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S1: Living in neutral. Your spiritual life will decline. Today on Bold Steps weekend. Making God a priority.
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S2: If you have no sacred space, sacred time, then you will become an increasingly more and more shallow, less spiritual individual.
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S1: Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Well, today we continue in our study of Nehemiah in our rebuild series. We're in chapter ten today. And Mark, we're going to learn more about how to make God a priority, specifically in three key areas.
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S2: That's right. Wayne, in this story, this account, the wall and the city have now been rebuilt. That was the big thing. But Nehemiah, he discovers that although the physical need has been restored, the spiritual need, the spiritual need, the need of the soul still needs a lot of work. And so Nehemiah challenges the people to repent and to repair three very critical areas of their soul.
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S1: So listen carefully and we'll identify those three areas today. As you listen to Mark, we encourage you to stay tuned over the next couple of broadcasts to take it all in. Again, Nehemiah chapter ten is Mark job comes now with some bold steps.
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S2: For those of you that have not been part of this series on Nehemiah, the big theme of Nehemiah is rebuild your life, your city, your world, and let me in a paragraph try to catch you up on the story as we jump into the final chapter of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was basically a son of an immigrant that came from rags to riches. It's a story of a guy whose parents came as slaves. He climbed up the ladder of success and ended up in the equivalent of the white House in Persia, working for the most powerful person in the face of this earth. He had his life made. He had a great income, he had prestige, and God interrupted his life with a burden. And he finds himself now with a burden, a burden to go back to the town of his ancestors. So he leaves the posh, cosmopolitan city of Susa and relocates 800 miles away to the burned down ghetto city of Jerusalem, where he had never been before. The city has been in ruins for 141 years. So his first task is to mobilize the people to build the what? The wall. The wall is about a mile and a half long, 15ft high, 3.5ft wide. It's a major, monumental task. He mobilizes the people with a vision of working on their portion of the wall, they begin to work and something incredible happens. In 52 days. They accomplish what has not been able to be done in 141 years. The hand of God. They rebuild the wall, but the work is not done. The people rejoice, they celebrate, and then they turn inwardly to say, we've rebuilt the wall, but we have a desperate need to revive our soul. And so they begin to go back to Scripture and read scripture. They have a massive gathering of over 40,000 people that gather in a plaza. They hear the word, the Word of God. Conviction convicts them with such power and such might that Nehemiah says, you've gone astray in three areas, and I want you to turn around and repent in three areas and make these three areas right. You'll see this in chapter ten. The three areas are basically having to do with your family, your worship, and your finances. Now I kind of wonder, why did Nehemiah focus on these three areas? But I think the big theme to these three areas is that you need to make God a priority, a central point of your life. And when you move God out of the central point of your life, it'll be reflected in your family, your worship, and your finances. Now, if you read chapter ten, you'll see that they were so serious about this that they wept, they cried, they signed a covenant. They had 82 priests that put their signatures on this. They vowed. They pledged that they would turn around and not go back to the ways of old in these three areas. Let me just summarize what those commitments were in the area of family. What had been happening is they had been compromising the state of their family. The way they were compromising is that they were giving their sons and daughters in marriage to the nations around them the animals, the ammonites and the Moabites and the other ites that lived around them. And they were compromising because the people that they were marrying had a different faith. They didn't share the same values. They didn't share the same worship. They didn't say share the same spirituality. So they were marrying people that believed differently, and they were raising children that had mixed alliances. They were confused about their worship and confused about God. They were polluting the worship of God as they mixed with paganism. And so Nehemiah was saying, you need to make sure if you marry, that you marry someone that shares the same spiritual values. Let me just pause for a second time out. How many singles do we have here? Just kind of wave at me real fast like this. How many singles do we have that have plans to be married one day? All right, here's a little free advice. Under no circumstances should you even consider marrying someone that is not on an equal par spiritually to where you are. Here's the thing. The Bible is super clear about this. In fact, he uses the imagery of a yoke. If you walk into my office upstairs, I brought a yoke back from, uh, a boats, which is a town in northern Spain. Don't even ask me how I got it here. Major thing, because a big piece of wood like this. But but but but a yoke serves to put two oxen together. And what the Bible says is, don't be unequally yoked with someone that doesn't share your same faith, because what happens is that you will be attached to that person, and you'll be pulling in different directions. And when you're pulling in different directions, you'll never arrive at your desired destiny because you'll be going in circles, going around, and marriage in any other partnership needs to be in the realm of someone that shares your spiritual values. And that needs to be a priority in your life. That you look for someone, you say, well, you know, pastor, I mean, this guy, I like him. You know, he's got the look I always wanted. He dresses nice. You know, he works at a nice job. That's good. I'm glad all the external things are in order. But listen, one day you'll wake up, one day you'll wake up ten years into your marriage, and you'll look at the guy beside you and you'll say we are pulling in different directions because his heart is not the same as my heart. And you'll have difficulties about how to raise your children. Ministry, tithing, priority, centrality, because you'll pull in one direction and he'll pull in the other direction. And I got some guys here saying, why do you want to marry her pastor? She's hot. I'm glad she's hot, but so is hell. And. You know. There needs to be something a little deeper, guys, a little deeper than just her body. And the Bible is really uncompromising about this. Now, let me tell you, if you're married to someone that doesn't share your spiritual values, someone say, yeah, yeah, okay, good. I can get rid of them. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't say that. If you're already married, you keep them because the Bible talks about that. In first Corinthians chapter seven. It says, you know, if you're if you're married to an unbeliever, someone that doesn't share your spiritual values, then you make it work. You just make it work. And, uh, you, you, you pray that your, that your faith, your spirituality will spill over to their life. Not because you preach at them, not because you, uh, put pastor Mark CDs under their, under their pillow at night, and not because the alarm clock is set to moody radio and stuff. No, they're going to be influenced by the lifestyle and attitude that you possess. You see, your greatest power, your greatest leverage is not your preaching abilities. Your greatest leverage is the quality of your lifestyle. And that's how you influence your mate. And so, um, but, but Nehemiah was real strong about that. Then the second thing that Nehemiah said, they made a commitment. We will not intermarry with people that don't share our values and our faith. Second thing he talked about was their worship. You see it in chapter ten because basically chapter ten all the way through 13 are rehashing the same three major commitments. Uh, family worship and finances. And he talks to the people of Israel. They were compromising their worship. In fact, here's what they were letting happen in their life. They were letting the urgency of the secular take away the space of the sacred. They were letting the secular business endeavors in their life begin to take away their sacred space and worship. And they were doing it by violating what Scripture calls the Sabbath. Now, many of you are familiar with the Sabbath because it's one of the Ten Commandments. And in the Ten Commandments, God talks about keeping the Sabbath as a sacred thing. Um, there's a lot of confusion about the Sabbath. And let me just clarify a bit old Testament, New Testament Sabbath. If you go back all the way to Genesis, the Book of Beginnings, you'll realize that in the very first chapters of Genesis, the book of beginnings, that God created the heavens and the earth. And how many days? Okay, six days. And then on the seventh day, what did God do? He rested. Wait a second. Some of you envision that God was like this on the seventh day. Wow. I haven't done so much work in 3 trillion years. Man, was this a lot of work to create that I am so tired. I need a break. Wrong. God didn't need a Red bull on the seventh day because he was so exhausted. That's not the point. God is omnipotent and sovereign. God does not get tired. There is no shortage of divine energy. The reason that God rested was not to replenish his health. But the reason that God rested was to institute a divine rhythm in creation that we would emulate in our lives. It was a model for us. And so that divine rhythm of creation continues even to this day, that there needs to be space in our life, space in our schedule, where we just turn off the BlackBerrys, we disconnect the computers, we we put the, our cell phones on silent and we disengage from our jobs. And what we do is we learn to enjoy our family. We learn to, to set space aside, to worship God, to replenish our bodies without becoming workaholics. Now, we thought that technology would make work easier, but what it's done is it's created a generation of people that never disconnect. We're always on call, and we think that success adds up to how can I cram more work into less hours? And so we've created a generation of oftentimes neurotic, over obsessed, popping pills, overcaffeinated people because we don't know how to stop, relax, and worship and enjoy our families and relationships. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Just kind of nod at me. Now, some of you, that's not your problem. You're like over relaxed. You need to go out and get a job, start working 40 hours a week. You know, you're just too relaxed and you get out of that relaxed mode. So there's extremes in everything, right? But what was happening on the Sabbath is that that the people of Israel, they were not guarding the Sabbath. They were out there, uh, they saw that the other people around them were doing business on the Sabbath, and they thought they had an advantage, so they didn't want to lose their business advantage. So they started doing service on the Sabbath. And what happened is that the sacred was being encroached upon. We live in a society where the secular is overtaking the sacred, where, where we have less and less space for the sacred, because secular is taking more and more of that.
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S1: That's Mark Jobe, and you're listening to Bold Steps Weekend. The title of this series is Rebuild Your Life, Your City, Your World A Study in Nehemiah. There's many practical things to take away from this book for your own spiritual life. If you do miss any of the broadcasts, you can always listen again at bold steps.org. That's bold steps.org. You can also subscribe to the Bold Steps Weekend Podcast. Just open up your podcast app and search for Bold Steps Weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Mark has been teaching in the first two areas of our spiritual lives that need to be restored. The third is coming up next as he concludes his message on Bold Steps Weekend.
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S2: And more and more of our time is being encroached upon by the secular. And less and less time is given to the sacred. And so one of the things that the people of Israel needed to repent of is you need to restore the priority of the sacred to your life, because if you have no sacred space, sacred time, sacred moments that you devote to God and allow God to speak to you like we're doing this morning, gathering together, then you will become an increasingly more and more shallow, less spiritual individual. Do you understand that? The third commitment that Nehemiah challenged these people to make, it was the family commitment, the worship commitment, and then thirdly, the financial commitment. And I said earlier, and let me reiterate that oftentimes we've separated the material from the spiritual, and we put them in two different realms. But I believe that finances are as spiritual as prayer because our finances reflect our spirituality. The way you save, invest, give, and spend is a reflection of your values and your spirituality. Do you realize that Jesus talked more about finances, money, and possessions in the New Testament than he talked about heaven and earth and hell all put together? Do you realize that the Bible has thousands of verses about material possessions, poverty, our perspective on wealth and riches? Why? Why? It's because our the way we manage, spend, Invest. Save is a reflection of our values and our spiritual heart. The Bible says, the New Testament says, Jesus said that wherever your heart is, there your treasure will follow as well. So never fall into the trap of separating the two. Our finances are a reflection of our spirituality, and they're a symptom of how we're doing spiritually. And so you look at your checkbook, it's a great indicator of your spirituality and what was happening to the people of Israel. They had got so egocentric, they had become so consumed in themselves that they were not giving anything, that they were not giving to the things of God, the people of God. They were not giving outside of themselves. And so Nehemiah reminds him of two words that you'll find often in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament. Two words that I think merit definition. One is the word tithe, and the second is the word firstfruit. Let me start with first fruits in an agrarian society. The first are the first reaping of their wheat, barley, whatever their harvest was, that was called the first fruits. That was the first of what a farmer would bring in, and God to sanctify the rest, basically to set the priority of their giving in place. What God indicated was that you need to give of your first fruits to the things of God. You know why that was so important? Because in essence, what they were saying is, God, you are central to my life. I will not give you the leftovers. I will give you the the first, the first portion, not whatever's left over. Are you tracking with me? You see, oftentimes we live our life and we live things on our self, and then we give God our leftover. God, if I have time for you, I'll give you time. God. If I have leftover finances, I'll give you finances. God says, I don't want anybody leftovers. I want the central part. I want a priority. Give me priority so I can sanctify the rest of what you do. You are indicating importance and value with the way you give your time, with the way you give your finances, you indicate priority and value. So Nehemiah, he's gone for 10 to 12 years. He leaves Jerusalem in a spiritual state of revival. The people are. Yeah. God. Yeah. Family. Yeah. Worship. Yeah. Finances. We're living for God. We're going all the way. And ten years later, a decade is gone. Nehemiah goes back to Susa. He has no contact with the people. He leaves him in good condition. And here's what happens. Nehemiah, chapter 13 is all about spiritual relapse. Here's what I've noticed about my life, what I read in Scripture and what I observe about human condition in general. Unless we reengage in our commitments, our tendency is to fall to the lowest level of expectation in areas of our life. I'm glad you got married, put on a wedding dress, stated some vows, cried, hugged, did a big hoopla over it. It was good. I'm going to tell you something about your marriage, though. Unless you're intentional about cultivating it and reigniting it and refreshing it, then you will eventually fall to the lowest level of expectation in your marriage. And if you're not careful, you'll end up 15 years later just living in the same house connected because you have children, business partners, because you share finances, but your souls will drift apart. The romance will flee. The sense of togetherness will go away. And you'll wake up one day and say and say. What in the world has happened to us? Because there has to be our cycles. Is that our heart tends to grow cold and lukewarm unless we ignite it again.
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S1: You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend. The Bible teaching of Mark job. Today's message is titled Making God a Priority. We'll continue our next weekend's program. And remember, you can always find more content from Mark by going to our website, Bold steps.org. While you're there, you can also catch up on other series and request your own copy of the special resource we have available. It's available this month only known as our Bold Step Gift. It's a book by Susie Larson titled Strong in Battle, and Mark is right here speaking with the author herself to tell you more about it.
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S2: You know, Susie, one phrase you use in strong in Battle has really stuck with me. The idea of being calm, confident, conqueror in a world that feels so chaotic, uncertain. That sounds exactly like what we need, doesn't it, Susie? What does it look like, practically, to cultivate that kind of expectancy and confidence, even in the middle of the battle?
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S3: You know, we follow Jesus and he leads so well. And as you're asking this question, I'm right away thinking of the story when he had the disciples get in the boat and go out into a storm. And I don't know if you've ever felt that way where you're like, I'm on your heels, I'm following you. And here I find myself in a storm. But nothing with Jesus is happenstance. And I believe in that story. He was modeling two very important things for them, and it was rest and authority because first he fell asleep. He was asleep to such a degree that they actually had to wake him up in the storm, you know, and they're asking, don't you care? And he's asking, where's your faith? And then he rises up and he takes authority over the storm. And then their question is, who is this man? The authority that we have to stand in Christ when the enemy rages against us? The call to rest in the middle of the storm, to me, is its own act of warfare. And these men needed this because when they got to the other side of the lake, they were facing really intense ministry. A demoniac and other things, great opposition. So for me, we find ourselves in a cultural storm. We are not here by surprise. God, you know, didn't just look the other way. And we find ourselves in trouble. He anointed and appointed us to live and breathe on the earth for such a time as this. So I think as the storms are swirling around us, he wants to teach us on deeper levels to be a calm, confident conqueror. We have to first and foremost be in Christ and to be in Christ. We can find that sweet spot in the middle of the storm where we truly go. Lord, More is on your shoulders than on mine. I'm going to rest in you. That is sometimes my highest offering and my greatest form of warfare. But then I'm going to discern the ways the enemy is stealing from me, lying to me, and I'm going to rise up in my authority and take authority over the enemy. I believe in my experience. That is really how we learn to respond to God and not react to the storm.
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S1: That is a great message, Suzy. And as you know, we only choose resources that fit right in with our bold steps message. And boy, this one really fits in nicely Mark, doesn't it?
00:24:28
S2: I love it. And that image of calm, confident with authority in the midst of the battle. Love. Love that image, Suzy.
00:24:36
S1: So request your copy of this Bold step gift today when you give online at bold steps.org/give. You can also give over the phone by calling 800 D.L. Moody, that's (800) 356-6639, or send your donation and request by mail to Bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. 606 ten. Before we close today, did you know you can listen to Bold Steps Weekend anytime, anywhere? You'll find us on most of the major podcast apps by searching for Bold Steps Weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Just don't forget to click subscribe while you're there. And if you'd like to connect with our Bold Steps community online, feel free to join us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Bold Steps Radio and our channels on YouTube. By searching for Bold Steps with Mark Jobe and Bold Steps with Mark Jobe programs on YouTube. Just be sure to like and subscribe when you find us. I'm Wayne Sheppard, reminding you to join us next weekend, when we'll continue with part two of our message Making God a Priority. We'll see you next time on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a Ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
S1: Living in neutral. Your spiritual life will decline. Today on Bold Steps weekend. Making God a priority.
00:00:08
S2: If you have no sacred space, sacred time, then you will become an increasingly more and more shallow, less spiritual individual.
00:00:31
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Well, today we continue in our study of Nehemiah in our rebuild series. We're in chapter ten today. And Mark, we're going to learn more about how to make God a priority, specifically in three key areas.
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S2: That's right. Wayne, in this story, this account, the wall and the city have now been rebuilt. That was the big thing. But Nehemiah, he discovers that although the physical need has been restored, the spiritual need, the spiritual need, the need of the soul still needs a lot of work. And so Nehemiah challenges the people to repent and to repair three very critical areas of their soul.
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S1: So listen carefully and we'll identify those three areas today. As you listen to Mark, we encourage you to stay tuned over the next couple of broadcasts to take it all in. Again, Nehemiah chapter ten is Mark job comes now with some bold steps.
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S2: For those of you that have not been part of this series on Nehemiah, the big theme of Nehemiah is rebuild your life, your city, your world, and let me in a paragraph try to catch you up on the story as we jump into the final chapter of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was basically a son of an immigrant that came from rags to riches. It's a story of a guy whose parents came as slaves. He climbed up the ladder of success and ended up in the equivalent of the white House in Persia, working for the most powerful person in the face of this earth. He had his life made. He had a great income, he had prestige, and God interrupted his life with a burden. And he finds himself now with a burden, a burden to go back to the town of his ancestors. So he leaves the posh, cosmopolitan city of Susa and relocates 800 miles away to the burned down ghetto city of Jerusalem, where he had never been before. The city has been in ruins for 141 years. So his first task is to mobilize the people to build the what? The wall. The wall is about a mile and a half long, 15ft high, 3.5ft wide. It's a major, monumental task. He mobilizes the people with a vision of working on their portion of the wall, they begin to work and something incredible happens. In 52 days. They accomplish what has not been able to be done in 141 years. The hand of God. They rebuild the wall, but the work is not done. The people rejoice, they celebrate, and then they turn inwardly to say, we've rebuilt the wall, but we have a desperate need to revive our soul. And so they begin to go back to Scripture and read scripture. They have a massive gathering of over 40,000 people that gather in a plaza. They hear the word, the Word of God. Conviction convicts them with such power and such might that Nehemiah says, you've gone astray in three areas, and I want you to turn around and repent in three areas and make these three areas right. You'll see this in chapter ten. The three areas are basically having to do with your family, your worship, and your finances. Now I kind of wonder, why did Nehemiah focus on these three areas? But I think the big theme to these three areas is that you need to make God a priority, a central point of your life. And when you move God out of the central point of your life, it'll be reflected in your family, your worship, and your finances. Now, if you read chapter ten, you'll see that they were so serious about this that they wept, they cried, they signed a covenant. They had 82 priests that put their signatures on this. They vowed. They pledged that they would turn around and not go back to the ways of old in these three areas. Let me just summarize what those commitments were in the area of family. What had been happening is they had been compromising the state of their family. The way they were compromising is that they were giving their sons and daughters in marriage to the nations around them the animals, the ammonites and the Moabites and the other ites that lived around them. And they were compromising because the people that they were marrying had a different faith. They didn't share the same values. They didn't share the same worship. They didn't say share the same spirituality. So they were marrying people that believed differently, and they were raising children that had mixed alliances. They were confused about their worship and confused about God. They were polluting the worship of God as they mixed with paganism. And so Nehemiah was saying, you need to make sure if you marry, that you marry someone that shares the same spiritual values. Let me just pause for a second time out. How many singles do we have here? Just kind of wave at me real fast like this. How many singles do we have that have plans to be married one day? All right, here's a little free advice. Under no circumstances should you even consider marrying someone that is not on an equal par spiritually to where you are. Here's the thing. The Bible is super clear about this. In fact, he uses the imagery of a yoke. If you walk into my office upstairs, I brought a yoke back from, uh, a boats, which is a town in northern Spain. Don't even ask me how I got it here. Major thing, because a big piece of wood like this. But but but but a yoke serves to put two oxen together. And what the Bible says is, don't be unequally yoked with someone that doesn't share your same faith, because what happens is that you will be attached to that person, and you'll be pulling in different directions. And when you're pulling in different directions, you'll never arrive at your desired destiny because you'll be going in circles, going around, and marriage in any other partnership needs to be in the realm of someone that shares your spiritual values. And that needs to be a priority in your life. That you look for someone, you say, well, you know, pastor, I mean, this guy, I like him. You know, he's got the look I always wanted. He dresses nice. You know, he works at a nice job. That's good. I'm glad all the external things are in order. But listen, one day you'll wake up, one day you'll wake up ten years into your marriage, and you'll look at the guy beside you and you'll say we are pulling in different directions because his heart is not the same as my heart. And you'll have difficulties about how to raise your children. Ministry, tithing, priority, centrality, because you'll pull in one direction and he'll pull in the other direction. And I got some guys here saying, why do you want to marry her pastor? She's hot. I'm glad she's hot, but so is hell. And. You know. There needs to be something a little deeper, guys, a little deeper than just her body. And the Bible is really uncompromising about this. Now, let me tell you, if you're married to someone that doesn't share your spiritual values, someone say, yeah, yeah, okay, good. I can get rid of them. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't say that. If you're already married, you keep them because the Bible talks about that. In first Corinthians chapter seven. It says, you know, if you're if you're married to an unbeliever, someone that doesn't share your spiritual values, then you make it work. You just make it work. And, uh, you, you, you pray that your, that your faith, your spirituality will spill over to their life. Not because you preach at them, not because you, uh, put pastor Mark CDs under their, under their pillow at night, and not because the alarm clock is set to moody radio and stuff. No, they're going to be influenced by the lifestyle and attitude that you possess. You see, your greatest power, your greatest leverage is not your preaching abilities. Your greatest leverage is the quality of your lifestyle. And that's how you influence your mate. And so, um, but, but Nehemiah was real strong about that. Then the second thing that Nehemiah said, they made a commitment. We will not intermarry with people that don't share our values and our faith. Second thing he talked about was their worship. You see it in chapter ten because basically chapter ten all the way through 13 are rehashing the same three major commitments. Uh, family worship and finances. And he talks to the people of Israel. They were compromising their worship. In fact, here's what they were letting happen in their life. They were letting the urgency of the secular take away the space of the sacred. They were letting the secular business endeavors in their life begin to take away their sacred space and worship. And they were doing it by violating what Scripture calls the Sabbath. Now, many of you are familiar with the Sabbath because it's one of the Ten Commandments. And in the Ten Commandments, God talks about keeping the Sabbath as a sacred thing. Um, there's a lot of confusion about the Sabbath. And let me just clarify a bit old Testament, New Testament Sabbath. If you go back all the way to Genesis, the Book of Beginnings, you'll realize that in the very first chapters of Genesis, the book of beginnings, that God created the heavens and the earth. And how many days? Okay, six days. And then on the seventh day, what did God do? He rested. Wait a second. Some of you envision that God was like this on the seventh day. Wow. I haven't done so much work in 3 trillion years. Man, was this a lot of work to create that I am so tired. I need a break. Wrong. God didn't need a Red bull on the seventh day because he was so exhausted. That's not the point. God is omnipotent and sovereign. God does not get tired. There is no shortage of divine energy. The reason that God rested was not to replenish his health. But the reason that God rested was to institute a divine rhythm in creation that we would emulate in our lives. It was a model for us. And so that divine rhythm of creation continues even to this day, that there needs to be space in our life, space in our schedule, where we just turn off the BlackBerrys, we disconnect the computers, we we put the, our cell phones on silent and we disengage from our jobs. And what we do is we learn to enjoy our family. We learn to, to set space aside, to worship God, to replenish our bodies without becoming workaholics. Now, we thought that technology would make work easier, but what it's done is it's created a generation of people that never disconnect. We're always on call, and we think that success adds up to how can I cram more work into less hours? And so we've created a generation of oftentimes neurotic, over obsessed, popping pills, overcaffeinated people because we don't know how to stop, relax, and worship and enjoy our families and relationships. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Just kind of nod at me. Now, some of you, that's not your problem. You're like over relaxed. You need to go out and get a job, start working 40 hours a week. You know, you're just too relaxed and you get out of that relaxed mode. So there's extremes in everything, right? But what was happening on the Sabbath is that that the people of Israel, they were not guarding the Sabbath. They were out there, uh, they saw that the other people around them were doing business on the Sabbath, and they thought they had an advantage, so they didn't want to lose their business advantage. So they started doing service on the Sabbath. And what happened is that the sacred was being encroached upon. We live in a society where the secular is overtaking the sacred, where, where we have less and less space for the sacred, because secular is taking more and more of that.
00:14:30
S1: That's Mark Jobe, and you're listening to Bold Steps Weekend. The title of this series is Rebuild Your Life, Your City, Your World A Study in Nehemiah. There's many practical things to take away from this book for your own spiritual life. If you do miss any of the broadcasts, you can always listen again at bold steps.org. That's bold steps.org. You can also subscribe to the Bold Steps Weekend Podcast. Just open up your podcast app and search for Bold Steps Weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Mark has been teaching in the first two areas of our spiritual lives that need to be restored. The third is coming up next as he concludes his message on Bold Steps Weekend.
00:15:13
S2: And more and more of our time is being encroached upon by the secular. And less and less time is given to the sacred. And so one of the things that the people of Israel needed to repent of is you need to restore the priority of the sacred to your life, because if you have no sacred space, sacred time, sacred moments that you devote to God and allow God to speak to you like we're doing this morning, gathering together, then you will become an increasingly more and more shallow, less spiritual individual. Do you understand that? The third commitment that Nehemiah challenged these people to make, it was the family commitment, the worship commitment, and then thirdly, the financial commitment. And I said earlier, and let me reiterate that oftentimes we've separated the material from the spiritual, and we put them in two different realms. But I believe that finances are as spiritual as prayer because our finances reflect our spirituality. The way you save, invest, give, and spend is a reflection of your values and your spirituality. Do you realize that Jesus talked more about finances, money, and possessions in the New Testament than he talked about heaven and earth and hell all put together? Do you realize that the Bible has thousands of verses about material possessions, poverty, our perspective on wealth and riches? Why? Why? It's because our the way we manage, spend, Invest. Save is a reflection of our values and our spiritual heart. The Bible says, the New Testament says, Jesus said that wherever your heart is, there your treasure will follow as well. So never fall into the trap of separating the two. Our finances are a reflection of our spirituality, and they're a symptom of how we're doing spiritually. And so you look at your checkbook, it's a great indicator of your spirituality and what was happening to the people of Israel. They had got so egocentric, they had become so consumed in themselves that they were not giving anything, that they were not giving to the things of God, the people of God. They were not giving outside of themselves. And so Nehemiah reminds him of two words that you'll find often in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament. Two words that I think merit definition. One is the word tithe, and the second is the word firstfruit. Let me start with first fruits in an agrarian society. The first are the first reaping of their wheat, barley, whatever their harvest was, that was called the first fruits. That was the first of what a farmer would bring in, and God to sanctify the rest, basically to set the priority of their giving in place. What God indicated was that you need to give of your first fruits to the things of God. You know why that was so important? Because in essence, what they were saying is, God, you are central to my life. I will not give you the leftovers. I will give you the the first, the first portion, not whatever's left over. Are you tracking with me? You see, oftentimes we live our life and we live things on our self, and then we give God our leftover. God, if I have time for you, I'll give you time. God. If I have leftover finances, I'll give you finances. God says, I don't want anybody leftovers. I want the central part. I want a priority. Give me priority so I can sanctify the rest of what you do. You are indicating importance and value with the way you give your time, with the way you give your finances, you indicate priority and value. So Nehemiah, he's gone for 10 to 12 years. He leaves Jerusalem in a spiritual state of revival. The people are. Yeah. God. Yeah. Family. Yeah. Worship. Yeah. Finances. We're living for God. We're going all the way. And ten years later, a decade is gone. Nehemiah goes back to Susa. He has no contact with the people. He leaves him in good condition. And here's what happens. Nehemiah, chapter 13 is all about spiritual relapse. Here's what I've noticed about my life, what I read in Scripture and what I observe about human condition in general. Unless we reengage in our commitments, our tendency is to fall to the lowest level of expectation in areas of our life. I'm glad you got married, put on a wedding dress, stated some vows, cried, hugged, did a big hoopla over it. It was good. I'm going to tell you something about your marriage, though. Unless you're intentional about cultivating it and reigniting it and refreshing it, then you will eventually fall to the lowest level of expectation in your marriage. And if you're not careful, you'll end up 15 years later just living in the same house connected because you have children, business partners, because you share finances, but your souls will drift apart. The romance will flee. The sense of togetherness will go away. And you'll wake up one day and say and say. What in the world has happened to us? Because there has to be our cycles. Is that our heart tends to grow cold and lukewarm unless we ignite it again.
00:21:31
S1: You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend. The Bible teaching of Mark job. Today's message is titled Making God a Priority. We'll continue our next weekend's program. And remember, you can always find more content from Mark by going to our website, Bold steps.org. While you're there, you can also catch up on other series and request your own copy of the special resource we have available. It's available this month only known as our Bold Step Gift. It's a book by Susie Larson titled Strong in Battle, and Mark is right here speaking with the author herself to tell you more about it.
00:22:01
S2: You know, Susie, one phrase you use in strong in Battle has really stuck with me. The idea of being calm, confident, conqueror in a world that feels so chaotic, uncertain. That sounds exactly like what we need, doesn't it, Susie? What does it look like, practically, to cultivate that kind of expectancy and confidence, even in the middle of the battle?
00:22:27
S3: You know, we follow Jesus and he leads so well. And as you're asking this question, I'm right away thinking of the story when he had the disciples get in the boat and go out into a storm. And I don't know if you've ever felt that way where you're like, I'm on your heels, I'm following you. And here I find myself in a storm. But nothing with Jesus is happenstance. And I believe in that story. He was modeling two very important things for them, and it was rest and authority because first he fell asleep. He was asleep to such a degree that they actually had to wake him up in the storm, you know, and they're asking, don't you care? And he's asking, where's your faith? And then he rises up and he takes authority over the storm. And then their question is, who is this man? The authority that we have to stand in Christ when the enemy rages against us? The call to rest in the middle of the storm, to me, is its own act of warfare. And these men needed this because when they got to the other side of the lake, they were facing really intense ministry. A demoniac and other things, great opposition. So for me, we find ourselves in a cultural storm. We are not here by surprise. God, you know, didn't just look the other way. And we find ourselves in trouble. He anointed and appointed us to live and breathe on the earth for such a time as this. So I think as the storms are swirling around us, he wants to teach us on deeper levels to be a calm, confident conqueror. We have to first and foremost be in Christ and to be in Christ. We can find that sweet spot in the middle of the storm where we truly go. Lord, More is on your shoulders than on mine. I'm going to rest in you. That is sometimes my highest offering and my greatest form of warfare. But then I'm going to discern the ways the enemy is stealing from me, lying to me, and I'm going to rise up in my authority and take authority over the enemy. I believe in my experience. That is really how we learn to respond to God and not react to the storm.
00:24:19
S1: That is a great message, Suzy. And as you know, we only choose resources that fit right in with our bold steps message. And boy, this one really fits in nicely Mark, doesn't it?
00:24:28
S2: I love it. And that image of calm, confident with authority in the midst of the battle. Love. Love that image, Suzy.
00:24:36
S1: So request your copy of this Bold step gift today when you give online at bold steps.org/give. You can also give over the phone by calling 800 D.L. Moody, that's (800) 356-6639, or send your donation and request by mail to Bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. 606 ten. Before we close today, did you know you can listen to Bold Steps Weekend anytime, anywhere? You'll find us on most of the major podcast apps by searching for Bold Steps Weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Just don't forget to click subscribe while you're there. And if you'd like to connect with our Bold Steps community online, feel free to join us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Bold Steps Radio and our channels on YouTube. By searching for Bold Steps with Mark Jobe and Bold Steps with Mark Jobe programs on YouTube. Just be sure to like and subscribe when you find us. I'm Wayne Sheppard, reminding you to join us next weekend, when we'll continue with part two of our message Making God a Priority. We'll see you next time on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a Ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
