is a multi-generational audience, and everyone is the richer for it. Verse 3.

He, Ezra read from it, the book of the law. He read from it before the square, which was in front of the Watergate from early morning until midday. That's at least 4 hours in the presence of men and women, those who could understand and look at how the people responded and all the people were attentive. To the book of the law.

Literally all the ears of the people were toward the book. Of the law, it's as if their ears are pointed. As it were, their attentions are pointed toward the book and what was being read from the book. No one in this audience was texting or playing games on their smartphones during this gathering.

People were not distracted. Everyone was attentive to the scriptures as they were being read and explained. This is remarkable. Ezra read and explained for 4 hours or so and everyone remains attentive to the book of the law.

As it is being read and explained. Look at the scene, verse 4. Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. That word podium is the Hebrew word for tower that speaks perhaps of the towering stage that was well above the people or even somewhat of a tower in front of Ezra, a pulpit as it were.

You could tell the priorities of these people by the architecture of their setup. They made a wooden podium for Ezra. They made it for the purpose, in other words, for the purpose of allowing Ezra to read from the book of the law, the scriptures to them. Look what else it says in verse 4, and beside him stood Mattathiah Shemah.

Anaya, Uriah, Hilkaya, and Masaya on his right hand and Padaya. Michael, Malkaja, Hashim, Hash Badana, Zachariah, and Mashula on his left. Verse 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people.

By positioning Ezra above the people, the people were not trying to say that Ezra himself was above them, but they wanted to do so to represent the fact that he would be reading from a book. That contains the words of the God who is above them and speaking from on high, they also had him on this podium so that everyone could see and hear him. Look what happens at the end of verse 5, and when he opened it, so he just, he opens the book. And when he opened it, All the people stood up.

This takes us to the very first moment of this assembly when Ezra opened the book of the law. When he did so, everyone stood. There's many ways to show respect for God's word. One of them is by standing.

It's not the only way, but here in this particular assembly, the book opens and everybody stands at the opening of this book. And then look at what happens next, verse 6. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. This is how this worship service begins.

The service begins with Ezra opening the book, and as soon as he does so, all the people stand, but Ezra doesn't start reading right away. He takes a moment to worship, to bless, and praise Jehovah, whom he calls the great God. Essentially, he's praying a prayer of praise to God. And at the conclusion of his prayer of praise, look at what happens.

4 things happen. It says, and all the people answered, Amen, amen. While lifting up their hands. Then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

This is what their worship service looked like. They are worshiping before the scripture is read and explained. They're worshiping God in the presence of an opened Bible, knowing that they are about to hear from Jehovah, the great God. And they are saying before anything is read, Jehovah, you are the great God, we lift our hands to you, we bow before you, saying by that that you are God, and we are not.

And we are your servants and we are ready to hear your voice and do your bidding, whatever it is. That's the worship they did. Before the scriptures were read and explained, by their posture, they're saying, Lord, we don't even know what you're gonna say yet, but your wish is our command. Verse 7 Also Jeshua, Bonni, Sherabaya, Yamin, Akkub, Shabbathai, Hodaya, Masaa, Kalita, Azariah, Jazabad, Hannan, Palaia, the Levites explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place.

The Hebrew word translated remained. Is the same Hebrew word translated stood in verse 5. It's the same word. Many of your translations will say that the people stood.

In their place, that is an accurate literal rendering. They stood. Ezra, it's evident here, did not do all the reading. Remember, this is a several hour service without a PA system, microphones, so they had to speak very loudly and clearly and over the length of this several hour service, it seems like they took turns reading and explaining the scriptures while the people stood.

In their place for hours. Verse 8, and they read from the book, from the law of God translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. Some of the people in this audience spoke Aramaic better than they would have spoken in Hebrew because of their time in the Babylonian captivity. and so there's differences between Aramaic and Hebrew, and so the scriptures were written in Hebrew, and so here is Ezra and the Levites, they're reading from the text, and where necessary, they're giving the translation in order to make sure that people understood what it was that was being said in the text of the Bible.

This is one of the critical roles of spiritual leaders to make The scripture clear to help people to understand the scriptures. Look at how the people responded. Then Nehemiah verse 9, 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 to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.

For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. We know the weeping that they're doing here is not a weeping for joy, but a mournful grieving or weeping because Ezra and Nehemiah and others have to tell them, stop mourning. This is an amazing sight and a wonderful example to cornerstone and to the modern church. These are men for hours who are reading and translating and teaching the scriptures, and everyone stands attentive for hours and they remain in their place.

No one goes anywhere, even though they are being convicted to the point of weeping by what they're hearing. This is clearly not a congregation with itching ears looking for someone to tell them sweet lies that soothe their conscience. These are not people looking for a church that makes them feel good all the time. They are reduced to weeping by the word and yet they remain in their place and they keep listening to God's word.

They remain attentive even though they're heaving with sobs and tears are streaming down their faces. So look at what Nehemiah says to them, verse 10. Then he said to them, go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet. Go, he says.

He has to send them away. Enjoy a delicious meal. It seems that the people brought food for this occasion, which makes sense. They're camping as pilgrims in Jerusalem.

They've gathered from the surrounding regions for the feast of trumpets. And then Nehemiah also says, send portions to him who has nothing prepared. In other words, take the food you brought, share it with those who didn't think ahead. And who don't have food that they have brought or prepared for this day is holy to our Lord.

And then again, he says, do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, I know you're feeling sad and broken over your sins, your sins and the sins of your fathers, but you have great reason to rejoice right now. why?

Because God is rejoicing over you in this very moment. He's enjoying you. So let his joy in you be your stronghold, literally, is what the text says. Run into his joy.

And let it be your stronghold. When you are weeping over your sin. Interestingly, Ezra's words were not enough to calm the people, so the Levites pitch in and together Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites finally succeed. Look at verse 11.

So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be still. Some translations say hush. Which makes sense because the Hebrew word here is Hasu. From which we get hush.

Hush Be still For the day is holy. Do not be grieved. It's evident that it took some doing to calm the people and to get them to stop grieving over their sins, but eventually the leaders succeed and look at what happens next, the last verse, and all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great festival. Why?

Because they understood the words. Which had been made known to them. Why were they happy? Why were they in a mood to celebrate?

Because they understood the words that had been made known to them. They understood the Bible that had been read to them. They understood their Bible better than they did before, and that makes them really happy. Even though what they understood made them cry, they're celebrating the fact that they understand God's word, which had been made known to them.

I met with a man this week. Who is a true student. Of the word of God, who has recently started attending Cornerstone with his family. And he said to me, What I want most from a church is to be able to walk in on Sunday.

And have the Bible opened. And to be taught God's word. I told him that that right there is the very characteristic that I have most appreciated about the people of Cornerstone over these past 23 years. May we be a congregation like the congregation of Nehemiah 8 who loves the word of God, who gathers to hear it read.

And taught a congregation of people who remain in our place and remain attentive, even when God's word is causing us to weep. May we be a church where the pastors Bring their Bibles before God's people and open it up. And teach it. May Cornerstone forever be a church where their pastors bring their Bibles to church, just as the congregation does.

And may we be a church who does not merely weep over our sin. But a people who knows how to be comforted in the joy of our God. A God who does not despise a broken and a contrite heart, a God who delights in those who cling to His mercy. In those moments when we are broken by our sin, May the joy of the Lord be our stronghold, and may we with open hearts invite many, many others in to join us in revering God and giving ear.

To his most holy word. Let's pray together Father, we stand on the cusp of a grand opening celebration from a facility standpoint. We're much like these Jews in Nehemiah 8, just about everything is in place, Lord. We thank you for the work of so many in bringing us to this point of our church's history.

Help us to honor your mercy toward us and honor the work and the giving of so many people to make all of this possible. Help us to do this, Lord, by being a congregation who is profoundly attentive to your word and obedient to your word. The people who believe your word, who live your word and who happily share it with others. May we be as another Jerusalem congregation was a few 100 years later in Acts 2, devoted to the apostles' teaching.

Never let us stray from your truth. Never let the candle go out from this church and help us to take this light wherever we go and invite others in. Lord, we pray for these mailers that are here on this stage before us. That will be sent out this week.

This is not junk mail. This is an earnest and humble invitation to the people of this community to come. To let them know we're here and we want to serve and bless them with the good news of the gospel of Jesus, that is for broken people. Send this, Lord, to the right homes.

Make them visible to the right people. Touch hearts, Lord, and through them, or through them and, and bring to Cornerstone next week those people, Lord, whom you and your sovereign plan want to be here and help us to be a congregation who receives them and who loves them and makes them feel at home. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. You may be seated.