The Grove 10 Years – Week 3

As we begin this morning, we'd love for everyone to have a Bible in their hands. If you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand and one of our ushers who's coming down the aisle would love to put a Bible into your hands as we are studying God's word together. This fall, we chose to preach on the DNA of our church. And as we do, it is good for us to emphasize our identity as a church that is built upon preaching God's word, both accurately and authoritatively, where we are dedicated to this purpose.

You say, why? Why does that matter? Well, Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." You see, the word of God is absolute truth, and it can absolutely change lives. Amen? That's the power. This is the power. This is why we gather together. This is the goal of what it is that we are putting our hands to in the work that we're doing.

And therefore, as one of the four pillars of our church, we are committed to biblical preaching, preaching expository and often exegetically the word of God, for it is truth, and only its truth can change lives. At The Grove, we want to cultivate a culture around biblical preaching. We all want to cultivate a culture around biblical preaching, but cultivating that culture is not just the work of the preacher, it must also be the work of the people.

Not only the herald of the word of God, but also the hearers of the word of God. So go and open your Bibles in Nehemiah, chapter eight. Nehemiah 8. If we are to cultivate a culture devoted to biblical preaching, then the people of the word ought to be as much at work in that as the preacher of the word, and we're going to look at what that means. And so this morning, we look to Nehemiah, chapter eight. Now, if you are unfamiliar with the Book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes.

He was the son of King Xerxes. Nehemiah was granted permission by the king to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. So you have this time in the Jerusalem history where it's after exile, after they've been taken over by Babylon. The Lord allows that to happen because of their playing the harlot with other gods, their unfaithfulness. And we find this time where Jerusalem is no longer ruled by a Davidic king, but rather it is a Persian province.

Babylon then becomes the Medes and Persians. We're here in this Persian kingdom. And by God's grace, Nehemiah is given this amazing opportunity by Artaxerxes, and he successfully rallies the people to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem, and they do it in just 52 days. It's an amazing work. Nehemiah 8 occurs after Jerusalem's walls have been rebuilt, and this chapter marks a transition in the Book of Nehemiah. Days after the walls have been rebuilt, the people gather to realize that they, as the people of God, need to be rebuilt as well through the word of God.

So Nehemiah 8. If you're there, stand there. Would you stand with me, please, in honor of God's word? Let's stand together. And we're going to read this. Just follow along with me as I read aloud. We're looking at chapter eight. It says this: "And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they said to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand when listening on the first day of the seventh month.

And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the ears of the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium, which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mordecai, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand.

And Ezra opened the book in sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, amen,' while lifting up their hands. Then they bowed low and worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites were providing understanding of the law to the people while the people stood in their place.

They read from the book, from the Law of God, explaining and giving insight, and they provided understanding of the reading. Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, 'This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep.' For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord.

Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.' So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved.' Then all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate with great gladness because they understood the words which had been made known to them." That's God's word for us this morning. Go ahead and have a seat. The word of God is the only truth that can change lives, period.

That's not the power of the preacher. I can't change a life. I can't. The preacher must be faithful to preach God's word, but he is not responsible for life change. There is much a pastor can do to deter people from receiving God's word, from receiving truth, but no amount of persuasion can convince people to respond to truth. Life change is accomplished by the Holy Spirit as the word of God is faithfully preached. And while the preacher can preach all he'd like, the greater culture question is this: Do the people desire it?

Do the people desire it? Warren Wiersbe writes this. He says, "When God's people get away from loving, reading, and obeying the word of God, they lose the blessing of God." If we want to be like fruitful trees, we must delight in God's word. We want to be like fruitful trees, don't we, church? At least two of us do. And if we want to bear much fruit, and in doing so, what? Prove to be whose disciples? Let me run that back one more time. This is John 15:8.

We want to bear much fruit, and in doing so, prove to be whose disciples? Jesus' disciples. Yes, amen. If we want to prove to be Jesus' disciples, then we must bear much fruit, and in doing so, we prove to be his disciples, right? And the way we do that is we delight and desire the word of God. If we want to bear much fruit, be fruitful trees to the glory of God, then we must delight in it and desire the word of God. And that goes far beyond just a commitment to preaching the Bible.

It's a great start. So how do we, fellow church members of The Grove Bible Chapel, how do we cultivate a biblical preaching culture? That's the question. Three points for us this morning. The first one is this: We desire it. A culture committed to biblical preaching must desire the word. We must desire the word of God. A culture committed to biblical preaching must desire the word of God. In celebrating the completion of the walls, the people gathered together and chose to do something extraordinary.

Look at what it says in your text. Look at verse one. It says, "And all the people..." Let's look carefully now. Don't read over these words. It says, "And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the water gate. And they said to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand when listening on the first day of the seventh month."

So why are they reading the Bible? Why? The Bible. Whose idea was it to bring the word of God? Whose idea? The people. The people, right? Somebody said, "Well, wasn't that Ezra's idea?" No, look at what it says in your Bible. It says, "All the people," look on a little bit, "said to bring the book." Verse one and two. Do you see that in your Bible? All the people said to bring the book. The people desired the word. The people desired the word. All the people, it says, were the ones who initiated it, having it read before them, and they come and they ask Ezra to read it.

Now, my wife, Emily, and I are rewatching all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. All right? She's never seen any of them. So what kind of husband would I be if I didn't let her experience these cinematic wonders, right, that are so near and dear to everyone's heart, not just mine? But do you remember how amazing it was to go to the first Avengers movie, and all of a sudden, you had all these characters that were main characters in their movies sort of coming together and existing in another movie?

I was like, "We've never seen that before." They don't do that in Disney movies. Aladdin doesn't pop into Peter Pan. It doesn't work. It was astonishing. It's like we're seeing something groundbreaking, right? In an admittedly simple way, let me be honest with you, that's how I sort of feel seeing Ezra now appear in the Book of Nehemiah. Okay? Yes, this is the Ezra that the Book of Ezra is named after. And it's cool when we see these kinds of things in scripture.

So who was Ezra? Ezra was a Jewish priest and a scribe who traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem, also under the authority of King Artaxerxes. He arrived about 13 years before Nehemiah did, and he taught God's law. He was leading reforms. He intended to restore Israel's covenant faithfulness after their Babylonian exile. Scripture tells us that Ezra came after they had rebuilt the temple. You might say, "Well, why?" Well, scripture tells us in Ezra 7, it says this, "For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of Yahweh and to practice it, and to teach his statute and judgment in Israel."

And that ought to be the heart of every preacher of God's Word. We ought to have the exact same heart that Ezra did, that their heart would be to study the word of God, to practice it, and to teach others in it. But it's beyond that. If we are to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching, then that ought to be the heart of all of us. We all ought to have that exact same desire, that we would study the word of God and practice it and teach others in it.

Do you? Do you have that desire? Does that describe or define your heart for the Lord? It says that all the people gathered as one, not under compulsion, but voluntarily as one man. They were all unified in desire, all desiring God's word. All came, men, women, even children. You say, "We don't see that there." Well, it says, "All who could understand when listening." There's plenty of our kids that can understand when listening to the word of God.

And that's what I love about the scripture. That's what I love about the Bible. What I love about the word of God is that it is applicable to all. It is applicable to all. It is written for the common man. You don't need a degree to understand it. In fact, some of the greatest theological minds I've been privileged to know never had a Bible degree. Some of them didn't have a college degree at all. The Bible says that it's the word of God that makes the simple wise.

The Bible is for all. It is written for the common person to understand. You don't need someone to interpret it for you and tell you what it says. You can be a Berean, right? The people who went back, heard Paul's teaching, and they went back and made sure that he was accurate, then came back and approved it, and Paul, he praises them. The Bible is written for you. You don't need somebody to interpret it for you. And it grieves my heart to see so many of this next generation beneath me running to these high liturgy, high religion instead of relationship churches where they tell you the opposite.

The Catholic Church that for years has been against literacy of man. Because if man knows how to read, then they can read the Bible. And if they can read the Bible, then they can see what it says, and they don't need me to tell them what I want them to do. Or the Greek Orthodox Church is another example. People who say, "Well, you can't read the Bible on your own. You need the early church fathers to interpret the Bible and tell you what the Bible's saying because you can't get there on your own."

But how early do we go with that? Weren't Paul and Peter early church fathers? And John? Okay, so I had coffee with a young man who told me that seeking to read the word of God on my own without relying on early church fathers to interpret it for me was the most arrogant thing he'd ever heard anyone say. How do you think the next hour and 20 minutes went? He was very critical. He asked me about our church. He was very critical of the fact that how dare we think that you can just read God's word and understand it.

Well, church, when we face that criticism, look no further than Nehemiah 8. Look no further than Nehemiah 8 to take comfort in the fact that God's word is applicable to all. All can read it and can understand it on their own. Church, this is why the doctrine of sola Scriptura is so very important. All you need is scripture. It's what led to the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther reading the word and saying, "Wait, hold on. This is what the Bible is saying.

Why aren't we practicing that?" All you need is scripture because the Bible has been written for all, men, women, children, all. Ask any of our faithful volunteers in the Grove Kids or Adventure Club, and they will be the first to give examples of how the kids of the Grove can understand and apply the Bible in their lives. We're so blessed by their service as they're training and teaching the word of God to our children. All you need is scripture.

Therefore, all we should desire is scripture here. It should be our desire. So do you desire it? Do you desire it in your own life? Do you feel the difference in your life when you don't have it? Do you hunger for it? Do you prioritize it? A culture committed to biblical preaching desires the word of God. So church, we need to desire the word. Desire the word of God. Look at verse three. "And he read from it before the square which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law."

Second point, we need to be attentive to the word. We need to be attentive to the word. A culture committed to biblical preaching must be attentive to the word. Look at what it says at the end of verse three. It says, "All the ears of the people were attentive to the book." Men, women, children, all those who could understand, all were attentive to the reading of God's word. For how long? What does the Bible say? How long You got the cheat sheet in front of you.

From early morning until midday, right? We can presume that's, what, five to six hours? These men, women, and children, at their own desire, stood and listened to the Bible read for five to six hours straight with full attention. It says that all the ears of all the people-- And I have to be honest, the attention spans of 2026 are shot. They're shot. Your attention span, mine, it is shot. It is poorly trained, poorly experienced, poorly disciplined.

I'm just being honest, it is. Our attention spans are shot, and people can hardly focus on anything without being distracted. And nowhere is this seen more than people's addiction to their notifications or the anticipation of a notification. Hold on. I thought I felt something buzz. I grew up in the era of big movies. When I grew up, going to the movie theater was amazing. It was even like a culinary experience. Now you just put an order on a screen, and that's not as fun.

I remember growing up when people would go to the movies to go see a three-hour "Lord of the Rings," and guess what? They held it the whole time, both their attention and their bladders. Today, we can hardly get through a 40-minute episode without being buried in our phone. What's going on? Oh. That's not a conditioned church. It's something that's been conditioned. That's not a condition that somehow has just developed in human history. That's something that's been conditioned with repetition and with practice, and it's what we have allowed society to train us into.

You can undo it. You can break the chain. You can break that cycle, but it's going to require discipline and hard choices to make. Nehemiah eight, the people stood and gave the word their full attention. No breaks from early morning to midday. How many of us could do that today? Do you think you could give the Bible, just the reading of the Bible, that kind of attention? No graphics, no images, no screens. How much time do you carve out on a weekly basis to give the Bible your undivided attention?

How many of you struggle when you're here for 50 minutes when the Bible's being taught? Once a week. We got to be attentive to the word, and I'm speaking to myself as well. We got to be attentive to the word. Look on. Look at verse four. Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium, which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood a bunch of men with very Hebrew names. And one of the ways we give attention to the word of God is in the reverence we give towards it.

Look at how they revered the word. They built this podium for this purpose of reading and presenting the word of God to the people. I heard a guest preacher one time, not at this church, came to a church, and he sort of jokingly reproved that church. And he got up and he said, "You can't put your pastor on some flimsy music stand." And then he went on to say a whole bunch of other stuff, but what he was saying was the word of God deserves more than to just be on something flimsy.

How you present it shows how you value it, and I think he's right. How we handle the word of God, how we value it, literally handle it, it should show how we value it in our lives. It's a personal preference thing for me. I don't love it when a pastor comes up without a physical Bible. In my notes, I don't put the scriptures. I typically put the verses, and I read it from the Bible. We're preaching the Bible. I'm not preaching the iPad. We're held accountable to the Bible, and this might be a small thing, but church, this is something that as the church, we are together cultivating this culture of biblical preaching.

I think he was right. You won't catch any of us preaching off a trendy table in our big baggy sweatshirts, right? Because the word of God isn't a decoration that you sit in the corner and then come and refer to and then come back and be the show. The word of God is the meal. The word of God is why we're here. You take the entrée and you put it in the center of the table to carve up and to serve to the whole family because that's the reason why we're here.

That's the sustenance. That is going to feed us. Amen. And that's something we want to share with the entire family for their edification. The word of God needs to be revered, and our presentation of it matters. Second Corinthians 2:17 says this, "For we are not like many peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ." How we handle and present God's word shows our careful attention and value of it, okay?

We are not peddlers of the word of God. Okay? We are not cheap salesmen looking to how to water down or to package the Bible with something else to sell it better. I'm sort of disappointed that the Bible app has now become a social media site. Let's stop packaging things with the Bible. We don't need to do that. The word of God speaks on its own. It doesn't need me. You didn't come here to hear Robert Pierre's opinions preached. You came here to hear the word of God taught.

I'm not on the pedestal. The word of God is, and I stand behind it, seeking to rightly divide it, knowing that I am doubly accountable for what I say. Every word matters. And that was the goal of Paul's ministry, too. First Thessalonians two, Paul says this, "And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe."

And as Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, so we at The Grove seek to elevate the word of God above all else. For the end game of preaching is a higher view of God's word, not the simple man who's preaching it. The end game of our preaching is a higher view of God in his word, not the guy who's standing behind it teaching it. A culture committed to biblical preaching is attentive to the word of God. So do you give God's word your full attention?

Is it a priority to you? Do you seek to rightly divide it as you're teaching others, your family, your kids, your devotional time, your spouse? Look at verse five. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. All the people stood when he opened it. No one was asked. They just responded to it. I'm not suggesting that we all stand for the entirety of each sermon, but if we desire to be attentive to the word, then let us all strive to give it our full attention and the respect it well deserves.

Can we do that? If we desire to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching, we must desire the word. We must have an appetite for it, for the reading and teaching of God's word, the Bible. We must. If we want to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching, we must be attentive to it. We must remove any and all distractions around us and train ourselves to give it both our respect and our attention. And finally, if we desire to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching, then we must be willing to respond to it, allowing the word of God to lead our emotions, our actions, our passions, our minds, our values.

When the word of God is preached, it invites us to respond to it. Look at how people respond to the word in verse six Then Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, amen," while lifting up their hands. Then they bowed low and worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground. And in verse seven, these men, it says, "were providing understanding of the law to the people while the people stood in their place." Verse eight, "They read from the book, from the law of God, explaining and giving insight, and they provided understanding of the reading.

Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, 'This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep.' For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.'

" Third point, we need to respond to the word. A culture committed to biblical preaching must respond to the word. Look at how the people responded to the word of God. Look back at verse six. They proclaimed, "Amen, amen." Ezra's read the word. Then he blesses the Lord, and they say, "Amen, amen." That word amen, it means surely. Trustworthy. Trustworthy. It means truly. So be it. When you pray and you say amen, you're saying, "So be it, Lord. Let it be so."

They said, "Amen, amen." What did they do? In just the reading of the word, they lifted up their hands. They bowed low, and they worshiped. All of this they did in response to the reading of God's word. God's word is due an emotional, passionate, demonstrative response. And look, that response, look what it is. That response is independent of music. Where's the music? Do you see the music in there? Where is it? It's not there. They lifted up their hands.

They're shouting amen. They're bowing low without any music present at all. They are emotionally responding to the word of God without any music there. Look ahead at verse nine. It says, at the end, "All the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law." One of the criticisms of contemporary worship music in the church that I've heard over the last 17 years of leading worship is the idea that music is used to whip up emotional reactions.

I hear that more than you think. That we are using our music to whip up the emotions and try to manipulate the room to respond. Look, music can be a powerful tool for manipulating emotions. It can. Totally. It's not what we're doing. And in our text, the word of God is presented, and the people respond emotionally and passionately and physically in the absence of music. No one's manipulating their emotions. No one's trying to work their response.

The word of God has just been read. That's it. And we want to do the same. We want to be a church that responds to God's word in the same way, not manipulating emotions with music, but responding to the word of God emotionally. This is truth, truth that changes lives. Look, I'm not saying that raising your hands makes you more holy. I'm not saying that. And I'm not saying that if you don't raise your hands, that you're not more spiritual, or you don't love the Lord.

That's not what I'm saying. However, at The Grove, we want to culture, sorry, cultivate a culture of response. We want to develop a culture that responds to the word of God, a culture that wouldn't just hear the word taught, but would respond to it biblically. And how do we do that? By responding to the Bible as we see it exampled in God's word, like we see exampled here in Nehemiah 8. And while this is not a worship message, it could fit within our intentional worship pillar, and we're going to talk about that over the next couple weeks.

We are intentional to use music to aid in our emotional response, not to manipulate it. But when the word is preached, we want to have a time to respond to it appropriately. We need that. And we see that here in Nehemiah 8. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to invite you to get uncomfortable a little bit. I'm going to invite you to get uncomfortable in an attempt to respond as we see exampled in the Bible. People raising their hands, bowing down, worshiping the Lord in response to the preaching of the word, as we see here in Nehemiah 8, we hope that that will become a normal at our church.

And look, normal at The Grove may not be comfortable initially, but it must always be biblical. Never will you ever be asked to do something that contradicts scripture. And if anything ever were to happen in our space that contradicts scripture, we'll put an end to it, because the Bible is the number one priority. God's word is the number one priority, and we want to respond to it biblically. Normal may be uncomfortable, but normal must always be biblical.

So do you have a willingness to respond to the word of God biblically? Are you willing to give time to respond to the message each week? And may I be honest with us for a moment? May I do that? I think too many of us are in too big of a hurry for the service to end. I think too many of us are in too big of a hurry for this service to be done. If we are to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching, then it means we, the people of The Grove, must develop a culture of response to the word of God when it's preached.

You say, "Well, how do we do that?" Well, what does that look like here at the church? Well, first, you need to stay for the closing song. You need to stay for the closing song. That's what has been chosen for us as a church to respond to together. Where do you have to go more than appropriately giving the Lord your response to His word? Where do you have to be more than faithfully and biblically responding to the word of God preached and proclaimed?

Where? And what is that five extra minutes going to gain you? Volunteers, let me just say this, volunteers at our church, amazing volunteers, our serving can wait. Our serving can wait. I don't know what's been communicated about those expectations in the past, of when one needs to be in their position following the end of a service, and I'm grateful for all those who are coordinating that and have done an amazing job. But moving forward, that's changing.

May I speak freely for a moment? People don't need a donut as soon as the service is over. Okay? They don't. They can wait five minutes. It's okay. They don't need one. All right? And frankly, with all this Ozempic flying around, I'm not sure any of us need a donut, but we do it anyway, and the kids love it. But they don't need one right when the service ends. I think there's this impulse, like I got to be there because so-and-so needs me to watch them pour their own coffee.

No, you don't. We would far prefer to see our church filled with people responding to the word of God like Nehemiah 8 than our welcome team be in position to pass out donuts once we say you are loved. Donuts can wait. Give God your response. Give God your response. If the Lord is stirring your heart, be there in that moment. That's more important. If we pass some germs, it's going to happen anyway. They can reach and get their own. Respond to God as He is convicting you.

He deserves it. Your soul yearns for it. It's good for the church, it's good for your family, it's good for you. Save for the closing song, and all those people who are like, "I was going to leave for the closing song after the service," are in big hot water right now. We're all watching. Second, come for prayer. There's a lot of needs right now in the body. There's a lot of hurt. There's a lot of confusion and unknown. Come for prayer. We are actively working on creating and installing a prayer ministry here at The Grove Bible Chapel.

That's something the elders have tasked me with, and I'm very excited about that. We're finalizing that ministry plan. May I share a little bit about that, and what's that going to look like, and what it's not going to be? What it's going to look like is this. We are looking for men and women, and this has to be a sensitive position because as we're receiving prayer, we're receiving sensitive information. We're looking for men and women who would not give any counsel.

This isn't going to be the moment to be little mini biblical counselors. There's opportunity for that. It's not here. This is the moment we have to pray for one another, to lift high these requests to the Lord and ask for His guidance. We're looking for men and women who would be down front showing our goal and our value of our fourth pillar to be persistent prayers. That as people have need in our body, they would come forward, men praying with men, women praying with women.

That they would come forward, and we're just going to pray. Somebody might share something, and it's very intense and serious, and you're not going to say, "Well, let me tell you what I think you should do." You're going to say, "Let's go over to the Lord and let's pray together." And that's it. And I'll tell you what, I trust that will be an incredibly powerful and fruitful ministry of our church, but it takes the right people to do it. So we're finalizing this ministry plan.

We're going to be rolling that out as soon as we possibly can, and we're going to begin to start recruiting people who can do that. If you're interested, email me. You may be chosen, you may not. That's not a personal thing. That might be just how we're trying to lay all this out, okay? But at the end of the day, I want you to find joy and comfort in the fact that our church values prayer, and we're going to be lifting high the prayer requests of the body.

That's going to be something we do here on Sundays. That's something we're really going to ask you to write prayer requests and drop them in our boxes. I'm sort of embarrassed to say that I think our church gets two prayer requests a week. What does that show of you all, and what does that show of us? And that needs to change. We want to be a house of prayer, and we're taking that seriously. Help us in that. No judgment, no condemnation. Christ has come, amen?

And we need to pray over the needs of one another because we need it, because stuff's happening. I can tell you, when I was walking through the situation in my life, and my first spouse passed of ALS, I was supported by the prayers of so many of you faithfully praying without me ever asking for it, and I should've asked for it more. So come for prayer. Let us respond to the Word in that way and go to the Lord and call upon the name of the Lord, for He is great, and He can save.

Third, we need to process the Word. Look back at the text. Look at verses seven and eight. Even after the reading of God's Word, people were still processing it. They were still seeking to understand it. And Ezra had these men in place to help bring understanding further of the word of God. This is not something the prayer ministry is going to be doing, okay? If you come up to them with a question, they're going to say, "That's not for me." Go find one of the elders.

Go find one of the pastors. Small group leaders, this is what you guys do every time you meet, facilitating discussion around the word of God as we're discussing what's been preached, as we're diving deeper, looking at different paths. Okay, let's talk about why the word of God is important in value, and let's look at everything that scripture says about the Word. This is what our small group leaders service function do. Go find one of them. If you're in a small group, and you're processing through what the Word says, you can find a pastor.

You can go to your small group leader here at the church and have that discussion as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. For some of you, it's a blessing that some people sit, and they just stay where they are, and they are in that moment after the service, and they're responding to the word of God by processing through it. That's a great response. Continue to process the Word. I love that that's what our small group leaders do, and that's what our small groups are committed to.

And if you're not in a small group, you've got to come out Wednesday, the 16th. I hear it's going to be a great time. And if you haven't done that survey, then I'm not sure how they're going to run this whole thing. We're pulling random surveys online, and then we're all sort of toast. So we need some 61 responses. It's pretty good. We need some more. Not that I see it, or read it, or will pick it. But anyway, if you're not in a small group, come out.

It's going to be a great time of community, getting to know one another, hearing a little bit about what we're passionate about as we're purposefully making disciples. Fourth, we want to surrender to conviction. How do we develop a culture of response? We surrender to conviction. This is why the people are weeping in verse nine. The word of God brings conviction, which leads to repentance. Perhaps for you, that's repentance of a habitual sin in your life, a sin that you allow and you choose to keep happening over and over and over again, and you need to get rid of it.

You need to lay it aside. You need to put it off. Maybe that's correcting a particular attitude, getting rid of a vice, or maybe it's pursuing reconciliation or extending forgiveness. Maybe responding to conviction is God drawing you to salvation. Perhaps the gospel is ringing loud in your ears, and you need to accept that you are a sinner and repent of your wicked ways and declare Jesus as Lord and authority over your life. Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

And He is won. He is risen. He has defeated sin and death, and He, through by His power and by His death and resurrection, He can make you new. And maybe you need to respond and repent of your selfish authority to submit to Jesus Christ's ultimate authority in your life. If we seek to develop a culture of response, we must be willing to surrender to the conviction that the reading and preaching of God's Word brings. And fifth, we need to rejoice in the truth.

We need to rejoice in God's truth. Look at verse 10. "Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. So do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.' So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.' Then all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate with great gladness, because they understood the words which had been made known to them."

We rejoice because we understand the word of God, the Bible that is made known to us, and there is much joy to rejoice about. God is good. No matter what, God is good. God is sovereign. He is worthy to be praised. He is in control. So let us rejoice in the truth that the Lord is our strength always, and may that be witnessed in the countenance of our worship, our service, our interactions, our communications. The battle is won, church. Sin has been defeated.

Christ is risen and victorious, and all those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Amen? The first worship song I have ever written was based off this scene in Nehemiah 8. The imagery of the lyrics were taken from this beautiful picture of God's people calling on the perfect and holy name of God, and the bridge is taken right from verse six We're going to sing this in a moment. We've sung it before at our church, but the bridge says, "We lift our hands, we bow our hearts, we stand in awe of who you are."

It's right there in verse six, this amazing picture of worship we see in Nehemiah, chapter eight. And in a moment, we're going to have an opportunity to do the same. And I invite you to make responding to God's word as much of a priority as desiring it and being attentive to it. But before we do, let us assess our hearts for a moment. Can we do that? I want to invite you to assess your heart. In these few moments, I'm going to ask you to be still and ask yourself some questions.

The first is this: Do I actually desire the Bible? Do you actually desire the Bible, or do you just feel like you kind of need to desire it, but you don't? Do you desire the Bible? What does my schedule reveal about how much I really or actually value God's word? Am I giving it my best, or am I just giving it whatever I have left over at the end of the day? After everything else, does then the Bible come? What distractions have I allowed to compete with my attention to the word of God?

Devices, substitutions, substances, something that intentionally keeps me busy? When I'm confronted with the truth of God's word, do I surrender to it, or do I resist it, excuse it, or try to sort of swallow it internally and just move on? What has God spoken through his word today that requires a response from me? Is there something to confess? Something to repent of? Something to obey? Something to forgive? Something to change? Church, this is our desire to cultivate a culture of biblical preaching.

If we do that well, then we develop a culture of response to the word of God. Because biblical preaching cannot simply be something we say we value. Rather, it must be something we hunger for, listen to, and respond to. So when the book is opened each Sunday, what kind of people are we going to choose to be? Let's pray. Father, you alone are worthy. You alone can save. We call upon your name, the name above all names. You are great. You've poured yourself out for us, God, and your word is truth.

Thank you for your truth. May we respond to it accordingly in a way in which your name is due. We love you, Lord. You are worthy. In Jesus' name. Amen.