NEHEMIAH: TIME TO REBUILD: FALLING BACK INTO OLD WAYS

NEHEMIAH: TIME TO REBUILD: FALLING BACK INTO OLD WAYS
Message Date: 3/9/25
Speaker: Pastor Renee Hidalgo

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DO YOU HAVE ANY CHAPTERS IN YOUR LIFE THAT YOU WOULD RATHER OUT?

The Book of Nehemiah could have ended here:
Nehemiah 6:15-16
So the wall was

… in fifty-two days… all the surrounding nations… realized
that this work had been done with the help of our God.

Or here:
Nehemiah 9:38
“In view of all this, we are making a binding

, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”

Or here:
Nehemiah 12:43
And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them
great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of

in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

Nehemiah 13: Falling Back into Old Ways

Timeline:
445 BC: Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem
12 Years: Nehemiah is Governor

433 BC: Nehemiah travels back to Babylon
3-8 Years Pass: People fall back into ‘old ways’
Nehemiah 13

Nehemiah 2:6
Then the king… asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get

?”

Nehemiah 13:5-9
…Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with

, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles…
Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

Nehemiah 13:10-12
I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I

the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God ?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
All Judah brought the of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms.

Nehemiah 10:37,39 (part of the ‘Binding Agreement’)
“And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work.” “We will

neglect the house of our God.”

Nehemiah 13:15-17
In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the

and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath…

People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I

the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing— the Sabbath day?”

Nehemiah 10:31 (part of the ‘Binding Agreement’)
“When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will

buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day.”

Nehemiah 13:19-21
When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day.
Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath.

Nehemiah 13:23
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

Nehemiah 10:30 (part of the ‘Binding Agreement’)
“We

not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.”

Nehemiah 13:24
Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the

of Judah.

What is the faith of the next generation worth?

Nehemiah 13:25
I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.”

Matthew 18:6
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large

hung around their neck and to be in the depths of the sea.”

Nehemiah 13: Falling Back into Old Ways

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love”
–Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Romans 7:15-25
15  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  16  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  17  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  18  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  19  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  20  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21  So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  22  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  23  but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  25  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through

Christ our Lord!

We must always stay on guard!

Ephesians 6:11
Put on the full

of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

1 Peter 5:8
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to

.

How do we fall back into ‘old ways’?

One small compromise at a time!

Application:
*Where have you slipped back into some ‘old ways’?

*Where do you need to be more vigilant and on guard?

Would you read the Bible Plan, The Armor of God, with us?

https://bible.com/p/72959522/561885f6246d14e70311a14a1974963e