with me again to Nehemiah chapter 1. I'm going to just be reading two verses, verses 6 and 7. Again those of you who may not have been with us last week we are doing our last part of the series on the need for prayer, it's a push to kind of set the right foundation for the rest of the year.

And Nehemiah has heard report of what's going back in Jerusalem. These people came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and they've kind of lost focus and got the report that the wall, the Jerusalem wall and the gate has been burned down and it seems like people are just kind of in neglect.

So, Nehemiah is grieved over this and as a result of it he breaks out in prayer and then he ultimately is going to challenge the nation of Israel to pray. And then as a result of Nehemiah's ministry and preaching and praying revival breaks out during this period. So, I'm just going to be reading verse 6 and 7, Nehemiah's response in prayer.

"Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants confessing the sins of the people of Israel which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned.

We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses." Let's pray. "Heavenly Father we praise you and thank you for your goodness. We pray Father God that all the things that we have brought into this room, entanglement, busyness, distraction that we would lay it all aside Lord God and be attentive to your word.

Help us Lord to be a people who are committed to prayer, committed to know you, to follow you, to obey you. We pray Lord God that in our generation, in our lives, in our families that you would bring revival. That our affection for you may not simply be words.

That we would not live day to day just feeling guilty and not ever pursuing what you challenge us to pursue. Help us Lord God to live a life truly worthy of the calling you've given us. So, we ask Lord this morning that you would bless us that in our weakness as we come before you that your spirit would be strong.

That in our weakness you would be strong. That you would show yourself. And so we pray for your grace this morning Lord God as we seek you to worship you. In Jesus name we pray, amen." You know I think the main reason why I've been talking in the last couple of weeks about the need for prayer is not simply because you know here we evaluate and here's a bunch of things that we need to do as a church.

And here's one thing that we lack, we need to pray more. Which is true, but that is not the main motivation behind why I've been preaching this and why we feel the need for the emphasis on prayer. The underlying reason why we need to pray is because we need revival.

Revival. We need revival in our generation. We need revival in our homes. We need revival in our churches. As I mentioned before you and I live in a very comfortable Orange County Christianity where persecution we read in the news but it's not real. You know we've created a comfortable life.

In and of itself that's not sin. You know being comfortable, having a great family and raising great children in a safe environment that's not--what parent wouldn't want that? I want that. But there is a great danger that comes along with wealth that we can easily forget who we are, that this is not our home.

You know and our hearts can become easily hardened. And you know like with Christianity that we have as long as we are not sinning, as long as we are not going to strict clubs and paying our taxes that we are good because God loves us unconditionally. There is no striving.

There is no pursuing. There is no brokenness. There is no crying out to God for lost souls. There is no passion for holiness. If we are not careful that can be enough. Because in comparison, in comparison to the others, in comparison to those who aren't studying the Bible, in comparison to those who don't come to church regularly we don't feel so bad.

But as the book of Amos says when we put the plumb line of His Word against our lives and our thoughts and our hearts the way we spend our money, the way we spend our time, what grieves us, what makes us happy, when we compare to the plumb line of the Word of God we have to first and foremost confess that we have drifted, that we are not where God wants us to be, that our church is not what God desires us to be, that we ought to strive, we ought to seek.

The passage that we just looked at this morning is about Nehemiah's prayer for revival. And he primarily prays, he begins by praying and by confessing his sins. Before he goes and says, "Those people, they need revival." He includes himself and again he leads in repentance. "It is me, it is my parents, it is my ancestors, we are in need of your forgiveness." Anybody who reconnects or connects with God begins with repentance because that is the only way that we can connect with the Holy God.

The only reason why you and I are able to be here is because at one point somebody preached the Gospel and you responded in repentance. You don't get saved by hearing the Gospel. You can hear the Gospel and say, "Oh, I agree with that, that sounds great." You don't get saved by hearing the Gospel.

You get saved when you hear the Gospel and you are convicted over your sins and that caused you to come before God in prayer in repentance. So, whether you were led in formal prayer repentance, or whether you prayed in repentance by yourself, or whether you just kind of didn't know what you were doing and said, "God I want to receive you and I'm a sinner." However you came to that point you got saved because you responded in repentance.

It is no different in our sanctification. You don't grow because you came to church and heard a message. It required you no work to come here this morning. Well, some work, you had to get up, put your pants on, right, and you had to grab your keys and you drove here, right.

I prepared the message and now I'm presenting it to you. It doesn't cause you to grow, to just come and listen. Spiritual growth happens when you hear the Word of God and you respond to the Word of God. It causes you to come to Him in prayer, in repentance, and in obedience.

Just hearing the Word of God doesn't cause you to mature. So, you can be at church all your life, hear the Word of God and never have a radical response to this. And in the end it has done nothing but made you a better critique. You know, you're a critic.

It's just like somebody who is watching movies and you're critical. You have a critical eye over everything because you know everything about movies, how to begin, camera angle, you know, who these actors are, what genre. You know everything about it, but you've known nothing of making movies. It's like sports fans, you're an expert of what quarterback should be doing what, who should be the point guard, and how it should be run, who should be the coach.

We've become experts at these things and you've never played a game of basketball. See that's what we can easily become, come to church and we become hearers of the Word, and yet we don't actively respond. See, Nehemiah prays. It's a challenge not only for the people of Israel, but for all people, all of God's people to hear His Word and recognize where we are, and not just to recognize it and feel bad, but to bring us to God.

What was the primary sin of Israel that Nehemiah felt the need to fast and to pray, and was crying and was weeping? If you remember last week the report was they went and they saw the wall was in disarray. No one was taking care of it. They saw the gate and it was burned down and no one was doing anything about it.

The report that came back wasn't, "You know what they've got Asherah poles at the temple. They've got ball worship set up and they're having human sacrifices." None of that. The report was neglect of the wall. The gate is burned down and nobody is doing anything about it. That's what grieved him.

Now, we can look at that and say, "Man, you know Nehemiah is kind of drama. Just fix the fence. You know what I mean? Get some carpenters. Get some contractors. You know what I mean? Paint it. Problem solved." Well, there is all this weeping and mourning because of a broken down wall.

See it wasn't just about the wall. It wasn't just about the gate. It was because the wall and the gates of this particular city of Jerusalem was at the core of God's covenant with these people. And to be in neglect of the temple, neglect of the gates, neglect of the wall basically meant that the people were no longer paying attention to what made God's people, God's people.

They were just going about their business being busy. It wasn't immorality. It wasn't outright rebellion against God shaking in their fists. It was just simply complacency. That's what he was grieving over. It was important but it wasn't important enough. Haggai was another prophet that came a bit before him and ran into a similar problem that Nehemiah ran into.

And this is what he says in Haggai 1, 2-6, "These people say, 'The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.' Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?' Now therefore,' thus says the Lord of hosts, 'consider your ways.

You have sown much and harvested little. You eat but you never have enough. You drink but you never have your fill. You clothe yourself but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.'" Does that sound very familiar to the judgment that God gave Adam?

He said, "You are going to be laboring at the sweat of your brow and at the end of the days all that is going to produce is thorns and thistles." What he was saying here was that the whole reversal of the curse of mankind was because of this covenant that God made with the nation of Israel.

But the moment that they neglected God and it was no longer important at the center of their life, they began to see the judgment of mankind manifest in their community. You are working hard but at the end of the day very little fruit. It wasn't an outright rebellion. It wasn't idolatry.

It was simply neglect. You know in our churches, Orange County Christianity, our problem is not persecution. We don't have ISIS knocking on the door. As much as we feel pressured from the government that we can't say this, we can't pray in public, and we can't do all of this stuff, compared to what we see on television and news, I mean we are pretty weak sauce.

People are concerned that we are going to a certain part of India that the missionaries are not going into and they are afraid for our lives. We are pretty weak sauce, you know what I mean? Because there aren't foreigners there. And I'm part of it, because I'm raised and I'm part of Orange County Christianity.

But the danger that you and I fall into isn't, "Ah, I didn't go to strip club yesterday. I didn't get drunk yesterday." The danger that you and I face every single day in our lives is just apathy, complacency. What you and I struggle with when we come into this building is the struggling to matter, that these things actually matter.

To be reminded again that this is why we live over and over again. Zephaniah 1, verse 12, the Prophet says, "At that time I will search Jerusalem with the lambs, and I will punish the men who are complacent. Those who say in their hearts, 'The Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill.'" See he said the complacent people are not in disbelief that God is going to do this, or going to do that.

He said, "No, God just doesn't care." It's almost like every promise that God makes, "Ah, I don't know. I don't know. He said He's coming, whether He comes or doesn't come doesn't really matter. They don't believe that He's going to do good or bad. It's just me." If you look at the book of Revelation, the harshest judgment, I mean of the seven churches came to the church of Laodicea.

And what was their primary guilt? They were lukewarm. He said, "Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." Have you had anything come into your mouth that was so disgusting you actually needed to spit it out? You know what I mean?

You ever eat something every once in a while? You eat something, and you have got to be polite, right? We are civilized people, you don't spit things out. You kind of, "Ugh!" And then you just kind of put it away, right? That's rude. But every once in a while something comes into your mouth that is so disgusting that the only thing you could do is, "Bsh!" I can't have it in my mouth even a second.

That's the imagery that we see of a lukewarm church. God is so disgusted with it. I mean consider all the other sins. Consider the sexual immorality in the churches. Consider people questioning the deity of Jesus. Consider the Gospel being perverted, the Judaizers, the Gnostics. Of all the problems in the church, the church that got the harshest criticism from God was a lukewarm church.

See, you and I don't have that perspective, you know, because we tend to compare. Like as long as we are not, you know, we didn't come into the room drunk, we didn't steal from anybody, you know, we are trying to do a good job taking care of our kids, and we have a good marriage, and we feel safe.

We have a Bible, we try to do quiet time, you know. How often do we see complacency from God's point of view? This apathy. How much God detests that, and how wrong that is, and how dangerous that is. You don't have to commit to destroy a home for the home to be destroyed.

You know, years back when the housing market popped and these homes were being in neglect. So, some of these homes, you know, people were underwater with their mortgage. And so, basically what they did was they just packed up their stuff and left. So, there were some neighbors that you can go to that you could tell no one is living there.

The grass is, you know, two, three feet high. You know, there are broken windows. The fence is broken. The garage door maybe not completely closed. And you walk in, the house is a mess. So, when these people, the houses were up for sale, you walk in and the house was just a mess.

There is molding everywhere. There are pipes leaking. The bathrooms don't work properly. And it wasn't because somebody went in with a hammer and saying, "I'm going to destroy this house." Now, some of those houses were like that. But most of these homes were simply from neglect. All you have to do is just leave it alone.

Right? When there is a plumbing problem and nobody deals with it and after a while that little leak, if somebody lived in that house, all they have to do is just get some plumbing tape and/or call a plumber if you're not good with it and they'll just fix it and problem solved.

But a house that is in neglect, even a little problem can ruin the house. A little leak in the house that just dripped. You leave that for a year, two years, the house can get ruined. It's just out of neglect. A little molding that you're going to be easily just taken care of and replaced.

You don't have to commit to ruin a house. All you have to do is just leave it alone. See, apathy and complacency is spiritual neglect. That we just kind of let it on. We just don't see it as a big deal until disaster happens. Apathy ruins worship. Because God clearly said, "I'm looking for people who are going to worship me in spirit and in truth." You may have all the right things, come to church and do all the right things, but your heart is dead.

Your love is not for God. You're just doing the right thing like a superstition. Just like any other religion if you go to the temple and do the right thing and burn the right incense that some being is going to bless you. If our worship is nothing more than rituals, it is nothing no different than any other religion.

God desires more than that. So, apathy absolutely ruins our worship. If worship is at the core of our faith and our relationship with God, apathy absolutely destroys worship. Apathy affects our spiritual growth in Christ. As I mentioned you can come to church and hear the Word of God preached every single Sunday and it makes you more of a hypocrite every single Sunday.

The more you hear the greater hypocrite you become every single Sunday because you have more things that you are neglecting. Apathy affects our spiritual growth. It absolutely destroys the Great Commission. The greatest problem of the Great Commission is not that we have people doing it wrong. It is not that we have all this desire and then we are doing it the wrong way.

We have the wrong system. We have the wrong discipleship. The greatest challenge to the Great Commission is apathy. We don't have enough people who are committed enough. So, that's why it always bothers me when people are like, "Oh, they are doing it wrong. You are supposed to do it this way.

You are supposed to do it that way." While they are sitting there in their comfort zone doing nothing. At least they are doing something. The greatest hindrance to the advancement of the Gospel is apathy. Apathy ultimately leads to spiritual ruin. It's not it might, it does. Spiritual ruin. You know what the most detestable thing to a non-believer is hypocrites.

Religious people who talk, but they are not any better than you. And I know we are not saved by our works. I know it's by grace alone. But if you've ever been a non-Christian, looked into the Church, you know what I'm talking about. The greatest hindrance to the advancement of the Gospel is the people.

It's apathy, complacency. See, no one will say, "I don't believe in God." At least not in this room. No one is going to say, "I don't want to follow Christ." It's all words though. We don't love Him enough. We don't worship Him enough. We don't obey Him enough. See, it's complacency.

So, even though complacency, at least from our eyes, doesn't seem like a detestable sin before God. God sees beyond all of that. He knows what complacency leads to. Idolatry, a Christian doesn't all of a sudden get up and say, "You know what I'm going to go worship idols." That's not how it happened with the Jews.

It was a greater sin than you and I recognize because of what it leads to. Nehemiah 9, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Nehemiah 9.16, and we are going to read a few passages in that verse. And it gives us an extended insight into the sin of the nation of Israel.

Why Nehemiah was compelled to weep and cry over their sins. Nehemiah 9.16 it says, "But they and our fathers acted presumptuously," in some of your Bibles it says arrogantly, "and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments." You notice here that being stubborn and proud and disobedience kind of go hand in hand, right?

And the picture is that if you own a dog, I don't know if you walk cats or not. If you walk cats, you don't walk cats. Cats do whatever they want, right? You walk the dogs. And you walk the dogs and the dog just doesn't want to go where you want to go.

So, you are kind of dragging, and it kind of stiffens its neck, right? You got a leash and it's just like, "No, I'm not going." And it's just miserable because you have to walk this dog because you don't want it peeing in your house, right? That's the picture that he draws of the sin of Israel, just stiff neck.

You are unwilling to listen, despite. And you are just stubbornly doing your own thing. See, pride and disobedience go hand in hand. Proverbs 16.18 it says, "Pride goes before the destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." When you see a proud man, or a woman, you know that God's judgment isn't too far behind.

But understand this, disobedience isn't simply not obeying God's commandment. Disobedience isn't simply not obeying God's commandment. Disobedience is just doing what you think is right in your eyes. You don't pursue what you know to be wrong. Very few non-Christians actually say, "I know it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway." Very few non-Christians live their life that way.

And it's no different with Christians. I don't know any Christians who deliberately say, "This is wrong, it's against God, but I'm going to do it anyway." Disobedience isn't simply not obeying His command. Disobedience is just doing whatever you think is right in your eyes. In the book of Judges, is a period of Israel's history.

And the whole period is described in Judges 17.6. And this is how their sin is described, "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit." Everyone pursued what they wanted. Everyone made their own values. You know, "I'm glad you're about missions. I'm about family. I'm about Sunday school.

I'm about missions." And everybody just kind of did whatever they thought was right in their own eyes. And as a result of that they kept on rebelling against God. What was the cause of their stiff neckness? What was their rebellion? In Nehemiah 9.17 it says, "They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them.

But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to slavery in Egypt." Did you notice that? Why did they become so proud? Why were they disobedient? The answer, He says in verse 17, "You weren't mindful." That was it. That was the beginning of the rebellion. They just weren't mindful.

They forgot. That's why the Bible keeps telling us, "Remember." Isn't that what we're doing every Sunday? We're doing, "Remember." Because we have such a short memory. No matter how much God is gracious to us one week, next week we come back we get distracted with movies, entertainment, with relational issues, and all of a sudden it's no longer at the forefront.

We believe Him, but it's not real. This is the beginning of this rebellion. See the neglect of the law and the gate wasn't a decision. It was just, "Ah, I've got other things. I've got things that I need to be worried about." Hosea 13.6 describes not only that period but all of history.

You know Hosea, the book of Hosea basically is a large picture of how God saw the nation of Israel. Repeatedly over and over again it says, Hosea 13.6, "When I fed them they were satisfied, and when they were satisfied they became proud. Then they forgot me." I look at that and say, "That was a great rebellion.

They forgot Him." When was the last time you got rebuked because you just forgot? Right? Because you just, "Yeah, you know God is good, but I just forgot." It's like, "How dare you?" That was a great sin. This is what caused Nehemiah to cry out, pleading for mercy. Neglect.

It was just neglect. It was just apathy. Like they cared, but they didn't care enough. God was important, but it just wasn't important enough. And they just went along in life. They didn't worship Asherah. I mean it's not that period. They were just kind of busy with life. See the reason why that was such a grievous sin before God was because God is a covenant God.

It's not purposeless. It's not aimless. God didn't create us and say, "Just go and enjoy until you die." He made a covenant with the people of God. And He said, "I'm going to send the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent." And it was to save mankind.

It is not in the context of here, you know I made this nice island and then some of you guys can just get on and just live there. That was not what He's doing. It's in the context of a holy God who sacrifices everything to pursue sinners and to be in the midst of this history, this awesome news, the Gospel.

And then to say, "Oh, ok, that's good. I'm thankful, but I've got stuff to do." In Psalm 10 verse 4 it says, "In His pride the wicked does not seek Him. In all His thoughts there is no room for God." It's not that they hated God. It's not that they despised Him.

It's not that they wanted to reject Him. It's just there's no room for God. I'm busy. I'm caught up in life. I've got things that I need to take care of. That's what it was. And He says, "The pride of the wicked is that He does not seek Him because there is no room for Him." If we ended the sermon here, I mean it's ok, bad people.

It's all bad people. The end. Enjoy your lunch. But obviously the purpose of Nehemiah is not to simply point out this is where Israel is. The point of the book of Nehemiah and Nehemiah's prayer and pleading before God is to bring them back to the Lord. And that's what happens in Nehemiah chapter 9.

If you can turn your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9, and I'm going to stay here for a little bit. Nehemiah is calling the nation of Israel to repent. And he says in verse 17, "The primary problem is you just forgot. You would think that if God fed them and they were satisfied that it would lead to praise and thanksgiving.

Instead they become proud." Isn't that us? Let's confess, isn't that us? When we are desperate we cry out to God, and God answers our prayers. And for that moment it's like God is so good. God is so good. And as soon as our needs are taken care of we are no longer passionately pursuing Him.

And then we feel like we can live our life without Him. There is no sense of urgency. And once we become proud then we forget. You know we just kind of live our lives. Until some other emergency comes. And then we cry out to God, and God answers our prayers.

And then we are thankful for a bit. And then we become proud, and then we forget. Right? Well, he says it's because you weren't mindful. So, what he does in Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 6 he reminds them who it is that they have been neglecting. "You are the Lord, You alone.

You have made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it. The seas and all that is in them. And you preserve all of them. And the host of Heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of the Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

You found his heart faithful before you and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring, the land, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, Jebusites, and the Gergeshites. And you have kept your promise for you are righteous." In other words this is the God that you have been neglecting.

And you saw the afflictions of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea. And performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land. For you knew they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself as it is to this day.

And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land. And you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters. By pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by the pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go.

You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from Heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and laws by Moses your servant. You gave them bread from Heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst.

And you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them. He's just basically outlining the grace of God. I mean he could have wrote the whole Old Testament just about the mercy and grace of God. He said, "This is the God you've been neglecting." But despite all that, starting from verse 16, I want you to recognize how many "buts" from here point on, ok?

Despite all of that, verse 16, "But they," our fathers, "became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them." You know the people that we tend to invest the most in, you know those are the people that tend to hurt you the most, because you expect that, you don't expect that, you pour it.

Sometimes it could be from your children. You know those of you who have small children, you haven't been hurt yet. The more time you spend, the more sacrifice you make, and the hormones are going to come and get them, you know what I mean? And during that period they are going to say and do some stuff that are very insensitive and hurtful, despite everything you've done.

And it is very painful when that happens, because so much grace and mercy and sacrifice went into raising them. And you are being patient hoping that they'll grow and they'll realize one day that they'll be mature enough to see the sacrifice that you've made. See when he says, "Despite all of that, despite all of what God has done," their response was they forgot Him, they just went their own way.

But in verse 17, 25 he says, "But there is a bigger but than the first but." But you are a forgiving God, gracious in compassion, slow to anger and abounding in love, therefore you did not desert them. Even when you cast for themselves an image of calf instead, this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, or when they committed awful blasphemies.

Even when they committed idolatry. Even when they perverted the worship of God right after He delivered them from Egypt, because of their groaning and crying out when God responds to them. Even though, even though they did that, he says, "God was still gracious." But the buts get bigger. Israel's history does not stop there.

Nehemiah 9, 26, "But despite His grace, but they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets who had admonished them. In order to turn them back to you they committed awful blasphemy." Despite His grace, and despite your sin, despite His being gracious, again they turned against you.

But the but that comes after that gets even bigger. Nehemiah 9, 27, "But when they were oppressed they cried out to you from heaven and you heard them. And in your great compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the hand of the enemies." You would think at some point God would say, "Enough, enough." You would think that the buts would stop there and that would be enough.

They would have learned their lesson. But the buts keep going. Nehemiah 9, 28, "But as soon as they were at rest they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them." But is not mentioned in the next passage, but is assumed.

Nehemiah 9, 28, "And when they cried out to you again you heard from heaven and in your compassion you delivered them time after time." By this time you should know what is coming. There's more buts. Nehemiah 9, 29, "You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands.

They sinned against your ordinances by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen." Oh my gosh, again. All of God's mercy, all of His mercy, all of His forgiveness, all the buts, it doesn't stop. They keep turning.

But here is the biggest but of them all. In Nehemiah 9, 31, "But, after all that, but in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God." The only reason why you and I are here today is because of the buts.

Despite your rebellion, despite our stiff-neckedness, despite our tendency to be entangled and forget, despite the fact that apathy has become a part of our lives, God calls us, and calls us, and calls us. So, when Nehemiah comes and he's calling Israel to repentance, this was not the first time, second time, third time, fourth time, fifth time, or sixth time.

When Peter asked Jesus, "If a brother sins against me, should I forgive him seven times?" When Jesus says, "Seven times seventy." Do you think possibly that Jesus was thinking about the nation of Israel? And how many times He forgave them? And how many times He restored them? And how many times they rebelled against Him?

And how many times He responded in grace and mercy when they cried out? Turn your Bibles back with me to Nehemiah 1, verse 9. Nehemiah 1, verse 9, God responds to their prayers and He says this, again with a "but." "Despite all of that, despite all that you have done, despite all that you have said," verse 9, "but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though you are dispersed, be under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make My name dwell there." Some of your translations I think the NIV says, "the farthest horizon." In the ESV it says, "the farthest skies." And what He means by that is no matter how far you have fallen, no matter how long it's been, no matter how far you've run from God, no matter how deep, how dark your life may have become, that if you confess, if you return, I will receive you.

And the question that we have is why? Why would He put up with stiff-necked people like Israel? And why does He still call us today? You know there are certain things that need to get done in the Church, and we have to tap into the right people. You know some of you are not good with children.

Ok? I'm not going to point you out, but some of you are not good when you are around the kids cry. Right? And there are some of you who love children. You are good with children. So, if we need babysitting, you know who we are going to tap into, because I don't have to twist your arm.

So, you know usually in nursery we have a big volunteer because there are so many people who love children. And they actually feel rewarded. The kids are cute, and they come back, and we are thankful, and they are thankful, and the kids are happy. Great. You know. But some of you, you know, like we need, we have exhausted all these people, and now we have to tap into some of these people who are reluctant.

And we are going to twist your arm. You know, and you've got some guilt. You know what I mean? To not harden your heart. You know. Right? And we have to twist your arm to get something done. And it is very difficult and strange. Right? At the core of the heart of God is compassion.

When we confess our sins and asking for forgiveness, we are not twisting His arm. We are trying to get Him to do something that He is reluctant to do. We are not coming before Him and trying to find techniques to kind of get Him to turn. The Scripture says this is who He is.

He does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. He delights to see His people in repentance and come in returning. So, we don't need to come and try to bend His arms and bend His will. It is His nature. It is His desire to forgive. Despite all the rebellion, despite all the arrogance and the pride that every single one of us is guilty of, He calls us to Himself.

"Come to Me. Come to Me all who have become heavy laden and burdened, who have been distracted, who have been living in apathy, who have been envying the world, coveting the things that God said He came to deliver us from, an empty way of life. All who are distracted, all who have been making excuses, all who have been burdened by life because you didn't put Christ at the center, come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden.

I will give you rest." Why? Why does He give us rest? Are you deserving of that? Am I deserving of that? Is that why I respond? It's unfathomable. Why would a God who has everything be so gracious to us? 1 John 1:8, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.

And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Maybe some of you guys have been a Christian for a while and this is nothing new. Call to repentance, renewal, rededication, it's nothing new.

Maybe some of you guys are sitting here saying, "Seen it and done it." Right? Especially our church has been around almost 20 years now. You know, small groups, seen it, done it. Discipleship, seen it, done it. Mission, seen it, done it. Right? And you kind of have this like, "Well, I've been through so many cycles, I just don't believe in anything anymore." Good.

If that's you, good. Because it was never about the small group. It was never about the one-to-ones. It was whatever system that you've lost hope in, good. Because it was never about that. All of it was to get you to come to Christ. And if you've been disappointed with people, if you've been disappointed with programs, if you've been disappointed with systems, good.

Because until we recognize that Christ is, everything else is going to disappoint you. He calls us to Himself. Because rebellion begins with pride, revival begins with humility. Let me say that again. Because rebellion begins with pride, revival begins with humility. And there is nothing more tangible that we can do as human beings than to humble ourselves and seek His face in prayer.

And that's why we need to pray. So, we do not neglect our salvation. That's what it says in Hebrews 2, 1-3. "Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." Drift away. "For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" I pray that along with me and the leaders and the rest of the brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would pray earnestly from the bottom of our hearts that we would desire Him above everything.

Above friendship, above great marriage, above great business, above even bearing fruit. That God would bring a revival in our hearts. And that the joy that we have in our lives would be because we have Him. In comparison to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, that all will become rubbish.

And that we would pray, and pray earnestly, and cry out to Him until God hears and He forgives. Would you take a few minutes to pray with me? Again, everything that I've been preaching about in the last few weeks, it is not simply so that we can know why prayer is important.

So, ultimately so that you can respond, that each one of us would collectively, privately, publicly, corporately, to sense our desperation before God. Yes, some of you are going to go home and be excited, but not have the discipline to carry it out. Seek accountability. Some of you are going to struggle and you are entangled with things that you are not going to easily break away from.

But to recognize our desperateness and confess it to our brothers and sisters, that we may ultimately, even if it is incrementally, that we would begin to head toward a revival. That until He is worshipped in spirit and in truth, that everything in my life isn't as important. So, would you come before me as a worship team leads us?

Take some time to confess before the Lord. "Lord, I've sensed apathy in my heart and I desire a revival that would remember again why I became a Christian. What caused me to love you and to remember that again?" So, again, let's take some time as we pray before God, confessing and asking the Lord for revival in our hearts.

Let's pray.