Nehemiah 8-12 - Renewal?

Listen along as we continue our series through Ezra/Nehemiah.

Notes/Quotes:

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 8

Nehemiah 8:9-12

“Joy is more than a desirable emotion. The joy of the Lord in Nehemiah 8:9-12 is repeatedly connected to the holiness of this feast day gathering: His people (amazingly, miraculously) get to come near that holiness and actually participate in it—that is joy. Being near him, we become like him: The joy of the Lord is your strength.” - Kathleen Nielson

“Despite the people’s failure, their refuge is in the Lord’s joy over restoring his repentant people” - Tim Mackie

Zephaniah 3:14-17

It must either be a sin against light and knowledge, or a sin committed with deliberation, or a sin committed with a design of sinning, merely for sinning's sake, or else it must be a sin committed through hardihood, from a man's rash confidence in his own strength. - Charles Spurgeon

Nehemiah 12:43

“God’s final word (in Nehemiah) is one not of exclusion and judgement, but of grace and invitation.” - Hugh Williamson

Hebrews 12:1-3

“The church exists to embody and to tell the story which is the true story. The church is the bearer to all the nations of a gospel that announces the kingdom, the reign, and the sovereignty of God. It calls men and women to repent of their false loyalty to other powers, to become believers in the one true sovereignty, and so to become corporately a sign, instrument, and foretaste of that sovereignty of the one true and living God over all nature, and all nations, and all human lives.” - Leslie Newbigin

“We cannot create a program or campaign for renewal and revival. For in the history of the church, this has rarely if ever had success.” Instead, “we cry out to God to change us, to start His renewal in our hearts.” And this is the paradox of renewal, both that it doesn’t depend upon our effort and also that it doesn’t happen apart from it. In fact, this is the paradox of the whole of the Christian life, for as Paul writes in Philippians 2:13, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God’s willing makes us more willing, not less, and his work never make ours unnecessary. - Jen Michel and Mark Sayers