Purpose - ANB W4, D6 Final - 3.30.13

Saturday, March 30                                                                  Purpose

Nehemiah 9

This passage is a summation of the purpose of our new beginning. This passage is what it is all about: the public confession of sin and dedication to the work of our God. I suppose that I could have started off with this passage to set the tone, but working exegetically through these two books places this at the pinnacle of importance for the people of Israel. Over and over again through our study of Ezra and Nehemiah we see the unity of the reading of Scripture and the confession of sins. Through the confession of sin comes purity and resolve to follow God and His precepts, not because God is a dictatorial God, but because in His nature God desires the very best for us. That very best is Him in His fullness and because of His holiness, where sin is, He cannot be. This is why it is so important for us to confess our sins daily and allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our lives and transform us. The confession in this passage is not just a confession for sins that day but is a retrospective look at the sins of Israel throughout their history. It was not just a “God forgive me for telling a lie” confession. No, it was a confession of the history of sin and rebellion on the part of ALL of Israel. It was a deep cleansing of the spirit.

Hopewell, God is up to something around us. God wants to do something with us and through us. We are at a point where we must make a new beginning, recommitting our lives to the service of the Lord. Confession of sin is at the heart of our new beginning. A church that readily confesses its sin to one another and to God is a church that will desire to see its community confess their sins and rejoice with them as the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms their lives. As Israel sought to start over in Jerusalem with a new temple and a new wall to symbolize their renewed covenant with God, they did so by praying for repentance. They had to turn from their wickedness and return to God and we see how God blessed them and provided for them and saw that their work was unhindered…as long as they relied on Him and did not turn away. We, like Israel, have been in a place of God’s blessing and great work. Otherwise we would not have lasted for 210 years. But here is the question that our new beginning begs of us: What have we done to impact our community? When we look back over the history of our church we see so many false starts, where we ran for a while headlong into our community, but then tapered off. What lasting legacy will we have for our community?

Israel’s cycle of confession that we have studied over the last month covered several generations and nearly 100 years. But once the wall was built, they were able to celebrate the glory of God as we studied yesterday. And it was that generation that finally got it. It is not about confessing our sin so that God will use us and bless us. It would have been easy for Israel to have skipped Nehemiah 9. They had their temple, their city, and their wall, so God’s work for them was complete, why confess their sin again? They understood the Word and they could not do anything but confess their sin. It was not that they wanted to feign purity so that God would use them. They had encountered true joy through God and they desired to remain pure as to please God and remain in his presence. They had experienced time away from God and they did not want that again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that we are climbing the mountain of revival. Confession of our sin is not just a part of it, it is the foundation upon which everything we want to do and God wants to do in and through us is built. The purpose of A New Beginning is not just to get us all excited and renovate buildings and walls and whatever else. The purpose is spiritual renewal and purity that will send tremors through our community. The purpose is to lay bare our souls before God so that we can be used to do whatever it is that He asks of us; whether that is labor, money, soul winning, etc. Buildings do not win people to Christ. Our community is reached for Christ only through our knees hitting the floor in confession and our desire to see people won in the name of Christ. It is a day for A New Beginning at Hopewell that will rattle our community FOREVER.

Prayer:

God, give us a new beginning. It starts with my confession and ends with souls won for You.