How to Praise God for His Actions in the Past (Nehemiah 9:6-15)
Learning how to praise God is not the same as actually doing so. Teaching through this chapter—which contains one long prayer—is almost counter-intuitive. We run the risk of analyzing the passage as a model for prayer, and failing to actually pray it. What do you really want from this sermon? My guess is that you don’t need another tip or technique on prayer. If you do, you can watch this video I gave on “How to Pray to God” a…
How To Give Praise To The Lord Your God With Fellow Believers.
The Levites encouraged the Israelites to give praise. Specifically, they said to “stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting” (Neh 9:5). It was the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month, two days after the Feast of Booths. It was a day with nothing on the calendar. But they gathered, of their own accord, in order to confess “their sins and the iniquities of their fathers” (Neh 9:2). They spent three hours reading from the Law…
The Surprising Need For Every Believer To Learn How To Confess Sin With Others
Learning how to confess sin to other believers is not a concept we enjoy talking about. Most of us would like to remain silent about our struggles. Sharing our sin, even with our closest family and friends makes us feel more vulnerable than we would like. Is authenticity overrated? Authenticity has become all the buzz within the Christian community. It is reflected in our obsession with personality tests and vulnerability. We are deeply interested in knowing and being our true selves. We even see…
The Marvelous Joy of Obeying God’s Law in Every Situation (Neh. 8:13-18)
It may sound paradoxical to find joy in obeying, but that is the encouragement we find in God’s Word time and time again. “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim . . . of human existence.” Aristotle That’s partially true. However, the Bible clarifies that lasting happiness is the result of living according to God’s will (1 Jn 1:3-4). That doesn’t mean we can be free of all suffering as long as we’re obedient to…
Biblical Sexuality and the Call for a Bold Response (Genesis 1-2; Romans 1)
I mentioned what others have said about Biblical Sexuality Sermon Sunday in a previous post. The church leadership thought it was important to address the issue of biblical sexuality not only for the cultural moment that Canada is facing at the moment, but also because of the matters we are dealing with in our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. In 2006, a case regarding the clash between sexual and religious freedom came before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court…
How to Receive Gladness For Sorrow in a Worship Service (Nehemiah 8:9-12)
Americans have never been unhappier and the worship service in America has never been emptier. A survey conducted in May of 2020 found that just 14% of American adults considered themselves “very happy”. They have conducted this survey since 1972. In the past 50 years the percentage of people who rated themselves “very happy” had never dropped below 29%. We all experience seasons of unhappiness. Stress can creep into our lives slowly, or broadside us like a freight train. We…
3 Important Aspects of Preaching God’s Word to His People (Nehemiah 8:1-8)
In the 16th Century, Elizabethan England had such a reputation for revering the Bible, and the Preaching of God’s Word, that French author Victor Hugo said, “England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare but the Bible made England.” Regarding the Pilgrims who arrived in North America in 1620, Daniel Webster writes, “The Bible came with them, and it is not to be doubted that to the free and universal reading of the Bible is to be…
Song Of Simeon
Christmas builds up a great amount of anticipation, and sometimes it ends in disappointment. We set our expectations on certain things only to find that what we got was not as nice as we envisioned. We all know what it is like to wait for something that fails to live up to our expectation. Or, we immediately desire something else that makes the previous object less satisfying. This happens a lot with goal setting. The reward for reaching a goal…
Angels, From The Realms Of Glory
I just finished an excellent book, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, by Tony Rienke (2017). He opens his conclusion with the following, familiar routine. Today, tired after work, I opened Facebook on my phone, looking for a diversion. I flicked past a video of a cat that sounds like a crying child; then I saw a new study about gun control; then I saw an innovative new keyboard for tablets; then I read a story from the latest celebrity gossip;…
Once In Royal David’s City
The New Testament begins after 400 years of silence. It would have been a time when the church was asking: Where is God? It also begins during a historically significant time in Roman history. Rome had been entrenched in centuries of warfare and imperial expansion until Caesar Augustus ushered in 200 years of peace, known as the Pax Romana. The people were asking: Who needs God? In light of history, we are insignificant and powerless, yet we remain full of self-sufficient pride. God…