Part 8 | A Church that Changes People’s Lives
From Nehemiah 8
A Church that Changes People’s Lives:
1. Is to God through the .
📖 Nehemiah 8:1 ESV And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel.
📖 Nehemiah 8:2 ESV So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.
📖 Nehemiah 8:3 ESV And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
📖 Nehemiah 8:4 ESV And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.
📖 Nehemiah 8:5 ESV And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood.
📖 Nehemiah 8:6 ESV And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
A Church that Changes People’s Lives:
2. Helps you the .
📖 Nehemiah 8:7 ESV Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places.
📖 Nehemiah 8:8 ESV They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
📖 Nehemiah 8:12 ESV And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
A. The Bible can be .
B. The Bible can be .
C. The Bible can be .
📖 Ephesians 4:11–14 ESV And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
A Church that Changes People’s Lives:
3. to the Word to the .
📖 Nehemiah 8:9 ESV And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
God’s Word has an effect when there is:
A. of sin.
📖 Romans 3:20 ESV …through the law comes knowledge of sin.
B. A of Jesus.
📖 Galatians 3:24 ESV So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
📖 Romans 7:24 ESV Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
📖 Romans 7:25 ESV Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
C. .
📖 Nehemiah 8:10 ESV Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
D. .
📖 Nehemiah 8:11-12 ESV So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
When you in , you let .
📖 Psalm 119:162 ESV I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.
God’s Word has an effect when there is:
4. them to reach a .
📖 Nehemiah 8:13–15 ESV On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. 14 And they found it written in the Law that the LORD had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.”
📖 Nehemiah 8:16 ESV So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim.
Our church’s prayer for you every week:
Come as – different.
Notes Section:
✅ Get Your Kingdom Come Companion Devotional Journal Today!
✅ Get a copy of Ending Emptiness at EndingEmptiness.com
✅ Stop doing life alone! Find your place at waterschurch.org/next-steps
✅ Keep up to date with all the upcoming events by visiting waterschurch.org/events
