Fight for Your Family After the Celebration

Fight for Your Family

After the Celebration

Nehemiah would not let the people mourn

The focus was not to be on their failure but God’s Goodness

To realize the Joy of knowing God’s Word is our Strength 

Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve."

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. Nehemiah 8:10-12

After the celebration of God’s Goodness and Faithfulness

Came a time of clean up 

A time of fasting

Fasting is not about what you give up but what you gain

In the fast were specific commitments, resolutions

New focus for moving forward for greater blessing

Don’t let fasting end without fresh direction for your life

And the life of your family     

After the Celebration

My family loves celebrations.

We have always had parties.

Set up, inviting guest, preparing food, greeting…

So much fun in the midst of a lot of stress.

Groups of 10 to 20 or groups of hundreds.

Whether it was inviting a few

friends over or the whole church.

 

Whether the occasion was just to see

friends or one of our children’s big weddings.

 My family loves celebrations.

Celebrations come to an

end and then there is clean up.

After Nehemiah built the wall,

he appointed singers and had

the Word of the Lord read.

  

The Word of the Lord brought sadness to the

people because they could see how they

missed the blessings God had intended for them.

Nehemiah would not let the people mourn.

The focus was not to be on

their failure but God’s goodness. 

To realize the joy of knowing

God’s Word is our strength…

 

Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks,

and send some to those who have nothing prepared.

 This day is sacred to our Lord.

 Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

The Levites calmed all the people, saying,

 "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve."

Then all the people went away to eat and drink,

 to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy,

because they now understood the words

that had been made known to them.

Nehemiah 8:10-12

After the celebration of God’s

goodness and faithfulness…

Came a time of clean up.

 

A time of fasting.

Chapter 9 is about cleaning up.

Their fasting consisted of reading God’s Word.

A prayer that started with remembering God

who created the heavens and the earth.

A time of reflecting on God’s faithful

in the past to their family tree.

And a time of unfaithfulness of their family tree.

In Chapter 10, we see something

that I think is very important…

Their time of fasting ended

with a written resolution.

A list of changes they would

make and things they would do.

It wasn’t the fast that was the end,

but the ongoing commitments.

Life was not changed because they fasted…

 But because, they in a time of

solitude, made fresh resolutions.

As families, we need to make sure

our families enjoy God’s Word.

God’s Word should be exciting as we

see the potential we can have in Him.

Jesus really did come that your family

might have life and have it to the full.

But after the celebration…

 We need to take a good look at

what changes we need to make…

What commitments we need to keep.

We need to not just think about it,

 but take the time to be

specific and make a list.

A list of things we will focus on

as a family as we move forward.

Thanksgiving is a great time to eat and celebrate…

Celebrate and give thanks for God’s goodness.

Christmas is a time to realize God’s love and

the greatest gift He has given to us, His Son.

The New Year is a great

time to make resolutions…

As we are over Thanksgiving

and Christmas celebrations.

It should cause us to think about what

we could do in response to God’s

faithfulness and goodness.

A time of celebration and

then a time of resolution.

New and fresh commitments.

It does not have to come

at the end of the year…

 But we need time with our families

to focus on God’s goodness

from His Word and make specific

resolutions to keep the blessings flowing.

Don’t let fasting end without fresh direction

for your life and the life of your family.

Scripture Reading

Nehemiah 8:18-9:6 NIV

18 Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.

Nehemiah 9 NIV

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. 4 Standing on the stairs were the Levites-Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani — who called with loud voices to the LORD their God. 5 And the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah — said: "Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting."

"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.