07 Faithless People, Faithful God: What Nehemiah Teaches About Hope (Nehemiah 9)

Speaker: Thank you for joining us for the Wednesday and the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. We're continuing our series on the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah today. We'll be looking at chapter nine. This is the seventh talk in our series, and you can find lecture notes and links to everything mentioned in the talk by going to our website, wednesdayintheword.com slash Nehemiah 7. Thank you for joining us. Krisan Marotta: We're in Nehemiah chapter 9, and this chapter is the whole reason I wanted to teach the book. It is my favorite. Uh well, I've said that before, but this is my really big favorite of the book. I love the prayer in here, and I hope by the end you'll see why. It's let me just review where we are to set the stage for you. We are at the point where Nehemiah has come back to Jerusalem, they've rebuilt the walls, they've finished this huge task, they've gone from being a people who are brokenhearted and kind of shattered and lost to people who want to know their God. And so we saw last week that there was this huge revival where they ask Ezra to please teach them the law, teach them the book, and um and there's that goes on for about, oh I've forgotten, seven or eight days, and then they celebrate the feasts of Booths. And then we get to chapter 9, which is basically a response to all that, and it's a prayer. And it's the longest prayer in the Bible outside of the Psalms. Bet you didn't know that. Um why am I looking at chapter 8 in my notes? Okay. Oh no, I see. All right. Um let's see. Let me get organized here. So in many ways, chapter 8 was the high point of the book, and there are some scholars that say it's the high point in uh the history of Israel. That this is the one time we see in the Bible where it's as if all the people as one say, we want to know our God. And it's kind of summed up in chapter 8, 12 with then all the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. So there's this great revival of joy. They understand the law and understand who they are and their history. And then in 17817, the whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them from the days of Joshua, son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this, and their joy was very great. And I think they celebrated it like this is a reference to with that great passion and joy. So you get this great God has used them to accomplish this great task. They are excited, they want to know him, they learn about him, they respond with weeping and mourning over their sinfulness, and they are taught the law, and that results in, or the the words of God, and that responds and results in this great praise and celebration. And now the feast and the celebration are over. The feast ended on the 22nd day of the month, and then chapter 9 tells us that we're now on the 24th day of the month. So this is just a couple of days later. So the question is, what usually happens after you have a mountaintop experience? You have a valley. And that tends to be the case. We we have this great um spontaneous kind of desire and outpouring to know God, and then what happens afterwards is usually some hardship, some trial. So, and we see that over and over. If we look at the revival in Pentecost, for example, we're gonna see in our Sunday mornings fairly shortly after, there's some uh bad attitudes and selfishness. Same city, same walls later on. The disciples who are at the Mount of Transfiguration, they see the glory of the Lord and they say, Oh, we've got to stay here, let's build booths here, let's commemorate this forever. And when they leave, they um they find a boy with a demonic presence and disciples who are arguing among themselves. So you've got this mountaintop, this valley. Umes in the Bible is on Mount Carmel when Elijah uh challenges the prophets of Baal. You probably remember this story, and he's he builds an offering, and the prophets of Baal build an offering, and he challenges them who can get their God to accept the offering, and he gives them days and days to dance and sing and whatever, and then of course nothing happens. And then he says, Okay, my turn, and they drench his with water, so there's no way it will ever burn, uh, and they soak it through, and what happens? God comes down. He basically walks up and says, Lord, answer my prayer, and God comes down and burns up not only the offering, but the stone altar as well. So you have this great show of God's glory, and they'd had a drought for like eight years, and the drought ends, and okay, what happens next? You'd expect some great revival, all but instead of all the people rallying around Elijah, um, they rally behind the evil king Ahab and Jezebel, and we find Elijah fleeing for his life. And it ends with him, you know, under a juniper tree saying, God, take me now. I'm the only one left. So you have this great mountaintop, and then you have a valley. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna we um Nehemiah's people have learned something. They have read through the stories and learned the law, and they've seen this, and the concern of chapter 9 is okay, God, we've had this mountaintop, we know the valley's coming, get us through. And that's really what the prayer is about. So, what they expect is sin and struggles and um problems, and that's they respond to that, to this with a prayer to God to say, get us through that. Okay. So let's look at um the first three verses. Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads, and the Israelites separated themselves from all the foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, which was about three hours. And for another quarter of it they made a confession and worshiped the Lord their God, so for another three hours. And then there's a list of names who were of the people and the priests who were with them. And in verse 5, then the Levites said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. And it goes into the prayer. Just a note about that the separation from the foreigners is not an arrogance, it's not a racial divide, it's a symbol of their dedication to be God's people. So it's it's part of their rituals of making themselves clean. So notice the shift in tone here. In chapter 8, we have this joyful, great celebration and feasting, and now we begin chapter 9 with a formal description of mourning, of people standing fasting with sackcloth in sackcloth and with dirt on their heads. And the key theme of this prayer, I think, is that they confess their sins, and not only their own, but the wickedness of their fathers. So you see in verse 2, they stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. And they're acknowledging before God that the problem is not just that I'm sinful, but that I come from a long line of sinful people. And the problems we face are deep and abiding. Um, they're in our history, they're in our past, they're in all the people that went before them. And if you summarize this prayer, I think in some ways, if you skip down to 9 34, our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our fathers did not follow your law, they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom enjoying your great goodness to them and the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. That's really the essence of the prayer. They're confessing that we're sinful. And if every generation before us was sinful, why do we think we're going to be different? And that's what the that's the essence of the prayer. And that's something to think about because I think secretly we all kind of think that we're the ones that are gonna get it right. You know, we're we're the one church that is not gonna have a split or a problem or a disagreement or something, or we're the one, you know, Bible study that will never um offend anyone, or we're um, you know, the one uh group that will somehow, this time we're gonna get it right. And what they have done from reading all this time of reading God's Word is said, our kings, our leaders, our priests, our fathers, everyone who came before us turned away from you. We're not gonna be any different. Lord help us, get it get us through that. So these are the genes we have, these are the lines, the attitudes. Uh, we're prone to wonder, we fall into the same ditch over and over again, and um get us through. And if think about that, how many of you haven't made a vow at some time or another, this time I'm gonna do better? You know, this time I'm gonna resist that temptation. I'm gonna be nicer to my husband, or I'm not gonna get angry with my children, or this time I'm gonna be gracious to my boss who's driving me crazy, or you know, this time I um I'll be a servant at the office, and I won't care if I get the credit for what I've done, or I'll be more patient with my students, or this time, you know, I'll I'll learn to keep my mouth shut and not respond, I'll listen better. Um this time it's gonna be different. And the essence of this prayer is how do I know? They go back to their fathers, their forefathers, the generations before them, and saying, My weaknesses are powerful, the sins are great, um, and what what makes me think I can get through the next time? So we have these transforming moments, and then we're it's followed by this valley. There's still another day that we have to face, another obstacle in our path. So that's the essence of the prayer, and it's really how do we get through the valley? So we've been to the mountaintop, now the valley's coming, how do we get through? There's a couple different ways to organize it and outline it. I'm not going to read the whole thing so much as summarize it. So let me, this is the scheme that I found most helpful. The first section of the prayer, I think, is verses 6 through 15. And in that section, the focus is on God as creator as Savior. So the history that's retold in this section covers the creation, the calling of Abraham through the redemption and slavery in Egypt. So the prayer, it's an interesting prayer because it's not terribly, the language isn't terribly poetic or powerful. Um, it's not all that emotional. It's basically a retelling of history, but the content is powerful. So in the first section, verses six through fifteen, I think the key phrase is uh repeated at the beginning. You alone are the Lord. It's in verse six and again in verse seven, you are the Lord, the God. You alone are the Lord, I think is in uh the NASP. The other one is you are the Lord, you alone. Same idea. And if you skim through that section, notice there's a grammatical feature where he keeps repeating you, speaking of God. So it's you made, you knew, you made known, you gave life, you divided the heavens, you brought forth, you saw, you led, you told, you heard, you came, you sent, you gave, and over and over in that section the focus is on this is what God did for us. So if you just look through, kind of scan through, I had overheads, which you won't be able to see, except maybe the colors, but that's all the you's the you gave, you made, you found, you sent, you hurled, you led. So the focus is on you alone are the Lord God, you're a creator, a generous God, and this is what you did for us. So in verse 6, you alone are the Lord, you made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all the story host, and the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them, you gave life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you, you alone. You are the Lord God. So then we get from verse 16 to 25 is the next section, and here the focus of the history being retold is the wandering in the wilderness and the conquering of the promised land. So if the first section was God as creator and God as Savior, this section focuses on God being generous and patient. I think the key phrase is in verse 17. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. And then this phrase, but you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them. That's the key phrase. You are a forgiving God. You are compassionate, generous, gracious, slow to anger. And now, what no, if you went through this with the gram grammatically, they it changes. Now, in addition to the you gave and you did, we see a they in here. So they refused to listen and failed to remember, but you are a forgiving God. They committed awful blasphemies, but you did not abandon them. So you still see the you gave, you made, you um, you sustained, you brought, and in addition to what God did, we now see you did not. So that it becomes important not only what God did, but what he did not do. He did not abandon them, he did not forsake them, he refrained from anger. So you have the addition of not only what God did, what they did, meaning their forefathers, and then what God did not do in response. So they're emphasizing that God is gracious and generous and patient. So the first section, so that's the second section, 16 through 25, and then the third section is 26 through 31, and here the focus is on God's warning and disciplining, rescuing his people. So now the history they're focusing on is the judges, the monarchy, and the exile. So they've kind of gone through, they started with creation and the calling of Abraham and the Exodus, then the section section, I can say that, is wandering in the wilderness. And now we've moved into the period the period of history that is the judges, the monarchy, and the exile. And I think the key verse there is verse 28. But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of your enemies so that they ruled over them, and when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time. So what we see is a cycle in this section where they pray about they were disobedient, you handed them over to their enemies, they cried out to you, and you rescued them. And you see that cycle over and over. They turned around and started their rebellion all over again. So you warned, but they sinned. You were patient, but they paid no attention, they refused to listen, they failed to remember, you handed them over, they then cried out to you, and then we start the cycle all over again of them sinning. Concluding with verse 31, but in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. So even though you get this cycle of rebellion, discipline, repentance, and God answering that and bringing them back, and then it repeats rebellion, repent, uh, discipline, repentance, and God bringing them back, the conclusion is you will never abandon them. You will never totally forsake them. Okay, and then the final section uh starts is 32 to 37, and this is their conclusion, or kind of a summary. And if you were going to sum up the whole, you could sum up the whole prayer this way, and it's I think that's what he's meant to do in this section, and that is God is faithful, but we are faithless. So we have a faithless people, but we have a faithful God. So note verse let's just read that section. Now therefore, well, let me switch versions here. Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your peoples since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly. I think there's the main theme. God is faithful, we were not. And everything that happened, everything that we went through, we acted wickedly, but God was faithful. Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them, even in their own kingdom, enjoying your great goodness that you gave them, and in the land large and rich land that you set before them. They did not serve you or turned from their wicked work. Behold, we are slaves this day, and the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Behold, we are slaves, and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have sent over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. So the conclusion is over and over throughout history, we rebelled and God rescued us. We rebel and God rescues us. We turn our backs on his commandments, he disciplines us, and then calls us back to him. And the people conclude at the end of this, we are where we are because we're sinful. So here we are back in the land that you promised us, back in the land you gave us, only this time we're slaves to a Persian king. And it's our fault. The blessings that you gave us go to this, you know, the taxes and the produce of the land go to this heathen king because we sinned. So, what are we supposed to learn from this? Is this just a history lesson? Is this a you're kind of some of you probably go, yeah, I've been there. We know that that cycle. So, what can we learn and why that why do they pray this? I think the first thing to learn is this is a prayer. And that's an important lesson right there because the question is, when you get to that next time I'm going to be different, and you're not, who do you turn to? Do you turn back on yourself in despair or do you turn to God in hope? And that's the right answer. And that's what these people are doing. It's important to realize that their response to this cycle is not, okay, I'm gonna try harder and I'm gonna, you know, get myself all together and I'm gonna, you know, wind myself up tight and really do it myself. Their response is, Lord, if we're going to be saved from this cycle, you're going to have to save us. And that's the first step. So when you recognize how easily do I fall back into the same sins or the same patterns, do I try to fix myself and then show God how good I did? Or do I turn to Him and say, Lord, here I am, praying the same prayer again, confessing the same sin again, uh, and I'm turning to you because you're my only hope. And that's, I think, the first lesson to learn. When you hit that valley, turn back to God. Don't give up in despair or uh disillusionment. Don't turn to yourself to try harder because that will only lead to more failure. Instead, turn to God in prayer. I think the second thing to learn from this is God is not to blame for our struggles with sin. I think that comes through, especially in the first section of the prayer, that wherever we are in whatever situations we're facing, or in the case of Nehemiah's people, here they are in the promised land, but they're slaves to a heathen king, God is not to blame for that. It is not a failure of his power or his love or his compassion or his character. It is because we are a sinful people. So notice how it starts in verse 5: Stand up and praise the Lord your God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and their story hosts, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them, you give life to everything, and the multitudes worship you. So this prayer starts with creation, with the beginning of everything, and saying, God's power is absolute, he has no weakness, he doesn't wear out, he has no shortcomings, he doesn't grow weary, he doesn't get distracted, and all through that section where we're told God made, God knew, uh, God gave life, God brought, God saw. The whole point is God keeps. His promises because he is a righteous God. So the fault is not with God. The fault is not with his power. Whatever difficulties we face, whatever crisis, whatever tragedy, danger, disappointments, the fault is not, and somehow our God has let us down. The fault is we're broken people in a broken world. And God has not yet solved that problem. He has not yet made it right, but he will. So the first lesson to learn is no matter what, turn to God. No matter how deep the valley is or how overwhelming the situation, the right answer is to turn back to God. The second one is he is not to blame. The third one is he is attentive and he cares. So it's not just that he's this powerful God who is without fault. He is a loving God who cares deeply about what happens. And I think that's the comes out of the second section when they're covering the history of the Exodus and the conquest. So that's the section where the you's begin to alternate with, but they and then, and you did not. So what you're seeing is God's character revealed there. Not only is he powerful, he cares and he's attentive, and he refrains from wrath and he refrains from judgment. He's the giver of life and he cares. So 9.9, you saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt, you heard their cry at the Red Sea. 9.15, in their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn. The idea is he's caring for them, he's meeting their needs, he's hearing their cries, he's hearing their compass their grief, and responding with compassion. Then after the people sin, uh this is 919, because of your great compassion, you did not abandon them in the desert. God is caring, attentive, he pays attention. Um then, by day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, or the nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on them the way they were to take. You gave your good spirit to instruct them, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the desert, they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, nor their feet become swollen. So even when the people sin and they make the golden calf and they commit these great blasphemies, and they were faithless, God is faithful. And for forty years, as they repeat this cycle in the desert, God was attentive to the details of their lives so that their feet didn't swell, their clothes didn't wear out, they never missed a meal, they were never without water, and God was guiding them every step of the way. And the point of that is God is not distant. He's a caring, loving, attentive, involved God. And even when we sin, he stays attentive, involved, and compassionate. So, first lesson, always turn to God, not away from him, no matter what. Second, God is not to blame for our struggles with sin. And third, he is attentive and he cares. He is not an uninvolved watchmaker who started the watch running and then left. He is a God who loves us down to the greatest detail. So the fourth lesson then is he's patient. And that comes out of the next section, this long history that starts in 26 and goes through 31 about the judges and the and the monarchy and the prophets. Um here the frequently repeated phrase is God has compassion or God is patient. So look at 927. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. And then 28, and when they cried out again to you, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time. Verse 30, for many years you were patient with them. Verse 31, but in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. So over and over you see the people fail. God disciplines them, but he brings them back. So the the essence of that section of the prayer is we failed, but you are so compassionate and merciful that even in our rebellion you did not abandon us, you brought us back. Um we are cold, but God is loving. We turn away, but God does not. And the point is, God is patient with us. So we get to those valleys and we think, oh, I brought this on myself, I was thoughtless, or I was selfish, or I, you know, I said what I ought not to have said and didn't say the things I should have said, and it's all my fault, it's not God's fault, but he does not give up on us. It is not a failure of his power or his character or his patience. It is there's nothing in him that accounts for our problems, and the confession of this prayer is we did it to ourselves, we fall into the same ditch of sin over and over. We turn away because we are people who are prone to turn away. We are the kind of people who rebel, but in all of that, God will not abandon us. So in 33, and all that has happened to us, you have been just, you have acted faithfully while we did what was wrong. And if you notice one more thing that's striking through here is the pattern that's repeated over and over is they refuse to listen and they fail to remember. Those phrases come up a lot. In 16, but they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey, or literally, they did not listen to your commands. They refused to listen and they failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. And then in twenty-six, but they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They put the law behind your backs, so they failed to listen again. They killed your prophets who abandoned who admonished them in order to turn them back to you. They committed awful blasphemies. And twenty-nine, you warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed, literally, did not listen to your commands. They sinned against you in your ordinance by which a man will live in if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked, and refused to listen. So why do we keep sinning? In essence, our problem is a problem of refusal. We refuse to listen to God, refuse to acknowledge his law and what he thinks is right. And um, when I first read that, I thought, great, now I know the answer. Next time, I'm gonna listen and remember. Right? Next time I'm gonna do it. And I'm writing this in my notes, and all of a sudden, hold it. The whole essence of this prayer is next time, if God doesn't save me, I'm not going to be saved. So, if all of you just wrote down, okay, listen and remember, that's the key. That is part of it, but ultimately it comes from God giving us there. I thought that was greatly ironic. Okay, now I have the two steps to avoid sin. Next time, I'm gonna do it right. Not likely. Um, but think about that. Well, only unless God saves me, and we do make progress. Um, but think about what's behind that. Refusing to listen and failing to remember. We have to know the law to remember to listen to it. So if we don't come to the Bible, if we don't come to his word, if we don't sit at his feet and read the book he's written, we aren't going to be able to remember it. So that's the first choice, to get involved with the Bible, to learn what he said, what he did, how he acted in history, and what he's done for us. And the second choice is remembering it. And that's that's kind of interesting. If you think about when we look back on our life, do we focus on the things that we didn't get or the things we did get? You know, do we look at the times where we complain about how God treated someone else differently than he treated us? They got, you know, the compliant children and I got the wild children, you know, or or they got the great husband who makes a million dollars a week and I didn't, or, you know, I mean, we we look around and we compare, we say, well, that person got a better deal of the cards than I got. Why is God treating me like this? How can he let me be in this situation? And we begin to think about uh what we didn't get as opposed to the blessings that we did get, or we doubt him when he doesn't respond in the way we think he uh he ought to. Um and it's easy to turn into uh kind of this litany of complaints or turn our prayers into you know a complaint of kind of a whininess of God, why don't aren't you doing things the way I want you to do them? And in the process, I think we throw away a lot of the good he's given us, longing for what isn't. So instead, we ought to seek to pray to be the kind of people that dwell on the good things, what we have to be thankful for, the kindness that he's shown us, the good news that Jesus died for us, the moments he gives us where we see him as he is, or we see his hand behind the curtain in the way he's orchestrating events, um, the insight, the wisdom, the simple times where he's used us in situations we never expected to be used, or the one the time that we don't fall into the sin that we so often fall into. Or even being part of the community we have, or the friendships, the networks, the people he's put in our lives, the beauty that surrounds us, you know, the education or the challenges that he's brought us through. If you stop to think about all the things we have to be thankful for, it puts in perspective the things that we don't have. So that's the listen and remember. And the second phrase that's repeated through here is arrogance. They ref not only do they refuse to listen, they refuse to be humble. You see, in 916 they became arrogant and stiff-necked. In 17, they became stick stiff-necked. And 26, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and put their your law behind their backs. And 29, they became arrogant. They even they turned their backs on you and became stiff-necked again. So you have this lack of gratitude coupled with defiance of knowing what God wants and deliberately turning and walking away. So God makes it clear this is how we ought to live, and we say, no, I don't want to live that way, I want to live my way, and we turn away. And if you think about that, that's kind of covers the span of our life. You know, I was this struck me. Children, you know, they're born so cute and cuddly, and they get cuter, you know, and then and then they start toddling and learning to walk, and what's the first thing they say? No. You know, you you hit those terrible twos, and suddenly it's no, I'm putting mom and dad's law behind my back. I don't care what mom and dad want, I'm willing to do things my way. And then we you somehow we survived the toddler years, and you get to the teenage years where where that rebellion comes right back again, and it's just like toddlers, only now they can argue with you, and you can't pick them up and carry them out of the room. So, you know, teenagers tend to take all their parents' values and you know and toss them behind their backs. And but it's not just kids, you know. Then we get to adults, we get to our midlife crisis, and suddenly it's uh I know better, but so what? I've earned it, I deserve this. I I am who I am now, and I'm gonna buy that red sports car or whatever, and and do uh um what I want to do because I've I've served everybody else for so long now, I'm gonna do what I want to do. So you hit that midlife crisis and you throw away what you know to be true, you put it behind your back. And even seniors are not exempt from this. Have you probably run into some people who've reached a certain age where they think they have the right to say whatever they want. Whenever they want to say it, because they've earned it. They're old enough, and you know, maybe they know better, but they those kind of social conventions and courtesy um go out the window. I've lived this long, so I can say what I want. I made it this far, and I'm gonna tell you what I think. So um, you know, I look at that and I think, well, I made it through the the toddlers and the teenage years, but I've still got the midlife crisis and the uh old age to get through. But not obviously not everyone rebels in the same way, but what I want you to see is this pattern is consistent that over and over again we know what we ought to know better, we seem to know better, and we do it anyway. So, and then of course we reap what we sow, there are consequences. And this prayer is a painful acknowledgement that we sin because we are these kind of people. But it's not a prayer of self-pity because it's coupled with the awareness of their sin is coupled with this knowledge of who is God. God is faithful, God is compassionate, God is kind, God is generous. So they're not trapped in the despair of sin because they know that there's a loving and merciful God who has promised to solve that very problem. So that's the key. You don't want to, you've got to keep both things in view. So acknowledge, yes, we're sinful, we are no different than our ancestors who sinned before us, but we have the same God they have who loves us and gets us through. All right. So what where does that leave us? Um one thing I think to come away from this is why should we imagine that we're gonna be any different? You know, that our generation, are we gonna be the one generation who gets it right? And um we should expect to have our own history of good intentions followed by failure. Um and if we're honest, we can only end up saying, yep, we're gonna probably hit that mountaintop and then hit that valley. So as a church, it's something to think about. We we shouldn't expect that we're gonna be the one church that will never have a problem, you know, that we will be the one church that never has a doctrinal dispute or uh or somebody does something publicly, you know, embarrassingly or sinful that that becomes a big event in the church. It will probably happen. And when it happens, we know we're sinful people, but we have a faithful God. That whoever and whatever the situation is, some people will be wrong, some people may be right, but God will redeem it in any case, and He will get us through. And we ought to be gracious with each other. Uh in relationships, your best friend will probably disappoint you at some point. Uh you will disappoint them at some point, and we shouldn't kid ourselves that we're going to be the one person who will never say the thoughtless thing, or will never neglect to do the thing that we ought to have done. So if we're honest, we ought to say, yes, I'm sinful. Um I fail to listen to your law, I fail to remember it, I become arrogant, um, I put that put it behind my back. But instead of saying, next time I'll do better, Lord, watch me, we say, Lord, make me the kind of person who next time will do better. I trust you that in your way and in your timing you will get me to to the inheritance that you've promised. So the question is, you know, what makes us think we're different? Do we think we're the one person in history that God is finally, you know, going to give it right all the time, or the one church that's finally going to never leave their first love or never stumble and fall, or the one generation that's gonna overcome sin. So that's the critical question. How what makes us think we're different? And if we if we run, yes, we are different, then you should see me after this talk. We have to talk some more. If the answer to that question is no, I'm just like that, I might as well give up, then you've missed the other half of the prayer. Because the other half of the prayer is who is your God? We're not in this jam because of anything God did. In fact, he's promised to get us out of it. That's the whole point of the gospel. That he is compassionate, he will never forsake us, he will send us a deliverer, and he did. He sent someone to pay the problem for our sins so that the problem could ultimately, finally, once and for all, be solved. It won't be solved this side of heaven, but it will be solved. That's our hope in the inheritance of his kingdom, that's our hope is his children. So who do you turn to when you hit that valley or you hit that low point? You don't turn to despair. Turn to your God who loves you and cares for you, who will never abandon you, who did not abandon your forefathers and will not abandon you. I think that's the response this prayer is hoping for. Remember how it started. Stand up and praise the Lord your God who is from everlasting to everlasting. You alone are the Lord. I think that's the response they're hoping for with this prayer. That yes, we're a sinful people, but we have a faithful God. All right. So this message would be um it would be very different, it would be very distressing if the whole point is we acted wickedly and now we're stuck. Um but that's not really the point. The point is, yes, we acted wickedly, yes, we rebelled, we are likely to rebel again, but God is faithful, he listens, he cares, and he's on our side. So we are a faithless people, but we have a faithful God, and therein is our hope. Not um, you know, some kind of 12-step program or you know, seven tricks of revival. Our hope is in the living God. And the response I think that he wants from this is stand up and praise the Lord your God because he solved this problem. He's the one who can get you out, and he's promised to get you out. So it's really good news. It's not, okay, um, he's not waiting for you to measure up, you know. Well, you've got to get to a certain level and then I'll forgive you, or you've got to, you know, kind of pull yourself up to your knees or your to your to your standing, and then I'll bless you. It's not, no, he's waiting for you to be perfect. He's not even waiting for like a sincere good faith effort. He knows you're sinful, he knows you'll fail, he loves you anyway, he wants you to come to him, and he's already solved the problem. So, faithful, we are a faithless people, but we have a faithful God. Oh, good, right on time. So, next week, what do they do? They make a vow. I have to tell you that we're gonna talk about it next week. It's the hardest section of the book for me. I got to that and I thought, how could they pray this prayer and turn around and say, okay, I promise not to sin, Lord. And that's what they do, so have fun studying it. We'll talk about it next week. It's really, it's an interesting, um, interesting section. Let me um let me just pray. Father, we just thank you that you are a God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may be it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. And we pray that you would help us learn that lesson, that even in the pits of our deepest, darkest despair, we would turn to you and know that you are a loving and compassionate God, and that we are tempted to think we have it all together, that we would remember that you the gifts we have are from your hand. And we're tempted to think that we're the one person who can do better next time apart from you, that we will remember that it all comes from your hand. In Jesus' name. Amen.