Last Sunday morning we began our first Sunday in Nehemiah. The preaching series on Nehemiah is going to prove to be a very important series for Berean. The application to today for us will be tremendous. The lessons that we will be able to extract and apply will be overwhelming at times. We will get to know Nehemiah and his passion for the God's glory in a new or fresh way. We will learn to love a man who is passionate about accomplishing his purpose in life.
What is your purpose? Why were you created? What is the purpose of the church? From the OT book of Nehemiah, we are going to see this for ourselves in the 21st Century.
Let me encourage you to, first—read the entire book several times. Second be faithful. If you can't attend the service for whatever reason get the DVD/CD and make a point of listening to the sermon sometime during the week. How many of you will be able to say I listened to the entire series?
In the OT, God's covenant community were the followers of Jehovah normally descendents of Abraham. In the NT, God's covenant community is the church. In the OT, Jerusalem was the primary place where God was worshipped in unique and special way.
God has now seen fit to permit believers in His Son to assemble all over the world and worship Him in places we call churches.
The degree to which these churches accomplish what Jerusalem and Israel were intended to accomplish—namely bringing glory and honor to the One True God—is based upon how much the church is a Christ-centered community of passionate, fully committed followers of God.
In the same manner, Nehemiah was committed to returning Jerusalem to a city for God's GLORY; we must be just as passionate about making Berean Baptist a city within the city.
This Sunday, I want to focus on this idea of a city within the city for God's Glory!
Will you be present?
