Nehemiah: Recommitment
Pastor Fletcher preaches about spiritual renewal from Nehemiah 10. Discussion points: The Israelites responded to the word and confession by renewing their commitment to the Lord, God both promises the blessings and takes on the curses of the covenant, the covenant was communal in nature and not emphasizing the individual.
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Scripture reader: [Nehemiah 9:38, 10:28-39] Because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing. On the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with our with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and His rules and his statutes.
We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. And if the people of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year in the exaction of every debt. We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel and for all the work of the house of our God.
We, the priests, the Levites, and the people have likewise cast lots for the wood offering to bring it into the house of our God according to our Father's houses at times appointed, year by year to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law. We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year to the house of the Lord. Also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, and to bring the first of our dough and our contributions, the first of every tree, the wine and the oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God, and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor.
All the priest and the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: All right, good morning. Hey, it's good to see everybody this morning. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor here. Joy to have you. When I was in college and, and grad school, I got started in ministry really young. I've really only had one career, and that's been ministry. I like to joke that I've, it's not really a joke. I've never actually like had a job interview, and I know that some of you are like, wow, that sounds amazing. How can I live my life without a job interview? And if you just decide by the time you're 16 that you wanna do ministry, maybe God will call you to that pathway. But here I am, 40 years old, and never had a job interview. I don't know what I would do if I was thrown in that place.
I did work at a few camps. I think I did actually interview once when I was like 18 years old for a camp position. I barely remember it. I don't think it counts. Can, can I have that one? Yeah. I worked at all of these camps when I was in high school and when I, well, college and grad school, and they were Christian camps. Any Christian camp folks out there? All right, you, several of you worked at camps, you maybe went to camps.
And the first camp that I worked at was a little wild. It was like it was called, Royal Ambassadors. Does anybody know Royal Ambassadors? No, OK. It was, an all boys camp, that was ages like 2nd grade through 5th grade, and It was unhinged. It was just, it was insane. Like they would drop off, like parents from all over the state would come and drop off their 2nd grade boys and entrust them to like 20 18-year-olds, for an entire week, and we would have a great time, but like the kids got into all kinds of trouble and it's just like we were barely, we weren't really adults, we were like just kids, like watching the kids like. The one of the more unhinged things that I remember was that we had a cabin, like the kids just stayed in our cabins with us and like we, we had our own little room as counselors and I walked into another room and found a group of boys playing Jesus. And as they were playing Jesus, they had one child duct taped to the wall in the shape of a crucifix. He looked happy. He said, it's my father's will for me to be here.
I did move on from that camp, good times at that camp. I moved on to a youth camp where they brought their own leaders. I didn't have to sleep in the same huts with the children anymore and worked in California for two summers and made my way from being a Bible study leader to a camp pastor where I got to preach multiple times a day to youth, and it was great. One thing that all these camps I, I did like 6 or 7 years of sorry. I did 7 or 8 years of camp, of, of working at camps. And one thing that all the camps had in common is towards the end of the week on the last night of worship. And if you grew up going into any of these camps, you know what I'm gonna talk about here is on the last night of worship, it would all culminate into like a very emotional evening. Do you guys know what I'm referring to? And where people would come and they would make their commitments to the Lord, and they would get saved, or my favorite one, they would rededicate their lives.
For some reason, it was always the same kids rededicating their lives every year. Yeah, it, it could almost be like one of those like, have you ever rededicated your life more than one time? And like there would be a lot of people, maybe even in this room, who would be like, yes, I I did that and there's nothing wrong, you know what? When I look back on it, we, we called those nights snot nights. There's a lot of snot involved. And look, I'm not, I'm not actually throwing any shade on snot night. I got saved on a snot night myself when I was 14 years old. I trusted Jesus for the very first time. I'm looking around seeing like 1000 people crying and, and like emotional with the Lord, and it just meant a lot to me in that moment, and that's when I gave my life to Jesus.
And you know, with all these people that were rededicating their lives, I would often judge them, in much the same way that I, I just said now. But I've come. I, I would see it as like a weakness. Like, oh, you're rededicating your life. Like why didn't you stay? Why didn't you stay with Jesus? So judgy. I can't even say it. I'm like, that's a really terrible thing to say. but that's how I thought about it, and maybe you did too at some point. But, I've come full circle on that one, and I actually think that rededicating your life to the Lord is a beautiful, beautiful commitment that people can make.
And in fact, as I look at this chapter in Nehemiah, I really kind of see like a rededication service. This is a recovenant with God, that the people of Israel have come back into their homeland and they're reforming the covenant with God. And so, I really think about this as a rededication service. And in fact, if, if you look at the whole, what we've been doing, we've been going through this series in Nehemiah. And Nehemiah, the first several chapters is about rebuilding the wall. And but from chapters 8 to chapters 10, from chapter 8 to chapter 10, we have what almost looks like a multi-week worship service where it starts off, where I, I mentioned some of this past couple of weeks, but it starts off with them calling to Ezra the scribe. The scribes never get any credit, and here we are, they're calling to Ezra the scribe, and they're saying, bring out the book. We want to hear from God. Would you read to us the law of the Lord, which had not been publicly read for probably gene for over a generation now.
And so Ezra comes out and he reads the word of the Lord, and the people, they start to weep because they see what they've been missing out on. And Nehemiah tells the people, now is not the time. Now is the time to celebrate and to praise God. We're going to enjoy the festival together. And after that, after the festival closes, they come back a day later, and they have a time of deep weeping, mourning, confession, assurance of God's grace. And now we're leading into the next day after. After the confession, after the assurance, and we move into a period of recommitment and recovenant with the Lord.
And before I move on to explain what that looks like, I just want to draw your attention to the fact that what they did in Nehemiah 8 through 10 reflects what we do every single Sunday morning. That we start with the word of the Lord. That he speaks, we respond. We don't drum up the spirit through our own ways of, of seeking Him, but God speaks to us, we respond to that. And then we have a time of praise and celebration, where we celebrate who he is and what he has done. And we move into a deeper exploration of God's word once again, just as they did before the confession in Nehemiah 9. And then we have a time where we confess our sins, where we're honest with God. And then we have a time of recovenanting ourselves through a sacred ceremony that we call communion. Our communion meal is a recovenant meal every single week. It's an opportunity for us to renew our vows to God and be reminded of what he has done for us. So I just think it's cool how the order of worship throughout Nehemiah 8 through 10 really reflects the same order of worship that we have here. And if you don't think that's cool, that's OK. Like I said, I'm a pastor and you're not, and that's, that's OK. I think it's cool.
Nehemiah 9:38. This, this kinda gets at the whole chapter. Is the last verse, OK, so last verse Nehemiah 9, just this one's for free. I mention this every once in a while. The, the chapters and verses were added later. So when you're reading the Bible, you really shouldn't give much credence to the chapters and verses. They're not original to the text. They were added much later to make it easier to find things. I'm very glad that they added it, but sometimes they're haphazardly added. And this one, it seems like verse 38 of chapter 9 really goes more with chapter 10 than it did with chapter 9. And so that's where we're starting today.
Verse 38 of chapter 9. Because of all this, I guess all this being what happened in chapter 9, we make a firm covenant in writing. On the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. And then what happens after that? We have 27 verses of names. And so when Chris was coming to read the text, I decided to have mercy upon my brother. And I told him that he can skip the names, not because they're not important. The names matter. We all love the fact that there's like three Banis in all of these names, and there's a someone named Bunni, which I think is a really cute name if anybody wants to name their kid B U N N I, that's a, that's biblical. But that's, you know, less important than the things around it in my opinion.
So, Nehemiah 9:38, they're writing a covenant. Because of this we make a firm covenant in writing. Let's, let's talk about what a covenant. I think that our culture is, doesn't really use covenants very often. We're more of a contract kind of people. A contract says you live up to your end of things, I live up to my end of things. If you don't end up to your end of things, I'm going to sue you and take what is mine. Or if you don't live up to your end of things, contract is null and void, it's over. That's the way we generally think, but a covenant is far more than that. It's, it's kind of like a, a contract, but it's like a contract written in blood. It's far more serious, and the only modern day equivalent to a covenant in this way that still sometimes carries that sort of weight is a wedding, is a marriage, where two people really pledge themselves to be in a relationship, to be in a loving relationship where they sacrifice their own good for the good of another, for life, and it's a covenant.
I had a seminary professor who was actually pretty well known. He was a Hebrew professor, not that you would know him, but you know, for the Hebrew scholars in the room, he was this Canadian guy named Peter Gentry. He had a big beard. He was really eccentric. He is really eccentric. I think he's still alive, and he would walk. And everybody would just get real hushed because he was kind of a celebrity on campus. And he was really, really hard. Like, it was like the hardest class I took in all of seminary. I made the worst grade I ever made in any class, I do believe, in Hebrew too. So I apologize that my Hebrew is not up to standard, for you all. I wish it could be. And he would say funny things like you have to know your normal, your, you have to know your stems, like the normal forms. They're the anchor for the soul. And, you know, it it just was what it was. He wrote a book called Kingdom Through Covenants, and this is how he defines what a covenant is.
A covenant is an enduring agreement. Which defines the relationship between two parties, involving a solemn binding obligation specified on the part of at least one of the parties toward the other, made by oath under threat of divine curse. And ratified by a visual ritual. And so in this way, a covenant, scripturally, is even higher than what we would celebrate at a wedding. It's the highest degree. It has this divine curse, this divine oath that's given to it. And God loves to deal with these people through covenants.
You find covenants all throughout the Old Testament. And my favorite example of an Old Testament covenant is Abraham. And God called Abraham to form a covenant. And the way that he did that is he told Abraham to go collect a series of animals to sacrifice. And so Abraham got all of the animals and God commanded Abraham to prepare for the covenant ceremony. And so the way that they would prepare for the covenant ceremony, and this time is they, they would take each of the animals and they would split them in two. Just cut the animal right in half, put them on either side of an aisle. Kind of like this. And so you would have a series of animals lined that have been cut in two in an aisle. And the way that the ancient, ancient people would do it, is they would make their agreement with one another, they would speak their commitments to one another, and then each party would walk through the broken sacrifices. As if to say, if I fail to live up to my part of this commitment to you, may what happened to these animals happen to me. Like that's how serious the covenant was.
The one with Abraham is amazing though. Because when you understand that background, then you read what happened, what it actually says is that when it came time to walk through, even though Abraham prepared everything, and they made their covenant, their commitment to one another, that God would bless Abraham and make him the father of many nations, and Abraham would keep all of his laws, and he would follow him all the days of his life, and that Abraham would, would have this, this great family. And would would know God and enjoy the promised land. When it came time to actually make the commitment, God put Abraham into a deep sleep. And Abraham fell asleep and God appeared as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. It's like a miniature version of what we saw in the wilderness of Sinai, with the pillar of fire and the pillar of smoke that led the people. And God appeared in these small forms. God Himself went through the sacrifices while Abraham was asleep, as if to say. If I break the covenant, may this happen to me. And if you break the covenant, Abraham, may this happen to me.
You see, God promises the blessings, and he takes on the curses himself, which we see. And if you're Christian, you probably are putting the picture, the pieces together. We see this culminated in Christ. When he bore the penalty for our sin, you see Christ, he didn't just hang on the cross to show us what love is, but he hung on the cross as someone who is bearing the curse of a covenant that had been broken. It all culminates into this. And so back to Nehemiah. They're reforming this covenant. The people of Nehemiah, Israel, over and over and over again broke the covenant with God. And as a consequence of their sin, they were sent into exile. They had to live an entire generation in Babylon and later Persia. And now they're coming back, they've rebuilt the wall, and this is like the first worship service in a very long time. It's, you know, people are finally able to worship safely here in Jerusalem.
And as they come back and they hear the word of God, and they're responding to God, they're making this covenant. They're writing it down, they're sealing it. It's an ancient form of signatures, basically. They're sealing it with their house's names. And before we look at the, what the covenant actually says, one thing I want you to notice is that this is a communal covenant. This is a communal covenant. Let's look at the scripture, verse 28, OK, where the names stop and we go into the, what actually is happening. The rest of the people, the ones not named here. The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles. I love that the nobles are included. They refused to stoop to serve the Lord earlier, and when they were rebuilding the wall, but now, here they are, ready to make the covenant. Join with their brothers, the noble, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe all of the commandments of the Lord are, our Lord and his rulers, and his rules and statutes.
And so, what I want you to notice, the first thing here, and the really important thing is that they were making this covenant communally. They're making it together with one another. American Christianity tends to be highly individualized. I think that American individualism has snuck into American Christianity, and I don't know if this is the way it is around the world. In fact, I would dare say that historically and globally, the church does not function in the same way that it does in America. In America, we come to church expecting religious goods and services, as if we are the consumers, looking for those things, that really our emphasis is on my relationship with Jesus and what the church has to provide to help my relationship with Jesus. There's aspects of that that are really good. I love that there is an individual responsibility to pursue God. Americanism is not all bad, but there is also an aspect where it becomes divorced from the good that can happen in a community.
And many of us, if you've been here for a little while and have enjoyed what that means to be a part of a community such as this, you know what that individualized Christianity is missing out on. Because it's so sweet to be a part of a community that's committed to Christ together. The reality is that 100 years ago, if you lived in a community, the best preaching you could find would probably be at the church around the corner, because it's the only preaching you could find. Today, in 2026, the best preaching that you can find is still at the church around the corner, OK, it's right here. It is probably online. You can find better preaching than what I have to offer online. That's what they tell me at least. You can find incredible music well mixed online. But you cannot find a group of people that can commit to live their lives for Christ together online, in the same way that you can at a church.
And so while we, I think we offer excellent music, I think we offer excellent religious goods and services here. Well, the best thing that we can offer is community. And beyond that, God Himself. That God dwells with the community, and that you can experience with power and grace, who he is, as we seek him together. I'm so glad to be a part of this community in that way.
So let's look at what they commit to do, OK? They make this commitment that they enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law. That was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and His rules and statutes. And so, basically, what they're committing to do is to keep God first in all things. That they were sent into exile because God was not first in everything that they did. They start to live for themselves, they start to live for their own wealth, for their own families, whatever it might be. And so here they're committing to keep God first, and they do it through a variety of different ways.
The summary of them all is that we will walk in God's law, and we will observe and do all the commandments of our Lord, our Lord, of the Lord, our Lord, and his rules and statutes. Basically they're saying we're gonna do everything you say. That's how we're going to keep you first. But then he does get a bit more specific. After that, we get some specific examples of ways that they are to keep God first. I'm just gonna highlight three of them for you very quickly as we move through this.
First one that is highlighted in the passage is they refuse intermarriage. Verse 30. We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land and take their daughters for our sons. Now the issue in Nehemiah 10, this can sound, when we read this in our modern ears, it can sound really, I don't know, xenophobic, like it can sound kind of racist as we as we read that and that's not the intention though because and it's very different in the church today because now the gospels for all peoples and so we can be the people of God in a multi-ethnic community and it's a beautiful thing. But in that day, every people group had their own God that they were worshiping. And Yahweh was the God of the Israelite people.
And so if they were to intermarry with people outside of Israel, those people came with their baggage and came with their own gods. And this is actually what set Israel up for the downfall that they did experience. When you go back and look, OK, where did the troubles start with Israel? What, what was the first episode that caused them to eventually go into exile? And then you go back and you find Well, some crazy stuff David did. And then you go to David's son. Who had even more wives than David did. And Solomon, he starts marrying all these foreign wives. And at the end of Solomon's life, what it actually says is that he starts to set up altars to gods that aren't Yahweh. You see, and this is the downfall. This is the beginning of it. After that, The kingdom divides, and there's just chaos. All the way until they're sent into exile. And so, here it's very important for us to see that the problem isn't ethnicity, it's worship. That God wanted his people to keep him first, and so they didn't want to bring in any other gods.
The second thing that we see them committing to is Sabbath, verse 31. And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy them. On the Sabbath, or on any holy day, and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and exact and the exaction of every debt. Keeping the Sabbath was another way to keep God first. It was their way of saying, I work 6 days, but I take 1 day off every week to remember that God is in charge. Because it would be so easy for them to be like all the other people and to work all the time. Dependent upon themselves, but to keep the Sabbath was a way that they set themselves apart as the people of God. So it was a way for them to keep God first.
And the third thing that we see them committing to do is by being generous, living generous lives of giving of the first fruit and giving of their tithes. Verse 32, we also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel. It doesn't sound very much, for, for the service of the house of our God. We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits, verse 35, we obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord. And then it goes on to talk about all the different first fruits, and it's not just like the fruits of the tree, but it's like cattle and wine and dough. I thought that one was funny, like it's really it would go bad at some point. But they're bringing back. They're bringing every person, whatever craft they did, were to bring the first fruits of it and to give it to the Lord.
And what are the first fruits? But the best part, it's not the leftovers. It's not the leftovers. Usually, when we give something away, it's out of our leftovers. But to these people to show their allegiance, to keep God first, they said, God gets the first, it's as if it was the first check written of the month. The people of God rededicated themselves to keep God first. I wanna be really careful and explicit here, this was not to earn God's love. This was a response to God, you see, they're already out of exile. This is a response to God bringing them out of exile, that they are now living their lives according to his promises.
So, for us today, what does this look like? What does it look like and how is it different? I think that we also need an opportunity to recommit, to commit or recommit ourselves to God, to keep God first. Remember, a covenant involves both the oath and the curse, if we break the oath. But for Christians today, we do understand that Christ has already borne the curse for us. And so while we might sin, and while there might be real consequences to our sin, to our covenant breaking, God Himself has already taken on those curses Himself.
I think the most helpful verse here is in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Isn't it beautiful when you think about all these aspects of covenant, it really makes it come alive, that Christ became a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Friends, he got the curse so that we get the blessing. It's a beautiful reality that your relationship with God is not dependent upon how well you keep your promises to God. That your promises to God will be broken, that you will be faithless at times. But it was through Christ who got the curse, so that we might get the blessing that he deserves. We get what he deserves, the eternal life that he earned on our behalf.
And as we think about covenant, I, I really kinda wanna end with this like application illustration. At the church, we have what we call a church covenant. And it doesn't include anything crazy inside the church covenant. It's really just what it means to live your faith out as, as Christians with one another. And if it's something that we teach on during the membership class, and if you're a member here, you're you're familiar with the covenant, what we actually do is we've we have this, this little book that I had someone write in calligraphy, our entire covenant on it. So all the commitments of what we will do and what God has done for us. And then as you become a member of the church, you, you sign this. I know that we haven't had this in the past couple of member meetings. I'm sorry, I forgot about it. so we're gonna bring out the book, next time we have a, a member meeting and you'll get a chance to sign it. Or if you're already a member and you haven't signed it, you can come look and make sure you haven't signed it, and then you can sign it today if you want, I'll leave it up here.
But I just wanna read it and remind us as members of the church or as people who are committed to Christ, there's no reason if you're not a member, you can't start to live these things out. We would love for you to become an official member, but these are all just things that you can, you can consider. And what I would encourage you to do, because there are a few, it is kind of long. I'm gonna put it on the screen. I would encourage you maybe just to, as you go through it, maybe just pick one or two and say that's one that I needed to be reminded of this morning, and I'm grateful for that. So Let me read this for us.
Believing that we've been brought by the grace of God to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been baptized upon our profession of faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, continuing to live by His grace, we joyfully covenant the following with each other.
- To work for the unity of the church by acting in love toward other members, by refusing to gossip, and by submitting to the leaders that God has given to the church, and we'll pray for the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
- To walk together in love and exercise a loving care and accountability over each other and faithfully encourage one another and correct one another as necessary.
- To not forsake the assembling of ourselves together nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others.
- To serve the ministry of the church and seek to be equipped for the service that God has for us.
- To, as we are blessed to be parents, endeavor to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by pure and loving example to seek the salvation of our family and friends.
- To rejoice in each other's happiness and to show compassion and sympathy in order to bear each other's burdens and sorrows.
- To seek to live carefully and wisely in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, and seeking to live a holy life.
- To work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in the church as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines.
- To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expense of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.
- And finally, to, as individual members, if and when we move from this place, transfer our membership to a like-minded church as soon as possible, where we will carry out the principles of God's word.
I know it's not the most thrilling reading, but I do hope that you might be reminded of some good ways that we have already committed ourselves. And as we leave from this place, I really want to encourage you to make one of, of two commitments today. And I do want everyone to, to make a commitment. And the, the first one is to commit yourself to the Lord for the first time. Maybe you've been around Christianity for a very long time, but you've never actually committed yourself to following Christ. He longs for you to do that. You can receive him as your savior today, you can receive him as the curse bearer for you today, and receive all the forgiveness that he has to offer. Or, and I know I kind of threw shade at the beginning, I think that it's helpful for all of us to view ourselves as constantly rededicating ourselves to God all the time. And of course sometimes that might come with more emotion, sometimes it might come with more ferocity, sometimes it might come with more substantial change in our lives. But I'm going to encourage you, no matter whatever that looks like for you today, to recommit, to recovenant, to rededicate yourself to God this morning.
Maybe you just need to say to God. I commit my life to you. That might just be all you need to say. I recommit my life to you. Maybe you just haven't spoken those words or you haven't spoken to God in a long time. And I just encourage you to say, I commit my life to you. Whatever you have for me, I receive. And then listen and here if he's calling you, what he's calling you to. I love, that I never quote Lord of the Rings, it's just too nerdy for me, but, to quote, I love it, but it's too nerdy to quote, but I'm gonna quote it today. At the council of Elrond, OK, they're leaving, and Gimli the dwarf, he says, a sworn word may strengthen a quakening heart. And I think that there's a lot of truth there, where they had just sworn to protect the ring, and they said that's, that's it becomes their true north. And for us today as Christians, to give our word once again to following God and all that it means. That a sworn word may strengthen a quaking heart.
And so church, I mean, let's take a moment to respond to God's word. I'm gonna invite you to pray with me as we seek the Lord together this morning before we move into a time of confession, so would you join me in prayer?
Father, we come to you today. And we ask that you would reassure us with the love and kindness of Christ. Perhaps there are some here today who've never truly put their faith in Jesus. They've been around Christianity, they've heard the gospel, they've never and trusted their life to Christ though. God, would you reveal yourself to them today? And would they say with me, God, I commit my life to you. Likewise, perhaps there's some who've been walking with Jesus for years, but they've drifted. There's areas of their lives where they've stopped trusting in God. They've stopped obeying him or stopped putting him first. Today also, God, would you reveal yourself to them? Would they say with me, God, I commit my life to you. And perhaps you've been, there's some here who've been treating their faith as a private relationship between them and God rather than giving themselves to the people of God. And so, Jesus, we pray that you would bring them into your body, that you would bring them into your church, and that they would say also, God, I commit myself to you. And perhaps there are some here who just feel all the weight of the waves that they've fallen short. The covenant that they failed to keep. The commitments that they've failed to hold true to. Would they receive your grace anew? Would you remind them of your love and compassion? You're slow to anger and abounding in goodness. Would they say with me, God, I commit my life to you.
Church, wherever you find yourself today, let's confess our need for God's grace together. Would you pray these things with me. Lord, we confess that we have not always been faithful to you. We have wandered from your ways, put other things before you, neglected the people you have called us to love. We've trusted in our own strength. and made promises we've not always kept. Forgive us our sin, renew our hearts, restore our faith, and teach us to walk faithfully with you and with one another. We ask this not because we deserve your mercy, but because of your great love for us in Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, hear the good news. That you are not loved based upon how well you keep the covenant. But based upon what Christ has done for you. Remember Galatians 3, that he redeemed us from the curse of the law. By becoming the curse for us so that we might receive the promised spirit. And today if you're committing yourself to God. You have the promised spirit. That the Holy Spirit lives within you, and he longs to help you to be faithful to the covenant that you've made with him.
And so each week, one of the ways that we respond to God is through a communion meal, and it's really a covenant renewal ceremony. That baptism is like the wedding, and this is like the, the renewal, the renewing of our vows each week. And if you are a Christian here today, we encourage you to come and receive this meal. To be renewed and be reminded of what Christ has done, that covenant that he's made, that his body was broken for you. If you're just need someone to pray with this morning. We'll have some prayer counselors in the back, you can pray with them before coming to receive this meal if you'd like, or anytime over the next couple of songs. If you're not a Christian here with us, we encourage you, to receive the good news of Jesus, to be made new again, and then you can take communion with us next week. If you're not a Christian, this, this meal is the only part of the worship service that we ask you not to participate in. You wouldn't be being true to yourself, nor to what God wants with this meal. And so with the meal, we recognize that Christ's body was broken for us, his blood was shed for us, and that he, he. On the night that he was betrayed, he instituted this meal saying do this remembrance of me. And so as we take of the elements, we're reminded of the covenant that he kept on our behalf. And so if you would, I, I invite you, if you are able to stand as we prepare our hearts to receive the communion meal.
God, as we come to your table, today we pray that you would renew us again. That you would give us a, a newfound commitment to follow after you and to do it together. God, we thank you for faithfully bearing the penalty for us of the our broken covenant. And God, as we commit ourselves to you again, we long to hear you. We long to be assured by you. God, we commit ourselves to you. God, I commit myself to you. Whatever you have is better than what I have. I will listen, I will listen to what you have for me. I will not act on my own anymore, but I will follow. I will seek you. I will ask. I will pray. I will trust. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.