I welcome you back to joining with us on this recorded worship service. It was not exactly what I was expecting to happen, but my schedule is so uncertain right now that in order to be able to still have a time of worship with you, I had to request that we do one more Sunday of recording before we reopen. My mom passed away on Monday, and so right now it’s very tentative on where I will be and when, so I appreciate your understanding on all of this.
Before we begin our worship service together, just a few announcements I’d like to draw your attention to that will be found also at the end of the online bulletin on the church website. First thing, just to mention is we will be reopening on June 14th, regardless of what is happening with me. I’ve been working to arrange to make sure that we’ll have somebody to cover should be here on June 14th. Things are being drawn out, but the instructions for what we ask you to do, as well as information for what we are doing to make the place clean and safe, are included there as well.
Secondly, I just want to mention we appreciate you sending in prayer requests. Any praise reports you have would also be very welcome. We will get those to the prayer chain, so either call the office, leave a voicemail, or email me or Kerry, and we will get that out on the prayer chain.
Also, the link for these recorded services is included in those announcements and that link will still be relevant because even after we reopen, we will still continue to record these worship services and get them on the website for those who may not be able to join us on Sunday mornings or who don’t feel safe enough to do that just yet.
Fourth thing I’ll just mention is thank you, thank you, thank you again for the donations you are making for people helping people. It is really encouraging to see how many different food supplies are coming in, whether it’s fresh food or canned foods. Again, just as a reminder, if you do have fresh fruit that you drop off, please put it in the refrigerator downstairs so that way they don’t spoil. I will make sure that I look there before I take everything down on either Monday or Tuesday, so thank you very much for all that you’ve been doing to help with that.
As we now prepare ourselves to begin our time of worship, one of the things that I believe is important as our preparation is a reminder of the vision for what we believe God desires for us. This mission statement will be showing up on your video feed, so if you would please, let’s confess this together as a way to declare why we come to worship in order to be sent back out. Please join with me: we serve to build relationships; we build relationships to share the gospel.
Now what I’m going to ask you to do is just pause wherever you are and in your own words tell Jesus that you have come this day to serve Him and worship, and then when He sends us back out to serve Him for His kingdom. Have you done that?
Alright, as we now move further into worship, we use our call to worship to prepare us to give ourselves to Jesus. Sometimes that’s a very significant intentional decision we have to make because on any given day we have no idea what we might be feeling or thinking, because the circumstances of life catch us off-guard. This is one way that we focus ourselves for this active work. So would you join with me right now in our responsive reading from Psalm 1, verses 1 through 6, please.
‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on God’s law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.’
Again now, as we move even a step further and deeper into worship, the prayer of confession is one way that we can respond to this call to worship the Lord. We accept the invitation, and now we do some of the work that prepares us to worship better. Would you join with me in our prayer of confession?
‘Heavenly Father who forgives our sins past, present, and future, hear our confession. Lord, save us from the sins of our tongues and the flaws of character that fuel them. Make our words honest, few, wise, and kind. Forgive us for thoughtlessness and indifference. Lord, show us our cherished sins, the ones we confess but into which we keep falling. We thank you Lord for your mercy and forgiveness. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.’
Now let’s just pause for a moment. If anything in that prayer of confession struck a chord with you, go ahead and confess more specifically careless words, careless ways that we keep falling back into that trap of sin.
Lord Jesus, still, it is an amazing thing to think of what forgiveness cost you, what it means for you to say we are forgiven because you died on the cross for us. I say to each one of you, as you have confessed, may the power of Jesus Christ and His blood set you free from those things—not only from the actions but from the memories and even from any guilt and shame that anyone would cast upon you, no matter where it comes from. I say in Jesus’ name to myself and to you, be set free from condemnation in Jesus Christ. It’s in His precious name that we pray, amen.
One of the many things I enjoy about our worship service is the fact that we get to respond and worship God in so many different ways. Our songs of faith, whether they are praise choruses that are newer or hymns of the past, are all powerful ways that we have to be able to express our love, our praise, and even our submission to the Lord.
Our opening hymn of praise in this time is ‘Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.’
[Music]
Morning, our song shall rise to Thee.
[Music]
Oh merciful and mighty,
[Music]
It we all the saints adore,
[Music]
Casting down their terrible man; Seraphim falling down before Thee, which word—
[Music]
The darkness, the seed for me;
[Music]
My glories may not see.
[Music]
Ow!
[Music]
There is none—
[Music]
All Thy works shall please tie;
[Music]
Tiny, that’s kind o’ Bitsey—merciful and—
[Music]
My three persons.
[Music]
Very powerful, very powerful hymn.
Yeah, also just reminds me as we move to this thought about the offering of our tithes. So many different ways we tithe and worship the Lord. Even our singing is a form of tithing to God because it requires us giving of ourselves. But in particular, I also just want to say thank you to all the folks who have been continuing to send in their tithes and offerings to support the ministry of the church. No matter which way you have been doing it—through the online giving opportunities, through mailing in a check, or even dropping them off—I’m so appreciative of your heart and generosity to serve the Lord in this manner.
But if you have not been doing something, find a church or ministry to offer a tithe to, because it is an act of worship, and so I hope you get to share that. But let’s just give thanks right now and dedicate what has come in and will be coming in to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Please pray with me.
‘Lord Jesus, I am so very thankful for all the different ways that you provide for us to be able to serve you. It seems like what we have is so meager in comparison to who you are as the creator of all things, but you bless us to be your blessing to others. Lord Jesus, even now, let these blessings multiply and let them be used in powerful ways for the kingdom of God. We now offer and dedicate these gifts to you in Jesus’ mighty name.’
I’m thankful to have the opportunity to be able to share the Word of God with you, and before I start, though, I just want to mention again the fact that we have an outline of worship that is here in the bulletin. The purpose for this is that if you—some people are visual like me—you may need to see what the different points are. Some people like to take notes, but whatever it may be, I hope this will be of assistance to you to be able to remember, and if we remember, we can better apply what we’re taught.
This particular series we’re going to be going through during the summer is learning different ways, as the sermon series says, of depending upon God, and that is a lifelong journey and challenge that we will all face.
Our particular text today is back in the book of Nehemiah. I can’t tell you how rich this book has been for me personally. There is just so much that we are offered as we see somebody who is challenged to lead people in the work of renewal—that they would be renewed as the people of God and as worshippers of God who served a Living God.
Our text is Nehemiah 1, verses 5 through 7, but before I share that with you, let’s pray asking for the Holy Spirit’s help to be our teacher.
‘Holy Spirit, I do right now turn myself over to you and the people who are listening to this. Lord Jesus, thank you for such an amazing promise that you would send the Holy Spirit, and you did on Pentecost to be our teacher, to be the one who convicts us of all sin, to be our counselor, the one who comes alongside. Holy Spirit, you are welcome. Give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts that are open to understand what it is you want for us. It’s in your precious name we pray, amen.’
Here now the word of the Lord from Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 5 through 7. This is part of Nehemiah’s prayer.
‘And Nehemiah said: O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant in steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you, day and night, for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God for His word.
We have looked at the book of Nehemiah several times over at least the past year—probably more—but one question we have not asked until now is how did it ever get this bad with the people of Israel?
Take a look at the level of despair the people of Israel have sunk into, as described in Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 3. We’re backtracking a little bit, and the people—these people who had come from Jerusalem—said unto Nehemiah, ‘The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.’
The depth of their despair is described as great trouble and shame because their sense of honor has been—the people of God, and Jerusalem being the City of God, was in ruins. It was devastated, but they really had no one to blame but themselves. They were stuck in a vicious cycle of sin.
The book of Judges in chapter 3, in particular verses 12 through 15, is a good place to see how this cycle of sin kept repeating itself. Step one was this: the people of Israel would sin. Here, what Judges three, the first part of verse 12 says about this: ‘And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.’ Now, the key word in that verse is ‘again,’ which is also translated as ‘once again,’ and it implies that the people of Israel just could not get out of this rut of sinning. They were God’s people on the outside but had not fully become God’s people on the inside.
Because their sin would become so great in God’s eyes, it rightly led to step number two: God would righteously judge their sin. That’s what continues on in the second part of verse 12 into verse 14. Here’s how it reports this: ‘And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Eglon gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites and went and defeated Israel, and they took possession of the city of Palms, and the people of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years.’
So, as God will often do when people persist in their sin and ignore His holiness, God raises up a judgment. In this case, God removed His protection from them and used a nearby nation to execute His judgment upon His people—a judgment that lasted 18 years. The work of this judgment accomplished what God wanted because in step number three, the people were sorrowful enough to turn back to God. Here’s how the first part of verse 15 describes their sorrow: ‘Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.’
This Hebrew word for ‘cried out’ also translates as ‘called out for help.’ The pain of their crisis caused them to search out the reasons for this judgment, which then led them to remember the Covenant promises and agreements God had made with them, which boils down really to two stipulations: blessings for obedience and discipline for disobedience. When God sensed that they were truly sorrowful for their sin and not just simply sorry they were caught, that led to step number four: God rescued them from their judgment.
Here’s how God did this in the second part of verse 15 in chapter three of Judges: ‘And the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamin Knight, a left-handed man. He was a judge of God who brought about and enforced God’s promises to God’s people: blessings for obedience and discipline for disobedience.’
But guess what? Unsurprisingly, happened again: the people of Israel would get too comfortable in the blessings of God, believe that these blessings were now a right and not a privilege, and the cycle of sin kept repeating itself over and over again throughout their entire history.
If you don’t believe me, then why do you think there were 12 judges in the book of Judges? I believe the cycle of sin kept happening because the people of Israel did not have a godly grief that led to lasting repentance. Their history of sin kept repeating itself, and this is what the Apostle Paul describes by the Holy Spirit in 2nd Corinthians 7, verse 10. Paul wrote, ‘For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.’
It appears that their grief only lasted until the pain passed and the crisis was completed. So this morning I believe it would be helpful to see in Nehemiah what caused their cycle of sin, and Nehemiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us clues in these few verses to what was perpetuating their cycle of sin, beginning with the truth that they did not take their sin seriously.
Here’s how the Holy Spirit points this out in chapter 1, verse 6 of Nehemiah. As a part of Nehemiah’s prayer, he said to God, ‘Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you, day and night, for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father’s house have sinned.’ Nehemiah did on their behalf what many of them would not do for themselves. He confessed all of their sin. He even included himself in his family tree—that is, his father’s house—as a part of this confession.
I also find it interesting that Nehemiah also didn’t pray, ‘They did this,’ but ‘we did this.’ What Nehemiah was led to do by the Holy Spirit is called identification repentance. Nehemiah identified, like Moses did with the people he prayed for, by including himself with their sin. That is a very humbling thing to do, yet something also very powerful. We see how people who desire to be faithful to God can act on behalf of those who have forgotten God. Their prayers, their identification, affection, actually change the course of nations and history. That is why in prayer, prayer can be so powerful.
Because they did not take their sin honestly—which is another word for seriously—they allowed their sin to accumulate so much that God had to act in order to be true to His own character of holiness and righteousness. Because they disregarded how serious sin is to God, this led to another truth about the cycle of sin: neglect of their sin corrupted them.
That is how the Holy Spirit describes what happened to them in verse 7. Nehemiah continues his prayer with this: ‘We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.’ It seems to reveal hardened hearts. The Holy Spirit moved Nehemiah to say ‘very corruptly,’ and it’s also very interesting how the translation of that phrase comes about.
The verse in Hebrew begins with a word that means to treat bad but then follows that word with another that means we have treated badly, and then ends with the direction to you. The Holy Spirit reveals that sin, which is both unconfessed, unrepented, and ignored, treats God very badly. The rest of the verse describes why: because they did not give any value to what God said is holy—and the commandments, the statutes, the laws, the rules God commanded—nor did they treat seriously the leaders God had raised up to help them stay faithful.
Instead, they ignored, discredited, and maligned their leaders. So, in other words, they even treated badly God’s leaders. Look up sometime how often the words grumble, complain, and spoke against are used about God, Moses, and Aaron in just alone Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It’s a lot. Yet why do we wonder that their cycle of sin kept repeating itself? Because they were unwilling to face their sin, deal with it honestly, and then turn from it. Their sinful condition became worse and worse, not better. They were corrupted.
But the people of Israel—and we the people of God—are not without hope because God also shows us in this passage how to break our cycle of sin. The Holy Spirit gives us God’s solution to our problem in Nehemiah chapter one, verse five. Nehemiah begins his prayer in this way: ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant in steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.’
Just as I mentioned four steps in the cycle of sin at the beginning of this sermon, I will now mention four steps given to us in this verse to break our cycle of sin, beginning with step number one: we renew our sense of God’s greatness. That is where Nehemiah was inspired to begin when he proclaimed, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God.’
I know I may sound like a broken record, but praise and worship is truly the beginning point of everything in our relationship with God. If God’s people were as convinced about the greatness of God as God deserves and as God wants to be recognized, I believe we would be overwhelmed with trying to find enough ways for people to serve Jesus rather than just struggling to keep the doors open.
It reminds me of a story I’ve heard about a visiting preacher who was accosted at the end of the service by a member of the church. This church member felt it was his duty to tell the preacher all the things he did not like about what had just happened in the worship service.
So, after listening to this litany of complaints, the visiting preacher asked, ‘What do you think Jesus did not like about this service?’ This church member was taken aback by the question and replied, after a short pause of reflection, ‘Well, I think Jesus liked it just fine.’ I was telling you what I did not like.
I wonder how often our sense of worship is based more upon our likes and dislikes rather than what the Bible says pleases God in worship praise and prayer. Our first call is to seek what pleases God rather than what pleases us, and if we are not sure, why not spend some time asking God to show you in His word what pleases Him in worship? As we allow ourselves to be released more and more into worship and praise of God, our sense of God’s greatness will grow.
Next step number two: we renew our confidence in God’s steadfast love. The Holy Spirit gives us this reminder in the phrase, ‘who keeps covenant and steadfast love.’ If we are growing in our sense of God’s greatness, then this should automatically be one of the results. But I cannot count the number of times I have heard people point to an unanswered prayer as a reason for why they have lost confidence in God and in God’s love.
While God’s love for us is unconditional, our love for God usually is not, especially when we do not get our own way. Some of the alternate translations of this word ‘steadfast love’ are goodness, kindness, and mercy. It does not just focus on whether or not we think God is loving but looks to the complete package of everything that God does to sustain our world and to take care of us.
As cause for pause, I would like you to think about these words of praise. I remember regularly hearing from some friends in a Baptist Church back in the Pittsburgh area. They would often start their prayers with this statement: ‘First, I thank you Lord that I woke up this morning.’ If we are awake and have enough to hear this worship service, then we should also have a growing appreciation for the many ways God takes care of us and sustains us. Gratitude is an attitude of choice, not feeling.
Step number three: we are to renew our love to God. The Holy Spirit expresses this through the phrase ‘those who love Him.’ But this really cannot happen if we do not truly invest ourselves in the previous step, increasing our confidence in God’s steadfast love. The Bible makes it consistently clear that we love God because He first loved us. God has actually made it easier for us to love Him by taking the first step of loving us.
I think most of us already have an idea of what it is like to respond to someone in kind when they do something nice for us. But over time, we can take for granted all the simple acts of kindness that are done for us and forget to respond in a similar way. My encouragement to you would be to find ways to remind yourself of the many ways God expresses His love to you by posting post-it notes of His blessings all around your house—in your car, on the bathroom mirror, even on the refrigerator. You know—get creative in what you do with that.
Then each time you see one of these post-it notes of blessing, simply stop and say, ‘Thank you, Lord, and I love you, Lord.’ That should grow us in love for God.
Finally, step number four: we renew our obedience to God. The Holy Spirit points to this important step as being the supernatural result of choosing to love God with this phrase, ‘and keep His commandments.’ Loving God and keeping His commandments are together. On the one hand, when we know we have sinned against God, we should not delay taking it to God and dealing with it—not out of fear but out of love for who God is and for His ways of loving us.
But then, that is only half of the response. The other half is we should also seek what the response of love towards God and others is by seeking what we should start doing to show our love to God even to other people. Obedience to God is a supernaturally natural response to God’s love for us and our love for Him.
Furthermore, remember how I talked about how the cycle of sin keeps repeating itself when God’s people neglect to change? While the same is true about the cycle of love, it will also keep repeating itself when we are intentional about giving our worship and love to God. But rather than descending into despair and corruption, this holy cycle of love raises us up into faith, hope, and love.
In closing, here are three things to remember about breaking the cycle of sin:
1. Things get worse when we do not have a godly grief. 2. It is easy to get caught in a cycle of sin. 3. God gives us the means to get into a cycle of His love.
Amen. And especially as we think of God’s love for us, it is still a mighty and awesome thing to think of what Jesus did. He had absolutely no reason to die for us except that He chose to because He loves us. This praise course has a response to the love of God for us. I’m hoping it might inspire your love for Jesus to grow even stronger. It’s called ‘The Wonderful Cross,’ which is a variation of ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,’ performed by Chris Tomlin.
[Music]
My richest gain I count but loss,
[Music]
And poor contempt on all my pride.
[Music]
Wow.
[Music]
We’re—
[Music]
Oh.
[Music]
It’s me fine.
[Music]
Oh.
[Music]
My grace bless.
[Music]
So deep.
[Music]
It’s my life.
[Applause]
[Music]
Amen.
I was thinking about our prayer time for this week, that we are now going to be moving into. Last week was Pentecost Sunday, and a part of what we prayed was having the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to do the kinds of things that God wants us to do.
Wow! If COVID was not bad enough, all the turmoil and anger that is being expressed in our nation right now—all the divisions—if ever we needed the power of God (which is really all the time), this is the time.
So what I’m going to ask you to do is join me in prayer like we did last week, but let your focus turn outward to the different ways that this world is affecting you, affecting people you know, our community, and our nation, and asking for God’s power and presence to intervene.
So let’s simply begin with, you know, as we think of the hope that Jesus has opened up the way for us to draw nearer to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. Let’s pray with that confidence and begin by simply asking: where do you need God’s power in your life? How have these current events touched you, or even how has the cycle of sin touched your life? Where do you need to be set free?
‘And Lord Jesus, I present these different requests that are coming up to you even now. Set us free, Lord God, from the power of sin and death, and let your power of your love and grace by your Spirit release us into freedom in you.’
And now think of somebody you know who also needs the power of God to set them free from the cycle of sin, or maybe even from some of the effects of what is taking place right now. Speak their name to Jesus.
‘Lord, I present different family members of mine that come to my own mind right now. It’s amazing how many times people don’t even know that we need to be set free, because we can be so caught in what we believe is right, even if it is so wrong.’
We present these people to you, Lord Jesus.
And now think of one need within the Mansfield community where the power of God needs to set people free from the cycle of sin and into the cycle of God’s holy love.
‘Lord, we also present these requests to you.’
And now we present our nation to you, Lord, especially our nation’s leaders. It’s not just because of a political affiliation that people are divided, but many things that are so much deeper. Oh Lord God, and so often people just simply stand back and point the finger at the other person and never think of how the solution begins with each one of us yielding ourselves to the power of your love to set us free from the cycle of sin.
Let your salvation and grace be at work in our nations and in our national leaders.
‘Oh Lord God, blessed be your holy name.’
And now, Lord Jesus, as an act of confession, we take this prayer outline that you gave us and declare it as the power of God to be at work in our world:
‘Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
One of the ways we can express some of God’s provision for our freedom from the power of sin and death, I believe, can be expressed with this closing song that we have right now by Fernando Ortega called ‘Give Me Jesus.’
[Music]
In the morning when I rise,
In the mornin’ when I rise,
Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world.
And when I die,
When I come to die,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world.
[Applause]
[Music]
Give me Jesus.
You can have this world.
Amen.
May the Lord bless you this week, and in particular, I would also just ask for your prayers for me and my family as we’re dealing with all the details of my mom’s funeral arrangements and just dealing with everything that goes with that.
But as you prepare to go out this day, may the Lord put His fragrance upon you, so as you go out, people will notice that God has touched you and your life with His love. Now that there’s a joy that they cannot explain, so that as you go, you will be able to make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey, out of love, all that Jesus has commanded us.
And remember that it’s the love of Christ and His presence that go with us. In Jesus’ name, I bless you. Amen.