OK, well, I'm going to clap. That was loud. Welcome to Be on Sunday, a podcast based on the preaching ministry of Leamington EMC. I am Jonah Chitty, one of the pastors here, Pastor of Discipleship and Family. I don't know how my title is kind of confusing. I'm here with Pastor Joe Penner. As always. We are in episode 2, not episode 2. Sorry, Season 2 episode 1, Is that just because we're in a
different year? No, Well, I thought about that, but I think it's because we're starting a new book, so we'll do our seasons based on whatever book of the Bible we're preaching through. So this one could be like 17,000 episodes like Corinthians was or probably around 14 so. Probably closer to that one. Yeah, so Season 2 Episode 1, Nehemiah is what we studied. Is that right? Joe, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, thank you. My throat. 'S feeling a little bit better.
Good. Sure, people who heard the sermon on Sunday could could tell. You know, that's why we waited so long to to record. It's because we wanted your voice to properly heal and get every It wasn't because we were so busy doing other things. It definitely wasn't that. So I'm glad you're feeling better. You sound like you're feeling
better. And I hopefully, yeah, hopefully we can get through another 30-40 minutes of talking about Nehemiah chapter 1. So you preach the sermon on Nehemiah chapter 1. I didn't. Oh, when all hope is lost, turn to God. Is that your time? When? Hope seems lost. Turn to God. Yeah. OK. So yeah, you want to give us kind of a recap of what you what
your sermon was about. Yeah. So just sort of I, I started out with an illustration of Twin Towers and, you know, everybody sort of remembers, you know, if, if you were older than maybe one or two or three, you probably remember where you were when you, when you heard that the Trade Towers had been hit. Where were you? I was at school in grade 8. Grade eight I was a I. Was with public school. Sophomore in college, just a. Shows a bit of our. Age, a little bit of the age
difference, yeah. So yeah, okay, Yeah, yeah, everybody knows, right? Yeah, you were there. In sort of this like pivotal moment in, you know, world history, more more pointedly U.S. History. But like, really, the whole world sort of was shocked by that. Yeah, I remember the comparison at the time for my family was like, it was like, you're going to remember this day just like we remember the day that Kennedy was shot. So it's like my parents knew and like remembered the day they
remember where they were. And like that was the but you're going to remember this day just like those people. So it's like a like a pivotal historical moment that people that were there remember. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, I, I was drawing on, you know, like the, the hopelessness of the situation, right? Like where, where people turned in the midst of that situation. I mean, it was, there was so
much devastating loss. People lost family members and, and, you know, just the horrific stories that came up, you know, through the whole thing and and it's just a devastating thing. And where do people turn when all hope seems lost? And, you know, some people turn to church, some people turned to the bottle, some people turn to, you know, getting together and
helping people in need. And, and sort of that's sort of how to sort of, that's how I sort of drew into this story of Nehemiah and to just sort of like get a bit of a feeling for like this is probably the most pivotal moment of Nehemiah's life, right? Israel, I, I gave some context for where we were in the, the timeline of history. And, and Israel had been back in the land. They had been sent in into exile by God because of their sin. But now it's been about 100 years since that happened.
And so, or actually so 100 years since Israel had started going back. OK, so about 170 years since God sent them into exile. So now they've been back in the land for about 100 years. And Nehemiah may have been expecting that they were a little bit further along than they were right after having been there for 100 years. You know, especially given the fact that, you know, we know from the book of Nehemiah that he's going to go and rebuild the
walls in like 52 days, right? So they've been back for 100 years and they're like, not really that far ahead. Not only that, it's like it's a devastating situation. You know, the people are in shame, they're in trouble. They're experiencing lots of hardship. The walls are destroyed, they're broken down. The gates are destroyed by fire. Like there's no protection. And it's like, this was devastating for Nehemiah. And so he weeps for days. And and the bulk of the chapter
1 is Nehemiah's prayer. Right. There's not a lot of there's not a lot of narrative. No, no, it's his prayer. And I sort of get the feeling that this is a prayer that that he's, he's sort of shaped and molded over these few months that he's been praying. And this is like maybe something that he's been praying regularly and repetitiously. And he's sort of formulated this prayer over the course of these few months.
Like here's what I've been praying over the last like, well, since I've been dealing with this. Right. I mean, I can't know that that is what it is, but it, it seems to me that way because it, it pours right into chapter 2 as he's about to go to the, as he's about to go to the King. And so it, it seems to make sense that he's recording this prayer that he's now sort of been praying over the last few months.
But in my sermon, I, I brought out, you know, three main points from his prayer that we should turn to God who keeps his covenant. So that was sort of my whole point of the sermon. It's like man, when, when Nehemiah felt like all hope was lost, he turned to God. And so I drew up principles from that. You know, Nehemiah draws out that God is a God who keeps his covenant because he's the God of heaven. He's almighty, he's all powerful.
And because he loves us, he loves his people, he loves those who love him. The second point was turned to God in humble confession. You know, Nehemiah then shifts to humility. And before God, recognizing that they as a nation had sinned, that that he and his family had sinned. And so I drew out that, you know, we ought to be confessing other people's sins, but also confessing our own sins. And the Third Point was turned
to God who is committed. And sort of towards the end of the prayer, Nehemiah expresses that, that, that even though God is committed to discipline, he's, he says, if you are unfaithful, then I'll scatter you. But if you return to me, if you keep my commands, if you obey them, then I will bring you back. And it doesn't matter how far you're scattered. God is committed also to restoration.
He's committed to his people. And so I just and, and you know, the a line at the very end of the, the prayer that really struck out stood out to me was, you know, Lord, hear the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. And you know, like what a statement that they delight to fear God because fearing God keeps us in his word, keeps us in his truth. And to know God is to know the truth. It's to know light, it's to know goodness, right.
And so when we fear God, we're actually, it keeps us on the path of righteousness, which is good for us. And God's law is a blessing to us. And you know, the other things that we fear are not things that we a delight to fear. You know, those are things that we're scared of. But when we fear God, it keeps us in the path of righteousness. And so he he says that, you know, we, we love you and we we delight to fear you and we want
to worship you. And so, hey, you said that if we pursue you, if we turn back to you, if we want to keep your word, then you're going to bring us back to the land. And me hear the prayer of your servant. But also maybe there was a growing number of people that their hearts were beginning to go back to God. And he says also the prayer of your servants hear us because we love you and we fear your name, and so hear our prayer because
of that. And so then he's asking for success as he goes, as he's about to go, who I think he's talking about to the king. But yeah, that was sort of the bulk of it. Just in the midst of this hopeless situation, Nehemiah turns to God. You know, that we might expect a whole host of things or whatever, but like he turns to God that the first thing he
does. And I had a quote in there from, from a commentary that we're using during this study from TJ Betts and, and he talks about, you know, Nehemiah, it's not his second option, right? A lot of times that's, that's the way it is for us, right. Oh, I guess the. That was so impactful. Yeah, like all we can do is pray now, you know, we've done everything we can do and now we just got to pray. And it's like it's prayer is not a last option. It's not a last resort.
It's Nehemiah's first option. That was so like that, that quote. And then you know, when, whenever you, you talked about it, because I think you brought that out in your first point. It was early on because I remember like the self examination question, where do I go whenever like it hits the fan, right when when things go go wrong or there's trouble, where do I go? And I was like, and then you hit, they hit me with that line. It's like, no, prayer should be our first option.
Like going to the Lord is the first option. It's not like man and like doing everything I can do 1st and then well, now let's pray about it. How often do we do that even in ministry? It's like, Yep, tag on a prayer at the end and now we've done it. So it's like it's very convicting to think about.
Yeah, and I had, I'm just sort of, I at the very end of his quote, it's, you know, when prayer becomes the first option for a person, it's an indication that he or she is truly walking with and depending on God in all things. And I just had sort of like my own little application from that, that where you turn reveals what you trust. And and I, I think that's that's it's really convicting.
It's really hard to think about because we have to be honest about ourselves with ourselves, and that's hard, but it really is true. It's like if my first reaction is to go to a friend or Google or. ChatGPT chat. Whatever it is, right? Like. How do I deal with this or that? Because because we do that like like you said, even in a good way as Christians. I'm, I'm not saying it's bad to pursue knowledge and wisdom and define the answers.
I just think prayer ought to be the first thing because at the end of the day, sometimes I'm tempted to go, there's got to be a book about that somewhere, right? And I just like start searching And it's like, but maybe my, my, my first reaction should be to pray, to ask God for wisdom, to ask God for insight. Yeah, that's, it was really, it really is good, but it is exposing like when you, when you, if you're honest with yourself, anything.
Well, yeah, of course I'm a Christian, of course I'll pray about this. But no, like if it's not like the first thing you think about, then the indication is that your relationship with the Lord is not quite as close as he thought it was. So yeah, it was just a really convicting thing. Yeah, and I that that honestly even applies to like praying for other people, right? Because again, we're we're tempted to be like, oh, I know this person's in a, a painful situation, what can I do?
Right. And we think prayer is, is the least we can do because it's, it seems like it doesn't do anything. Yeah. And you know, if, if we're being honest, that just looking at what we do, we think that it's more fruitful to bring a meal or to do something kind than it is to pray. And that shows what we believe about prayer. I'm guilty of that, too. I'm not, I'm not standing in judge anybody. I think that's easy for us to feel like the physical things that we can do are more
effective than prayer. So I don't know if I don't know who I was talking to. Maybe it was you, maybe somebody else. But it's like it's the hardest thing for us to do is to pray because of those things. It's like it seems like it should be the easiest thing for us to do. It's like to like, OK, Lord, you know, we don't know. We don't have any kind of insight into this situation, but, you know, help us to have wisdom. That seems like it should be the
easiest thing. But so often it's the hardest thing for us to do because I think we have to admit to ourselves and confess to ourselves. You know what? I don't know what to do here and that's humbling or it really hurts your pride that you don't. I don't have the answer. And so I think why is it the hardest thing for Christians to pray? Shouldn't be right. So yeah, no, it was really good. I wrote down where was it? Oh, your your Lego illustration
was really fun. I came up at young adults as like, I was like I asked the young adults on Sunday night as like, does everybody in here like Lego and only one person. But I think they were being like, you know, a young adult and just how they they typically can be frustrating and annoying on purpose. They said everybody said, yes, they love Lego. But what your point with that was like, it was pretty incredible to think about.
Yeah. And I think it came out of the last verses we delight in like, you're fearing you, right? You're thinking these people love the instructions of the Lord right Later in Psalms we see we see some different things. I delight in your law Psalm 1. But yeah, I just thought, man, what a good illustration to think about the the instructions are great because I'm dude, you're not like alone. I'm pretty sure like 97% of all Lego builders are no good at it without the instructions.
And so, yeah, I just thought it was really good illustration to think about. Yeah, we need the instructions. And not that the Bible is like a an instruction manual for life, right? We can't just go to it and say, OK, it's on step 73, do this, that or the other thing. But it's just a good helpful illustration to think about. Were you were you doing Legos over the holidays? Is that what brought it to mind or?
No, we did get, yeah, we did get the kids some Lego over the Christmas. And so it was sort of fresh on my mind. I don't dabble as much in Lego as I did as a kid, but but it is, it's incredible. You know, like you would never think like these massive Lego sets or even the smaller ones, honestly, like the to think that you could get all the pieces right without instructions is, is definitely not right. And so the instructions are a
blessing. But in that same way, it's like delight, we delight to fear your name. And so it's like, you know, we have this Holy Spirit conviction in our hearts when we feel like we're sinning or we're doing something wrong. And so we try to find out if from God's word, well, what does God's word say? What does his word say about this? And how do I pursue righteousness? And I think that desire to please God, it, it should result in a fear, but a fear that we delight to fear.
And I think, you know, that's probably like, I don't know, you just you don't want to go down the other Rd. where it's like, I'm sure people understand what it is to fear God in the sense that like, I'm terrified. I don't think that's what Scripture is talking about. But this, it sort of opened my eyes to, to, to be thinking about that all week about delighting to fear God. It's, it's a good fear because I think we're also tempted to think that fear is a bad
emotion. And we have to understand that fear from God is a good emotion which protects us because it's like if I'm, if I'm driving 180 miles an hour down the road and there's a sharp turn coming or whatever is going on, right? It's like, and now all of a sudden fear kicks in. That fear is a good thing because it says, hey, you need to slow down change. What you're doing, you're. Going to kill yourself, you know, and it it stops you from jumping off a building, whatever, right?
All these things is like fear is a good thing, right, that God has given to us in and fearing the Lord is a good thing because we recognize that he is God. He's created the world and he is the judge and he is going to judge us. And that fear leads us to toward Him, to be obeying Him so that we can be walking in a way that's right, so that we're saved. It's so good.
Yeah. Like fear of the Lord, I mean, I don't know, is it is it that's sort of a whole different topic you could talk about for a long time. Like what does it mean to fear the Lord? Like I is it just reference? I don't know, because it seems to be what you're talking about. Like what? Do you mean What do you mean reference? Reverence, Oh, reverence. Am I?
Yeah, yeah. Is it just that or is it I think, but I think like we don't want to discredit like this, like this real the the reality that like there is like a like a terrifying nature part of it. Right. Because he's big and I'm not right? Like, so like at some point I was just thinking about we were reading in through the flood narrative in the reading plan and like the people who like eventually figured out that Noah wasn't a liar, that God was really going to do.
There was some fear, right? That would have been like terrifying. And think about Noah and his family. That would be terrifying. Like Noah says, hey, guys, you're going with me. Whatever. You know, maybe they didn't. Does it say they're righteous? I don't remember. It says Noah is a righteous man. He would think that that it would transfer down to his sons and his their families. But you don't know. So like the the rain starts to come and never rained before. That would be terrifying.
And so that's like another way of like being really terrified, like physically afraid. So I think there's an aspect of that too. I don't know what you think about that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I I think it's sort of it, it entails all of it, right? Fear, reverence, respect, like worship, like all of those things. But I, I think the fear, the fear should drive us to God. And then what we find out is that God is a loving, gracious God. Yeah, for sure.
Who in the Old Testament, even though like, yeah, the the judgment is harsh that did we deserve death because of our sin. But even in the Old Testament, like like you said, we're going through Genesis in our church Bible reading plan and it's like even in Adam and Eve's sin, like the very first sin, What does he what does God do? God clothes them. He offers the first sacrifice and gives them an enclosed them with an animal skin.
And so he's gracious and and you know, moving forward into like Israelite history where he he put institute's this sacrificial system as a way for them to be made right. Yeah, before him. It's like God is gracious. That's interesting. And it makes me think about you said TJ Betts was the commentary that we're using for a guide for, like, the breaking up the book. Yeah. And his classes, he would always ask, I don't know, did he do this? Did you have him for class? I did.
OK. He asked like he taught Old Testament surveys and he taught intensives as well, but he would ask when, When you think about the New Testament and God in the New Testament, what do you think? You think what? The New Testament. Yeah. Oh, love, grace and mercy and kindness. And then you think, Old Testament God, what do you? Think wrath and fury and judgement and anger. And he's like, guys, they're the same God. It's the same God. It's the same person. And and what you're describing
is like God is gracious. He could have struck down Adam and Eve dead on the spot. He had every right to. Instead, what did he do? He clothed them. He gave them a life that they didn't really deserve. He just kicked him out of the garden and they eventually died. So he made good on his promise, but still, like he's still he's, he's the same God. And I think that's hard for us
to think about. So like when we're thinking about like this book in any Old Testament book, we have to remember that God is not like just like the overarching like person in the background that just wants to strike lightning down on people because they do something wrong. No, it's the same God that we see in the New Testament. Yeah. Anyway, that's just maybe an aside, but I was just thinking about that. Like when we're talking about fear, Jesus came to judge.
He says I'm coming. You know, he came to judge to pass judgment. He did. He passed judgment. He sends though the Holy Spirit judges those, right? It's like like it's the same God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, throughout all Scripture. It doesn't change. It's one of those big theological words. He's immutable, right? He doesn't change.
So. Well, the interesting thing about that is it it's, I don't know why it is this way, but when we read the Old Testament, it's easy to to focus on, and I'm saying this intentionally, it's easy to focus on the judgement and the wrath. And why I say focus is because. The mercy and the grace are there.
Yep. Just for some reason we don't notice them because exactly what you said in, in Doctor Betz's class after he said that, then you know, as as we're being required to read the Bible through the class. It's like now you read the prophetic books, which I used to always just, I used to always just focus on the judgement aspect, right? And then you read those books and you're like, man, there is a ton of mercy and grace. Long-suffering man. And hope in here.
Exactly. And you're like, why have I never seen this before? That Why you know, and, and it's, it's amazing when your eyes are open to it that you're like, you know what God is. He's the same God exactly like
you said. It's he's gracious and merciful and kind and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love all through the Old Testament. It's not something that just starts in the New Testament. And, and we've gone through a book here a number of years ago with a number of classes called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland. And it emphasizes that truth that, you know, and sort of our our church history as like a Mennonite background of a
church. A lot of people come from the Old Colony traditional Mennonite background where it is very fear driven and, and, you know, relearning that God is a God of grace and mercy and compassion is something that we need to
understand. You know, we have to be careful of the ditch on the other side, which the contemporary Christianity, it seems to be falling into at some points that we emphasize the grace and mercy and love too much and, and don't acknowledge the judgement and the wrath that is there. Because, you know, revelation, you know, the end of the age is coming, Judgement day is coming and God is going to, you know, he's going to deliver his wrath on sinful mankind.
That's right. And so, but we just need to have a healthy view of both of those things. I think I've, I think I've heard somebody say it helpfully that it's not like God's like if we took all his attributes and go, well, there's 50 attributes. So it's like 2% of God is each of these attributes. No, it's, it's God is 100% wrath. God is 100% love. He's 100% mercy. Like these characteristics embody, like all of who God is perfectly. Right, That's so, that's so interesting to think about.
Like the attributes of God and that you are right. We do try to sometimes compartmentalize. Oh, this is just his nature in this way. No, he's always that all the time, right? Like how can someone be 100% wrath and 100% love and grace at the same time, Right. Or we can't be, which is why it's important for us to remember like God is God and we are not. So. Yeah. Oh, man, so good. Oh, I had one question for you. So how often do you confess my sins? That's a good question.
Man, That was an odd. I don't know about odd, but it's, it was unexpected in the sermon. Right. So I'm like, oh, wait. Well, I sort of sat back a little bit and had to think. So what? Yeah. What was up with that? Well, yeah, it just, it just struck me that, that he was praying for the sins of the nation. And, and I just sort of made the application to confess other sins. I, I didn't, I didn't go into like the, you know, the biblical
warrant for that. But one that comes to mind is Job. You know, in, in the book of Job, we're told that his sons and daughters would get together and have parties in each other's homes. Oh, yeah. And then the next day he would offer sacrifices and he would pray for them. Yeah. That that God would forgive them in case they sinned. Right. And I think that that's a principle that, you know, we
ought to be doing. We ought to be forgiving sin, but confessing other people's sin and you think of Jesus on the cross, right, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Steven prays that same prayer and and it is we, we need to be confessing each other's sin. I confess that I died. I don't confess other people's sins often enough. Honestly. Because I'm selfish? Yeah. Because I'm looking at myself going like if someone sinned against me. What's my focus?
My focus is how I've been. Vindication. Right. And it's like, you know what? That's that's too narrow of a view. I, I need to have AI, need to have a broader view of my confession and forgiveness That, and I mean that changes my focus too, right? That I begin to think about that
person more compassionately. Yeah, my, as I was considering that and thinking about it as like my, my default setting is just to like imprecatory prayers is like just pray down wrath of God on whoever's again, like whoever. 'S the sons of Thunder like James and. John like, you know, very, very like passionate and just like just just wipe them out, Lord my enemies. But but I think that it's important like the Jesus didn't
do that, right? He he prayed, like you said, from the cross was praying for people because like they don't really know what they're doing. Yeah, they're carrying out my will is what they're doing, which is another crazy thing to think about. But yeah, so no, I was just thought it was really good, a good point that you made about praying. And I right there, he says it right there. He's praying like, and maybe you're right, maybe he was at the beginning of this.
You said that maybe this is just Nehemiah's prayers over several weeks, maybe three months is what we've kind of come done some math and figured out. And he's like saying, OK, I'm corporately praying for like for the for the whole nation and confessing. Because right there in verse 6, I think is where it comes out. You know, I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against you.
Yeah, so, and it's important because, because again, like I mentioned in the sermon, like God's promises were not to an individual and there they were to a nation, right? And so he's, he's confessing the sins of his people. And I think that's consistent with other Old Testament narratives as well. But I've, I've heard this often times with the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament, right? When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, that is not a personal
prayer. You know, it's not me praying to God, it's our Father in heaven, right, You know, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done in others in heaven. Give us Our Daily Bread. You know, forgive us our sins lead us not. It's all plural, right. It's like this is a corporate prayer and so we we can't just look at like our western Christianity has become very personalized, right.
It's like, you know, we go into worship, you turn the lights down so that it's just you and God, you know, and it's that's, that's not what it's meant to be. We are a community. We are a body. We change it with our language too. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Right. We say that you know that's that's the way I grew up hearing it, right? Have you made Jesus Lord of your life? You know, those are the types of things, the over personalization
of of of the gospel. And there's an element of personal, sure, the personal relationship of it, right? You know, individuals do have to do it, but you're not saved to yourself. Not saved for yourself. For yourself exactly. You're saved to a body, right? Yeah. And that's why it's like, that's why the church is so important. You know, you don't get saved and then you spend the rest of your life alone in your house
and doing stuff. It's like, no, you actually now if, if you love the Lord, you now have to live out your love for the Lord with a body. And guess what, it's hard because you're going to, there are people are going to sin against you and you're going to sin against other people. But now, you know, John says, if, if you say you love God, but don't love your brother or sister, you're a liar. And it's like, that's that's where the rubber hits the road.
It's like if you say you love God, then that means that you're going to forgive someone for whom Christ died and, you know, work through stuff. And it's hard to live in community, man. But that's exactly that's what God calls us to that we're about the body of Christ and, and we have to live together and display our love for God in the community of believers. And Jesus said that's how they'll know. The world will know that you're my disciples. That's good thinking about that.
Think about the church being the new people of God, right? All the Old Testament, we're talking about Israel being the people of God, and then the church is the new people of God. Yeah. It's really, it's really incredible. It's made-up of all nations, tribes and tongues. Yeah. And I love the way you said it. You like you. You know, when you become a Christian, you're not Christian. Safe to yourself. You're saved to a body. So live in one, right? Like love, love each other.
And it is hard. Oh, man, it's hard. Hard. Yeah. Joe, I thought this was one of your, your better sermons. I don't know why, other than maybe it was the right word for me at the time. You know, just thinking through, I just thought it was just you're going to get out so much more in the book of Nehemiah talking about all sorts of different narrative and thing that happens and how God's hand
is through it all. Yeah, I'll just go ahead and say I don't think Nehemiah is AI don't think it's a leadership book. I think it's got leadership principles that we can draw out. But I think more of more of it's a story of how God is being faithful to his word, restoring something that he told him he would do, and he's using someone like Nehemiah as an instrument to carry out his work.
I think it's just really important for us to remember that any book in the Bible is a book about God, right, ultimately. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, the Bible is is is is an overarching story. I really like teaching that class this this last fall. God's big. Big picture, like it's called biblical theology where we look at the all of Scripture as one overarching story of God's plan of redemption.
You know, you have creation in the fall and then you have, you know, God trying to redeem his, his relationship with humanity. And at the end he does it, he's brings in new Jerusalem and a new and a new city, new earth and this relationship that this perfect Eden is restored. And so, you know, that's we have to every time we pick up the Bible, every time we read a different book, we have to figure out, well, where am I in the story of God's plan of redemption, right.
And here we're picking up in a part of the story where these people are suffering and. They're not. Where am I putting myself into the story? Right, Right. Where? Where are we when I'm reading this? Where is this fall into overarching redemption history? Yeah, I got. You right and then and then you know what we're trying to do in preaching is well, if this is where we are in the storyline of Scripture, well, what does that mean now to us as being in the new covenant right.
How does this point to Christ, right? Because Jesus taught his disciples, you know, on the road to Emmaus, Luke chapter 24, he says all of scripture points to me, you know, and then he showed them how all the law, all the prophets, everything pointed to him and found it's fulfillment in him. And so anytime we're reading the Scripture, we need to be thinking, how does this, how does this point to Christ, right? And what he's doing? And so that's what we need to do
at every point. That's really good. What? Like, if you had to like, boil down one point of application for the sermon, what would it be? Just turn to God, you know, don't even don't even think about it.
You know, the, the moment. And and that's I and maybe that is sort of training yourself in those moments to like when a thought comes in your mind, whether it's temptation or to be in despair or discouraged, when, when you hear bad news, when you're frustrated, whatever the situation is in your life, at every stage of your life breathing, it's maybe it's rejoicing or excitement or whatever.
Pray, turn to God, give him praise, give him thanks, call out to him, ask him for help, say, how long will Lord, how long am I going to have to endure this? Whatever it is, right? Pray biblical prayers and turn to God because he's faithful. He hears those prayers and He loves us and wants to answer them. Yeah, I think of the when you're saying just immediately turn to God, right? That's the that's the goal. Maybe you think of George Mueller.
We talked about him before on this podcast, but the like, there was one story where they were out of bread for the orphanage that he was running. Like they just came to him. He he had no clue. Like he wasn't thinking about anything like that. Like it was just caught up in administrative stuff for the orphanage or whatever. People from the kitchens come and say, hey, there's no bread
to feed the kids. And it wasn't like, hey, let's make a call to this business guy or let's make a call down the road. It was like, OK, well, let's pray. And then like as soon as they finished praying, someone dropped off bread for the orphanage. Same thing. Like we need money to pay for whatever. Like you never asked anybody for a dime. It's just like, we're just going to pray. Let's pray. And then the money would show up in the mailbox. Just incredible stories of God's
faithfulness. But his default setting wasn't, oh, let me go try to figure this out on my own, right? It was pray whenever God would, when God would grant that, that he would pray. It was like, I think it's such a good picture of that. It is, and God was always faithful to provide, right And then so, so pray specifically so that you can see, yeah, the Lord answering your prayers. He may not always do what you're asking, but when He does, if you're praying specifically, you will see it.
That was one thing I've learned over the last year too, is like pray specific prayers. I think Doctor Cook said something like that in a sermon that I listened to last year. Pray specific prayers. These general prayers, Lord, help me today. OK, how you going to be able to like understand if God actually did help you today is based on
your feelings. No Pray specific prayers, pray like Lord, I pray for the salvation of my daughter Adeline, pray for, pray for specific prayers and then watch, watch what happens because he's faithful, absolutely is faithful. So. Well, and I want to share. I want to share something that someone shared with me. It was a little podcast because I think, you know, when, when hard things come, like this is a hard thing that Nehemiah is talking about.
And you know, I was drawing on that in the sermon too, that there are things that happen in life that we have no control over. And they're hard and they're heavy things. And we can feel like life is hopeless and in despair and we don't know what to do. And it's easy for us to feel like God is against us. It's easy to feel like maybe God doesn't really know what he's doing or, you know, why is he allowing this thing into my life? We can feel like it's unjust.
And this was just a real encouragement to me. We maybe we can share this. I think sometimes you give notes in the podcast, right? It's a, it was a podcast episode about God's omniscience that that God knows everything. He knows everything perfectly. And it says, Speaking of prayer, it is a glorious and comforting thought that when we pray, God answers that prayer not in line with the way that we see things, but in line with the perfect way that he sees things.
For believers, that means that as our loving Father, God gives us precisely what we would give to ourselves if we knew everything that he knows. And he also withholds from us what we would withhold from ourselves if we knew what he knows. That kind of blew my mind.
Like I'd never really thought of that before, but that's, that really was helpful to me because, and I, I hope that's helpful to other people too, to be thinking that like when it feels like injustice, when it feels like God's way doesn't make sense. Just know that his perfect knowledge means that it was the right thing. And if you had known everything that he knew and you had the power to decide, you would have done exactly what he did, which
is so hard to understand, right? Especially with you think about any number of things that happened. Your parents die, right? You know your your child gets cancer. It's all these things that you would never choose right, but with all perfect knowledge and insight you would have done the same. Oh, it's so hard to think about, but comforting.
It is it was super comforting to me to think that like that helped me to to see God's omniscience, his all knowing power as a good thing as opposed to me like questioning it because we were started talking, you know, before the podcast about God's omniscience and and everything that he knows and his sovereignty over all creation. And it's like where we were formed from the dust. And, you know, after Adam and Eve sinned, God said, you know, they were formed from dust, and
to dust they will return. And I think we just have to remember that. That's like, who are we to say anything? Yeah. To God, you know He's God, and we're not. Yeah, that's, that's been the theme for me this week too. Yeah, well, good, good. Any other words on Nehemiah chapter 1 today? Yeah. Well, I guess I'll just address. I know.
Oh yeah, one question. One question, we, I touched on it already a little bit, but I'll maybe give a little bit more if someone asked the question at the very end of the chapter. You know, Nehemiah is asking for success. Give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. So who is this man? Who? Who is Nehemiah referring to that he's wanting mercy before is? He talking about himself.
I, I, I think he's talking about king Arctic circuses because in chapter 2 he, he's about to now he's about to go in his, in his narrative to like, OK, and then I was before the king right now. The reason I, I didn't really touch a lot on it because I didn't get enough time to, to study that this week.
So I didn't really touch on it. But the reason it was questionable to me is because at the beginning of chapter 1, Nehemiah says well, in the month of Kiss Love, which the Jewish calendar was about like November, December. And then at the beginning of Chapter 2, as he's about to go before the king, it says in the month of Nissan, which is like March, April. Yeah. Yeah, March, April. So it's about, it's about four months between those between those times.
And so I was like, well, is he asking for mercy in the sight of this man four months ahead of time? But that's where again, it sort of made sense to me to be thinking about, well, this is a prayer maybe that Neobiim is has been praying over the last few months and now he records it and is about to go into the presence of the king. And so that's what I think he's saying because he does now say immediately after that now I was cut bearer to the king.
And so he's leading into like that next thing. And so that makes sense to me. I can't say authoritatively that I know for sure that's what he's saying. No, I think what it draws on a principle right for for Bible reading. We were talking about this too a little bit before. Is like most often the plain
reading is the correct reading. So you don't want to try to like read too much into things and try to figure out too much who's he talking to. Just most often the plain reading is the the correct interpretation. So right, And if there is a simple explanation, that would be it. Right. It is. It is the thing that makes the most sense cause again, remembering that Scripture didn't have chapters and verses and all that stuff like it was
just it was a straight shot. Just went straight into that talking about that so. And it makes the most sense given the context and everything. But again, we can't know that for sure. I but yeah, I'm, I'm fairly confident of that. Yeah. And a lot of times we're given dates to to be prove out that all this is true, right. So sometimes it's like we give date, we give dates like about Nissan and Kislev, all that stuff is for us to understand that this really happened. And it can be.
It can be like found in other documents and like this story actually is true. Yeah, I actually had listened to a sermon from a preacher who who he said, you know, the beginning says the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. Now it happened in the month of Kislev, you know, in the 20th year. He all the details. He's like, he's like, yeah, this was a real story. It wasn't like Once Upon a time. Exactly. It's not. It's not. Far, far away, you know this. Isn't a Disney story you?
Know it's like it starts with like details and facts like like if anybody like when he's writing this, it's essentially saying if anybody wants to challenge anything that I'm writing, it's like here's all of the information that you can go back and check. Community notes, fact checkers, Right. Have your way. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, that's good. I think that's right, though. I think.
I think. To answer the question, I think I would agree, I think that it is talking about the king because he's going, he's about to go in whether or not, I mean, the king talks to him about like he says, hey, notices something's off, right. And but whether or not the king notices or Nehemiah is going to address it straight on, He's he knows he's about to have to do some action. So he's praying for favor. So yeah, that's, that's I think that's the key there. Absolutely.
No, it's really good. I'm excited about the rest of the book. Me too. We got a lot, even genealogies to go through. I don't know. I don't know how we're going to break that up yet. We'll see. Be fun figuring out. But again, I think genealogies are helpful. Yeah. These are real people. This really happened. Absolutely. Track it down. Right. Figure this stuff out. So, yeah. Any other words, Nehemiah? OK, next week Pastor Jake takes takes us up into chapter 2.
Does he do all of chapter 2? I don't remember. I think he goes to verse 11. OK. SO21 to 11 or one to 10 probably. One to 10. That's right. And then, yeah, and then we'll go from there. But yeah, we look forward to hearing that. And yeah, LEMC, we're praying for you, Joe. Why don't you pray for us as we close out this episode?
Lord, we come before you, the great God, the God of covenant, the God of love, and we come confidently to you to pray because we know that you will be faithful to hear us.
You will be faithful to your covenant and we thank you that we can come to you in Jesus name and all the promises that we have in Christ. And Lord, we come to you in Jesus name recognizing that that we are sinners, that we have fallen short of your standard, that that we have failed and, and disobeyed your word and disobeyed your perfect order and your perfect rule. But Christ faithfully fulfilled it. He perfectly lived according to your law and, and was the sacrifice for us.
And so we come to you in his name, knowing that through faith in him we can be forgiven, be given the promise of new life, and that your Spirit is walking with us, guiding us and leading us. And so we pray, Lord, that that you would make your name great in us as a church, that you would draw us together, that you would unite our hearts. That you would help us to strive together as disciples and followers of Christ, to become more like him.
To read your word, to pray your word, to grow together as disciples. That we are discipling one another and faithfully fulfilling your Commission To go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, being confident that you are with us to the end of the
age. Lord, we thank you for these wonderful promises and help us to to go in your power and to fulfill that Commission. In that mandate, would you strengthen us as a church and as a body of believers, and would you provide all that we need to do that we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Well, LAMC, we'll see you next time. Have a great day.