Good evening. I've got to tell you, I started teaching for the first time this year. It's been wonderful. It really has been wonderful. But I have a lot of new kids. I'm teaching middle school math. I'm teaching middle school science. And I'm teaching high school government. And I got a lot of new kids. So we got in the math class. And I said, you know, I really need to see where these kids' math skills are, simple arithmetic skills. So I said, I'm going to give them some speed drills, 100 questions on a page, one of addition, one of subtraction, one of multiplication, one of division. I'm not worried about how far you get through it. It just helps me to know how ingrained those skills are. So I did. I gave them an L addition one, and I gave them a subtraction one, and I gave them a multiplication one, and I gave them a division one. Five minutes each, 100 problems. They got done, and it was great. It really was. They did really well. I was really pleased. Except I forgot the fact that somebody has to grade them. And so there I was, Monday night, grading 6,400 math problems. I said, this was a rookie mistake. I will not make that mistake again. Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 8. You're going to have to give me some grace tonight because our passage has a whole lot of Hebrew names that I am going to absolutely slaughter. So, if you would please give me the grace, I would greatly appreciate it. Nehemiah chapter 8. We're going to read five verses in Nehemiah chapter 8, beginning in verse 3. And if we could all stand for the reading of God's word. Nehemiah chapter 8, beginning in verse 3, reading all the way down through verse 8. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until the midday, before the men and the women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattathiah, and Shema, and Ananiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseah on his right hand, and on his left hand, Padiah, and Mashael, and Malchiah, and Hashem, and Hashbadanah, Zachariah, and Mashulam. Again, give me grace. 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. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah, Jamin, Aqab, Shabbatai, Hodegaiah, Maasiah, Kalida, Azariah, Jazbad, Hanun, Pelaiah, and the Levites caused the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. Father in heaven, we ask now that you would help us as we go into your word. Lord, help us to understand, help us to hear, Father, help us to do. Lord, work in each heart as only your Holy Spirit can tonight. We ask this all in your precious name. Amen. You may be seated. Again, thank you for the grace. My Hebrew is weak. If you have ever heard or seen Handel's Messiah live, you know that it is quite an experience. Now, I have never gotten to see it live. I have only gotten to see a video recording of it. Handel's Messiah is considered one of the greatest musical pieces ever written, and it's remarkable. It's long, and apparently, as I understand, it was written in only 18 days. Beautiful piece of music. But there's a tradition with Handel's Messiah. Any time that the Hallelujah Chorus begins, everyone in the audience stands. Now it is said, according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, it is said that this started when it opened in London in the 1700s, that King George II was so moved during that premiere of the Messiah that he stood and everyone else in the theater followed so as not to offend him. Even today, if you go to Handel's Messiah, when the Hallelujah Chorus begins, it seemed, as I understand it, again, I've never seen it live, but as I understand it, everyone in the audience stands during the course of the Hallelujah Chorus. There is another time in history that something similar happened. Back in the time when Nehemiah had built the wall, and if you ever read the book of Nehemiah, fascinating, fascinating story. The work of God from the beginning of Nehemiah through the building of the wall to the aftermath of building the wall is just absolutely remarkable. But after Nehemiah built the wall, Ezra the priest comes out and they have built him a pulpit of wood and he steps up and he stands on it and he opens the book of the law and everybody in this crowds the street so that they can hear the law. When we observe this hundreds of years later, we begin to get an idea of the value that the people of Israel at this time placed upon the Word of God. In fact, what we see in Ezra chapter 8 is very similar to what our response to God's Word should be. So, how should I respond to God's Word when the book is opened? Number one, we see that the people of Israel, who went back to build the law, when the book of the law was opened, they listened to it. They listened to it. Look back at Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 3. And he, being Ezra, read therein before the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand, catch this, and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. You see, when Ezra opens the book of the law, the people of Israel savored every moment of it. Their ears perked up. It's like when a kid knows that they're not supposed to hear something. If you've had kids, you know what I'm talking about. Their ears perk up. I swear sometimes my children can't hear me calling them up the stairs, but if I start to whisper, all of a sudden they know everything. In the same way, when Ezra opened the book of the law, the nation of Israel, the people of the nation of Israel, their ears perked up. They were attentive to it. They were ready to listen. Not only were they ready to listen though, and don't take this the way it's going to sound, they endured listening. Notice back in our passage in verse 3, how long were they listening? It says in that verse, from morning to midday. Can you imagine having a four hour long church service? I can't. I can't. My attention spans about 35 minutes. Okay? Just call me a millennial. My attention spans only about 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, my brain starts going all sorts of places. These people had a four hour long reading of the law. But not only did they have a four-hour long reading of the law, they stood during it. Not only did they stand during it, they're not standing in a nice air-conditioned building, they're standing in the middle of a street. Their willingness to listen to the law of God is seen in what they endured in order to hear it. Now let me ask you guys. What is our desire when it comes to the word of God? Do we read it regularly? Is it something that comes with us on Sunday morning to church because, you know, it looks bad if I don't have my Bible on Sunday morning when I show up to church? And then when I get home from church on Sunday, it just goes on a shelf and it sits there? Or are we interacting with this book regularly? Do we read it regularly? If you do read it regularly, what is your attitude when you read it? Are you reading it out of necessity? Are you reading it as a chore? When you wake up in the morning and you open God's Word and you read it, is it to cross that off your to-do list? What is your attitude toward the Bible? What is your desire about the Bible? Let's take it a step further. Let's say we are reading it. Let's say we are reading it regularly. Let's say we are reading it regularly and we want to read it. Are we reading it listening to God, listening for God to speak to us through it? This book right here is God's communication to mankind. This is the very words that God wants you to know. This is all of the information that God has reserved for you to learn about Him. So as I open it, am I opening it waiting for God to speak to me through it? You see, the nation of Israel, as they're in the land, they are not just, oh, you know, this is a ritual that we go through. Oh, this is something that we have to do. Everybody else is doing this, so I might as well join in. This is, I am craving to hear the book of the law. And can I also point out what they're reading? They're reading the law. I don't know about you, but any time I try to read through my Bible in a year, from cover to cover, it gets really hard in the book of Leviticus. I mean, maybe I'm alone, okay? But it gets hard in the book of Leviticus, man. I don't feel like I need to know what color hair indicates leprosy or not. If it's a white hair and it's in this boil, but if it's not in this boil, but it's still white, but if it's not white, but not in the boil, I got nothing, guys. I got nothing. But the nation of Israel at this point stood out in the street from morning to midday to hear the book of the law read. Man, that kind of puts our desire and our ability to listen to shame, doesn't it? So how did the nation of Israel respond when the book of the law was opened? Number one, they listened to it. Number two, they respected it. They respected it. Look back at our passage. It says in verse three again, and he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until the midday, before the men and the women and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon the pulpit of wood, which they had made for that purpose. We're going to skip the names this time. 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. Now we do this here at Harvest. In general, most people who get behind the pulpit, when we open the Word of God and we start to read it, we say, could we all stand for the reading of God's Word? That's a show of respect. That's, at least as far as I'm aware, that's the reason we do it. We stand up to show respect to God's Word. That's wonderful. But I noticed something else in this passage. Look down at verse 6. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their head and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. You see, not only do we see them show respect to God's word by standing for it, we see that when they start to understand it, they can't even lift their head. The simple idea, again, we understand this when we pray. We tend to bow our heads and we tend to close our eyes. The bowing of the head is a show of respect. That's what they did when God's word was opened before them. As Ezra opens the law to them and begins to teach out of them, the nation of Israel is overwhelmingly convicted about their past action. If you were to read on in chapter 8, you're going to see that Ezra tells them, hey, Don't be grieved. This is meant to be a time of celebration. They're actually going to be going into the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was meant to be a joyous occasion. This is not meant to be a time of grief. Lift up your heads. Don't weep for seven days. And after those seven days, then we'll handle the weeping, handle the grieving. But the nation of Israel respected the Word of God so much that as they heard it, it convicted them, it pricked them, they couldn't bring themselves to meet Ezra's eyes. That is how powerful, that is how valued, that is how esteemed the nation of Israel saw the Word of God. So let me ask you. How do you treat the Word of God? Do you treat it flippantly? This is something we're working on with my son. He tends to leave at places. Like, I got in here Monday morning, or Monday afternoon, and Lucas Wyrick is sitting right about there. And he goes, hey, Mr. Bolling, Is this Connor's Bible? Yes, that's Connor's Bible. He leaves it in, it's actually, it's almost funny at times. He leaves it in junior church. He leaves it in Sunday school. I'm glad the kid is so comfortable with his Bible, but I wish we could keep track of it. But you know, I'm glad that he's taking it with him. I'm glad that he's interacting with it. That's a great thing. Let me ask you, how do you treat your Bible? Do you treat it flippantly? Is that book no big deal? I mean, listen, I have heard stories about separated World War II, lovebirds from World War II who are separated, and those letters are so well kept that decades later, they're still able to be found, able to be read clearly. Did those separated lovebirds treat those letters more gently and more graciously and with more respect than we treat our Bible? Do we treat it flippantly? Do we treat it nonchalantly? Like it's no big deal? Can I tell you guys, what is the statistic I read? Over half the world does not have this book in their native language. Literally the stories I have been told is that you give out one Bible and they and and these cultures that don't have it devour it I Mean one Bible reaches multitudes of people because they just can't help but get their hands on it Man do we please place that kind of value on our Bibles? Now, obviously I believe we ought to treat our Bibles with respect and with care and with love, but can I tell you, there's the opposite side of the spectrum. Because I have seen people who treat this Bible like a coffee table book. Like it is some sort of antique that is just out to be seen and never really to be used. They treat it like it's a family heirloom that you can't mess this thing up because we got to pass it down to the next generation. Hey, listen, a Bible that's not read isn't having much impact on the person who owns it. A Bible that's not used isn't having much impact on the person who owns it. This isn't meant to be something that is treated like it belongs in a museum. It's meant to be used. It's meant to be interacted with. It's meant to be read and learned and understood and lived. So let me ask you, are you showing respect to God's Word? How do you treat the Bible? So we see that the nation of Israel, when Ezra opens the book of the law, that they listened to it. Are we listening? They respected it. Are we respecting it? Number three, they were moved by it. They were moved by it. Again, look down at verse six, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, amen, amen, with lifting up their hands, and they bowed their head, and they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Catch what it says? Lifting up their hands, bowed their heads, worshiped the Lord. The reading of God's word caused an emotional response in the nation of Israel. The message didn't stop here. It hit them right here. It has been said that the most difficult distance to travel is 18 inches. And that is the distance from your brain to your heart. I know that's true for me. I can't tell you how easy it is for me to fall into the trap where the Bible becomes a source of knowledge, not an information that changes my life. It is so easy for it to get stuck up here that it never actually becomes a belief or a matter of faith. Guys, for a little bit of physical distance, that's a pretty tough road to travel sometimes. I talked to the teenagers about that because it's really easy for them particularly, especially the ones who are at school. Man, they're getting Bible. I mean, I don't know if you've ever heard Mr. Middall teach. That's some good stuff. I volunteered to teacher assist him this year just because I got to sit underneath his teaching. He's a phenomenal teacher. They are getting very solid biblical truth in there. But it is very easy for that solid biblical truth being taught to become a matter of textbook information, to become an academic endeavor, not something that changes their life. But the nation of Israel here, when Ezra opens the book of the law, they were moved by it. It hit them deep. It's important to understand that the reading of the law turned them to worship the God that they had turned away from. I am a firm believer in context. Context is king. If you sat through my how to teach the Bible class, you would have heard that at least 15 times. It seems like at least 15 times. Well, why did the nation of Israel have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? You see at this point Israel had been in captivity to the nation of Babylon and then the Medes and the Persians later for 70 years. They were there because they refused to obey the command that God gave them. So essentially what happened is Israel disregarded the law of God which resulted in them being led into captivity. But notice what happens here. When they come back into the land, when they come back into the city of Jerusalem, when they've rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, now when they read the book of the law, it's coming from a very different perspective. Their opinion had changed. You see, now they have a deep desire for the Word of God. Whereas before it was ignored, now it is craved. And now it is hitting them very deeply. So let me ask you this question. How does God's Word affect you? Does God's Word, as it's being taught or as it's being read, does it fall on soft, fertile ground, allowing it to bring about growth and change in your life? Or are we cold and resilient to it? Maybe we have the perspective of, haven't we heard this before? Been there, done that. I have been saved since I was nine years old. I've been in church since I was eight days old. I've heard a lot of sermons in my life. And let me just tell you that it is very easy to fall into that trap right there. A pastor preached a great message on the rich man and Lazarus Sunday morning. Great message. You know how easy it is for us to go, oh, I've heard this story before. It's salvation. I'm saved. And then check out. But that shouldn't happen. You see, we can't go into God's Word being preached and being taught and being read going, I've read this before, I've been here before. We have to let God's Word affect us and affect us deeply. I don't believe a Christian should ever get tired of hearing about salvation. Man, I got to tell you, when I read the crucifixion account, particularly the Luke account of the crucifixion, I'm not a cry, I'm not an emotional guy. I'm a pretty level-headed guy. I really am. I don't get really high up. I don't get really far down. I'm a huge University of Michigan fan. I love the groans. Oh, bring it on, my friends. Bring it on. After losing 18 of 20, the University of Michigan has now defeated the Buckeyes three years in a row. And I've loved every minute of it. But can I tell you what happens to me when they win? It is not yelling and screaming and jumping up and down. It's, one more year, I don't have to hear about it. I don't get very high emotionally, but I got to tell you, when I read the crucifixion account, particularly Luke's account, man, that hits hard. The fact that Jesus Christ went through everything he went through, despite being the perfect spotless lamb, and he had to do it all because of me. Man, we can't let that stop affecting us. When I look at this book and I see, as I read Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the walls, what am I going to get from the book of Nehemiah? I'm going to tell you, I look at that book and I'm going, man, I can't believe how devoted those people were to God's word. That ought to hit me hard right there. You have to let yourself be moved by God's word. They were moved by it. And then one last thing we see, They listened to it. They respected it. They were moved by it. And the final one we see is that they received it. They received it. Look with me at Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 8. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. They were not just there to listen. They were not there to be moved emotionally. They were there to change. I love the book of James. The book of James is probably my favorite book of the Bible. And I love the illustration that James uses in James chapter one. He says, there are two types of people, and I'm paraphrasing, there are two types of people who approach God's word. There are those who open it up and they look into the perfect law of liberty And they go, I know there are some issues, but I'm all right. And then there are those people who look into the perfect law of liberty and they go, oh, there are some things that need to be changed. And then they do the word of God. They don't just hear it. They don't just observe it. They're not just listening to it. They are affected by it and they are changed by it. It says in James chapter 1 and verse 22, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If you were to read on in the Nehemiah chapter 8, what you would find is that because of what they hear in the book of the law, they celebrate the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths for the first time in a long time. They go out and they get on top of the houses that they built and they build themselves these booths or these tents that they are able to spend seven days celebrating and feasting and enjoying, remembering the goodness of God. You see, they heard the law and then they went out and did it. God's word brought about joy in their hearts. You see, there was a process that happened. They heard the word, the word led them to repentance, and their repentance brought them joy. In fact, this is the passage where you find the joy of the Lord is your strength. So let me ask you, how do you respond to God's word? Does it go in one ear and out the other? Are you listening and moved by it? And then we walk out those doors and the listening and the moving and the message gets left right here? Or are we taking the lessons we learn and living them out on Monday and on Tuesday and on Wednesday and on Thursday and on Friday and on Saturday only to come back on Sunday and get more so that we can live that out on Monday and live that out on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and so on and so on? This book is not meant to hit here and hit here and never be lived out. This book should change your life. And it is not just in matters of salvation. This is not, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And then we're done. My friend, the process of sanctification that God is going to work through his word is going to happen for the rest of your life. So every single time I come into this building, every single time I open God's word, I should be going, God, how do I become more like you based off of this? And then as I leave or as I step away, I know what I'm supposed to do and I do it. That is how we handle God's Word. That is how we treat God's Word. That is what we do when the book is opened. So here's my question, and it's a very simple one tonight. And we will wrap up with this. How is your relationship with God's Word? Where are you at? Is church a ritual or are we showing up to get something? By the way, I can say this because he's not here. I don't think we understand the blessing we have in Pastor Holmes. I mean, I have not met many people that age who preaches like he does. I'm just, I'm just, he didn't, I don't get extra in my paycheck for this. Like he didn't pay me. Like he didn't say, hey, make sure I look good while I'm gone. In fact, he's probably gonna get a text message after this going, you really didn't have to say that. I'm telling you, he approaches God's word with a depth, but with a simplicity that makes it understandable to anyone. So every time we show up here, we should be challenged to change something out there. And if we're not getting that, it's not a problem of what's going on back here, it's a problem of what's going on out there. And I say that for myself, because I sit right there on a regular basis and go, I know I need to do that. And then I go out, and I do good for a couple of days, and then it starts to fall back, and then I got to do it all over again. Listen, friends, the process of sanctification only happens as we have a great relationship with God's Word. If you're gonna be close to God, if you're going to be like God, you better know His Word and you better do His Word. So my simple question for you tonight is what's your relationship like with God's Word? Are we listening to it? Are we engaged with it? Are we letting it move us? Are we letting it affect us? And then are we going out and doing it? I've never met a single person who says, I have a perfect relationship with God's Word. And so, there's a lesson in this for all of us. Let's go out and do better tomorrow than we did today.