Are you ready to experience the transformative power of God's Word? How does worship ignite our hearts and lead us to joy? What happens when a community gathers to seek understanding together? Join us as we explore Nehemiah 8 and prepare for a Sunday of celebration and revelation. Let's dive in together!
Prayer Prompts
Use these prompts to guide your prayer time as we prepare our hearts for Sunday.
We gather together, Lord, to worship You, the great God, because You are holy and perfect, and Your goodness overflows into our lives. May our hearts be filled with gratitude for all that You have done and continue to do in our midst, inspiring us to share Your love with those around us.
As we prepare to dive into Your Word, we ask for the discipline and desire to read it daily, Lord. Let Your Scriptures transform our hearts, making us more patient, joyful, and loving, so we can reflect Christ in our lives and be a light to our community.
Hey, Cross Church. Welcome to the Sunday
setup. This is our time each week where
we digitally gather across our social
media platforms to just prepare our
hearts for this Sunday as we dive into
God's word. Today, we're going to look
at Nehemiah chapter 8. And as we read
this passage, I want and we pray through
this. I want us to just get ready for
this Sunday as we're going to be
praising, as we're going to be preaching
through this text. But we want to set in
our hearts a mood to how can we put this
text into practice and how can it change
our lives to make Jesus known to those
around us. And we start in Nehemiah 8 uh
starting in verse one which actually
leaves off from the end of verse or
chapter 7 but it says this. When the
seventh month came and the Israelites
had settled in their towns all the
people gathered together at the square
in front of the water gates. They asked
the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the
law of Moses that the Lord had given
Israel. On the first day of the seventh
month, the priest Ezra brought the law
before the assembly of men, women, and
all who could listen with understanding.
While he was facing the square in front
of the Watergate, he read out of it from
daybreak until noon before the men, the
women, and those who could understand.
All the people listened attentively to
the book of the law. The scribe Ezra
stood on a high wooden platform made for
this purpose. Mataya, Sheami, Ariah,
Uriah, Hilka, and Messiah stood beside
him. On his right, to the left were
Padia, Michel, Malachi, Hasham, Hashbad,
Zachariah, and Meshelum. Ezra opened the
book in full view of the people since he
was elevated above everyone. As he
opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra
blessed the Lord, the great God, and
their hands uplifted. All the people
said, "Amen. Amen." Then they knelt low.
They knelt low and worshiped the Lord
with their faces to the ground.
Jesua, Bonnie, Sheriah, Jam, Akub,
Shedel, Hodiah, Messiah, Kelllet,
Azariah, Jazabad, Hannah, and Playia who
were Levites explained the law to the
people as they stood in their places.
Then they read out the book of law of
God translating, giving the meaning so
that the people could understand what
was read. Nehemiah the governor, Ezra
the priest and scribe and Levites who
were instructing the people said to all
of them, "This day is holy to the Lord
your God." Do not mourn or weep, for all
the people were weeping as they heard
the words of the law. Then he said to
them, "Go and eat what is rich. Drink
what is sweet and send portions to those
who have nothing prepared since today is
holy to our Lord. Do not grieve because
the joy of the Lord is your strength."
And the Levites quieted the people,
saying, "Be still, since today is holy,
don't grieve." Then all the people began
to eat and drinks and portions and have
great celebrations because they had
understood the words that were explained
to them. On the second day, the family
heads of all the people along with the
priests and Levites assembled before the
scribe Ezra to study the words of the
law. They found written in the law how
the Lord had commanded through Moses
that the Israelites should dwell in
shelters during the festival the seventh
month. So they proclaimed and spread
this news throughout their towns in
Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hill
country and bring branches of olive,
wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other
leafy trees to make shelters just as
Israin." The people went out. They
brought back branches. They made
shelters for themselves on their each of
the rooftops and courtyards, the court
of the house of God, the square by the
water gate, and the square by the
Ephraim gate. The whole community that
had returned from exile made shelters,
and they lived in them. The Israelites
had not celebrated like this from the
days of Joshua son of Nun until that
day. And there was tremendous joy.
Listen to this last verse as we wraps up
this chapter in verse 18. Ezra read out
of the book of the law of God. Every day
from the first day to the last, the
Israelites celebrated the festival for
seven days. And on the eighth day there
was a solemn assembly according to the
ordinance.
Man, what a powerful chapter that we are
so excited to be diving into this week.
A chapter that is just full of richness
that there is so many sermons you could
preach from this. But as we start to
prepare our hearts and to prepare what
God is moving, just want to call a few
things out in here. And first we see
just how there was this spirit that when
God's word was open, there was this
response that just kind of came natural
to this. And I want us see verse 6. As
Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God,
and with their hands uplifted, all the
people said, "Amen." Amen. They knelt
and worshiped the Lord with their faces
to the ground.
As Ezra blessed the Lord and recognized
him as a great God. And and this is our
first prompt. I want us just to start
with a a prompt of worship is this is
just as simple is just kind of pray this
prompt to our God is we worship you the
great God because we worship you the
great God because fill that in. Why are
why is our God so worthy of our worship?
We worship you the great God because
pray that to our Lord.
Heat. Heat.
Lord, we worship you, the great God,
because you are holy. God, you are full
of joy. Lord, you are good. Lord, you
are perfect. Lord, because all the great
things that happen in our life, they are
from you. Because you are the epitome of
what is good and right and great in our
world. God, we worship you because you
are in your own standard. You are above
all others. Lord, you are higher than
all else. God, we worship you because of
all that you have done, all that you are
doing, all that you will continue to do.
And Lord, you are God.
But God, we worship you and then you
call us to respond. in verse 18 has it
we've seen as the word of God is read
throughout this chapter there is just
challenging as the word of God is read
all of a sudden there is movement among
the people and I I love this in verse 18
when it says Ezra read out of the book
of law of God every day every day he was
reading out of the book of the law and
he was moving in the hearts of people
for them to respond for them to find joy
that they hadn't found before and I
think for us here's our prayer prompt
and in this new year and I hope maybe
that you've been challenging yourselves
to read more and and maybe you haven't
started a a reading plan or maybe you've
already given up, but it's not too late
to either get back on it or or start
again or start a new one. But kind of
just having this prayer prompt of
valuing God's word is God, let me read
your word every day so that God let me
read your word every day. Let me read
the Bible every day so that so that I
can become more patient. So I become
more joyous so that my life can change.
God, let me read your word every day so
that pray that prayer to our God.
Heat. Heat.
God, we worship you as the great God
because you are holy, because you are
perfect, because you are indescribable,
God, and because you are so holy, but
you are also so loving, you've chose to
make yourself known to us through your
word and through your son. And God, as
we read your word, Lord, I just pray
that we can read your word every day. So
you challenge a true joy in our heart,
uh that we can become more patient, that
we can become uh enduring through the
hard times, that we can become more
loving to the people around us. Lord,
that we just become more like Christ and
less like our sin. And God, we know we
don't have the power to do that. Is only
through the power of the Holy Spirit,
through the discipline of following your
word. And God, I just ask that you
challenge us of just as we saw the heart
of a nation be erupted, be awoken by the
reading of your word. God, we can see
the same revival happen in the lives of
those at Cross Church. God, let us read
your word. Let it fill our hearts. And
God, let it take us on a mandate to go
make Jesus known to the world around us.
God, we thank you for this passage. God,
we thank you for our church. Lord, we
ask that you gather us together this
Sunday so that we can glorify you and we
can get ready to then go practice uh
what you show us in your word. And Lord,
we just lift all this up in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you guys for joining us. We're
excited to dive into Nehemiah chapter 8.
And we'll see you this Sunday.