Get Right with God

Captain Rob Westwood-Payne

Future Builders • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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In order to be Future Builders, we must ensure we are right with God.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction (5m)

Do you want revival?

However much we love it, know church/TSA is not where it should be. Needs radical shape up. Often feels as though best days behind us, but that’s not the story of God, which moves to ultimate victory.

Need revival or we will continue to be largely irrelevant and ineffective.

So do we want revival? Do we want to be God’s Future Builders?

Then we have to get right with God

There is no revival without repentance. Revival is a spiritual experience. It leads to an increasing awareness of who God is in his holiness and perfection and in contrast, of our own sinfulness and ungodliness.

Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility. (Charles Finney, revivalist)

A number of examples of revival in Bible, and Nehemiah is just one.

Nehemiah and people of God have rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls. Now they are ready to be renewed and revived as God’s people. What happens? They read the Law of God. They remind themselves who God is and the way he has asked them to live as his people. As they realise just how far they have strayed from God, they confess their sins, worship God and renew their covenant with him.

Explanation (5m)

If you want to know how to confess to God, corporately and individually, if you want to know how to get right with God, then today’s passage is a perfect example.

Vv.5-38 is the Israelites prayer, longest in Bible, and it shows they were serious about getting right with God.

The Israelites acknowledge how good God is

Nehemiah 9:6 NLT

“You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.

Our God is God alone. Not for Israelites was the pagan worship and idolatry of surrounding nations. The Law of God reminded them he was unique. The one and only true God.

He created the universe. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” can only be applied to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God uses his creation to encourage his people, reminding them he created it all. He sustains it all. God’s people find strength and peace in knowing our God is the Creator of all things.

He continues to care for his creation. He didn’t simply take seven days to create everything and then abandon us to our own course. He continues to create, continues to be involved, continues to sustain and provide.

And because of his greatness, the angels of heaven worship him.

When we come to God in confession, it’s a good idea to begin with the greatness of God. It prevents us from becoming to self-centred and self-absorbed.

The Israelites confess how wrong they are

Nehemiah 9:7–8 NLT

“You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word.

God had been good to the people of Israel. Over and over in this prayer God is revealed as a giving, generous God, who delights in meeting the needs of his people. He helped form them as a nation, he gave them a land - the Promised Land, he gave them a law, guidance on how to lead the abundant life, he gave them the ministry of his Spirit, he gave them food and water, he sent them liberators and gave them victory over their enemies. They wanted for nothing!

What was their response? They forgot God. In times of blessing and plenty they moved away from him, only returning when things got too bad or difficult. They refused to bow to God’s authority. They would not obey God’s will.

They wanted to appoint a new leader who would take them back to Egypt, and whilst Moses was on the mountain with God, they even made and worshipped an idol.

They forgot the reason God had brought them into existence in the first place: to be light to the rest of the world, pointing them to the one true God.

Be Determined (Chapter Nine: Amazing Grace! (Nehemiah 9))

Israel was a people who lived beneath their privileges and failed to accept fully God’s will for their lives.

I hope that can’t be said of us and the church today!

Israel because greedy, miserable and sick. They delighted in all God was willing to give them, but they forgot to keep company with God himself. They wanted to receive all God wanted to give them without being willing to do what God wanted them to do.

Much of the OT is the story of God’s people in an endless cycle of following God, then lapsing back into sin, confessing to God, obeying for a time, then backsliding, then confessing and so on. Does that sound familiar?

Our good God shows them grace anyway

Nehemiah 9:31 NLT

But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are!

However unfaithful God’s people are, God remains faithful - hallelujah!

When they obeyed, God faithfully blessed them. When they rebelled, God faithfully corrected them. When they confessed and asked for his mercy, he faithfully forgave them - again and again and again!

And now, having remembered God’s goodness and greatness, and having acknowledged their sin, on the basis of the grace they could see God had continued to show throughout their history, God’s people once again asked him to show mercy.

They asked for revival. For renewal. For a new beginning for their nation. They chose to surrender themselves fully to God. They covenanted with God to obey his law and do his will:

Nehemiah 9:38 NLT

The people responded, “In view of all this, we are making a solemn promise and putting it in writing. On this sealed document are the names of our leaders and Levites and priests.”

Application (5m)

If we confess our sins, God will show us grace and we will be ready to build the future with him

Our God is a glorious God. He is powerful. He is faithful. He is concerned for his church and for his children. He is willing to pardon us if we are willing to confess our sins. He is a generous God. He gives us far more than we deserve. He keep his promises even when we don’t keep ours.

Isn’t he a God who deserves our loving obedience?

Should TSA follow God’s will and purpose for us? Shouldn’t MCSA do what God is asking us to do? Shouldn’t each of us as faithful followers of Christ seek to do what he asks us to do?

Today, can be a new beginning:

Hebrews 12:1–2 NLT

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

We can confess our sins - corporate and individual - and seek God’s forgiveness. We can ask God daily for constant cleansing and renewal. Whenever we sin or failure in our own lives, or in the life of this corps, TSA, the church, then we can immediately look with faith at Christ and seek his forgiveness.

We can go from here determined to keep our eyes on Jesus and nothing else.

Next Steps

A Time of Confession

Scrap paper, pens, rubbish bin

Verse 1

I've carried a burden for too long on my own

I wasn't created to bear it alone

I hear Your invitation to let it all go

I see it now I'm laying it down

And I know that I need You

Chorus

I run to the Father

I fall into grace

I'm done with the hiding

No reason to wait

My heart needs (found) a surgeon

My soul needs (found) a friend

So I'll run to the Father

Again and again

And again and again

Interlude

Oh oh oh

Verse 2

You saw my condition

Had a plan from the start

Your Son for redemption

The price for my heart

I don't have a context

For that kind of love

I don't understand

I can't comprehend

All I know is I need You

Interlude

Oh oh

Again and again

And again and again

Oh oh oh

(Again and again)

Bridge

My heart has been in Your sights

Long before my first breath

Running into Your arms

Is running to life from death

I feel this rush deep in my chest

Your mercy is calling out

Just as I am You pull me in

And I know I need You now

CCLI Song # 7133494

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