Sunday's Live Service

[Music] my [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] love [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Applause] [Music] now [Music] foreign [Music] god [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] and [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] hello [Music] good evening again why don't you stay with us tonight come on let's be upstanding let's worship him together the song says with the spirit of the lord is there's freedom are you glad you're free tonight yes three people are that's awesome all right the rest of you're gonna get free as we say here we go [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you came to set the captives free you came to bring us liberty [Music] where the spirit of the lord is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] your blood has covered everything [Music] [Music] [Applause] and now i'm alive to bring you praise [Music] [Music] is where the spirit of the lord [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Applause] [Music] oh lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth you are worthy of our praise you're worthy of our worship tonight [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] m [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] i [Music] ah [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] my oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] my [Music] you put all the things in their places the stars in the sky you made us with water you turned into you open the eyes of the light there's no one like you none like [Music] there's no one like [Music] is you're great [Music] there's no one like [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] who could ever stop us then who could ever stop us [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and if is god is with us [Music] again [Music] [Applause] again hallelujah thank you lord we thank you that you're with us [Music] we can run to you in our times of [Music] difficulties [Music] splay for all to see you are light you are light well the darkness closes it you i hope you are hoping [Music] you are true you are [Music] has lost [Music] [Music] light of the world [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] will always be [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] forever [Music] you should [Music] my [Music] my heart will sing [Music] hello [Music] the richness of your love will always be [Music] i'm [Music] the light of the world forever [Music] your creations father tonight we thank you for who you are as we've sung how excellent is your name we look at the works of your hands god in creation what you've done in our lives but how can we but worship you you sure we thank you for your goodness tonight your love for us will be thankful for the opportunity to be together as a community of faith to lift up your name to sing together father may our praise tonight may our worship be something that pleases you an offering of joy before you tonight for it's your presence that we seek [Music] it's your presence that we seek [Music] hallelujah [Music] we're grateful tonight for there's none like you there is love like you who is like the earth that's this love [Music] dry your presence is your presence [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of my future days to come [Music] is your presence [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lower days of earth i will wait that i see you face to face [Music] satisfied [Music] [Applause] [Music] they [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] your presence is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for your presence [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] yes it is [Music] i was reading this morning in the psalms the psalmist said [Music] to not put his trust i don't put my trust in the things of men the things that i can hold the things that i can control but my help and my trust is in the lord [Music] god it's your presence that we need it's you with us it's you we need because our hope and our trust is in you alone [Music] father will you remind us tonight would you stir up that desire within us that our spirit bit the desire for you the desire for your presence the desire to be in your presence the word of god tells us that the heavenly beings who stand in his presence fall before him and say holy holy holy is the lord god almighty who was it is and is to come god you are holy you are mighty you are our defender you are our stronghold and again we reaffirm that we put our trust squarely in you tonight it's you that we seek [Music] hallelujah if you could stand with us tonight we're going to sing the sheba together hero israel the lord our god the lord he is [Music] oh [Music] amen you may be seated tonight we're going to ask kurt to come up he's going to be reading this week's promise already bless you brother welcome readings from the powershell the weekly torah portion we start with numbers twenty two first one then a israel set out and camped in the plains of moab alongside the jordan across from jericho when balak son of sipper realized all that israel had done to the amorites moab became terrified because there were so many people moab was filled with dread because of nay israel moab said to the elders of midian the multitude will lick up everything around us like the ox licks of the grass of the field now balak son of zipper was king of moab at that time he sent messengers to summon balaam son of beer at pethor near the river of in his native land saying to him now look a people has come out of egypt see now they cover the surface of the earth and are settling beside me come now curse this people for me because they are too strong for me perhaps i may be able to defeat them and drive them away from the country i know that whoever you bless will be blessed and whoever you curse will be accursed the elders of moab and midian left with divination fees in the hand when they came to balaam they told him about balak's words and he said to them spend the night here i will give you an answer just as adonai speaks to me so the officials of moab stayed with balaam [Music] god came to balaam and asked who are these men with you balaam said to god balak son of zipper king of moab sent word to me see the people coming out of egypt cover the surface of the land now come curse them for me perhaps i will be able to fight against them and drive them away god said to balaam do not go with them do not curse them for they are blessed our second reading from micah 6 verse 5. [Music] hear what adonai is saying oh my people remember please what did bailey king of moa propose what did balaam son of bear answered him from shittim as far as gilgal so that you might acknowledge the righteous acts of adonai with what shall i become with what shall i come before adonai with what shall i bow myself before god on high shall i present him with burnt offerings with year-old calves will adonai be pleased with thousands of rams with hordes of rivers of oil shall i offer my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my belly for the sin of my soul for he has told you humanity what is good and what adonai is seeking from you only to practice justice to love mercy and to work humbly with your god [Music] and our last reading from the new covenant romans 11 25 for i do not want you brothers or sisters to be ignorant of this mystery lest you be wise in your own eyes that a partial hardening has come upon israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in and in this way all israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer shall come out of zion he shall turn away ungodliness from jacob and this is my covenant with them when i take away their sins concerning the good news they are hostile for your sake but concerning chosenness they are loved on account of the fathers for the gifts and the callings of god are irrevocable for just as you once were disobedient to god but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience in like manner these who also have been disobedient with the results that because of the mercy shown to us they also receive mercy for god has shut up all in disobedience so that he might show mercy to all readings from the word of god amen [Music] awesome thank you dirk not just readings but awesome readings isn't god's word powerful every time you open it every time you read it god has something to say to us to his people we have several different events and activities that are going to be taking place in the community in the coming days you might want to get your calendar out and write one of these or more of these down because we'd love for you to be able to connect and be blessed as you connect with some of these different events tonight right after service our online community group is going to be gathering online those of you that are online already welcome we hope that you'll be able to gather together with us online joanna will be hosting or actually joining us traveling somebody else is hosting the group tonight 7 p.m israel time those of you that are here in the room if you want to join that online community group it's a great group great place to connect with other believers across the world here in jerusalem and to be able to go deeper into god's word if you need a link to join tonight you can look at one of our social media sites the link will be there for you to be able to gather then this next event is for our men only ladies you can listen but you can't come this saturday night we're going to be gathering together with our men men we're looking forward to being together with you to play some sports together we're going to have a great brazilian barbecue and we're going to just have some time around god's word and encourage and strengthen one another how many know that when men get together something special supernatural and eternal happens so we're looking forward to that this next saturday night that's june 26th we'll be gathering down at soccer park 5 p.m to about 8 p.m come all men are welcome from 12 on up to on up you're welcome to come and be with us and then uh put on your calendar sunday july 4th it's a week after this next sunday night july 4th we're going to have a gathering grounds community night right after service probably about 6 30 6 45 right in the lobby that you came through as we came in tonight those of you that are here in the room those of you that are online we'd love for you to come and join us israel's borders are starting to open up you might be able to come in for this coffee night that we're going to be taking place right after service great time to gather to visit with people that you don't know to kind of tear down those walls that have been built up in our lives over this last long coveted season so come celebrate with us at the gathering grounds event on sunday july 4th and then we're planning a baptism immersion event in the month of july we'd love for you to participate if you're looking for an opportunity to be baptized we're going to be going to the jordan river pastor ray will be leading that up and we're going to just have a great time being immersed setting our lives apart separate for and unto the lord so if you're interested in that you can write us here for any of that information that i've just announced to you at kkcj kkcj.org we'll give you the information and get you pointed in the right direction connect to one of those in the next coming weeks then i'm going to invite our ushers to come and we're going to collect the lord's tithes and our offerings i was reading uh this week part of the parshar reading that i'm going through takes us through ii corinthians and paul is writing to the corinthians his second letter and he reminds them of a gift that they're putting together for the poor believers in jerusalem not you and i but the poor believers at that time and he makes a comment about god that i think is noteworthy and i want to just read that to us tonight god can pour on the blessings in aston astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything more than just ready to do what needs to be done as one psalmist puts it he throws god throws caution to the winds giving to the needy in reckless abandon that's who our god is his right living right giving ways never run out and never wear out but this is the part that caught my attention this most generous god who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you how many know that god has been more than extravagant in your life this god gives uh you something that you can then give away god's extravagant in our lives isn't just for us to have extravagantly rich lives god's extravagance in our lives is for us to be able to give it away whether it's finances whether it's our gifts implanted inside of us our talents our time any of those things that god has been extravagant with in your life he doesn't just give it to you to hoard it but he gives it to allow you to be like him so that the world around us could see who he really is as we give like he gives so i want to just encourage you tonight give extravagantly not because king of kings needs it not even because god needs it not even because israel needs it you need it god's abundance in your life is really a challenge for you to steward and to give out and to give away in lots and lots of different ways this is just one of those ways so god we ask that you would bless these ties that we're giving to you tonight those commanded tithes and the gifts that we're giving to you lord bless those anoint them pour out abundance on the lives of the givers that they would know god that you are that extravagant god in our lives and then use these to glorify your name here in jerusalem in israel and around the world we pray this in yeshua's name amen the baskets are going to come by in just a moment and if that's too quick for you we have giving boxes on the wall that you can give on your way out and you can give by check by writing out the check to naha wrote lord bless you as the esthers are coming we're going to do a song we haven't done a while but first before we do that i just want to say if you could join me and thank our production team tonight they have been yeah give me let's give them a hand come on productions they have been working tirelessly as you see we just got a screen back this whole time they've had a challenging day today with thanks a little bit we just you don't realize how easy they make things look until stuff starts to become difficult and usually week after week after week they are just doing things and you don't even realize all that's going on but petra we thank you we love you tyro all the rest joshua the rest of the production team we're thankful for you guys you do a great job and you bless us we're gonna sing a song about fountains i'm a i'm a guy from florida so in the summertime it rains all the time and in israel in the summertime it doesn't rain at all so it's kind of strange song talks about dry and desert land it's dry and doesn't matter i tell myself keep walking here's something left ahead i wanna follow like a song [Music] [Applause] an everlasting stream your river carries me home let it flow let it flow you have free hands you can put them together like this it makes a clapping voice it's really [Music] cool [Music] never believing i would find an everlasting stream your river carries me home let it flow let it flow [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] us alone [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my god [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here we go [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah everyone what a wonderful time of worship amen amen well we've got people watching from all over the world i was just sent a text here they're watching from brazil canada colombia denmark finland france germany india kenya malawi malaysia the netherlands philippines poland romania serbia sicily singapore slovakia south africa south korea sweden united kingdom and united states i read them in alphabetical order so no one would be offended all right well it's good to be in the house of the lord isn't it online or in the house even better well let's go to the lord in prayer father help me to present your word as you desire lord i pray that you'll give us ears to hear what the spirit is saying to us i pray god that you'll help me speak in a way that is clear which is confident in you and that we will all come out of this place different people because we've been challenged by your word i pray amen well we're in a series called moving forward and tonight's message is called moving forward by going back to god's word moving forward by going back to god's word we're going to look at nehemiah chapter 8. pastor chad asked me to preach a couple of times this month and i said would you let me preach from nehemiah chapter 8. it's one of my favorite chapters in the entire bible the lord said to jeremiah stand in the ways and see and ask for ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it to walk in it we have to go back to the ancient paths so in this series from nehemiah we're going to look now at chapter 8 and there are four main points i'm going to make one is this moving forward by knowing god's word moving forward by understanding god's word moving forward by teaching god's word and moving forward by applying god's word now you were standing for worship but i'm going to ask you to stand now as we read god's word from nehemiah chapter 8. we're going to read verses 1 to 12. and you'll see why i asked you to stand now all the people gathered together as one in the open square that was in front of the watergate and ezra the scribe brought the book of the law of moses which the lord had commanded israel so ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with the understanding on the first day of the seventh month then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning until midday before the men and women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law so ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which he had made they had made for the purpose and beside him at his right hand stood and how many of you want to try to pronounce these words these names mathetia shema anania urea and that is left padaya michael malcia and ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up and ezra blessed the lord the great god then all the people said amen amen while lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the lord with their faces to the ground also yeshua bani sherabias yamin akube shabbatai ma asaya kalita azaraya yozabad ghanan padaya and the levites help the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place so they read distinctly from the book in the law of god and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading we'll read more of this passage a little bit later in the message you may be seated so the walls had just been built in a miraculous 52 days now without physical walls the city would be vulnerable it would could easily be destroyed by an enemy army five days following this great accomplishment another thing had to be built something that unless it's built the whole nation will be vulnerable and be destroyed as a people and what is that the people needed to build up get edified in the word of god in that unshakable spiritual foundation of god's word so on the first day of the seventh month the day of the feast of trumpets that day which we now call rosh hashanah it's the new biblical new year so on the first day of the new year it was time for first things first and that first thing is to gather before god and to hear what he has to say and so people came to an open square at the water gate that's not in washington that's in jerusalem and just as the sun rose over the mount of olives there they were at this eastern side of the city at the watergate and the sun shone down upon them but it was very early in the morning they would have had to get up before dawn to get there in time for the light it says in the text it doesn't say morning in the hebrew it says when light came they would have had to get up very early now why was it called the watergate well it was at the primary source of water for the whole city the gihon spring now when you get a bi-monthly bill from the water company in jerusalem it's called the gechon corporation it's named after this spring where the watergate stood it's an appropriate place for people to gather to honor and to listen to god's word i'm reminded of ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 that yeshua makes holy and cleanses his church by the washing of water with his word that's what the text says now it was the people themselves who called for ezra to read the scriptures they were hungry for god's word so hungry that they stood in that square for at least five hours i said stood in that square for at least five hours some of us find it hard to stand and worship for more than 20 minutes and some of us have a good reason because of health reasons but they stood for five hours to listen to god's word and it says that that ezra the scribes stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose now if you read the king james version it says that he stood upon a pulpit of wood can you imagine me standing on this pulpit for the rest of this message it's good that we have new translations to help us get the real meaning it means a high platform it's the word miguel it's a tower he stood very high above the people to read the word of god at the end of the reading we see that they wept and they mourned they seemed deeply moved and convicted that they had not fully obeyed the word that they had just heard and now that they heard it loud and clear they confess their sins they repent and they obey what they heard and we'll discover that the scriptures that they read that day or heard that day would be read many more times the rest of that holiday season especially during the feast of tabernacles don't you wish that we would have a back to the bible revolution in our day and see our cities see our nation see our whole world transformed and turned right side up but we will have to go back to go forward today most people in our world are going fast forward but in the wrong direction and if they don't do a mid-course correction their path will lead to destruction the lord said to israel through hosea in chapter 4 verse six my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge there is a growing disregard for god's word in our world and in fact it has crept even among the body of believers there's biblical illiteracy but there's also irresponsible treatment of the scriptures too many believers today have pet theologies and pet theories and pet sins that they justify by focusing on certain scriptures but ignore the others you've heard of their prosperity gospel and and and those who teach it have bible verses to back it up and god does want us to prosper but god also wants to prosper us so that we can bless others they happen to pick and choose which verses fit their theology and then we have the extreme grace that's being taught i call it greasy grace and there are lots of verses on grace in the bible but the apostle jude gives us a warning that ungodly people creep in among the body of yeshua who turn the grace of god into lewdness that's jude 4. lewdness is speaking of immorality and immoral behavior and then there's taking verses out of context let me give you an example of this with a bit of sick humor you know that god wants everyone to commit suicide right matthew 27 5 says judah judas hanged himself and then we go to luke 10 37 and it says go and do likewise then we go to john 13 27 and what thou doest do quickly put that together and you know what you can conclusion you come to a text without a context is a pretext now you can try and read the bible without bias but many of us have our own biases and it's hard to get rid of them we have to have an open mind to read the scriptures as if we'd never read them before because sometimes we've come to wrong conclusions or we've been taught in the wrong way and that's a serious thing peter says in second peter chapter 3 verse 16 speaking of paul's letters he says in them are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures and then there are those who disregard the scriptures by challenging the inspiration and the authority of the scriptures it's shocking to discover how many professors in bible seminaries question the miraculous stories of the bible question the accuracy of the scriptures but it's interesting to see how people responded when ezra the scribe read those scriptures on that day at the watergate it says the people answered amen amen and that hebrew word amen is related to the word emunah which means firmness reliability when they said amen amen they're saying we affirm what we just heard we believe it it's reliable now the writer in psalm 119 confidently affirms the authority and the veracity of god's word when he says to the lord all your commandments are faithful and in verse 160 he declares the entirety of your word is truth it's time to stop disregarding god's word it's time to stand up and honor god and honor his word it's time to say god is true and every man a liar so i've talked about this problem of widespread disregard and the twisting of god's word for our own purposes now i want to talk about how to move forward by going back to god's word first of all we're going to talk about moving forward by knowing god's word verse 5 of our text in chapter 8 of nehemiah says and ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people ezra didn't just read his favorite verses that day he opened the book now we don't know if this is the whole book of moses which would be the four or the five books of the pentateuch or one of those books and if it's one book it's probably deuteronomy scholars say now to move forward we need to know god's word all of it not just portions of it paul the rabbi and apostle was like ezra the priest and scribe and paul says in acts chapter 20 verse 27 for i have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of god one of the reasons i like expository teaching and preaching is because you go by you go verse by verse through the books of the bible and you're dealing with every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god topical preaching is good but you have to be careful because there's a danger that you choose topics that are your favorites and you avoid the ones in the bible that are not as favorite for almost a year now i've been reading the torah and the haftarah portions every day verse by verse i'm almost at the end of numbers and about to head into deuteronomy and the cycle will end on the day after the end of the feast of tabernacles or the last day of the feast which is simchat torah the joy of the torah now these portions of scripture that are being read in the synagogue we read here at king of kings we read only portions of them because of time but because i'm going through these scriptures that are being read in the synagogue it's giving me a great opportunity just to speak to orthodox jews about what they're reading that week and i'm with them i'm on their page as it were i should make the point that the haftar readings from the prophets the second reading are also a bit of a pick and choose thing most of the prophetic verses that most clearly point to jesus as the messiah are not included in the weekly reading cycle scholars who have studied the history of the cycle of readings admit that those portions were intentionally left out because followers of jesus used those scriptures to prove that jesus is israel's messiah and there were occasions when jesus said to the religious leaders of his day have you never read the scriptures or you are mistaken not knowing the scriptures i was with an orthodox rabbi the other day and i read him these words but you bethlehem ephrata though you are little among the thousands of judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in israel whose goings forth are from old from everlasting and he's he stopped and he said are you reading that from the new testament i said no i'm still i'm reading from micah chapter 5. he didn't even know it was in his bible he's 17 72 years old he's a rabbi but that portion is left out in fact this very week it's parts of chapter five of micah in chapter six and we read dirk read some of those verses but they leave out that critical verse chapter five verse two where clearly the messiah must come out of bethlehem must be born and then rule over israel now i don't want to be too hard on orthodox jews in this regard because especially in many of our ranks maybe even some in this very room have never read the bible from cover to cover from genesis to revelation and i would encourage all of you to get into a cycle of readings i'm not saying you have to do the torah and half tour portion but go to the youversion app or go to their website and you'll see all kinds of different uh reading lectionaries to get you through the bible every year i really encourage you to do that so i'm talking about going forward by going back to the scriptures going back to know what the bible says secondly now i want to talk about going forward by going back to understand the scriptures not just to know them but to understand them nehemiah chapter eight verse seven and eight of our texts says this also yeshua bani sharibiya yamin akub shuba tehai shabbat shabbat betsam and the levites helped the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place so they read distinctly from the book in the law of god and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading so it's not just ezra reading the scriptures but he has on both of his sides on the platform 13 levites who are there to help the people understand and then there were other levites as well and many scholars say that some of them probably gathered people in small groups and as the scripture was read in hebrew they would translate the hebrew into aramaic why aramaic because aramaic was the main language of the jewish people following their exile when they were sent into babylon jeremiah said when you're in that foreign land settle down pray for the the country and be a good citizen well they also settled down and learned the language of babylon which is aramaic so when they come back to judea to build the temple and to build the walls again they don't understand hebrew the rabbis do the scribes do ezra would have known the hebrew he read it from hebrew but the rest of the people probably most of the people would not have understood the aramaic now it's interesting that we discovered that in the dead sea scrolls documents found before the time of jesus most of them and then in other places have been found what are called the targums these are written translations of the hebrew scriptures into aramaic and there are various kinds not only are they a translation but some of them are also a commentary it's kind of like the amplified bible i don't know if you ever read the amplified bible it's not just giving you the text from greek but it's giving you a bit of commentary as well and i just have made it a habit for this past several months to go day by day as i go through the torah portion the huff tour portion to look at the english translation of the aramaic of the hebrew that's kind of weird isn't it but why am i doing that because that commentary in the aramaic is giving you insights into how the jewish people understood the scriptures at the time of jesus and even before the time of jesus those are great commentaries and is very helpful to someone like me who loves to study the word and to teach the word so these levites were giving the sense giving the understanding to the people translating it into their hebrew tongue but also commenting on it now scholars also say that by the time yeshua came to the earth the synagogues were established and in the synagogue in the readings not only did they read the hebrew but they after one verse or after a paragraph or so they would also read it in aramaic and isn't it interesting that the sign the inscription over jesus head as he hung on the cross were the words king of the jews and in what language were those words written you'd think it would have been hebrew but it was aramaic latin and greek we got quite a challenge don't we when when god took the people of uh they built the power tower of babel they all spoke one language and there was it was powerful what they could accomplish because they could all communicate easily and then god as it were took away that power and they scattered and they end up with thousands of languages and dialects today but it's clear from our text that simply hearing and reading the word of god while it's very helpful especially as the holy spirit inspire gives us revelation we also need to study the word to understand it fully and i encourage every one of you to study and not just read the scriptures and doing it every day you know i've i've gone back to school myself i'm pretty old now but i went back to school and i was always the i was the oldest guy in the class i went back and did a doctoral program at asbury seminary over the past four years just took a course that i completed a 30-week course in advanced biblical hebrew uh credited by the hebrew university and i'm probably going to start an aramaic course so i'm taking this stuff pretty seriously what do you think and that's why i'm excited about preaching from nehemiah chapter 8 this evening i'm not telling everybody to do what i'm doing but if you want to ever teach at least in a at a college level or a seminary level it's probably a good idea to study these languages i used to teach new testament greek 40 years ago in a bible school in canada before we moved to israel and i i my textbook was called greek to me and it used word picture association to help the students memorize the greek words and i would i would take i'd go to the white board and i would draw these crazy pictures i'm not much of an artist and the students just kept laughing at my my artwork and so the laughter would go down the halls of the college and the next semester my class was packed with new students because they wanted to have a big laugh as well anyway i take this stuff seriously our mission statement here at king of kings is king of kings is called to be a compelling messiah messiah-centered spirit-empowered disciple-making community revealing the true face of yeshua to israel and the nations what is a disciple if we're a disciple making community what kind of people are we trying to to make well disciple in new testament greek means a student or a learner and so we think it's really important because we are called to be disciples and to make disciples that we teach god's word as best we can how important is it to be a learner a student it was important to yeshua it says in luke chapter i guess 4 verse 52 at least i have the verse right and yeshua increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and men and it says in luke 6 40 a disciple is not above his teacher but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher we believe every buddy in our congregation should be part of a small group a home group one of the great strengths of a small group or home group is the fellowship that you could have you know in a room like this you're looking at the back of people's heads and you don't have time to get to know each other well but in a small group in a home and i encourage you to be part of one we've got several here that fellowship is probably the strongest thing about a home group now you can study the bible and we encourage every everybody to do that but i can tell you this if you want fellowship you have to have interaction if you have interaction then you gotta let everybody speak into what what they feel the bible is saying to them it's called an inductive method and that's great but at times it can be pooled ignorance in other words nobody's prepared to really get back behind the text do a deep dive and when questions arrive have an answer to those questions but this is where discipleship comes in and every semester in the spring and the fall we do what we call discipleship classes and pastor chad and i just taught of course just a few ended just a few weeks ago called bridging the testaments and we did a deep dive into showing how the old testament and the new testament are really one book there's a scarlet thread of truth that goes through the entire scripture and if god has not changed then theology has not changed we don't go from one kind of theology to another but it's all one truth and we study it together now i come to the third point we need to to go forward we need to go back to teaching god's word now some of you in this room are going to say well that doesn't apply to me okay i want to be a good student i get that but you want me to be a teacher i remember when we started a college and career ministry in toronto many years ago and and uh these were young adults many of them university students and they told me hey i i can't teach and i wanted to help them break into small groups in the church building and each of them would be a facilitator a teacher and almost all of them said i can't do that well we trained them how to do it and they did a really good job i believe that every believer should be a teacher where do i get that from from the scriptures now we know that the levites in our story here are teaching the people and we know that was a major uh job of the of the levites back in this in the time of the bible they give understanding they teach the people and we know this about ezra himself how gifted and skilled he was in his teaching back in ezra chapter 7 verse 6 verse 9 and verse 10 it says then ezra came up from babylon and he was a skilled scribe in the law of moses which the lord of god of israel had given then verse 9 on the first day of the first month he began his journey from babylon and on the first day of the fifth month he came to jerusalem according to the good hand of his god upon him for ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in israel okay well that's ezra he's an expert he's a scholar he's a scribe what about you and me well the writer to the hebrews rebukes some of his readers when he says this in hebrews chapter 5 verse 12 for though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of god and you have come to need milk and not solid food so there was an expectation that the readers should be teachers by now and i think the great commission that yeshua gave in matthew chapter 28 makes it clear that teaching ought to be the job of every disciple every student should become teacher matthew 28 19 and following go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all things that i have commanded you and lo i am with you always even to the end of the age amen very few if any of those disciples had gone to teachers college or any kind of training program to be teachers they were pretty common folks the smartest one was probably matthew he's a tax collector he's probably good at math but maybe not so good at theology but it appears that none of them were rabbis before they met yeshua and yet they were told to go and teach god may call you to teach hundreds even thousands at a time it's not that you should aspire to stand on the stage behind a lectern or a pulpit but god may be calling you to teach in that way or he may be calling you to teach one person at a time that's actually the best kind of discipleship anyway and those of you who are parents you have no choice but to teach deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 7 says you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up we learn from the old testament that there were schools of prophets and we know from jewish literature that there were schools that were established while the jews were in exile in babylon and those intensive studies happened in houses that we now call a bait knesset a synagogue and archaeologists have discovered a synagogue that was built more than 150 years before yeshua appears on the scene and of course today we have yeshivas and we have a we bait midrashes these are schools or like colleges of the scriptures but it's mostly talmud and not the scriptures themselves and many of them are right across the street from us by the way you know the great universities of our day especially those in north america were established by men and women of god who stood strong in the scriptures and they wanted everybody to learn them in fact those names are well known to most of us harvard yale princeton they were all established by strong believers and in fact did you know this that in some of those schools hebrew biblical hebrew was a compulsory compulsory course when i went to seminary i studied new testament greek but i never studied biblical hebrew it wasn't a priority and it still isn't in many seminaries next week this week israel college of the bible will have its graduation many students including students who have received their doctorate doctorates through the college will graduate i don't know if you know this many don't but israel college of the bible was once king of kings college dr ray gannon was on our king of kings pastoral team back in the late 80s and we both had a vision to see a full-time ministry training institution established here in israel and so we started in 1990 king of kings college right here in jerusalem well our vision was to eventually turn it over to local israeli leaders and within five years we were able to do that and we suggested a change name to israel college of the bible so that it wouldn't be tied to just one congregation or one stream in the body and that college has done phenomenally well far better than it would have if we were still in leadership and i'm thrilled that thousands of israelis have studied in israel college of the bible most of them jews but many arabs as well hundreds have graduated and many are in full-time ministry as pastors and teachers and in other careers as well so this brings me to my final point we need to to go forward we need to go back i've said that we need to go back to know god's word we need to go back to understand god's word we need to go back to teach god's word and finally we need to go back by applying god's word applying god's word listen to this verse 9 and following of nehemiah chapter 8 and nehemiah who was the governor ezra the priest and scribe and the levites who taught the people said to all the people this day is holy to the lord your god do not mourn nor weep for the people wept when they heard the words of the law then he said to them go your way eat the fat drink the sweet and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy to our lord do not sorrow for the joy of the lord is your strength so the levites quieted all the people saying be still for the day is holy do not be grieved and all the people went their way to eat and drink to send portions and rejoice greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them they went and did what the word of god said because they now had understood it but you know we can read we can understand and even teach the bible till we're blue in the face but if we don't apply it to our own personal lives then we're in trouble james actually says we're deceived listen to what he says james chapter 1 verse 22 and following but be doers of the word and not just hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and does not forget a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does so from our text in nehemiah we see that the scriptures they had heard and that were taught to them that day not only impacted their minds academically but their spirits and their souls as well the first way they applied those scriptures was to in their own spiritual and emotional state it says in verse nine that all the people wept and when they when they heard the words of the law they applied what they had learned by repenting mourning for their sins and scriptures have a way of impacting us in the inner core of our being in luke chapter 24 32 those two disciples who had met yeshua on the road to damascus emmaus said to one another did not our hearts burn within us when we talked when he talked to us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us i journal and in my journal i have a number of sections that i go through it's my discipline i've done for many years um the one i have right after my reading is confession and it really stands for confession and repentance so after i read the scripture then i asked the lord to show me is there any area that i'm falling short of doing according to what i've just read in this passage of scripture and and almost every day there's something where i'm falling short and i confess it to the lord and i mourn for that sin just as the people did when they were impacted by the reading of god's word and then we read that the people were then instructed to stop weeping okay you've confessed your sins you've mourned for your sins now be joyful in fact they're going to be joyful for the next long while they're headed into the most joyful feast of all the feast of tabernacles and they're told go and build booths and there's a whole description of the way they build booze which was really a celebration of joy and we see in second corinthians chapter 7 verse 9 where paul is commending the corinthian believers because they had responded to an earlier correction of them a rebuke to them and this is what he said now i rejoice not that you were made sorry but that your sore sorrow led to repentance for you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation if repentance is not part of your regular devotional life then i believe you're not going to experience the kind of joy that they had knowing that once they've confessed their sins knowing god is faithful and just and will forgive their sins it leads to joy the joy of salvation praise god my father-in-law who was a pastor would often say all word and no spirit and you'll dry up all spirit and no word you'll blow up the word and the spirit and you'll grow up i want to encourage you as i bring this to a close not only do we need good teachers good commentaries good tools like a carpenter has tools and there's so many free tools now on the internet and i could recommend lots of good ones out there but we need the holy spirit to teach us we need the holy spirit to move us to apply god's word to our life this is what it says in ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 25 and following listen to this i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you i will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them how are they going to do them by being motivated by the holy spirit who comes inside of them to move them forward in doing the will of god i'm a big promoter of the work of the holy spirit in our lives almost every sermon i invite people to ask the holy spirit to fill them afresh and empower them to be able to obey god i don't think i'm ever going to stop doing that because it's the key to obedience it's the key to joy in doing god's perfect will i trust that you see the the law of the lord the word of god the instructions of the lord it's a better way than better translation than law by the way the instructions of the lord that it would be a delight that you would hunger like the people that day hungered to hear the word invited ezra to read it to them and stood there for five hours this is what the psalmist says psalm 119 verse 97 oh how i love your instruction it is my meditation all the day psalm 119 verse 162 i rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure in psalm 119 verse 174 and your law or your instruction is my delight my delight i hope my challenge and hopefully inspiration tonight will lead you to leave this place moving forward by going back if you do need to go back and most of us do probably [Music] go back to know the word of god read it every day to understand it learn how to teach it so you can spread the will will and purposes of god through the good news the preaching and the teaching and the sharing even one-on-one and then each and every one of us personally will apply god's word that be life transformation and that everyone who sees us will say what what's going on with you there's something different something wonderful i'd love to have what you've got and then you take them to the word of god let's stand together one more time and we're gonna stand here for the next five hours lord i pray that you will help each and every one of us to have a greater love and delight in your word give us that spiritual hunger to know it to understand it and to teach it and then to apply it we pray in yeshua's name amen i'm going to say this if any of you need prayer no matter what the need may be i'll be at the front here and hopefully joined by a couple more and we'll just now that we're all back together we're able to pray for one another i want to have that privilege to pray for you tonight it's a worship team lead us thank you pastor wayne let's just take a few moments as we close tonight as pastor wade said repentance often leads us to a place of realizing how great god is realizing how faithful how loving and forgiving or grateful god we're thankful for your word that it's truth that it's life to our souls [Music] is [Music] my god is stronger [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you open the [Music] you shine the light of the ashes we rise [Music] is [Music] out of the ashes we rise [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] we could do better than that let's give the lord a big hand tonight god thank you thank you god amen great word something about god's word that never leaves us dry no matter how many times we've read the same passage of scripture there's always something that the spirit can feed us with but god uses his word in our lives not just to feed us but listen to paul's description he's speaking to husbands and wives in ephesians and he says husbands treat your wives the same way that yeshua treats his body the the church the bride and describes that he washes her with the word the message version says it this way that through the word or with the word yeshua evokes her beauty see when we go into god's word it isn't just to gain understanding or insight but god uses it like a a washing station as he cleanses us with his word purifying us making us beautiful so that the world around us can see him in us isn't that beautiful god we thank you for your word thank you for washing us with your word and we ask that you would wash us again tonight with these great words that we've heard from your word tonight wash us make us that beautiful bride that the world around us would be in awe as they look upon you as they look upon us your your bride prepare us lord to walk into eternity with you as your bride continue to wash us cleanse us purify us with your words put a hunger and a thirst in our hearts for them lord that the things of this world would lose their taste that we would be tired of the things of this world that distract us away from you and from your word and then put a hunger and a thirst in our spirits and our hearts for your word god that we would be your people for these days god we thank you for your word let us embrace it with all that is within us in yeshua's name we pray amen amen well it's been so wonderful to worship together with you we want to remind you just of a couple of things our online community group will be there about seven o'clock israel time about 10 minutes away from now those of you that are here in the room man we would love to fellowship with you on saturday evening five to eight come prepared to have fun eat lots of good food i was telling my assistant guy we don't really need anything we just need something to play some food deed we don't even need to have napkins we can just we're guys we just need the food and some chips maybe something to drink and something to play and we're good to go so guys come we'll have a great time this saturday and we'll be with you again next week next saturday sunday night 5 p.m right here we look forward to seeing you lord bless you have a great great week amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] come on [Music]

Channel: King of Kings Community Jerusalem

Views: 1,598

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

Keywords: Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, Christ, Lion of Judah, Lord, God, Jerusalem, Israel, Gospel, Word, Truth, Faith, Salvation, Holy Spirit, Holy, Prophecy, Preaching, Ministry, Ministries, Grace, Mercy, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, Believer, Christian, Church, Messianic, Congregation, King of Kings, KKCJ, KOKA, Pavilion, Pastor, Wayne Hilsden, Sermon, Message, Preacher

Id: feO3QHjmIIM

Length: 111min 35sec (6695 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 20 2021