Nehemiah 10:1

Hey there, Cross Connection. Pastor Jason here. I am not Miles, as you can tell. I'm the Family Ministries Pastor here at Cross Connection Church, and this week we are looking at Nehemiah Chapter 10. So if you want to turn in your Bible there, we will get started in just a moment.

Let's pray as we get there. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your Word. Thank you for the opportunity, Lord, that we have to learn from it and grow. I pray that you would speak to us, that you would give us wisdom and discernment. Lord, help us to glorify you as we look at this and as we look at ourselves, Lord God. Help us to notice the comparisons and contrasts that we see from your text and in our hearts. Help us to be unflinching as we examine both of those things—the text and our hearts—and help us to grow closer to you. We pray these things, Jesus, in your name. Amen.

Alright, so Nehemiah Chapter 10. We covered Chapter 9 last week, and Chapter 9 was an interesting chapter because there was a praise and prayer walk through the history of the children of Israel. In Chapter 8, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, and in Chapter 9, they went through almost like an overview of the history of the children of Israel, focusing on captivity and the Israelites' actions that led them into captivity.

We saw that God was using their captivity over and over again to turn the hearts of His people back to Him. They had strayed; they had forgotten Him. When times got good, they forgot all about God and started doing all kinds of horrible things. Then they were brought into captivity, cried out to God, drew close to Him again, and God rescued them. Things got good again, and they forgot about God. It was a cycle that played out repeatedly.

At the very end of Chapter 9, the last verse—which we did not cover because it fits much better into Chapter 10—says in Chapter 9, verse 38, "In view of this, we are making a binding agreement in writing on a sealed document containing the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests." Those whose seals were on the document were the governor Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, and Zedekiah, along with 84 other people on that list. We won't cover all those people, but it's interesting that they say, "In view of this," in light of the history that we've had, "we are making a binding agreement." This reflects all that we have learned about our ancestors' inability to keep their vows.

And promises, we're going to make a promise and a vow. This time, we'll sign it and make it official; that way, we won't break it, right? We see the children of Israel go through this, and it highlights the dilemma of broken people and broken vows. We are broken people. We want the solemnity and the perceived power of a strong agreement, but broken people create broken promises.

The question we sometimes have is whether we are more likely to keep solemn vows versus just a normal decision. Webster's defines a vow as a solemn promise or assertion, specifically one by which a person is bound to an act, a service, or a condition. It is a binding commitment. In the Bible, a vow is generally a conscious, deliberate promise to do something, sometimes conditioned by an "if." For example, "If I break it, then X happens."

The elements of a vow that we see in Scripture include a penalty for breaking the vow and the implied ability to perform the vow. You cannot vow something that you cannot do. For instance, saying, "I vow I shall fly" is unrealistic. There has to be at least the implication that you can fulfill this commitment.

Additionally, there is a verbal assent, which is a clear affirmation of intent. Much like in a wedding ceremony, the requirements to fulfill the marriage vow include the question, "Do you want to get married?" and the verbal assent, "I do," along with a witness. Those three elements are essential. You don't need dresses, cakes, crowds, organs, music, or doves. You only need the question, the answer, and someone to witness it. When you have that, you're covered. Everything else is just icing on the cake, if you'll pardon the pun.

So, what situations do we encounter that require a vow? Generally, these situations have to be important. You don't typically say, "I vow to take out the trash." No, we don't generally do that.

We say, "I'm going to take the trash out." I mean, I guess if you're having serious problems with the trash, you might need to take a vow. But generally, it's a situation that's important, that has a lot of public scrutiny—something that's going to be visible to other people. Sometimes we require a vow when there's a lack of trust and also when there's something that carries responsibility or could lead to recourse, something that would require seriousness.

In our own lives, we see that the more paperwork involved, the greater the risk, either because of the value of the vow or because of the perception of the person making the vow. After all, a vow is only as good as the person making it. If you've ever purchased a house, you know the amount of paperwork that's involved. You have promissory notes, various documents, and you sign your name like 142 times. With that much paperwork and that many promises, nobody has ever defaulted on a home loan, right? Does anyone remember 2008, when people were walking away from homes like crazy after the crash? We see that the vow is only as good as the people making it, and sometimes conditions change.

Now, back in our chapter that we're looking at, in chapter 10, who is making this vow? When we jump down to verse 28, skipping all the different names, we see the priests, the Levites, gatekeepers, signers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters—everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God. They join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God's servant Moses.

So, who do we have? We have all of those people. The phrase that really stuck out to me is "everyone who is able to understand." It's all those who are present and qualified to make the vow. They understand it. Yes, I get it. Now, what do they vow? They vow to follow the law of God through God's servant Moses and to obey all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our God.

So, what are the chances they can pull this off? In the last chapter, they recounted five specific instances that the children...

The people of Israel broke their previous covenants or vows. So, it's not really looking that good, right? They went through five specific instances, and it is also mentioned many other times. The thing we have seen is that over and over again, they have broken that vow. We will look more into that later. Specifically, once we get to chapter 13, it will become abundantly clear how well this goes.

Back into our chapter here, in verse 30, we get to the details of the vow. The elements of the law, commands, ordinances, and statutes that they considered important enough to single out are outlined. The first one, in verse 30, states that they will not give their daughters in marriage to the surrounding peoples and will not take their daughters as wives for their sons. They specifically start out talking about intermarrying with the pagan tribes around them.

In Hebrews chapter 34, verse 15, it says, "Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, and their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods." We see the warning to the children of Israel all the way back in Exodus: if they marry into pagan peoples, their sons and daughters will end up turning away and selling themselves into the service of foreign gods.

It's a really good thing that in our modern times, we don't have to worry about any foreign gods, right? Nobody is going door to door saying, "Hey, we have this Baal, and it would be cool if you would find out." We don't have that as much, but look at Second Corinthians chapter six, verse 14. It says, "Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?"

The principle still stands. If we join with someone who has different beliefs, different morals, and different goals, we will be moved away from our own beliefs, morals, and goals. Relationships are hard enough between believers, but what happens when we have someone with different beliefs, different morals, and different goals? If we compromise, we still move closer together and further away from where we started. Even small compromises over time can lead to massive changes. Things we may not think we would ever do can happen if we give it enough time while being yoked together with an unbeliever and making compromises.

Maybe we'll go to church every other week. Maybe we'll go to church once a month, but we'll bring the kids and make sure they get to Sunday school. Pretty soon, all of a sudden, you're so far away from where you started, and you're left wondering, how did I get here? Small compromises make massive changes over time.

The question I have for you is this: Where are my friends with an enemy of God? Where am I tied to somebody who's an enemy of God? A follow-up question to that is, what are the things that God hates that I don't? It's a scary realization when I find out that God hates something, and yet I discover that either through my words or my actions, I don't hate that thing as much as God does. There is a list of things that God hates. What happens if, all of a sudden, I'm friendly with one of those things? Things are going to change in my life, and not for the better.

So, the question remains: Where are my friends with an enemy of God? Additionally, when we consider the aspect of our sons and daughters, there is a parenting element to this as well. There is nothing more important and long-lasting than our descendants. My house, no matter how great it is, will eventually fall to ruin. However, my children, their children, and their children's children after that will likely continue to thrive. That will be the most enduring legacy I can be a part of.

Am I training my children in those ways? Am I teaching them, as it says in James 4:4, "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God"? Are we training our children to understand that being friendly with the world puts them in a position of enmity with God? Are we teaching them that compromises with the world are acceptable in some cases?

Now, we probably won't say that directly to them, but are we showing them that through our actions? Reflecting on my own life and experiences, many of you know I was a youth pastor for just over 20 years. Two decades is a long time to observe changes in society.

When I started out in youth ministry, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights were like holy days. Schools did not schedule practices on those days because Sundays were for church and Wednesday nights were for youth group. Those days were kept apart. It didn't matter if you were on the football team, the volleyball team, or whatever; that Wednesday night and Sunday morning were sacred.

Now, if you look around, that's not the same way anymore. We practice for school sports five nights a week. On Sunday mornings, there are all kinds of travel ball and similar activities. Many of you may even be involved in that, where all of a sudden, you can't make it to church because you have a game. Then next week, it's another game, followed by a tournament, and then another tournament. Before you know it, what have we taught our kids? We've taught them that for really good reasons, we don't have to gather together with the body of Christ because we have 10-year-olds playing soccer. Really? Is that the message we want to teach?

What about the media we engage in? The music, the movies, the television shows—what are we teaching them through what we're watching? What are we teaching them through how we handle money? All of these things preach to our kids.

The second question I want you to think about, if you're writing these down, is: Does my parenting reflect my stated beliefs? If you have kids, this question is probably going to be painful. If you don't have kids, you might read this question and think, "Oh, of course, I will always do that," before you have kids. Once you have kids, you learn a lot. Your field of vision expands, and all of a sudden, you realize you don't know as much about parenting as you thought you did before having any kids. Just remember this in the back of your mind if you don't have kids. Write it down and save it for later. When you do have kids, you will look at it and think, "Oh, this is more painful."

Does my parenting reflect my stated beliefs? It was important enough for them to write it out in their contract, sign their names, and include all the other 85 names that were on that document. It's all there, witnessed, sealed, signed—everything. It was important enough for them to put it there, and that's why we're covering it.

Now, the next point they included is from verse 31: When the surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or Holy Day. We will also leave the land uncultivated in the seventh year and will cancel every debt.

Here we're starting to talk about buying and selling on the Sabbath. We already touched on youth sports happening on Sundays and Wednesday nights. What else has changed in our culture about the Sabbath day?

I went to school in a little town called Sioux Center, Iowa. It's in the northwest corner of Iowa, not close to anything or anybody. The closest thing that anybody would know about is Sioux Falls, which was an hour away. In the early 90s, there was only one place open to buy gas on a Sunday, and it was outside of town. It was not the one in town; you had to go slightly outside the town limits to buy gas. Restaurants weren't open, and on Sundays, you did not go out shopping. If you did, people could see you because they would be on their way to church, and there your car would be, filling up with gas at the one station outside of town on a Sunday. That was not keeping the Sabbath.

Now, am I saying that's right? I don't know. I don't know if the Sabbath means different things. We're going to get into that. But all I know is that back then, if you didn't keep it, it was evident to people, and people watched.

We have to look at what the Sabbath is and what it actually means. The Sabbath was modeled by God during creation. One day out of seven, He rested. For us, in the Old Testament, it was a day of rest, a day of reflection. There was no work beyond what was necessary to survive. It was meant to be a blessing, pointing the people towards the rest found specifically through the incarnation of Jesus.

But what did it become? Over time, it changed from a day of rest into a burden. It became a complication, a distraction, and a way of crushing sinners while elevating the Pharisees. The Pharisees got involved, and a lot of this can be traced back to right here in Nehemiah, where they made a vow to stick to certain practices. The Pharisees loved keeping vows; they thrived on them.

They had specific Sabbath day's distances, which was the amount of distance you were allowed to walk on the Sabbath, where one step further was considered work.

But this far was not work, and so they set up boundaries around the city. Just because we're human, we always try to figure out a way around any sort of boundary we have. They decided that anywhere you eat is your home. If you carried a lunch, you could walk to where they had the marker for the Sabbath day's journey, sit down, and eat something. Now that was your home, and you could walk another Sabbath day's distance because you weren't breaking the law. This became your home because you ate there, allowing you to move further. They found ways around that kind of thing.

In modern times, we still see this in Orthodox Jewish circles. I was watching "Property Brothers" a while ago. Some of you may have seen that show. It features two tall guys; one pretends to be a real estate agent, and the other pretends to fix houses. You're not quite sure if they're actually doing either one of those things. Anyway, I was watching them remodel and sell a house that had two complete kitchens. I thought, "Wow, that must be a duplex." But no, it was an Orthodox Jewish home where one kitchen is always kosher, and the other kitchen is not that big a deal.

It's okay if they don't eat kosher sometimes, but when it comes to the holidays or feast days, they only cook in the other kitchen because that kitchen is considered holy. The other kitchen isn't holy because they've never made cheeseburgers in it, but they have made cheeseburgers in the other one. You can't have cheeseburgers and be an Orthodox Jew because there's a rule in the Bible about boiling a calf in its mother's milk. This gets extrapolated to include milk, cheese, burgers, and cheese on burgers. You can't do that, as it would be unholy. Therefore, they have to build two kitchens: when you're unholy, you're not unholy in the holy kitchen, and you can only be unholy in the unholy kitchen.

On holy days, you must use the holy kitchen to cook holy food. Do you see how the Sabbath becomes something that's just crushing? This is no longer rest; it has become a list of 55 things to think about to ensure you're not breaking the Sabbath. The Sabbath was meant to provide a time of rest, a time to focus on God, and a time to find rejuvenation in the arms of our Savior. But the Pharisees loved it because it made them look good, allowing them to dominate others with their rules. It completely left the original intent, and what God meant to be a comfort and a blessing became a way for leaders to control God's people.

In the New Testament, Jesus is the Sabbath. He is our rest. So, what does that mean for us as Christians? The purpose of the Sabbath was to point to Jesus, but the procedure from the Old Testament is still important. It is meant to maintain the connection and to obtain rest in our Savior.

We need to set time apart. We need to make a sacrifice, as it were, in our schedules. We must protect those things. All of us have schedules and things going on in our lives. If we don't set time for what is important, those important things do not happen; they get eaten up by the things we need to do instead of the things we should do. Therefore, set a time in your schedule to sacrifice that time, dedicating it to spending with the Lord. One day out of seven is the model that was given to us, and it is a great one to use.

Now, does that mean we always have that one day out of seven? No, sometimes things happen, and we do not. However, it is important enough that we should strive to achieve it. If we want to live as we are called as Christians, we need to build in Jesus' rest time. We can quickly burn ourselves out or wear down the people around us if we do not make time to rest in Jesus.

We see the effects of not taking a Sabbath rest. We may find ourselves becoming short-tempered, or we can observe others becoming irritable, worn out, dejected, depressed, and numb to our needs and the needs of others. It is especially hard because we live in a culture that values work. Our culture loves work; it loves the grind and the hustle. We are encouraged to work hard and do whatever it takes. Rest is often seen as something for the weak.

When we witness a backlash against this mentality, as people begin to face burnout, our culture cries out for self-care. However, the self-care that our culture promotes is often selfish care. It becomes about spending time with oneself, ensuring personal needs are met, and saying, "Stop bothering me; it's me time." This is not the Sabbath. It is not resting in Jesus; rather, it is pampering our flesh, which drives us further away from what we truly need.

We need to set time to be in communion with our Savior. Whether it is hiking, attending church on Sunday, or sharing a meal with family, we must find that time and protect it.

We need to make sure that we don't turn Jesus into an excuse to overwork, because that will turn us pharisaical in a heartbeat. If all of a sudden it's like, "Well, no, Jesus is requiring this work for me. Jesus is requiring me to do this," it happens a lot of times to people in ministry. They think, "No, what I'm doing is so important. It's so much more important than the rest." However, the rest is a commandment. It's more important than the commandment.

Oh, no, you don't understand. It's really like, "No, no, no, brother, sister, stop, rest." God rested during creation, and that wasn't hard for Him. Creation was just Him speaking. Our work is difficult and taxing. The world constantly drags us away from our Savior.

Spend the time. Point three in your outline is the question that I want you to think about: How am I finding Sabbath rest? How am I finding that? If you don't find it, if you don't look for it, you won't find it. If you don't find it, the need will find you, and then it's going to be catastrophic many times.

The next point in their vow that they call out specifically states that they will impose the following commands on themselves: to give an eighth of an ounce of silver yearly to the service of the house of the Lord our God, the bread displayed before the Lord, the daily grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbath and new moon offerings, the appointed festivals, the holy things, and the sin offerings to atone for Israel and for all the work of the house of our God.

They have cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people for the donation of wood by their ancestral families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring the wood to our Lord's house to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law.

We will bring the first fruits of our land and of our fruit trees to the Lord's house year by year. They will also bring the firstborn from their livestock, the firstborn from their children, and the firstborn of their herds and flocks. They go through this whole list of all the different things that they are going to do.

We are going to bring the first fruits of our grain, everything that we produce, and then we are going to set up a schedule, as seen in verses 38 and 39, where people will be in charge of making sure these things are brought into the temple. It is important that these offerings are given, which is everybody's favorite.

Tithing. Hey, hey, tithing! Ooh, I didn't know I was going to get a tithing message today. It's in the text, so you're going to get a tithing message. Sorry! Try not to think about it as such; come along with me.

This section lists ten different offerings, from silver to grain to bread to wine to oil. All these different things—ten different offerings. On Sundays, we generally do one offering, so you already feel like you're ten times ahead or behind. I don't know. In our current culture, we tend to reduce tithing or offerings to just money. That's the only thing that we have to offer, as if all we are is just a money farm, which is so ridiculous. Your time and your talents are so much more valuable than money. God has infinite financial resources, and right now, some people are thinking, "Oh, I don't need to give." No, you still need to give because God calls us to do that, and we're going to cover that in a little bit.

But it's not just about money. Are you tithing or giving out of your time and your talents, and not just your treasure? After listing those ten different offerings, it also talks about a tenth of all that their land produces. This is where some people say, "Well, you know, that's the old covenant. Tithing is not something we have to do as Christians because that was the old covenant, and in the new covenant, we're not required to tithe." Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Guess what? Paul talks about this. Lots of people in the New Testament talk about it. Jesus talks about money quite a bit in the New Testament.

So if this is your thought, hold on. Try not to be too upset, but realize that we will get there. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 to 15, there's a section there. If you want to read it later, go for it. It teaches us that God loves a cheerful giver. We know that passage: God loves a cheerful giver, and what we give is very much related to what we receive. So those two things are connected. This is New Testament; this is Paul talking about it. You want to receive? Then give.

Now, it's very easy to fall into the whole "name it and claim it" mentality, where you give seed money. I still remember getting a flyer from Reverend Ike. He sent me a power of God cross in the mail. It was this little paper cross, and if I wrapped money around that and put it under my pillow and slept on it...

I sent it to him, then God would miraculously give me all kinds of money, and I would be rich. He uses this verse out of context and treats it terribly to try to make money off of me. That's not what it's about. It's about an offering to God. What you give to God, He’s going to give back more than you can imagine. He says that in several different places in Scripture.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 tells us that our treasure should be stored in heaven, not on earth, and that what we treasure is what our heart values. We don't treasure what our heart values; our heart values what we make our treasure.

Another thought for parents, grandparents, and people who may potentially be parents or grandparents at some point is: Is your greatest treasure going to be in heaven? When I became a grandparent, my whole perspective changed. All of a sudden, I was looking at things from a grandparent's perspective. When I was raising my kids, that was kind of an all-encompassing thing. What I thought about was, "Oh my goodness, raising my kids," and it felt like that was all I could see sometimes.

But then, when I had a granddaughter, I started thinking further down the line. What can I do for my granddaughter? What can I do to make sure that she walks with Jesus? Because that's where my treasure is. My treasure is my children and my grandkids. What can I do to ensure that my greatest treasure is going to be in heaven?

Parents and grandparents, the job that we do is so vitally important. Don't get distracted by all the other things that come up. If our kids and our grandkids are walking with Jesus, think of the effect that's going to have over time. Right now, I'm one person following Jesus, with a wife who's following Jesus, and we have raised five kids who are following Jesus.

What happens when those five kids have, God willing, several kids each? All of a sudden, it’s like this massive Holy Spirit pyramid scheme that's going to change the world, but only if we can do our part. I need to ensure that my greatest treasure is going to be in heaven with me.

Also, in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23, which is easy to remember as 23-23, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness while also meticulously tithing.

On all their produce, Jesus talks about them going through and tithing on particular seeds. For example, they would have their mint seed counted: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and one for God. They spent their time being so focused on ensuring their tithe was perfect that they neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Jesus doesn't instruct them not to tithe; that's important. However, he rebukes them for neglecting all the other things. It's not just enough to plunk your money down and think that covers it. We are also held responsible for justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

In Mark chapter 12, verses 41-44, Jesus points out that the value of the gift is not determined by the amount. This is the story of when they were sitting outside the temple, where there was a big metal horn for people to drop their offerings. People would come by and clang their metal coins into the horn, making a loud noise. Then, there was this one old widow who dropped in a portion of a coin. Jesus exclaimed, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on! Did you see what just happened there?" The onlookers were probably thinking someone had tried to take something out, but no, she gave everything she had, and Jesus commended her for that.

Jesus commends her because she gave everything. It's not about how much you give; it's about how much you have to give and the correlation there. So, point four, or question four that I want you to write down and think about is: What treasure am I cheerfully giving to God, and what treasures am I hiding from Him? What things am I easily giving away? For instance, it may be easy for me to give this, but really hard to give that. Maybe it's really hard for me to give up my time, or perhaps it's difficult for me to give money. Whatever your hang-up is, God will be faithful. If you ask Him, "Hey, what am I hiding from you?" He is faithful to tell us. We have to be willing to ask the question, though.

Here we are. The children of Israel have made a covenantal vow with God. Will they keep it? No, they will not. We don't even make it out of the last couple of chapters here in Nehemiah before the Levites have gone home. The enemies of God are living in the temple, trade is happening on the Sabbath, and the people are no longer bringing in their promised offerings. It is a mess. They were so completely messed up, and Nehemiah was gone for, they are guessing, about ten years.

In ten years, everything that they had vowed to do is gone. All the specific vows they made are just gone. They've left; they're no longer even trying to keep those. Well, it's a good thing that we do so much better, right? Oops.

If we are people who cannot keep our vows, why do we even bother making them? Is there a point to making a promise to be faithful when we know that, on some level, we're all faithless? What does God want from us in all of this?

We're going to look at some passages here. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 4 and 6, says, "When you make a vow to God, don't delay fulfilling it because He does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. Better that you do not vow than you vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands?"

Here, we see that if you make a vow, you shouldn't delay in fulfilling it. Do what you said you would do, but it's better not to vow than to vow and not fulfill it. So be careful; let your words be few. Don't go into that, "Well, I swear to God I'm going to..." No, don't swear to God. Just say, "I think I'm going to try this," or "I'm going to do that." I'm telling you, don't make unnecessary vows.

Numbers chapter 30, verse 2, states, "If you make a vow, keep your vow." Deuteronomy chapter 23, verses 21 to 23, says, "If you make a vow to God, do it. Don't be slow to keep it. Keep it in a hurry because you're required." However, verse 22 adds, "If you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin." You're not going to be in trouble for not making a vow, so don't make unnecessary promises.

Don't make promises that you can't keep. And husbands, I know sometimes we do this. I see this in myself. Maybe I shouldn't include everybody else; perhaps I should just be willing to absorb this myself. I have a tendency to tell my wife yes on things that, realistically, I have no intention or ability to do sometimes. We really need to work on saying, "Yeah, yeah, no, I'll take care of that," when in reality, if I sat down and thought about it, I would probably realize that I have no possibility of actually doing that. But rather than admit that to my wife and damage my pride, it's like, "Oh, no, no, we..."

I'll take care of that. Or I know I don't want to take care of that, but I'll say it just because I don't want to have the argument. Sweetie, forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Don't make vows you don't intend to keep. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus himself says, "Don't take an oath at all, either by heaven because it's God's throne or by the earth because it's his footstool." Let your yes be yes and your no mean no. Anything more than that is from the evil one. He says to just make your yeses yeses and your nos nos.

Leviticus presents an interesting point. In Leviticus chapter five, it talks about making a vow and recognizing that you can't keep it. It says, "If someone incurs guilt in these cases, he is to confess that he has committed that sin." You are to confess. If you've taken a vow that you know you cannot follow through on, go and say that. You know, sweetie, I said I was going to do that, but I can't do that. I am not going to do that. I have not done that. I am sorry. Forgive me.

In that same passage in Leviticus five, it discusses making a sin offering and a guilt offering. So what's the point of making vows if we know that we're not capable of perfectly keeping them? Our society is built on trust. Our relationships with each other are built on trust. Our relationship with God is built on trust. We trust that He is going to be faithful even when we cannot be perfectly faithful.

But there is a value to a vow. It creates a bond of trust, which can be damaged when it's broken, absolutely. Without that level of trust, what do we see? Look at the most typical vow that we are going to take as people. The most typical vow that most people are going to take is a wedding vow: "I vow to love, honor, and cherish, forsaking all others as long as we both shall live." Are we going to love perfectly? No. Are we going to cherish perfectly? No. Are we going to honor perfectly? No. But it gives us the aim. It gives us the goal. It provides us with fences, as it were, to keep us focused.

Look at the difference between relationships built on a vow and relationships without a vow.

Look at the health of the people involved. Married couples tend to live longer. The relationship is deeper because there is an expectation of stability and permanence. Just not vowing anything is not a good way to live. However, excessively vowing all the time is not advisable either. Keep your promises. That great prophet of old, Turbo Man, in "Jingle All The Way," reminded us to always keep our promises if we want to keep our friends. If you make a vow, stick to it.

Alright, so back into Nehemiah chapter 10, they finish this out by saying, "We will not neglect the house of our God." That's the very last thing; they are not going to neglect the house of their God. They recognized that the presence of God was vital for their people. Without Him, they were going to be captured and enslaved.

In 1 Corinthians, let's look at chapter 6, verses 19 to 20. It says, "Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body." They were not going to neglect the house of the Lord, which was the temple, because they knew that His presence was important. That was what kept them going. That was where their provision, protection, and guidance all came from.

Well, do you not know that your body, my body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who we have from God? I need to glorify God with my body. How have we neglected the house of God? Is there some portion of our temple that needs to be renovated? This is the final question here that we're going to look at. We're not going to talk a lot about it because this is one I want you to take with you and marinate on.

So write this down, memorize it, maybe put it in your phone, or email it to yourself so you see it on Monday. The final question is: Where am I neglecting the house of the Lord? And when I find neglect in the house of the Lord, what do I need to do? For me, it helped to look at it like a physical house. When there's a problem with your house, you need to fix it.

You need to be ruthless in some cases. So, pretend, for the sake of argument, that the temple of the Holy Spirit is as important to us as our own physical houses. I can tell you, as a person who has had three different slab leaks in my house, when I'm walking and a piece of tile feels warm, it gets my attention. I know what a problem this is. I know what it's like to have to break up not just the tile in the bathroom, but the foundation, dig down, find the pipe, and replace it. Hearing the insurance companies say, "Yeah, we're not going to cover this again. We're only going to cover a percentage of it," leaves you feeling stuck. You might wonder, "Why do I pay for my homeowner's insurance if you guys aren't going to help me out here?"

Then, all of a sudden, they start talking about having to re-pipe and going through the ceiling. You think, "But we have a kitchen island with a sink. How are we going to do that?" We need to be ruthless in taking care of our own houses. If there's a slab leak, we fix it. If there's a roof leak, we fix it. If there's something structural, like termites, we tent the house and poison everything that's not good in there.

Brothers and sisters, we need to be that ruthless with the temple of the Holy Spirit within us. If there are things inside us—and there are, in you and in me—we need to be ruthless with those things. We need to ask God, "Where am I neglecting your temple, Lord? What am I doing? What is going on in my heart and mind that needs to stop?" Then, we need to take the steps to fix it.

If we can't fix it ourselves, like many things in our homes, I don't play very much with plumbing or electricity because I don't know what I'm doing. I tend to cause more trouble, so I need to call somebody. If there are things going on in your life that you can't seem to get a hold of, get help. Get in touch with someone. Find a strong brother or sister to walk with you through this. But you have to be ruthless because if we allow those things to fester in the temple, bad things are going to happen.

I'm going to give you a preview of what we're going to find in chapter 13. Nehemiah goes away for a while, and when he comes back, he walks in to find the people buying and selling on a Sunday. The same people he threw out before, telling them not to come here and sell things on Sunday, are back, and the people are buying and selling. As he goes into the temple, he finds that Tobiah, whom we got rid of many chapters ago, is back as well.

Tobiah has now taken up residence in the temple, living in the storerooms. These storerooms were meant for the offerings of the people, which were intended to take care of the Levites and those who were serving at the temple, performing the sacrifices for the people's atonement. However, the Levites no longer have any provision because Tobiah is occupying the space where the offerings were supposed to be stored for them. As a result, the Levites have gone home; they have left Jerusalem and returned to their cities to farm, raise crops, and tend to their flocks because they needed to survive, and the provision was not there for them.

The people are no longer able to bring their offerings in the same way. They cannot find atonement as they did before because the Levites are not present to perform the sacrifices. There is someone in the temple who should not be there, and because the Levites are absent to warn the people, they are buying and selling on Sunday, committing iniquities, and breaking their vows. There is nobody to remind them that they are not supposed to do this.

This situation all goes back to the decision made by the high priest to allow Tobiah to live there due to some connection they had. There was a fellowship between light and darkness that permitted Tobiah to be in the temple, which displaced the food meant for the Levites and ultimately displaced the Levites themselves. Consequently, the people do not have anyone to offer sacrifices or remind them of their promises, leading them to commit iniquities. All of this stems from the fact that someone was in the house of the Lord who did not belong there.

If we allow similar situations in our own lives, a cascade effect occurs, as Pastor Nick and I discussed. What may not seem like a big deal at first can escalate into a significant issue. We must be ruthless about what is in the temple because everything else will flow from that.

So, I ask you again: where are you neglecting the house of the Lord? I pray that you will make this your prayer, and when God answers it, that you will be ruthless in addressing it.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would reveal to us where we are neglecting the house of the Lord.

Where are things going on that shouldn't be going on? Where are things that we're allowing in there that shouldn't be in there? Father God, help us to identify those things and then, Lord, to fix those things. Help us to confess it to You, to give it to You, and to take the safeguards, Lord God, to protect ourselves from it coming back. Forgive us, Father God, where we have fallen short, where we have allowed those things to come live in the temple.

Lord, I pray that as You are faithful to reveal those things to us, You will provide the comfort, strength, and motivation, Lord Jesus, for us to deal with it. And, Lord, if it's too much for us, help us to have the courage and humility to reach out and ask for help. Whether it's just asking somebody to pray for us, filling out a prayer card and asking the prayer team to pray for us, or seeking counsel on how to deal with situations, Lord, help us to be those who are not so prideful that we can't address what's going on.

So, Father God, be glorified in Your people. Thank You so much that You will make Your home within us, that Holy Spirit, You will live in our hearts. What an amazing thing that is! Father God, help us to remember that, help us to realize how holy that is, and help us to treat it that way. Thank You, Jesus, for all that You've done for us. Forgive us where we fall short, strengthen us while we're doing well, and thank You, Lord, that we can find our rest in You.

We pray these things, Jesus, in Your name. Amen. God bless you guys. I know sometimes this can seem heavy, but remember the things that we're all tied together here: Sabbath, sacrifice, and the temple. All of those things will work together in our lives; they will give us joy, they will give us strength, and all kinds of good things will flow out of that if we keep them all in the right order.

So, I pray that as you ask these questions to yourself again, those will help you to get those things in order. God bless you guys. Love you, and have a great week.