Sermons from May 2022

Cleansing The Temple: Part 2

Revelation 2-3 contains seven letters to churches, five of which contained calls to repent. Most of them were compromised in faith and practice. Even a cursory reading of the epistles in the New Testament reveals that this is not uncommon. The last chapter of Nehemiah provides an example of just how quickly a community can slide into egregious error. Brown The concluding paragraphs of Nehemiah’s memoirs describe the reformation which took place under his vigorous leadership. Glaring sins had to be…

Cleansing The Temple- Part 1

One of the most frustrating things about watching movies today is wading through the plethora of options. The worst thing you can do is browse through the selection. The recommendations are all over the place. At least, they aren’t organized in a way that makes sense to me. I find movie selections based upon categories I have never shown an interest in. Obviously, they want me to watch something different.  Usually, I base my movie selections off an expert and…

Restoring The Tithe

After building the wall in Jerusalem and overseeing a revival among the people, Nehemiah returned to King Artaxerxes (Neh. 13:6). While away, people quickly lost the ability to maintain the work. Some failed to separate from foreigners (Neh. 13:1-3), going against their own vows (Neh. 9:2, 38). Eliashib, the high priest, made room in a large temple chamber for Tobiah, one of Nehemiah’s foremost enemies (Neh. 13:4-9). This minimized the importance of the tithe. While the swift religious and moral…

A Dedication To Celebrate

US: 40M adults (18.1%) suffer from anxiety disorder. 18M major depressive disorder. The first year of Covid increased prevalence of depression 25% worldwide. Barna (2011): Almost 1/5 young adults leave church because their faith isn’t helping them cope with depression or other emotional problems. If church is a refuge, it won’t ignore genuine emotional tensions or paper over them with platitudes. Remember how book began? Neh. 1:1-3 God raised up Nehemiah, supplied resources + volunteers to rebuild the wall > Revived interest…