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Nehemiah 10:37-39
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. The people of Israel began this covenant by saying “we will be careful to obey all the commands, regulations, and decrees of God. Here they summarize the covenant with “we will not neglect the house of our God.” So is that how it is with you? Is that how your Christian life begins and ends? True spiritual revival demands we not neglect the house of God. So what does that look like for a 21st Century Christian? Let’s consider
- NEGLECT EXPLAINED! In Nehemiah’s context neglect means “to leave, forsake, in a forlorn, destitute condition without any further care.” Another way of saying this from a Biblical perspective is “let nature take its course.” In this sinful world, the natural course of all things is toward deterioration, destruction, and death. Everything about this world’s influence is away from God and Godliness.
- NEGLECT EXPRESSED! How would you finish the sentence “the number one top priority in life for me is…? If you finish it with something like “working, learning to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength by obeying God and keeping His commandments” great! If you didn’t – understand this; in its most basic, fundamental meaning, forsaking/neglecting works by drawing the human soul away from all things God, and replacing Him with anything and everything ungodly. Sin makes everything Godly appear unappealing, uninteresting, and unprofitable. It is a cancer that touches every part of our life to distract us, to keep us from submitting to God and from serving Him. The sin of neglect whispers in our ear that God understands we have so many things in our modern technological lives that distract us from Him. In fact, sin tells us, most of those distractions are really blessings God gave us, so we must care for them. Neglect comforts us by telling us we don’t need quite time with God everyday in His Word; after all we’ve read it how many times? We know what’s in it and have the answers if we need them. We are duped into believing God understands when we don’t stay for Sunday school because we have to go home and cook for the family; or have a family reunion, or have to drive 200 miles to play a ball game! Sick of this yet? So is God! Here is the good news; neglect is completely curable!
- NEGLECT ELIMINATED! No matter where you are in your spiritual neglect, you can reverse it if you return to Neh. 9:38, then 10:28, 29. You eliminate neglect by making a choice to change! What you are now doing made you what you are now! You must change something if you want to be what God intends for you to be! You must understand as a Christian you belong to God (1Cor. 6:19, 20). You must give yourself totally to Him (Rom. 12:1, 2) and live in His Word (Josh. 1:7-9; Ps. 1, 2). Another way of saying all this is “you must takeresponsibility to give to God instead of just taking from Him.” Start by giving all of you to Him, even those deep, dark secret parts you’ve been withholding! Then He is able to pour out blessings in abundance to you. If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
