Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro*

We are winding down our series in the book of Nehemiah.

I am praying that we end by the beginning of December!

We have been talking about building God’s people.

We saw a revival break out in Neh. 8 causing them to get back to God’s Word and to God in Neh. 9, which happens to be the longest prayer in the Bible, a beautiful confession of their own failures, but also focusing on the faithfulness of God.

The key word in Neh.

8: Revival.

The key word in Neh.

9: Remembrance.

Now we are in Neh. 10 and the key word will be “Rededication” or “Recommitment” and we will see that a rededication or recommitment comes out of convictions.

Conviction.

This is a word that needs to be brought back into our vocabulary.

The dictionary says conviction is a “strong persuasion or belief the state of being convinced.”[1]

It is a settled decision.

It is a fixed strong belief.

It is the confidence that something is true and because it is true, it has defined and impacted our actions, our words, our thoughts and everything we are.

Because of our convictions, when the pressure mounts and we are tempted to go the way of least resistance and the easy way out, the way of what people say (which might be contrary to our conviction), we are not moved.

We have made up our mind.

That is what I mean by being a person of conviction.

I like the following description of conviction by J. Hampton Keathley.

He says that there are three components of a person that characterizes biblical conviction: (a) a */commitment/* to Scripture as one’s authority, (b) the */construction/* of specific beliefs and convictions based on that authority, and (c) the */courage/* to act on those convictions in faith.[2] Hopefully we will see these three parts in Neh.

10.

Because we do not have people of biblical conviction, we have Christians who are Christians when it is convenient.

We have Christians who are Christians when it adds to their comfort.

As a result of not having convictions, we have Christians going the way of culture.

Culture pollutes their thinking, resulting in polluted living, breaking down the home, the church and society.

This is the most important need in our churches today!

Let me give you some Scriptural support.

In 1 Thess.

1:5 Paul says that “the gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

Paul says toward the end of his life that he suffers for the gospel because in 2 Tim.

1:12: “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”

Joseph was a man of conviction when he stood up against Potiphar’s wife in Gen. 39, when said, “how can I sin against God?” (Gen.

39:9).

In Rom.

4:21, Paul says that Abraham was "fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

In addition, Daniel refused to compromise his convictions in the face of an antagonistic Babylonian culture (Dan.

1:8; 6:3-5).

The author of Hebrews says Moses chose to be “mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (Heb.

11:25).

Where are believers like this today?

Conviction is more than opinion.

You hold an opinion, but a conviction holds you.

Are you a person of biblical conviction?

If you want God to build you so that you can build something for Him and be used by Him, you need to be a person of biblical conviction.

In today’s text, you will see that the people of Israel were people of conviction.

Let’s get into God’s Word with this first thought:

*I.

Biblical conviction commences with the leadership (Neh.

9:38-10:27)*

Let’s pick up the story at Neh. 9:38.

Actually in the Hebrew text, Neh.

10:1 starts right here.

It starts with “because of all this.”

Because of what?

I like what John Piper says, that it is because of “all the centuries-long, great, mighty, awesome, covenant-keeping, loving work of God—because of all that] we are making an agreement—a covenant—in writing.”[3]

So far we have seen that there has been a lot of spiritual fervor, joy in the Lord and mourning over sin.

However you cannot always live on an emotional high.

When you come down from the mountain top you have to face the daily grind.

So they lay out a specific plan to put the truth of God’s Word into daily practice, by rededicating themselves to the Covenant God had made with them centuries before.

It must be said here that the New Testament does not command that we should make oaths in writing in order to walk with the Lord and serve Him.

We are under the New Covenant.

What we are seeing here was a rededication to follow what was the Old Covenant.

God established the Covenant with them at Mt. Sinai, written on a stone (Ex.

31:18).

They renewed it in Deut.

29:10-13 and again here.

It was a very serious thing.

Numbers 30:1-2 says, “Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded.

If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

Not following through meant bringing on the judgment of God.

So this was serious business with God.

Have you ever seen married couples renew their vows?

This chapter reminds me of that!

In the New Testament, God expects us to obey Him in response to all that He has done for us in Christ.

Notice the people who are first to sign on the dotted line.

There are 84 names here.

Look at who heads up the list.

Nehemiah and then Zedekiah is listed, who was probably his assistant.[4]

Next to them were 21 priests, the heads of priestly households (Neh.

10:2-8).

This is probably why Ezra’s name is not listed, because he evidently belonged to the priestly family of Seraiah (Neh.

10:2).

Neh.

10:9-13 lists the head of Levitical households, with six names of people ministering at the revival in Neh.

8:7.

The last group in Neh.

10:14-27 consists of 44 heads of leading families.

What we see in this is that those in leadership set the example for others.

They were committing themselves to the Lord to do what they expected people under them to do.

I think almost everyone here is leading someone right now.

Whether for me as a pastor, or if you are part of the Servant Team, or if you are leading us in worship as the worship team, or if you are leading your home as a husband or a parent or if you are leading children, or Sunday School or youth group or whatever it may be, the truth is as Gene Mauch says, “You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself.”[5]

You might not like that title of being called a leader, but that’s what you are.

I think some redefining of what leadership truly is need to be done here.

What was the first command Jesus gave to those He called to be His disciples~/leaders?

“Follow me” (Matt.

4:19).

I think the biggest problem comes in my life (and I think for many people who are leaders) is we get caught up in what it means to be a leader that we forget that we are first followers.

I remember Dr. Joe Stowell saying in a conference once that our Christian culture promotes leadership so much sometimes (how many books in Christian stores are found under “leadership”?

but have you ever seen a section for “followership”?) that it causes us to forget that our position (youth leader, servant team, worship leader, husband, parent, SS teacher, pastor etc.) is different from our calling.

Our calling is to be a follower first.

Positions come and go.

Our calling is forever.

Followers are top of the chain in the Kingdom of God.

If you are going to be an effective leader with some biblical convictions in your life, you have to be a good follower first.

So stop telling people that are listening to you to have convictions if you don’t have any yourself.

Here we see that biblical conviction commences with the leadership first.

Secondly,                                      

*II.