Good morning, church. I have here an apple with me. Those of you in the back, you may not be able to tell, but it's a pretty decent looking apple. Doesn't have any blemishes on it. Earlier I tried to shine it a bit, it had a nice shine to it. It's a decent apple. But there's something that will happen to this apple over time. And that's on the inside, it will start to decay. As air starts to get in, perhaps where the stem was, it would start to decay on the inside. And this apple, it'll still look great for a long time on the outside, even after that decay is happening and taking place inside. But if I then take a bite of this apple, I'm going to be taking that decay inside of me. Isn't that right? Well, today I'm making the claim that in some ways there are parts of our society that are like this apple. Alright? Our government has worked hard. They've got people working diligently, they're really doing their best to guide this nation, and I'm not criticizing them at all. And I think outwardly we would agree that the Singapore society is attractive in many ways. There are a lot of things to commend Singapore for. If possible, we could set a certain place within our home set aside for this family altar. And we'd decide what are we going to do? Perhaps it'll be a time of quiet, followed by reading a couple verses of scripture, and then a time of prayer, whatever it may be, to have a set method, to do it as a household, to pursue unity, beginning with our own household, and then to try and make that a rhythm, to make it a habit, to make it something regular for us. The next stop on our journey through Ezra and Nehemiah that I want to highlight is the restoration of the community. And if we remember, it had been discovered that many of the Jews had married foreign women, and with them their foreign gods. And so Ezra, the high priest, the priest there, he led the people in restoring the community. And it reminds us that we must live pure lives before God. We must live pure lives before God. We cannot allow any form of idol worship in our lives, just like our memory verse reminded us just now. In idol worship, it refers not just to physical idols, but to all those things and all those pursuits which would take that highest place where God should be in our lives. The third stop on the journey that I want to highlight is the hand of our God. And the hand of our God is something that was mentioned six times in Ezra and another three times in Nehemiah. This is something repeated again and again. And God's hand is identified as being the force behind Israel's return from exile and the restoration of their nation and worship. They recognize the hand of God. And the hand of God it represents his sovereignty, his influence, his power, and his guidance. And we can recount that amazing story of Ezra because he was, he knew that he knew that he knew that he knew the hand of God was upon him. And so he traveled back with a huge amount of money from Persia to Jerusalem. You remember how much money that was? It was astounding. It was $464 billion worth of wealth without any guards or escort because he knew the hand of God was upon him. And that tells us it's so important to know God's will, to know the hand of God upon your life. Fourthly, the fourth stop in this journey that I want to highlight was the rebuilding and dedication of the walls. And so Nehemiah, he led the people in the massive building effort, right? And it took, anyone can remember how many days it took to rebuild the wall? Okay, I heard it quietly. 52 days. And you remember it's something like going all the way around North Point City. The walls were about two double-decker buses high and about as wide as the buses as well. These were big walls. It was accomplished in 52 days. And it was done while they were facing all sorts of deadly threats and opposition. He arrived, he took a few days to rest from his months-long journey to Jerusalem. And then he chose a few people that he knew he could rely on. And they went out at night to Reci and see the real condition of the walls. Because he knew there were spies, the enemies of Israel, they had spies even within Jerusalem itself. And so he took the trusted men for the Reci. And these enemies, they tried to stop the building efforts by spreading certain lies to turn them away from their work. And there were three common lies that we recognize the enemy still tries to use on us today. The first, you haven't changed at all. This is a lie of the enemy. The truth is that we are changed gradually from the inside out. When we surrender ourselves to God, He is changing us. We are being changed. The second lie that the enemy would like to speak to stop the work in our lives is that you are unworthy. Who are you? But the truth is in Christ we are worthy. In Christ, we are worthy. And the third lie is that your identity in Christ only has future implications. It's nothing to do with now. That's the lie. But the truth is that our identity in Christ, it begins now and it reaches full fulfillment in the future. You know, I lived in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the U.S. for about half a year. Up in a beautiful, beautiful place. We were surrounded by pine trees. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning, and from about where I am, I would see a deer about where Reverend Daniel is, just not far away at all. Just out through the window, quietly enjoying eating the fresh grass every morning. It was really a wilderness place. This was many uh okay. It was about 40 minutes' drive from the nearest paved road, this place that I stayed up in the mountains. It was beautiful, it was rugged, it was remote, it was very self-reliant, and so you know, our power came from a hydroelectric generator. There were a couple of lakes on the mountain, and the water would trickle down, and we had a pipeline, it would come down and power our generator. That's how we got our power. It was very um, it was a nice place. And this was a training and discipleship center under Youth with a Mission, and I was there for about six months. And so we had this problem. Beavers, all right, they were coming up and doing what beavers do. They were chewing down trees with their incredible teeth and trying to dam up the lake. Now, if they dam up the lake, the water wasn't gonna go into our pipeline. We're gonna have problems with that. And if they dam up the lake, what's gonna eventually happen is water from up the mountain coming down to that area would eventually wash away the whole embankment that was holding it on the mountain, and that would be it. No more lake, no more water pressure, no more power for us. And so we had to do something about it. And I'm not trying to fit the caricature of whatever you might think of of Americans, but I did have to take a gun. I had to take a gun up at that point. And I went out every night at dusk with this rifle, waiting for the beaver to come out. Now, these these beavers, they were smart. They didn't start work earlier, they were industrious, but not during the daytime. And so I'd come out, I had this thick sweater on, very thick, um, to try and keep the mosquitoes away. But you know, the mosquitoes there were so big they would bite me right through the sweatshirt. And so I'd wait, I'd lay in wait quietly every night. I did this for a month, waiting for this beaver to come out. Well, it was still just just a little bit light enough, and then I shot it. This thing was big, it was heavy. Um I'm no expert. It took me uh a number of shots to to kill that poor beaver. And we had shifts, you see. So my shift was several hours long, and I knew that the next shift would be coming after me to keep watch. They didn't know that I'd already, after a month's time, shot this thing. My friend and I, we we decided we'd play a little joke on them. We got this bright red kick cat bar that we'd brought with us, and we set it there in its teeth and just left it for them to find the next day. Now, why am I telling you this, all right? It is necessary to remain vigilant. Okay, that's the principle. It is necessary to remain vigilant. In in that experience in Colorado, it didn't happen uh just one time going up. We had to be on guard, we had to be vigilant, we had to be watchful, we had to be alert, and it took one month to deal with this problem which was threatening how we were living up there in the mountains. And so it's essential for us today to remain vigilant. Vigilant, it means to be alert, to be watchful, to be on guard against danger. When dusk approaches, when that that time between day and night approaches, we need to remain vigilant. Now, if we uh if we look at the book of Nehemiah in chapter 12, uh we'd see that it was actually ending on a high point. All right, there's 13 chapters in Nehemiah. We go back just one to chapter 12. Uh you know what? It ends on very much a high point. The walls have been fully rebuilt. They hold this very, to me, a bit surreal, a bit strange of a dedication service. They have two large choirs on different walls, and so they're walking on the walls, they're worshiping, they're going around in different directions, and then they meet together on the walls at the point where it's nearest to the temple for this final sing-down event. And so the whole the whole city is a time of celebration. Wow, look what God has done. He preserved us from our enemies, from those threatening us. That was the hand of God on us. We see that the temple, the altar had been built back up. We're back here in our own nation. Now the walls, the gates, everything has been finished. And so they praise the Lord. They have this amazing worship service to dedicate that the walls had been rebuilt. And so it paints a very happy ending, I would say, of this Ezra-Nehemiah journey. It's like this beautiful sunset ending, like a Hollywood movie, right? In the end, somehow it's a happy ending. Except that the journey didn't end there. Instead, it ends at dusk in chapter 13 with a set of final reforms initiated by Nehemiah. So, what had happened? Nehemiah, he had originally received permission to go to Jerusalem to oversee that final rebuilding. Uh, we learn in scripture, Nehemiah was there for about 12 years. He was in Jerusalem for 12 years. After that, uh, he had to return to Persia because the project was complete and he had a position and duties to return to. Some bad news had reached Nehemiah's ears. The enemies, they'd been frustrated when he was there in Jerusalem. Well, they'd restored their influence in Jerusalem during his absence and sent the decay, uh sent the city into uh spiritual decline in four ways. And the first was defilement. Eliashib, the priest, he had given Tobiah. Tobiah was this Ammonite and one of the people who had opposed Israel. He gave him a room within the temple courts. I wouldn't want to try to imagine who might be an enemy to our faith in our church here. But could you imagine? Oh, we're just going to take out one of the cry rooms. Uh that's for you now. They had given him a room within the temple courts. This temple was meant to be a holy place dedicated to God. And instead, it was being defiled by being used for toias' personal purposes. The second way that there was spiritual decline was neglect. The Levites and the singers, they were supposed to be full-time temple staff. And by law, they were to be supported by the tithes that were brought to the temple. But they weren't receiving anything. And because of that, they had to go out to the fields, uh, leave the city, and go work in the fields so at least they could have some little income to live on. And we're not told whether Tobiah was somehow had been embezzling the money, or the people had just given up hope and stopped giving their tithe. Something was wrong there. All we know is that that storeroom where all the tithes were supposed to be kept, that was now where Tobiah was living. That had been given over to him. The third area of spiritual decline was violation. The people were violating the Sabbath by making it a market day. And buying and selling goods right there at the city gates. Keeping the Sabbath, it was one of the things that was supposed to be something unique, something that distinguished Israel from the other nations. Now the other nations would have a day off. It was supposed to be one of those unique things to the people called by God. And it was part of the Ten Commandments, and it was meant to be a blessing to them and a sign of faith to others. A blessing to them that they could enjoy rest and a sign of faith to others, because their God could provide for them. And yet they had given it up and make it made it a market day. The fourth area was intermarriage. And so spiritual decline was evident in that many of the Jews, and even among the priests, they had married foreign women, and the children that they'd had, they didn't even know Hebrew. They didn't know the law. And so we see this wasn't something of integrating foreigners into the faith. No, this was syncretism. This was compromise, spiritual compromise. Spiritually, the nation was declining and falling right back into some of the same sin that resulted in them being exiled in the first place. And the people, they had failed to remain vigilant against spiritual danger. So when Nehemiah heard the rumors that things were not well in Jerusalem, he plucked up his courage. He asked King Artaxerxes for permission to journey back once again. And when he reached the city, he realized things were even worse than he thought. And so he immediately engaged in a set of Final reforms. Alright, the first is that Eliashib, the priest, had been the one who had allowed Tobiah to take residence in the temple. This was a sign and a symbol to the people of alliance, all right? Eliashib had exchanged holiness for political stability. The place that was meant to be for holy offerings had been used as a private residence instead. Nehemiah, he was decisive. Well, he was not gentle about this. Straight away, never mind this person standing, never mind how much influence he might have on certain people. Straight away, Nehemiah had that room emptied. Floor to ceiling, furniture tossed out, every last thing tossed out. That was it. He was not going to stand for this. He threw Tobiah out of the temple. Then next, he called back all the Levites and the singers to resume their temple work. And he made a proclamation. Tithes should be resumed. We know this. We know this. Bring your tithes. This is part of our relationship with God. And so he appointed trustworthy men to oversee that this was going to take place. He tackled the proliferation of business being conducted on the Sabbath day. He sent out a warning to all the merchants. He is very bold, very strong here. He said, There's going to be no more of this, no more business on the Sabbath day. And he took the nobles and he stood up and he rebuked them for allowing this disregard for God's holy law. This shouldn't be taking place. And he had the city gates shut for the Sabbath days. He stopped the flow of goods coming in and out, and he threatened the merchants outside with violence. I'm going to send the city guard after you if you try and keep this up. He was very serious about it. And finally, he confronted prominent leaders who had taken foreign wives and he rebuked them. He cursed them and even beat some of them, condemning them for this syncretism, for trying to blend in foreign religion, all these foreign gods, foreign practices, with they themselves. Nehemiah made them take public oaths to God's law and to no longer allow this practice. And so, despite all that had been accomplished previously, the rebuilding of the altar, the temple, the walls, it seemed almost like dusk was approaching for Jerusalem. We're not left with a happy ending in this last chapter of Nehemiah. Instead, Nehemiah concludes the book, not with this report of triumph, but with a prayer of committal to God. He says, Thus I cleanse them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work, and I provided for the wood offerings at appointed times and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. And so as we bring this series and this book to a close, there's a clear lesson for us, and that is that when dusk approaches, when day seems to be turning into night, when dusk approaches, remain vigilant. We must always be on guard against spiritual compromise. When dusk approaches, remain vigilant. We must remain vigilant here in God's house. The place we set apart for God must remain holy. Even this church building, the sanctuary that we're in this morning, it's been dedicated and set apart for worship of God. So we don't do business in here. We're not going to clip our fingernails while we're waiting in the seat for things to begin. It's not really a place for us to be scrolling through, sorry, scrolling through our social media. It's not the place for that. It's not a place where we just lounge and lay back. That is not what this place is for. We don't carry our habitual sin in here and think that it's not going to make a difference, that it doesn't matter. This place is set apart as holy and dedicated to God. And so we enter respectfully. We don't carelessly chat about everything with very loud voices. And I know I see some of you, you you intentionally come in early, even on Sundays, and I see you quietly praying in the pew, preparing your heart for encountering the Lord. And so we we must remain vigilant against letting laxness or bad habits or any sort of compromise to infiltrate this place of worship. When dusk approaches, cultures embracing all sorts of things, we we must remain vigilant. We must remain sensitive to God's Holy Spirit. We need to remain vigilant with our eyes. When we're looking at our phones, when we're looking at our laptops, when we're looking at the TV, whatever it may be. We must remain on alert, not allow spiritual compromise. We must be vigilant in how we use our eyes. We must be vigilant in regards to our hearts. I'm talking about relationships here. That we don't entrust ourselves to others who are not of the same faith. That's not for us. In our community, also we must guard against excluding others just because they're not exactly the same as us. We must be on guard against allowing cliques to form. We need to take initiative to reach out to visitors who visit us here at our church. It's the responsibility of not just our defender team, not just the staff. It is all of our responsibility to make them feel welcome in this place. Because we don't live for ourselves, we live for the Lord. We don't live for our own comfort, but we live for his purposes. It's because our Lord Jesus, He told us that all the law and all the prophets can be summed up in two simple commands to love God and to love our neighbor. We need to be vigilant in the area of our finances, controlling our spending, being intentional with our spending, giving to God what belongs to God, investing where he guides us to invest, saving where he leads us to save. We don't allow our spending to be guided by marketing and publicity. We're not supposed to have our eyes fixed on designer handbags, shiny cars, glittering jewelry. That's not where we fix our eyes, church. That's not who we are. That's not our identity. Because our contentment is to be found in Christ alone. Well, when facing dark times, when facing an approaching dusk, we must remain vigilant. And so I just, the last seven words recorded in the book of Nehemiah, I'm just going to repeat them again. Remember me, oh my God, for good. Nehemiah, who had seen all this, he said, Remember me, oh my God, for good. This was his plea and his prayer to God, that all the effort, while the previous twelve years, and then he came back, he has to set things right again, that all his effort, all the years spent boldly rebuilding the city and reforming the people of God, that this would not be in vain. Remember me, oh my God, for good. This spiritual dusk seemed to be approaching. Somehow it was infiltrating Jerusalem. That the people would turn to God, that the sun would rise again, that they would reject compromise and sin. And that is God's word to us today. Remain vigilant. Even when spiritual dusk approaches, remain vigilant. Guard our hearts, guard our families, guard our faith. Be faithful to the end. You know, I was considering this morning. What a wonderful blessing it is to be a part of this church. Church, in many ways, you're you're really wonderful. I must say I am blessed every time we come together before the service. There's smiles, we greet one another, we're glad to see one another. We worship together. We had the important time of fellowship at IZone together, catching up. How was your week? Oh, you went on a trip. How was your trip? How are your children? What were the results from exam? All these things, you know what? By and large, you do really well in this. Honestly, I would describe us as a warm church family. Church, this is also the area we need to remain vigilant. Because just as we see even in Ezra and Nehemiah, the place that attack comes is within the community. Those attempts to destroy the community from outside, nothing. Didn't happen. Couldn't get any traction at all. But it was within the community where things started to fall apart. We need to guard what we have. We need to guard this special fellowship we have together. We need to guard our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ. The way we remain vigilant in this is we have to sometimes move beyond our comfort zone. We all have our groups. Most of us probably even have in our mind our table. This is our table where we sit when we go for our fellowship time. This is my seat over here. This is the one who sits on my left, and this is the one who sits on my right. I mean, that's natural. That's just uh human nature. We we like our comfort, but remaining vigilant means we keep our eyes open, especially for those who are visiting us. And I don't just mean on the first week, if they've been coming a few weeks, you know what? We may not realize if we've been here a while, but it feels kind of awkward to come in for the first several times before we know people, and essentially we don't quite feel we know our place. It is our job as a church family. We keep watchful and we include them, we greet them. We sacrifice one Sunday in the month to sit with someone else. We find the person who maybe hasn't found someone to talk to yet, and we take the initiative. We sit down and chat with them. We get to know them, we let them know us. This is part of how we stay strong as a faith community. This is how we we stay vigilant against letting any discord, any disunity come into our community. Amen. Church, shall we pray? Precious Lord, thank you for the wonderful gift of this faith family, this church family, where we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We find our identity in you. We understand how to relate to one another from your word. Lord, thank you for the journey through Ezra and Nehemiah. Lord, would you help us to retain the treasure and lessons learned from this year going through this series? Lord, would you keep us vigilant against danger and spiritual decay? Lord, we thank you that you are the author and perfecter of our faith, that you are faithful, that you are at work in our lives, that in Christ we are worthy, that we are able to walk out our identity as Christians today. It is not just something for the future. Thank you, Lord. Would you strengthen us once again right now with your Holy Spirit to live and work in a way that brings glory to you, not just here on Sundays, but in the rest of the week as well. That we will walk different from others because your hand is upon us. Pray and ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.