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What forms our lives? What do we wake up to? What do we live for? Join Reverend Daniel as we look at God's faithfulness and our own heart condition.

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Morning, brothers and sisters. This morning's scripture reading will be taken from the Old Testament. Nehemiah chapter 9. I'll be reading from verse 1 to verse 5 and 31 to 38. The people of Israel confessed their sin. Now on the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of it they made confession and worship the Lord their God. On the stairs of the Levites took Joshua, Bani, Katmil, Shaboniah, Bunai, Sherubiah, Bani, and Katnani. And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Joshua, Katmil, Bani, Heshabaniah, Sherubiah, Hodiah, Shabboniah and Patahiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God, from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Verse 31 to 38. Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. Now therefore, our God the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings and our princesses, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people since the time of the king of Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept you or kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you have gave them. Even in their own kingdom and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them. Behold, we are slaves this day, in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and his good gifts. Behold, we are slaves. And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us. Because of our sins, they rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please. And we are in great distress. Because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing. On the sealed documents are the names of our princesses, our Levites, and our priests. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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Once again, uh good morning to all of us. And we are continuing the sermon series on Ashra Nehemiah this morning. We'll be looking broadly at Nehemiah 9 to 10, but it's a uh very, very long chapters. Uh it focuses on two areas. Nehemiah 9, verse 1 to 37, which uh May had read for us, the first part and the ending. It focuses on the extensive corporate confession of sin. The people of God were gathering together, and as a body that belongs to Christ, they were confessing their sins openly before God. And Nehemiah 9 verse 38 to 10, verse 39 actually describe the renewal of the covenant. So Nahimaya 9 to 10 actually focuses on these two areas: confession of sin and the renewal of the covenant. In the interest of time, we will focus on the first part, which is the extensive corporate confession of sin before the covenant renewal takes place. Broadly speaking, Nehemiah 9, verse 1 to 37 reminds us of God's kindness again and again and again, and the movement of his people towards idolatry. Thus, we will center uh the sermon today on two themes what God has done for Israel in the past, and secondly, the people's persistent idolatry, implying a rejection of God and his ways. And of course, we ask ourselves, so what? What does that apply to us today? Let us pray. Father, I pray that through your word, through scripture, you will speak to us and stir up our hearts once again. Like the people of old in the book of Acts, when they hear the preaching of the apostles, their hearts were they were cut to their hearts. And Lord, they they ask the important question, what must I do to be saved? So Lord, even as we hear your word being read over our lives, Lord, that we will not be hardened, but our hearts will be softened, we will not be stiff-necked and hard-hearted like your people of old, but our hearts will be malleable, soft, and willing to learn and to change. So Lord, we commit ourselves to you as we sit under the authority of Scripture. In the name of Jesus. Amen. So Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 1 to 3 begins this way. Now on the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled. And what did they do? With fasting and set cloth with earth on their heads. And they separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. And for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. Last week in Pastor Wei's sermon, we learned that Nehemiah 8 verse, we learned from Nehemiah 8 verse 9 that the people wept as they heard the words of the Lord. Yet they were instructed not to mourn or weep, as the day was holy to the Lord. And it was a time of rejoicing for what the Lord has done. Now in Nehemiah chapter 9, it was time for the people of God to assemble now with fasting in sackcloth and with earth on their heads. And the people of God during the time were not just trying to act pious, but it was fasting was a time in Ashrah, Nehemiah, as a way of petitioning Yahweh or God's help in a time of crisis. Meaning that they see a crisis of alienating themselves from the book of the law, from God's word. And out of that crisis, they fast and pray. It's not like how today sometimes we fast for various reasons, sometimes uh for physical reasons, not just for spiritual reasons. We could fast or go on a special diet because we want to look good, we want to lose weight, we want to keep healthy, right? That is a different kind of uh fast that uh Ashra Nahimaya was talking about. It was a fasting that wasn't that that wasn't focused on fasting for the sake of fasting, but it was a fast as a way of petitioning God for help in a time of crisis. It's interesting to note that the prayer of confession, the long prayer of confession, was preceded by three hours of studying the law. So a quarter of the day is about uh three to four hours. So they were literally there just reading the law, studying the word, and for the next three or four hours, they made their confession and worship the Lord their God. And in their confession, they actually pray through the promises of scripture as they recall how God had worked for them in the past, their shared history, and they begin to come before the Lord and using scripture to recognize God's presence in their lives. So the key moments uh bear with me as I go through the highlight the key moments of the people's shared history because it's important for the people of God, even for us today, to recognize the shared history we have with the people of Israel in terms of how God has worked through uh his scripture to bring about his plan and promise. So the key moments of the people's shared history begin in creation. In Nehemiah 9, verse 6. If you do have your Bibles, uh physical Bibles on your phone, I just invite you to uh follow me through uh scripture as we uh we will read through portions of it, not in its totality, but again, because of time, but portions that bring out the essence of uh the prayer of confession. So, creation, right at the beginning of the confession, the prayer, uh Nehemiah realizes that God is the one that created all things. Verse Nehemiah 9, verse 6 says, You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that's in them, and you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you. So acknowledging God as a God of creation. And from creation, uh Nehemiah moves on to the covenant with Abraham. Nehemiah 9, 7 to 8. It says, You are the Lord, the God who chose Abraham and gave him and brought him out of Ur of the Cordians and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous. Then the history moves on to the exodus and the wilderness wanderings. So this is a long but a very pivotal journey for the people of God because that is where, if you recall the history of Israel, where God delivered them through mighty signs and wonders. But it was also a time of great distrust towards God, where they failed to trust God, they complained, they grumbled, they wanted to go back, they make a golden calf, and all kinds of things happened there. That is why Nehemiah records a very long section, verse 9 to verse 21, right? Uh a very large portion of recounting this part of their journey. Because the first part was what God did. God created the world, He gave uh He called Abraham and called him and his descendants to be a blessing to all nations, what God has done. But uh, when God began to move uh through the Exodus, then we see how the people reacted and responded. So certain portions of Nehemiah 9, I'm reading uh verse 9, and you, referring to God, he saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths. Verse, by a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire by night to light for them the way in which they should go. Verse 13, the giving of the law, you came down on Mount Sinai, spoke with them from heaven, gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst. And you told them to go in to possess the land that you have sworn to give them. And verse 16 tells us uh of the people's rebellion against God. It says, But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them. But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they have made for themselves a golden calf and said, This is your God who brought you out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manner from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. Nehemiah 9, verse 22-25, then moves on to the conquest of the land. Verse 22, you gave them kingdoms and peoples allotted to them every corner. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you have told them, you have told their fathers to enter and possess. So the people of Israel basically had everything going for them. You know, despite their sin and their rebellion, God brought them to the land, the next generation. And verse 25 tells us that they entered a land and took possession of it, and all the goodness of the land was just thrust into their land. Verse 25 says, They captured fortified cities and rich land and took possession of houses full of good things. Citrons already hewn, vineyards, olive orchids, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. So they were enjoying God's goodness, and they were under his blessing. Nevertheless, in Ahemaiah 9 26, it says, Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Ahemia 9 27 to 28 then talk talks about how God raises saviors or judges. Verse 27, therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer. And in their suffering they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies, you give them saviors who save them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rested, they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, many times you delivered them according to your mercies. The prophets and the exile, Nehemiah 9, verse 29 to 30, reaching the end. And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law, yet they acted presumptuously, did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bought them, you bore them, bore with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not give year. Therefore, you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the land. So verse 32 to 37 is key in this part of the prayer where Nahemiah now makes a plea to God. He comes before God in light of their entire history, their shared history and of what they have experienced under God. And verse 32, Nehemiah now prays. Now, therefore, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love. Let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us. Upon our kings, princes, our priests, prophets, our fathers, and all your people. Move on to verse 33. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. Verse 34 says, Our kings, our princes, our priests, our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and warnings that you gave them. Even in their own kingdoms and amid your great goodness that you gave them in the large and rich land you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. And the sad conclusion of it all is the people of God has taken great pains to enter the land. Remember, they rebuilt uh the city walls, they have the place, yet they are still slaves. They still see themselves as slaves. Verse 36 says, We are slaves this day in the land you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Behold, we are slaves, and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies, over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. And that gives us the reason why it returns us to the beginning of chapter 9, Nehemiah 9, where the people prayed and fast and seek the Lord because they are in great distress. So, in summary, the first point what God has done for Israel in the past. It was a history of God's mercy poured out on his people again and again and again and again. God constantly reveals himself to Israel as a gracious and merciful God. And church, I believe we have not uh kind of soaked in this thought in our lives enough because we live in a culture where it's very punishing. You know, at work we can't afford to make too many mistakes, you know, we are we have to uh outperform people, we have to be in our tip-top condition. But in when we come to God, we realize the way he reveals himself is he's a gracious and merciful God. And somehow we need to embrace his mercy. So again and again and again, God poured out his mercy upon our lives, again and again, upon the lives of his people, and also in our lives. God constantly reveals himself as a gracious and merciful God, and we see that peppered throughout the text. We read in Nehemiah 9:17, it says, But you are God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even though they forsake you, they left everything, they worshiped the golden calf, they were ungrateful, they complained against you, they refused to trust you, they acted presumptuously, assuming that they can do whatever they want. Yet you are ready to forgive, you are gracious and merciful. Nehemiah 9, verse 18 to 19. Even when they have made for themselves a golden cup and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You, you, in your great mercies, did not forsake them in the wilderness. What a thought. You know, the people, Moses was up in the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments and instructions from the Lord. And there the people, after seeing great wonders, great deliverance, uh, the sea parting and all, yet all these miracles is not enough to build trust and faith. That because Moses was delayed in coming down, they just wanted to make something to worship and acknowledge, and out came a golden calf. But the good news is God is not like man, right? In human-to-human relationship, whenever you know someone, we always have a limit threshold, a threshold in terms of our limits of how we can tolerate uh, I'll say, you know, sadly, even husband and wife relationship. We do have have certain limits, and rightly so because we are humans. Beyond that, we probably have to seek intervention or counseling. Right? So, but God is limitless in his mercy and grace upon our lives. He does not treat us like how human beings treat us. If we forsake him, uh, even though other parts of scripture say that he will forsake us, yet uh there are times where we know that he doesn't really forsake us in the truer sense, because the pattern of scripture is that he will reveal himself, he will show mercy again and again in our lives. So, because of that, Nahimayah 9 verse 27 tells us in a time of suffering, uh, when they cried out to you, you heard them from heaven, and again, according to your great mercies, you give them saviors. This is the time of the judges who saved them from the hand of their enemies. Nahemaiah 9 verse 28. When they turn and cried to you, you heard from heaven many times, not just one time, many times, the many judges or saviors that were raised to deliver Israel from the hands of their oppressors. Again, why? According to your great mercies. So God deals with us, church, today, according to his mercies, not according to our own human calculation of our worthiness before God, but according to his mercies. That's why there's new mercies every morning. You know, that's why we sing songs like uh Thy loving kindness is better than life, you know, uh, because his mercy and goodness is really better than life, right? And it gives us hope. Again, Nehemiah 9, verse 31. Nevertheless, in your great mercies, we did not make an end of them or forsake them. For you are a gracious and merciful God. The God we worship is not like any of us. No, He is a gracious and merciful God. Then we see the parallel team running, not only what God has done for Israel in the past, but what runs a parallel trap in this confession of prayer is the people's persistent idolatry. It's not just once all, but it's a track record, meaning it is a character issue. It's a what we call a character deficit in the nation where they their primary sin, as what uh commentators have said, is the sin of idolatry. The sin of despite experiencing God's goodness in their life, they can't help but still sin and worship other gods. And when they do that, they are rejecting God and all his ways. So we have read earlier the people of God acted presumptuously. To act presumptuously means to do as what I think is right in my own eyes, without consideration of others of God. It's okay, I'll just do it. I mean, this God, I don't know. I just want to do what I want. So, this is what the people of God were. They acted presumptuously, stiffened their necks towards him, meaning that they refused to turn and change. They refused to obey, were not mindful of the wonders he had done. So a lot of times when people say, I must see God's wonder, God's miracle, then I will believe him. Is it true? To some extent, yes, but the history of Israel tells us, No, you may see God's miracle in your eyes now, but it doesn't guarantee that you will continue to believe in him. Even for us today, there are many people that fall away from Christ, even seeing miracles after miracles. So miracles are not a guarantee, wonders are not a guarantee that we will follow Jesus to the end. So, what's important for us? We'll see later. So they make a golden calf, worship it, and committed great blasphemies, you know, saying, This golden calf is the one that brought you out of Egypt. How can it be? They cast God's law behind their backs. Basically, it means that they just ignore what God requires. Turn a stubborn shoulder. I mean, I don't know how you turn a stubborn shoulder. Stubborn neck, maybe stubborn shoulder is refuse to move. Stiff, stiff shoulder. It does happen. Continue to stiffen their necks and would not obey nor give ear to God. So this is their track record that runs parallel to God's mercy and kindness. So the result of their persistent idolatry was that the people of God became slaves in their own land. Therefore, they make a response in Nehemiah 9:38. Because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing on the sealed documents, the names of our pre princes, our Levites, and our priests. So, of course, we won't have time to look at the covenant renewal, but the basis and the premise, the presupposition of all this is confession of sins. The people's realization. The covenant renewal is, you may say, just a formality of going through, right? But the preparation, the hard sowing of the ground, the tears, the reading of scripture actually is the most important thing, more than the ceremony, because the ceremony will come and go. But what counts is the people's continual faithfulness to God. So through the time of fasting, the people of God read scripture, as we have seen earlier, prayed through his promises, confessing that they needed Yahweh, they needed God's help. Precisely through fasting, they are seeking God's intervention in their national crisis of dealing with sin in their lives. And I believe the people of O in the Hemayani were seeking God's help to break the yoke of idolatry over their lives. The stronghold of idolatry does not escape us today. One contemporary writer says in the human heart is a factory of idols. I think it sounds like him, but it may not be him. But someone once said, in the human heart, we have a factory of idols. Because we can come to church and yet cling on to idols. Why is it so? The history of Israel says, Yes, this can happen to us. Because they were also in the temple offering sacrifices, going through all the ceremonies, you know, but yet their hearts were far from God because their hearts cling on to idols. So, how does this apply to us today? Just have one question for us to consider. In light of God's mercy, do we also need God's help to break the cycle of idolatry in our lives? Let me repeat again. In light of God's mercy, do we need God's help to break the cycle of idolatry in our lives? So God is coming to us today. He's not saying like a taskmaster and saying, Oh, you are a great sinner, man. I'm going to pour out my wrath and burn you up or shred you to pieces. But he's saying that in light of God's mercy, this is who God is, a gracious and merciful God. Uh and he's telling that this is the presupposition. God's mercy is there for us to embrace. Do we need his help to break the cycle of idolatry in our lives? Luke Timothy Johnson, a professor of New Testament and Christian origins from Kendler School of Theology, wrote in his uh quite a condensed book, but it's very interesting book called Sharing Possessions, What Faith Demands. It's one of the more profound teachings by a New Testament scholar, and it's it's worth a read. I have it in my bookshelf. Any of you would wish to read. It really kind of changed my orientation towards material possessions. So he gives a kind of a theology of understanding possessions. And in talking about that, he deals with the thorny issue of idolatry. Because a lot of us uh are tied to our possessions, you know, what we have, what we achieve, our status, our position, what we have, and and therefore he tackles the issue of idolatry. So he says in simple terms, idolatry is the choice of treating as ultimate and absolute, that which is neither absolute nor ultimate. Right? It's quite easy to understand, right? Let me repeat again. Idolatry is simply treating as ultimate and absolute, that which is neither absolute nor ultimate. That means it's a lesser thing that somehow, because of sin, even as Christians, if our hearts we have a factory of idols, means that we cling to everything uh that will give us security. So we treat something as ultimate and absolute by uh the worship we pay it, right? So none of us today are, if I come here today and say uh I'm an idol worshiper, you know, or I say uh we won't go around professing that we worship idols, right? Or I won't come come and say, as a pastor, I have a uh factory of idols in my heart. But how do we know that a person is a worshiper of God or idolater? We know it through the person's life, right? So how the person uh interacts with the world around kind of reveals who the person worships. Because whatever we give our attention or care or worth to as our principal focus, that is our idol. If we work in the context of God as a center, the invisible master of our lives, then like the prayer that we pray, we pray every time for Holy Communion. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is what this is our orientation. That means we work for God, we live for God, we care for our family for God. Everything we do because we have this God focus that God is the ultimate absolute in our lives. But because of sin again, and I'm saying this because God acts in his mercy, he doesn't act to judge us and to uh burn us to pieces, but in his mercy, he's calling us to start to deal with the idols in our hearts. Because anything that we give worth or worship to can become an idol. Okay, he goes on to explain whatever I may claim as ultimate, the truth is my God is that which reverts my attention, centers my activity, preoccupies my mind, and motivates my action. Let me repeat again. Whatever I may claim as ultimate, that means I may say, ah, I have no idols, I'm a Christian at so many years, I'm a pastor. How you say I have idols? Huh? You are the idolatrous one. I mean, we may say that, uh, but actually the truth is our actions, our interest, our pursuit, our orientation in life reveals um whether we worship God or idols. So the truth is that my God is that which riverts my attention, centers my activity, preoccupies my mind, motivates my actions. That in virtue of which I act is God. That for which I will give up anything else is my God. Diagnostically, I can tell what my God is by seeing what it is around which the patterns of my life organize themselves. So he goes on to say, our lives, after all, do form patterns. Our freedom is not found in scattered outbursts of random activity, but in the shaping of a direction. And that's key because for Ishrael, their shaping of a direction is towards idolatry. Despite God's kindness and mercy, their constant decisions and things they do is centered on what they want to do apart from God. And this pattern, this shaping of a direction, of course, we know eventually forms our character, who we are as a person. And it manifests itself in the many small responses we make moment by moment, day by day. So I'd like to close with these um three questions. What forms our lives? What forms you? What inputs do you get in life? Is it scripture? Is it God? Do you center yourself in God each day? Allow his word or worship songs or to form your life? Or what forms you? Is it the latest news? Is it the stock market? Is it the volatile situation in the world? Or is it concerns at work, which is very legitimate, but it can become idolatry when it takes the focus of God? What do we wake up to? Uh another day of work? Or what you know uh another day that I have to give attention to my family, needs of the young family. What do we wake up to? And the ultimate question: what do we live for? What do we live for? Who do we live for?

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Ourselves, our idols, or the worship of God. We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about each Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.