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We pray this teaching blesses you and trust God will reveal
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find out more about Omega, get to our website or Facebook page
through the links below. Kingdom of God is within me.
Now, anybody believes it, shout it out this time.
Kingdom of God is within me. Amen.
So that's an awesome truth.
I'm telling you the day by day, as I study the word, the more
and more I become aware that the Kingdom, Kingdom of God is
within us. It just, it just grows.
The sense sense grows within us. You know, that Kingdom of God is
within us. So now we are coming to chapter
13, the end of the book of Nehemiah.
It is a long journey we have done.
Yeah. Feel free to communicate with us
if you enjoyed this study with me.
And yeah, we have camp next week and then the following week we
will start something new, Oregon, a new series of certain
talks. We will look at it and the very
first thing that you see here is again for 1/3 time you see that
they are reading from the book. On that day.
The book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people,
and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite
should ever be admitted into the Assembly of God.
Now what, what, what did they read?
They read from Moses. So what portion they must be
reading, it must be from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 23.
So in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 23, we see verses 3 to
6, when they were coming out of Egypt, when they were coming
through the land, they came up to the border of Moabites, and
they sent a delegation to the king saying, please allow us to
go through your territory. We will not move out of the way,
we won't swore or we won't go into your fields.
We won't touch anything. Just allow us to pass through.
So it will be quicker for us to go to the promised land which
God has promised us. And they said no, you cannot
pass through our country. They came with their army and
tried to, they entered into a war.
And before that, before that, Balak, King Balak, what he did,
he hired a guy called Balaam who was a prophet, and he said, come
and curse these people for me so that he can win the war.
So these people are all scattered in the wilderness.
And he says, come, take a position on the mountain from
here, look down on them and cast a spell.
And when he came there, God said, no, these people are
blessed, you are not going to curse them.
So he blessed them, and he actually brings lots of oxen
and, you know, animals for sacrifice just to be able to
hear what God wants to say. And then he wanted to put a
curse. But every time we tried, every
time we repulsed, and he ended up blessing the people of God.
How can I curse those who God has blessed?
That's what Bailam says. So because of that God said you
are not they when you enter into a promised land and when you
build that temple for me and a Tabernacle for me.
No Ammonite, no Moabite will ever enter into the temple probe
precincts or the presence of the temple up till 10th generation.
What does this mean? After 10th generation they can
come in. It doesn't mean that just a
Hebrew word saying never ever will they step into the court,
my courts. So because of they so
purposefully with an evil intention to attack the people
of God, they have come out and stopped them and didn't want to
help them and they wanted to curse them.
God said, OK, if that's your attitude when my house is built,
you will never ever enter that place anytime at all.
Does it make sense? You understand what I'm trying
to say here, But you know when I use the word but it means
something different, isn't it? Look at the life of Ruth.
Who was she? Moabite.
Did he bless her? He did.
So our God is a God of mercy. Our God is a good God, but those
who approach him with humility, those who approach him with
purity of heart, whether you are more white, Ammonite, who you
are does not matter. You are black or white, it does
not matter. He will receive you.
That's why you see in the New Testament, he does not.
Whoever comes to him in no why he will cast them out.
No voice. That's King James.
That's what I remember it in. No way He is going to reject you
if you come to Him. That wall of separation is
broken down by Jesus, Jew and Gentile wall is broken down.
Now everybody is open to come into the presence of God and
enjoy fellowship with God. That is a beautiful mystery
which God had made. It gave a revelation to Paul so
he could put it down in writing and preach and teach and bring a
great revival during the time of during his life.
So, so many Gentiles turned to God because the refused, the
Jewish people refused to believe in Jesus.
So he went to the Gentiles and they came in and we are all part
of that big harvest. Is there something we can shout
Hallelujah about so we praise God because they refuse the
gospel. It has come to us.
That's that is how Paul says its a mystery.
Will Israel be lost forever? Romans Chapter 11 he says no
they are not going to be lost forever.
A time is coming with they are going to be saved.
Their hearts have been hardened so that we may receive the
salvation. So if we all, all the Gentiles
are reached with the gospel, then the turn comes to Jewish
people and when they believe in and then he is going, Lord Jesus
will come back again. And then you see here they did
not meet. Basically they are cousins who
are the Moabites and Ammonites. They are cousins, Abrahams
brothers son Lot and when he was brought out from Sodom and
Gomorrah one of the things the Angel of God tells them is don't
turn back and look you are not supposed to even look back and
Lords wife look back and turn it a pillar of salt.
And then they went into a cave to escape and in that cave as I
were living the two daughters, they said there's no man here
for us to have children. So they made his father drunk
and then they had both of them had a son each and we have got
the Moab and Amon their children have become more abortion
ammonites. So they are basically cousins.
They should have said when they are coming out, hey you are our
brothers come on go through our line.
Instead they came to fight. So God says OK up to 10th
generation you will not enter my temple.
Now what is the problem here is these people don't have a right
to enter the temple. But what is happening here, you
see here is when the people heard this law, sorry, reading
of the law has brought a change. What?
What change it brought when they heard it when when the people
heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who are of
foreign descent. So there is a purification of
the race happening again. They got mixed up before you
understand this. Chapter 13, verses 1 to 3, you
have to look at verse 6 where it says but while all this was
going on, I was not in Jerusalem.
So for a while Nehemiah left Jerusalem and went back to serve
the king. Maybe 2 years, four years, we
don't know, but he went into the 32nd year of King Asuras Artaxis
and because of that's about after 12 years of his coming did
he never went back between the 12 years?
We don't know, but most probably he must have gone back just to
appear to with the king and get extension or come back or
something. But after 12 years, he went back
for a prolonged time to serve the king again and then he took
permission came back. Meanwhile everything went wrong.
What do what do I mean mean mean
by this is he brought reforms he the law was read several times
every time they read the law they were weeping and repenting
and you know things were happening.
But now they have gone back and did the same things they did not
want to do it again. So they intermarried had foreign
voice in a very short time. So that's what happened.
And then in verse 4 you see before this Elias ship the
priest had been put in charge of the store rooms of the House of
our God. He was closely associated with
Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used
to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and
also the types of grain, new vine and oil prescribed for the
Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the
contributions for the priests. Elia Sheep is a priest.
He is a priest who does not know his business.
Its just like saying a pastor of a church doesn't know who is a
pastor who should be how he should live or who doesn't know
what the Bible is talking about. Can they be pastors who don't
know what is in the Bible? Its possible Eliashi belongs to
that category where he being a priest, he did not understand
that the Ammonites and Moabers are not allowed to come inside a
temple. Instead what did he did?
He has allowed a man called Tobaya.
Where is it? Tobaya was four and he gave him
a large room. The temple had fixed number of
rooms. You cannot extend it.
It is is all fixed, the building, everything is fixed.
So now what is happening here is he said Tobiah, he is a
Samaritan. He is, he is not a Jewish person
at all. And they used to have a court
called Gentiles court. This is all the temple, but
there's a small room area there that's called exclusively for
Gentiles. If he ever wanted to come, he
can come only into the court of the Gentiles, not cross that and
come inside at all. But now what did he do?
He gave him a room, a room that is exclusively used for storing
things. The storage room he converted
into his residential quarters. He said to Tobiah, come and live
here. Is that right?
Not at all right. And the Today the church is less
in the same condition. Church is in the same condition.
Sometimes people who don't know what the Bible is talking about
are becoming pastors and people who don't know what the Bible is
talking about are becoming ministers of the gospel and the
gospel gets diluted. You must be saying what is this
man talking about? When we compromise with the
holiness teaching of the holiness, we become an Elias
ship. We do not understand the
holiness concept. It is all about holiness.
The temple has been given so that people can understand that
their God is a holy God and who dwells in them.
Among them is a holy one and they have to be holy because He
is holy. When the teaching of holiness is
compromised by the Church, that church has become like the
temple in the times of Elias ship through one man, sin came
so also through one man, grace abounds much more.
That's what Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, S Eliasi.
One priest has brought in Tobiah and gave him a storeroom to live
there. He defiled the temple.
He one the temple is defiled. You are defiled in the nation.
So church is supposed to be a repository of truth.
One job given to church is to preach the truth.
And when the church does not do its function, it has lost its
purpose. It has lost its purpose.
So here we see the Tobiah had compromised and then because
this Tobiah had guy, he was opposing the building of the
walls. He publicly has defied or
challenged authority of Nehemiah and he came and insulted him and
he even Tobiah came along with the Samaritan army into
Jerusalem and all the armies there and Tobiah challenging the
Nehemiah. How dare you build the walls?
You think even if Fox jumps on its going to breakdown.
He insulted this guy who has nothing to do name I said we
will build the walls and you will not have a part and that
man is brought inside the temple.
Shame when the church loses his purpose.
Vision is a situation of shame. So because of all these things
that guy comes in. So what does he do?
He is now supporting Elia Shape, the priest and the grain
offering. The ties that come in, they are
being misused. They are not given to Levites
anymore. So the Levites have to go
survive. So they go back to their own
places, begin to go back to their farmland and begin to do
their job. They have to survive.
So they leave the temple, go back to their own property and
start making money by ploughing the land and making the thing.
So the temple gets neglected. You see how the consequences are
all ripple effect. You see the ripple effect here.
One man comes and that man is supporting Elia Shape is
stopping the use of the wine, the new grain and the wine and
the thighs and oil and everything that's supposed to be
given to leave our singers gatekeepers contribution for the
priest. He stopped and everybody is
fleeing now for their own survival and the temple is being
neglected. So in verse 6, you see, but
well, all this was going on. I was not in Jerusalem.
Not only he's not in Jerusalem, you don't even hear the name of
Ezra being mentioned in this chapter.
So Ezra also may not be there. So you need people like Ezra,
you need people like Nehemiah to keep the vision of the temple
going are we are together. So it's the same thing in the
modern church. You need the pastor with a
vision. And if the vision is not with
the pastor, then that church is like a blind man leading another
blind man. So we need people with vision
basically. So in the 32nd year he went back
and now he comes back and he finds everything is in a mess.
So he asked. He asked for permission and came
back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil
thing Elia ship had done in providing Tobiah is called a
evil thing. Everybody say evil thing.
He is very bad. This man not even allowed to
come inside a temple, is now made to dwell in a store room.
An entire big room is given to him to live there.
It's an evil thing. That's what he called.
And if you keep looking for this evil thing, the same word is
used again, in which was 17. I rebuilt the nobles of Judah
and said to them, what is this wicked thing?
You are doing evil thing, wicked thing.
What is the wicked thing? They are intermarrying with
other people, non Jewish people and having children, raising
children. And what is wrong about it?
You may say, but they are supposed to, they are called to
be a holy people. They are not supposed to
intermarry. Why?
If the intermarriage, they are going to lose their faith.
A simple way of looking at the whole problem is when, when,
when, when Nehemiah looked at the situation, when they had
these children through other women, Moabites and Ammonites
and Samaritans, and when they intermarrying, the children were
not able to speak Hebrew. They are speaking their mother
language. What's wrong about it?
There's nothing wrong, basically.
But what is here is if that temple was there for a
particular purpose of promoting holiness, to keep these people
as a light to the Gentiles. Now they are losing that.
They are losing it. So Neymar looks at the children
and say, hey, do you know Hebrew language?
You don't know why you can't speak?
Because my mom doesn't speak. Oh, who is your mom?
Mohabbat Ammonite. OK, everywhere there are so many
people they have. Then we name a calls for and the
purification again, they had to put away the children, put away
the wives. It's a painful process.
Painful process. But I tell you this I already
talked about in the previous sermons.
But I'll tell you again, a Christian has no business to
marry a non Christian. If you're a believer, you never
look at anybody. She can be Miss Canterbury, Miss
New Zealand. You don't have any business.
It's not a Christian, Miss Cuba, Miss America, wherever it is.
You have nothing to do with anybody, however beautiful they
are. Because this is what one of
those things that appears to eyes and makes sense and so many
things. Sometimes people are lured by
intelligence. You know, when a woman looks at
a man who is intelligent or a man looks at a woman who is,
that is their choice. They long to connect with
somebody's intelligent. You need to find out what is
your weakness and then be on God.
That's my advice. What is your weakness?
You have to sit down and think about it.
I get attracted to Dash, Dash, Dash.
OK, be careful in those areas. That's how you God, your heart
and your mind. Cool.
Don't want to say too much about it.
Then you see this thing, you again see it in the end of the
chapter, verse 30. So I purified the priests and
the levers are everything for him.
So they had to disconnect, approved, make them this distant
from everything for him. So evil thing, wicked thing,
something, everything. We need to be careful about that
thing that takes your heart away from God, whatever it is.
Cool. And then you see here in verses.
Yeah. Then when he went, Nehemiah came
back, He heard about Ilya, Shiva, about Tobaya, what he did
straight away. He goes to the temple and I was
greatly displeased and threw all Tobias household goods out of
the room. He goes there physically takes
everything. His bed goes, shelf goes, grain
goes, everything is closed, go outside, everything is thrown
out, out from here. Who does it remind you of?
Jesus when he went to the temple?
It was the religious system. You had to offer sacrifice.
You need to buy a lamb, you need to buy an ox.
The guys were sitting inside the temple with the table there and
you go pay the money and you say, OK, I've tried the sheep
down under the tree. There you go and take it and
offer it and then you want to give money.
They did not want to have anything to the Romans, so they
had money changes because you cannot give Roman commands to
God S they had their own currency.
So there are many money changers sitting there.
So you go to there, exchange the Roman currency for the Jewish
currency so you can put the money into the temple of God.
Jesus came and made a whip with a cord and he draw out the money
changes. Those who are selling pigeons,
why selling pigeons is a big deal?
Pigeon is the lowest offering you can make for your sin is a
pigeon cheapest thing that you can afford is a pigeon.
If you have no money to buy a sheep or an ox and you want to
offer a pigeon. They were selling pigeons in the
temple. They were selling the pigeons
and he drove them away and said my house is a is supposed to be
called a House of prayer. But you have made a den of
thieves. So you look at Nehemiah's life.
You will be reminded of Jesus. And I tell you, when people look
at you, they must be reminded of who Jesus.
That is how you have to live. Sometimes people may not like
what you say and do. It doesn't matter.
Does Jesus like what you are doing?
That is all counts. Is he going to say, well done,
my faithful servant, that's all counts.
Cool. So he came, he cleansed the
temple and then purified the rooms, purified the rooms.
So he must have taken a sacrifice animal, the blood of
the animal and then mixed with water and sprinkling it all over
the room and sanctified the room and then brought back the things
that supposed to be in that room.
The tithes offerings, grain offering, wine offering whatever
needs to be given to the Levi, seeing as gate give us.
They are all brought back and restored.
And then because people fled from the temple for their own
livelihood. Now he says by tells them come
back guys, I will take care of you.
So the levers again come back and come move to Jerusalem and
they will be given portion from these things.
So the temple system is restored again.
And then what happened because of this guy Eliashim who
compromised brought Tobiah, he learned that the portions
assigned to the levers had not been given.
Sorry, I'm repeating myself. So he asked the question, why is
Hausa got neglected? And now he's restoring that
neglect. He's restoring it.
So the people lost confidence in the religious system.
They stopped giving tithes. Nehemiah comes back and restores
the confidence, so they will begin to tithe again.
You see there it was 12 all. You would have brought the
tithes of grain, new wine and oil into the storerooms.
You need a system to run it. So Nehemiah says, OK, let's put
a system here. And the system here is he put
Shalamaya the priest, Jeddak the scribe and a Levite named Pedaya
in charge of the store rooms and made Hanan, son of Zakur the son
of Matanaya, their assistant because these men were
considered trustworthy and they were made responsible for
distributing the supplies to their brothers.
So you need people of integrity all the time.
We need people of integrity. And when you have the people of
integrity, then the money part is taken care.
You know, one of the things I learned about when I read the
biography of Billy Graham, long time ago, long time ago, I say
maybe more than 30 years ago, I read about Billy Graham.
And when I heard when I read the biography, one thing that
impressed me most is he never put his hand on the tithes and
offerings in in the big crusades.
He never said how much money you got.
Oh, we have here 5 million. OK, let me take 2 million from
he never did that. He had a system.
The system is there was a Billy Graham eventually association,
they have members there, board was there and they would decide
how much to give him, how much to give him.
And he never said oh, because of Maine so much of money is coming
so I need a greater portion. No, they decide how much to give
him and that is all he took. But it kept increasing over the
years. At one point it was only about
35 or 55,000 or something U.S. dollars.
That was moderate at that time. So why am I sharing these things
with you? This is a principle we need to
understand. We need to have principles for
our own life. And one of those things I
learned from Billy Graham was that, and I praise God for his
life because if I didn't read that biography, maybe I would
not have learned the truth. Here is this temple and you have
these people who are going to organize and distribute it
according to their needs. And the temple will continue to
function as it has to function because the finances are
managed. Management of finances is an
important aspect of the church. Many places, you know, Jesus
said very clearly, you cannot serve 2 masters at the same
time. You can't serve God and Mammon.
You cannot serve God and money. And many people are serving God
and money. And when you see that happen,
you should know that something is wrong.
It's very, very clear. They can do many mighty science
and wonders and miracles. They can prophecy, but their
hands are not clean. When it comes to money,
something is wrong. A tree is known by its fruit.
OK, we have time.
That is good. Now in verse 14 he says Remember
Me. Oh, let me go back a little bit
and finish that part. So in the New Testament you have
this concept of holiness. This temple was external
representation where the presence of God was inside the
temple. Shakayana glory was in the holy
of holies. But now.
When Jesus walked on earth. John 114 says He Tabernacle
among us. He became the temple of God, a
living temple, walking temple. But that picture is transferred
from being a building to a person to a church.
Now you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
You are the Temple of the Holy Holy.
Spirit. That's why we had read 1 Corus
619, what the temple stood for in the Old Testament.
Now the believer stands for in the New Testament, and he
becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Don't you know that? Your bodies are a temple of the
Holy Spirit whom you have from God, and you don't belong to
yourself because you are bought with high price.
Jesus paid the high price so that God the Father can send the
Holy Spirit to dwell in you and you are the temple.
Take time to meditate, let's say three times a day.
You have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Think of breakfast before you eat.
This body is tempted of the Holy Spirit.
God put the Holy Spirit in this body and Jesus paid the price.
I thank you, Lord, I eat your flesh, I drink your blood by
faith. Let your glory dwell in me.
Let your life and your Spirit fill me.
Do that lunch, do it for dinner and you have afternoon snack, do
it again. A morning snack, do it again.
Why? We need to remind ourselves that
we are the temple of God and very important aspect of it.
When you are convinced about it, when you think about it, you
believe it and you close down. We go in the corner of your
room. Kneel down there and shut your
mind and say, God, this part of the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Holy Spirit for dwelling in me.
Now speak to me from inside. Speak to me from inside.
Let me hear your voice. Let my inside eyes, the
spiritual man's eyes, be opened. But I may see what you want me
to see, that I may hear what you want me to hear.
Shut your mind from everything external.
Shut yourself in the corner and you will hear his voice.
This is very important. Many.
People want you know there's a. Joke about everything instant.
This age is a instant age. So long time ago I heard a joke
about it. Seema is the one who told me the
joke. A Chinese guy, he goes into a
supermarket and he looks at. Coffee.
Just pour water, you drink coffee.
Wow, that's an excellent product, he said.
And then he looked at something. Else you want just milk, add hot
water, you got powder, you add water, you got milk.
So he looked at so many instant stuff your noodles, they open
the back, pour water, wait for two minutes, eat your noodles.
And he looked at a baby powder. Supposed to be for.
Milk powder of a baby but he mistook that it is for creating
babies. Pour water.
You have a baby here. This.
Instant generation. We want holiness.
We want prophecy. We want healing.
We want caution. Your demons just pour water.
You have it. No, it's not like that.
Many things in life. Can be instant, but none of
these things I talked about are instant.
You will have to be on your knees praying and praying and
praying until God invades your spirit.
Even though the salvation is free, walking in the miraculous,
walking and getting answers to prayer, moving in healing,
moving in deliverance. They are not instant.
It takes time and. Effort.
It takes time. You have you must have a heart
for a hungry heart for God's glory.
Yourself has to be crucified and those things are not instant.
You don't die instantly. Maybe you will if you pour hot
water on yourself, boiling water, you will die, but not
your old nature, but not your old nature.
That's the reason why we need to be very careful to preserve this
temple. You are responsible to preserve
this temple and many of us are neglecting the temple is very
quick. A leadership is there to call
Tobiah. And I tell you, we have.
Many alias ships in our lives to bring the devil through the door
into yourself. You don't need a window to open.
A window is enough for a devil. To come in, but alias ship opens
the door. We had to identify alias.
Ship in our life the one who opens the door to the devil to
come inside. We have to be very careful.
There is so much. To talk about in this chapter I
tell you I was meditating and thinking about.
I said my God is it possible to do in one hour all these things?
But there is so much to talk about.
And in verse 14 he says Remember Me for this Oh my God, and do
not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the House of
my God and its services. He is saying Remember Me and you
see this word remember at least you 7 times in the whole of the
book, Chapter 5671 once each time and nearly four times in
this chapter 13 remember. What?
Why is he saying? Remember.
Because. He has only one concern.
He came and lived here for nearly 12 years, rebuild the
walls in 52 days, restored the temple services and everything
was gloriously going. He stopped the Sabbath, he
stopped the foreign marriages. Everything is cleansed.
Everything has been set, set in place.
Walls have been dedicated, people have worshipped God,
praise God, offerings were sacrifices made.
Everything was going beautiful. And he said let me go back to
the king. And he went for a few months or
years, couple of years and he comes back.
Everything that he has done is. Everything he worked for.
Dream for day and night he worked for is all obliterated
because of 1 Elias ship and one Tobiah.
You need the church to go down, you don't need many people.
One Tobiah is enough, one Elias ship is enough who can ruin the
whole thing. So we need to be very careful
how we build the ministry and the church is very important.
So Remember Me for this, Oh my God, and do not blot out what I
have so faithfully done for the House of my God.
What I have done is gone already, but Please remember it
may not happen again. Please remember.
So it will not happen. Again, I want this temple to
stay pure and holy as long as it is required for you to do it.
And was this prayer answered? Yeah.
Those walls he built? They lasted for another 600
years until they are destroyed in AD 70.
For five to 600 years, they stood.
So when? You faithfully.
Pray and do the work. That work will last.
So the temple is what we are
responsible for and we must take care of it.
Jesus, cleanse. Cleanse the temple with a whip
and draw out the money changes. And when it comes to reward,
Nehemiah said Remember Me and reward me.
Reward is not for myself. Let this temple remain forever.
He is not asking for his own name to be remembered forever or
give him a reward. No, but in the New Testament
your reward is yours. God looks at your life and
rewards you when you fast. Don't let people know that you
are fasting. Keep all unkempt hair and long
face, dirty face. Don't wash it.
No shower for two days so people can look at it.
Say hey you have no time for shower, why your hair is not
done? I am fasting.
Do you know I am fasting? You have no reward what you
wanted. You got it.
You. Wanted somebody to compliment
you? Got it.
But when you fast in secret, the Father who sees you fasting in
secret will reward you when you. Pray in the closet.
God who looks at you, praying in the closet, will reward you.
And there's a judgment that is coming.
And that's in the book of Corinthians.
It says chapter 3, verse 13. His workmanship will be evident
because the day will bring it to light.
It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the
quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives,
he will receive a reward. Whatever you do in your life is
going to go through fire. It is burnt up, it is gone.
If you survive the fire, you get a reward.
So we are not, we are not playing.
With a guard who will look this side and look that side but not
look at your life. No, he looks at your life.
Your life counts for him and is counting on you and he wants to
reward you. But we have to live a life
that's pleasing to him. That will come through the fire
and then he says in second. Corinthians chapter. 5 Verse 10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so
that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in
the body, whether good or evil. Whether you do good or do evil,
you are going to be rewarded for that.
We cannot escape the reward. They may have prayed for it.
You don't pray also. You will get it.
Now you do. Wrong.
You get the reward for it. Cool.
And then what happened in? 15 to 22 Neglect of Sabbath
Verses 15 to 22 talks about neglect of Sabbath.
When he came back, all business was going on.
On Sabbath. The people from Tyre brought
their fish to sell in Jerusalem. I said I was scratching my head.
How far is Tyre from Jerusalem or I did some search.
It's more than 300 kilometers. In more than 300 kilometers.
Are they selling fresh fish in those days?
No, it must be dry fish. I don't like dry fish.
Some people may love it, but when I was growing up, you know,
I was born in a vegetarian family and grew up vegetarian
and later on I became learn to eat chicken and you know, it
took me many years to practice eating the non vegetarian food.
But in the street, anybody did cook the dry fish, the whole
everybody. Will know that you are going to
have. Dry fish for your lunch or
afternoon dinner or whatever. And when I was in New Zealand,
when I was working in a factory, we used to have lunchtime and
these people from certain country, they would bring the
dry fish and put it in the microwave.
And you cannot put your foot back in the microwave because it
is going to smell dry fish. Oh, it was.
Just nobody like those. People, they had to tell them
please don't bring dry fish. So what's wrong we?
Love the food, they said. But you know, that's one of
those things we need to be little sensitive about when we
assert our right because it will disturb somebody else.
Anyway. So the fish was brought from all
the way from Tyre and sold in the in Jerusalem.
And the people would go out and buy on the Sabbath.
And then lots of things were brought, produce from
surrounding Jerusalem. They were bringing and driving
into the city and selling and name.
I looked and say what's happening here?
I have set. Up a system.
That you will, you will not open the gates until the sun rises
and it will be shut before the sun sets until the Sabbath is
over. Next day morning, you don't open
the gates. But what's happening here?
So he had to redo the whole thing.
And this time what he did was he took some Lee whites because
they are responsible for knowing the law, teaching the law, and
obeying the law. So he took some of the Levites
and he said, you will God the gates.
So that the effect of. Maintaining Sabbath will remain
longer period with these people, so we always.
Need people who are. Honest.
We always need people who know the law.
We always want people who are hungry to obey God and honour
God. And when you have this handful
of people, the effect will reach masses because of the handful of
people. Today we are only handful.
The task is to reach the whole city of Christchurch and the
Selvin District with the Gospel of Christ.
We need more people who are like Lee whites sold out to the Word
of God. Study it, read it, study it,
meet it on it, and obey it and teach it.
That's the order we need. And then only revival.
Comes you are saying? God send a revival, send a
revival and God says, OK, show me 10 people who are praying in
your church. Do you have 10 people who are
praying every day for one hour at least?
And somebody when I mentioned the word one hour, they jump up
and say, hey, where does it say in in the Bible you have to pray
for one hour? I tell you this that.
Question itself is the wrong question unless we are sold out
to God. Not one hour.
You should be willing to pray for two hours. 3 hours?
Oh, I have a job. To do I have a family to take?
Care kids, how am I going to pray?
That's your job. You have to find time.
I'm not harsh. I'm not trying to be harsh at
all. If God comes first, you will
find time to pray. He has to come first.
I am trying to pray. Alone so many times, I pray.
Last night actually I was surprised when I opened my eyes
it was 4:30 in the morning. I said oh I need some sleep and
went back to bed. And I asked God, God, how am I
going to do? Alone God said, get 10 people
who will pray, 10 people who will pray one hour a day, and
when we will begin to see more people come through the doors in
the church. The question is I can ask the
question. Now don't have to raise your
hand right now we feel free. You raise your hand.
Do you want to commit yourself to pray one hour a day, anytime
that suits you? I see 2345.
I need more 5 people. I don't have to tell you, you
say. I will be free.
My kids go to bed at 7:30. From 8:00 to 9:00 in the night,
I'm going to pray. Oh, I'm busy all the time, but I
can get up at 5:00 in the morning and pray for one hours,
5 to 6. It is up to you.
You want a revival? We need people who want to pray,
who are committed to pray. The revival will come.
Nobody can stop it. It is.
Not one person. There are times when God.
Honors one person and does it, but its always a bunch of
people, sometimes one. Person makes a difference, there
I was. Reading the biography of Charles
Finney and When Charles. Finney used to go into a.
Town, there used to be big revival, people used to be
falling. Even if he is walking on the
street, people working in the field, they will fall down on
their knees and say God have mercy on me, forgive me, come
into my heart. There is no preaching happening.
But the secret of Finney's success is another car, another
man called Father Nash. Father Nash.
If there is going to. Be a revival meeting in
Christchurch, he would fly, or he will travel to Christchurch,
rent a motel or a hotel or a room, or rent a house Oregon a
room. And for a month he would be
fasting and praying so that when this young man comes to the
city, the revival will break out.
There's one man, one man, Father Nash Does people, do people.
Hear the name of. National, No, but do people hear
the name of Charles Finney and the revival?
Yes. Sometimes we have to take the
role of not being recognized by people and be willing to pray.
Be willing to pray. You may not be receiving honor
from the people, but God will give you the honor it.
Is flashy to stand and preach, but.
It is not so flashy to kneel down and pray.
It's flashy to preach one hour once.
A week to pray, one hour a day, every day is not so flashy.
If we desire the reward from God, we are going to pray.
We are going to pray. So you see all these things
again in neglect of Sabbath. He restored the Sabbath and then
until the Sabbath. Is over the gates would not.
Open, that's how he made sure, and quickly.
I'll try to finish it. The people would come.
Even though gates are closed, they would be very close to the
gate. They have their donkeys, they
have the waste. They want to sell the produce
they want to sell. They were there so that whenever
people wanted by night, they can sneak in outside of the wall and
somehow buy the things. One day Nehemiah goes on the
Sabbath day evening. You guys, you will not come even
here to demonstrate. He must have gone, picked
somebody by his throat and lifted him up.
His stop coming. Otherwise I'm going to put my
hands on you. That's it.
They stop coming. Sometimes some things have
written ruthlessly and that is when this is again whenever
personal purity When it comes to personal purity, Jesus said many
things you when you have to. When you look at a woman with a
lustful eye, you already have committed adultery in your
heart. And if your right hand.
Is the one that is offending you.
Chop it off if it is your eye. That is offending.
You gauge it or remove it. What is he trying to say?
Does he want everyone to go blind and become lame?
No hand, no leg. That's not his purpose.
What is he trying to say? Be Ruth.
Deal ruthlessly with sin. Don't tolerate it.
I don't like it. Your body is a temple of the
Holy Ghost, and you need to be holy because I am holy.
And if your eye is offending, remove it.
If your hand is offending it, remove it.
I want you to become holy. There's no other way you can
please pleasing God in your life except by living a holy life
life. The more and more I think about
it, the more. And more.
I get convicted and studying the word is not a comfortable
exercise. I'm telling you, I sit in.
My chair. I'm studying the word.
But inside my heart it just the sword goes, cuts it.
Oh God, how am I going to do this?
How am I going to do this? How am I going to do this?
How, how, how? And that drives you to go on
your knees and say, God, with your help, I can do it.
Will you please give me the help so?
In. Verse 22 he says Remember Me for
this also Oh my God and show mercy to me according to your
great love. Now we don't go that back into
that again in verses 23 to 31 mixed marriages.
Some he went and pulled their hair.
You we have agreed that we are not going to marry fire foreign
women. Did you sign here?
Did they make did they make a agreement not to marry foreign
women in the previous chapter? They did.
They signed. All their leaders.
Came and they signed every sign. We agree, we agree, we agree.
And now they got foreign wives and they have got children as
well. At least more than two years if
they have children and if they are not talking not Hebrew,
there must be at least four years before name I came back.
And he pulled their. Hair.
You priest, you live white, you have signed here and now you got
your foreign wife and you got foreign kids and your son has
got my foreign wife. Your daughter got a foreign
husband. He pulled their hair.
Don't talk about it. We can't do anything of that
sort in these days. But again there is a principle
we can learn is deal ruthlessly when it comes to compromise, we
should not compromise. Some things we do and sometimes
we experience the consequences in our life.
Long time ago we have made a mistake and now we go through
it. But God can change.
We had to go to Him, this power in the bread of Christ.
What is the situation you want to change?
Put that blood on the beginning. 25 years ago.
We make a mistake, put that blood on it and say, Lord, right
now I'm suffering consequences. I put that blood on this person.
I put this blood on the situation.
I want you to change it and the blood of Jesus will speak for
you and the situation will change.
This is nothing else that can deliver you.
From your past, except the bread of Christ.
I was listening to a guy who was a ex satanist.
And he said there was a lady who was being oppressed by some evil
spirits, and she did many things, but nothing was coming
to setting her free. And one one day she began to
confess the blood of Christ. God, I cancel every covenant I
made with the devil, I put the bread of my spirit solar body.
I cancelled every covenant, put the bread of the covenant and
the demons had to run from her and she was set free.
He said that demons cannot resist the bread of Christ.
Put that blood until you are. Free.
Put that blood, Lord. I confess the blood of grace on
my spiritual and body. I confess the blood of grace on
my covenant I made with the enemy in the name of Jesus.
Let me go free now. You, David, I kick you out now.
I have nothing in common with you.
I belong to Jesus. This body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost. I have no part with you.
I kick you out now in the name of Jesus.
I don't think the devil will be there anymore if you fight like
that. Cool.
So you see in the rest of the verses many other things, but
there was a guy I should talk about this one right before I
close one of the sons of Joy, the son of Elia Shiv the high
priest was son-in-law to sun ballot the horror night and I
drove him away from me, meaning away from Jerusalem.
He went and married enemies daughter became a son-in-law to
enemy son Ballot who was trying to stop the building of the
walls of Jerusalem and this guy goes and marries the daughter.
When he came back you know you got married out now from here he
drove him out. So sometimes we need.
Some this is all. We need is not about
intolerance. Please don't misunderstand me.
I am not encouraging intolerance.
I am encouraging purification. I am encouraging holiness.
I am encouraging resisting compromise with the devil, with
the world and with the lust of the flesh.
Lust of the is pride of life. No compromise with them, no
compromise with them. And then only our situation will
change. No compromise.
So verse 30. So I purified the priests and
the Levites of everything foreign.
And assigned them duties, each to his own task.
I also made provision for contributions of good at
designated times for the first fruits and for the and for the
first fruits. Basically restored the whole
system. Restored the whole system and
the book of Neymar. Doesn't end there.
Book. Of Neymar doesn't end there.
Purification, compromise. Again, purification is the
process the church will be going through.
Anytime we see compromise, anytime we see sin trying to
rule, the church is a place for repentance, confession,
repentance, walking away from it, resisting it, fighting in
the in the Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that will never cease. I do not know how to count how
many times I must have failed God.
But every time I failed God. The process is very simple.
I had to repent. I had to confess it.
I had to repent and ask God to wash me in His blood and to
disconnect me from it in the name of Jesus.
And that will continue until either He appears or I go to
Him. And that is the path of
holiness. We cannot keep living in sin.
Shall we bow our heads in prayer?
Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord.
Thank you, Lord, you are so good.
We praise you because you are so full of mercy and love.
And we thank you for the life of Nehemiah and the story of
rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem during his time, how
the temple was restored, how the life was restored.
We praise you for the story of reformation that has come
through preaching of the Word and obedience to the Word and
practice of the Word in the name of Jesus.
I pray, Father, that you will give us grace to deal ruthlessly
with sin. Help us to chop off the hand
that offends and remove the eye that offends.
And I pray, Father, that you will give us the grace not to
tolerate what you have defeated. You have defeated Satan.
You have defeated sin. Help us not to tolerate in our
life anymore. We resist, not tolerate in the
name of Jesus. And I pray for your mercy and
your grace. Let the power of the Holy Ghost
fall upon our children right now, listening to your word.
Let the glory of God enter them again in a fresh way.
Let, O my Father, glory of the God is the Holy Spirit.
And I invite the Holy Spirit to come, and I light up on the
children. Enter them, my God, and let
their bodies become temple of the Holy Ghost.
And you dwell in them your You bought them with your blood.
And we thank you, Father God, for your Son Jesus and the Holy
Spirit. This is all your wisdom.
You have planned it even before you laid the foundation of the
world. And we praise you, we praise
you, We praise you for your mercy and your grace that
triumphs and rules and it shines better than your judgment and
your wrath, which will not be compromised.
You will show it at the right time.
But right now we thank you for your mercy and your grace, which
is a reigning supreme. You are a goddess enthroned on
the seat of mercy, and we worship you.
And when it is still a time for us, to when it's still there is
time for us, help us to repent and confess it and renounce it
and be washed in the blood and be set free to the glory of your
name. Bless your children.
Again in Jesus name I. Ask and everybody says Amen.
Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega
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