HOW CAN I LOVE GOD?

Nehemiah 9:38-10:39
(Read 9:38; 10:28-39)
Key Verse: 10:29b

“…bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord.”

After the Jerusalem wall was rebuilt in 52 short days, the first thing that the people of Israel did was that they had a church meeting. They all got together and Ezra, the spiritual leader got up and had a 5-6 hour message teaching through the first five books of the Old Testament and the words to the scriptures got into their hearts, minds, and soul. They began to remember all the good things God did for them. They meditated on the scriptures again and again until their hard hearts were softened and began to see who God is. They began to realize that God is Holy, compassionate, slow to anger and loving (9:17). And they also realized they have been unfaithful and sinned greatly against their Father God (9:33). It’s always good for God’s people to turn to the scriptures and meditate on it. It makes us see who God really is and how much God loves us and bears with us. It also makes us see who we are and how much we need God.  So they repented of their sins and, now in Nehemiah 10, they decided that they want to live an on going life of repentance. They wanted to live a new life with God, and make a heart commitment to God.  In brief, they wanted to love God. So, how did they love God, and how can we love God?

I.  Commit yourself to God

Look at chapter 9:38, “"In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it." In this verse “a binding agreement” means to make a commitment to God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are making a commitment to him to live a new life.  By God’ grace, God sent his son to save us from slavery to sin by dying on the cross. St Paul says in Romans that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we can now put to death our sin. In Jesus, we are no longer slaves to sin. Instead, we can now come to God freely and confess our sins and live with God.  When we begin a new life, we also enter into a binding agreement, but instead of putting it in writing, we put into our hearts. The Bible describes this as a covenant. What is covenant? To God a covenant is a relationship, a special relationship. A covenant is like marriage. When a person is blessed to marry, he or she enters into a covenant relationship. All of us here probably have attended a wedding ceremony. We hear couples exchange vows and obligations, and make promises before God about how they should treat one another. In 1999, I went to Korea and met my wife Helen, and then four days later, we got married. So on our wedding day, we exchanged vows, pledges and promises with one another. Since our wedding ceremony was in Korea, the pastor who ordained our ceremony spoke only in Korean, so I basically answered “I do” whenever the pastor would point the microphone at me. “I do” is my life commitment to God and to Helen. A Christian is one who is married to Jesus and committed to Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus is our Bridegroom and we are the bride.  And so we are to be committed to Jesus, as a husband is committed to his wife. We should have a vine and branch relationship with him (Jn 15:5). Now why should we have a covenant relationship with God and commit ourselves to God? From Jim Cook’s message we learned that repentance leads to joy.  Repentance is confessing our sins and also letting God lead our life.  Jesus said that in order for us to bear fruit which makes us happy, we need to remain in him.

Bearing fruit makes a person happy. Galatians 5:22 are the fruits that make us happy: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. If we want to grow in God’s image, we need to remain in God and be committed to him. If you want to have a miserable Christian life, then live a double life. You will be miserable, guaranteed! Look at the people of Israel. They lived a double life.  One day they followed God and the next day they followed the world. Then what was the result of their double life? They were so miserable!  So many bad things happened to them. If you want to have a healthy Christian life and be a happy Christian, you have to be faithful to God and to his promises. It’s ust like marriage. Do you want your marriage to be healthy and long lasting? You have to be faithful to your marriage. God’s desire is for us to be faithful to God and committed to him.

I thank God for my parents because through them, I learned a very important thing about marriage. I remember that when I was young they would always fight, and watching them fight is worse than watching the ultimate fighting championship. But despite all those terrible things, they stayed together, and they kept their marriage. Now every time I visit them on Saturdays, they look like they’re best friends. They always go to grocery store, and to work together. They showed an example that in marriage, no matter what your differences are, you never ever give up on your marriage. If you stay together and commit to each other, soon you will be best friends.  And I think God was pleased that they made them best friends. Sometimes Christian life is so hard that we want to break free or take a break from our relationship with God. But we should never ever do so.  When we hold on to his promises, God blesses us with joy. When we are faithful to him, God gives us his peace, which is far better than the unstable peace of the world (Jn 14:27). 

Verses 1-27, are the names of those who signed the covenant and Nehemiah their leader was the first person to sign. As a leader he went ahead of them to show an example. A leader must always go ahead of the ones under him. Verse 28, says that the rest of the people also made the commitment, they were the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples. So from verses 29 to 39, I would like to share 4 promises that the people of Israel made to God. This was their commitment to God. This was how they would love God.

II. Obey the Word of God – the first thing they pledged themselves to was to obey God’s word. Look at verse 29. “All these now join their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord.”  In order for them to live as God’s chosen people, they needed to know who God is through the scriptures, that is the Bible. Last week, Dr. Ben taught us that the Bible is “Basic instructions before leaving earth.” If we want to know God and know why we are here, what our meaning and purpose in life is, we need to go to the Bible because the Bible is God’s word (2 Ti 3:16). The Bible is God’s way of speaking to us. The Bible is also the living word of God. It does something to us when we read it. It gives us peace that is out of this world (Jn 14:27). It is because the word of God is food for our soul and we human beings need it because we have a physical body and a spiritual body (Ge 2:7). The Bible is also the highest law and highest authority. So we should test everything by the Bible, such as whether the advices, counsels we get from friends or anybody or anywhere are Biblical or not. The Bible tells us what sin is, things that hinder and break our relationship with God. For us Christians we believe what the Bible says: that Jesus was sent by God, that Jesus is the Promised Messiah and Savior, who died on the cross to save us from our sins, and we now live a new life in God. And that we need the word of God and live a life of prayer to stay spiritually healthy.  So in the same way, the people of Israel acknowledged that they desperately needed the word of God, and they want to honor it, obey it and live by it.

So the first thing that we need to do as a Christian is to obey God’s word.  We must learn to love the Bible until the words in the bible becomes appetizing to us. And we can not just obey words in the Bible that we like, such as “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:4). Then we ignore the words in the Bible that we don’t like, such as “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). If you believe that the Bible is the word of God, ask God to soften your heart to pray for and love your enemies.

III. Marry a godly person. Look at verse 30. "We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.” God has given us a new life where we can restore our relationship with God, grow in his image and live as children of God. God wants us to bear fruit spiritually and physically. So we establish a family based on the Bible, raise our kids to know God, love God, and that they too may do the same for their own kids and generations to come. This is one of God’s ways of advancing his kingdom on earth. When I began to believe in God, God gave me a clear view of what marriage is. I wanted to marry a woman who loves Jesus and who has a love relationship with God, so that together we would establish a spiritual family and be used by God in spreading the gospel. After marriage, we named our daughter Faith Hope Miranda as our prayer for her to live by Faith in God and in His promises. Daniel of the Old Testament is a man of prayer and a man of vision. So we named our son Daniel Vision as our prayer for him to be like Daniel.  But there is a personal prayer involved there. If you are a Christian, you should marry someone who has the same heart as you. Thus, if you are a Christian you should marry someone who loves Jesus. The most important commandment for a Christian is to love God with all your heart (Dt 6:5). So, if you marry a Christian, you will both love Jesus, pray, read the Bible, go to church, and serve the church. Both of you should have the same vision about your family and your future. And as parents, it is our duty to make sure that our kids are raised to love God and serve Jesus, and for them to be with someone who also loves God and serves Jesus. If your son says, “But Dad, she’s hot!” Then tell him, “Well, so is Hell.” If your daughter says, “He believes in God!” Then tell her, “Well, so do demons and you don’t want to marry a devil.” Of course, there’s more to it than that.

I have a daughter and I believe all fathers here who have daughters agree with me that daughters are the hardest to raise. Why? Because of boys. As soon as we found out that our baby is a girl, we already have a picture of what’s going to happen. When they grow up to be teenagers, we are going to be spending a lot of time protecting them from boys who will do anything to get her. We know because we were once teenage boys. As a father we need to make sure that our daughter loves Jesus, so that she will marry someone who sincerely loves God, because real men are those who sincerely love God.  

IV. Worship God as your first priority. Look at verse 31. “When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.” Out of their love and obedience to God’s command, they were wiling to close their stores and business in order for them to gather together to worship for God on the Sabbath day. This takes us to the book of Genesis. God created the world in 6 days. On the 7th day, God rested, not because God was tired of making all those huge stars, but God set apart a day for us to find rest and renewal in Him.  We need to have a day of rest, right? One must learn that true rest only comes from God and not from vacations, friends, and movies.

In Exodus 20, God commanded the Israelites to honor the Sabbath day. God’s people are to work 6 days and they are to separate the seventh day as the day of worship.  From the Old Testament God’s people worship God on Saturday.  Then the early Christians transitioned their Sabbath day to Sunday, which is the day Jesus rose from the dead and won the victory over sin and death.  As a Christian we must be willing to put our one day of worship with God as a priority, meaning we are wiling to put aside other things on the day of worship, such as not to work on Sunday, or willing to discuss with our employer to set up a schedule where we can be free to worship God on Sunday. We do this out of our love and obedience to God.  God knows our heart and God will reward us accordingly. Matthew 6:33 is real!  It says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all these things will be given to you as well.”    Ask any Christian who faithfully obeyed this promise of God will tell you all of the blessings they received from it. 

V. Give your first and your best to God.  Verse 32-39 talks about the financial obligations that they were willing to commit so that church and ministry can be funded and that the work of God may continue. In short, when we love God we also give our money for the work of God. Often, how we use our money shows us what is in the center of our hearts. Here, we need to understand as God’s people that everything we have belongs to God.  Our money, time, talents, skills, education, and so on are gifts from God.  Remember the time when you prayed for a proper job, and for a promotion, and God gave it you? Or when you prayed to graduate, or master a musical instrument and God gave you the victory? God blessed us in all these things for a purpose: That someday God may use it for his mission. God wants us to share them generously, willingly and sacrificially to support the work of God.  Out of our love for God, we can share and give to God.  Here at West Loop, our offerings and tithes are funds that we use to support our church and ministry. We also support our missionaries around the world specifically the families of Missionary John and Maria Peace in Ukraine, the families of Missionary Vladimir Point in Turkey and Dr. William Altobar in the Philippines where they are currently building a new church.  They are God’s servants who are living sacrificial lives to advance God’s kingdom. Here in America, we are so blessed because we are living in the land of opportunity and the land of the free. Over there is a lot different. So they need our prayers and support. By supporting them financially, we are participating in advancing God’s kingdom in those countries. Finally, in the last verse of chapter 10, they said "We will not neglect the house of our God." 
In this passage, briefly, we learn how to love God:

1. Commit yourself to God.
2. Obey the word of God.
3. Marry a godly person.
4. Worship God as your first priority.
5. Give your first and your best to God.

We learn that in order for one to have a joyful Christian life, we must make a commitment to God. It is because God desires a covenant relationship with us, like a marriage relationship. We need to have a personal decision to grow in God’s image, do something for God out of our love and obedience to God, and make an effort to maintain our relationship with God. For example, some women at West Loop are getting up early to read the Bible, meditate on it, and pray together. Every Saturday morning, men at West Loop meet together and the meeting is called “The Quest for Authentic Manhood,” where we men learn how to be a real man, the way God intended it to be. These are some of the ways we can grow and maintain our love relationship with God. Summer time is here, and when we think of summer, we think of barbecue, summer blockbuster movies, also camping, vacations and not much of heavenly things.  But let’s make even one small decision to do something to love God. Let’s keep our Christian life healthy and active. Especially, we can make an effort to read the Bible and study the Bible and have personal time with our Father God. Amen.